Merry Christmas from the Burnsbrood!

Now I know I've been a bad blogger, I have excuses though, and they are very good. I will spare you the details but I will say life has been a little less than stellar around here. Life has handed me lemonades and of course I have tried to make lemonade even though I would have preferred to be handed limes in which I would have had a shot of tequila and salt and thrown a party which would have been so much better than what I'm really dealing with. Anyways, I just remain fervent in the belief that God is good and keep truckin on!

So Christmas is here, just seems like yesterday I was dancing to some fabulous eighties music in the Larkin kitchen at Thanksgiving with the ultra crazy and beautiful Kelly clan!(Shout out to Jennifer, love ya!) Ah, the memories and you tube videos that could be made from that night! Sorry, back to the point! Like I was saying, Christmas is here and I'm not in my whole "Joy to the World" kind of mood (see above mentioned lemonade/lime debate for reference.) Don't get me wrong, I've decorated, I've shopped(very little) and I have even gotten my holiday themed scrub tops out for work! You see, I'm not totally scrooge-like! I have even taken the kiddos pictures in front of the tree.

Every year for the last 5 or 6 years we have attempted to clean the kids up, throw on some clothes that are hopefully clean and not too wrinkly and smile(forcibly at times) for the camera. We have a couple of family pics thrown in there but for the most part they are of just the kids. This year was no different. I was destined to make a beautiful memory of the night. I was going to capture what a well behaved and good looking family I have and then share with all my family and friends. And of course I would hear the "Oh how big the Burns kids have gotten" or the "What blondies those kids are!" and "They look so precious!" My rose colored lenses soon cracked and my dream and reality would soon depart, in opposite directions!

There were fights about what shirt to wear or if the socks should be off or on and of course the "please don't slouch" or "don't do that to your sister!" There were tears. It was close to bedtime and that of course is prime meltdown time! There was even a temper tantrum and they stomped away from the photo shoot! But as soon I got over it (yes, it was me) I calmly walked back into the living room and found Bobby taking the kids' pictures. Everyone was smiling, behaving and listening to directions. What gives? Well of course, it was me. In my attempt to make a picture perfect family memory I had let my unrealistic expectations get in the way.

I was gently reminded that as unbelievable as it was, my family is not perfect! We are flawed, we make mistakes, we cry and we fight. We still love each other though. Just like Jesus still loves us no matter how much we try to push him away. We are human and that means we are flawed. We sin but no matter how much, His love is still there we just need to ask for it. How soon we forget in the season of CHRISTmas what we are really celebrating. Sometimes it takes those who love us the most to remind us no matter how much it may hurt!

So to show how unperfect my family is, here are some pictures from the 2008 Burnsbrood Christmas photo shoot!

Merry Christmas,Happy New Year and love to all from our crazy house to yours!
The Burnsbrood!

Unleashing kindness and love!

Proud to be apart of this church! Check out this link!

http://www.kansas.com/194/story/605978.html

NOOOOOO! NOT HIM!

I was going to post a wordless Wednesday post with some dramatic or endearing photo of one of my offspring but found this instead. I had to share, too funny! Enjoy!

Oh my the drama that is being a preteen!

Thankful Thursday

I know, I know! Two in one day! I'm on roll!


I wanted to take a moment to share with all of you what I'm thankful for! Yes, of course I'm thankful for a awesome family, great friends, being an American, the ability to vote and most of all the ability to worship whom ever I should choose to worship!


OK, back to the point! But today, I'm thankful for something we take for granted. Something in a 100 years you would never ever guess. What is it you ask that I'm so thankful for today? Spell check. Yes, I said spell check. Whether your on the computer and use the computer spell check or you have a friend, husband or wife who will look over your writing and point out those pesky spelling mistakes! Consider yourself lucky! I'm about to show you what happens when those kind of things are absent from your life. It's sad, a travesty if you may.

Now, if I hadn't seen this with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it. I took this pic while sitting at a stop light near the kids school. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong and they are having a Gage sale. You know I have a nephew Gage and I'm sure his mom on more than one occasion would have liked to have a Gage sale! Though it does seem suspect they are having a Gage sale and Gage is two letters away from being garage? Hmmm..... I'm just saying!

God knows I love living on the SOUTH SIDE!

Insert witty title

Thanks to all the nice comments about my last post! It's nice to know people enjoy what you are doing! And Amy, I have pics for this post so back off!! lol!

