The Burgess Family

School is in Session

2011-09-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

If you had asked me a month ago if I thought I'd be spending my days waking up at 6:30am, packing lunch, waiting in the carpool lane twice a day and missing Katelyn terribly, I would have said "No way! We are homeschooling and loving the freedom to learn at our own pace on our own schedule." Well, life threw me a curve ball. Two weeks ago, we received a phone from our local charter school saying that they had a spot open up for Katelyn and that they needed to know if she would like to attend. If not, they would move to the next family on the waiting list. Katelyn started out 25th on the waiting list. In the back of my mind, I never really thought they would make it that far down the list before the end of the school year. So you can imagine my surprise when one day I was sitting in the school room doing an All About Spelling lesson and the next day I was visiting the school trying to to decide if we should let Katelyn attend the charter school. After a lot of discussion we decided that we would let her try it. If in the future we felt like Katelyn was doing better being taught at home then we could always pull her out. On the other hand, if later on down the line we felt like Katelyn would benefit from attending school, we couldn't just start her at the charter school, and it was highly unlikely that she would ever get a spot in the future because of the growing size of the lottery. So... we plunged. We visited the school on Friday, spent Saturday buying her school uniform and supplies, and Monday we walked her to her first day of Kindergarten.

Her first week of school went well. Like any other attending school for the first time, the days were really long and she wasn't always excited about getting up and going. But once she is there, I think she is having lots of neat experiences. Recess is by far her favorite. I love that she gets to have music and art class. She was in need of more discipline than I think I was giving her, so I think that the schedule and rules will only help her in the end even though she has a hard time with them right now.

Truth be told, I miss her a lot and I am sad that the afternoons reading on the couch or working together in a math workbook are gone, at least for now. But hopefully, we are doing what is best for Kate and it will only make me treasure the moments I have with her when she is home...

Summer 2011

2011-08-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

It's time for a long over due update... A lot has happened in the last three months so hang on for the ride!

Josh had a birthday, shout hooray! Josh turned three years old on May 1st and we celebrated all day long. Friends and family came over for a BBQ, we had race car cake and there were lots of presents. We let Josh open a present every hour or so and it made the day so fun!

The birthday pancake!

Surprise!

The cake!

The kids!

The birthday boy!

The presents!

The BIKE!
(Thanks, Nana and Grandpa Bellinghausen)

The very next day after Josh's birthday we surprised the kids and headed the the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, NC to stay the night and play in the indoor water park. We had a blast. The kids loved their log cabin bunk beds and private television. Kate was fearless on the water slides.
My favorite thing was getting the kids into their jammies and heading down to story time in the lobby.

Kate coming off the water slide.

Josh taking a breather.

Story time.

This was the only family picture we got and its a bit blurry!

Bunk Beds!

The kids outside the bakery!

A few weeks later, Katelyn attended her end of the year dance recital. This was her second year dancing and she was so beautiful! We are so proud of all that she has accomplished this year. She danced a ballet number to "How Great is Our God".

I love this picture of Josh and Kate together...

Katelyn receiving her trophy for the year.

The girls being silly before the recital

Proud Mommy

The performance

Flowers from Grandpa

We started another adventure at the beginning of April. Katelyn received 6 caterpillars in the mail and had the chance to watch them grow and change into butterflies. It was a really cool experience. We witnessed two of them coming out of their chrysalis. After enjoying their company for a few weeks, it was time to let them go. Here are some pictures of the kids last few minutes with their "pets".

The kids have spent a lot of time outside this summer riding their bikes around the culdesac in front of our house. Kate always remembers to put on her helmet, which I think is so sweet. She is getting pretty quick going around the circle. Josh received a Lightning McQueen tricycle for his birthday and he loves to chase Kate around the circle. Wesley has recently joined the parade and will scoot along on the same little ride-on Kate used when she was his age.

Kate on her princess bike

Wesley out for a cruise. "Hi, Mom."

Speedy Gonzalez with his "cheese" grin

Wesley walking!

Kate playing on the porch

Josh is obsessed with playing on Ben's iPad. Literally, the minute Ben walks in the door, Josh says "Dad, can I play on your iPad!" You can tell where his loyalty lies... Josh can click on find just about anything he wants with no help. Games, movies on Netflix... its pretty funny. One afternoon we found him on the couch asleep with the iPad. So sweet...

Josh being an "alien"

We really did celebrate 4th of July. I promise. We barbequed, Ben and Timothy set off an amazing fireworks show for us in the front yard. It was awesome. But I only got one picture of the day.

Patriotic Wesley

In the middle of July, Kate had the opportunity to attend a week long summer camp called Camp Invention. Everyday they worked on various "inventions" and on the last day we got to come and see all she had created. It was really cool to see how creative even the 5 year olds could be!

Kate and her buddy Arwen

Kate's Bouncy Ball Tube

Kate's Team Fort

We really do have a third child... though he has been seriously under-advertised. So here he is. Wesley is a spunky 16 1/2 month old who can jabber with the best of them. He knows a few words, "Dada" being at the top of the list. He is not a cuddler and prefers to be running around the house with Kate and Josh. Wesley is by far our earliest climber. He loves to scare us to death by climbing up the OUTSIDE of the stair railing. Even though he keeps us on our toes, he is the sweetest and calmest of boys. He rarely fusses and when he does he is either tired or hungry. Easy enough. My favorite thing are his big, kissable cheeks!

Wes loves the bath!

First Trip to Monkey Joes

Check out my Belly

And... last but not least... we are excited to announce that Baby #4 is due March 4th!

Baby #4

Love you all!!

To My Mom

2011-05-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

My mom is amazing. She taught me how to cook, how to sew, how to be patient (still working on that one). I learned that its okay to watch "White Christmas" in the middle of July because it makes you happy, that there should always be chocolate somewhere in the house, and that cooking can be therapeutic.

My mom is my best friend. She is the person I call when I have a question about a sewing project, a recipe or when I just need to vent. She also has a sneaky way of calling me right when I need it most. Its a comfort to know that even though we are miles apart, she is never more than a speed dial away.

I love my mom. I love the way that she loves my kids. She loves them unconditionally. She doesn't scold or loose her patience when I know I surely would, and she is always ready to listen to their stories or rock them when they are sad. Nana's house is a special place to them. At Nana's they make cookies, do art projects, help in the garden and take rides on the tractor. These are the memories I am so happy my kids are making.

Mom, I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day. Thank you for being you!

Who You Are

2011-04-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

I heard this song for the first time today. It couldn't have come on a better day. I hope it helps someone else out there...

Who You Are - Hilary Weeks

I know you wonder if you'll ever have a day when the kids stay calm,
the laundry's done, and the dishes are put away. And sometimes you feel
like your days are spent and gone and the question running through your
mind is what have I gotten done? and when you finally have a moment to
slow down at the end of you day I know Father would say

Believe in what you're doing
Believe in who you are
Hold tight to the truth that you're a daughter of God
Believe in who you're becoming
Believe in who you are

It may seem simple - all the little things you do But the lives you touch
matter so much. And there's no one else like you. And Father needs you
to stand tall and faithful to be all you can be.Oh, if you could see what
he sees. When it's hard to believe in yourself and you feel like you're
beginning to doubt Remember

He believes in what you're doing
He believes in who you are
Don't lose sight of the truth that you're a daughter of God
That he believes in who you're becoming
He believes in who you are.

Chores

2011-04-12T05:54:00.000-07:00

We get 'em started early around here...

Recently, we have started a chore chart with the kids. Let me tell you, they have done more chores since we began this chore chart than they have ever done. It's awesome! (You can get all the FREE printables at Confessions of a Homeschooler.com)

Christmas 2010

2011-01-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

Well, we certainly got our wish! Three days before Christmas we closed on our new home, and with no problems at all. The same day, we started moving in. We were determined to be in our new home for Christmas. A few people thought we were nuts, but everyone else was eager to help us make it happen! The day after we closed a moving truck pulled up at our old house and loaded all of our stuff into a 26' truck. They filled it to the brim and even had to strap a few things on the back. By the end of Thursday, all of our furniture and boxes were safe and sound in our new home. Thank you, Dad and Kim!!

While waiting for the moving truck to arrive, I had the house to myself for a couple of hours. Kate and Josh were with their Uncle Brent at Monkey Joe's. Since I had my priorities in order, I set up the Christmas tree first thing. We spent the rest of the day getting bedrooms set up and unpacking enough to get us through the next few days.

Christmas Eve morning we decorated the tree and made cookies for Santa (Costco chocolate chip cookie dough cookies, to be exact). That evening we headed to dinner with friends. It was a very chill night with good company. On the way home we drove through a really neat neighborhood full of Christmas lights. We even ran into Santa and Mrs. Claus on the way out. What a treat!

The kids went straight to bed when we got home and Ben and I began our Christmas Eve duties. The most important one this year was getting Kate's dollhouse put together. It took Ben about 3 1/2 hours to get it all done. He was a trooper.

Christmas morning the kids came in and woke us all up around 8am. And we headed downstairs to see if Santa had come! He sure did! The rest of the morning was a whirlwind of present opening, chocolate eating, cinnamon rolls and lots and lots of wrapping paper. I love it.

That afternoon we jumped in the car and headed to Grandpa and Nana Kim's house for more gifts and lots of yummy food. We stuffed ourselves silly and loved every minute.

When we arrived back home on Christmas night something really amazing happened... it started to snow!! Snow on Christmas!! It was awesome! We woke up the next morning to several inches of wonderful, snowman quality snow. The kids and I bundled up and headed out to play. It was perfect. A Christmas I will never forget.

All We Want For Christmas Is...

2010-12-20T19:19:00.000-08:00

... a brand new house!! Do you think Santa can fit it in his sleigh? I doubt it. He is letting us open our Christmas present a little bit earlier. We are scheduled to close on our new home on Wednesday morning. Yes, three days before Christmas. Yes, we are nuts. But we are so excited! Please keep us in your prayers that everything will go smooth at closing. Also, I would like to give a huge shout out to all those who are making this move possible. We are so blessed with wonderful family and friends. Thank you. We love you.

So, do you want to see a picture of the house...? Drum roll please.

And I would like to introduce you to my new kitchen. I think I'm in love. :)

But this house just wouldn't be any fun at all without this bunch bouncing around inside. Aren't they so cute!

My sweet Wesley! He is such a good baby. Don't you just want to pinch those big cheeks?

What a hunk. Joshua is turning into a little man.

