The Burke's

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Hartley Grandkids Photo shoot 2011

My parents are in town! with my sisters!! And my sister's kids, Scarlett's cousins!!!

Yesterday we had all the grandkids together, 5 of them, for a photo shoot. Scarlett didn't smile, at all. She just looks at everyone who is trying to make her laugh like they're crazy, and acting funny. Which they are. But she doesn't smile at it.

So... Here's a group shot

And Scarlett's poses, sheesh! What a poser... But not like an Olivia or Ellia kind of poser... sigh.

They turned out pretty good! I actually didn't go, hoping Scarlett wouldn't just want me/cry/try to get Seth or I. Alicia, my older sister, didn't go either so her two kids would do better. They turned out pretty good!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Japan

I'm so sad for Japan right now. I served in Hiroshima, so my mission/friends/Japanese family were safe from this devastation, and the continual effects of the earthquake/tsunami. From my friend Sammy, who lives in Okayama

- Sammy Sadamitsu Thank you, Mama WE're OK. It happened on the otherside of Japan; far away. However, I'm unhappy about it since SO MANY people are hurt. It's even BIGGER the one I experienced. THANK YOU for praying. They all need that!!! Thank you, again.
  2 hours ago ·

Haha, he called me Mama. I was concerned!

In 2002 I went with my brothers Brian and Garrett to Japan to visit my older sister, Alicia. Alicia taught English in Japan for a year. She taught in Iwate. It's in the Sendai area. Her Japanese friends and Japanese family were not so lucky.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

I have to tell you a story.

Seth and I teach Primary. Our class is usually 4-6 girls who are 8/9 years old. Last Sunday Seth needed to stay home so I was on my own. I taught about the Sermon on the Mount... The Beatitudes, serve our enemies, the golden rule.

The lesson was going alright... I have a very difficult time keeping their attention on the lesson.They are much better behaved when Seth teaches. I also had Scarlett to entertain, usually whoever isn't teaching is on Scarlett duty. Scarlett's always difficult because she should having an afternoon nap at that moment. She was everywhere, into everything, and they all love her. So I'm pretty sure no one actually understood what I was trying to teach.

In fact, I know some girls didn't understand me. As we read about the Golden Rule in the bible, and I was explaining it to them... one girl interrupts me and says she has the most perfect example for the golden rule. This particular little lady knows Everything, I'll admit she is extremely intelligent, but she also knows she's intelligent and sometimes may feel she needs others to understand she has great knowledge.

So she goes right into her example. The room goes quiet. Scarlett is even listening. She summarizes a book on tape she read along with. It's about a Grizzly bear who kills an entire family of beavers except one little girl beaver.

The little girl beaver gets away and hides from the big grizzly bear. Girl beaver collects foliage, branches, etc to build a false ground trap, and captures the grizzly bear. And then, our sweet primary girl pauses, she says in a high pitched voice as the girl beaver, "Grizzly Bear shall die!"

It was so eerie. Evil was in the room. I'm not kidding. You needed to be there. (read the story here, it's kinda psycho.) We all just looked at her while she looked at us. She sensed the uncomfortable feeling and said "what! It's on the tape, that's exactly how she says it on the tape." Then she turns to me. "And the Beaver killed the grizzly bear. That's the perfect example. A perfect example of the golden rule."

Sigh. Nope... No one understands me. I told her that's opposite of the golden rule. Do unto others as you would want others to do to you. I told her "If you don't want to die, don't kill others. Even if they did kill your whole family.... Should we go back to the "Love your enemies" part of the lesson?"

She looked at me dumbfounded and it was time to go back to the Primary room for sharing time. Oh well.

We all know I'm no good at telling stories or explaining situations/stories, etc. very well. My grammar needs serious help - and I don't punctuate appropriately. I was excited to teach that lesson, I try to remember the golden rule every day of my life. It was really difficult for me on Sunday that I couldn't share this with 8 and 9 year olds. How did I survive my mission?

Living and learning...

