Friends Forever

This past weekend we got together with our best friends and did our annual group photos...here's what we came up with!!

I am Thankful for.............

One of the many things I love about Thanksgiving is the reminder of the many blessings I have to be thankful for! I have been blessed with an amazing husband... not a day goes by that I dont thank my lucky stars for giving me a wonderful partner and soul mate to take this long and crazy journey with...I can't imagine going through life with out him along side me. As if having a great man by my side wasn't enough, I've also been blessed with 2 of the most beautiful children...they have no idea how much they mean to me and how complete they have made my life...I can't even begin to explain how much I cherish them...from their little temper tantrums, to their goofy traits and their loving nurturing personalities, I love it all to the moon and back! I'm thankful to have been blessed with honest to goodness family/friends, I know that I can always count on them, and they will always be there for me!

We were fortunate this year to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with both of our families...Ryan and I just don't have the heart to split the holiday with our families so we run all around town but it's really worth it to us to be with our families, which we are so thankful for. We started our celebration at his Grandparents house. We arrived around Noon and had delicious turkey with a few of the fixings...we had to save room for 2 other turkey dinners. After spending an hour there we headed over to his parents house and celebrated the day with the rest of his family minus one of his brothers & his family. This year it was particularly more fun than past years, because Ryan and I brought Rockband and insisted on his dad, Brother and sister in law playing..we had a blast laughing at each other! Our evening ended at my Sisters house where my entire immediate family got together along with my sisters Husband's entire family and we had a lovely Thanksgiving feast over there. The day was eventful and full of all of Blessings! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Sleep tight in your new bed tonight!

One of the sure signs your baby isn't a baby anymore is when you move them out of their cribs and into a toddler bed! Brooklyn has learned about a month ago how to escape her crib, so Ryan and I decided for her safety that it was time to move her into a toddler bed! Although her crib converts into a toddler bed, we found a really good deal on Craigslist and decided to purchase a toddler bed from there, mostly because this new bed had rails on each side so we wouldn't have to worry about her falling out of her bed! after doing some re arraging in her room, we finally got her all set up! She really seemed to like her new bed, and the freedom it provided (yes I think we could be in trouble, because she knows how to open doors) I must admitt making this decision was a tough one for me, it meant I had to face the reality that my last baby wasn't a baby any more, and that can sometimes be hard to swallow... I wish I could bottle up time and open the lid whenever I pleased, but reality is, I can't so I have to accept things for what they are. Tonight is her first night in her new bed....We'll see after tonight how well the new bed works for her and for us!!!

Halloween Festivities

Halloween begins the many festivities of the Fall! This year we kicked it off with our annual pumpkin carving party (see prior post)That was followed by the Chatfield Pumpkin Patch, A scary walk or in some cases run through a couple of Haunted Houses, an Adult Only Halloween Costume Party and of course ended with some good old fashion trick or treating!

Ryan and I headed up to the Pumpkin Festival Sunday afternoon, They had face painting, tattoo stations, barrel rides, carnival rides, jumping castles, corn maze and of course who could forget The pumpkin patch! Brooklyn didn't appreciate it as much as Blake did, but we sort of suspected that would be the case, she's still a little too young to enjoy it the way Blake does, but she was able to participate in some of the activites geared to her age!


Blake & Brooklyn at the Pumpkin Festival

One of Ryan's co workers was able to get us some discounted tickets for 2 haunted houses, so we took advantage of the discount and invited a few friends along. We had a blast going through the haunted houses, and some of us learned that it's not safe to go with Jenny through a haunted house...just ask Kelli how her nose is and Makenzie how her face is!!! Although they weren't as scary as some of the ones we have been to in the past, they were still pretty good, and for some reason the Chain Saw always gets to me!!!

I'm not sure if Kelli is running from the chain saw or from Jenny!!

For Easter the kids had so much fun making the Easter Bunny house so when we saw WalMart had stuff to make a Cookie Haunted House we just couldnt resist! I must say the house did look pretty scary, thanks to the decorating skills of a Man, a 4 year old and a 17 month old! But they had fun and that's what counts!

