Lukie's Bike

I just realized that I never blogged Lukie's new bike and outfits. Lance braved the crowds the day after Thanksgiving for Lukas. He had outgrown his bike and needed a new one. We discovered that Wal-Mart had some for $29 and told him he could get one. Well, they were sold out by the time Lance got there and only had this really nice one for $50. Still not a bad deal. He also bought Lukas two new "work-out" suits, which Lukas absolutely loves. We should have bought seven of them. He would wear them everyday. These were his early birthday presents from us.

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

Disclaimer: All poses are the sole idea of the persons in the picture.

My Chefs. The boys decided they would make the cake without the help of Drue because she and Cassia did not let them help when it was her birthday.

The finished product. The boys added ingredients and mixed the batter. Mom did the icing. They told me I should work at Sam's Club decorating cakes. Aren't they the sweetest boys!


THE BIRTHDAY BOY very happy that it is his birthday.
My sweet boys.

My "normal" boys. Don't let the first two pictures of them fool you.

Lukie and his Launa. Now these two are tight.

The very "posed" Drue and Lukas.

Lukas, Sam, Daniel and Bro. Roger at Jason's Deli. Papa and Nick also joined us for dinner, but Papa was taking the pictures and Nick was beside him.

Lukas in his shirt from Bro. Roger and knitting with his needles and yarn from Daniel.

Lukas learned to knit just a few days before this with two pencils and a shoe string. I would not buy him needles until he learned how to knit. I thought he was too young. Come to find out, he is too determined. Drue gives him lessons three days a week. He doesn't let her forget. (As a side note, I think Drue was "talking" on Launa's phone. Launa found it very entertaining and I didn't realize that she was in the picture. She will really appreciate this being on the internet in a few more years.)

10 years

PRAISE THE LORD! This month we celebrated our tenth anniversary. We worked all day, seperately, and then Lance and Lukas went to a friend's house for dinner. We were leaving in two days for Anaheim for a week (I will blog that later) and I had a ton of stuff to get done. However, while we were in Anaheim we went to Lance's favorite Korean restuarant and had some soup that I don't know how to spell, dumplings and lots of kimchi. He spent two months with some Korean brothers last year in Anaheim and this past summer I spent a week with a Korean family. We both grew to love Korean food and especially kimchi. We have yet to find good kimchi here in AZ and although I have been "told" how to make it, I cannot remember what she said and was never told amounts. We bought some extra and took it back to the hotel to enjoy for the rest of the week. (The point being, we did take some time to celebrate, with the kids of course!)

31

Well, today is my 31st birthday. I almost made it through this year without any birthday attention. Not that I mind being 31, I just don't like all the attention. The older I get, the less I like to be noticed. A huge change from my younger days! Lance is in California, Drue is in Florida and Sam and Launa do not have any concern with dates (except for their birthdays). However, my ever-needing-to-know-what-the-date-is son, Lukas, asked me yesterday, "What is the date today?" I said quickly, Dec. 30. He looked at me quickly and said, "Tomorrow is your birthday. Hey, tomorrow is Mom's birthday!" The secret was out. At least to those of us in the van. Anyway, it is our family tradition to go out to eat at your choice on your birthday. The kids quickly chose Jason's Deli, our new favorite place to eat (they have free ice cream). And, because Wed's are kids eat free night, I consented. No cake or candles, just a nice dinner out with three of my kids. We took these pictures the other night when we were bored. I let each kid use the camera. Launa never figured it out. We let her try at least twenty times. I told her she could try again when she is four. By the way, my Mom called while I was in the shower and all the kids were in the living room. She left a message of her traditional singing Happy Birthday and my Mema also left a message of her traditional singing the last verse of the Happy Birthday song while we were out, so I guess the secret would have been out sooner or later. Lance also called and woke me up this morning with his own rendition of Happy Birthday. I think he made it up on the spot and I don't think he could ever sing it again. It didn't really have a tune. It had some "Happy Birthday to you", "O Lord Amen Hallelujah", and "Praise the Lord". Kind of three songs in one. It was sweet none the less. He said he had just woken up too and wasn't even out of bed yet.

Figuring it out!

Hey, I am getting the hang of this blogging more and more. I just figured out how to get a nicer background. (Once again from Tiffany's blog.) I should be sleeping, but since I am up, I will update some of our very full December.

Thanks T

My dear blogging friend, but more importantly friend since 2nd grade (well, I haven't really seen her in almost 10 years, but that doesn't count) helped me to get a "shelfari" book shelf on my site. She has one and I always know what she is reading. What a person reads can allow you know them in a better way. She also gives reviews, maybe I can do that too. In fact, here is my first one:
The older kids and I are reading through the Bible. We started a while back at Genesis 1 and are somewhere in the beginning of Exodus. We do not really have an ending time goal, just want to get through it in a thorough way, trying to retain some of it along the way. We really enjoy it and it is a book I would recommend to everyone.

