To Each It's Own

At this point in our boys lives they each have very different likings. Justus enjoys eating, laughing at his Dad and Brother and eating some more. Titus enjoys creating things, going crazy and reading. Below are some pics of them doing what they do best.
The first two pictures were taken tonight. Justus has been waking up and eating three times in the night! That's 18oz of milk people, after a full dinner and bottle before bed. So tonight I thought I would try to see how much he would eat if I just let him eat and eat and eat...after jar #5 I gave him some more oatmeal and lots of Sweat Potato puffs...and he would have eaten more, I am sure of it but we have a budget to keep! We will see if he still wakes to eat in the night. He must just be going through a growth spurt!

As for Titus, over Christmas break we were all stuck in the house due to our sickness. So we got creative. Titus wanted to build a Robot out of stuff in our recycling bin and some of his toys...so Titus collected random things from the bin that he thought the robot should have. Then he went around the house collecting what he called, "the finishing touches." After collecting all the parts we put our heads together and created this (and Titus named him of course)....Let me introduce you to

Super Man Spectacular Giant Wall-E 3000

A couple days after the SMSGW 3000 lost his coolness, Titus decided he wanted to make a boat that floated...here is what we came up with.
Hope you had a great Monday!

Where to Start

I am not sure where to start exactly since we have been out so long. So I will start with today. You already know we have been sick, we have had Christmas and New Years, Justus turned 7 months and a trip to Midland sooo there is not much else to tell besides some random details, and well, I am not sure if those will ever make to the ol' blog....I will spare you, thank me later.

I finished a book today and started a new one. The book I finished, Shopping for Time, How To Do it ALL and Not Be Overwhelmed by Carolyn Mahaney is an excellent resource for women who feel like there plate is always full and women who want to avoid this pattern. It is easy to read, loaded with practical application and full of Biblical tools to prioritize your time. It was so good that I am going to outline it and refer to the outline monthly.

The book I started is Fanny J. Crosby, An Autobiography. I am five chapters in and loving it. Fanny Crosby is a beloved Hymn Writer. She has been blind since she was 6 weeks old when a physician, who thought he was treating her eye for a cold, used the wrong solution and blinded her eyes for life. She wrote over 8,000 hymns, many of which you might recognizes...Blessed Assurance and To God Be the Glory to name a couple. I have only read up until she is 12 but so far her contentment with her blindness has blown me away. This is a poem she wrote when she was eight,

Oh what a happy soul I am,

Although I cannot see;

I am resolved that in this world

Contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy,

That other people don't;

To weep and sigh because I'm blind,

I cannot, and I won't."

One of the goals I set when I was about to have Justus was to read more. I want to always be learning and growing. It is not always easy to do this while juggling the home, the boys and other work. I read a quote by Dr. John Piper that has spurred me on in my goal to read more. I saw it on the Girl Talk blog and it was so timely.

He recommends setting a goal to read for 15 minutes a day:

“Suppose you read slowly like I do--maybe about the same speed that you speak--200 words a minute. If you read fifteen minutes a day for one year (say just before supper, or just before bed), you will read 5,475 minutes in the year. Multiply that by 200 words a minute, and you get 1,095,000 words that you would read in a year. Now an average serious book might have about 360 words per page. So you would have read 3,041 pages in one year. That’s ten very substantial books. All in fifteen minutes a day.”(When I Don't Desire God, p. 129)

Fotos of Friends

Over December I had the privilege of taking some family photos for four families. It was a blast. Here are some of my favorites...but boy it was hard to choose. These kids were soo fun. I chose some of the not so "Christmas Card" ones to post here but I did do a lot of poses with them that would work for a card. These are just some of the ones I thought were fun. Enjoy!

y'all.

seriously.
we have been sick since December 23rd.
strep, stomach bug and fifths disease, back to back to back.
we went two years in Ft. Worth with no Doctor, not even a pediatrician.
all that to say, this is not normal for us.
we had a great Christmas and a fun trip to Midland anyway.
we will be back soon...I can feel it.
for now, disinfecting and laundry.
Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow.
out.

Last Minutes Suggestions

Today is the last day to order online and get the gift buy Christmas. So I made a little list of some suggestions for you and linked them so it was easy and quick. These are some of my top items of purchase this year...Happy Giving!

Music


Tyler Dodds- This Is Not Our Home
This album is fabulous. It is deep, mysterious and full of life. Musically it is unique and genius. It is a MUST BUY for all music lovers.


Roger Cullins- Songs of A Savior
This album is a full of original worship songs. It is honest and Biblical. It is great for both corporate worship and individual worship.

Books


Tim Keller- Prodigal God
This book gives a telling description of the Two sons in Jesus' Parable of, what Dr. Keller calls, "The Two Lost Sons" instead of the "Prodigal Son." This is a short book but it is rich in Biblical truths. Dr. Keller puts forth rebukes and encouragements to both sons and shows us how we can easily be either of them. This book can be read by both a Freshmen in high school and a PhD and both would benefit to the utmost. My husband, Vernon, said this is one of the top three books he has ever read and it should be read by people of all worldviews.


