Big News: Penelope is 2!

Penny is two years-old. I cannot believe my eyes when I look at her. It is hard to believe that two years ago was the very first time that I saw my precious baby girl. I remember being so nervous throughout the whole day...in the delivery room I was as pale as a white sheet but I tried to play it off like I was doing alright, for Brittany. But honestly, I was petrified.

Of what, I'm not certain. Maybe I wouldn't be the father she deserved, maybe she wouldn't like me, maybe something horrible could have gone wrong in the delivery...

But so far, I think all my fears have been for nothing. Both Brittany and Penny came out of the delivery room (thank God for that), and I can't judge myself of how good of a father I am but I know that she loves me because of the way she greets me when I get home from work. It never gets old, as soon as I open the door I hear "DAAYYYDDDEEEE!" and she runs up and gives me multiple hugs. It's one of the best parts of my day.

I'm trying to cherish every second I can get with her while she is this tiny. Because as soon as I know it, I'll be watching her drive off to prom, watching her meet our future son-in-law, walking her down the aisle...meeting my grandbabies...

Okaaay, sorry, jumping a little ahead of myself! Penny is two and I'm cherishing her while I can!

Her party was a blast, we had tons of family and friends come over and hangout in the backyard. The backyard was stacked with a trampoline, bounce house, bird house painting and an outdoor movie! I almost think that some of the adults had more fun than the kids, haha! It was great to see everyone and to see Penny have such a wonderful time as a toddler.

These moments are the ones that we need to cherish.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Catching Up...

Well, I let this blog fall behind again. So lets hit some key points since my last post:

• Micah's new parenting plan finally got finalized with his father. (That was a lot of Fs...) Things really worked out and I believe we are in a place where we can limit the amount of flareups between both sides. But most importantly, I believe Micah will be happier once we settle into the new agreement.
• I got a new job! That's right! Still with HCA, but I'm the new Communications Coordinator on the HCA Rewards/Benefits team. So far it has been incredible, finally being able to tap into my creative side and really feel like I'm making a difference in the work I do. I put together several newsletters, design posters and fliers, design for web, write content, etc. etc.
• Penny is going to be 2 years old in 4 days...It is unbelievable to say that. She has gotten so big. I can't believe she will be so old...it really makes you think about how fast time moves when you babies are so big. Micah will be 8! 8! I met him when he was just over 2 years old...crazy that little man has been in my life for almost 6 years.
• Penny turning 2 isn't always a great thing...she definitely has hit the terrible 2. Though, we have a system...when she throws a fit Brittany or I will ask to have her hands and for her to look at us. Then we calmly explain to her the situation and she replies with "Okkkay...I sorrryy Daaa-yee" (That's how she says Daddy.)
• The photography business has taken off this wedding season. We don't remember being this busy in previous years. Totally a great thing, but definitely takes us away from the kids more than we want. 
• I've gotten more involved with the church. Brittany and I taught a children's class on Wednesday nights. We went to Gatlinburg with the Youth Group in February. We've been asked to help out more with the Youth Group, and we are getting excited for the possibilities. 
• Lots of new stuff happening with our house. We have hardwood floors now! Well, actually they are vinyl flooring panels that look and feel like hardwood but cost WAY less. We love them.
• We finally repaired our fence, for the most part.
• We turned our backyard into a cool hangout spot for kids and adults, with firepit included! Hopefully we don't burn the neighborhood down.
• We are still getting harassed by the HOA. I'm never going to move into another neighborhood with an HOA.
• We have been living with only one car...kind of rough, but it saves us from having a second car payment. Big shout out to my parents, Jason and Hope, Raleigh and Brooke and whoever else have been chauffeuring me around when I need rides to work or practice.
• Practice? What have I been practicing? Well, my old band, Circean, is putting together a reunion show. We've been practicing over the past few months and it has really came together. Good timing too, since the show is actually this Friday.
• We just got back from our yearly trip to Destin, FL. Had such a wonderful time, I think I want to move there...so laid back and a wonderful environment. 
• Tons of new movies are out that I want to see, many of them from my most anticipated movies of 2012 post several months back. I will write some reviews of the movies I've seen.
• Ummm, the Redskins drafted Robert Griffin III...excited would be an understatement for Redskins fans right now.
• Titans missed out on the Peyton Manning Sweepstakes...we still have Jake Locker waiting on the bench, though.
• Ravens just re-signed my favorite running back, Ray Rice to a 5 year deal. 
• Fantasy Football starts up soon, I'm in 4 leagues, running 2 of them and co-running another...Can't wait!
• I'm still madly in love with my wife, even if she does give me a lot of honey-to-dos. She is my best friend and I don't know where I would be without her. We will be married for 4 years this October.

I think that's about it! I'm sure I left out a lot of things, but I'll add those when I get to them. :)

Hopefully my lack of updates haven't lost some readers! <3

Dance Central Video Remix

WHCoC Fall Festival

Sunday was the real Halloween, even though we went trick or treating on Saturday. Which, by the way, I’m still not sure how I feel about that, but it seemed to work out well I suppose. So Sunday, after watching my Redskins get beat by the Lions…what?...Britt, Penny and I went to White House Church of Christ’s Fall Festival, and man it was fun! (Micah was at his Dad's)

They had the first annual Cornhole tournament, which lasted just about the whole time (from 3 to 6). Randy and I (Shake n Bake) came into the tournament with high expectations, but got knocked out in the third round by the newlyweds, Wade and Christy. Randy had never played before and I’ve only played twice, but we got a pretty good rhythm going on in the first two rounds. Wade and Christy were just too much to handle though after we were beating them 15-6, they came back as we couldn’t put them away and sunk a lot of three pointers.

After we got knocked out of the tourney I decided to just hang out and eat some chili, play with Penny, talk football and walk around with Britt as she took pictures (which you can see some below).

As the daylight started to fade the tournament came to an end, which led to the devotional and then trunk-or-treating for the kids. Penny fell asleep on me as we were handing out candy, and soon after that we decided to head home.

I was pretty upset we didn’t take the gold in the tournament, I think Randy even flipped a car in rage for loosing…but next year we will take the medal and we will be the greatest corn holers ever on the face on the planet. That’s what shake n bake does to you. Oh yes. Watch out.

……Sorry, a little Ricky Bobby just came out of me there.

Anyways, after the festival we relaxed at home, Brittany edited some pictures while I watched Big Ben loose two of my fantasy games for me when the Steelers lost to the Saints. Then, we watched a killer (literally) new show on AMC called The Walking Dead. I absolutely loved it, and will review it soon on this blog because I think everyone should check it out!

So with that, the Halloween weekend ends and I’m back to work…let’s hope this week goes by as fast as last week!

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!