Burke {9} Months

After taking Burke's 9 month pictures (gasp!) this month, it immediately dawned on me that it was this exact month with the girls that the chalkboard became a toy versus a prop. Burke could not keep his hands off of it! Luckily, he's so cute that I didn't mind much. 

Look what I did! :)

I wish I could say that he pulled up here all by himself. But alas, he still prefers we move him instead of moving himself. ;)

The girls still need to be a part of our monthly photo shoot. I don't think Burke minds.

Our little Burkey just continues to light up our world. His contagious smile, endless amounts of chubbiness, and squeals make me wonder how we ever lived without him. He is officially saying "dada" alllllll the time, and trying hard to mimic a few other consonant sounds. He would rather be standing holding onto something (as seen above) than any other position. We have been working lots on crawling, but he still has no desire to. He actually will flop out onto his stomach within moments of us putting him on all fours. Little stinker. The girls were also both clapping at this age. We clap and sing songs all the time, but instead of clapping his hands, if you stick your hand out in front of him, he'll clap your hand. Again, could he be any lazier?! 

He also rang in his 9 month birthday with his first little tooth! He's been drooling tons, but that has literally been the only symptom of teething we've seen. I was shocked when I looked down the other day and saw it poking through! He's been happy happy as usual. His sisters didn't get a tooth until a few weeks after their first birthday, so I was extra shocked to see it this quick. 

We had a brief and thankfully very mild bout of pneumonia last week, and antibiotics cleared it up within a few days. This poor little guy has been hit with just about everything this winter. We are definitely ready for warmer temps and no more sickness. 

He is getting so good at feeding himself. He still does the best with crackers and dry food type stuff. But lately has been eating shredded cheese, turkey, and even managed to pick up a few diced up bananas and blueberries recently. 

He's continuing to be a great sleeper, in spite of some congestion/cough and teething. We couldn't ask for a happier, more easy going kid. Burkey boo bear, we love you to pieces!

Can you all believe it's April? It makes me giddy to think about beautiful spring days and bare feet. 

:) 

xoxo

Easter Fun

 Well, like most other major holidays in our family, Easter weekend was filled with a million fun activities plus some traveling. I love that Kyle's family lives in the boondocks. The girls are exposed to so many fun activities that we would never get to do in "the city" (horseback riding, seeing cows, sheep, fishing, country life). I just wish it wasn't a 2 hour trip both ways. I'm sure someday when our kiddos aren't so little, it will feel like no big deal. But until then, I guess we'll have to get used to the temper tantrums and exhaustion that come with hauling our crew around.

Anyways, we had a great time celebrating our risen Lord this weekend, and spent some much needed quality time with both sides of our family.

Easter baskets. Where's Burke's, you ask? I'm about to order it from Pottery Barn now that they're on sale. I've realized this is what happens with your third child... 

But gosh he's the sweetest. I don't think he minded not having an Easter basket.

Sweet Sophie

Campbell loving her Disney princesses.

"These are all my princesses."

To Taloga we go...

Sophie and Daddy on Cody

Burke told me this was his tough cowboy face.

Sophie in Papa's cowboy hat

I call this the "We're not in Edmond anymore" picture. ;)

My father in law thinks it's the greatest that I love to ride horses when we visit. So we went on a ride Saturday afternoon in the gorgeous weather. We saw his neighbor's buffalo, cows, roosters, and sheep. We totally rode our horses down the side of the road, and no one looked twice at us.

Kyle, the girls and I went fishing Saturday evening. Just the four of us. I loved every second of exploring and being in the perfect silence of the country with these three. It was one of those evenings I'll remember for a long time. And how lucky was Kyle to have cheerleaders yell "Yay Daddy!" every time he casted his line?

My and my girlies

We had a family egg hunt Saturday evening. 

The girls love playing in this big tire sandbox. When I spotted the girls and Teddy all perched on the side, I had to snap a quick pic of it. :)

Burke was definitely a fan of sitting in soft, green grass and playing with his sisters' eggs.

Easter morning we headed to Lenora Methodist Church. It's always nice going to Easter service in a small town. There were a whopping 68 people in attendance! Where else can you get a front row parking spot on Easter Sunday? They also do this sweet little children's church at the beginning of the service. The girls were mesmerized by the older girls, as usual. :)

Egg hunt #2 in the back of the church afterwards.

Back to Edmond we go for the Ball family Easter egg hunt and dinner. Canon and Crew are easily two of the girls' most favorite people on the planet. And Burke is quickly realizing how much he's going to love getting into trouble with them in the not-so-distant future.

