I'm almost halfway caught up!

Christmas 2008 was good for us. Santa brought us a trampoline and It was a little windy and chilly christmas morning, Breeana was the only one brave enough to go out and Jump. I was even such a chicken that I took the picture from inside the house. As always Papa Larry came and had a shortened Christmas Break with us, and thank goodness he didn't give us the scare like he did last year! Santa always finds him at our house too...... The kids love to have him come, especially since we don't get to see him too often..

Jingle all the way.....

Santa sure brought some crazy things this year in the stockings! Billy bob teeth??!!??

This winter we were lucky to get snow not once, but twice!! It was a couple days short of a white christmas.


During Christmas break we went up to Mesa and hung out with our favorite Aunt Becky, Uncle Chad, Cayden, RiKenna, AND Taylor and MOrgan. Rikenna and Morgan were celebrating their birthdays. Becky and I took the girls out for a girls day. (Becky's idea, I had never heard of this place) we went to this place called Libby lu's. The girls had a GREAT time!! They got their hair done, make up, glitter in hair, nails, cat in a purse, they picked out a ton of girly stuff. They looked so cute and ready to go out on the town. We had lunch and met back up with the boys. Then we were off to the movies... We watched bedtime stories.. Well I watched waht Maci would let me watch. She wanted to get down and run around, but it was a cute movie. Here are the boys having snacks at the movies. After the movies, dinner at Chad's choice. Islands Burgers. Mmmmm...and how lucky could we get?? Kids got to Eat FREE!! Score!!! A super fun weekened as always.
Here are the Princesses.. Taylor, Morgan, RiKenna, and Breeana

The UPDATE continues!!

I told you that I was going to update...I'm serious. No more messing around!

HALLOWEEN 2008

Here is our "little" Maci. I think she will always be little Maci. She is so pettite(sp?) This halloween she was raggedy ann, duh like you couldn't see that, But this year was special cause that is actually the same costume that my mom made for me and wore. My mom had saved it in her box of costumes just because, who would have thought my own daughter would have worn it! She looked like a doll don't you think? Makes you wanna pick her up and squeeze her!




I think that Tyler's Uncle John (who passed a few years ago) who was a CRAZY ASU fan would be proud. Breeana has a thing for ASU. Jayse is more like a ASU/and slight U of A fans at times. Breeana is an ASU die hard like her dad. Since Football season is in during halloween she was really into the cheerleaders, I am pretty positive that is what brought on the cheerleader costume. At the beginning of the football season somehow we managed to convince her that it was ok NOT to be a cheerleader for Jayse's team. But WOW did she amaze us when she knew all of the cheers!! Bounus for us-she even had a dance to the ASU fight song!! She did a great job at it too. She was an awesome cheerleader. Her dad was loving it! GO DEVILS!!



Well I think this was about the time when I actually gave up on the blog..... The time of year that our house gets crazy. No, really.... I think you have no idea. The mom at this house goes into "crafty" mode wait, I mean "crazy" mode. It actually only lasted about 2 months. I did a craft boutiqe. I really do love it, (Tyler hates it) I just don't love the aftermath ( that I am still trying to pick up all the pieces 4 months later) I usually work crazy, then just die afterwards. I make a ton of stuff, then clear everything out of the house and open it up for the weekened. This year we were open two weekeneds which was unusual. This year I also had several friends come and bring their crafts which made it nice and there was a great variety for everyone who came. My sisters and mom also make baked christmas goodies. People look forward to it every year. I always have early birds! I was a little skeptical and worried this last year with the economy and all, but it turned out to be one of the best years so far. (See those Merry Christmas blocks in the second picture. I thought they were so darn cute, so I made some. I ended up with 10 orders! That is a little unusual)




OK well dang, what do I say about this........It all started with Tyler asking/begging my cousin to take him Lion hunting, and the rest is history...... Just kidding. This is Tylers first mountain lion. It is now at the taxidermist, waiting to turn into a really expensive rug to hang on the wall!! Well the rest of the story is, Is that Tyler is really good at hunting and he LOVES it, way more than I wished he did,( and that's no secret) BUT remember he's really good at it, and for that reason, my cousin has asked him to partner with him in a guide service for Lion hunting. So because he was gone already alot with work, now he is gone more taking people hunting mostly on the weekends. And because Tyler is good at so many things he has created a website with pictures and video and stuff about the business. You can check it out at www.chasintailaz.com I don't know all that fancy stuff how to just click on the link, but check it out anyway.....It's still in the early stages of getting started, so we'll see what happens. Way to go Tyler.

