Rough Luck

We, here at the Burks house have had a rough start to our week! We are just taking it in stride and laughing at ourselves because there is nothing else we can do! Here is the run down of our events.

To begin with when I was cooking dinner on Monday night Devin looked up at the ceiling and saw this...
It is a crappy picture, but it is a water spot that somewhat resembles an eyeball. Devin called his dad and they went up in the attic to see if they could find the cause. All they found was a pvc pipe but didn't see anything wrong with it. Mike advised me to call a plumber so that is what I did first thing Tuesday morning. Plumber came and said something about vents for the washer and sink/dishwasher and how the builder tried to tie two together and the joint wasn't good, or something along those lines. But he fixed it, so all is good. We are waiting for the spot to dry so we can cover it up and not have to look at the ugly water mark. The plumber came early enough that I was able to still go to work, so that was nice.

When I got to work I got word that our good friends' daughter was being admitted to the hospital. She is about 17 months old if I can do my math right so if everyone could say a prayer for her, we would appreciate it and so would they. They are hoping she will be released on Saturday, so we are crossing our fingers for that.

Nothing else happened on Tuesday, well nothing worth mentioning. Today we had a staff meeting at the shop so I had to get up early and when I got in my car, it wouldn't start. GRRRR! I was very frustrated. I had a flashback of when I was in college and my Volvo died on me and it was just because I was out of gas (thank you Eric for rescueing me), but it wasn't my fault because my gas gauge had broken and was showing that it was half full. But anyways, I decided to call my mom and had her give me a ride to work (working at the same place as your mom comes in handy!). I decided I would wait to call anyone until Devin could look at it, hoping it would magically start or would just be the battery. No luck. So, we called the dealership who directed me to call roadside assistance and they got someone to come tow it to the dealership. The two truck driver had no clue what it was either. Fortunately, my car is still under warranty so we are just hoping that whatever is wrong with it will be covered. The way our week has been going, it will be the one thing not covered by warranty!


There is my baby being towed away! Devin joked that we should post the pictures to facebook and see if anyone thought our car was being repoed.

I am sorry this has been such a downer of a post, but we are just finding our luck funny at this point. Plus, I know how much I love reading everyones blogs and I hope people enjoy mine, so I thought I would give everyone a little something!

In other, much happier news....we ordered our the furniture for the nursery on Sunday. We got a good deal from Babiesrus that I couldn't pass up. I really liked the furniture and if you bought the crib you got the changing table free. Also, I think I may have to cave and find out the sex of the baby because there really aren't many neutral items out there or I guess just not things that I like! My next appointment is on Tuesday so look for an update after then!

Happy New Year!

We have really enjoyed telling everyone that we are expecting! Everyone has been pretty surprised which has just added to the fun. When we announced it on facebook last week the responses we got were overwhelming and great! Devin and I both get facebook updates on our phone and they were going off constantly. It has been great to have so much support!

We are starting to look at baby furniture. I know that we still have plenty of time, but Devin starts softball the second weekend in April so I know after that we will only have Saturday's and weekday evenings to work on stuff and we won't want to! Hoping to make a trip to Babiesrus in Springfield soon to look in person and then I plan on searching the internet looking for the best deal. If anyone has suggestions on where else to look, please share! I know I also want to check out Baby Depot, but their online selection is kind of weak.

I will be 15 weeks tomorrow and am starting to notice things fitting differently. My brown belt is now uncomfortable, which I discovered the other day at work and today I bundled up to go play with Mocha in the snow while Devin cleared the driveway and it took us a good three minutes to get my coat zipped. I still have a ways until I visibly show to others, but I am not liking everything fitting differently!

I know everyone enjoys seeing pictures and videos so here are a few of the animals that we have taken over the past week or so.


We got Swarley a box for Christmas! Not really, but he played in the box from Devin's new computer for a few days!

He even found this twisty tie in the box and entertained himself for a while. He will find twisty ties, hair ties, and rubber bands anywhere and chase them for hours.


Kevin got to come over on New Years Eve to celebrate with his cousin Mocha. They were hilarious to watch and got along really well. Mocha had to keep her eye on Kevin all the time and tried to 'herd' him and make him go where she wanted him to. This picture isn't the most flattering of Kevin, but its hard to take pictures of two moving dogs!