And last but not least. Katelyn. I have no words. Those who know her understand.
We love you Katelyn. You are growing up way to fast. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Summer is over, but Fall is here!

2010-09-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

Every time we go to Walmart Josh asks me to buy donuts for daddy. He knows when we are getting close to the donuts and gets upset every time I turn the cart away from the direction of the donuts. So... when we do buy donuts "for daddy", I get a very happy boy out of the deal.

The last few weeks of summer were fabulous! Some good friends invited us to stay with them at a beach house in Topsail Island, NC. It was such a fun week. The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time. Want to see what we did? Enjoy the pics.

The end of the boardwalk. Josh was pretty nervous about the big waves.

"Ocean gonna get me???"

Kate LOVED the water, as long as it was shallow.

The kids and I opted of the beach one day and headed to a
park right along the Intercostal Waterway.

Cool play set!

Cute kids. :)

One morning the kids woke up really early so we snuck out to the boardwalk to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful and one of my favorite memories from our trip.

Sleepy-eyed kiddos.

This was Wesley's toy of choice for the week.

Katelyn started dance class again. We weren't sure if we were going to sign her up this year, but as the first class got closer and closer, I couldn't help it. This was her first day of class. So cute!

Wesley went in for his 6 month check-up. Our little man weighs 21 lbs. and 11 ounces! No wonder his mommy walks so crooked! His is definitely healthy. We started him on solids last month, and now he is eating 3 meals a day with the rest of the family. He also decided that it was time to start sitting on his own so he can keep on eye on Kate and Josh for me. We love him so much!

Going Private

2010-09-01T05:46:00.000-07:00

With all that is going on in the world these days, we think its best to make our blog private. If you would like to be part of our blog family please leave a comment with your email address or send me an email letting me know at JulieMarieBurgess@gmail.com.

Thank you!

August

2010-08-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

Where did August go? Did I accidentally sleep through it? (No... I would have remembered the extra sleep.) It has flown by which seems to be consistent with how life has been since Wesley was born. I need to put a leash on our days and make them last just a little bit longer or before I know Wesley will be walking, Josh will be eating his third birthday cake and Katelyn will be a kindergartner! I do remember a few things from the last few weeks. We've had some silly moments and some sad moments, but all in all life is treating us well.

"School" Stuff

Practicing writing letters and numbers in a tray full of shaving cream. (Easier to clean-up!)

Practicing upper and lowercase letters with playdough.

Teaching the Important Things

Learning the right way to eat an OREO. (Dipped in milk, of course.)

Showing Wesley how to smile for the camera. (Can you believe he is 5 months old?!)

Free Day at Discovery Place

Playing at the Water Works

What kid can resist beating something with a stick?

Kate's favorite part of the whole day was getting to touch the starfish... :)

The Aquarium

Push-O-War with Ben and Katelyn

Last but not least... the drive home.

We had a great time at Discovery Place. I am pretty sure the kids will be talking about it for quite a while. We saw two 3D movies while we were there. One about a taking care of our oceans and the other was about sharks. Good times!

Sorry!

2010-07-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

Wesley at 4 months old!

Weight: 18lb. 13 oz
Height: 25 1/2 inches
Smiles: Immeasurable!

Sorry for the lack of posts. We've been busy having too much fun!

We dance, we play, we have fun!

2010-06-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry I haven't posted any pictures of Wesley recently! He is getting so big! He is almost 3 months old now. He is as cute as ever and weighs in at a whopping 15 lbs! Check him out.

Katelyn had her big end of the year dance recital a few weekends ago. We are so proud of her and how hard she worked all year. Dance wasn't always her favorite class, but she stuck it out and now she is asking to do dance again next year. Check out our little Go Go Girl.

Kate got flowers from us and Papa and Nana Bellinghausen!

Our Cute Kiddos

New Blog

2010-05-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

I've started another blog for anyone who may be interested.

Joy in the Journey

Mother's Day

2010-05-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

I love my kids.

Josh is TWO!

2010-05-01T13:05:00.001-07:00

Our sweet baby boy (the first one) is two today! He has surprised us since the very beginning when he popped out with blue eyes and blonde hair. He is a total ham and loves to make people laugh. He loves his big sister Katelyn so much. He would do just about anything for her. Our favorite thing to hear him say is "I love you" because he gets a really shy, embarrassed look on his face. and he has recently insisted on giving kisses at bedtime (love that!). If he is sad, all you need is an M&M and a hug to cheer him up. He loves Thomas the Train and Lightning McQueen and, of course, NASCAR. He would spend all day long outside if we'd let him and he just might with the present his Nana and Grandpa Bellinghausen surprised him with!

The kiddos slept in this morning and when they finally came out of their rooms, Josh found birthday balloons waiting outside their door. He would probably have been just as happy to play with balloons all morning. (He's pretty easy to please!) But we headed downstairs and he discovered all of the birthday decorations and PRESENTS! We thought we'd open presents after breakfast but he dove right in as soon as he saw them. He got a mini tool bench, legos, a slip and slide, and Thomas the Train and Lightning McQueen books. Then we had our traditional chocolate chip pancakes. His was in the shape of a two, of course.

Later in the morning, Nana and Grandpa came over and surprised Josh (and Kate) with a new Power Wheels! You have to see the sequence of pictures below, they're great. The kiddos spent he next couple of hours driving the new car and playing on the slip and side. Then it was time to come in and cool off.

We decided to work on Josh's Birthday cake. We let the kids sample as went. Sticky, but very delicious! When Josh wakes up in a bit we'll have Pulled Pork Sliders and Homemade Mac and Cheese and later CAKE! Stay tuned for more pictures.

Nana Comes to Visit and Easter Weekend

2010-04-06T17:46:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, my mom (aka. Nana Freese) flew in from Minnesota to help out since Ben had to go back to work. We had an awesome week together. She planted my garden boxes for me, made a spring wreath for our front porch and took care of Josh and Kate. And she did the dishes, cooked, did laundry, cleaned... the list goes on. I was totally spoiled. Thank you, Mom!

The kids spent an entire morning helping Nana plant strawberries, broccoli, carrots and a few other things. They had a great time playing in the dirt. We can't wait to start eating strawberries!

Nana and Kate spent another morning making sugar cookies and decorating them. Sugar cookies are Grandpa Freese's favorite, so they have become Nana's specialty.

(Check out "Josh's" boots!)

We all attended the Annual Scienski Easter Egg Hunt. There were over 400 eggs hidden in their backyard! The kids had a blast hunting for eggs with all of their friends. Wesley slept through the entire party parked right next to Nana. What a good boy. :)

Saturday we dyed Easter eggs. I'm the less creative, let's get this done parent, whereas Ben will spend 10 minutes decorating one egg. Needless to say, he and Kate created some really cool eggs.

Sunday morning, Easter, the kids woke up and came downstairs to see if the Easter bunny stopped by their house. He sure did!

We had an early Easter dinner and then headed over to Grandpa Bellinghausen's for an Easter egg hunt. The kids had a blast looking for eggs.

Monday morning, Nana headed back to Minnesota. We were sad to see her go, but Grandpa Freese was sure missing her. And it was time for me to take on the kids by myself and start working on some sort of a routine.

Wesley is growing fast. At his appointment last week he was 9lbs. 10 oz. He finally got his first bath this week and he didn't seem to mind it!

One Week Old & The Kite Flying Festival

2010-03-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe Wesley is already a week old. He had his first check-up today. The doctor confirmed that he does have a bit of jaundice, but also that he is not too worried about it. Wesley left the hospital weighing 8lbs. 5oz., and now weighs 8lbs. 13oz. So, he must be getting something to eat! We'll go back next week for another quick check-up.

So far, all we know about our baby Wesley is that he is a chill baby. He pretty much only cries when he wants to eat or when he has bubble in his tummy. He's pretty good about sleeping right through the crazy antics of Katelyn and Joshua. There isn't a moment that I don't enjoy with him, even when he's crying. Here are some pictures of Wesley's first week at home.

Over the weekend, we were dying to get out of the house, so we took all of the kids to a kite flying festival in a nearby neighborhood. It was an incredibly beautiful day outside, 75 degrees and clear blue skies. The festival was small, but perfect for the kids. We took a ride on a tram painted like a firetruck and ate water ice on the grass. It was a perfect spring afternoon.

Wesley Meets the Family

2010-03-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

We've had Wesley home with us for the past two days, but I had to post the pictures of Katelyn and Joshua getting to know their new baby brother in the hospital. He has been a great baby. We are savoring every moment because the time flies by faster and faster with each kid. Many more pictures to come!

Going home!

Wesley Alan Burgess

2010-03-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

He is here! Wesley Alan Burgess was born this morning at 7:47 am. He weighed in at 9lbs. and 4 oz. and is 2o 3/4" long. He spent the first 30 minutes in his Daddy's arms and then he and Mommy got to cuddle when we returned to our room. His big brother and sister already adore him!

Waiting For Baby

2010-03-15T03:27:00.001-07:00

It's 6:25 and we are in our room, the IV is in, and we are waiting as patiently as we can! We should head back for the C-section in about 45 minutes. Send your prayers out for a quick and easy surgery and a healthy little man!!

Birthday Weekend

2010-03-09T06:51:00.000-08:00

Ben and I celebrated our birthdays this past weekend. I turned 28 and Ben turned 30! He handled it very well. He is still as hot to me at 30 as he was when I married him 8 years ago. :)
Anyways, we celebrated our birthdays together by... being sick. I know, lame huh? But we made the best of it. Saturday (my birthday) we laid around for most of the day. Ben picked us up some lunch, Taco Bell for him and Little Caesars breadsticks for me. Our awesome friends, the Johnstons, came and picked up the kids after naptime and even brought us dinner. So what should have been a lousy day ended up being really nice. We watched "The Proposal" and enjoyed a gourmet dinner together of Shrimp Scampi and Stuffed Mushrooms. The kids came home right before bedtime and we had birthday donuts (the cake just didn't happen) and opened presents.

The kids got me this (its a baking liner!):

And Ben got me this (its an Oneida Mandolin Slicer):
I'm spoiled! I can' wait to try out my new gadgets!

Monday was Ben's birthday and we still weren't feeling quite up to par, but we were determined to go out and celebrate. We met our family for a late dinner at:

After that we came home to homemade ice cream cake and presents. The cake was made with Double Strawberry ice cream and White Fudge Divinity ice cream with a layer of crushed cookies and hot fudge in them middle. Dairy Queen doesn't have anything on our ice cream cakes! Before we had ice cream cake with opened gifts with our family.