This picture was long overdue for an UPDATE!! It has been about 7 years since we had a family picture. The family had changed and grew a whole lot! We had such a great time getting pictures. We took pictures at 2 different places, we had one of Nathan's friends take them for us and I think we took pictures for about 3 hours!! Since some of us had other plans for Thanksgiving we decided that we would do a picture and then have our dinner the weekened before. It was so nice. I don't think that we have had a thanksgiving all together ever. We were always missing someone for some reason. So this was a first for us... how sad to say huh? Oh well. it was a good time. The kids had a blast with the leaves!!

**The Annual Parris/Burketts Christmas Party.**
Our Grandma is so awesome because she has these special connections to have santa, and his is ALWAYS able to visit us early. He always knows about all the kids- sometimes he does get them a little mixed up with who lives where and with what parents--- it really is confusing. things change every year.....But nonetheless he does a pretty darn good job!! He always bring the kids a bag with stuff... He's such a good sport, he even lets the adults sit on his lap, then everyone has to dig him out of the chair he is sitting on when it's time to leave. Its a fun tradition we have along with candy houses-The candy houses are actually grandmas idea that the parents just LOVE! Right Becky?? You know how the saying goes. sugar 'em up and send 'em home. Yea grandma's pretty good at that. The kids love to be together with their cousins causing trouble usually. The adults had it pretty easy this year. We got a hotel (oh year, plus Maci- Grandma isn't that lucky to keep her YET!!) and left all 13 grandkids at grandmas for a HUGE slumber party. Our grandma is AMAZING isn't she? We love her!! The kids also loved her when surprise all MATCHING PAJAMAS!!! YAY!!! They looked so cute, even big girls Taylor and Morgan..Thank you grandma we love you!! You're the best!

PLEASE nobody pass out!!

I know you are all in what some people might refer to as a state of SHOCK!!! Yes, I actually have given our blog a complete makeover and Oh yea what's that word again UPDATE well I know you can't believe it, but guess what people BELIEVE IT, cause it's true, you're lookin at it. Some people think that i have "nothing" to do. Well that is a little false, perhaps that's kinda why the blog has gone un updated for so long??? I guess I just haven't had my priorities in order. Ha! It has actually seemed a bit like a circus around here. I am going to try and give you the short version of the last 6 months if that's even possible. So I guess for all of you who are just being nosey (that would be me too, it's okay I'm a blog surfer too) and want to know what we've been up to or, who have nothing to do obviously that is why you're reading our blog, you can just sit back, relax, and keep checking back often. I am going to try and get us caught up in the bloggin world. Oh and did I mention that the other reason I am updating is so that we can get our names off the bottom of everyone's list!!! Enjoy and I'm sure I'll hear from you....probably something like, it's about time blah blah blah!! yea I already know......

So for all of you who are dying to know, I'm finally going to let the suspense end for you all and I'll finish tell you what happened to the birthday girl!! She had a great birthday. Her and her cousin Lexi- who is Melinda's daughter have the same birthday. Yes, the same birthday, don't ask me how in the world it happened! Breeana was born in the morning, and Lexi was born late at night. For her birthday I made little mini pizzas and everybody got to make their own pizza. We also had a pinata, and Pink cupcakes at Breeana's request. She is a pink prissy girl. She is in to doing her hair I think about 20 times a day. You think I am kidding. headbands, buns, barettes, bobby pins you name it...., she even asked me if she could have my broken flat iron. Everytime I see her she has a new hairdo! I am glad that she can do her own hair though. She loves to brush my hair as well. Oh and she loves the lip gloss and make up. The only thing about this is, is that Maci is usually right beside her!! She loves to color, play my little pony, listen to music, she loves Hannah Montana if you couldn't tell- I"m not sure how that even started cause I don't even let her watch the show, still don't. She is a little poser for the camera. Anyway we love her and she is growing up way to fast!