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Birthday part 2

We had quite a celebration for our first child's first birthday on Saturday. It was fun to "study" fun ideas for her Dr. Seuss Thing 1 and Thing 2 theme. Here are some photos of the apartment before the party began. I found some cute Dr. Seuss quotes to put around the apartment to try to stick to the theme. Also, we got some 1 hour prints done of her photo shoot that was Thursday, and put them in our new frames around the living room mirror.

"Today you are you,
That is truer than true.
There is no one alive
who is youer than you" - Dr. Seuss

What do you do for a 1 year old's birthday? We had some Dr. Seuss word finds, and a "How many jelly beans are in this jar?" Guessing game, winner got to take the candy home (Bethany won it!).

"If you never did, you should.
these things are fun, and fun is good!" -Dr. Seuss.

We served chips/salsa, apples/oranges, and smokies wrapped in bacon.

"For Birthday Luncheons, As A Rule,
We Serve Hot Dogs, Rolled On A Spool." - Dr. Seuss

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The party was from 12:30 to 2:00... About 1:00 we opened presents. Scarlett is spoiled. She didn't care about opening the presents much in the moment, and I'm afraid she didn't react a ton in the moment either. BUT! After the party, after things had calmed down and it was just us in the room... she loved playing with everything. It was really fun to see her just go from toy to toy, or sweater, or ball, or socks... and she would just carry things around with her. She got a fun farm book that she loves looking at, and it has fun tabs in order to turn the pages... she loves books.

Grandpa and Grandma Burke mailed us an extra special book for her. It's from Hallmark, I had seen commercials for them, and have thought they're pretty neat. Well, now I know they are super neat. It's a book that you can record your voice reading it. As you turn the pages, a light sensor kicks in and reads the words on each page. Gma and Pa Burke sent us one of these spper cool books. It's called, "All the ways I love you". It's Grandpa Burke's voice, and he is so great at reading stories. Pretty much he is the best grandpa ever. He has a way with little ones I've never known before. This book is very special to us!!

"A Present! A-ha!
Now what kind shall I give...?
Why, the kind you'll remember
as long as you live!"
(Dr. Seuss' birthday bird)

After presents Scarlett gave a big thanks by clapping for a good while. It was pretty cute!

After presents we had cake. I made a 5 layer Dr. Seuss cake. I should have taken more photos! I know there are more photos a friend took, but this is the only photo I have of it right now. (Please ignore our hideous fridge.) It's a layer of Funfetti on top and 4 layers of a super yummy chocolate cake on bottom. It took a bit of time... but worked out pretty well. I like how my sister put it, "It's wonky, like the Cat's hat is". The cake is obviously homemade by an amateur!

Scarlett's Smash cake... I was attempting a thing 1 thing 2 cupcake. Aunt Heather helped me frost it. It's about 4-5 inches of blue frosting on top of a funfetti cupcake. She took her time putting bit by bit in her little mouth, and she kept eating it for almost an hour! She liked the rainbow sherbet too. After about 20 minutes of eating the cupcake she got SUPER crazy happy and goofy. She was shaking her head back and forth and up and down. Laughing and clapping. It was pretty hilarious.

"One little candle,
One little cake,
One little birthday
To Celebrate!"
(Dr. Seuss)

This morning I was changing her 2nd poo in the first few hours of waking up and it was actually GREEN-BLUE! I took a picture, but I'll spare you that image... What a party we had! I was afraid the frosting would stain her body... but it came right off in the tub.

I was exhausted once she was cleaned up and the party was over. I just wanted a nap!! But little miss was flying high and full of energy. Her sugar buzz lasted another 2 hours. Above I mentioned she played w/ all her new toys, etc... yep, for 2 hours. She loved it.

Happy Birthday Sweet Scarlett! I'm glad we could celebrate so much, it was my therapy for accepting you're not a baby anymore. I love my sweet girl!!

And thanks to all who came to help us celebrate! As the Doctor himself would say,

"Oh me, Oh my! How nice of you to stop by!"

