Our First Family Thanksgiving

This year was the first Thanksgiving with just our little family. I still have mixed feelings about it! It was however, a REALLY fun day. It was kind of fun to be the parent instead of still being the kid. We have always attended Thanksgiving with our parents so it was kind of fun to be the one in charge this year! The best part was starting our own family traditions. Now that Levi sort of knows what is going on, it is fun to see him get all excited about the holiday season.

I tried hard to get Zack to hold the turkey so I could take a picture. This is about all I could get of the little guy. He is everywhere these days and will barely hold still for a second! So, Happy Thanksgiving!

To start off the day, the boys supported me as I ran the Turkey Trot 10k here in Mesa. I LOVE races. Dan does not get the concept of paying to run, but it is SO much fun! I love being around thousands of people excited to run. It pushes you to run further and it is so entertaining while you run to watch all the different people around you. I did not train that much so I am a little sore, but I am so glad I made myself get up and do it. Plus, I got a shirt.

Waving to my boys on the side of the road. Levi told me to "run fast momma."

It was a little chilly so as you can tell by Zack's face, he was DONE by the end.
Me sporting my sweet shirt.
I will not claim to be a master chef, so don't judge. But, I had to document my first all mine Thanksgiving dinner. The great thing was I did not have to make anything I don't like:)
Our tradition has begun of setting up our tree on the night of Thanksgiving. We had Levi watch the Polar Express before setting it up. He was so excited after when we told him we were setting our Christmas tree up. It even has bells on it! He kept handing me the ornaments and saying, "This is a cool one Mom!" Zacky loved the lights!
Here is our little tree. We are very excited for Christmas!
I finished the Thanksgiving fun off by heading to Walmart at 11pm with Jessica in my ward to hit up some of the black friday deals. What a great great day!

We have Kellie, McKay, and Emmery on their way today and we can't wait to see them! I LOVE the holidays!!

Zoo Madness

Ya we LOVE the Zoo and went today for playgroup with a bunch of people in our ward. It was a lot of fun and I know we will be back soon:) The Zebras were by far the hit of the trip, and the Stingrays.

Kylie loves to give hugs!

I have no zoom on this lens, so you can see just how close they were!
Here is an idea. We were just a little behind the cement wall.
Baby Zebra!

This fish was HUGE and kept swimming right in front of the tank. He was bigger than Levi, I swear!

Lunch break:)

Love the tongue!
Notice the bruise on his forehead. We had an accident yesterday involving him falling off the kitchen chair in his booster seat, face first into the floor. Ya, I freaked out! But, he is fine minus the bruising. Still happy boy Zack.

Safford

This past weekend we headed up to visit some friends in Safford. They used to live by us in the townhomes and we were SO sad when they moved. We finally got out to see them and loved the getaway. Thanks Kachelle and Bryan for letting us come see you guys! We will do it again soon!

Buddies. Kell kept telling Levi "It's okay don't be scared, I got you." As they watched Scooby Doo:)

Levi's obsessed with their dog. He kept trying to sneak outside in their backyard to play with her. Someday we will work on getting out own!
Cutie!

Levi feeding the ducks...notice the flying bread!
Drew pushing Zack everywhere.

Old McDonald Had A Farm

My sister Kellie gave me this great idea of an activity to do with Levi. It ended up being me who made them and Levi who played with them for the most part. He is just not at the age to handle scissors and a hot glue gun. But, they turned out to be super easy, cute, and lots of fun! Can't wait to use them at church!

My new sweet baby - Baby Boy Burkholder!

So I had to try this after I saw my sisters. My babies look the same minus the hair. What is up with the baby boy's major receeding hairline? I know it runs in the family for the guys, but Dan still has quite a bit of hair! HAHA! These things are always good for a good laugh:) Good thing both of my boys hair does not look like this!

What do you think about my little new baby Baby Boy Burkholder?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

My new sweet baby - Baby Girl Burkholder!

What do you think about my little new baby Baby Girl Burkholder?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

No, Not Mine

I got asked to take my first newborn shoot. It was a good learning experience and we got to see some sweet friends! On the way over I told Dan not to get any ideas:) Ya, I love babies and had so much fun taking pictures of one. It makes my babies seem so big. I can't help missing them being so tiny! It goes way to fast! Here are a few of many from this little sweet boy. Thanks Ashlie for letting me take part in the precious first few days with your little guy!

