Hello There 2012: Hiccups

Well, it's 2012.

Where the heck did 2011 go?

I can't believe how fast this past year went. I know everyone says that...but literally 2011 felt like a BLINK of an eye. Penny is a year and half now, looking bigger and bigger to me each day. She is clearly saying various words and understanding everything and anything I tell her it seems.

Micah is just huge. Sometimes to big for my own good, often I end up hurt in our wrestling matches now and it isn't because of the wedgies. He is super smart, nothing gets by him anymore. He is doing so well in school...he is just so grown up now, totally different than 2010.

2011 was a great year but went by way to fast. I realized this when I made the Christmas video (which is in the below post) and saw how big the kids are. How much I missed by not absorbing everything that goes on each day. I think we all get in too much of a routine to appreciate the daily struggles that take us away from that routine. In the moment those struggles are just an obstacle but when you look back on it they were moments that were unique and trying to break free of the daily muttle. (Is that a word?)

Most resolutions involve loosing weight or saving up money (both are things that I would love to do). But this year I'm going to go against the norm. This year I'm going to appreciate those little hiccups in the daily routine. So what if that puts me behind the schedule that I've written in my head that nobody else knows about. I'm going to accept those hiccups, flick off the daily routine and make them the best possible hiccups anyone could ask for.

I need to appreciate what I have sitting in front of me more than dreaming about what I could have or where I could be. 2012 is going to be about appreciation more than saving or loosing things. Hopefully we can all learn to appreciate hiccups in our daily schedule, it makes life interesting and worth living for.

Christmas 2011 at the Burkey's

2011 Holiday Christmas List for Geeky Dads

Are you wondering what to get me for Christmas or my birthday? Yeah, that’s right, you’ve probably forgotten that my birthday is coming up as well since it is between Xmas and New Years, it’s ok I’m used to it ;). Or are you just wondering what to get your husband, son, boy friend? This is the best gifts to get a man like me on that special day in December.

Get ready to get your mind blown with great ideas.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire - $199.99

Tablets are like the new black aren’t they? Well, this one is the real deal for an amazing price. Especially if your dude uses Amazon services already for music and movies, this will allow him to access all his files already on his Amazon account, plus FREE CLOUD STORAGE. If you don’t know what cloud storage is, just know that it is AWESOME and your man probably knows what it is. For the price (less than half the price of an iPad), this thing will be a REALLY popular gift this year. Especially paired with some Amazon Gift Cards.

Flat Screen HD TV - $300-$4,000

Quite a large price difference here eh? Well, it all depends how big of a TV your man is wanting to watch football on. An acceptable size around 32" could be around $300 while the new 80" can be in your living room for a whooping $4,000. Actually the 80" would be more like your living room is in your TV. Any who, there can never be too many televisions in the house, right guys?

Video Games - $30-$60

You know you hate Video Games, but men love them. There are TONS of games out right now that I’m sure you can find something just right. Games from Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Elder Scrolls Skyrim, Madden 2012, Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, Uncharted 3…I can go on and on here. If you aren’t sure what game to get him, just grab a gift card to Gamestop or Best Buy and let him go nuts!

Manly Movies - Die Hard or Rambo - $10-$20 each

What guy doesn't love the classic action flicks where things blow up and guys rule all? The Die Hard series is amazing, the first one being the best and should be in every guy's collection. Sylvester Stallone takes everyone to guy heaven in the Rambo movies. Either one of these series is a given for every guy to own or to have at least seen.


Manly Shows - The Walking Dead or The Game of Thrones - $35-$50 each

The Walking Dead and The Game of Thrones cater to two different types of guys, or the same guy in my case ;). A zombie Apocalypse or a medieval political war drama? Both filled with amazing characters and storylines, both filled with tons of blood, sex and survival. What more could a guy ask for? If your dude owns these the Game of Thrones book series or the Walking Dead graphic novel might be a great addition!

Star Wars Ultimate FX Lightsaber - $30

Ignore the kids in this video. Raleigh and I are buying each other these for Christmas so we can flip around like a Jedi. These have to be the coolest toy lightsabers made and at a wonderful price. Don’t  lie, your dude is a kid at heart and when he picks this up he will feel the force coursing through his veins.

Christmas Pictures

Here are some shots from our Christmas, before everyone got the stomach virus!

I'm Back!

It has been a while hasn’t it?

Well, that is because I ran out of time to post anything on this blog in November and early December. As many of you know I ended up having to pick up a second job to help with Britt’s slow photography season known as “winter.”

Things have been slowing down for the most part, getting used to handling two jobs at a time and having time with my family. For a little while I was working back at Best Buy, thanks again to Wil and Terrance for helping me get back in there. However after a few weeks of being there I got a part-time job offer at HCA for the group I used to intern with. I said my goodbyes to Best Buy and started work with Aaron Clifford, who is awesome!

This new part-time job allows me to work from home, which has been incredible for my family. I missed being home when I worked at Best Buy, so even if I’m working being at home is so much better than being in Rivergate.

Any who, we have had a busy holiday season with tons of family parties and events, on Thanksgiving we went over to Kim and Randy’s house for dinner. We celebrated Brittany and Micah’s birthday parties since I last posted. Micah’s birthday party was Mario themed and really seemed to be a huge hit, I hope that all the kids had a blast!