This was taken when Mocha was starting to get tired and Kevin was on his 5th or 6th wind. I don't remember if Kevin pushed Mocha down, or if Mocha was trying to get Kevin to play, because she lays like this when she wants to play with Swarley.


Time to take a break!

Mocha of course loves the snow! We have countless pictures of her playing in it, but I thought this one was really cute! She plays with that ball all the time! Best toy investment for her we have ever made! She can't pop it and loves it!

Devin edited this video. Mocha and Kevin is from NYE and was taken when Kevin was getting gutsy towards Mocha. Mocha and Swarley is from New Years Day. Mike and Stacy came over to play cards so we made the table smaller and pushed the extra chairs to the side and the cat had some fun with them. We couldn't quit laughing at him. Mocha playing in the snow is from today. I took her out front while Devin was snowblowing and took her for a little walk and played with her in the snow. People out shoveling their driveways looked at me like I was crazy, she is a SNOW dog people! She had a blast in the drifts and was very obedient even though I am sure it doesn't look that way on the video. She wouldn't jump up there unless I said ok. She is worn out which will make for a peaceful night!

Thanks for checking in!

Merry Christmas!

We are soooo excited because we finally got to tell all of our family members that we are expecting! It was so hard to hold it in for so long, in my opinion, but Devin doesn't have a problem with keeping secrets. In the past two days we have been able to tell the most important people in our lives. I am going to give a brief run-down of how we told everyone and why. Sorry in advance for our crappy video taking! We are amateurs!

On Wednesday night our good friends Tyler and Jessica came up to visit from Petersburg. We went to school with Tyler and he was an usher in our wedding. We decided that it was safe to tell them because we really wanted to tell them in person. They arrived and we went to dinner then came back to our house. We decided to test out the baby quilt on them to see if it was obvious or not. Apparently it was not obvious because it took them probably 2-3 minutes to figure it out. We thought the word baby would give it away, but we were wrong. But, Jessica finally figured it out and they were so excited. They kept saying they shoulda known if they had paid attention. I guess they had found Tyler's crib that day and had talked about baby names. Sadly we didn't take a video of telling them. I wish I had because I would really like to know how long it took for them to figure it out!

We also tried to get Bryan Karneboge to come over on Wednesday so we could tell him, but he was too busy with friends being in town and holiday parties. However, we were able to get him to come over on Christmas Eve right before we left for church. Devin quickly wrapped up a piece of paper that said "We are having a baby, and we won't use one of your names." For those of you that don't know Bryan real well he is obsessed with baby names and the day after we got home from our honeymoon he came over with a baby name book and said okay now that you are married lets talk baby names and proceeded to tell us what names we could not use. The video of telling him is short enough it doesn't need edited so here it is!

After telling Bryan we headed to Mike and Stacy's and then to church (an hour early). It felt like the longest service ever, but I know it really wasn't. And of course after church we had to eat and do all the presents before giving the present that told. To tell the Burks side (Grandma Burks, LeeAnn, Neal, Toni, and Sydney) we made a baby quilt for Grandma Burks. It was a crossword puzzle quilt. We thought that grandma or LeeAnn would catch on right away, but it took a while. If you see LeeAnn acting funny in the background right in the beginning its because Grandma had previously elbowed her by accident while opening a present. We chose to make a baby quilt because we go down to Grandma Burks' house quite a bit for Sunday lunch and we thought it would be nice to have a quilt for the baby to play on. Plus, I know she will have a blast showing it off to all her friends! :) We had a huge discussion on how to fold the quilt, we decided to fold it so the word grandma showed because it wouldn't give it away right off the bat and I think it was the right decision.



This is a picture of the crossword quilt. If you can't see it the words on it are Great, Grandma, Baby, Laugh, Happiness, Mommy, Miracle, Daddy, and Love.



LeeAnn and Grandma are reading the quilt! Trying to figure it out! Great picture Jason!



.... And Grandma figured it out! This is probably my favorite picture of the night. Thank you Jason for taking it!

I love how LeeAnn stands up and throws the quilt down to read it! Also, after watching the video a few times I think they knew sooner, but just wanted to make sure there was a baby involved before they guessed that.