Daddy, Blake and Brooklyn's Haunted Cookie House!

For the past 4 years friends of ours "The Hynes" host a Halloween Adult Costume Party...it truly is the Halloween Party of the year! We have yet to miss one, and each year is bigger and better than the year before! This year they spiced things up by adding flip cup and beer pong! This year Ryan went as a Breathalyzer, I went as a Detective, Jenny went as a French maid, Ken and Kelli were Gangsters, Mandy was a Indian and Silver was a Cowboy! Everyone had great costumes, and tons of fun! We are already thinking of ideas for costumes next year and can't wait to see what the Hynes will do next to trump this years awesome party!

Ryan the Breathalyzer and Me the Detective!!

I must admit this was the funnest year we have had taking the kids out trick or treating. Both kids were finally at a fun age to go door to door! Years past we had taken the kids to the Boo at the Zoo and the shopping malls to get candy but this year because the kids were older and the weather was nice we opted to visit the houses of relatives and friends that lived close by and then go door to door of the houses in our neighborhood! Blake had so much fun ringing the door bells, and Brooklyn made us laugh because she would just barge into peoples homes or when they would try to put candy in her bucket, she would pull it away in fear that they were trying to take her candy, so instead she would put her hand out and insist that they hand the candy to her piece by piece so that she could drop it into her own bucket. After trick or treating we came home, Ryan had to work so the kids and I made ghost sugar cookies and watched Scooby Doo Ghost stories...we had the Best Halloween yet!

The Burke Family...trick or treating

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Annual Pumpkin Carving Costume Party

Every year Ryan and I host a Pumpkin Carving Costume Party for all the kids. This tradition came about even before we had kids of our own, and has kept with us. We truly enjoy getting all of our friends and family together to carve pumpkins, snack on food and see the kids in their cute costumes. The older kids really got creative this year with their costumes, both Jeff and Rob made their own masks, which by the way scared the heck out of Brooklyn, yet she was so intrigued by them, she kept following them around and screaming (silly girl) The littler ones had some really cute costumes, Tyler was a pirate, Caleb was a clown (very fitting for his personality) Brayden was a little dragon, Blake was a Police Officer and Brooklyn was a candy corn princess. We hope to keep the tradition going for many years to come...or at least as long as the kids will appease us!!!

Wedded Bliss

Dinner at Del Friscos

On October 4th Ryan and I celebrated our 6th year Wedding Anniversary! Just when I think I couldn't love him any more than I already do,I find myself falling deeper and deeper in Love with him every day! Ryan and I made an agreement at the begining of our marriage that we would switch off every other who will make the plans for our anniversary. This year just so happened to be my turn (actually I think I pulled the short stick this year because I sort of remember planning our anniversary last year, but that's neither here nor there) Anyway My sister had given me a voucher for a free suite at a near by Hotel as well as free overnight babysitting and a good friend gave us a gift certificate for dinner at a really nice and rather expensive restuarant, so that made my planning really easy! Now I just needed to add my own little spin to the evening! On Saturday we had a kids birthday to attend earlier in the day so I sent Ryan and the kids to the birthday party, while he was gone I set out a suit for him to wear and attached a note that said "Wear Me" I put the gift card to Del Friscos Restuarant in his coat pocket along with a note telling him to meet me for dinner at 8:00 and don't be late! He arrived to the restuarant on time, with a dozen of long stem red roses! We had a great dinner followed by delicious dessert that the restuarant surprised us with and didn't charge us for! Dinner was followed by a couple games of bowling to which I must add, I beat Ryan the second game!!! Sunday morning which was our actual anniversary we woke up and had breakfast and then I took Ryan for my last surprise which was a couples massage at a great place called Spavia...I highly recommend it. We were so relaxed after our massages we were like limp noodles walking around! We ended our celebration by picking our kids up from my sisters house and going home to spend the rest of our evening with them. Because of Ryan's schedule and with our kids we don't get to spend much time alone just the two of us, I think that is what made this weekend even more special for the both of us, was getting to have some alone time together! I'm looking forward to spending the rest of my life with my wonderful Husband and Soulmate! Happy Anniversary Baby!

our delicious cheesecake


Ryan and I at the bowling alley



we were so relaxed after our massages

While the boys are away....the girls will play!!!

