Kaila's First Birthday!

Its been over a year since my last entry but I figured I've got to start somewhere. Maybe someday I will be able to get caught up on this past year (who am i kidding?) but for now I will jump right in and start my first journal entry since Kaila has been born...now that she is one year old!! Words cannot express how much joy this little girl has brought to our home. She is an absolute treasure - easy, happy, content little angel. Chris bought me a new camera for Christmas which I love but I haven't been great at transferring photos onto my laptop so I'm sorry that i don't have any pictures to share just yet, but I do have a video of Kaila enjoying her birthday cake.

Kaila is getting more adorable by the day. She is saying several words now, among her favorites are:

Dada
Mama
Car
Bye-bye
uh-oh
Kaila
all done
Nana (banana)

She loves to:
crawl up the stairs
play on her sand table
clap her hands
blow kisses
play peek a boo
get tickled
go for walks
eat fruit -like berries and melon, and will try anything you put in front of her. she really loves sushi - esp. seared salmon on rice
look at animals at the zoo - especially jellyfish, and other sea creatures. she also loves to look at dogs
smile really big with her 6 teeth
laugh and play with her Koya Cade - so hard sometimes that she topples over
talk like pebbles flintstone - her little voice is very breathy and sweet.
reading her Sesame Street "bubbles bubbles" book with Apu
shaking her head really fast from side to side to bounce her little curly mullet
have her face and hair blown on by people
interact with strangers....she is constantly trying to get people's attention and will pull out ALL her tricks to get anyone to acknowledge her
and most of all....she wants to be everywhere her Koya Cade wants to be...playing with his trains, and cars, sitting next to him in a stroller or grocery cart. The look on her face is pure delight and adoration.

More pics of her first birthday to follow...i will sign off now with a link to a video of Kaila enjoying her birthday cake! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCKNMKxwXIY

Dad's Annual Bday Weekend

For the last several years our family has had the tradition of not buying eachother Christmas gifts, and instead, we take off for my dad's birthday weekend and rent a house. We usually go up to the mountain and get a cozy cabin, and go skiing or tubing, but this time we decided to go the coast and make it CRAB FEST 2010! And that it was. We went on lots of walks, had delicious clam chowder, explored down town Astoria, tooled around Seaside, played some poker, and played lots of WII. Taking vacations with your family is probably the most relaxing way to travel. Though we always tell my Mom that we (meaning the kids) are going to do all the cooking, inevitably, Mom cooks up a storm all weekend long - including her famous plate-sized drowned-in-butter pancakes, bacon and fried eggs every morning for breakfast, and a bottomless bowl of lumpia (eggrolls) making appearances throughout the afternoon and evening. It was crazy.

Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!

Mom and Dad


Jeremy, Dad, and Jonathon

All the girls + Lionel (Mom, Me, Hannah (niece), Pam, Kathy, Lucy (the pug)

Cade exploring the beach

Sisters!

Sisters jumping!

Our little, and growing, family
Cade, Chris, Eileen, Hannah, Jonathon, Pam, Mom, Dad, Kathy, Jeremy, Lionel, and Lucy. If only my brother Mike and Logi could have been with us, but they were there in spirit!

Tutus, Tiaras, and Tea Parties...

We are having a baby girl!! We are so excited. Here are a few pics from our ultrasound this week.

Little darling was playing with her hands and swimming around alot. What else is there to do in a dark little baby condo? I imagine there's probably not much else to do down there, except for maybe kick me every so often and mostly when I'm finally sitting down and relaxed :)

Here are pics of her tiny feet...

I honestly didn't have a preference for gender, BUT, I did have a secret hope that this next one would be a girl, I will admit.

Some of the many things I'm looking forward to in the near future:

1. Cable knit tights, cute dresses, hair ribbons, and pony tails

2. Tutus, leotards, and ballet slippers

3. Tea parties, princesses, butterfly/fairy/angel wings

and looking forward to later:

1. Shopping and ice cream sundaes after a break-up

2. Manicures, lunches, watching plays and shows while the boys are watching football

3. Helping her buy a wedding dress and watching her walk down the aisle with her daddy, who will of course be crazy about her and whom she will have had wrapped around her little finger from day one. Sigh.

We are beyond blessed, and thrilled to meet this little angel. She is making her grand debut in early July. In the meantime, we are getting the nest ready to receive our little baby Burdie and savoring this time with Cade before we enter the chaos and sleeplessness of adding a newborn to our currently peaceful mix. Wish us luck!

Best Christmas EVER.

Christmas Catch-Up Blog :)

A round-up of our pics from the holiday season. Now that it's practically Valentines Day, we are finally wishing you all a Merry Christmas from the Burdicks and hope your holidays were filled with all kinds of fun. We most certainly had a fabulous holiday. Cade especially.

At the Christmas Tree Farm.

A sunny day for picking trees

Bathtime with Apu!


Playing on the slide with his best buddy Evan

The Playmobil firetruck from Lauren, Grace, and Millie was his most favorite toy hands down :)

But, he got alot of really fun toys for Christmas, including this Thomas the Train tugboat bath toy, that he LOVES. And he's been enjoying his basketball hoop too, and entertained us all Christmas morning with his hoop skillz :)

Cade and Papa Don - the best of friends.

Hope your season was merry and bright!

A Christmasy weekend in Leavenworth

This weekend we drove 5+ hours to Leavenworth, Washington - a little Bavarian Christmas village with a world famous Christmas Lighting festival. We stayed in a great little log cabin with the Larson's and had a wonderfully relaxing and super fun time.

