April Fun

April has been so much fun so far and since we leave for Disney World tommorow it is only going to get better!! We have enjoyed the warm days and have spent alot of time at the park with friends. It has become a weekly outing to head there after preschool lets out with friends and packed lunches. Josie loves the swings.























Here is a picture of Maggie, Owen, and Isaac.













How sweet is this! This is a rare moment when Owen is being included with the two of them. They tend to prefer to play without Owen most of the time. I often hear him saying, "Why do you guys leave me out Mag??" And her response is always funny to me....."Owen, Isaac and I just need our private time."



Owen LOVES riding bikes and since he has ridden his spiderman bikes until it is broken we went out and got him a new bike. We ended up getting him a bigger one since he rode Maggie's just fine. We took him to the store and let him try out every bike they had and he just rode each one around the store. He finally settled on the "hot wheels" bike.













He is enjoying it very much so it was a great purchase. Maggie likes riding bikes, but not as much as Owen. She was not happy that she didn't get a new bike but we told her as soon as she was ready for the bigger size we would upgrade hers as well. We have enjoyed spending lots of time outside and are VERY excited about our new project going on here.......our swingset.


Our backyard is pretty uneven and has lots of trees. So Joe has been working cutting the tree's down to make more room. Last weekend we had a guy come in to level it out, we knew he'd do a good job when we saw his Caterpillar! :)












Owen (and Joe) were in heaven the whole time he was here tearing up the yard and getting it level. Owen spent his morning sitting right here watching it all.
















After he was done it looks great and is the perfect place for the kids swingset.....now we just have to get the guys to come and set that up.



















I am hoping they can do it while we are at Disney since I think that would be a great surprise when we come home.

Okay, so I know you all are wanting to see how cute my little Josie was the other day eating cheese puffs.














I LOVE this baby....she is so much fun.







We had some friends over the other night for a cookout and had so much fun. Here are Josie and her best buddy (she may not know it yet. :) Molly waiting on their dinner to come.
















These two are going to be TROUBLE before too long when they can put their ideas together.



Joe and I had a brilliant idea to teach the kids how to play Red Rover. We lined them all up on two sides of the yard and began the chant...."Red Rover Red Rover..."































Well, within the first 3 minutes Bella and Maggie were out with injuries and crying. Owen on the other hand LOVED it and thought this was the greatest game ever. The kids played for quite awhile and Maggie went and rejoined after I told her the trick was to let go when they got to your arms and not to worry about holding on and keeping them from coming through. (Her dad's advice would have been to hold on for dear life....I am NOT competitive....especially at the expense of getting hurt) The kids all had fun playing in the yard and the adults had fun chatting, eating, and playing Settlers!! We had a late night as usual and lots of
fun.

Josie had fun watching the kids play and eating popsicles.


















She is going to LOVE summer I do believe.

We fly out tommorow afternoon for Disney World so keep checking for that update!!

Happy Easter!

Easter was fun here in the Burke house. Aside from us having a never ending virus that began with Joe and passed from person to person and back again...I am pretty sure Joe is the swine flu culprit in the US. :) haha. Maggie wanted to leave the Easter Bunny some carrots the night before and a note.













We had easter cookies but she insisted the he liked carrots better, I am guessing this is becaue my sugar cookies are one thing she actually does like. Smart girl huh.

The kids got up and found their baskets stuffed full of candy and toys.



They were very excited and Owen was thrilled that he got peeps that matched his stuffed peep which MiMi had gotten him.











Maggie looked through her basket in true "meghan style" nice and orderly. Owen...well let's just say he probably had no clue what all he got by the time his basket was empty. Yes, he takes some things after Joe. :) And poor Josie didn't wake up until later.














But when she did she was a huge fan of pop rocks. She would walk to Joe and open her mouth for him to pour them in and then hold her mouth open so she could hear them popping.
















It was so funny. She spent a good deal of her morning stealing everyone's candy and walking off with it.


















I made the kids easter egg shaped cinnamon toast for breakfast and let them have a picnic while watching a show.











Josie had laid down for a nap since she wasn't feeling so great so I got the kids ready for church and Joe stayed home with her to let her rest up. I hated not taking her on Easter Sunday but she was really snotty and had a fever so I figured better not to infect the rest of the nursery...plus with us leaving for disney so soon the goal is to keep every one healthy!! After church I got Josie in her dress so that I could get a easter picture of the 3 of them all dressed up but as you can see from my pictures, it was a waste of my time.















They looked so cute and thankfully I had already gotten easter pictures done so I had some cute ones from there.
(This first picture is such a true description of my 3 kids)

Spring Break went sour..........

So wendnesday morning I woke up and Joe had brought Josie down to my bed as he left for work. Maggie came down a short while after and had a cup of juice with her. She climbed in bed with me and Josie said, "ahhahhha" (which of course means I want that) so Maggie gave her the cup and she tipped it back to drink. Just as she was swallowing Maggie says, "mommy, I don't feel good." I feel her head and she is BURNING up. Nice way to start the day. :) I said, "Mag, next time u feel bad tell me before you share your drink with the baby." Anyhow, I was thinking our cookie making plans with our friends were going to be shot but gave her some motrin adn within a few hours she was all perked up and ready to go. So I called Sheila and told her it was her call so they headed over to let the kids play and decorate easter cookies.