This past weekend was the opening season for deer hunting. Every year around this time Ryan along with his Dad and Brothers pack up to spend the weekend in the mountains doing some male bonding or "Hunting" as they like to call it. So while the boys are away......the girls will play! Although it wasn't an entire weekend with NO boys because Blake is still not old enough to go hunting just yet, I was able to send him off after his soccer game on Saturday with his Papa (My dad) to go see Thomas at the RailRoad Station in Golden! While Papa and Blake checked out trains Brooklyn, Jenny, Kelli and I had a whole afternoon doing what us girls do best...SHOPPING! We grabbed some lunch to fuel us for our shopping extravaganza and then spent the entire day at the park meadows mall, after shopping we were so exhausted that we stopped to have dinner and then went and got pedicures! We even got Brooklyn her first pedicure! Okay so it wasn't exactly a pedicure but she did get her toe nails polished! She did so good too...I was afraid she was going to polk at her toes or wiggle them, but she sat there silenty with no movement and just watched as they coated her toe nails with pretty in pink polish (Brooklyn picked the color out when we went to Ulta earlier in the day) Needless to say her little toes were adorable, and she was so well behaved as I sat there relaxing getting my much needed pedicure!
Even though we didn't do anything too wild and crazy...it was nice getting to spend some time alone with my daughter! I'm looking forward to the hunting seasons to come when Blake gets to go and spend some quality bonding time with his dad, and Brooklyn and I get to spend some quality bonding time just us girls!

Summer Fun

It's been said all good things must come to an end, so with that saying comes the end of summer. It's felt like an extremely fast season this year, in fact it hardly felt like we had a summer at all... I guess our regular hectic day to day schedules and the uncooperative weather didn't help the cause!!! Although we didn't get to do as much as we had set out to do...we still had a really fun & busy summer!
Some of the activities we did included but are not limited to a visit to the Denver Zoo, the Downtown Aquarium, Water World, Broomfield Bay, Great Plains & H2O'Brien water parks, Camping, Concert at City Park, Arapahoe County Fair, Cherry Creek Reservoir, Watching Ryan play softball, and Blake play soccer and of course we had some fun evenings just hanging out with our friends/family!

So with one chapter ending another begins! Looking forward to what Fall has to bring, and hoping it sticks around a little longer than summer did, because I am sure not looking forward to winter!

Arapahoe County Fair

Yesterday afternoon Ryan, the kids and I went to the Arapahoe County Fair. Blake was so excited kept saying he wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel, so the first thing we did was get on the Ferris Wheel! Blake was excited at first but when it got to getting on the ride he got a little nervous and scared! Brooklyn did good, however she got a little spooked once the ride actually started! After the Ferris Wheel ride we headed over to the tractor pulls to see my dad and brother do their pulls, it started to rain so they postponed the pulls for a little bit so we headed back over to the rides! Brooklyn loved the carousel, as the carousel came to a stop she would begin to pout, and then when we took her off the pony she threw a fit, screamming to the top of her lungs, needless to say we had to do the carousel 3 times! Other than the Ferris Wheel and the Carousel there wasn't much else Brooklyn could ride since she was so little, but that didn't stop Blake! He had a blast...didn't want to leave, but Ryan had to work so we left the Fair around 8:30pm. We had a great time, and hope to check out a few more local fairs!!!


