Okay, okay, so obviously I do know that my kids love each other. Still it does seems like you need plenty of days to reinforce why you chose and love having more than one child though. Yesterday was one of those days.On Wednesdays I go to Maddy's school and paint with the kids. Logan comes with me and gets to play with the kids his age all morning.  Maddy was playing with some of her friends at school when she saw Logan playing in the back play yard. She immediately ran over to him. Her little face was all lit up and she was so excited to see him. She started talking excitedly to him about her day and spent the next 10 minutes playing and laughing with him on the teeter totter. She even told one of her friends, "Sorry I am playing with my brother right now." She proceeded to show him around the playground and play together until Maddy's class went  back inside. It was so sweet. She was playing the activities that he wanted to play and helping him on some of the playground equipment. My face hurt from smiling so much. As of lately I think they have become better buds. Logan won't take a nap or go to sleep without his "snuggle Maddy few minutes" and a hug and kiss from his big sis. She eats it up. Even though sometimes his snuggling consists of all almost 30 lbs of him laying on top of her and bear hugging her. She is becoming more of a loving, patient big sister and loves nothing more than to make her brother laugh.I remember reading something that said the only way to avoid sibling rivalry is to only have one child. Very funny and very true. I know that all siblings somtimes bicker. I can vividly remember my brother and I having it out on several occasions. I guess when you know someone so well you also know what annoys them so well.(Still love you anyway's Mark)The kids have a lot of days when they play so nice together, entertain each other, laugh together and are little BFF's. Then there are the days where I feel as if I am playing referee all day and am ready to pull my hair out. (And it's guaranteed to happen if you get on the phone) Something that might seems pretty trivial but just over a year ago there was a little while I was the full time referee. I am sure we have plenty of sibling battles to come but such a relief and a joy that I think we are having more of the loving, laughing, and snuggling and less of the bickering and fighting.

So here's a quick recap of this weekend. Some weekends it seems we are totally busy and sometimes we just feel like being lazy bums. This one was just the right amount of busy and down time.  On Friday Logan and I did some shopping and ran some errands. The highlight for Logan was probably going to Jamba Juice for smoothies.As soon as I handed him his smoothie he takes a sip and says "Mmmm that's good, thanks mom." He was a good sport shopping with me all morning. All he wanted was some new Thomas the train toothpaste. Oops actually that was on Thursday. On Friday Me and the kids went to the Santa Barbara Zoo. Maddy loves this zoo because she feels like the tour guide. She remembers where all the animals are and loves to tell Logan and I what we are going to see next. Friday night we had a primary party and practice for the kids at church. After that we headed down to my parents to stay the night. Early Saturday morning we went to the Temple while my family watched the kids. We came home and all got a 3 hour nap(which was very exciting for the parents). Then Dean took the kids to his work for a couple hours so I could get the house clean and spend a few minutes in silence. I am always grateful for his thoughtfulness. Sunday was too cute. It was the primary program at church. All the little kids from ages 3 to 12 sing and give little talks. We were really proud of Maddy. She was kind of nervous and the youngest child in the program so we weren't sure if she was going to get up to talk or not. But after some smooth talking by mom and dad before the program she did it. The kids all did a really great job. Sunday night we took our usual walk down to the beach and hung out for a while. Something that if we ever moved out of the area would be incredibly hard to leave. Glad we are not thinking about it. :) The best part of the evening though was when Maddy was in the tub. I think she was upset because I had told her it was time to get out or something. In her lowest, yes I am mad at you voice, she starts ranting a few things and then says "And the holy ghost is going to spank you." Lol  Probably not what she learned at church on Sunday. Very funny though. Today we went to the Santa Barbara museum of natural history. Really cool exhibit called butterflies alive. The exhibit has a ton of butterflies in an atrium. The only 2 things they tell you before you go into the atrium with the butterflies is please don't touch the butterflies and watch your step because they often just stop on the ground. Great!! What 2 and 4 year old would want to touch a butterfly right? And they are always watching where they're going too. So I am watching the kids like a hawk. At one point Logan is bent over looking at 2 butterflies on the ground. His face is only a few inches away from them and he stays right there for several minutes.I am of course holding my breath when a lady says to me, "Wow he has a lot of self control for being so young." I had to laugh. I could see his wheels spinning. I wonder what would happen if............   Luckily the kids loved seeing the butterflies and we made it out of there without incident.