Ben got this from the kiddos:

And this from me:

He also got a gift certificate to:

My Dad and Kim got this wonderful tool for me (it will be used often!):
And we got a gift certificate for babysitting and a night out to eat at:

Aside from being sick all weekend, we felt very loved and made some good memories. Ben got one other present from his older brother, but I'll post about that later. :)

It's Been a Busy Month

2010-02-28T12:54:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts this month. I've had plenty of time, there is just so much to post about that I have been putting it off. But here goes.

Kate's 4th Birthday Party

Kate's birthday was a pretty exciting day here in Charlotte. We had a huge ice/snow storm which lead to all of the city roads being covered in a nice thick layer of ice.

As is tradition, we started the day with pancakes. The birthday girl/boy always get pancakes shaped in in the number of the birthday. Katelyn polished off two four-shaped pancakes.

After breakfast, Kate was dying to open her gifts.

We got her an art easel. She also opened her gift from Nana Freese, a new church bag! So fun.

Later in the day, a few friends and family braved the roads and made their way to our house for Kate's party. We made superhero capes for the boys and twirly skirts for the girls to decorate. Katelyn picked out a princess crown cake from Costco and we had Costco pizza for dinner. It was a great party, I think Kate felt loved and that was all that mattered.

Random Moments

Josh has gotten to the age where he and Kate can play together. They have their moments. He is such a silly little man, but he truly adores his sister. I think he's going to be a great big brother. Here are some random pictures of the kids over the last month.

"Valentine's Day"

Okay so these pictures really aren't from Valentine's Day. They are from the day before. We had another snowstorm, but this one left behind soft beautiful snow perfect for playing in! It was awesome. Before the kids went out to play in the snow we had Valentine's donuts. Yumm, yumm.

Josh doesn't really have any snow gear yet, so we bundled him up as best as we could and sent him and Kate out to play. They were fearless. Ben headed out with them to play with them and they built a HUGE snowman! It was the perfect snow day. By mid afternoon the roads were completely dry and Ben was able to head out for an awesome afternoon of paintball with some friends.Yes, I put Kate's tights on Josh. :)

Baby Boy Burgess

Well, I'm 37 weeks along today. Our C-Section is scheduled for Monday, March 15th at 7:30am. So unless he decides to make an early appearance, we only have two more weeks until we get to meet our new little man. Things are going great, there haven't been any complications so far and we are hoping for a quick and easy surgery. The question still remains... will he be blonde like Josh or have brown hair like Kate?? Stay tuned!

Katelyn Turns Four!

2010-01-30T18:05:00.000-08:00

Can four years really have already gone by? I can't imagine where they went. But, it's true, Katelyn turned four years old today. She has grown up so much this year. She is a beautiful, smart, talented little girl. We love her so much.

Katelyn loves:

*watching movies
*playing "Polly Pockets"
*cooking with Mommy in the kitchen
*coloring, painting, drawing
*playing dress-up
*taking bubble baths
*playing video games with Daddy
*bossing Joshua around :)
*reading books
*singing and making up her own songs

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T06:29:00.000-08:00

It's 6:30am Christmas Eve morning and I am the only person awake in house full of family. Santa Clause is merrily rocking away outside the window in the front yard and the sun is just beginning to come up over the hill. It's been a whirlwind week, but Christmas is nearly here!

Sunday morning, my Dad drove our family to the airport to catch our flight to Las Vegas. Our final destination being Tehachapi, CA, which is just four hours from Las Vegas, we opted to have one long flight and to drive the remainder of the way. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:20 and we arrived at the airport around 9:45am. As soon as we pulled into the departures lane, our jaws just about dropped. There were lines on top of lines of people waiting to check their bags. We gathered the kids and all of our bags, hugged my dad goodbye and proceeded to figure out where were supossed to be. Five hours later, we made it to the check-in counter. Yes, five hours, two Lunchables, one box of Teddy Grahams, and many games of Eye Spy we made it to the check-in counter. Obviously, we had missed our flight, so we waited to see what flight they would put us on. We were put on stand-by for a 5:50pm flight and we also got seats on a 7:5opm flight. Relieved to finally have tickets in our hands, we headed for the security check point. With two kids, this is quite an ordeal, but we survived. After checking in at our gate, we had a quick lunch at Burger King and tried to make the the wait as fun as we could for the kids. They were troopers to be honest, they did a fabulous job, even though Katelyn was totally sick with a cold! Five more hours passed and we boarded our flight, hoping that our luggage was riding with us. The flight was 4 and half hours, so we watched movies, ate snacks and the kids slept on and off. Again, they really did a great job. We arrived in Las Vegas at 9:30pm, and discovered that our bags were on a different flight that would not be arriving until after midnight. Tim and Becky, Ben's younger brother and his wife, were picking us up from the airport to make the drive to Tehachapi, but plans quickly changed since we had no baggage. They picked us up and we drove to Ben's older brother Jonathan's house, which was only 30 minutes away, and they put us all up for the night. The next morning, we drove back to the airport, retrieved our bags and started the drive to Tehachapi. Are you tired yet? Mind you that we are used to Eastern Time and we are now traveling in Pacific Time. So, we are all a little out of whack. To make a long story short(er), we arrived in Tehachapi around 4:30pm, a little rumpled and worn out, but happy to finally be at our destination.

Since we have been here, we have woken up to a surprise snow fall (Kate was so happy!), driven to Bakersfield for a little Christmas shopping, watched plenty of movies, and had lots of fun just spending time with family. Stay tuned for "Christmas with the Burgesses". Merry Christmas Eve!

Thanksgiving Tradtitions

2009-12-05T18:52:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The day before Thanksgiving it is our tradition to go to our church's Thanksgiving dinner. It's huge and delicious, and I don't have to cook. Well, usually I don't. This year I volunteered to cook one of the turkeys. After reading a fabulous sounding recipe at My Kitchen Cafe I really wanted to try my hand at a Thanksgiving turkey. I have a made a few turkeys in my lifetime, but none of them were something to write home about. With Katelyn as my assistant in the kitchen, we prepared the turkey according to the recipe. The most unique part of the recipe we used was the final step. We coated a brown paper bag in butter and tented the turkey in it. After two and half hours in the oven, out came the moistest, juiciest, most flavorful turkey I can ever remember having. Success!!

"Painting" the paper bag with butter

The Turkey Tent

One Delicious Turkey!

On Thanksgiving, we usually go to my dad's house for dinner and in return we cook breakfast Thanksgiving morning. It has to be cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole. Yumm. It really just isn't Thanksgiving morning (or Christmas morning) without them. We spent the rest of the morning laying around on the couch watching the Macey's Parade and flipping through Black Friday ads. It was perfect.

Last year, after Christmas, Ben and I bought new LED lights for the outside of the house and he was really excited to the try them out. So, we bundled headed outside and spent the afternoon putting up Christmas mights. Ben did a great job, and we love how cheery our house looks when we drive up!

Kate and Ben hard at work

Ben and the ginormous ladder

After Josh's afternoon nap, we loaded our share of the Thanksgiving feast into the car, grabbed this kiddos and headed to my dad's house. Dinner was delicious, and we were all too exhausted to even make it to dessert. It was a great Thanksgiving!

It also tradition to go shopping on Black Friday. I was up an ready to head out the door to Walmart at 4:30. While Ben and the kids slept, I was armed with my shopping cart and a list of great deals to find a store that was complete chaos. I ran into fellow Black Friday shoppers, Jessica and Anita and we compared lists. After Walmart, I took on Target and AC Moore. It was worth it, I scored some good stuff at great prices.

Our last Thanksgiving tradition is to decorate our house for Christmas the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. We like to enjoy the decorations as long as we can. What can I say... I love Christmas!

Our sweet girl by the Christmas tree

We are getting hungry for Turkey!!

2009-11-17T11:29:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we are excited! For our family, Thanksgiving sitting around in our jammies watching the parade on tv, eating lots of delicious food and, of course, preparing for Black Friday shopping. Lots of Black Friday ads have already been posted on www.bfads.net.

We've started reading our favorite Thanksgiving book to the kids and Kate has already watched Charlie Brown and Mayflower Voyage at least three or four times. Need a cute Thanksgiving story for your kids? Try this one:

It's a cute story, done to the same rhyme as The Night Before Christmas.

Halloween Day 2009

2009-11-02T10:22:00.000-08:00

Halloween was so much fun this year being on a Saturday. We had the whole day to do fun things together as a family. We started off the morning with homemade maple donuts. Yum... they were really, really good. After breakfast, the kids watched Halloween on Ice on the Hallmark Channel. It was pretty neat, Katelyn liked all of the scary costumes. For lunch, we headed to McDonald's and ending up eating in the car while we waited to get an oil change for the car. The kids ate more in the car than they ever do when we go inside to eat. Noted.

Later on, while Josh was napping, Katelyn, Ben and I carved pumpkins while we watched "Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure" on the laptop and the Florida Gators football game on tv. The kids used a kit we found at Walmart to decorate their pumpkins like animals.

For dinner we had mummy dogs (crescent roll wrapped hot dogs) and zombie fingers dipped in blood (sweet potato fries and ketchup).

Grandpa and Nana Bellinghausen stopped by to see the kiddos all dressed up in their costumes. Cinderella and Tigger, respectively. They were so cute.

We went outside for some pictures and then... it started to sprinkle. But did that stop us? No way! We put out a bowl of candy on the porch and headed out to start trick or treating with our umbrella in hand. Katelyn was really good at saying "trick or treat" this year and Josh managed to hold his own bucket long enough for our neighbors to fill it with candy. He was darn cute and his candy bucket proves it. :) We met up with the Wilde family and spent nearly two hours trick or treating... basically until the kids were begging to go home. We were damp, but it was a lot of fun. When we got home, we sat the kids on the floor in the living room and poured their loot into their laps and let them gorge for a little while. Why not.. it was a great Hallowen!

The Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-02T10:07:00.000-08:00

A week or so before Halloween, the kids and I headed to the Pumpkin Patch for playgroup. There was a mini hay bale maze, animals to pet and feed, a tractor ride, and a huge "pumpkin patch" full of mini pumpkins for the kids to pick a pumpkin. Katelyn loved feeding the animals! She was very brave. Josh was giddy and pointed at almost everything and shrieked. Very cute. As you can tell, we had fun.

