Happy Birthday Joe

The cold weather and illnesses kept us cooped up for most of the week and weekend, but at least we got some good quality family time. Joe was off on vacation last week and thank goodness. Josie started running a high fever Monday night and Joe took her to the doctor Tuesday morning, she had strep, so she stayed home with Joe Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday night Joel and I went to my SOS meeting and enjoyed good fellowship and food with some very lovely Presbyterian women. Joe did get some deer hunting in over his vacation and even shot a doe on Thursday. Friday and part of Saturday I was sick with some type of stomach bug, but we did manage to get out to go to Caden's 4th birthday at Chuck E Cheese's on Saturday. The girls had a blast. After that we went to Wal-Mart and did not leave the house again until Monday around noon. The weather was supposed to get bad starting Saturday night and go through Monday, but the worst we got was a little sleet.

Joel started to "come alive" over the weekend. We pulled out the jumparoo that Lol had and he loved it. He bounces and talks and smiles. He really started talking and cooing this weekend. We are even finally getting a laugh out of him from time to time. Part of me is in shock at what he can do at 3.5 months old, and part of me is very sad that is already growing so fast. I think the time goes faster with each child. Here he is enjoying the jumparoo:



Here he is wearing his comfy camo pants and bib that Aunt Tiffany made him for Christmas:



Sunday night we had a hard time getting Jolie to sleep. This is how she finally feel asleep, holding her Precious Moments Bibble she got for Christmas:


Yesterday was Joe's birthday. This is his last year in his 20s. I had invited some friends over for dinner, but because of the weather we ended up eating alone. His parents did come by and where there in time to sing Happy Birthday and enjoy some cake. It was still a good quiet day for him. This weekend we will spend the weekend at Joe Wheeler State Park with Quint, Sheila, Caden, and Ansleigh in honor of his birthday. I am so blessed to be married to him. He is a great father that loves spending time with all three of our children. He is active in our church and tries to be a good Christian role model at work. He helps anyone that he can. He is my best friend and my soul mate. I love him so much and thank God that 29 years ago he created him just for me. Well for some other people too, I guess :)
Joe, Josie & Jolie

Joe, Josie & Elias

Joe & Caden:

Joe holding Ansleigh:

Joe & Jolie

Joe & Joel

Joe & Josie





e,

Happy New Year

One of the things Santa got the girls was princess makeup, so Wednesday night I pulled it out for them to play with. This was the result (the pictures aren't the best):
Jolie

Josie:


They kept asking "Am I pretty," and we told them they were as we tried very hard not to laugh out loud.

Thursday the girls stayed with my dad since they were out of school. I woke up that morning feeling yucky with cold/sinus/flu stuff and by that evening I felt horrible. I was in bed by 8:00 p.m. The next morning I woke up feeling even worse. Joe had to work so I refereed the kids from the couch until he got home. Once he got home Sheila came and picked me up and took me to Pri-Med. We sat there for a while before realizing it was going to be a 3-6 hour wait. I told her I would much rather be at home in my bed than sitting in a doctor's office. So we stopped at Walgreens and got the strongest over the counter medicine and she took me home. Joe took the girls to his parents since he had to work again the next morning, and I stayed in bed until the next morning. Neither Joe nor I were up at midnight although I do remember hearing fireworks go off. The next morning I woke up feeling about 90% better. I got dressed and Joel and I headed over to MeMaw and Paw-Paws to get the girls. We ended up staying the day and watched the Alabama game. ROLL TIDE.

That night when Joe put the girls to bed Jolie could not find her lovie (it is a rabbit/blankie thing she has had since she was born). They searched everywhere. I searched everywhere and we couldn't find it. I started to give Joel a bath and Joe told me he was going to have a talk with Lol. So he tells her that the lovie fairy must have taken lovie to another home since Lol is a big girl now. She responded with "Ohhhhh, the lovie fairy is in trouble." She finally was ok with it and went to sleep. Well I kept looking for it. For some reason it really bothered me that Lol didn't have lovie. I'm not sure if it is because lovie is something she has had since she was born or my guilt for not keeping her first year of life as recorded as I did Josie's first year, or what, but I stayed up until midnight trying to find him. I finally found him in a purse in a drawer.