So about two weeks after Breeanas birthday, the next exciting birthday we had was Tylers. October 18th. We had his most favorite dinner -steak- (I think he would have this every night if he could.) The only bad thing about this birthday dinner was that he had to cook his own dinner. He is "king of the grill" at our house and it's cause he does an awesome job!! We went over to my mom and had a "birthday" dinner with her too. Her birthday is Oct 16th. It was her 50th. I just decided that birthday are near as fun when you older. Seems like just another day... But we tried to make them fun. huh Tyler? Jayse wanted to get him, and he was very specific. A long sleeve, camo, ASU shirt. How in the would he came up with that I don't know. Breeana always thinks he needs a new ASU hat.... that's cause she isn't the one having to put them away. It was a good day. Happy Birthday to Tyler! I can't believe I almost forgot. He did get his most favorite cake in the world the 15 pound chocolate lovers cake from costo. It is the best!!!MMmmmmm ....I (We) love you Tyler!!! xoxoxo



This was probably one of the BIGGEST birthdays and the last birthday of the year, and WOW! We went out with a bang! Jayse had his eighth birthday. Can't believe I have a son who is eight years old and old enough to be baptized!! unbelieveable!!! I remember thinking when he was about 3 years old that how long it was going to be before he would get baptized. How times flies. He looks just like Tyler too!!

He dad wants things to be just like it was for him. On his eighth birthday he got a BB Gun, so guess who got a BB gun for their birthday?? Jayse. He and his dad waited a long time for this one!! He has loved it. He can't even sit at the table and eat his breakfast in the morning without looking for birds. Kinda drives me crazy cause then he has to stop and try and get the bird. so you could say it's a little distracting in the mornings! The first thing he does when he comes home is you guessed it. BB Gun. I always get the "hold on, " just a minute I just need to get this bird." I do have to say that he is a pretty good shot!! One day he came walking up and I noticed the bird was looking pretty blue and green kinda like a parakeet. I looked and him and thought Oh no, he killed someone's pet bird. I think it made him feel really bad. I immediatedly started questioning him if the neighbors had a bird and they didn't. He was nervous at what his dad was going to say, but It ended up that it looked like it someones bird had been on the loose for a while...Whew! Tyler and I had a little chuckle after he walked away of course....Jayse loves Hunting and sports, riding dirt bikes, Hummm...sounds like someone else I know. I wonder where he gets it......His dad!!! Like Father like son or however that saying goes. He hates homework, I'm not sure what 8 year old boy "likes" homework. He does really good in school when he tries, he gets side-tracked with other things like visiting.....He is a great artist with an imagination!!! He loves to make his sisters laugh!! We're glad Jayse is the big brother in our family.

So this was the big baptism day. Saturday, November 1, 2008 This was an extra special day for several reasons.

1. Because Jayse was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by his dad.
2. 'Cause his cousin Cayden waited 2 months! so that they could be baptized on the same day, Both by uncle Tyler and dad. What a fun memory!!
3. Jayse's Grandma Bernal and Both of the boys Grandma Parris gave great talks at their baptism. Grandma Parris made them each a baptism towel with their names on them.
4. Jayse and Cayden's PaPa Larry flew from Athens Texas, and MaMa Paula made them each a quilt(comforter) Papa Larry shared his testimony.
5. Family and friends were able to be there on their special day.
6. Jayse's mom was actually early and not late to the baptism!!!!

Jayse and Tyler (two of the most handsomest boys!!)

Uncle Tyler( Dad) Jayse and Cayden

Here are two future missionaries!!

They quilt made by MaMa Burkett....Jayse's favorite too....deer hunting

So this was really fun. We had to have something to entertain some kids, cause there were alot of counsins and friends after lunch, we wanted a jumping castle, but they were all rented out, but wait we got an even better deal!!! A HUGE slide. The kids had a blast on this, but I think the adults had an even better time!

