the 4th

Announcing you're pregnant when you already have 3 little kids is a lot different than your first. Instead of "congrats" you get a lot of "was this planned?" and "Was it an oops?" The guys at Doug's work honestly thought he had to be kidding. I wouldn't be so shocked if we didn't live in Happy Valley, but man, this 4th kid seems to be a big deal. Charlotte is so excited. I took her to my ultrasound at the hospital when I was around 12 weeks and didn't tell Charlotte why we were there. When Mindy put the wand on my tummy Charlotte asked with a smile, "Is that a baby?" She was thrilled. She wanted me to tell everyone right away and anytime we saw a neighbor she made me tell them that I was having a baby. The best part is that awkward are you fat or are you having a baby stage? You know the neighbors are giving you strange looks. We had our ultrasound today and baby looks healthy and measures right on track for a 21st of December delivery. We are trying not to find out what it is. I say trying because due to circumstances out of my control my mom was in the room at the ultrasound and I'm pretty sure she knows. We'll see how long it lasts. My cerclage is in place and my cervix is holding up pretty good. Here's to keeping this baby in til December!

easter hunt

Ben loved Easter. He loved that people gave him candy, his favorite thing in the world. Doug's cousin was nice enough to have us all over for an easter egg hunt at her house, and the kids had a blast



I can't find any other Easter egg hunting pictures, though we had two more hunts. Hopefully I'll find them!

gymnastics etc

Both of the kids were in gymnastics until I couldn't take the whining anymore, even though they loved the class once they got there. I loved the program and I'm sure we'll sign up again. I loved that they had themes, superheroes, cowboys, etc.




Charlotte loves her leotards and will wear them everyday. She loves to pick out her own clothes and I love her creations. Luckily, no one has made fun of her yet. I know it'll come. We went bowling for my sister's birthday and the kids had a blast.









We met with my family for a Easter Brunch and Charlotte had a good time taking pictures, as you can see.

some more zoo pics and other randomness

Here are some more zoo pics I'm too lazy to add to the last post. My favorite part of the zoo trip was all three kids crashing on the way back home.



I love how really happy Ben looks in this picture.




Charlotte has always called these pants of Anna's girlfriend pants. I'm not entirely sure where the name comes from, but I love how excited she gets when Anna wears them.



Charlotte was the only one who would pose for pictures for me at the playground, she's such a good girl!




I think this was Easter sunday. My friend Helen made the hair pretties for the girls. This was really the best picture I could get, sorry! And Anna is a total thumb sucker, it's so cute







This is just a picture of the kids at the park before we picked Charlotte up from preschool. All my kids love the swing, though it'd be great if they learned to pump at, say, 9 months

Catchup

I'm gonna try and catch up. We'll see. It snowed in March and I finally bundled my kids up and let them play. I had assumed that was to be the last of the snow. The kids had a great time, even though Anna's hands froze.








We also bought a zoo pass and had a great time there. Anna loves looking at the animals, though she'd love it more if it were a petting zoo. Of course the carousel still the favorite of everyone but Anna. It was so nice to have our friend Bonnie there so that we weren't outnumbered.

Doug's new toy

So Doug's been wanting a fire pit forever. I, however, am too cheap to pay for one. But now we have one and I actually love it. We made smores tonight. Turns out the kids don't even like them! Oh well, more for us.

The way Burkes vacation

I tried to take a picture of all three kids and this was the best I could get.


So we went on a vacation of sorts. I guess if you count driving 25 minutes away a vacation. We know how to party, let me tell you. We spent an extended weekend back where we used to live and had a fantastic time. I like our new neighborhood fine, but only because the kids have friends to play with. My old neighborhood was filled with people who spoiled my kids and really, how can you compare? Plus, they let me randomly drop in for a visit whenever it suited me. The people here have kids and their own busy schedules, darn them for having a life.
It's amazing how much stuff there was to pack for three days. It almost, almost made the trip not worth it.





Here is my sister in law with their baby, who has the biggest eyes and the best mohawk hair. We visited them on the way up too. Granted, they live just 15 minutes away and the number of times we get up there is disgraceful. Can I blame it on the screaming baby? No, I'm a bad aunt.


My grandparents have dress up clothes, which I have mentioned before, but we couldn't go up and not take a picture of all the family in their wigs. Where is mine you might ask? I forgot, lucky me.










Who is this man you ask? Oh only my kids' favorite person ever. This is Brother Klein.








And this is why they love him. He does this every time we come over. He jumps on the trampoline with them, swings them around and becomes their own personal jungle gym. I got to ride on a snowmobile for the first time the same day my kids did even.
All in all we had a great time with great food! Maybe next vacation we'll leave the county.


Anna prefers to be standing no matter what she is doing. She can take steps, as many as 8 at a time, but prefers mostly to grace us with her ability to stand upright. She now has three teeth and looks pretty dang cute.

The other day we braided Charlotte's hair and left it in for 3 days. You would not believe how much she loved it when we took it out. She looked beautiful and she knew it. She used to worry that people would laugh at her when she had her hair like this and I don't know why she thought that, but now she knows that it is way fun to have pretty hair.



Just a few random pics of my cute kids.