One thing I would like to mention though, is how many birthdays we have in the month of December just in our immediate family, here is the list:

• Brooke (Dec 6)
  
• Micah (Dec 14)
  
• Kim (Dec 21)
  
• Mom (Dec 24)
  
• Raleigh (Dec 29)
  
• Me (Dec 30)

So just about every week in December we were celebrating somebody’s birthday, it is pretty insane. Add on Brittany’s bday which is November 19th and Thanksgiving and that is almost a whole month and ½ of celebrating at least one thing each week! INSANE.

Christmas however was not as fun as any of us would like to admit. All of the details about that will come in another post because it is so long. But if you know me you should know what happened. Let’s just say the sick bug hit our house hard.

Now we are all recovering, getting back into our normal routines and playing with our new presents from Santa.

Tomorrow is my birthday! I’m excited to be 25 and I’m excited to see what my little dude got me – supposedly he is really excited to give it to me, so we shall see! I plan on getting back into the swing of things and posting again, so keep a look out for new posts!

Halloween Weekend!

Trick or Treat! YEAH!

Well, another busy weekend for the Burkey household. It was filled with hockey games, photoshoots, fall festivals and not to mention Halloween!

Work ended on Friday and I went to Micah’s hockey practice with little Pen-Pen, which was kind of funny because both Brittany and Derek had to work, leaving the step-parents (or “two-parents”) there cheering Micah on. He is getting so great at skating it isn’t even funny, such a huge improvement from about a month ago.

The rest of the night was spent eating at TGI Fridays and watching a scary movie to celebrate the Halloween weekend, The Crazies. Honestly, I liked the movie even though there were a lot of negative reviews on it.

Saturday was the busiest day of the weekend. Micah had a pre-game show where his team ran drills before a high school hockey game, then he came back home with us to go trick-or-treating! Jason got there early and helped me finish up the Halloween decorations as company started to arrive for our chili night.

We had a lot of people come over and enjoy the chili and trick or treating festivities, Meredith, Ryan and their baby Haley came, Mark brought his son Carson and Beatlejuice (Matt), and Randy and Kim. All of us went trick or treating while Jason stayed behind and gave out the candy (thanks man!)

Micah’s bowser costume was the talk of the street among the kids while all of the parents couldn’t get over Matt’s Beatlejuice costume, actually Matt took about seven to ten pictures with random people as we were walking around.

Honestly, it felt like New York City in our neighborhood. This year was probably the most kids I’ve seen trick or treating in a long time, which was awesome! I’ve seen the hype of Halloween fall over the years, so it was great to see as many people as we did on Saturday night.

Micah got a ton of candy, and as usual let me have all of the chocolate (he doesn’t like chocolate surprisingly). So, Halloween is always a good night for me as well, lol. The night ended with Brittany, Micah and I camping out in the play room, snacking out on some candy while watching Back to the Future and Cloudy with the Chance of Meatballs.

Halloween 2010 was a success in my book, I really think Micah, Carson, Penny and Haley all had a wonderful time. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

Next post will consist of the Sunday happenings, pictures of us trick or treating will be up soon!

Halloween Party 2010

Halloween 2010 started early at our house and it was awesome.

We decided to have a kid-centric celebration for all of Micah’s friends filled with costumes, piñatas, candy, pumpkins and a great hay ride. Not to mention some great games played on the Wii.

Everyone showed up, from Mario from Super Mario Bros. to Raven from Teen Titans. Even the adults dressed up with Zohan, Mongo, cowboys and girls, Jason and a Werewolf all coming to hang at the Burkey house.

Micah dressed up as Bowser, though it barely stayed on as he ran around the backyard and house with his friends. It is a great costume though, made by his two-mom (awesome job Amanda!) and was the hit among the kids.

Brittany planned on going as about three different things, even buying a couple costumes but she was so busy that she never had the chance to change into any of them. She had a blast though, and didn’t mind not getting a chance to change.

I went as a werewolf, it was a last second attempt of some sort of costume. I just threw on some overalls, a plaid shirt and a werewolf mask and I seemed to fit the part. However, the mask is a bit scary so I took it off for most of the party for the kid’s sake. So for most of the party I just looked like a hillbilly since the overalls didn’t fit well.

Jason and I had fun scaring everyone that went on the hayride. Our conversations as we were waiting for the truck to come down the road were very entertaining. I’m surprised the police weren’t called on us a few times, as we were hiding from cars driving by on the road, but maybe we are just that good at hiding.

The kids loved it when we started chasing the trailer and laughed even harder at me when I chased after the trailer for a second time. Long story short: I thought Jason got left behind so I went back for him, only to realize he was riding on the back of the trailer. Good times lol.

All in all Micah had a blast, and I’m pretty sure all of his friends loved it. I’m glad that we were able to throw such a big kids party. Nobody got hurt, nothing really got broken, Mongo wrecked havoc on the kids and we all slept like a rock after the party.

Happy Halloween! Thanks to my wonderful wife for putting most of this together and thanks to my parents, Britt's parents, Anita and Raleigh and Brooke for helping in the kitchen and setting up decorations!

Pictures below!