Sunday Joe worked again and the girls and I went to church and then to Tim and Mary Kelley's. Tim was ordained Sunday as an elder and Mary Kelley had a lunch for him with his family and invited us. After that we went home and took naps. After naps we went to Bass Pro Shop and then to Outback to use a gift card we had gotten at Christmas. Whenever we go to restaurants we always sit one adult, one child on a bench when we are seated at a booth, well the girls wanted to sit together so they were on one bench and Joe and I on the other. They actually behaved. Joe and I were so impressed. We had a really nice family dinner. When we got home it was bed and bath for the girls, and experiment time for Joel. Joel had been sleeping through the night since he was about six weeks old (he is 13 weeks now), but the past few nights he has started waking up around 3 or 4 hungry so I thought I would see if giving him some cereal helped. I made it really runny and he only ate about 10 bites, but he loved it:


And it helped, he slept until 6:00 a.m. this morning.

Joe is on vacation this week. He is hunting today and tomorrow and then I have a honey-do list for him for the rest of the week. This coming up weekend we have Caden's birthday party and then the 14-16 we are going with Quint, Sheila, Caden, and Ansleigh to Joe Wheeler State Park for a weekend vacation. This is Joe's birthday present as he celebrates his last year in his 20s. We didn't get each other much for Christmas so that we could take this much needed vacation. Plus we got a great deal of a 4 bed, 2 bath cabin for sixty something a night. You can't beat that. We have not been anywhere since our family vacation in June of 2009. We have not been on a trip with Quint and Sheila since May or June of 2005. We had just found out we were pregnant with Josie and we went to Mississippi for a Burdick family reunion. Anyways I am super excited and even more excited about the fact that the kids will be taking a trip with their cousins and I know that it will be little things like this that they will look back fondly on when they are older. Joe has a session retreat at the end of the month and I have got to start planning what I am doing for Josie's birthday. I can't believe she will be 5. Time is flying by.

I'll end with a picture of Joel in a shirt my Aunt got for him, it reads, "Little Dear."

Christmas Has Finally Come and Gone

To begin, I'm going to post some pictures that I really wanted to post in my last blog but I had to wait until after Christmas because they were used in a present we gave to MeMaw and Paw-Paw of their grandchildren:
All the Burdick grandchildren (Ansleigh, Josie, Caden, Jolie, & Joel)


The Burdick Girls- Josie, Ansleigh & Jolie

The firstborns- Josie & Caden


The Burdick Boys- Caden & Joel



Okay, now I can pick up with our week. Monday after work & school we were going to go to see Santa at Bass Pro Shops. We had lots of coupons to eat at the restaurant there at BPS, so we thought we would eat first and then see Santa. Well, you remember the stomach bug we thought Jolie was over, well she wasn't. Although she had gone all day Sunday and all day Monday at school without being sick, shortly after sitting down at the table she got sick all over the table. So we got her cleaned up and she got a new shirt from BPS and then Joe dropped Jolie and I off at Pri-Med. It was about 7:30 p.m. when we got there and we got out at 10:00 p.m. It was only that a stomach bug, not the flu or strep, thank goodness. Sheila came and picked us up and we dropped off her medicine at Walgreens. They told us her prescription would not be ready until 11:30 p.m. So we went and hung out at I-Hop until the prescription was ready. It was midnight before we got home. My dad stayed home with Jolie the next day because we were told to keep her out the next day. Thank God we have such an amazing family. Tuesday Joe and I had a Christmas party with some friends from church. Daddy and Other Mama stayed at home with all three kids. We were so grateful because we really needed that night out. Wednesday night the girls spent the night with Quint and Sheila so that Joe and I could get some wrapping done. All three kids were already supposed to stay with Sheila on Thursday because their school/daycare were closed and I had to work half a day, so Sheila, being a great aunt and sister-in-law, offered for the girls to spend the night. Of course I took her up on it. Joe and I got a good bit done that night. The next morning I dropped Joel off with the rest of the gang.
Joel sleeping at Aunt Sheila's (the outfit he is wearing, the woman who keeps him during the day Ms. Debbie, made it for him for Christmas, isn't it adorable):



The girls told Sheila that morning that they wanted ponytails (later that morning Sheila's sister Stacey came over and french braided their hair, we didn't get a picture, but the girls were so excited about it and were so mad at me that night when I took their hair down):

Isn't growing up with cousins great:


That evening we had our Christmas with Chris, Crystal, Elias & Annaleigh. We had homemade soup, exchanged gifts and attempted to make homemade candycanes. We didn't do something just right and came up with this very yummy, gooing, sticky concoction:


Friday we were up and at them bright and early to meet Quint & Sheila to head down to Greenville to have Christmas with Becca, Angie, MeMaw and Paw-Paw. We met at the clubhouse at Joe's work where we ate breakfast and exchanged gifts:



Then Joe took us on a tour of one of the four courses there at the golf course:

Aunt Becca & Polar Bear Joel:

Aunt Angie, Aunt Becca, Josie, Joel, Ansleigh & Caden (not sure where Jolie was):