Curtis Jones- Deepening A Fathers Heart
This is 25 day Devotional Journal for men written by a dear friend of ours. I have not read this book, as it is for men, but highly recommend it based on Curtis' amazing ability to teach the Word and articulate his thoughts. Ladies, this is a great buy for your husbands of fathers.

i WILL Win.

Seriously. My Christmas Cards are having victory over me this year...but i WILL win. I ordered them and received them BEFORE Thanksgiving and they are still not out. We stuffed them a couple days after Thanksgiving, added the insert and updated my address book, printed the lables and got stamps the next week. But the return addressing and stamping and actually getting them to the Post Office is tricky with two little boys who DONT want me to do them! Just about the time I get Justus to sleep or occupied enough to get them out and sorted and started, he wakes up or needs attention....so the cycle continues...but I will not sleep tonight until they are all done. 140 down...60 to go.

Titus' Outfit.

Okay so my Uncle Bruce would read this post title and quickly correct me and say..."boys do NOT have outfits." To which I would laugh and say, "Titus does."
My mom was not able to come to Texas to see Titus in his choir performance or for his upcoming school Christmas program, so she bought him a brown corduroy blazer and had me wrap it up so he could open it before his performance and wear it. The card was so sweet saying she was sad she couldn't come but couldn't wait to see the pictures of him in the blazer. I knew about said blazer and quickly began planning what jeans and shirt he would be able to wear so we would not have to spend any extra money. My mom's present idea went over so well. Titus was SOO excited about his new blazer and wore it with pride. He was SOO cute, if I do say so.

Anyway, we arrived at church and Titus' choir performed in both services. They did great (video to come...it is taking forever to upload). Only one thing....Titus did not do a single hand motion. He sang all the words but NO movement. After church our friend, Victor, from Sudan, asked Titus, "Titus, Why didnt you do the dance motions?" and Titus very seriously responded, "Victor, it is not about the dance motions, its about singing to Jesus." well...there you go.
I think this is so funny because he ALWAYS dances and sings around the house...he is so funny!

Sunday night the choir had one more performance. When we got there we found out that they had to wear ROBES....I was so worried that Titus' would refuse on the account of his new blazer and all, but he complied....and this picture WILL be in his senior slide show...I'm just sayin'.

Christening of the Kitchen Aid

For all of my married life and even before, I have wanted a Kitchen Aid. I know call me dorky, but if I had my wedding registry to do all over again, quite possibly a Kitchen Aid and some great pots and pans would be the only things to make the cut. Much of my married life I would be visiting families, lovely families, that had beautiful Kitchen Aids and the best sets of pots and pans that you could imagine...only to find out...that they don't cook, let alone bake. Never could I imagine such an atrocity. But I chose to be excited for them in hopes that one day they would know what they owned and use it to the fullest. Otherwise I would have been choosing to sin by covetousness.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Vernon woke me up saying Titus had a surprise for me...I was totally confused. I walked out to the living room and out through the front door and there was Titus sitting on a Kitchen Aid box and he said, "Happy Early Christmas!" I was stunned, I kept saying, "WHAT?! How can this be?" Because i KNOW the price of Kitchen Aids and this is the very reason I do not own one! Vernon told me he got it on the Black Friday sale for $128 people! Can you believe that?! Normally $128 for a kitchen item would be alot for the Burger's but not when said kitchen item normally cost $300! WOW! What a deal!
Sooo here she is. I have not named her yet, so feel free to submit your ideas.....And tonight I christened her with Vernon's favorite dessert...my not-so-secret recipe Chocolate Chip Cookies! SO FUN!!!

It Doesn't Get Much Better Than This

Lately I've been listening to my fav music from College and although MANY great worship albums have come out since then, I am not sure if you can get better than this...I'm just sayin'.
Anyone with me?I would love to hear a memory you have of one of these albums....

Merry Christmas from Titus

Today after Titus got home from school, he got our drums out and he was singing and playing...so I asked him if I could record him. Here is a clip I got. Enjoy.

Justus 6 Months

He just started sitting up! So fun!

At Justus' 6 month appointment yesterday he weighed in at 19lbs 7 oz and 28 3/4inches long! He is doing so great! He is very happy and very active. Enjoy some of the pics.

Welcome Baby Uriah

Our dear friends Erin and Jarrett had there second baby thrusday.  The birth story of little Uriah is a great one, you can read about it here.  Uriah Michael Reardon was 7lbs 10oz and 19 1/2 inches long and healthy!  I CANT WAIT to meet him.  We love him so much already. 

Uriah, may the Lord bless you (and your parents) with lots of peaceful sleep for now and grow you into a strong and couragous man of God.   

