Disney What What Land

I’m sure that all of you have been on the edge of your seats, anxiously awaiting news regarding our Anaheim experience. I can not disappoint.

Yes my brother-in-law is wearing a wife beater out in public. When he arrived at our room earlier in the morning, I asked him if he wanted to make use of our bathroom to recommence the dressing portion of his morning. His blank stare led me to believe that he had no idea what I was talking about. Just in case you were wondering, I did establish later in the day that this was a laundry issue and he did buy a shirt.

The Burkes' made it to Disneyland! All freakin' 10 of us! A little mini miracle if you ask me. Of course only I had to have my plane held so that I could make it and was then forced to displace an elderly couple so that I could get a seat next to my three year old. Being the last person on the plane tends to make the rest of the passengers grouchy with you (who would have guessed?) and by the time I boarded, all the seats except for two distant ones were taken. By the third plea for help by the flight attendent I knew that I was going to drug off the plane by an angry mob. When the kind woman polietly threatened the crowd by asking who was going to take responsiblity for this "lively" child if we forced to split up, some nice people did give me their primo seats in the second row. I have to be honest though that my trip was starting to look up when I thought I might be able to pass Izzy off for a couple of hours. No such luck. By the time I got to LAX, I was completely frazzled. Wouldn't you be if you were traveling like this?

Chase and Cody rolled in a couple of hours later but for the first few hours of the trip, I was on my own. And I will never do that again. I ended up rolling the stroller plus the luggage across four terminals. NIGHTMARE!

The major problem with Burke vacations is that the men of the family think that vacation means "leave with no plan, arrive with no plan, contiously keep moving, still don't make a plan, disregard tired children by forcing them to keep going and otherwise have no time to chill." Just one trip I want Nicole and I to be in charge. We would have down time plus still be productive because our movements would be fluid and organized. I can hope, can't I?

All of you should have heard grim reaper Nicole as were on the shuttle from the hotel to Disneyland. She kept saying, "You better have fun because we are neeeevvvveeeerrr coming back here." I didn't think it was possible to depress children on their way to the HAPPIEST place on earth. Of course by 8pm that night, I was completely agreeing with her.


The highlight of the trip was our breakfast with the princesses. It was very magical for the girls which made it fun for all. When Izzy saw Princess Aurora come out, she grabbed her autograph book and fell from her chair onto the ground out of excitement. I will never forget the moment because it has been burned into my brain. The look of pure joy made everything worth it.

Of course we did a lot of other things on our vacation. Some highlights...

The Hollywood experience. I have been to CA several times and have never done this, so I thought it was great.

I got to see the home of one my favorite TV shows, The Girls Next Door.

Tori Spelling's childhood manor.

The Osbourne House! Now Christina Aguilera's home.

And last but not least, an In and Out Burger.

What makes this better than your average In & Out? Paris Hilton got arrested here for driving under the influence. I literally threw myself across the limo so I could grab this photo for your viewing pleasure.

Please don't judge me.

Brain is Fried

I seriously have so many things going through my head right now that I can barely stay focused for more than 5 seconds. So I'm going to steal an idea from a pro and write a list of things that I could blog about.

1. My living situation. I have been told there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I will feel welcome in my house soon. This would be a good idea but it really is too emotionally draining. Besides depending on how I examine the situation, I’m mad or hurt by someone and who really wants to be mad/hurt all the time?

2. Izzy hasn't had an accident in FOUR months. Nah, this is old news.

3. Chase is coming home on Sunday. But then it occurred to me that if I start blogging about every time he leaves and comes home, it would be all that I would ever write about. So for now, I'm just going to leave my excitement in my head. But I am REALLY excited.

4. The wedding that I missed out on last weekend due to the weather. But reliving sliding down the freeway backwards might be more than I can take right now. I wish I could let Megan know how truly disappointed I am that I missed her special day.

I want to talk about something that makes me happy.

No words are really needed.

John Cena

Meet John Cena.