We had a great day and it was a lot of fun. We got home just in time to clean up and head to church for the Christmas Eve candle light service at church. Christmas isn't Christmas to me without that service. That night when we got home the snow angle that watches the girls to make sure they are behaving had left them and Joel a present (all lined up as Josie would tell you)-- Christmas PJs. We made cookies for Santa, put out the reindeer food, and got the kids to bed. It was a late late night for Santa and Ms. Claus. I wonder why Ms. Claus doesn't have a name??? Anyway, the next morning the kids woke up to find Other Mama and Pap-Paw at their house as well as all these toys:


The girls got bikes and Joel got a ride on dinosaur, the girls also had pillow pets, makeup, books, snuggies, dresses, socks, hairbows, barbies, walkie-talkies, Baby Alives, bottles and other accessories for their bottles, and a ton of other stuff. Joel got his first tool bench, diapers, formula, soap, lotion, some books, toys, an outfit, and a ton of other stuff. Then they opened up their gifts from us, and then their gifts from Aunt Lisa, then their gifts from Aunt Elisa and Uncle Tim, then their gifts from Other Mama and Pap-paw, and then I finally got them to eat some breakfast. A little later Quint, Sheila, Caden, and Ansleigh stopped by so that the kids could exchange their gifts, and then we all headed to the Burdicks for lunch. We ate and then exhchanged gifts with MeMaw, Paw-Paw, Aunt Holly, Uncle Lynn, and Gigi. Later that afternoon we headed to Aunt Pams to do Christmas with the Andersons which included Ben, Tiffany, Tanner, their foster sons, Aunt Pam, Uncle Mike, Nanny, Kevin, Ami, Shelby, Sydney, Other Mama and Pap-Paw. An extra bonus to the day-- it snowed. It snowed on Christmas. We got home around 6:00 or 7:00 We got the girls bathed and then they passed out with Joe, Joel, and I shortly behind them. The next morning (Sunday) we decided it was best for us all to stay home and rest. So we rested. We didn't even get out of our PJs except to move some furniture around. We got Quint & Sheila's couch and love seat so Joe and Quint got that moved around. My living room is slowly getting put back together. The girls are out again this Thursday and Friday and Joel is only out on Friday. My dad will keep the girls Thursday and then I will be off with all three on Friday. Joe works this weekend, so no New Years plans for us.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I can not thank our family enough for all the ways they helped out over the Christmas season. We are so blessed to have such a loving and involved family. My heart overflows everytime I think about how blessed we are to be raising our children in such a family. To top it off one of the greatest Christmas presents I got came this morning from Jolie's teacher. I was dropping off the girls at school and I had taken their back packs and jackets to their classrooms and when I walked back Ms. Pat told me what a good mother I was. There are so many days when I question decisions Joe and I, or wonder what we have done that they don't behave, or I regret how I have reacted to a situation so to hear someone say that really is so reassuring. Again, my cup runneth over and I know how blessed I am.

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year.

Actually a Quiet Weekend

I have heard from some of you that you get tired just reading my blogs, so most of you will be happy to know that we had a pretty quiet weekend, but it was forced upon us by Miss Jolie Hannah. She got a stomach bug and so she, Joel, and I were confined to the house for the weekend. First let me back up and tell you about the week before the weekend. Tuesday we went and visited with Quint, Sheila, Caden and Ansleigh. Sheila cooked the most awesome loaded potato soup and after dinner we took some family pictures trying to get pictures to send out in our Christmas cards:





My two favorite guys relaxing after the photo shoot:





Friday the girls had their Christmas party at school. They were so excited because they had a drawn names at school and so each of them had a gift for another child. Then each teacher had two gifts from the girls, one was a bag full of school supplies to use in the classroom and then the other was a personal gift for them to take home. The girls were so excited to be able to give their teachers the gifts. It was so cute to watch them. Jolie was so excited that she even opened both of Ms. Pat's gifts for her. Then it was their turn to give me all the homemade gifts they had been working so hard on. I was one proud mama walking out of their school that morning. That evening MeMaw and Paw-Paw kept the kids so that we could go Christmas shopping. This was the only night we would be able to do it. We picked up the kids from them at 12:30 a.m. It was around 3 o4 in the morning when Jolie started getting sick. Joe had to go to work so I had to start figuring out what we were going to do because Ansleigh's birthday party was at 2:00 p.m. and we had a Sunday School Christmas party at 6:00 p.m. I ended up seeing if the MeMaw and Paw-Paw could get Josie so that Josie could attend the birthday party and told Joe just to go straight there from work. Then I called and let our hostess know that we would not be attending the Christmas party that evening.