Burke and the Michael boys

Canon is such a sweet big cousin and adores Burke. This picture melts me!

Oh how I adore all of these crazy monkeys 

Egg hunt #3

Every time I tried to take a picture of Sophie, she almost always had candy stuffed in her mouth. I'm pretty sure she had shoved an entire Reese's egg in her mouth in this one. Definitely my child.

 All in all, we had a wonderful weekend. Kyle and I collapsed into bed last night, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Hope you all had a great Easter weekend, as well. Praying spring is here for good!

xoxo

Burke {8} Months

Well, another month has literally disappeared before our very eyes. On March 1st, our little man turned eight months (!!). I'm pretty sure this is when this first-time, overly excited mom started planning her twins' first birthday (don't worry, I won't make the mistake of having an over-the-top celebration for this guy). How are we close to having to start to maybe think about his first birthday??!! Ugh. Let's not talk about it anymore. Instead, how about we focus on this handsome little devil's eight months of cuteness?

                                     

Our little Burkey bear has brought us more joy and happiness than I ever could have imagined. It's impossible to have a bad day when I look at this precious smile. He has been babbling TONS lately. I'm sure this has nothing to do with the fact that he lives and spends the majority of every day with 3 ladies. In the last week or so, we'll catch a "dada" here and there. And oddly enough, it's usually when Kyle is holding him. :) He is still the most easy going, happiest little kid around, in addition to continuing to be the laziest little chunk you've ever seen. He loves his jumperoo, sitting and playing, playing "catch" (me/the girls/Kyle throwing a soft ball at him), watching his sisters act crazy, talking to his sisters, and...that's about it. We have seen him rolling a bit more recently, but not much interest in being more mobile than that. As an experienced mom, I am A.O.K. with this. I know all too well what is to come once he starts crawling/pulling up/getting into everything! 

He still loves baby food, but would prefer feeding himself finger foods over anything else. He loves puffs, gerber cheetos, mum mums, and ritz crackers. He tries his hardest to pick up cut up peaches, bananas, and blueberries, but it's still tough for him to grab anything slippery. He has also started slurping water out of a sippy cup (while I hold it). Oh how I will celebrate the day we are done with bottles and onto milk out of a sippy!

Bathtime is also still up there on his list of favorites. His baths usually end up being around 20 minutes. He can't get enough! I can't wait to see him in the pool this summer. Here's a few more pics of what we've been up to (other than desperately waiting for the spring weather to stay here for good)!

Fun with prunes (in a white sleeper. Good idea, Mom).

Campbell prepping for the snow.

Campbell looking like she's 8.

Is there anything cuter than a little kid with a big back pack? Yes, two kids with two big back packs. Melt me.

Again, looking entirely too old.

Crazy hair day for the Suessabration at school. 

Sophie and Burke have the most hilarious/sweetest relationship. I'm fairly certain Burke thinks she is a stand-up comedian as much as she cracks him up!

Giving little bro a bath time 'hawk

Sophie thinks she's just about the cutest thing on the planet.

And I happen to agree. ;)

xoxo

Backpack, Backpack

In case you were wondering, I can turn just about any topic into a jingle from Dora (see title) or most any other popular kids' cartoon series these days.

In this case, it would be my recent decision to convert from a diaper bag to a, you guessed it, back pack.

I've seen (via my cooler, hipper, younger sisters and various other cool people blogs) the back pack trend growing. I really do like my current one...

...which I snagged at the Kate Spade outlet in Vegas last year, but I really wish it had more pockets (only 2). And any mom knows that there is no such thing as too many pockets (sippy cups, pacis, bottles, sunglasses, cell phone, keys, flask of liquor). So, off I went in search of a cute, non-nerdy looking back pack. Here were my contestants:

(via Target) I really love this one (all those pockets!), but it's sold out online and in stores.

Herschel (via Nordstrom's, Zappos,  or Urban Outfitters). Also comes in lots of other super cute colors.

This is a Herschel kids' one that I thought was darling. Maybe for the girls' first real big kid back pack?

And this Mossimo Target one was the winner! They only carry it online, but for a darling print, lots of pockets, and a $29 price tag, it can't be beat! 

I also decided to not splurge on the price since I don't know if it will end up working as great as I'm hoping it will. If it turns out it doesn't hold everything as well as my current Mary Poppins bag, or I decide it's annoying to carry a back pack all the time, I'll just wear it into a coffee shop, read a really hip book, and pretend I'm a cool college kid...with a baby in tow. 

Who is also humming the Dora theme song.

Happy weekend!

xoxo