Off to WV

We made it to West Virginia Wednesday evening after stopping at the outlets in Jeffersonville and shopping a little. We visited my grandparents and other family and friends while in. My aunt and uncle that live next door to my parents were out of town while we were in so we slept at their house. Maggie had her first sleep over at her MiMi and Granddad's house and got to stay up till midnight one night!! It was a great set-up since I would just call my dad when Owen woke up and he could come and get them and since they already had Maggie we went back to bed. I actualy slept in till 11 one day. That hasn't happened for along time! Joe and I went out while there to see "Fun with Dick and Jane". It was pretty funny. We're leaving WV Saturday and from there going to Indianapolis to meet our friends from Kentucky for New Years.

Visit to Ohio

We headed off monday evening to Ohio and arrived there sometime around midnight. Tuesday several of Joe's high school friends came and visited for awhile and then Joe and his brothers took maggie swimming. She had so much fun swimming and getting pulled around the pool.



















































We celebrated Christmas that evening with Joe's family and then visited his grandparents before leaving and heading off to West Virginia. His grandparents were glad to see the kids and we didn't think to get a picture while there, but there were 4 generations from Joe's grandpa to Owen. Here is a picture of the 1st and 4th generation of burke boys! (or men:)

PRESENTS!!

Christmas morning was so much fun, Maggie is not a morning person so we woke her up about 8 and at first she was not really thrilled about being up and having 12 people starring at her as she walked down the hall. But once she saw the room full of gifts she quickly cheered up. She had so much fun opening gifts and lucked out because she got to open owen's also. He just enjoyed the room full of people and being held! After all the gifts had been opened we all headed to church and then home for a big meal. Maggie enjoyed her afternoon playing with all her new toys, her favorites being her graco stroller and her dora house. I gathered up a load of other toys and put them up for now and figure I will unload the new ones when we get to Germany. Christmas night Joe and I got to get a night out with Amanda and Tres and went to see the Chronicles of Narnia movie. My night got cut short when I got a migraine headache about 30 minutes into the movie. Monday morning everyone left and Joe and I were getting everything packed to head out to Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky for the week. We were about 20 minutes shy of leaving and we got a call from a couple wanting to look at our house that afternoon. We told them sure and began cleaning like crazy. We had just had 12 people at our house all weekend along with all the christmas gifts everywhere but after several hours the house looked totally in order adn clutter free. It may have been alot of work for nothing but they said they would call and let us know. Anyhow, we are heading out now to visit everyone. Good thing we got Maggie a dvd player for the car, otherwise this would be a long trip for us.

Christmas Eve

So I am catching up a little bit since we have been gone for what seems like forever. Maggie and Owen got a great surprise on Chrismtas Eve when Santa came to deliver a gift to them in person!! maggie was a little stand offish at first until she realized he had a gift for her and then she sat on his lap and warmed up to him some. Mom, Dad, Joe's parents and brothers and amanda and tres all came up to our house for Christmas eve and day so that was lots of fun. Maggie had a blast hanging out with her aunt and uncles.

COOKIE MAKING!

Tonight Joe, Maggie and I decided to make Christmas cookies. Maggie had a blast, I just gave her several bowls of icing and let her go to town. Her cookies were all a tie-dyed color. She ate enough dough to make about 4 cookies while were were cutting them out, and then probably 4 more while icing them so she is pretty much wired now. Joe also let his cookie icing ability come out and was rather proud of his two, so much that we decided to put them up on the blog for all to see. I will finish up cookie making tommorow or friday while Maggie is napping since it is more of a cleaning job then cooking job with her.

Christmas Program

Tonight was our Christmas program at church and the first year that the kids in the nursery have been included. The lady who heads up the nursery decided to have the little ones be a part of the night and so we loaded them all up in wagons and pulled them to the front while music played. They were really cute, Maggie waved at everyone as if she was in a beauty pagent or something!! And owen got comfy in his wagon with two other little girls and just smiled and checked out all the people. So it wasn't really a big deal but the the parents thought it was cute. Here are a few picures of their big debut!

Ready for Christmas

Well, the house is all ready for Christmas and pretty much all of my gifts are wrapped. I have put some of them under the tree and this far Maggie hasn't gotten into them, she eyes them but joe told her they were mine so she just says momma's prizes. Owen got his first and pretty much only major gift this weekend. We got him a jumperoo and went ahead and sat it up for him. He loves it! He spent most of his day in it while we cleaned house. We put our house up on the market friday and so far no calls, we are going to attempt to sell it ourselves so we don't have to pay a realtor some outrageous amount. So if any of you know of someone who wants to move to Illinois in a great neighborhood send them our way!!