Christmas morning we went out to Mike and Stacys and then to my moms. When we were opening presents at my moms, my dads brother called to wish us Merry Christmas and she told him that she was going to be a grandma. He assumed that it was my brother Eric, but we straightened him out!

Next, it was time to head down to Karen's to tell Stacy's side of the family. Shortly after we walked in to Karen's house Sophia was eying Devin and more importantly the piano behind him, and Karen said "Devin shes got her eye on you" as if it was a hint. Little did you know, Karen! We went downstairs and ate then I had to get going back to my moms, but I wanted to see Grandma Budke open her quilt. Devin went and got her presents and she knew to read the quilt label right away, so she figured it out easily. The label said, "To: Great Grandma Budke; From: Devin & Christy Burks; December 25, 2009; Baby Burks due July 2010. I think the funniest part of this video is Ruth yelling "What'd it say?" Cracks me up everytime, although in her defense Grandma didn't read it too loud. Karen, I am sorry I didn't tell you beforehand, I didn't know I had to, but at least you knew before all your sisters! I hope you rub it in their faces!



This is what Grandma Budke's quilt looks like, I really like it and I think she did too!

Also, note Gail running in the room, she was off playing with her grandkids so she missed it! I wish I would have been able to stay longer and play with the twins! They are growing so fast!

After I left Karen's I went back to my moms to have Christmas with my uncle, aunt, and cousins. My cousins were there when I got there, but my aunt and uncle didn't get there until about 5:45 because my aunt had to work (apparently hospitals don't close on holidays). By the time they got there I was bursting at the seams to tell them so I kinda interrupted their meal to tell them. I told them by showing them the jersey that Brittany got us.

Right after Devin walked into my moms house from being in Manito, Carleigh my youngest second cousin who will be two in January attached herself to Devin. She would not leave his side. Although I did win her over for a few minutes while I opened her building blocks that she got. Other than that she wanted nothing to do with me!

Here are two baby related items that we got for Christmas. Devin bought the little Nike Shox and wrapped them for me. Brittany got us the little Cardinals jersey which is awesome! She gave it to us on Christmas Eve after we told everyone!







So, all in all it was an AWESOME Christmas for the Burks family! I feel relieved that all of our family knows! Now we get to tell our friends and co-workers! I can't wait until the whole world knows! Tomorrow we are planning to get alot of our friends together at Goodfella's and tell them. Then Sunday we are going to call our friends, and Monday tell our co-workers.

Thank you everyone for your well-wishes, support, and for checking in! Sorry this post is so long, but I wanted to include everything!

The greatest sound in the world!

This afternoon we had our third appointment, and it was by far our best appointment because not only was it the shortest (about 15 minutes), but I had my favorite nurse again and we got to hear the heartbeat!!!! The nurse couldn't find it and told us not to worry she was sure the Doctor would be able to find it and then would poke fun at her because she couldn't find it, and she was right! The doctor seemed to have to search for a while, but seconds were feeling like minutes to me! They both kept finding my heartbeat, which was good I guess because at least we knew I was alive. At one point he says it has to be right in here and looked at Devin for assurance and I know we were both thinking, dude we don't have a clue what we are listening for. Anyways he found it and it was 160 beats per minute which he said was great! We only got to listen for about four seconds, which was kind of a bummer, but I think he had a delivery to get too because he seemed in a hurry and had scrubs on. It was such a relief hearing it and makes everything so more real! We really are having a baby! Oh, and it kinda creeped me out, but I am sure I will get over it!

After the appointment we went to dinner with Brett and Jess and then we pretty much finished up our Christmas shopping. Tomorrow I have to go get giftcards for my cousins and go to the grocery store (ugh, its going to be packed) and get us some food to eat!

Can't wait for Christmas Eve and Christmas! I think these next two days are going to be sooooooooo long!

We are down to single digits...

Wahoo! The countdown until telling the extended family is down to single digits. 8 days until we tell the Burks side and 9 days until we tell the Budke side and the rest of my family. I can not wait! Maybe instead of writing this I should be working on the quilts, but that doesn't sound like nearly as much fun! I have Grandma Budke's quilt done and I am happy with how it turned out. I am mad however, that I forgot to take a picture before giving it to Linda to have it quilted. I wanted to be able to show everyone on here, but now I guess you will have to wait until I get it back and can take a picture, or until Grandma Budke unwraps it on Christmas Day. As for Grandma Burks's quilt....ummmm...probably need to work on that instead of updating this! No, its coming along pretty well. I should be done with the top by Friday; I hope to get alot of it done tomorrow, and then my mom is going to quilt it since I don't know how!