The Big Ultrasound

2009-10-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

Today it's cold and rainy outside, but we are loving it. It feels like fall and today is a day we have been looking forward to for weeks. We dropped Joshua off at Grandpa Bellinghausen's house and headed off to the hospital for our ultrasound appointment. Katelyn went with Ben and I and was semi-entertained by the live video of the baby. After 15 minutes of clicking and measuring, the sonographer finally asked if we wanted to know the gender of our little bean. Of course we did, so she wiggled around to find just the right picture and lo and behold... IT'S A BOY! The first thing Kate said was... "I wanted a sister...". We think she will learn the benefits of being the only girl besides mom. Anyhow, our second little man looks perfectly healthy and very handsome already. We can wait to meet him!

Isn't he so cute!

Baby feet and baby arms... so sweet.

Not shy at all!!

Pre-Halloween Festivities

2009-10-14T06:50:00.000-07:00

As soon as the calendar turns to the month of October, we are ready for Halloween. We've spread out some really fun activities over the course of the month.

In early October, the kids got a really fun package in the mail from their Grandma Burgess. It was so cute. Grandma Burgess filled an empty soda bottle with Halloween Treats for the kids. One of the treats was a little bag of orange tic-tacs. Attached was a note that said "Heard you've been naughty, so here's the scoop... All you get is pumpkin poop!". Katelyn thought this was the funniest thing. Ever since then she has been repeating this poem to all of her friends. Thank you Grandma Burgess for such a neat treat!

Kate and the Halloween treats from Grandma Burgess

Next on our list of all things Fall was to make homemade applesauce. Kate, Josh and I headed out one morning to a local produce stand that was selling mountain grown apples for $.99/lb. At that price we bought 20 lbs! Katelyn and I spent the afternoon washing, peeling and cutting up apples. After simmering them on the stove, Kate mashed half of the apples while I blended the other half to make a perfectly chunky applesauce. Then we filled all of our pint size jars and Katelyn used the magnetic lid lifter to top each jar with a brand new lid, then we boiled them in the water bath canner. We ended up with over 13 wonderful pints of delicious applesauce. It was a great afternoon!

Apples galore!

Josh enjoying a delicious bowl of homemade applesauce

A few weeks ago, Michael's had all of their foam craft kits on sale. Katelyn picked out a spooky haunted house kit, and I promised her that we would put it together sometime in October. She was so excited about, she has asked nearly every day since them if we could make the haunted house. Finally, on Monday night for Family Home Evening we cracked open the kit and spent about an hour assembling, gluing and glittering. We haven't quite finished it yet. More pictures to come!

Ben and Kate building our haunted house

Homemade Applesauce
Makes 8 pints

12 lbs apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
Water
3 cups granulated sugar (We only used 1 cup, and it was PLENTY sweet)
4 Tbsp lemon juice
8 (16 oz) pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Directions:
1.) Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. (We just ran ours through the dishwasher.) Do not boil. Set bands aside.

2.) Combine apples with just enough water to prevent sticking in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 20 minutes, until apples are tender (time will depend upon the variety of apple and their maturity). Remove from heat and let cool slightly, about 5 minutes.

3.) Transfer apples, working in batches, to a food mill or a food processor fitted with a metal blade and purée until smooth. (We only blended half of the apples until smooth. The other half we left in the pot and mashed by hand. Then we mixed the blended apples back in to make a perfectly chunky applesace.)

4.) Add sugar, if using, and lemon juice. (We also added cinnamon to half of our applesauce.) Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Maintain a gentle boil over low heat while filing jars.

5.) Ladle hot applesauce into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.

6.) Process jars in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

The Little Man

2009-10-08T15:04:00.000-07:00

He loves playdough!

It seems like Kate is always the one having all the fun, so I thought I should share some of the silly things that our Little Man Josh has been up to lately. He is 17 months old now, though everyone thinks he is older. He's a big kid. We can tell he always has a lot on his mind and he is very curious, but he has yet to put his thoughts into so many words. He says "MaMa and Dada" and everything else he says is a combination of one or the other. "Ma" usually means, "I want that right now!" and "Da" can also mean "doggy".

Being curious at Grandpa's house

A week or so ago, we headed over to my Dad's house for lunch on his patio. Josh was to curious to sit down and eat anything. This was such a cute photo of him peeking through the woodpile.

Grand Opening of Playdough Towers

We were playing playdough one afternoon and Josh was having a great time. After a few minutes, he got a hold of a few empty playdough containers and started stacking them on top of one another and then pointed at them very excitedly. So... we got out all of the playdough containers and started making towers. We had a great time. Our towers were as tall as Kate! Needless to say, I think Santa is going to bring Josh some blocks this year.

Cleaning the Floors with HIS Mop

If there is a mop, a broom, a stick, a light-saber, or anything of the like, Josh will find it and attempt to clean the floor with it. Maybe I am just a great example with all of the my mopping and sweeping (haha), or maybe this kid is obsessed with sticks, but he can keep himself entertained for quite a while. He was stealing my broom and coming way to close to wacking our big screen tv with the handle, eventually had to make him his own mop by shortening a spare Swiffer mop we had lying around. What a good helper.

So We Think She Can Dance... and Paint

2009-10-02T10:32:00.002-07:00

Near the beginning of August, I started hunting for a dance class for Katelyn. I wanted something close to our house that wasn't focused on competition. Masterpiece Studios fit the bill. It's less than ten minutes away AND she gets to take dance and art, one right after the other. Friday mornings are so much fun. Katelyn gets all dressed up in her dance gear and we head to the studio. She does tap first, so we get her tap shoes on with all of other little girls. When Miss Jackie, her dance teacher, invites them into the studio, ten little girls stomp (not tap!) their way across the studio floor to hang up their backpacks and sit down for circle time. Miss Jackie calls the girls her "little angels".

Circle Time

Standing in her spot

After saying a prayer together, they all go stand in their spot, which is marked by a colored piece of tape on the floor, and they stretch out by doing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes".

"Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"

Kate is still trying to get the hang of it all. She is usually about three steps behind. Its so cute to watch though! Next, the practice their "Mr. Sun" routine, which I have on video at the bottom. Josh and I usually have to leave after the first few minutes of her class. He wants to go in and be with Kate so bad. When they are done with tap, they all switch into their ballet shoes for the last half of the class.

Our little dancer

When dance is over, Miss Erin comes over to get Kate and take her to the art studio next door to the dance studio. In art class, they read a book, and then do a project based upon the book. Today they read "Where the Wild Things Are" and then drew their own monster on black paper and added googly eyes all over it. They looked like monster eyes peering through the dark. She loves her art class, which is totally different than her dance class in that there is just her and two other boys. It's so neat to see Kate experiencing new things!

Mr. Sun Routine

He's a Mean One..

2009-09-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

It's the 28th of September, it's 81 degrees outside and what are we doing? Sitting on the couch watching Jim Carey's "The Grinch". Kate has loved this movie forever. Is it too early to encourage some Christmas Spirit? :)

Myrtle Beach 2009

2009-09-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

It has become a tradition since the summer Kate was born that we go to Myrtle Beach with my dad and his family. It's a lot of fun. We usually spend a week in a condo right on the beach (thank you, Dad!). The kids had a blast this year building sand castles with our awesome sand castle kit. This was the first time Josh could really enjoy being on the beach and his favorite things to do were digging holes with his shovel and throwing sand at every chance. Kate was a little braver in the water this year and she found some sweet shells on some early morning walks with her Nana Kim. It rained a bit while we were there, but it gave us a chance to do some shopping and see a movie. The girls went and saw "Julie & Julia". I LOVED it! Meryl Streep played the role of Julia Child wonderfully. This movie made me want to go home and cook. I highly recommend this movie. The boys spent an afternoon and evening playing at the NASCAR Speedpark, which is always cool. It was a great culmination to a great summer!

Waiting in line to drive the race cars!

Allentown, PA

2009-09-27T12:27:00.000-07:00

We arrived home from Minnesota on a Tuesday evening, and three days later, on Friday, we packed up the car and made the 9 hour (12 hours in our case) drive to Allentown, PA, to spend a few days (which stretched into a week and a half) with Ben's brother Chris and his family. I don't have as many pictures as I would have liked, but we sure had a ton of fun. It was a jam packed visit, full of day trips here and there. Here's a quick run down:

Saturday :
After packing a picnic lunch, we made the two hour drive to Hershey, PA, to spend the day at Chocolate World. We took the trolley ride around Hershey, listened to story of Milton Hershey and got to see all the town's historical sites. Milton Hershey was a really cool guy, he helped lots of kids over the course of his life. We have a lot of respect for him. After our trolley ride, we were on to a chocolate tasting "class", where we all about different flavors of chocolate. It was delicious, needless to say. Then we saw a 3-D movie... it was silly, I can't really remember what it was about. Honestly, our favorite part of the whole day was probably the free "tour" of the chocolate factory. It was a neat little ride that went through all of the steps to making Hershey chocolate. We finished off the day with dinner at Red Robin and arrived home late that night.

Sunday:
Ben and Chris had tickets to the NASCAR race at Pocono Raceway (the race was called due to rain, and the ended up going back the next day). Anya, the kids and I spent the afternoon at Chuckee Cheese.

Monday:
While the boys were at the NASCAR race, Anya and I took Kaiy, Kate and Josh to Sesame Street World. It was a huge amusement park just for kiddos. It was mostly water rides, which was nice since it was such a hot day. Katelyn was braving than I have ever seen her. She rode on a roller coaster and the ride that takes you straight up and then drops. She did great and loved both of them!

Tuesday:
With Ben back in tow, we headed to the Crayola Factory for the day. It was really neat. They had craft stations set up over an entire floor. We got to paint a ceramic turtle, play with model magic, do some painting and of course some coloring. I think this was one of my top three stops on our vacation.

