Happy Birthday Maddox and Emerson!

My sweet Maddox,

Happy 3rd birthday, Madman!! We are so excited you have been with us for three years now and can't wait to see what this upcoming year holds for our littlest blessing!  I absolutely love your laugh.  I love your sweet personality when you will try to tell a joke or get involved in the conversation and interject your laugh in at just the right moment.  I love your sweet smile.  I love your kissable cheeks and the way your cheeks move up and down when you run.  By the way, your run is about the cutest thing I have ever seen!  You love running with mommy (for about a minute or two) and then you request to be held.  I love your sharing spirit.  Your brother will ask you for a toy you just opened for your birthday and you will quickly and willingly hand it over without any further discussion.  I love how you call Zander "brother".  You will say "here brother" as you hand him whatever he has requested.  I also love our bedtime routine.  You will pick out a book and we will read it together.  Then, you select the stuffed animals you will cuddle with for the night.  Afterwards, you turn off your light and we go to your toddler bed.  You will say "cuddle mommy" and we cram into that little bed.  We will say prayers (you say the "God our Father" prayer so well and finish it with "In Jesus Name We Pray, Amen").  Then, we will sing songs.  Your favorite right now is "The Wheels on the Bus".  You like when we add family members into the song (ex: "Mommy on the bus goes up and down" and when we suggest things that can't fit on the bus you quickly say "That doesn't go on the bus" (followed with your sweet laugh).  You are working on saying your "ABCs" (some of the ones in the middle get jumbled up sometimes) and counting to 20 (and some of the teens get jumbled up as well)!  You have tried all week to show you are "three" with your fingers.  You will use your other hand to put your pinkie under your thumb.  You are starting to enjoy coloring and are beginning to make circles (or "potatoes" as you call them) on paper.  There are so many reasons we are glad you are in our family.  The truth is I couldn't imagine our lives without your rough and tumble self.  I couldn't imagine not having my cuddle bug at the end of the day. I couldn't imagine not hearing your voice call out to me to get you up in the morning (even though you could get out of your bed yourself).  We love you so much and are so thankful you are ours!  Happy Birthday Maddox!

Love, 

Mommy

 We celebrated Maddox and Emerson's birthdays on Saturday.  Due to the soggy weather conditions, we moved the party from the park to my school's gym and cafeteria.  The kids had a blast running around and the adults enjoyed staying warm and dry!

With the cousins having birthdays two weeks apart, Linds and I decided to have a joint party this year.  We used a barnyard theme and Coley made two delicious cakes for our birthday kids!  Linds and I had fun planning together, and I think the cousins had a blast!

Also, since I am behind.... here are some additional pictures from the last couple weeks.... 

Grammy and Grandpa help us so much with the boys in the afternoons (especially when mommy is working late and daddy is out of town).  Zack was gone all last week for a work trip.  We are glad he won't be traveling anymore for work in 2018!

We had the fall festival at my school last Friday night.  We had fun playing games and taking a hay ride around the property.  Maddox even helped me hand out tickets (I might have bribed him with some yummy sweet treats)!

 The Whites came to visit last Saturday night.  Miss Sophie loves our Burke!

Just for a laugh... here are the Bakewell girls, Kennedy girl and Houston boys in the bathtub.... we might all be related ;)

 Zander got a bow tie behavior on Tuesday! He has worked so hard to use self control and show kindness to his friends.  We are so proud of our boy who is making good decisions in kindergarten.  We went to McDonalds for some ice cream to celebrate!

 The boys helped me shop for fruit for the birthday party!  Such big helpers!

Fall Fun!

We have been very busy over the last couple weeks.... and we are finally starting to feel some fall temperatures!  Here are some of our favorite moments over the last two weeks....

Our Sunday School teacher sent us this first picture of Maddox and some of his friends playing at church while we were in the service!

 Zander had picture day at school.... this is one of his new friends, Mia!

Maddox had the annual trike-a-thon at preschool so Grammy and Grandpa went to take pictures of our biker boy!

 Maddox's teacher sent me this picture one afternoon!

We went to our local fair.... we had a blast seeing the animals, eating yummy food and riding a few rides!

We celebrated Uncle Boomer's birthday.  When we got to the restaurant, he was waiting at the bar!  The boys wanted to join him! haha

We had skate night for our elementary school... Maddox tried skating for the first time and Zander got to skate with one of his new friends, Lana.

Hurricane Michael came through this past week.  It knocked out our power for about 7 hours and we had to close school on Friday since many of the schools (including ours) were still without power.  The boys enjoyed a day off with mommy..... we cleaned up a bit, played inside and outside and Zander helped me make dinner!

Today we went to the corn maze! We loved going last year and it was even more fun this year since Maddox was able to do a few more things!  I didn't carry a diaper bag at all.... which was pretty fantastic as well!  We rode the cow train (not a favorite of Maddox's yet), let the boys lead us through the corn maze (and we got out!), Zander did the kid zipline, we jumped on the jumping pillows, ate yummy food (including apple donuts), played in the play area, rode a tractor train, and finished off the day picking out our annual pumpkin!! We are excited to carve it in a couple weeks!