Brooklyn on the Carousel

Daddy & Brooklyn at the County Fair


Crazy Blake


Papa Tractor Pulling

Shawn in line next for the Pull

4th of July

"The Crew"

This past weekend we celebrated the 4th of July camping with some of our bestest friends up in Sterling. The trip was originally planned for Memorial Day weekend but because of the bad weather it got postponed to 4th of July weekend. We all met up Friday Morning at the Flying J and then hit the road together. It was Jen, Ken, Dalacie, Mandy, Silver, David, Alina, Kelli, Richard, DJ, Leona, Ryan, Blake, Brooklyn and myself! We arrived sometime in the afternoon...the weather when we got there was hot and nice, it looked like it was going to rain, but luckily enough the storm passed us up...and we set up camp and then headed over to the lake to enjoy some boating! After boating we headed to town for dinner at Pizza Hut...I know Pizza hut on a camping trip...but it was really the best pizza any of us had ever had!!! After Pizza we went back to camp and roasted marsh mellows...for smores, (I've never seen anyone eat so many smores before but Silver sure can pack em down!) Saturday we woke up pretty early ate yummy breakfast burritos that Mandy and Silver made and then headed back down to the lake for more boating... Ryan and I put the Jet ski in the water and right after Ryan dropped me in the water....the Jet ski died...I was stuck...but luckily for me, Jen was just putting the boat in the water so I hooked on to her and she pulled me until Ken got back with the truck...Ken put me back on the trailer, and then him and Ryan looked at the Jet ski...turned out we needed new spark plugs, so Ryan and I ran to town to get them, when we got back it was time for lunch, so we had sandwiches and then put the jet ski back in the water to see how it would run after changing the spark plugs...the Jet ski worked like new...glad it was a cheap fix!!! The clouds moved back in after lunch, bringing with it some rain and wind so we decided to hang out at camp...Jen & Ken made delicious Steak Kabobs and potatoes, while we showered and changed. After dinner we headed to town to watch the firework show at the local Walmart...it was a pretty good show for a small town! After the show we stopped at Walmart to get breakfast for the morning...we had heard Sunday was going to be the best weather for the weekend. We came back to camp after the firework display and ate more smores...then headed off to bed. Sunday we woke up, and the lake was beautiful...not a ripple in sight..we all headed to the water for one last spin on the lake! We had a great time camping...Blake absolutely loved it...didn't want to go home, and Brooklyn well lets just say she's like her mama...she'll learn to like it over time!!!

June Birthday's

I guess you could say that June is a pretty busy month for us for Birthdays! First we celebrated Leona's Birthday with Dinner at Chili's followed by a night of drinking and dancing at Lodo's Downtown!


Me & Leona


The Gang @ Chili's

Leona & her brother Johnny


Leona and her man DJ

Then the following weekend we celebrated Kenny's Birthday with a BBQ at Kelli's house. We had tons of fun celebrating both birthdays...Happy Birthday Leona and Kenny!

Ken's 2 favorite people....his wife and his sister in law me!!!

Ken and his family

Playing crack the egg

Ken & His mom

Brooklyn giving Kenny a bday kiss

Fathers Day

So this year I decided I really wanted to go all out for Ryan for Fathers Day...he's such a great dad to our two kids, and he is always putting himself aside for our family.... I had bought Rockies Tickets for Fathers Day, to show Ryan how much we appreciated him! My plan was to catch lunch and then head over to the game....well the day didn't quite pan out as I had planned, I ended up waking up Sunday Morning at 6:00am with the chills, and had a fever of 101.4....I felt so bad, but all I wanted to do was sleep...I napped until about 11:30, and then forced myself out of bed to join Ryan and the kids for the Rockies game....needless to say I wasn't much fun, I was burning up, so I took Brooklyn and sat by the consession stands while Ryan and Blake watched the game....I couldn't stand it anymore so at the top of the 7th inning, we left.... we came home slept for a little while and then went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse...I felt so bad for ruining Ryan's fathers day especially since I had planned to make it extra nice for him this year... but him being the great husband and father he is....said he had a great day being with his family!



Ryan and Brooklyn at the Rockies Game on Fathers Day



Ryan and the kids outside Rockies Stadium for Fathers Day


Ryan with the present the kids and I got him for Fathers Day