First let me say, I might not have voted for the now president elect, I do however respect him and recognize the history that was made with his victory. I can only hope that the change he promised will be beneficial for all and bring this country back together. I pray and hope that he prays and asks for God's guidance and that the Lord shall bless him and his family. That's all I've got to say about that!

Now on to more fun stuff! We have a busy last weekend like most, I'm sure! Halloween was a blast! We spent the night with friends and family at TJ and Angela's for trick and treating plus a kids party that followed. Everyone had a good time and if I heard right this party might become a tradition! How fun that would be! Absent from the pics are the boys! They decided we were not cool enough to join and would rather be with their friends! Me, not cool? Whatev!

The Motley Crew. Suprised this pic turned out since it only took ten
adults, one malfunctioned fog machine and 100 lbs of sugar! The princess, diva herself, Eliza! Don't let those big brown eyes
fool you! She makes Bobby cry!

Stealth Ninja Caden

Hayley?! Is that you? Long are the days of

princess' and cowgirls. Sigh...

Give me a S - Y- D - N - E - Y, SYDNEY! I'm so not a cheerleader

and actually cringed a bit when this costume was discovered! Oh well, it was free!

What can I say?

This blogging thing is a thorn in my side! I think I have witty, great things to say and as soon as I start typing I lose my train of thought, I have multiple run on sentences and all is lost! I really do adore, fawn over and become jealous of those born with the ability to be smart, witty and elegant in their writing! I think I'm witty when it comes to one on one convo's but when it comes to typing my crazy thoughts in my head, all bets are off! I'm insecure and jealous! I admit it! I secretly want to be a great story teller and blogger, just like Pioneer Woman or Courtney over at C jane enjoy it! Their words just fall onto their computer screens as soft as the snow falling in January! See, how corney is that metaphor? Is that even a metaphor? Is metaphor even spelled right? Maybe I should have paid closer attention in English class!
I had big hopes for this blog! I not only wanted to share photos of my platinum blonde offsprings, I wanted to share the thoughts, opinions, and just crazy dreams of this mom, wife, daughter, sister, friend and most importantly, child of God, with those who even cared this blog existed.
I know I have a problem with the overuse of exclamation marks! I just want you to know I'm excited! I know that run on sentences can go on forever and never really have a point and that I should know where to stop but I just keep going and going hoping my point gets across and....wait, dang it, I did it again, another run on.......well you know, you get the point, don't you?!
So to those who still read this...thank you! I know I'm inconsistent, long, a violater of most grammatical laws but I love blogging! I just wish there was another key that expressed my excitement other than this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Good Egg

My eggs are holy and remind me to rejoice in the Lord! What do your eggs do?

Busy, Busy!

We've been pretty busy the last two weekends and then add work in there and that equals no new blog posts!

Saturday, Oct. 11th found Bobby, the boys and I heading up to KC for the Third Day/Switchfoot concert. The girls stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Myers and had a good time! Jars of Clay was the opening act and then the Robert Randolph band was next! Both were great! It was the boys' first concert and boy did we have wonderful seats! Only 9 rows back from front stage! Both boys got to shake hands with the lead singer of Switchfoot which just made their day! Bobby and I both being huge Third Day fans enjoyed their set of new and old songs! The weather behaved and Starlight amphitheater is just beautiful! My camera or batteries suck so I got limited pictures. I only got pictures of Third Day on my blackberry. If anyone has any suggestions on some good camera batteries I would love to hear them! I went through 4 sets of rechargeables in less than 2 hours! Granted 2 sets weren't fully charged but the other two sets were! Anyways, we still had a wonderful time!







This last Saturday we got together with our BFF's the Neice family! We spent the day watching football, carving pumpkins and cooking a yummy dinner! What was supposed to be the adults helping the kids carve the pumpkins turned into the kids leaving us to finish up the carving! It was ok, I actually enjoy carving! I not only got to carve them but I also integrated my political affiliation! I think they turned out great and I'm kind of proud of them! Enjoy!

Save Second Base!

As many of you may know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month! So ladies, start feeling your ta ta's!


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As a nurse I deal with woman with breast cancer on a daily basis! I see what is does to these woman and their families. The pain and the fear of the unknown far outweighs the pain of surgery.


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By clicking on this link http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2 you are giving a free mammogram to woman who would otherwise not be able to afford one! Just think, you could be saving someones life!


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Do what you can to help fight this crappy, sucky disease! Remind your sisters and friends to do their monthly breast exams! Early detection is KEY!



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Cancer Sucks! Let's do what we can to help our mom's, sisters, daughters, grandmothers, aunts, and friends beat this!