Wednesday:

This was by far our busiest day, and the coolest. After driving an hour to New Jersey, we parked the car at Summit Station and took an hour long train ride right into the heart of New York City. Our train let off right near Times Square and we walked from Times Square to Central Park over the course of the day. Our first stop was John's Pizzeria for some fantastic pepperoni pizza. It took as a while to find it, thank goodness Ben had my dad's GPS in his pocket. From there we headed over to Times Square. It was neat. Everything was so crazy busy, it was kind of hard to take it all in. Toys'R'Us is right there in the heart of Times Square, so we took the kids in for a look around. Our next big stop was Saint Patrick's Cathedral. It was beautiful, I really have no words. Then we walked down to Rockefeller Center and bought tickets to go to the "Top of the Rock". We stayed up there for nearly and hour taking in the whole city, it was awesome. We all sat down inside and just took it all in. After St. Patrick's we headed down 5th Avenue to Central Park. The plan was to take the kids to FAO Schwartz but it was already closed. Luckily, the brand new Apple store was right there, so we took the elevator down and spent some time playing with all the cool electronics. By this point, we were pretty exhausted. We had made it Central Park, but we were too tired to walk through it, so we decided to take the carriage ride through Central Park. It was my favorite part of the day. From there, we took the Subway back to the train station, ate some McDonald's, and quickly caught our train back to Summit Station. It was a whirlwind day, but we are sure glad we did it!

Thursday - Monday:
These days are kind of a blur! We were supposed to drive home on Thursday, but after all of our day trips the previous days, we were ready to just chill out, so we did. I think we went to Chuck E. Cheese again and rented some movies, but mostly we just hung out. One afternoon, Anya and I took the girls to an awesome outdoor mall that had a sweet slash pad for them to play on. It was very fun.

Ben and Chris got NASCAR ticket for Watkins Glen and spent Sunday and Monday driving back and forth to the race (It was rained out on Sunday! Two for two!)

Tuesday, we finally packed up and headed home. We had a great trip and made some WONDERFUL memories. Thanks for putting up with us for so long, Chris and Anya!

(I wish I had more pictures, but I forgot my camera on several of our day trips!)

Minnesota 2009

2009-09-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

At the end of July, the kiddos and I boarded a plane and headed to Minnesota for two weeks for some much needed Nana and Grandpa Freese time. The kid's spent the two weeks playing in Nana's garden, riding Grandpa's tractor, playing with the "puppies", visiting the zoo, attending a tractor festival and just having an all around good time.

Mom and I spent a good chunk of our time working on a Quiet Book for the kids. We got about eight pages completed and decided we needed to use our creative juices elsewhere. As always, there was lots of yummy food and some great movies. Katelyn adores "The Princess Bride" now. We had to purchase a copy when we got home. There is so much to tell, I am going to have to just leave it at this. Enjoy the pictures!

Waiting for our plane to arrive!

Nana's AMAZING garden!
Joshua and the push car

Joshua giving Gunner kisses (gross...!)

Kate coming down the HUGE slide at the park!
Kate and Grandpa driving the tractor

Joshua, Katelyn and Grandpa

Kate and Nana making zucchini cupcakes for a party

Joshua just being silly... :)

Kate's idea of a good time.

Joshua and Mommy

Nana and Grandpa (We miss you!!!)

Joshua in his new t-shirt!

Fall is Just Around the Corner

2009-08-29T10:28:00.001-07:00

As soon as school supplies hit the shelves I start thinking fall. Even though it is still nearly 90 degrees almost every day still, I can't help but start thinking about Halloween Costumes and putting up all of our fall decorations. So pardon my early decorating on the blog. Tis' the season... for me anyways. :)

More posts to come full of the adventures we have had on our vacations over the last six weeks!

Minnesota Zoo

2009-07-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

The kids and I are safe and sound in Minnesota and having a great time. There is plenty to keep Josh and Kate entertained. Kate spends half the day chasing after Gunner (the bulldog) and Kitty (the cat) and Josh is happy to bounce a ball up and down the hallway. Today, we are making cookies and spending the afternoon in the family room working on a Quiet Book for the kids.

Yesterday we visited the Minnesota Zoo. The weather felt like a North Carolina October. It was cool and sprinkled on and off throughout the day. We had a great time. Enjoy the pictures!

July 2009 Photos

2009-07-10T14:59:00.000-07:00

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2009-06-24T06:56:00.000-07:00

A few summers ago, Katelyn and I went to Minnesota to visit my mom, "Nana" as she is known by the kiddos. While we were there, we helped her plant a square foot garden. It was so neat and organized and Kate loved playing in the dirt. Ever since then I have wanted to plant a garden. I love the idea of being able to walk right into your own backyard and find fresh, organic produce for so much cheaper than a trip to the grocery store.

Katelyn, a few summers ago, playing with Nana in her backyard!

In early March, I started planning the garden so we could get approval from the Home Owners Association. Most of my research came from Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. It is a wonderful beginner's guide for someone like me who knew nothing about gardening. After several rough drafts, I had a plan and set to work. One morning, while Kate was at preschool, Josh and I hit Lowes to get the wood and other supplies to build three raised bed boxes. We also picked up the "ingredients" to make the perfect soil. A few stores later and we had almost everything on the list, minus some different varities of compost for ultra rich soil.

The following morning, after screwing the boxes together (thank you Nellie!) and stapling the weed barrier on, we arranged the boxes in the box yard. It was starting to come together. Another morning was devoted to mixing up to very large piles of compost, vermiculite and peat moss. It was tough work, but the result was a light and fluffy soil rich in nutrients. After filling the boxes and stringing a grid across tops, our boxes were ready to be planted.

4x4 Raised Bed Boxes

After a bit of rearranging, this is what we came up with.

My step-brother's school had a plant sale with great deals on vegetable plants. We bought peppers and tomatoes there and then hit Walmart for onions sets, and seeds for peas, green beans and spinach. The next week or two were spent planting and caring for our little plants. It was so fun for the kiddos to go out in the backyard each afternoon and see what had grown since the day before.

Just starting to grow...

The peas grew so fast!

We were surprised one afternoon to come out and find these little treasures.

It has been a few months now since we first started this adventure and we have a beautiful garden! It looks like we will have a bountiful harvest. The journey has only begun and we have high hopes for some delicious salsa once the tomatoes and peppers are ready to be picked.

The peas have since been eaten and the pole beans have taken over completely!

Long and lean pole beans!

Spicy Jalapenos... perfect for salsa!

Bell peppers

Banana Peppers

Lovely tomatoes!

We have already enjoyed peas, green beans and spinach, and they tasted wonderful! It has become part of our routine to spend at least 15 minutes outside in the garden each afternoon watering, weeding, and seeing what is new. I hope we are creating wonderful memories for our kiddos of our very first garden.

The Phoenix Trip

2009-06-06T05:18:00.001-07:00

I have been putting off posting about our amazing trip to Phoenix because I know it is going to take a long time!! We had such a wonderful visit and Nauni created an amazing post about all of our adventures. So, in lieu of creating a whole new post. I will just give you the link to her blog. :)

John-Michael and Nauni's Blog

Enjoy!

Josh's First Birthday

2009-05-06T07:29:00.000-07:00

Birthday's are so much fun at our house! We decorate downstairs the night before so that when kids wake they will find a fun surprise before breakfast. Josh pointed at all the decorations and said "baaa?", I'm translating that to mean that he thought they were pretty neat. It's tradition to have chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Josh was gobbling them up even before we got the tray locked into highchair! I think it is a tradition that will continue for many more birthdays.

After a nice long morning nap, the family headed out to Five Guys (a burger place) to meet Grandpa Ron, Nana Kim, and Granny for a birthday lunch. Josh ate his body weight in french fries. He has learned to make it very clear when he wants more of something. It's amazing what he can communicate without any words. :) On the way home, we picked up some balloons, a birthday must. Josh took his afternoon nap, and Kate helped decorate his cake and the table and helped wrap presents. She was a great little helper.

When Josh woke up, we had some yummy pizza and then played outside with some really cool water squirters.

Then it was time for presents. Josh was into all the boxes, but soon tired of having a new present put in front of him while he was still trying to play with previous box. We ended up letting the kids "help" Josh open up most of his gifts. It was cute.

The culminating event of the evening was THE CAKE. We had been anticipating this moment for weeks. Josh is known to have a fairly healthy appetite and I was pretty sure that he was going to devour his cake. He did not disappoint. I have the video to prove it. Enjoy!

Potty Training

2009-05-06T07:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a fun day around out house. It was "Potty Training Day"! This is a day I have been putting off for almost a year for various excuses. Well, all excuses set aside, I decorated our little bathroom downstairs on Monday evening with balloons and fun pictures to make it fun for Kate. She went potty right when she woke up with no problems, then we came downstairs and I showed her the party in the bathroom. She was a little confused, but she thought it was pretty neat. After a breakfast of pancakes and juice (she got to drink undiluted juice all day long!), Kate told me she had to go potty again. She did it all by herself! Throughout the day she had a few accidents, but she had just as many successes. I supplied her with lots of salty snacks and sweet drinks to keep her needing to go potty. It wasn't as rough of a day as I thought it would be. Ask me if I still feel that way in two weeks. :)
We might get brave enough today to venture out to Walmart to buy some cute new underwear. We'll have to see. I'm so proud of my big girl.

Joshua's First Year

2009-05-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

It's tradition that I spend the week before our kid's birthdays sorting and reminiscing through all of our photos in order to create a masterpiece video that perfectly displays the previous year. After hours of listening to songs to find just the right fit and arranging each photo in just the right order it's ready. We always show their birthday video while we are eating birthday cake. It's my favorite part of the party.
Joshua is our second blessing and I have savored each and every moment of his first year. Here is the video of our sweet little man... I hope you enjoy it.

We are back!

2009-04-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

We are back from our adventures in Phoenix. More pictures to come.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-10T20:07:00.000-07:00

From our family to yours, we hope you have a beautiful Easter weekend! Let us remember our Savior, Jesus Christ, that he died for all of us and truly rose again. He knows us each by name and has felt our joy and our pain. He bore the sins of the world, submitted his life to those who mocked him, and allowed himself to be sacrificed that the bands of death might be broken. His gift, the Atonement, is one that I am eternally grateful because through Jesus Christ we may all become perfect no matter our challenges and short comings. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of hope, a gospel of purpose, and a gospel of love, for our Savior, Jesus Christ, truly loves each of us.

Birthdays, Sunshine and a New Car!

2009-03-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy month in the the best ways possible. There have been birthday celebrations, trips to the park and this past weekend, we became the owners of our very first minivan (me, I am thrilled, Ben, he is still getting used to the idea). This month has also been a meteorological roller coaster with snow one week, followed by 80 degree weather the next. I told Ben the other day that I was getting tired of the weather changing so drastically from week to week and he told me, "I like it, it's nice to have variety." He's right, it has been nice to build snowmen one week and play at the park the next.