Just these past two weeks I have had an extremely hard time keeping my mouth shut. It seems like everyone, everyone is pregnant or knows someone that is. For example, the quilt shop had their Christmas party and the lady sitting next to my mom was saying that she has two grandkids with another one on the way, with on the way being kid is 10 weeks pregnant. I wanted to scream "Well, I am 11 weeks pregnant" but knew I couldn't. Mom just smiled and said Congratulations, thats nice or something along those lines. Oh and everyone is talking about pregnancies. At the staff party people were talking about what they craved when they were pregnant, I was glad that it was a fairly short conversation because some of the foods they were saying were making my mouth water! I also "taught" a class for my mom and Linda while they were off shopping in Chicago, and I think for at least an hour the students were talking about pregnancy. It is soooooooo hard to keep a straight face! There were a few times I had to turn around because I know my face would have told them something was up!

Time to go finish up some baking and then relax since I have a busy day of quilting tomorrow!

The waiter loves to high-five

Today was a great day! We finally got to see Brett and Jessica, we hadn't seen them since the middle of October so it had been a long time! We decided before we met them that we were more than likely going to tell them that we are expecting and when we got there we knew for sure that we were going to, neither one of us could sit still! I kept trying to drop hints and say things that would get Jessica to ask me, but she wasn't taking my bait! Then finally, I said I didn't feel good and she asked why to which I nonchalantly responded I am pregnant. It took her a few seconds, maybe even a minute to believe us. It was great! Of course they are very excited for us and I am stoked that they now know because I hadn't really been talking to them alot. I didn't want to risk telling them before we were ready to. We figured that since all of our immediate family knew it was time to tell them since they are our best friends! Now, my personal goal is to make sure I don't tell anyone else until Christmas Eve!

Later in the night, we went up to Old Chicago and met up with Shawnae and Dallas to celebrate Dallas's 21st birthday. Devin bribed me into going by saying I could get a skillet cookie, which we devoured along with Bryans help. Then some other people in our group were eating raw veggies and I started freaking out because I wanted them sooooooo bad. It was like if I didn't get them I was going to cry. I asked our waiter if I could get some fresh veggies with ranch, and he kinda gave me a weird look and said, first a skillet cookie, now you really are craving veggies, are you pregnant? To which I responded yes and he said right on sister and gave me a high five. It was hilarious and the veggies tasted AMAZING!

That's all I have for now! I am hoping that the next few weeks remain uneventful! Less than 3 weeks until Christmas Eve! Wahoo!

The Great Hunt

The day after we got back from Texas, we went out and got our Christmas tree. I was VERY upset that Mocha didn’t get to go this year because she was still being boarded from our Texas trip. We went to the tree farm at 11 and we couldn’t get her until 4. I felt awful that should couldn’t go! We all (us, Brittany/Jason, and Mike/Stacy/Patrick) found our trees in under 30 minutes and each family got a different type of tree. We got our tree up and it is still waiting to be decorated. I haven’t done any Christmas decorating. Devin and I were talking about it tonight and we think since we had Christmas in Texas we are Christmas-ed out, but I am sure that will change. We are almost done Christmas shopping so that’s good!

Anyways, Christmas tree hunting was especially eventful this year because we took the opportunity to tell Patrick that he was going to be an uncle. As you can see in the video he was shocked and didn’t believe us! We are really hoping he can keep quiet, he says he has so far, and its been 4 days so what is 22 more days. He kept saying I have to keep quiet for that long, I dunno if I can do it, then I told him long its been and he thought he could do it especially since he has a lot of schoolwork to keep him busy! I think he can do it, Devin is still unsure though. Here is the video of Uncle Patrick! Sorry for being so loud and for the crappy video taking!

This is a short video of Rachel playing with the pocket knife during our Christmas in Texas! It always makes me smile so I couldn't resist posting it!

Thanks for checking in and sorry it took so long for me to post these videos!