Snowy Day

I woke up about 6:30 this morning as Joe was leaving and saw it was snowing so I decided to not make my appointment and got back into bed. The kids and I all slept until a little before 9 so that was nice. I had my carpets cleaned today and Maggie was so funny with the men that came. She talked to them the entire time and Owen smiled everytime they went by him with the vacuum. It was too cute. Joe just got in from work so I think i am going to head out adn finish up some Christmas shopping so i can get everything wrapped this weekend. Here are some pictues I took of the kids today. The one of owen "eating" his toes is from our trip to Germany. He spends most of his time with his feet in his mouth it seems!

Germany Bound

So I have been trying to recover from our trip and the time difference but Owen hasn't let me catch up on much sleep. We decided that we are going to take the job in Germany and our starting day is February 1st. Although we will not be moving there until mid march or april. So technically we won't have to live there even 2 years. I finally got my christmas cards sent out today, yes, with all the pictures. For those of you who know my picture obsession...I think I got my kids picture taken this year for christmas 3 times in a studio and twice at home...then touched it up with shutterfly! I was pleased to see that Germany had many photo studios. So get ready, we may be across the ocean but the pictures will keep coming! :) We met with a realtor tonight and have another coming tommorow so we hope our house will be on the market by friday. I am even more sad to sell this house than our first one...which i never thought would happen. i guess it's because this is where we first brought our kids home to, maggie did everything here for the first time. We thought about renting it out and then if we come back here we could move back in but since we're hoping to get moved closer to family we decided against it. But if we do get brought back to Peoria we'll definetly move back into this neighborhood....since we have the best neighbors here!! (to be more precise....across the street!) We're getting excited for Christmas this year. Everyone is coming up for Christmas Eve and day to our house (both sets of grandparents and aunt and uncles) We'll have a full house, but maggie will love it and to make sleeping arrangments easier the grandparents are gonna get a hotel right down the street. We are then going to leave monday to head to Ohio for a few days and then to Wva to visit family and friends. I am pretty much done with maggie for chrsitmas, but was totally annoyed last night when I got an email saying the kitchen i ordered her for chrsitmas was out of stock. I ordered it 3 weeks ago and had looked into it so i knew i was getting a good one..well it obviously is the best becasue no one has it in stock, not even little tykes who makes it. So i am hoping it gets in stock before christmas so I can get it for her but if not I will just get it afterwards sometime. Well, off to bed now. I have a early appt. tommorow and need some rest if I am going to be out of here by 8.

Home Sweet Home

We arrived safely back in Peoria yesterday evening about 5:30 or so despite the snow. It was a pretty tough landing and I was scared to death, especially after the captain comes on to tell us we are getting close and that it is very snowy in peoria so we are about to "attempt" our landing. Now what kind of wording is that for a pilot to use when he has you 20 miles up in the air? I wanted to go up and ask what exactly happens if our attempt fails??? Anyhow, we did make it to ground safe so that is what is important. Owen did great again on the trip home.He slept about the entire way and enjoyed a bit of listening to music on his earphones. :) Maggie was so surprised and excited when we got in last night. She hugged me over and over, it was too sweet. Somewhere between Hamburg, Germany and Peoria our luggage got lost so we woke up this morning before six to a phone call from the airport saying they were on there way to our home with our luggage they had found. Early morning but good news to hear that!! I fed Owen around 7 and went back to sleep until 1 this afternoon. With mom and my aunt patti k here life is so much easier!! I am trying to convince them to stay..but i am sure dad and jim would have something to say about that. Well, i am going to try to get some sleep, just thougth i would check in to say we are all well and safe.

Everythings smaller in Germany

Okay, so here is the biggest thing i have found here in germany....EVERYTHING is smaller than in the US. The cars, homes, stores, food items, portions at restaurants, cups you drink from, streets, etc. Which needless to say means that the people here are also much smaller than in the states. :) I have yet to see an overweight person here. Guess they are not really big on MCDonalds. We saw another house today that was more american like than any other. It was in a neighborhood which had "play streets" meaning you have to drive like 5 mph down b/c there are lots of little kids on it. We see one more tommorow and then go to the shopping area awhile then head to hamburg for the night before flying out thursay morning. (wednesday night your time). So i had a sad moment tonight after talking to my mom. NO, maggie is still not missing me, but that is fine. Everynight when i get ready to put her to bed she says, "daddy rock O (owen), momma rock maggie" well, mom said last night she was going to bed and she said to mom, "mimi rock maggie, momma rock O" so i am sure she meant nothing by it, but to her mom it felt as though she thinks i ditched her for Owen. I know, i know, 2 year old minds don't work that way....but I can't hardley get home to her soon enough. Well, i am going to get off her now and head to bed.... Oh yeah, we went to the grocery store to day, which is what i was really worried about and it was no big deal at all. Tons of the same products and I easily found everything I wanted there. Including maggie's cottage cheese adn crushed pinapple (even dole brand). So if we do this at least i know we won't starve. :) Goodnight!