Ben and I celebrated our birthdays early in the month. My birthday was on a Friday, we spent the morning test driving cars with my Dad at Carmax. Then we all went out to lunch at Showmars. They have really yummy gyros. Mmmm... Later in the afternoon, Katelyn helped me make a cookie cake. It was DELICIOUS.

Yummy Cookie Cake

Blowing out the candles!

The next day was what we call "Date Day", or the day in between our birthdays. Our good friends watched the kiddos while we went out to dinner at Tony Roma's. We shared a rack of ribs, coconut shrimp and a slice of cheesecake. Yes, more food. Yumm.

Sunday, Ben's birthday, we watched the NASCAR race after eating Ben's favorite food of all time... taco salad. He was a happy guy. That night, our family came over to have ice cream cake. All in all in was a fabulous birthday weekend!

Ben's Ice Cream Cake

The birthday boy!

The week after our birthdays was absolutely gorgeous. We played outside and spent an afternoon at the park. It has made us totally ready for spring.

"Mom! Why can't I go out?!"

Our blue-eyed boy is 10 1/2 months old!

Katelyn, 3 years old and very...

...SILLY!

Katelyn has been helping plant seedlings for our vegetable garden. We are going to attempt a square foot garden this year Katelyn has loved coming to check on her plants every day to see if they are growing yet. I think this will be a really fun experience for her. Pictures to come.

Katelyn's Plants

This past weekend was dreary, cold and rainy. The kind of weekend where you just want to stay at home and watch movies. However, we bundled up and headed to Carmax and Saturday and came home with a "new" Nissan Quest! It's awesome. I love the feeling that I could buy something really big and actually fit it in my car! I love that I can get more kiddos in my car! I love driving a big car! Can you tell that I really love our new car?

2005 Nissan Quest

Interview with Harvard's LSSA President

2009-03-11T13:49:00.000-07:00

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I often have the opportunity to answer questions about my faith. After watching this interview with the president of Harvard's Latter-Day Saint Student Association, I knew I had to share it. The questions are respectful and the answers are honest. I hope you enjoy it!

Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.

Burgess Family Giveaway!

2009-03-03T07:01:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the first Burgess Family Giveaway! The first 5 people to comment on this entry will receive a special gift from us. What will the gift be?? You shall see when it arrives on your doorstep or in your mailbox. There is only one rule. In order to receive your special gift you must also post a giveaway on your own blog or family website. Good luck and happy blogging!

Katelyn's 3rd Birthday - (Picture Overload!)

2009-02-10T16:54:00.000-08:00

What a day! Katelyn is officially three years old and she had a great birthday! We started of the day with our traditional chocolate chip birthday pancakes (in the shape of the number 3, of course).

When Katelyn came downstairs to eat, she immediately zoomed in the pile of birthday presents on the coffee table. All week long she had been saying, "Is it my birthday now?!" and we finally got to say, "Yes!" Strung through the entryway was a Happy Birthday banner with Tinkerbell on it. It was the next thing she noticed after checking out her loot.

After breakfast, she got to open a couple of presents every hour or so. One of them was Kung Fu Panda, which we watched as soon as we could get it open. While she watched her movie, I got a moment to finish her 3rd year video, which I hope you all enjoyed as much as I did.

After a late lunch and some finishing touches on her birthday cake, we headed to Monkey Joe's for the afternoon. Grandpa Bellinghausen, Uncle Brent and his girlfriend Raeanne, as well as Katelyn's friend Arwen met us there for some fun. Josh and Kate shared a blue ice cream cone (without my knowledge) and both ended up with solid blues lips and cheeks!

We planned a birthday party for Katelyn and a couple of her friends for after Monkey Joe's. I headed home early to get ready, and soon the guest began to arrive. Ben, Katelyn and Grandpa were off to get balloons and didn't make it back until after everyone had arrived, so we tried to get the kids to "SURPRISE" Kate. It was prety silly.

During the party, the kids had hot dogs and played with all of the balloons with the big "kids" enjoyed chili. When it was time to open gifts, we sat Katelyn in her flowered chair and the kids all gathered around her. The kids were so good! It was so neat, they just sat and watched her open gifts and got excited to see her new things. I was totally impressed.

Since it was a Tinkerbell party, we had to have a Tinkerbell cake.

We gathered everyone around the table to sing and it was so cute as she sang while we sang her "Happy Birthday". Check out the video:

It was such a great day! Katelyn is so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. Thank you to everyone who helped make her 3rd birthday so special.

The Boastful Bargain Hunter

2009-02-04T14:35:00.000-08:00

Lately, I have had some time to peruse the bargain racks at Walmart and Target. I just had to share all the good luck I have had! Over the past week I have purchased all of the clothing pictured below:

5 T-shirts
4 Long-sleeved Shirts
1 Button-up Shirt
1 Pair of pants
2 Winter Coats with removable inner-jackets

My grand total was only... ...

$45.12!

Katelyn's 3rd Year Video

2009-01-31T06:55:00.000-08:00

Christmas at Home

2009-01-04T11:38:00.000-08:00

We had Christmas at home this year. This is the first year that Katelyn has believed in Santa Clause and it made for a really fun Christmas. We packed so much into the Christmas season and it flew by incredibly fast.

On Christmas Eve, we made sugar cookies to decorate for Santa Clause and watched a movie together. Katelyn is an expert cookie decorator and had a lot of fun with the sprinkles.

After dinner, we headed out in the car to see the neighborhood Christmas lights. They are always so beautiful, we love the houses that really go all out with blow-up snowmen, flashing snowflakes and lights covering the entire house. The tackier the better, in my opinion. :) We drove around for about an hour and then Kate was ready to head home. After settling down on the couch, Ben read the Christmas story from the Bible and we watched a video of The First Christmas. It was really beautiful. Katelyn asked to watch it again. She loves seeing the baby Jesus. Right before we headed to bed, Katelyn received a very neat phone call. It was from Santa! He told her that he thought she had been a good girl all year long and that she needed to go to bed so that he could bring her presents. She thought it was so neat! So, we took her right to bed and we read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas".

Once the kids were asleep, Ben and I wrapped gifts until nearly midnight while watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on TV. We set out all of the Christmas gifts under the tree and stuffed the stockings. It was so fun knowing Kate would be seeing it all in a few hours!

Kate and Josh woke up around 7:30 am on Christmas morning and we headed downstairs to see if Santa came. He had! Kate was so excited about all of the presents under the tree.

After opening our stockings, we started in on all of the presents. Katelyn played Santa Clause for a little while, handing out gifts to everyone, but then she was too distracted by her own new toys to even open anymore of her own presents. It was sweet. She and Josh received so many wonderful gifts. It was a very generous Christmas.

After the gifts were all opened and Josh was awake, we all got in the car to go over to Grandpa Bellinghausen's house. We had Christmas morning all over again!

It was a truly wonderful Christmas and we were very blessed to be with family.

Christmas Party 2008

2008-12-22T20:13:00.000-08:00

Every year we have a Christmas party with some of our close friends. The "original five", as we call them, all get together and we let them all reek havoc. It's so much fun! Well the original five kids has now grown to NINE and will soon be ELEVEN! This year, each of the kids had a secret pal for Christmas. We had a great time picking out just the right gifts and it was neat to see how the kids are starting to learn about the giving part of Christmas, rather than just the receiving. Aside from exchanging gifts, we ate lots of delicious food and sampled a huge assortment of Christmas goodies. It was a wonderful night!

Josh and Mommy

The kids are making gingerbread men with stickers. They had a lot of fun with this activity.

This was one of my attempts at a picture of the kids all together. As you can see, I didn't have the best location. Maybe someone else got a better shot. :)

Josh and Daddy just chillin'.

We were all dressed up nice for church on Sunday and this was our sore attempt at a family Christmas photo. Kate is the only one who looks cute (which happens more often than not).
Cheese!

Josh is such a silly boy, here is the video to prove it.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-19T21:43:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Santa Claus

2008-12-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

Let me just tell you, we think that Kate has gotten on Santa's good side because he sure loves her! Just check out these pictures we snapped this past weekend.

And here are couple of sweet pictures of the kids dressed up in their Christmas outfits.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T09:36:00.001-08:00

What a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend we have had! It all began on Wednesday morning when Katelyn and I put on our aprons and headed to the kitchen to do some holiday baking.
On our to do list: green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, apple pie, cinnamon rolls, and breakfast casserole. First we started with the cinnamon rolls. Katelyn helped by stirring, pouring and turning on the Kitchen Aid. When it was time to roll out the dough she made sure that all of the flour was spread out evenly over the counter. She even performed a little quality testing to make sure that the dough was just right.

After the cinnamon rolls were set to rise, we started on the pies. Katelyn tasted a few of the apples to make sure they were perfect for Ben's new Dutch Apple Pie recipe. (It's delicious!) Together we made the fillings for each of the pies and got them ready to put in the oven. By this time, Katelyn was done being my little helper and decided to go lay on the couch and watch a movie.
For dinner, we headed to the church for the Annual Thanksgiving Dinner. Yummy! We try to eat all of the foods that our family does not normally eat on Thanksgiving. It was delicious. Katelyn was too distracted by all of her friends and ended up running around for most of the night. All in all, a fun evening.
Before we put the kids to bed, we all read "The Night Before Thanksgiving" together.

It's a really cute book done in the same rhyme as "Twas the Night Before Christmas". I would definitely recommend it.
Thanksgiving morning was filled with parade watching, cinnamon roll eating and sales ad searching. A nearly perfect morning! I can still feel the adrenaline rush as we mulled over all of the ads searching for incredible deals. Black Friday is a day unlike any other, a day we look forward and plan for all year. :)
After enjoying a relaxing morning at home, we headed over to Thanksgiving dinner at Dad/Grandpa's house later in the afternoon. Dinner was delicious, especially the sweet potato casserole, Granny's homemade noodles and Dad's smoked turkey. We had a wonderful day!
On Black Friday morning, we had decided to wake up and head out for some shopping whenever we were all awake and ready. Josh had other plans. He woke up around 3:30am and after I fed him he was still wide awake! I took that as my que to bundle him up and head to Walmart! So, I left Ben and Kate sleeping, strapped Josh into the Baby Bjorn and fought my way through the crowded isles of our neighborhood Walmart. I came home with lots of clothes for the kiddos and a movie or two. It was well worth the trip. By the time I got home it was nearly 7am, so Ben and Kate got up and ready and we drove to Home Depot to buy a ladder that Ben had seen on sale. It's an awesome ladder!
Ben put it to good use right away by putting up Christmas lights on the front of the house! He did a great job.
We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and decorating the house for Christmas... Here are some photos of all our hard work.