Owen ate sooo much icing during the entire cooking session I am surprised he didn't get sick. They all had fun and I enjoyed Sheila's chicken salad...which is my all time favorite! As the evening came Maggie began to crash out on me again and by bedtime her temp was up to 104. She stayed that way all day Thursday as well, which was the day Neila-Susan had her easter egg hunt/party at her house. Joe has also been sick all week so he was home Thursday so I left the girls with him and took Owen down to Neila's for the party. It was the perfect day for it as it was gorgeous outside. The kids all had so much fun hunting for eggs and there were LOTS of eggs to be found. Neila did a great job of making it lots of fun for them all. Here they are busting out the door to go hunting.


















Owen on the hunt for eggs.....









this year he actually put them in his basket and kept looking. Last year he would find one, open it, eat the candy, then continue looking.













after cracking confetti eggs on their heads...



















Here are all the kids after their hunt.












I was sooo sad Maggie (and Josie) didn't get to come. This kind of stuff is right up Maggie's alley and I hated she didn't feel well enough to go.



After the egg hunt Neila Susan told them all the easter story with the resurection eggs. Each kid got an egg and got to open it when it was their turn. Here is Owen when he got the green egg (which is one of his many favorite colors).




















And here he is intently listening to Neila tell the story. And by the way....there is nothing wrong with his face. He just wanted to wear a band aid there and told everyone it was his tatoo????

























When it came to Owen opening up the green egg he had the whip that they beat Jesus with. Neila asked what it was and Owen said, "A snake". She told him what it was and what they used it for and as she talked Owen just kept looking at it....











I wonder what was going through his little mind to hear that Jesus went through all that pain because he loved us that much!












We went back home after the party where we found that Josie had joined Maggie and Joe in being sick. She had begun running a fever as well and spent most of her evening like this....


























Joe got up and laid her on the coucn and she stayed asleep while Owen was playing in the room.













And if you have ever hear Owen play that is a pretty big deal....he has the LOUDEST car you have ever heard.

The highlight of our evening was Mimi and Jaja coming up for a few days. Owen asked all day if they were almost here yet. He was so excited when they got here and immedietly started telling them all he wanted to do. Maggie, who had not left the bed all day, got well enough to come crawl into Mimi's lap of course. Neila-Susan checked her out for me that evening and her cbc showed a major virus...and she had strep throat on top of that. So at the ripe age of 5 and a half Maggie had to get her first antibiotic! I think her track record is pretty good!
I had to work Friday so I was glad mom and dad were here to help Joe on Friday since he too was still sick. By friday morning Josie was in full blown fever and Maggie wasn't feeling much better, I hated to leave them all feeling yucky but knew they were in great hands!
I only worked a half day so I was home in the afternoon. We stayed around the house and made pizza and hung out with mom and dad. The kids all love them so much and it is so cute how they all have the things hey like to do with them individually. Maggie loves her mImi time when it's just the 2 of them, and she can always talk Jaja into playing Pets in her room with her. Owen loves playing with Jaja as well...but is pretty tight with Mimi and loves their game of "baby mousie". And even Josie already loves on both of them aside from when mom told her she had a "big tail" while changing her diaper. :) It was like she knew what she was saying and burst out in tears.
They left out Saturday after I got Josie back from the doctor. (she too had the virus and strep throat!)
Saturday was spent getting ready for Easter Bunny to hit town and making dinner....

So our spring break went bad with everyone getting sick but it was still nice just being home and doing nothing!!

Spring Break Fun

We began spring break the perfect way.......with a jammie day! It was cold outside yesterday so we just stayed in and played. Carson, Neila and baby Jackson came down in the morning and hung out with us and had some lunch. After naptime the kids were not playing so great and seemed bored so we decided to color out eggs. They had fun and it was not nearly as messy as last year and Owen only broke one this time! Josie napped through this years egg dying.











Today we decided to venutre out despite the SNOW we had. We went to All About Kids which is a really fun play gym in Louisville and met up with some friends. I kept my friends kids for her today, which are Owen and Josie's age, so they came along as well so my van was filled to the brim with kiddos.....5 under 5! The kids all had soo much fun and it was a great way for them to burn off some energy. Neila, Carson, and Jackson met us there and so did Shelia, Isaac, Nicole, and Juila. I was glad to have the extra hands to keep Josie and David from getting away! I am sure they were glad too since they would have stayed in the stroller the whole time if I had been by myself.

You can see how much fun they had.....


































this is such a neat place and my sis actually is friends with the oweners sister. This is also where Danny lynn (anna nicole's daughter) had her birthday party as they are Louisville residents now. :)

We stayed until Open Gym was over and then headed home for rest time. It came prety quickly as 4 of the 5 fell asleep on the ride home.









Owen, who usually konks right out in the car, never did fall asleep. But while they all rested I ran through the bank and got one of my errands done!! When we got home the two babies went right back to sleep while the boys played in Owen's room and Maggie had some computer time. So the day went great and although I was very tired this evening it definetly did not change my desire for more babies. :)

Owen sat down to watch a movie later in the evening and when I came in to ask if he was hungry here is how I found him......