Day 2 in Germany

Okay, so last night was totally horrible. Owen didn't fall asleep soundly until about 6 am here. And we got picked up by the lady showing us homes at about 10. So we got maybe 2 hours of sleep last night. We looked at about 4 homes today and I must say that american houseing is a million times better than over here. The homes here are small and built up instad of out. Most homes have bout 3 floors and are really pretty inside, very contemporary, but tiny. The funny thing is we are being shown homes that are priced at the equivelent of 500,000 and up american dollars...yet they are barley half the size of our home in Illinois. Two homes we looked at were right on the beach adn had a great view. but we figure they would be so busy in the warmer months with people out and about we wouldn't like that. So far the house looking has not been a sucess. Our realtor lady was also qutie interesting. She is German but lived in peoria for about 5 years and drove a stick shift in germany about as well as I would. (I cannot drive a stick shift) Germany has weird driving rules too, they drive on the same side of the road as us and all, but like left can alwasy turn before right. meaning if your at a 4 way the person turning left can always go before the person turning right....so no right away here. No right on red either. And, if you run a red light they take your licnse away. Anyhow, Owen has slept alot again today so I am expecting the worse for tonight. Hopefully he will sleep some so we can. I am not wanting to get him totally sleeping at night ehre though since we come back home in 2 days. He has gotten a bit of a cold/cough and I was sure he had somehow contracted whooping cough on the way here, but he has since recovered and only has a snotty nose now. Well, that is all that is going on here. The only thing in english on tv is cnn adn msnbc so i have been able to keep up on usa news....haha, like that is something I regularly do!! No GH here, so mom you would be happy that I would kick that habit. WEll, i am off to hopefully get some sleep. i have tried to talk to maggie everyday since I have been gone but she's too busy playing or making cookies with mimi and PK to talk to me. Joe and I have offered them a full time nanny position!! :) I miss her so so much and cannot wait to get home to see her, I am so happy she is not sad but I am sure she will be happy to see us when we get home. Well, I may update you all tommmorow sometime. Sorry this is so long....I'm tierd so I am just sort of rambling I guess.

Greetings from Germany

Hello!! Joe, Owen, and I arrived here in Kiel Germany at around noon today. That is about 4 am to you all back in the states. It was a long trip but Owen did great. He slept almost the entire 16 or so hour trip. (not all in a plane) It is currently 1 am here adn we are all 3 wide awake. Joe and I have looked everywhere for something to eat, since at home it's dinner time. but everything here shuts down around 8 or so and most things are even open at all on sundays. So, we resorted to the mini bar and busted out a bag of peanuts and a bottle coke. I guess that will hold us until breakfast. The town here is really nice, lots of really cool shopping. It looks basicallly like anywhere else that I have lived...aside from alot of windmills everywhere. And I must say the autoban experiece in a taxi was one I never hope to relive again!! But all in all so far so good. And as for my little Maggie, I guess she is none the worse off for my absence. Live is good with her MiMi and Patti K. In fact, she told me today she couldn't talk she was playing. So I am glad to hear that she hasn't missed me. It makes my trip go much more smoothly for me. Okay, well i am exhausted and even though i for some reason cannot sleep I am going to go attempt to nurse my baby to sleep and get some shut eye myself. WE have a big house hunting day tommorow. Miss you all!!

Swinging

Here are some pics of maggie in her new favoite place to hang out.....Owen's swing. I am thinking 30 pounds is a little much for an infant swing...but she hasn't come crashing down yet. :)





















Maggie was playing with Owen today and it was so cute. She was playing songs for him on thier leapfrog, Tad.

picture day

okay, so we went and did our christmas pics last night. here are a few for you to see. i will post more later. i am typing this while holding owen so it is making it a little difficult.

Thanksgiving!