It seemed like everytime we turned around one of the kids was hurt and crying............

I think they all took a turn at being hurt...

Despite all the craziness it was a nice and fun weekened.( it always is if it involves our favorite Aunt Becky and Uncle Chad, Cayden and RiKenna.....)We are glad that Jayse and Cayden made the choice to be baptized.

This is the end of the Birthday Bashes until 6 more months!

WE HAVE A BIRTHDAY GIRL *** BREEANA***!!

It's Breeana's Birthday. She is so excited because she is turning 5 today!! We have dinner planned tonight, so more pictures and stuff to come later..

IT'S THE BIRTHDAY GIRL!!!

( Here's an Aunt Marty picture with her head cut off!! :)
We made pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for her snack day. Oh yea, we can't forget they also had sprinkles on them -everything is better with sprinkles. yummy!

Happy Birthday to Chad (Becky too)!!

Date Night, well that's what I called it. That was because we didn't have any kids. No kiddos, and it's a date nowadays. Actually this was a Birthday Gift for Chad. Becky just invited us to go. We had a great time as always with them!! Never a dull moment. Between Tyler and Chad they keep us laughing. We LOVE Chad and are so glad to have him as part of our family now! Way to go Becky ! The kids LOVE their Unc Chad as well. There are some of our family who haven't met him yet, but let me tell ya you're missing out on a great person and a good time! But even though he's OLD now,(He just celebrated 40 yrs) he is stil able to keep up with all these kids we have. Becky and Chad share the same birthday, so it's double the fun. Oh and by the way she just turned 30!! Way to go Beck! Happy Birthday to you both!!!

This was our first and last baseball game of the season since this was the D-backs second to last game, at least they won, that always makes it better. We had a ton of food, soda and water ALL NIGHT LONG. We were offered alcohol a couple times finally we had to tell out waiter that we did not drink and it was going to be soda and water for us ALL NIGHT LONG. He was very cool about it. We even made a sign and set it up at the end of our table, it said. No Alcohol beyond this point. I'm pretty sure that it worked, cause no one offered us drinks for the rest of the night.

Tyler and Chad really enjoyed the wave, just check out the pictures... And I think it would be safe to say that Becky and I enjoyed the dessert... Even though there is a picture of Tyler eating getting ready to devour the brownie, (that is one of his favorites), we HAD to finish it off. It was all soo yummy!!!Thanks for a FUN night Becky and Chad!!




Tickets to Friday's Front Row
Tyler, Janell, Chad and Becky Enjoying some D-Backs game hoping for a win, cause we paid good money dang it!
AAHHHHHHH .......the wave .Tyler and Chad getting a little excited for the wave to come around
Gonna have to look close here... That would be the thumbs down on Oh Blah Blah Blah Blama.
It's a good thing we didn't let that commercial ruin dessert for the night. We had the birthday dessert smorgasbord. Let me tell ya.MMMMMMM.......MMMMMMM. Cheesecake, brownie with carmel drizzled, and some yummy peanut butter thing.

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY PICTURES MACI!!

Well, I really can't believe it, This year has gone by so fast. I can't believe that Maci is already one year old!! We have loved every minute of her in our family!!! From her teeny tiny 5lbs 4 oz to We think about 20 lbs. now Whoo Hoo! Gosh we didn't even know how to hold her she was so small. But this year has brought much laughter to our home Jayse reminds us all the time that he was the first one to make her laugh, saying something that was so rediculous, and off the wall, BUT it made her crack up.He has this special way of charming her even still. He loves to make her laugh and she loves laughing at him. She follows his to his room every morning while he gets ready for school. I asked him what his favorite thing about Maci was and his reply was that she laughs so hard all the time. :) Breeana has been the biggest helper. Wow! She was and still is such a good babysitter. She was my right hand girl. She would feed Maci her bottles and even burp her. She was so good at it. Maci's a little bigger now so it doesn't work as well for Breeana. She is great at playing ponies with her and taking her outside. Maci Loves to be outside, as soon as a door opens, she is gone, or at least tries to be. Breeanas favorite thing about Maci is to watch her laugh and roll all over the floor. She is quite the entertainer. Did I mention as well as entertaining us she is also keeping us on our toes. She loves to climb. on EVERYTHING. If she can get her leg up on it, she is climbing on it. You name it. couches, stools, end tables, in the kitchenly drawers, boxes.....I could go on. I think our most favorite thing about Maci is her ability to dance!!! She hears the music and moves. She's a great dancer! Everytime we get in the car she has to dance. She especially loves it when we are going across the street from my moms to our house cause she doesn't have to get in her car seat and she gets to stand up on the steering wheel and dance away... Anyway we love her to pieces!!!!