Here are a few pix from the museum.                                                   

Well as of late there are just soooo many cute babies that I had to show them off. It seems that almost every women I know is pregnant or just had a baby. In August and September we knew 7 couples who had or adopted babies. I am so thrilled for all of them. Between last June to this upcoming March there will be 24 babies born to people we know. And that is if I am remembering everyone.:) I am ecstatic for all our friends who have been blessed with these precious little gifts. I can't get over how adorable these babies are. I thought newborns weren't supposed to be that cute. Thanks to all of the contributing parents for having such adorable kids. Keep the pictures coming. We love them. It seems like everyone has had some exciting news lately. A gazillion people are becoming parents, a half dozen or more people are getting ready to start grad school, people are moving, a few are getting married, even as I write this my mom is out traveling through England with 5 of her good friends. Lol. I could not be more ecstatic for all these people.Every one of them is extremely deserving of the happiness, achievements and good fortune that they are experiencing. What can we say? We sure do have some amazing friends and family. Hope you all enjoy the pictures. Such adorable babies. I can hardly wait to meet them all. These were a few of my favorites.And if you didn't e-mail these pictures to us then yes I took the liberty of snatching them off your websites. Didn't think you would mind me showing off your adorable babies. Sorry the pictures are all sizes. You know I am not that computer savvy to get them all the same size.

 I love Tuesdays! Today was a lot of fun. I got to spend just one on one time with little man. Tuesday is one of the days Maddy has preschool so Logan and I get to spend the mornings together. Something that is so nice because with the second child I don't think you don't get as much individual time as you did with the first. Logan helped me with the yard work, we played games and of course we played with his cars. He was loving spreading my piles of leaves and pine needles around with a rake. It took me longer to get things done but he was too cute being my big helper. Tonight the kids wanted to surprise dad so we had a picnic in the backyard. Then it was the usual bath and bedtime. One of my favorite parts of the day is when we put him to bed. He knows bedtime is coming and somehow thinks it's very funny. I will hold him and he puts his arms around my neck and plays with my hair. He puts his face up close to mine and when I get a huge smile on my face he starts to laugh. He knows he is funny. He has had a love of hair since he was little. I know he is growing up fast so I find myself just really enjoying all the sweet little moments with him. He loves to snuggle and to laugh. He loves to chat. And especially to ask questions. (where Maddy be? is this mine? ready go to  daddy's work?) I just want to kiss that cute little neck of his all day. It really is the little moments that bring me so much joy as a mom.

Maddy and her friend Riley chasing Logan to style his hair

Logan after the girls have styled his hair

Maddy's Grandma told her to pick out a treat for her birthday and of course she wanted cake.

Finally!!!!! Back in January I made a goal to start blogging on here every week. As you can see it's now September and I am finally getting around to it. I have 100 questions about all this technical stuff but luckily I have a patient and computer savvy hubby to help me out. Hopefully I will be able to finish creating this site before too long. (Seeing as how we've had this site over 2 years and I haven't done one thing to it.) Sorry honey. Anyhow I guess this is a new day so I can't worry about what wasn't done.  It has been a pretty crazy week so far. A holiday,a birthday party, Maddy was bit on the face by a duck,lots of cooking, painting at Maddy's school,trying to get all of us up and ready before 8:15,and Dean is super busy with a new position at work. Today I am having a real soccer mom moment. Last night I was making dinner for some friends that are expecting twins, then had to make cookies for parents night, woke up and made cupcakes for Maddy's class(her birthday is Saturday) played chauffeur to the kids, and tonight will be attending parents night. Who knew preschoolers had a complete agenda? Here are a few pix of Maddy and Logan from today. Next time I might even get their picture before they play in the dirt. :)

What a shame that she doesn't like the spotlight.

This is Maddy's favorite animal. Apparently savannah sparkles(the elephant) is also turning 4.

We'll I've had my go at blogging on here and obviously didn't do a very frequent job.  Jeanette is going to take over and see if she can be better at which I'm sure she is.  She already had a nice little entry typed up and the internet connection went down while she was trying to upload a pic.  So this has thrust us into using the Windows Live Writer which allows you to create entries offline and doesn't require a connection except only when publishing your entry.  We'll see how it works.  I may be bragging it up and it dies just as bad as the Internet connection did.

So where to begin?  Because it's been so long since I've written on this thing there is so much to fill in that I won't even bother to try.  Let is suffice to say that we are all doing very well.

Madelyn - Started preschool last week.  She loves attends three days a week for 4 hours each and loves it.  She turns 4 in a few days.

Logan -  Hitting the terrible 2's  runnin'.  We'll I can't complain he is such a mild mannered child.  Although someone at church did have to agree that he was getting a little wild.  he just turned two a few weeks ago.

Jeanette - Still loving living at the Mother Ship.  These two kids keep most of her time occupied but she has enjoyed going to the gym over the last few months.  Pretty impressive that she can get up at 5am to hit the gym everyday.

Me - Loving every minute of my job.  Oh, and I get to surf on the mornings that Jeanette gets back early enough in the mornings.  I'm convinced that if anyone is addicted to that cup of joe in the morning that if you hit an early morning session the first water that hits the back of your neck equals about 10 pots of coffee.  Quite invigorating to get it in before work if you don't mind the nose drains in the middle of the day.

Alright time to test this thing out. Good luck to Jeanette keeping tabs on this.  I'll jump on from time to time to add my two cents and defend my name and honor.

Toodles,

--Burdean