While trying to put this shelf on my blog I also learned how to add blogs that I read. I don't read a great variety, but am a faithful reader to those that I do read. It is really just a way for me to keep up with some friends from school and some that I have met along the way. I enjoy seeing their kids and how they are growing. I feel as if I am just as much a part of their lives now as I was in high school even though I haven't seen them since I left Florida.

Hiking

We discovered a cactus shaped like a Y. If you look over Lance's left shoulder you can see it in the distance. If you look at Sam, he is imitating it.

We have found that we really enjoy hiking. So we decided to do a little more of it. We even thought we should do some local hiking in between trips to Sedona. We go to Sedona to visit the state parks and hike at them. Anyway, we took the boys and Launa (Drue was at her friend's house) to Cave Creek, AZ to hike. We were hoping to see bugs, wild animals and some cool rocks. We found a few cool rocks, saw a praying mantis and few dogs. Afterward, we went to a horse riding place to see a teepee. As we approached the teepee we noticed that it was being inhabited by three donkeys. I did not go into the area with the donkeys, but Lance ventured in. The donkeys came out to greet us and I ran for the porch. I am of no help at all in times of danger. Lance and the kids soon followed. Sammie leading that pack. The owner told us that two of the three were friendly. We decided to stay on the porch. The biggest donkey came up to the steps and started making the most annoying "hee-haw, hee-haw" sound. The owner told us that he was hungry and he stopped making the noise as she opened the fridge. Smart donkey. She asked the kids if they wanted to feed the donkey a carrot. Sammie immediately said no, Lukas shook his head no, but Luana said she wanted to. She is so brave. After Lukas saw that Launa could do it he decided he would give it a try. Sammie still was not interested. We also saw miniature horses and regular horses. The kids did get to go inside the teepee after the donkeys went for a hike of their own.

She's Here!!!

We have been earnestly praying and eagerly awaiting the arrival of Eliana Lily for the past year. Our great friends, the Jengs, told us about their adopting of a daughter in China about a year ago. The day finally arrived and on Nov. 21 they came home. We were there with two other families to greet them at the airport. You can click on Eliana's name above to visit their blog.

Waiting.......

We can see them.......

Here they are!! YEAH!!!! After being gone for 3 weeks and24 hours of flying they are so happy to see everyone. Daniel is their 6 year old son. He and Lukie are best buds. (The one he plays hockey with)

Don't you love how the girls are "petting" Eliana. These two (Launa and Janelle) are also best buds. They had been talking about Eliana coming home for the three weeks they were in China. They are happy to have a new "best friend."

Another Orange Belt

Our newest Orange Belt

Samuel earned his orange belt in November. He did a great job. He had taken a little break so he is a month behind Lukas in earning belts. It actually works out well. Now Lukas feels like he needs to help his brother and Samuel is more open to taking instruction from Lukas.

Pictures of My Brothers

Kelly asked to see pictures of my brothers and I realized that I did not even take any of them while we were together for our family reunion. A family reunion and no pictures of my family! Imagine that. However, my mom and sister-in-law took care of me and emailed pictures they had taken.

This is our whole family (minus Krys who must have been taking the picture and Launa who must not have wanted to be in the picture).

Adults from left to right: Stash, Mom, Sheri, Lance, Dad, Erica and Stephen

Kids from left to right: Sydney, Seth, Lukas, Drue and Samuel

This is Stash's family when he was headed back to Iraq. This is Stash's family. I wanted to include a good picture of his wife since she skipped out on the first one. For those we went to school with, she used to be Krys Clemons and was, I believe, a year behind us.

Lukas's Tae Kwon Do

BEFORE
AFTER

Lukas received his orange belt last weekend. Usually he justs tests and receives his belt at the next class. But, twice a year they had a BLACK BELT SPECTACULAR and hold a ceremony with the Grand Master and receive their belts. They have a special team that performs different TKD moves and they break tons of boards and bricks. It was a lot of fun and even better, Lukas is now and orange belt.

Samuel was taking a break from TKD but after this event has decided that he will join in again. He will hopefully test for his orange belt next month. The boys also started sparring this last week and it is too cute. I totally forgot to take pictures this time but will have to get some on here later.

Broken Nose

REMEMBER:

Our kids love to ice skate

Lance started school in August and only comes out to eat.