Here is Joe with our beautiful one year old niece:


Sunday we stayed home while Joe went to work. It had been 10 something on Saturday since Jolie had gotten sick again, but I wanted to wait 24 hours before exposing her to anyone just in case. It was a good day. We rested and played games.

This week of course will be a little hectic. Tuesday Joe and I have a Christmas party. Other Mama and Pap-Paw are coming to our house to watch the kids while we go. Thursday evening we will have Christmas with Chris, Crystal, Elias & Annaleigh. Friday we have our candle light service at church and of course Saturday is Christmas. I still have a little shopping left and a whole lot of wrapping.

I know I keep talking about this, but I'm still loving this Christmas season with the girls. It has been so much fun to watch them really get into it and trying to figure everything out. We have been trying to reiterate to them, that yes, we are excited about Santa, but the main reason we are doing everything is to celebrate Jesus' birthday, to which Josie has been questioning, just how old is Jesus and why is he still a baby. I think I'll end on that note.

Merry Christmas everyone and don't forget to celebrate Jesus' birthday.

Another Christmas Weekend.

We packed some more Christmas into this weekend and I am absolutely loving it. It has just been so much fun to watch the girls. Thursday night the girls and I went and did a little Christmas shopping and then stopped by Aunt Tiffany's house to pick up some shirts I had her make for Joel. Here he is in two of them:


I just absolutely love these shirts.

Friday evening we had a quiet evening in. Well as quiet as you can have with a 4 year old, 3 year old, and 2 month old. Saturday the girls were up bright and early, of course, because it was a Saturday instead of a work/school day. We hung out around the house until it was time to head to Wetumpka for Christmas on the Coosa. For those of you who are not from the Wetumpkka area, there is a street parade, vendors, activities for the kids, and later in the evening they have a boat parade and fireworks. We got to Wetumpka in time for the street parade which the girls loved. Every time someone would yell, "Merry Christmas" Jolie would say it back to them. After the parade we walked across the bridge into downtown and looked at the vendors. We looked some but we were all starving so we started trying to decide what we were going to eat. All of the food smelled so good, but do you know what Josie asked for. Not a funnel cake, not peanuts, not cotton candy, but roasted corn on the cob. Obviously it was so good that later Joe and the girls went back for another one. After looking at the vendors the girls played in the park and then we went and found our spot on the river to watch the boat parade. Do you know how Santa made his grand entrance-- on a knee board. The girls loved the fireworks and even Joel watched him. The sound didn't affect him one bit. After the fireworks we ate some dinner and drove around to look at Christmas lights. The girls are sooo cute because when they see lights one of them will start saying "Wait for it, wait for it," until we finally reach the house and then they say "There it is." It is so cute to listen to Lollie say it though because she does not enunciate "for" and so it is sounds like "Wait fow it, Wait fow it" and it is just so darn cute!! We ended up close to Other Mama's and Pap-paws so we stopped by their house to give the girls baths before heading home.

Sunday we had church and got someone to take this family picture for us:


They had been talking about snow for a week or so and we finally had some snow flurries during and right after church, so that made Josie happy.

The kids and I went home and took naps while Joe had session. He came home to find Jolie, Josie, and me in our bed all asleep with Joel in his bassinet beside the bed, asleep as well. That evening we went back to church to see the children's play. Next year Josie will be old enough to participate and she can not wait.

Later that evening I took this picture of Joel in his "Roll Tide" bib. I love his hair:


This Friday the girls have their Christmas party at school, which I know they will love. Friday evening the City of Wetumpka has a living nativity that you walk around downtown to see the different scenes. It depends on the weather on if we will go or not.

This was a productive week for me. I finally got the last of my thank you cards out. If you did not receive one and should have, I greatly, greatly apologize. Let me know and I will send you one. Between the kids and our hospital visits during my maternity leave, things have gotten lost or unintentionally forgotten. I also got the last of Joel's pictures out to everyone. I have started working on our Christmas cards. I have also been going through clothes getting all the summer clothes out and donation clothes, and clothes to pass on to family and friends. The girls and I went through toys. Our SOS group is helping out a family for Christmas and so I gave the girls a bag a piece so we could donate some of their toys. Jolie would have given everything away, whereas Josie tended to hold to more of her toys. Nevertheless, we had 2.5 garbage bags full of toys to give away to another family who otherwise might not have had Christmas (well not just from our donation, but from everyone at SOS). Again, another great teaching moment for my girls.

Joel is doing good. Is thrush is starting to go away as is his cradle cap. He continues to be a happy boy that I could just eat up. It is hard to believe he is almost 3 months old. Time is flying by.

Well Merry Christmas until next time.