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Dirty Little Secrets

Can I just say that I started crying because I was laughing so hard after I saw this video in church this morning! Ok, I was also teary-eyed because of the message today but that's a whole other story! Anyways, this clip is in the spririt of the TV show Intervention! Enjoy!

"Dirty Little Secrets" teaser www.gracepoint.com from GracePointWichita on Vimeo.

In our thoughts and prayers

Not much to share right now, actually things are pretty somber around here. I just ask that you keep my friend from Heights, Jamai, in your prayers. She just lost her husband last weekend in a car accident. Cortez was a great basketball player and Bobby had the priviledge of playing with him many a time. Jamai and Cortez have 3 kids together plus the 3 that Cortez brought to the marriage. My heart just breaks for her and her kids. The thought of losing the love of my life just makes my stomach turn and I cannot even fathom it! I know God has a master plan but it is weeks like this its hard to seem them through the storm. I know Jamai's faith is strong and in that I take comfort.

Here is some more pics!

As I promised yesterday, here are some more pics from our photo shoot! Omg, I know i'm biased and all but I am in love with these photos and this sweet little girl!

Beautiful day for some pics!

And who better else to be my model then the lovely Syd! She is so easy to work with and works really cheap! All it took was a grape slushie from Sonic and some playground time at the park once our shoot was over! Here is just a sample of our day! I want to mess around with some of the other pics in my photoshop and then I promise to share!

Giveaway

Stumbled onto this site! Love it! She is having a giveaway but it ends tommorow so get over there fast!
http://www.ourfamilyjournal.com/2008/08/welcome-to-uptown.html

Erica

I needed a good laugh!

Check out more of his stuff on You Tube! Enjoy!

Here we go again!

I had every intention of just letting this blog have it with all this crazy anger I have with the current election! I wanted to state what I felt was wrong and I wanted everyone to know how I felt! I started it with the clueless anarchists who think destruction of public property is the key to furthering their cause. But again, life happened. Relentless rants of non sense on my part gave way to fear, the fear of having your child go through the same thing he did just 4 short months ago. Payton received another concussion this last Saturday.
Count em', 4 concussions in his short 10 years of life and 2 of them in the last 4 months! This time it wasn't even obvious until he started getting frustrated when he couldn't express what he felt or answer the simple question of when his birthday is. Bobby knew something was up when during basketball practice earlier that day he got caught up in a what seemed harmless pile up under the goal. It was only later that Bobby knew that pile up wasn't as harmless as first thought when he found Payton chewing on his tongue. He told Bobby he couldn't feel it. He then said he felt like half of his face was numb. By the time they got home and woke me up (I worked the night before) he was already in a full blown concussed state. I asked him to squeeze both my hands and he couldn't do it. He just looked at me with hollow eyes and started to become tearful. He would try to tell me what hurt but nonsense words just came out of his mouth. That's when I knew he wasn't all there and that is was time to get him to the hospital. A few calls later and we headed off to ol' st. franny.
My mom met us there to get the other 3 kiddos so we could focus on Payton. We knew the drill and waited in our little stark white room till we were whisked off to CT. He never did throw up this time as in the other 3 times, which I guess is good. He was finally able to tell us his head did hurt. Our ER doc finally came in and talked with Bobby, Payton and I. The doc and Payton conversed and Payton was able to tell him who is fave skater was but not the year or what season it was. I think he even told the doc it was spring. The doc didn't seem impressed at all and told us he thought he was fine. He said he would be back with the CT results. I lost it. Granted I had only 1 hour of sleep after a 12 hour shift but this doc had no idea how far Payton was from his personality baseline and that this was his 4th concussion! I thought we had shared this info but apparently the young doc didn't quite grasp it. The doc stepped back into the room with the results of the CT which were negative but I still felt I needed to further the point of how concerned we were with Payton, negative CT or not. I don't think he realized that 4 short months ago we were here with the same thing and that Payton had a small brain bleed. I also reiterated the fact that Payton was nowhere near his usual state of extroverted, stubborn yet very pleasant and funny self.
I knew deep down Payton was going to be OK, I knew the symptoms would resolve. I wasn't looking for Payton to be admitted if the CT was negative. I just needed the doc to see our concern since I felt he thought we were crazy and overprotective. I knew I could monitor him at home and what to do if he turned for the worst God forbid. The doc seemed to get mine and Bobby's point and stated he would admit him for observation. We declined knowing that I had some expertise in this area and the doc was OK with that. He told us if the main symptoms didn't resolve by 9 or 10 that night to bring him back in and he would admit him directly. I could live with that. We could live with that.
Payton is doing fine now. Other than being tired his symptoms resolved by that evening. I knew he was fine when he started arguing with his sister. All was well at that point. But that doesn't put us out the woods just yet. I have a call in to our family Dr. to discuss Payton's future. As many of you know Payton is a very active athlete. As parents we are deeply concerned with this happening again and with the accumulative effects it will have on him. So while we wait for the Dr.'s call back I'm going to look into installing a CT scanner in our back room!