Well, one Tuesday Lance's dad said that he wanted to stop by and see the kids around 2pm. Lance told him that we would be at the ice rink. I reminded Lance that I needed to go grocery shopping and this is what I do while the kids skate. He decided to go with us to the rink, see his dad, then go with me to the store (he likes to grocery shop with me) after his dad left the rink. Well, Lukas did not think that Daddy watching him skate would be good enough and begged him to get on the ice. The little ones then thought they also should get on the ice. Lance felt bad about not spending a lot of time with the kids and agreed. Now all of my family is on the ice skating and I meet Lance's dad (Papa) at the door. We both go down by the ice to watch everyone skate. While watching the kids I see someone fly by out of the corner of my eye and then hear a thud. I thought "that is going to hurt". When I turned around I saw Lance laying on the ice. I yelled and he got up and looked at me. I saw blood coming out of his face and ran. I ran to the hockey coach, told him to go help my husband and then they called 911. I stayed in the lobby because I cannot handle seeing things like that. The kids were very interested and stayed with Dad and thought it was really cool when the fire fighters came to "fix" Daddy. I did not get any pictures until a week later because I could not look at him. This pic is just before the stiches were taken out. His eyes did not get any blacker than this. We were surprised.
This is how he looked for two weeks. I think he wore the bandage for so long so that I could look at him when we were talking.

A close up.

He is doing fine now, just has a slightly crooked nose and a scar. We are hoping the scar will lighten with time and don't think his nose will straighten with time. I should have an after picture, but didn't think about it until now. You can hardly even notice when you look at him.

Florida

In late August our family (the Burke side) had a family gathering in Orlando. My parents, Stash, Krys, Sydney and Seth (my older brother's family), us and Stephen and Erica (my younger bros family) all stayed in a 3 bedroom resort near Downtown Disney. Our family arrived on Monday and the rest were scheduled to arrive on Thursday. Therefore, our family did a little "touristing" for a few days. The above picture is my parents and all the grandchildren. (the giraffe is not real)
Our first "touristy" event was the world's largest McDonalds. (I did not take pics) The kids had a blast, and after the plane ride to Florida it was much needed. Oh, I forgot to mention that due to the high gas prices and low airfare, we flew to Florida this time. Half of the family liked it better, the other half of us preferred driving. We looked like a parade going through the airport. I wanted to take a picture, but couldn't, if you saw us you would understand. See, Lance's legs are taller than Launa and he was the leader. Also, one is allowed two carry ons and each checked luggage cost money. With six people we were allowed twelve carry ons. We took twelve carry-ons. After all, we were there for over a week. We all wore a back pack and rolled a suitcase, with the exception of Launa who only had a backpack filled with baby dolls. Lance carried her extra luggage.
Moving on, our next event was the M&M store in the mall. The kids thought this was the coolest place. Even cooler than the large McDonalds. We put six M&Ms of each color into a bag and went to a table in the middle of the mall and ate them. We each took the same color, counted to three, and then ate it. Lance and I decided that all the colors tasted the same. Drue had a different opinion.

Next, we took the kids to Arabian Nights. This was now their new favorite event. Launa and Samuel were so intrigued(sp?) by the horses they did not even eat their food. When we came back home (to AZ) that was the event they spoke the most about. Samuel even did some sample tricks to show everyone what they were talking about. (He did it on the ground, we do not have a horse)

Now the rest of the family arrived and we began to swim until we all looked like prunes. I do not have any pics of the swimming time. Some people don't like to have "swimsuit" pictures. The pool had three slides and I am surprised the kids did not wear them out. Launa was a crazy person on those slides. She would fly off there so far because she is so light. It was hilarious.

We took all the kids to Downtown Disney one afternoon. The highlight for my kids was the LEGO store. They had been dreaming about this since my mom told them about all the things she had seen there. The picture below is my mom and all the grandkids mixed with LEGO people. The LEGO people were amazing.

That just about sums up our trip. Other than Mema (see earlier post) we did not visit any other family. This trip was especially for my immediate family. Stash had just come back from Iraq for the second time and my mom really wanted all of us to get together. I am so glad that we did. It worked out so well, we may have to do it every year.

Drue's First Skating Competition

Drue has been ice skating since May (minus the summer) and started taking lessons six weeks ago. She quickly moved up to level 3 and entered the skills competition. She had to perform three moves that she learned in her classes. She did a great job and earned second place out of four competitors. Her teacher said she is doing an excellent job and progessing very fast. She will start level 4 in two weeks. Thankfully for me, this competition did not require a special (and very expensive) outfit.

She really does love skating. See next picture.They were taking more professional photos after the competition, but we thought this one turned out just fine.

WHOA!!! It worked. The first time I was able to load a video. Hopefully, it will play. Anyway, this is half of her competition. It only last a minute or so, but she did great.

