Happy Birthday Jesus!

On Christmas day, McKenna and I got to spend a couple of hours with Dave at work. The weather was super nice, so we enjoyed letting McK run around at the park that is behind his fire station. We fixed her a sandwich in their kitchen for lunch and then headed home for naps. Dave brought his new present (an electric smoker) to work and was smoking 3 whole chickens for the guys that night for dinner. Their crew invited another crew over for all the good eatin'. I was happy for Dave to try out his new goodies!

The rest of our December 25th was spent playing with new toys and watching McK's new Veggie Tale DVD. After our fancy dinner of chicken nuggets, we baked Jesus his birthday cake for dessert. I love cooking/baking with McKenna. It is our new favorite thing to do together. She loves it because she knows she can enjoy the yumminess as we're baking!! It's something I know we'll enjoy together for a long time comin'!


McKenna's favorite part of baking with Mommy is the "clean up" :)


McK "painted" the cake with "frosty" after it cooled off.


She also decided Jesus' cake should have "green dots" and all 24 candles on it!


'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus! We are thankful we have a reason to celebrate!

Merry Christmas!

We continued the December festivities with taking McKenna to see Santa. We were not sure how she would do considering her experience with St. Nick last year...it was not pretty! We kept showing her pictures of her friends sitting on Santa's lap and we'd ask her if she was ready to go see Santa and she'd respond with, "No thank you, I can't!" :) I don't know what it was...but I had to at least TRY to get a picture of her this year! So with TONS of bribes...off we went.

Even when leaving the house she was still saying, "I can't!" but nothin' was gonna stop this mama! I waited in the mall's line for about 45 minutes to an hour. Dave and McKenna walked around and looked at all the stores' Christmas decorations. They also watched a lot of boys and girls take their turn sitting with Santa...I think this was the key to victory this year! One by one, she saw them sit, smile, and get a candy cane! BINGO!!! When it was our turn, our big girl walked up to the chair, sat on Santa's lap, smiled, and then held out her hand to receive her reward! WE WERE SO HAPPY!!!!!...and RELIEVED!!!! Whew! Now, Mama could check that off her list ;o)


All dolled up ready to see Santa! McKenna showed off her sassiness while waiting in line. She had the others waiting cracking up!

Happy being with Daddy and happy being with Santa!

To pack in some more Christmas fun, we headed down to St. Augustine to enjoy more Christmas lights. We talked our good friends into coming with us and we all had a blast.

McK thought she was hot stuff sitting in Santa's chair. In FL we don't have snow, but we have snowmen that blow bubbles! McKenna and her buddies, Josh & Brielle, enjoy being together. They were very excited about riding the train to see the lights!


We got cool glasses to make the lights extra sparkly! After the train ride we headed in to "Santa's Workshop" for some karaoke and to make some ornaments!

Dave had to work at the firehouse Christmas Day, so the Burke family woke up Dec. 24th and celebrated Christmas morning together.
Everything was ready and waiting!


Some of the highlighted gifts of the morning!!!


McKenna isn't the only one that has enjoyed her presents!

Burke Family "Christmas morning" 2010!

We enjoyed our church's Christmas Eve service that night. We then headed over to our friends' house, Mark and Lauren Baughman, where we enjoyed sweet time with friends and yummy treats!

Enjoying December!

We have really been enjoying the season that December brings here in the Burke house! It has been so much fun celebrating all of the Christmas festivities with McKenna this year. She is old enough and aware enough to understand so much more! Everything from decorating the tree, looking at lights, and reading books have new meanings now.

Her new found "love" is Christmas lights. They make her SO HAPPY! There are 2 neighborhoods that REALLY participate in creating their houses into a Winter Wonderland nearby, so of course we had to go show McKenna. Dave and I have gone every year since we've been married, and obviously McK went with us last year, but this year took on a whole new look. We bundled up, rolled down the windows, turned on the Christmas music, turned off the car lights, and crept through the streets looking at each house. McKenna was so happy. She would say, "That one is my favorite!" and "This is so special!" Dave and I loved watching her point out her window and listen to her gasps of excitement! When we headed home she kept saying, "I want to see MORE lights please!" I have a feeling we'll head out to see them again before Christmas!


Yup! That's McK in shorts and a t-shirt decorating the Christmas tree! Ha! We decorated the day before Thanksgiving when the weather was down-right-HOT! It was very odd to hear the air conditioning kick on while listening to Christmas jingles and decorating the tree, but that's FL for ya! McKenna ooohhh'd and awwww'd as Dave and I put the tree up. She "helped" a little, but really enjoyed watching. She did put on the very first ornament and was oh-so-proud! She also helped me arrange our Nativity scene on the table. We talked about how Christmas is the time we celebrate baby Jesus's birthday, and she really seemed to follow along. At night we've been singing Happy Birthday Jesus before bedtime and she's all about spotting baby Jesus in the Nativities in people's yards!