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Scarlett turns 1 year old.

Happy Birthday Scarlett!!

I cannot believe my baby is one year old. It is fun to think back about what Seth and I were doing a year ago today. It was the best day of our life together so far.

Our little miss was born at 12:36am. Weighing in at 7 lbs and a whole 21 inches long, we were in awe at this new gift in our lives. She was such a sweet newborn.

And now our blonde, toddling daughter is a whole year old!

Scarlett loves :

**Laughing at Raja

** Snuggling with Raja

**Chasing Raja

**Playing with Raja (our cat)

** Looking at books

**Walking around with clothes on her head

**Trying to put shirts on.

**Following mom and dad around the house

**Talking to herself ... and others.

**Thing 1 and Thing 2(Dr Seuss)

**Music. Dancing to music. Directing music.

**Shaking her head no and nodding “yes”

**Clapping her hands, especially to pat-a-cake

**Giving High Fives!

**Being on dad’s shoulders

**Playing “So big” with dad in front of the mirror

**Balloons

**Playing with Cousin Preston

**”Attacking” mom or dad when they least expect it

**Being outside, and going new places – it really gets her excited to walk into a store!

** She LOVES, loves Church and Primary!!

** She gets very excited to see kids or other babies, any child she sees is her best friend.

**Raggedy Ann and her baby doll.

**Electric outlets – we really have to watch her closely in new places

**Climbing stairs

**Baby Einstein

**Yogurt and multigrain cheerios – together.

Things that don’t really fly with Scarlett:

- Brushing her teeth.

- Crawling

- The process of putting on clothes – her head is so big, it’s hard to get shirts on!!

We love discovering more about Scarlett’s personality as she learns new things. She is a happy girl, who seems to love the world around her. She is easy to laugh, Claps when she is so happy, and loses her breath in excitement. She is independent and explores, but is very logical and cautious. Well, she is getting more brave when it comes to walking. Each day she can get around faster and faster. She's growing pretty fast!

She is getting her first haircut today. And we're taking birthday photos at Fotogenix. I hope she is happy for these new big things! We are celebrating with family and friends on Saturday. But really it's just going to be a party for the rest of the week and all weekend long.

She is cute

The cutest girl ever.

Scarlett's Birthday part 1

Seth is working the weekend night shift this week, so he actually got work off for Thursday, Friday and next Monday! Scarlett's birthday... she started the day with the breakfast of champions... Multi-grain cheerios with yogurt. Mmm Mmm.

After her morning nap, she had her first hair cut appointment. My hair lady, Sarah, at Salon Graffiti cut it for us. I was nervous Scarlett wouldn't sit still enough for Sarah to cut it well, but she did pretty good. She didn't move around like crazy, but wasn't exactly still either. We cut off a few inches in the back, to make it all even with the rest of her hair that grew in after she was born. And she has very "thin" bangs, I think it looks amazing! I was pretty sad to get it cut at first, but it was time to make it all even. I'm pleased with the outcome and glad we did it. We saved most of what was cut off, to put in her baby book. Here are some before and after photos.

Late afternoon, we did a mini photo session with Fotogenix. It was a pretty good deal, we got a 30 minute shoot, they touch up the photos, and gave us a CD with about 20 photos on it with full rights to the pictures. All for $85. We bought the cupcake from Cupcake chic next door to Fotogenix, brought some balloons along for some help making the photos more birthday-ish.They look amazing. Which is Amazing... because Scarlett was Not Happy throughout the half hour!!! It was a difficult first experience for her. She cried a lot, wouldn't stay in place, just wanted to be held by Seth or I. But somehow, they gave us a CD of 26 good looking photos. A gal named Salena was our photographer, and she did awesome.

Seth then had to go to class. . . Scarlett and I ran a few errands and hung out at home before she went to sleep. It was a good day for her! I went in to look at her one last time before I went to sleep, and had to take a picture... I've never seen her sleep this way before. She was pooped!!

Scarlett turns 1 !!!