Anarchy, Schmanarchy!

Instead of writing a long drawn out political post I'm just going to post snippets in the next couple of days of what is really getting me worked up about the current presidential race. Don't worry, I vote, so it's okay for me to gripe! If you don't vote, I don't want to hear it and you should be ashamed of yourself and forced to wear a big scarlet letter on your clothes! Ok, that might be a little harsh but I just really have a fire burning in my belly right now about the crap that is currently going on! I know some won't agree with me and that is ok, that is what makes America great! So here it goes!

I'm not against protesting, believe me, I have actually protested a time or two but to those who are violently protesting at the RNC, give me a break! http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/conventions/27737929.html
Do you really think your furthering your cause by breaking windows, jumping on cop cars and pushing crap over? I'm sure your mom's are proud! This is why weekly spraying of prozac in neighborhoods should be legal!

Birthday's and Baptisms!

What a busy weekend for the Burns Brood! Hayley celebrated her 8th birthday yesterday and Sydney turns 4 on Monday! We had a combined party(wonder how long we can get away with that one!?) at a local park that has a interactive water fountain and playground. The weather held out and we had a great time! Can't believe my baby girls are getting so big!
Then 4 out of the 6 members of the Burns brood were baptized today! Bobby, Cody, Payton and Hayley all got baptized at church and I'm just estatic! It was such a great celebration! The band was playing, we had good food and of course the fellowship was just awesome! It was very emotional for me to see so many members of my family to accept Jesus Christ into their hearts! The kids were baptized by Rochelle, our family pastor! Love her! Then Bobby was baptized by our Pastor Bryson. Bryson was so pumped and I'm pretty sure he said "awesome" about 80 times! My cousin Jeremy also suprised us with getting baptized! He didn't tell anyone and he was the last one on the list! His son Noah also was baptized! What a great day! Church rocked this morning, had a nice and lazy sunday afternoon and then top it off with the baptism bash! I just feel so blessed right now! Enjoy some pics!

Praying

So with everything going on in our lives here lately praying is something that I've really focused on. It's not something I'm really comfortable with in terms of being just able to focus or just using it to further my relationship with Jesus Christ. I was surfing around on some websites and blogs I frequent and found a quote that has stuck with me lately. I got it from Beth Moore's blog. The link is on the left side of this page. I wrote it down and of course in the jungle known as my computer desk I lost it. Well I found it after deciding to clean the computer desk this morning. Here it is..

"Prayer should be as critical and functional as the steering wheel on your car. Without you, O Lord, I can go nowhere!"

What a great reminder!

Choices

Forgot to post these yesterday. Sent Payton and Hayley off to 5th and 3rd grade respectively. We love who they have for teachers this year! This really should be a great year for all the kiddos!
I also wanted to explain why Cody is going to Coleman MS since it's clearly not our neighborhood school and it's been a popular question! Our neighborhood MS is Truesdell or "Truehell" as it's called around these parts of town. Truesdell didn't have the majority of their students pass the standardized testing and this has happened the last three years. This makes Truesdell a "choice" school which is confusing because when I think of "choice" it's usually a good thing and Truesdell is not somewhere where we "choose" to go! Anyways, The district then gives parents of the kids that are supposed to go to Truesdell or any of the other 12 schools that are "choice" schools a choice of two other schools that did pass their testing. Coleman and Hadley were our schools and we chose Coleman for a number of reasons. For one, we felt their programs would fit Cody the best. Secondly, one of our very good and bestests friends is a teacher there! Oh yeah, and Coleman didn't have any felonies commited on their school grounds last year unlike Truehell, I mean Truesdell had! 7 Felonies, by the way! Its like a prep school for future felons! So there you have it, the confusing yet "choice" reasons why Cody is a Coleman Cougar!

P.S. Cody's grandma is a cougar!

P.S.S. Ok, that didn't sound right, she's a alumni Coleman Cougar! Wink,wink!