I Give Up.

Each year I write a poem to celebrate my blogging birthday.
But after 10 days of writers block.... a haiku is all I got.

A Haiku by Amber Burger

Thank you for reading
This crazy thing for three years.
That is all I got.

Night Of Worship- Songs of the Savior


Tonight is a Night of Worship at Houston's First Baptist Church. Our dear friend, Roger Cullins just came out with an album called "Songs of a Savior." He will be leading tonight and I so wish I could be there in person, but I just found out it is going to be Live Streamed!!!!!!! yippee. So tune in tonight at 7:30- 9:00 HERE and worship! So fun!

You can get some free dowloads and buy the album HERE...its a great Christmas gift!
Praying for all of you at HFBC tonight. Yes and Amen.

A Sneak Peek
Last night I had the privilege of taking some sweet friends, The Murrell's, family pictures. I haven't had time to look through and edit them all but this one caught my eye so I thought I would give you a sneak peek! enjoy! more to come.

Thank You Jason and Vote Lori

I have been on a search for several years now for a great and affordable aluminum-free deodorant. Four years ago, Vernon and I started looking at not only what we put into our body that is unnatural, but also what we put ON our body that is potentially hazardous to our health and the environment. For the sake of out budget and living within our means, we had to research what was worth the switch and why. We found that finding aluminum-free deodorant was of great importance for many reasons such as: its very high link to breast-cancer, the fact that the armpit is on of the bodies most effective ways of ridding itself of toxins and aluminum blocks its ability to do so and aluminum is allowed into the blood stream and can raise levels of estrogen and potentially attribute to Alzheimer's. What we found Ironic was that it was not hard to find male aluminum-free deodorant that was cost efficient and work well but EXTREMELY hard to find female AF deodorant. WHAT? That seemed odd to me. I found over the years, that if you didnt want to spend $20 on deodorant than it wasnt going to work very well. So after much searching and lots of asking around, I would like to thank J/A/S/O/N for his Tee-Tree Deodorant Stick. It is between $4 and $5 which is more than most spend on d.o. but it works and its not $20! Thank you Jason.

A good friend of my Lori aka The Bargain Shopper Lady has entered herself in a contest to win Groceries for a year! ($6,000 to Walmart!). And y'all, if anyone deserves it , she does! She has helped so many people find bargains and enjoy saving their family money! She made a video and submitted it to Walmart. Now we have to watch the video and vote for her so she can win. This is not a waste of time, YOU WILL learn something from her video...its great!
I stole these directions from Amanda so here you go: VOTE!

To vote go here. Search for Bargain Shopper Lady. Click on the video. Give her video a Thumbs Up. If the Thumb turns green, then you voted! ( Please vote only once per person as stated in the rules. Thank you!

Family Foto Fun!

We met our friend Sarah Barnes at the Modern tonight and she snapped us some shots! And they turned out so fun! She loaded them to my computer so I could pick a Christmas Card pic and edit it for so I don't miss the big Shutterfly sale (that ends tomorrow!) So I edited some to show you...but when she is done with them I will show you her finished work..for now...enjoy!

Fun New Share Site

Hey y'all! I really have wanted to post all week and weekend but I have been uploading pictures every spare moment! I have been wanting to have a photo share site (or two) for awhile now, but did not want to pay! Shutterfly now has free photo share sites! So we have one now!

CLICK HERE and view our family share site. Its nothing much just our snapshots. But come by, leave some comments and join to know where there are updates!

ENJOY!

(hopefully soon I will have one up of my 'porfolio'! that will be fun!)

Titus on Voting

As I was leaving the polls today (which is no easy task with two little ones), Titus said, "Who'd you vote for mom?" So I pretended not to hear him because we were trying to get out the door where EVERYONE was standing in line...and I didn't want to start a riot. So like a smart four year old he said it louder only this time he added his vote. "Who'd you vote for Mom, Picasso?" I laughed and I am sure others that heard....a little comic relief to this seemingly stressful event. I replied, "No I didn't vote for Picasso." To which he responded, "Man, I would. He has great paintings."

hahahahaha...i wish it was that easy. I hope you had a great election day.


**Oh and if you haven't been reading Vernon's blog, he has been doing a series on things Titus has said...check it out!**

My Camera Died.

Boo... My camera died upon our arrival to the Reformation Day festivities. So this is all I got.
Justus' outfit was way cuter than this pic makes it out to be. I was squatting down to be at Titus' level and Vernon snapped the pic.
We were hoping to go to Dallas and trick-or-treat my cousins before we went to our churches Fall Festival, but Justus didn't feel so great so we didnt do much. We did Trick-or-Treat, Sarah and the Kitchen's. They both live in an apartment complex so they didnt have treats so Titus got a 100 calorie pack of cookies from Sarah and quarters from Justin. He was SOO excited about getting money by knocking on Justin's door. Getting quarters was a great end to a fun night.