We cooked some great meals, played games, watched a Christmas movie, hot tubbed, and built some roaring fires. Wii also bowled, boxed, and Chris and Eric were even able to go deer hunting....all in the comfort of our cabin!

Standing in front of a Bavarian bakery and pretzel shop downtown.

While the babies napped, and Chris and Eric shot deer (Wii game) and went hot tubbing, Nicole and I drove into the village and did some ornament shopping and also got to stop at an awesome candy shop that had Chocolate covered oreos. mmmm. So good, I came back with the boys to get more! There were droves of people that came in for the Lighting Festival, and it was SUPER DUPER cold. Some people were in the Whoville spirit and wore Whoville style hats and lots of little kids were sledding down an icy slope. The smell of roasting chestnuts and bratwurst were in the air. When our boys and our precious bundles arrived we made a beeline for some hot chocolate and took in all the lights and gingerbread-style buildings.

Getting ready to go into the Kris Kringl shop to find our family ornament for 2009.

Eric, Nicole, and Victoria all bundled up for a night time stroll through the lit up village.
It was such a festive little village....We loved all the live Christmas music and seeing all the little kids bundled in their snow suits.


Cade was fascinated by the Christmas lights.
It was so fun to see our kids start to play together.

Here are Cade and Victoria on the loveseat :)

Victoria wasn't thrilled when Cade put his arm around her (with mom's assistance ;) But, they eventually warmed up to eachother and were playing famously by the end. Cade enjoyed playing hide and go seek with Victoria saying "where baby??" with hand gestures and would take a lap around the cabin till he found her and said "THERE baby!!" Here is Cade after he "found" Victoria.

Because we are the cheezy dorks that we are, I made Chris wear MATCHING pajamas to show solidarity as we bowled against the Larsons. The last time we were in Leavenworth, some of our good friends showed up in matching pajamas and the thought of it always makes me laugh. I'd always wanted to do the same and Chris begrudgling gave in to my dorkiness.

On Sunday, Chris, Cade and I had a very relaxing stroll through the village. We stopped at Starbucks and hung out at a bookstore. One of my favorite family moments was taking a stroll down the Riverfront promenade. Cade loves being outside so despite the cold weather he thoroughly enjoyed looking out on the river and watching the duck bob in and out.

Here's a little video clip of the view from the waterfront promenade and Cade's fascination with the lone duck in the river.

With the Nutcrackers at the Nutcracker Museum.

With the bear at the Renaissance Cafe - a great little breakfast spot.

In front of Das Sweet Shoppe.

It was a long drive back home so we stopped for dinner in Hood River to have some pizza! Cade enjoyed the drive for the most part. Its a beautiful drive with lots of horses and other animals to point at along the way. But once the sun set, and after pulling a new toy out of my tote every 15 minutes he was ready to get out of the car. There was an arcade at the pizza place, so Cade and Chris played their first video game together. Here is Cade "driving" in this car race game.

Now we're back and its home sweet home :) Ahhhhh. I hope this season is finding you merry and bright, and that the true spirit of Christmas is filling your homes with His light and His hope.

Fall Fun Picture Round Up 2009

Fall. My favorite time of year. I love everything about it. Sweaters, honeycrisp apples, soups, staying in, being domestic...speaking of which, those of you that know me, know that I DONT bake. So when I baked my first peach pie, it was photo-worthy event in my life!

And with Fall, comes Football! Cade LOVES watching football with dad.

True beaver fans.

We have loved watching the leaves turn colors...here we are heading for the park and stopping often to stare at leaves...

Cade and Dad take a break from swings and slides to let me take a picture.Here we are on a family hike through Silver Falls. Cade walked alot of it so here he is rehydrating.




After our hike we decided to drive into Mt Angel for some Oktoberfest brats and beer. Here is a little video we shot of Cade:

At the Pumpkin Patch

Here are Cade, Olivia, and Wes hanging in the patch.

Our sweet little pumpkins :)


Here is Wesley, feeling a little introspective.

Ava telling Cade secrets. Ava just turned 1 and we had a fun time celebrating her birthday at the pumpkin patch.


Cade was obsessed with the super slide at Lee Farms.

FALL HARVEST PARTY

We had so much fun hosting a fall harvest kids costume party that we just might have to make it a tradition! Here is Ava, aka Snow White.

All the kids were so cute in their costumes. Props to Sarah for making Parker's Charlie Brown costume. It was just a cuteness parade.

Great shot of sweet victoria's baby lady bug wings.



Ava, Galit and her boy Abie, and me.

Cade had a great time playing with his best bud Evan. They hid out in the game room together for much of the party. These boys are going to be trouble (wait a sec... they already are!)

Here is my good friend Ashley's son Reed, giving me his "flirty" look...so cute.



Chris trying to corral these little pals.

And finally some of the party details (all taken after the party, so all very much disheveled :)

The menu:

Lil Pumpkin's mini menu:
Cupcakes and stuff.

Ati Pam's Birthday Party

We had a fun birthday dinner for my sister Pam at one of her favorite restaurants, the Alexis.

As the birthday celebrant, she wore the pirate hat of honor. We each decorated a birthday stick for her and she read them aloud as we waited for our Greek deliciousness to arrive.

Apu and Cade.

Finally, one of our new traditions that we started this fall, is going out for sushi train every Friday. Cade is really getting into sushi. Here he is enjoying a house tuna roll.

Hope your fall is happy and filled with fun!