Katelyn arranging all the people in the Christmas Village

Joshua just being cute

The Christmas Tree

The Stockings

Katelyn's way of decorating the entry table

Our Sweet Boy

Our Big Girl

Life's Been Busy

2008-11-07T13:00:00.001-08:00

Sorry it has been so long since have updated the blog! I feel like we are just now coming up for air. There is no way I can post about all of our adventures in one sitting. So I will just go over the highlights.

Chris and Anya Came to Visit!

Ben's brother, Chris, and his wife and two cute kiddos flew to North Carolina all the way from Roy, Utah. Of course, their visit also lined up perfectly with the Coca Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Ben and Chris are major NASCAR fans so this was a must for them. While the boys enjoyed the races, the girls went to Disney Fantasy on Ice. It was so neat! The show was broken into four different "movies": Cars, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and Tinkerbell. Seriously, Katelyn's barely even blinked during the entire show. She kept waving at all of the character as the skated by.
At the end of Chris and Anya's visit we packed up both of our cars and headed to Myrtle Beach for a quick trip. Anya couldn't get this close to a beach and not see the ocean! We made the three hour trip and spent a Sunday night and all day Monday palling around Myrtle Beach. Too much fun! We have never had a week as jammed packed and fun as this one. Thanks for such a fantastic week Chris, Anya, Kenyon and Kaiya!

Anya, Kate and Kaiya outside Disney Fantasy On Ice

The Whole Crew (minus Ben whos is taking the picture!)

Katelyn on the bridge feeding the fish

Ben posing as "Super Dad!" (this totally reminds me of Ben's brother Jonathan)

Katelyn in her first NASCAR race!

Kris and Shannon Came to Visit!

The day before Chris and Anya went back to Utah, my brother Kris and his wife Shannon and their daughter Libby came from Oklahoma for a visit. Well, really, they mostly came to buy a new car (it pays to have the hook-up at Carmax. Thanks Dad!), but they got to hang out for a few days before they drove home. Of course, we had to go to Monkey Joe's. Katelyn and libby had a blast jumping all over the place. Afterwards, we celebrated Libby's 4th Birthday at Cici's pizza. Yummy!

Kate and Libby getting some cousin hugs

Joshua literally chewing his Grandpa's fingers off!

The Aunts Came to Visit

The weekend after Kris and Shannon headed back to Stillwater, The Aunts (my dad's three sisters) flew in for the weekend. We ate lots of great food and The Aunts totally and completly spoiled the kiddos. (Which we love!) It was so good to see them, it made me miss Oklahoma quite a bit.

Halloween

The Halloween festivities this year began with the annual Johnston Family Pumpkin Carving Party. We didn't actually carve any pumpkins, but we sure had a lot of great food. (Do you see a trend here with all of the yummy food?) The following Saturday was the Matthews Ward Trunk or Treat. Katelyn dressed up as the cutest little fairy this year. She would flitter through the house flapping her arms pretending to be a fairy. Ben took her around to trick-or-treat at the Trunk or Treat... but she wasn't too interested in the candy.
Halloween night, we got the kids all dressed up. Oh, yea, we dressed Joshua up as a puppy. He barely tolerated the costume. Poor kid. Ben and Kate carved the pumpkin and then after a yummy dinner of potato soup, Kate and I headed out to ring door bells while Ben stayed home with Joshua to hand out candy. Kate was really good at knocking on the door or ringing the doorbells, but she would barely squeak "trick-or-treat". When someone put candy in her bucket she would say "Oh! I like that!". I guess that is close to "Thank you". After making the rounds through the neighborhood, we headed back home and made donuts and drank apple cider while we watched a movie. All in all, it was a great Halloween!

Josh and Kate being sweet

Our smiley boy!

Ben and Kate carving the pumpkin

"Tinkerbell"

Joshua barely tolerating his puppy costume

Julie, Josh and Kate

Scary Ben, Josh and Kate

The Scary Face!

The Stash

The Crash

Joshua's 6 Month Check-Up

Can you believe Josh is six months old? I really can't. Honestly, I have been trying to savor every minute with him because I know he is going to grow twice as fast as Katelyn did. My baby is so big! Literally, he is 20 pounds. :) Yep, that's what I said, 20 pounds. He is in the 90th percentile for his weight and the 75th percentile for his height which is currently 27 inches. He is such a trooper. He had to get three shots and he only cried for a minute until I could pick him up and then he was fine. What a good baby he is! He is starting to "talk". In the car the other day, I heard him saying "da da da da" or some form of that. No signs of crawling yet. We are still working on sitting up.

Katelyn Started Preschool

A few weeks ago we started doing Preschool with a group of four other moms on Thursdays and Fridays. We rotate houses each week. Every day the kids learn a new letter, number, and get to do the calendar for the day. The calendar has the days of the week, holidays and even weather. It has been so much fun! Katelyn really loves it! So far she has learned about: cats, dogs, germs, going to the doctor, pumpkins, Halloween, nature and gardening.
Kate really loves all things Disney Princess. She sings the songs from The Little Mermaid, Mulan and Sleeping Beauty. I love listening to her sing... it is so cute! In the song "Part of Your World" from the The Little Mermaid" there is one line that goes "...but they don't reprimand their daughters...". Katelyn sings it as "... but they don't member godders..". It is hilarious because she sings it with such emotion! I will have to get try and get it on video.

Ben and Julie signing out. More to come.

Food Co-Op and Apple Picking

2008-09-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

What a yucky and rainy, but totally fun day we had! We all woke up early this morning, which is a miracle in itself, and drove for 45 minutes down to Clover, SC, to pick up a box of fresh produce. It was $15 for a large box of produce, and the produce varies week to week. Here is what we came home with:

We weighed everything we got and went to Food Lion to compare prices. The same fruits and vegetables that you see would have cost $33.58 as compared to the $15 that we paid. What a deal! (That is if you don't account for the gas it cost to get down there. But we figure that if we get enough people to join the co-op then we could cut the gas costs significantly.)

After we collected our produce we decided to make our drive even more worth while and drove 15 more minutes to a nearby apple orchard. The Windy Mill Apple Orchard. I read online that they offered apple picking, hot apple cider donuts and even hayrides. When we arrived, everything appeared a little bit soggy. To be honest, the girl working behind the counter at the fruit stand looked a little surprised to see us since it looked like it might start pouring at an minute. But we were in a daring mood and decided it would be fun to go apple picking while we were there. They gave us a basket and an apple picker and we headed out into the orchard. It was actually really fun! Here are a few pictures from our apple picking adventure:

Katelyn thought apple picking was pretty cool, but she had the most fun watching the chickens. We bought her a little cup of corn kernels to feed to the chickens and we showed her where all of the hens laid there eggs. One chicken in particular had quite a feast from Katelyn's corn kernels, but we thought she was having a bad hair day and might need a little comfort food.

(Maybe we should have taken the family photo at the beginning,
rather than at the end of our adventure.)

Last but not least, here are a few random pictures from the past few weeks. Josh is now almost 5 months old. I know! We can't believe it either! He is the happiest, sweetest baby. We just started feeding him some solid foods. So far he has had rice cereal and bananas. He is totally loving the bananas. He is starting to roll over. He can roll to his tummy, but he usually gets stuck and can't roll back onto his back! We'll work on that. Katelyn is 2 3/4 years old now. She loves to sing, color, paint and of course watch Disney movies. Recently, Ben has been singing her the song "How Great Thou Art" and I often find her playing and singing the words "I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder" over and over again. It so sweet! We love it!

Katelyn brushing her teeth just after we finished braiding her hair so that it would be cute and wavy in the morning.

"Hanging out" at the park

Kate building a sand castle

Kate and her bean

Our happy boy!

Green Mountain

2008-09-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

This post is entirely over due. Last weekend we loaded up the Saturn and made a short trek (about 2 1/2 hours) to Green Mountain, NC. Our little family of four, along with four other families, pooled our money and rented a cabin for 3 nights. The guest list included 11 adults, 9 kids and partridge in a pear tree (well, almost). The cabin was three stories tall and had 8 bedrooms, making it nice and roomy. There was even a playground, a hot tub, and game room with a big screen tv and a pool table.
Anyhow... we all arrived late Thursday afternoon, settled into our rooms and started exploring the property. That evening, the boys built a fire in the fire pit and the kids played on the playground and in the "sandbox" (which was really a horseshoe pit).
Friday, we headed to a near by river and spent the afternoon playing in the water and picnicing on the small beach under the shade a huge tree. The water was chilly, but the kiddos has a great time splashing around and watching the little fish swim around their feet. That night the boys played a little Wii Bowling and we mostly jsut laid around and enjoyed doing nothing.
Saturday morning, we took a 30 minute drive to search for waterfalls. We found a trail and walked about a half of a mile to find a beautiful waterfall. When we got back to the cabin it was time for a birthday party! We celebrate Kate's friend Arwen's 3rd birthday with a Dora the Explorer party. The kids had a great time playing the favor bags that Arwen's mom, Tiffany, put together. After the kids were in bed, we decided it was time to crack open the hot tub.... ohhh it was wonderful. We all relaxed and ate ice cream sandwiches and push pops (yes, I said push pops) and savored our last night of vacation. All in all, it was a FABULOUS weekend and we hope to do it again next year!

The Photo Journey

Kate and her "snowflake" flower

Kate swinging on her tummy

Ben and Kate watching the fish in the river

Josh chillin' on the beach

Sunset from the cabin

Katelyn at sunset

Ben and Kate roasting marshmallows

Kate enjoying her first REAL S'more

Our Family Photo at the river in the Pisgah National Forest

Eddie, Kate, Jack and Riley in the Pisgah National Forest

The Waterfall

Ben and Katelyn walking down from the waterfall

The End!

The Beach and Other Adventures

2008-08-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

Our beach trip was a ton of fun, but entirely too short! We are sending a shout out to Grandpa and Nana Bellinghausen for taking us along, even thought vacationing with two little kids can be somewhat exhausting! Katelyn had a blast playing in the sand with Grandpa, Nana and Uncle Brent. I think she would have played on the beach all day long if I would have let her. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to take pictures of Katelyn playing and Josh, well, mostly sleeping. I got a few random pictures, so here you go.