Two Devils In The Tub

I have not been whipping out my camera as often these days. I have been so excited about some crochet projects I have started, which I am sure some pictures will soon follow. For instance, this was the only shot I got at the Zoo on Saturday at Dan's work party....

That is pretty bad.

So I decided to take some of the boys yesterday in the tub since they were SO excited for a bath. I stuck Levi in and was getting all the necessary stuff rounded up and Zack was getting so mad that I was not putting him in too. Every time I walked away from the tub (holding him) he would get stiff as a board and yell. He loves the tub, just like his brother. Here they are enjoying the tub being the angels they usually are!

I decided to do their hair in devil horns, which didn't work out quite that great:) Since I am not one to claim that my kids are perfect angels all the time, I decided there are things I love about each stage they have gone through and things I don't so much care for. Needless to say, this is not your typical mommy brag post!

First there is this little "devil" (not really a devil, just the hair!). I love his sweet personality and his gorgeous blue eyes. I love that he is so entertained by all the things he can now explore as he is crawling and pulling himself up on everything. However, don't let that cute little smile fool you. He changes from the hours of 12pm-6am :) I am worried he is still having some major acid reflux while he sleeps. This is a morning where we were up at four this morning, so sorry if this makes NO sense! What do I do with this one?

Then there is this little devil (again not literally). He really is the sweetest kid and I love the relationship he is developing with Zack. I love that I have someone to talk to all day. And I love his laugh when he gets so excited! He is super cute. However, he has so much energy I don't know what I would do if the weather was not AMAZING at this time of year. Today for example, we did not do our usually walk and play at the park for an hour or two in the morning. I could not get him to stop trying to wrestle with Zack. So I had to distract him by taking him....OUTSIDE! He does not take naps anymore...rarely. BOO!

I am totally not serious about my kids being devils, they are really the opposite. I am just humble enough to admit that being a parent sometimes is tiring! I could not ask for better kids and I cannot ask for a better life. I LOVE my kids and I LOVE our tiring days and I would never trade them for anything!!!!

What A Few Weeks...

Some big changes have come about in the last few weeks, at least for me they have been big. For starters, I got a hearing aid. Ya, I have been rather repulsed by the idea of getting one until recently. I got curious of what I was missing out on. I was the kid that failed every hearing test in school, but didn't think it was bad enough to be the dork with the hearing aid. Now that I am a little older, and hopefully more mature, I don't view it as being anything worse than someone with glasses! The hearing doctor was shocked that I did well in school and was never held back. I feel I have done just fine with what I was given, but now knowing what I had been missing out on I realize what she was talking about. It has been a hard few weeks adjusting to the REALLY LOUD noises. However, I am now feeling that I don't notice it in most of the time, which means my brain is accepting the new sounds it has never heard before:)

The second new development, is working. I rather hate it right now, so I need to adjust my attitude. I am working at a Care Center again because that was about all I could get with my limited working experience. It will be a fight to keep my license, so for now I am just going to take it a shift at a time. I work nights so I can stay home with my kids as much as possible. It is exhausting but the only way! I trained two weekends ago and poor Dan was single parent all weekend. He did great considering he had a nursing baby! He is super husband, really. I could not ask for a more hard working and supportive guy. He always has his head on straight and keeps me in link:) So wish me luck and my family luck on this new adventure!

Had to add in my two year olds art work on the wall. When it gets quiet, you better check on him:) This was actually really weird because he usually shows me before he is about to do anything this naughty!

Zoo Again!

We made a quick Zoo trip this morning, not realizing we will be back on Saturday for a work party. But, Levi can't get enough:) I didn't take too many pictures because boys are enough to juggle. But, there were some cute places to take pictures so we might be returning to sneak some cute nine month shots and Levi's two year old pictures there.

Cute pics, with beanies:) My monkeys at the ZOO!

You Got A Friend In Me...

Between the two times I did this, here are most of the cute ones. The kids switched off being boogers while I shot. Zack now won't sit still he just crawls away, and Levi doesn't like smiling unless you bribe with candy!

Stick em up!
Levi pushing Zack's buttons while saying, "Too infinity and beyond!"


These were on Halloween:) Shorter hair!

Howdy!