Meet John Cena's biggest fan.

I can't pretend that I understand this fascination Little Buddy has with professional wrestling. Because I don't. But I can tell you that I thought Little Buddy was having a seizure when he approached me flailing his arms in front of his face.

I have come to discover he is not suffering from epilepsy.

I have John Cena to thank for this little misunderstanding. Being that Little Buddy was just copying his signature move.

So next time Braxton appoaches you and says "You can't see me" while doing this little hand wave in front of his face, please don't call 911 or the psychiatric ward. This is all part of the show. Do not be concerned until Little Buddy attempts to pick you up and body slam you. At that point, you may have an issue.

Little Buddy Turns 7!!

Little Buddy had a birthday yesterday!

He turned 7!

I got him this gift because he collects Star Wars toys.

He told me he didn't like it because they were all girls. And being 7, he doesn't like girls!

The moral of this story is that I am obviously not qualified to be the aunt of a 7 year old boy. He only puts up with me because I let him play my wii.

Braxton's First Day of School

This crazy summer has finally come to an end and it feels like it just barely began. But one good thing is that Braxton has started school and seems very happy. He went to Kindergarten in Utah so this is a whole new experience for him. But he had a good time yesterday and he actually came home with homework. I couldn't believe it.

An Honest Attempt

I have to give my mother-in-law kudos for trying. She was very deteremind to get a picture of these three together. As you can tell, it didn't go great. These are just 5 of what must be 20+ pictures, none of which have the three kids even looking in the same direction. Braxton was the best, then Jade and then Gordy and then Izzy. Izzy has this thing with having her hand up. I have never really noticed it before but in over half the pictures she has her hand in the air. Even in past photos that have been taken professionally, she keeps her hand up. In the bottom picture, Braxton has to restrain her because she wouldn't listen. But overall, I thought they were kind of cute. When you look at all of them together, it creates a little time line of cute cousins.

Grandma Great Turns 73!

Grandma Great turned 73 on Monday. I tried calling her all morning and her line was busy. So many people called her that she couldn’t even take a break between phone calls. I finally got through around 11 only to find out that I was the 15th person to call. We decided that it would be fun to visit Ashton that night so Chase, Isabelle & Braxton and I drove up to have dinner with her. I felt bad that she had to cook but we volunteered to take her out and she refused. She really wanted to cook. She bought me some of my favorite dressing to complete the meal. Unfortunately, I couldn’t eat it because it was Kraft and they started using miracle whip in their ranch which is completely disgusting (I'm picky, I can't help it). But the act is very reflective on the person that my grandmother is. She is very loving and giving and I never could relate to people that don’t know their grandparents very well because I value mine so much. I can’t think of one of my major life events that my Grandma hasn’t had a front row seat for. I used to think it was because she only had three grandkids and most others have more than that that they need to divide their attention on. But really it comes down to her being the person she is. If she had a hundred grandkids, she would be focused on all of them. On her birthday, she took Izzy and Braxton out to the barn to feed the cats. Braxton came running back inside the house and said, “We have to save Grandma Great from Izzy!” Unfortunately, Izzy had put Grandma Great into timeout in the barn and was hanging on the chain so that she couldn’t open the door. But on a completely different level from that, we do have to save Grandma Great from Izzy (& all of her family) because she would give any of us everything she had. Her thoughtfulness shines through in all aspects of her life which is exactly why she had call after call from different people on her birthday. She’s a great friend to all, a perfect ally to have and a wonderful grandma.

Micki & Jade please!