Two videos! This is the other skills she had to perform. The turn and then the spin. She did one other spin and then skated off.

Mema's

We spent a week in Florida during the last week of August. (I will post on that later) One of those days we spent with Mema. The older two kids spent the night (it was the first time for Lukas to spend the night with Mema) and then the rest of us went over for lunch and a greater part of the day the next day. We spent time looking through a photo album and learning more about our ancestry. We had a great time and hopefully didn't wear Mema out. You can click on the picture for more pictures at Mema's.

Summer

I will attempt to recap our summer in brief. In June, I visited the Grand Canyon with the young people. Lance stayed home with the kids as I wasn't sure I wanted to have them too close to the canyon. We had fun, but I did not get very many pictures. In July I went to CA for a training on the book of Luke for one week (also by myself) and had a great time. In August I went to Lakeside (up north) for the Summer School of Truth with the young people, once again by myself. Lance had a lot of quality time with the kids this summer.

Lukas and Samuel tested for and received their yellow belts. They are now in the "Black Belt Club" and have new blue uniforms. They are learning more advanced kicks and to use nunchucks.
Launa is growing up so much. She won't stop talking for a minute. She loves to tell stories, most of which are not true or even believable. Drue was gone for the summer to FL and since she has returned has read so many books I cannot even keep track.

Now everyone has begun school. Lance has started online classes with the community college and will be earning his RN. This semester he is taking Biology, Algebra, English 101 and Psychology. We haven't seen much of him since he started. He comes out for meals and occassionaly to stretch. It has been 14 years since he graduated high school and he has no college experience.

Drue started sixth grade with Abeka Academy. She has DVDs that include instruction from teachers at Abeka Academy in FL and then does all her work here at home. It is working out great for her and especially for me. Keep reading and you'll see why.

Lukas started third grade and is still with the AZ Virtual Academy. The majority of his work is online, but directed solely by me. He will begin to work independently in fourth grade.

Samuel has begun kindergarten. He is too young for AZVA and too readt to wait another year. He has started reading and does basic math. He loves "school".

Launa is learning to be quiet while everyone else is doing school. She shows no interest in learning (school or to be quiet). So she gets to play with her babies all day in her room.

I am balancing my time between all four students and trying to keep Launa calm for the sake of the others.

Our Baby is 3!!!

Click on the picture to see all the pics from yesterday.

Launa turned three yesterday. She is very happy to be three. We went to lunch with Papa and dinner at the Lisi's. (The same couple that came over for Sam's birthday.) When we arrived at the Lisi's we were surprised by seeing Cassia (Drue's friend) and her sister Hannah. Our kids had way more fun because they were there.

Launa was most excited about her cake. She had told Sara Lisi that she wanted a chocolate cake with flowers. She talked about it all day. She was very happy with the way it turned out and it tasted delicious.

She spent some of her birthday. She boughta baby doll, stroller, dress and her own brush. She also got the pony that was on her cake.

Sedona

Click on the picture for more pictures in Sedona.

We took the kids to Sedona a few days before Drue left for the summer. We went on a hike that had been suggested to us. It was beautiful and very shaded. We hiked in the morning to avoid the heat. By the time we left around 11am, it was warming up a lot. The kids enjoyed taking off their shoes and walking in the creek. The water was so cold it hurt my feet and gave me a headache. I walked along the dry rocks while they braved the water. None of them thought it was too cold.

We also spent a lot of time at the pool. Samuel was practicing swimming underwater and did a wonderful job. Lukas learned to swim underwater without holding his nose.

On our way home, we decided to go to the caves where there are heiroglyphs. They were closed. We then went into Cottonwood's Visitor Station and found out that there is Ft. in Verde Valley. Ft. Verde. The kids (and I) were surprised at what the fort looked like. Not at all like the forts we are used to seeing. We had just been to St. Augustine. The ranger was great and gave the kids a lot of info. She then gave them papers to complete that would allow them to become "Jr. Rangers". This made the tour a lot more educational. We learned so many things. After completing the paper, they were sworn in and received buttons and a map of AZ with space for buttons from all the National Parks. Now the kids want to visit all the parks and collect the buttons. We will try to hit as many has we can. It may take us a few years.

Lukas

Lukas is taking Tae Kwon Do. He earned his white belt and last week these two stripes. The stripes are for kicking. He really enjoys it and is doing a great job.
Lukas and Daniel skating in their hockey gear. These boys will be taking hockey lessons starting in July.
Lukas and Anna. Anna just moved here from Florida. She just turned eight and towers over Lukas. They really enjoy each other. We took the kids to Sedona for a hike. I will post more of those pictures in another post.