Well, our thanksgiving day turned out pretty good. I decided that even though it was just going to be the 4 of us, we would have thanksgiving dinner anyhow. So I made a turkey, homemade rolls, and everything else that goes with it and it turned out great. We put our christmas tree up that evening and Maggie had a blast doing that. Joe then got the idea to dress up in his Santa costume and come upstairs and surprise Maggie. Well, that he did...she was practically shaking she was so scared. He held Owen for a picture and then chased a screaming Maggie down and held her. He pulled off all his santa garb to show her it was him and then she thought it was funny. So anyhow, I am hoping when I take her to see the "real" santa and she finally sits on his lap (we have gone there 4 times now)that she doesn't rip off his beard looking for Joe. The day after Thanksgiving, I for some reason, decided to get up at 4 am and go shopping. So I fed Owen, and headed out thinking for sure I would beat the crowd and get the door busters I was after. Well, after getting to Walmart, Kohls and Toys R Us like 3 minutes after opening I realized everyone else must have gotten up at 3 30. I still have yet to figure out how you can get to the store 3 minutes after they open and they have already sold out of their door busters. Anyhow, I shopped until about 11 or so and came on home. I did manage to get a few of the things I had been after, and the shopping alone time was great. We sat Maggie's gifts downstairs and forgot about them, so that evening she and joe came downstairs and she went crazy when she saw her Dora talking house sitting in the floor. He quickly moved her upstaiars and put it away but she saw it on TV today and went running to the room where she saw it. So hopefully she will forget about it by christmas. Saturday the whole family decided it would be a good idea to all go shopping together. I am not quite sure what we were thinking...but anyhow it turned out as most of our family outings do....the kids crying and Joe and I annoyed at why we attempted to take out our small children so close to their naptimes. We left the mall and hopped in the car so I could feed Owen a bit before going home. Maggie sat on Joe's lap playing and then we proceeded to put her in her carseat. She wanted to strap herself in and when Joe helped her it put her over the edge. She threw the most incredible fit I have ever seen in my entire life. It is amazing the strength of a 2 year old when they are mad. I was forcing all my weight onto her to try to get her in her car seat and she was winning. So I am standing by our car swatting her leg (for those of you non-spankers, yes I do spank my kids, well not Owen!, when I feel it's needed) trying to get her to cooperate and all that is running through my mind is the lady a few years back who got caught on tape hitting her kid in a walmart parking lot and got her daughter taken away from her. Yes, I know the situations were quite different and no I was not beating my child......but I had those flashes going through my mind just sure that someone was writing down my licence plate and turning me into social servies. Anyhow, we got her into her seat and she screamed the entire way home until falling aslelep the second I laid her in her bed. So Joe is back to work tommorow, and the kids and I getting us packed for our trip to Germany this coming weekend.

Cooking with mommy

I decided to let maggie help me make dinner this evening. It went pretty well, aside form the fact that we are making lasagna and she was trying to put bananas in it. After dinner, I told her we were going to make cookies and she could help me. We decided to make peanut butter with hershey kisses, since they are Joe's favorite. She helped add all the ingredients and stir, but after the 500th time of telling her to quit eating the cookie dough, I decided to give her the job of unwrapping the hershey kisses. I finished the dough and put them all out on the sheet, and went to get the kisses. I found maggie with about 15 hershey kisses around her, most of them with the pointed top bitten off. She had taken a bit of nearly every single one as she unwrapped them. It was so funny, and she thought it was too. Anyhow, here are a few pics of her and her kisses. I don't know if you can tell that they are only about half a kiss. Owen is doing well and gaining some weight this week. So that is good news. We are heading out tommorow morning to shop a little and get out of the house. Joe is on vacation all this week so that has been nice having him home all day long to play with the kids too.

Cleaning House

Well, we haven't been up to much this past week. Joe has been painting the house, and I have been trying to clean out some. We were supposed to leave today to go to WV and OH for Thanksgiving but Owen decided to change our plans on wednesday. I took him in to the Dr. to check his weight b/c he hasn't been gaining so well, and he hadn't gained any weight in a week. So, we were a little concerned and felt it would be better to let him stay home this week and in his regular routine. Especially since we leave the first of december to go to Germany for a week. I rented a scale to keep track of how much he takes in at each nursing session, and he has gained about 4-5 oz. in 4 days so far. So he has done alot better but it's been a tiering week for me. (pumping, feeding, weighing before and after every nursing session) Anyhow, things are looking up for him so that is good news. Maggie and Owen have been really good this week, Maggie has played quite a bit by herself in her room. I was in the kitchen the other day and found her in her room having a tea party with the cookie monster that she got for her birthday from amanda and tres. It was too cute. I asked her what they were eating and she told me cookies and tea. Here are a few pictures from this week. Owen is really into his toes latley. It's really cute. He may not be gaining a ton, but it hasn't dampened his sprits any. He is as happy as ever!!