Doubling the number of occupants in your house is overwhelming for anyone. Cody's baby mama (her name is Brittany, I just think that baby mama is funny to say) came to stay at our house with her two kids for 11 days. Izzy fought with Brooklyn the entire time. I know that my kid can be spoiled but the fact of the matter is that she was just not used to so much commotion and competitiveness in her house. By day 8, she came to be crying because the girls got into another fight and she said, "I want Micki and Jade." Even her little two year old mind could process the fact that things are easier when we visit with them than the situation we were living in. I was at the end of my rope, not that there weren't fun moments with the kids, but it was too much for too long. At one point, Isabelle and Brooklyn got stuck behind the couch, which I thought made a great cage. They thew themselves over it and got stuck in the corner, which makes it their problem, not mine. I refused to rescue them until they agreed to calm down, so Braxton stepped in for me. Thankfully, he couldn't lift either one of them. There is also a seperate issue that is up for debate. Brooklyn's hair got cut and she started closely resembling Joe Dirt with the mullet look. She kept claiming that Izzy did it and Brittany told everyone that. It can't be true! During the alleged incident, Izzy was asleep in her bed. And I told everyone this. I fought it to the bitter end but the day after they left, I found a piece of Isabelle's hair that had been cut. Her hair is much thicker than Brooklyn's and so it was hidden better. So maybe Izzy did it. But I'm not telling anyone because there is no way that it could be proved either way! Everyone has returned to where they belong and I can get my life back to normal (if that's possible).

Where's Izzy?

If Izzy is ever asked to do something she doesn't want to do, I know where to find her. Whenever I hear little feet quickly scampering away, there is a good chance that I can find Izzy wrapped up in the drapes. This is her secret hiding place that is no longer a secret but she hasn't figured that out yet. When Izzy spends the night at my mom's house, my mom thinks it is hysterical that Izzy winds herself up in the drapes to avoid being dressed in the morning. I don't find it so comical. In fact, it pretty much drives me nuts. She does it so often that it has become one quick motion on her part. A combination of running and twirling at the same time so that she thinks she's well hidden. Never mind her feet sticking out of the bottom. This morning, I couldn't believe how fast she ran to the curtains. It was crazy. And then before I knew it, she was "gone." Once I left her there for a few minutes to see who had a longer breaking point. After five minutes, I heard little giggles coming from her hiding place. She really thought she had pulled one over on me. I had to laugh with her. At least she has a safe place to go. Mostly I'm grateful that they were cheap drapes to begin with because after the abuse they have been through, they are starting to show wear and tear. When Braxton was here, I would find both kids behind the drapes playing. There must be some fascination that I haven't discovered yet.

A Symbol of Freedom

Well, no matter the outcome, the 2008 election season is over. Thank goodness! I don't think that I could have taken another day, especially because this one has been going on for over a year. Earlier this year, when I went and saw the movie Swing Vote (by myself because Chase hates spending time with me) something really stuck out for me. There was a line in the movie about how those of us that don't work for the government or serve in the military are really asked to do very little for all the freedoms that we enjoy. All our country asks from us is to spend a few hours every four years voting. If you can't sacrifice that, then what can you sacrifice? So yesterday I decided to teach my six year old nephew about the democratic process and I took him to vote with me. On the way over we discussed how important it was to vote because there are people are there that are giving their lives for our right to such liberties and people in different countries aren't even allowed to pick their leaders. He was so cute and innocent througout the whole process. He asked the lady checking people in if she had voted yet. When she told him she had, she asked him who he was voting for and he told her aunt Katie. On the way out, he asked when he could vote and I told him when he was a grown up. And he replied, "So you mean when I turn 7?" After I got home last night, I played with the kids and went to bed. Just getting out there and voting took a huge weight off my shoulders and I didn't feel the need to keep myself up all night watching the TV because as that point I had done all I could do. The only thing left is to make my husband feel guilty for not voting. But I'm not going to work too hard at this because I have a feeling that we would have cancelled each other out and this way I still get to feel like I won.

Family Fun

The Lanier Family Photo

The Sunset the night my Grandpa passed.

Izzy watching Monster House for the first time.

The small redeeming factor in my horrible experience last week was that I got to spend the entire time with my family, which I utterly enjoyed, minus the circumstances. Our nephew, Braxton, is in town and my sister and her family were here for a few days. Overall, we managed to have a nice time together and I wanted to share a few pictures of the week.