One first for McKenna and me was baking cookies! I never bake, but one evening had a sweet treat craving. I rummaged in the pantry to find some cooking oats and there was a recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies on the box! We had all the ingredients, so off we went!
McKenna LOVED helping...and she actually did quite well. I tried not to hover or take over everything and she only spilled 1 cup of oats on the floor ONCE :o) She was super proud of her cooking. After each ingredient she dumped into the mixing bowl, she'd say, "OK, what else?". Too cute. Since our cookie extravaganza we have made Badgett Family Wassail and she also helped me with a crock-pot dinner! She's a natural in the kitchen!


The best part, obviously, is licking the spatula! She sat and watched the cookies bake and kept asking, "Done yet Mom?" Finally she was able to sit and enjoy her masterpiece. Dave was a good helper too :) It did take both of us to get the kitchen put back together, but I just caught Dave sweeping up the spilled oats! Ha!


The weather definitely changed and it is now COLD here in Jacksonville. I'm not talking like 50s cold...I'm talking below freezing temps at night and 30s/40s during the day! BRRRR! So we have busted out the flannel and fleece pjs and cranked the heat up in the house. It's nice though, it makes it feel like December should feel!!! Before bedtime one evening I had a little photoshoot with McKenna. She was cracking me up with her silly poses and cheesy smiles. She's a hoot and is not shy in front of the camera :)

I've also enjoyed some "crafting" with McK this season. I got together with 3 other moms to make these fun Hand-print Tree shirts. My friend, Stephanie, is so good to share crafty ideas with me and this was one of them. I had made a Hand-print Turkey shirt for McK for Thanksgiving, so we had to have one for Christmas too. I just love doing projects with McKenna's hands and feet...just so sweet. We also made Angels to send to the grandparents out of McK's hands and they were a big hit too.

Next year will be even more different and more fun than this one, and that's hard to believe. We'll have one more precious, little girl to include in our Burke family Christmas fun. Christmas is almost here! There are many more memories to be made!

The man of the house!

Dave turned a whopping 31 years old this month! Our celebrating consisted of a homemade BBQ pulled pork dinner and cake with Dave's best friend, Chad, and his wife Dana.

Dave got a book, cordless drill, and a gift-card to AutoZone. We towed Dave's 1968 VW beetle back with us from TN, and he is itching to get started on restoring it. The most fun present, in my opinion, that Dave got was to feel our baby girl move!!! It was her way of saying, "Happy Birthday Daddy! I'll see you soon!" I have been able to feel the baby move for WEEKS! I've been dying for Dave to be able to feel her, but she decided to wait to send her own Happy Birthday greeting for herself on his special day.

What a fun reminder that our family is growing and changing! Happy Birthday babe...us Burke girls couldn't be more blessed to have you as the main man in our lives! We love you and are thankful and proud of all the hard work you do for our family. You are the BEST!

Turkey Day 2010

This year Thanksgiving was a little different for the Burke family. Dave had to work at the Fire Station on Thanksgiving day so we stayed in Jacksonville instead of heading to TN or OK to be with extended family.

My sweet friend (whom I met while teaching - she was my mentor and is now my bestie) Kim and her family opened their home to us Burke girls for a delicious meal! We are so blessed to have friends here in Jax that serve as our family.

Kim is a fabulous cook and outdid herself on the meal. Kyle (who is also a Firefighter) did a swell job carving the turkey, and Kim made FIVE pies for dessert that were to die for.

McKenna is crazy about Kim's kids. They are all so sweet to play with her and include her. Grandma Joan and Kaileigh set a beautiful table. It was such a good day, and even though our little Burke family wasn't all together, being with the Kirton family still made it feel like Thanksgiving!

We took off for TN the morning after Thanksgiving when Dave got home from work. We were excited to leave the 80 degree weather we had on Turkey Day and trade it in for some Fall/Winter temperatures! Cleveland did not disappoint :) Dave's parents had the fire blazing for us when we arrived. McK was SUCH a good traveler, we made it in record time!


We had our big family day on Sunday after church. Amy, Chris and the 4 kids came over for the afternoon. It was so good being together. We let the kids open presents since we won't be back for Christmas and we even got to see Matilda play a basketball game!


Dave really wanted McK to see some mountains so we headed up to the White Water Center to take in the view. It was COLD, but it was super nice being in the hills of TN. Dave and I took a picture together at the White Water Center when we were dating and got to recapture the pose this trip...boy do we look different :o)

Gran is so good to explore with McKenna.

Taking in the sites! Beautiful!

Now...it's on to Christmas!