So a little about her birthday, We just had some dinner and of course some cake. My sister Emilie is the lucky one to wanted to develop the talent of cake decorating. She is really good at it. I got this birthday shirt for Maci cause it was cute. (I'm really liking the polka dots on everthing for girls lately.) Anyway so we couldn't decide on what to do for a cake, until..... duh make it like the one on her shirt. It turned out ssooo cute. She loved the cake, and you can imagine, it was fun and games until she realized that everyone was looking at her and laughing! Her favorite game is peek a boo, this is how we were able to get the frosting all over her face. Isn't that was 1st birthdays are all about!!! She somehow managed to actually pick up the cake off the plate. She wasn't very thrilled about presents as like most one year olds could care less. She had some cousins Easton and Samuel there that just turned 2 and know what presents are all about and were way more excited to open them then her. She loves her babies!! Oh, and the stroller, she likes it more when the kids give her a ride instead of the babies, go figure. Anyway Happy Birthday to our little "may may". Or little "peanut" as all the nurses called her!

>

It's the birthday girl!! She's showing off her smile!!
Just chillin before all the excitement...well not really. She really didn't want to get her picture taken. She wouldn't sit still and just look at the camera. Imagine that a one year old not sitting still to get a picture taken...
If you'll notice her shirt matches her cake!! It's kinda hard to tell. (her picture on the right side has a close up of the cake) We couldn't decide what to do for a cake, then I just loved it. It just looked fun. This cake just turned out sooo cute!!
MMMMM............. whipped cream frosting.............
Peek...............a..............

...................BOO!!!!!!!!!!!
well it was fun while it lasted....Party over. Glad you were all entertained. I am one years old now...
Inside these gifts were, 2 babies, a baby stroller, Baby Einstein videos, books, PJ's, a dress, a vacumn, a ride on giraffe thing. She loves them all!Does it look like she doesn't want her brother and sister holding her to get a picture?? This is pretty normal. She's figured out that she doesn't need them bossing her around. HHmmm. go figure.

Bobcat Football--GO BOBCATS!!

The craziest time of the year has begun. Fall is in the air. I love this time of year.... for our family it means, BIRTHDAYS!!! YEA (for our whole family. We made it that way on purpose so everybody could remember them. They are even spaced within a couple weeks of each other) , Football, Tyler going hunting, and of course the holidays sooner than we think.<

Jayse is keeping us busy playing football, He is one of the big shots this year, and is loving it. He is the quarterback. He is good at the hut-hut thing... we practice it all the time. It makes me nervous, cause I want him to do good all the time. So far he's been doing really good. Makin' me proud! He always manages a touchdown or two. He's a good flag puller too! Today he made the winning touchdown with 3 minutes left in the game. So Grandmas and PaPas can be proud of the little Burkett!! Oh and I failed to mention, it couldn't possibly be because his dad is his coach, could it? Of course it is. His dad encourages him to do his best!! Sometimes Tyler tends to get a little excited!! He(Tyler) is quite competitive on the field, so I am encouraging best behavior:).. It's been fun to watch since Jayse actually understands the game now after 2 years. He's not just running around looking like a chicken with his head cut off, and some random whistle blowing every few seconds. Breeana has been watching the cheerleaders and is learning the cheers, don't know if that is good or bad thing. Here are the latest Football pictures we have.