Outside of Planet Hollywood

Katelyn and the Terminator

Josh and Mommy at Planet Hollywood

One extra picture to tack on... the other day I was upstairs getting ready for the day and Kate had gone downstairs to play. After I was all ready, I came down to check on Katelyn and found this...

As soon as she saw me she said, "Mommy, this is a good place to sit." I had no words. We have entered a whole new territory.

One more picture.. this was too cute not too post. The other day, Riley was at our house playing with Katelyn and we decided to make cookies together. While the cookies were baking, the girls pushed over their step stool and watched as the cookie balls turned into "flat balls". Aren't they cute? :)

The Eager Beavers

Kate Gets Her Wish

2008-08-16T19:53:00.000-07:00

All summer long our dear little Katelyn has been asking at least once a week (or a day), "Mommy, can we go to the beach?". Usually I respond by explaining, "Well... sweetheart the beach is really far away, it takes a few hours to get there." Being to smart for her own good she often responded by saying, "I'll put my shoes on." :)
Well, now when she asks if we can go to the beach I get to say, "Yes!" We are headed to the beach for a few days. Sadly, Ben has to stay behind to work. But he will get a break in a couple of weeks when we go to a cabin in Asheville, NC, with all of our friends.
Beach pictures to come soon. Til then, have a great week!

Potty Training

2008-08-08T17:51:00.000-07:00

Eeeekk... I have been terrified of potty training ever since the other toddlers started using the potty. It seemed like it was going to be an extremely time consuming, messy and frustrating process. So we have been starting very slowly with Kate. I was secretly hoping that one day we would wake and up and she would magically start telling me when she had to go potty. Umm, yea right. Back to reality. After a couple of months of practice, she has nearly mastered "pooping on the paawty" (oh the terminology of potty training). Now we are moving to "peeing on the paawty". I really don't know how to approach this. Kate gets so annoyed if I keep asking her if she needs to go potty. I tried putting her in underwear one morning and sat her down on a "magic carpet" (very thick towel) to watch Aladdin. This tactic ended less than an hour later with a big wet mess. How can I get Kate to like using the potty? I think the next tactic will be humor. How about if I let her wear underwear on her head whenever she uses the potty? I'll let you know how it goes.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

2008-07-26T19:32:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

2008-07-26T19:25:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Refrigertor Pictures

2008-07-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

I love looking at our refrigertor (is that silly?) because it is covered in pictures, cool magnets and even a good quote or too. So, I was wondering... who is on your fridge? Here is ours:

Will Katelyn be the next American Idol?

2008-07-22T11:29:00.000-07:00

Cast your vote!

(Watch for the grand finale at the end!)

Monsters

2008-07-15T19:30:00.006-07:00

Every few days Katelyn has a really tough time going down for her afternoon nap. A few days ago I heard her standing at the gate to her door screaming (to get my attention, she wasn't actually crying) and this is what I found...

"Mommy, there is a monster..."

4th of July

2008-07-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun on the 4th of July. We relaxed at home all morning, which we desperately needed after a long, busy week. Then we had the pleasure of attending the Johnston family's annual 4th of July Barbeque. Nellie made the most delicious ribs we have ever eaten... (just thinking about them makes me hungry!) and we brought giant Costco size cupcakes which were also delicious. After stuffing ourselves silly we all headed outside to watch the boys set off fireworks. The kids had a blast watching the mini fireworks show. Katelyn just sat in her Mickey Mouse chair and watched, she was a little nervous with the loud bangs and pops, but she had a great time. We even got her to hold a sparkler! It was nearly 10:30pm when we headed home with two very exhausted kids. But.. Josh slept for 7 hours straight that night! (He hasn't done that since.)

Katelyn riding Pinkey the Rocking Horse

The Family

Ben showing Katelyn how to use the Sparklers

Ben and Katelyn

Family Photo Shoot

2008-07-01T19:34:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my brother, his wife and their daughter Libby came to visit. We had so much fun! Friday we took the girls to Monkey Joe's, Katelyn's favorite place in the whole wide world. The ran and jumped and played and wore themselves out for two whole hours. After that we ate at Cici's pizza, yummo. After a good nap, guess what we did? We went back to Monkey Joe's! Kate and Libby had a blast playing with their Grandpa and he had just as much fun playing with them.

Nana Kim bought Kate and Libby a princess tent for them to sleep in and Kate actually slept over at Grandpa and Nana Kim's house Thursday and Friday night. What a big girl!!

Saturday was family picture day. I had no fears about taking a great picture because Kate has always done so well when we have gone to get professional pictures taken... not this time. She was a stinker! After the large group photo was taken, Kate found a little John Deere tractor and once she was on it she refused to get off... which led to a major melt down. So, our family picture is not the best one we have ever had. Kate looks like she is about to leap off of Ben's lap.

However, Kate did manage to redeem herself towards the end of the photo shoot with a really cute picture of her, Libby, and Josh.

We also got a two really cute individual pictures of Josh and Kate and one silly one of the girls.

Joshua's 2 Month Pictures

Goofy Libby and Pouty Kate

Sunday was Josh's baby blessing. We got the whole family together to go to church in the afternoon. Josh's blessing was beautiful, it reminded me how much I love my husband as he blessed our son with all of the hopes that we have for his life. After church, we all went back to my Dad's house to hang out and BBQ. We also celebrated all of our birthdays together with an ice cream cake. The cake read "Happy Everything!" It was delicious... mmm... I wish I had a piece right now.

We had a fabulous weekend and we can't wait for Libby and Kate to get together again!

Wii Wii

2008-06-18T12:19:00.001-07:00

For Father's Day my dad got a Nintendo Wii, which he named the "Wii Wii". Since we knew he was getting the Wii, we decided to get him a Wii Fit. They are too cool! I just thought you might like to see some pictures of my dad using his Wii Fit for the first time... they are quite amusing. I love that he wanted one, and he loves using it!

Since the puppies were with Kim who was out of town, Katelyn got to help her Grandpa open his presents instead. It's a Wii!

... and a Wii Fit!

Dad playing a balance game... he had to balance a ball on a platform and try to move the platform slowly to get the ball into a hole. Dad was pretty good! I think he made it to level 5!

Here is Dad hula hooping... he was really good at this too. He had 5 hula hoops going at one point!

Hope you had a great Father's Day, Dad! We sure did!

The Blue Ice Pop

2008-06-16T17:52:00.000-07:00

Do you see a trend? Katelyn tends do find herself in the most trouble with things that are blue... This was the result of a blue ice pop. (You should have seen the high chair!) As you can see, she had way too much fun. :)

Since Kate was getting a bath, we decided Josh could use one too. You wouldn't believe how many times a day he shoots us this look!

And here is a picture of my cute family. Kate and Josh are starting to look more alike, despite the difference in hair color.

The Original Five

2008-06-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Jackson, Arwen, Riley, Noah and Kate... Christmas 2006.

I had to steal this from Nellie's blog. The kids... Spring 2008.

Recipe Blog Addiction

2008-06-11T06:56:00.001-07:00

I am finally going to admit that I am addicted to RECIPE BLOGS! There are so many fantastic blogs out there, I find new ones that I love everyday. Amongst my adventures in recipe blog surfing I came across the Daring Bakers:

Each month they all try out a challenging recipe and take pictures as they go. After they complete the challenge they post the journey on their blog. Check out some of the blogs at :
http://daringbakersblogroll.blogspot.com/

Three for Three

2008-06-09T07:37:00.001-07:00

To start off... this is an absolutely terrifying way to find your child when she is supposed to be taking a nap. My first though was of course "Is she breathing?!"

After finding out that she was in fact breathing, I had to run and grab the camera to document the curious place she chose to finally take her nap.

Katelyn seems to have entered into the the "Terrible Threes" (as my mom calls it) a bit early.

Day 1: The Blue Crayon - as previously posted about
Day 2: The Black Ink Pen -

Friday afternoon, all while I thought Katelyn was peacefully asleep in her bed, I went upstairs to get her from her nap. I walked into her room and couldn't find her! Her bed was empty, so I looked under her bed where she likes to hide sometimes. The closet was cracked open, but she wasn't there either. It was at this moment that I spotted the black circles freshly colored on the wall. I looked down into her pack'n'play (which, I'll be honest, was filled with junk) to find Katelyn completely asleep.

She had managed to find a black pen in a random bag that I had tossed into her pack'n'play to put away later. I am sure she had a fabulous time as she colored all over the wall, all over her quilt, all over her NEW bed and on several of her dolls, as well as all over herself!

After a few flashes of the camera, the culprit awoke, apparently having forgotten how she got into the pack'n'play and also having forgotten the mischief she had gotten into before falling asleep. Thank goodness for Oxiclean!

Day 3: The Diarrhea Disaster

The past week Kate has had a bit of an upset tummy, we still aren't sure what caused it. Anyhow, Saturday afternoon I left to run and errand and while I was gone, Ben went to get Kate from her nap. He walked in her to room only to discover Katelyn diaperless and covered in diarrhea! Ewww! (Can I tell you how glad I was that I wasn't the one who found her? Sorry, Ben!) I will leave the rest of this story to your imagination...

So, as of Saturday, Katelyn was three for three in toddler disasters. What a week!

The Blue Crayon

2008-06-05T13:05:00.001-07:00

I honestly never really thought that a little angel baby like this one...
.... would turn out to do things like this! Thank goodness for Crayola Washable Crayons!

Today Josh is exactly 5 weeks old! The time has gone so fast, I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and re-live a few of the precious moments we have had with our little man in the past few weeks. His little personality is starting to emerge. We now know that he:

* prefers sitting up over laying down
* coughs when he wants to get our attention
* finds Katelyn to be the most fascinating thing in his little world
* loves his Mommy... (maybe I am biased)

His current stats from this weeks doctor's appointment are:

weight: 10 lbs. 15.5oz (this made me laugh! why not just say 11 lbs and call it good?)
height: 22 1/2" (yes, he really has grown 2 1/2" in the last month!)
hair color: still strawberry blonde (just like Grandma Burgess)
eyes: still blue (we are crossing our fingers that they won't change)

6th Wedding Anniversary

2008-06-03T19:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 1st was our sixth wedding anniversary. We "celebrated" the day watching NASCAR and eating cake and ice cream. It was delicious. Chocolate cake with chocolate fudge brownie ice cream, how can you go wrong?

Testing

2008-05-26T19:39:00.001-07:00

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