The Burley's

November 3, 2011

Caleb and his new hat and gloves

Caleb received a super cute Moose hat and gloves from his Grandpa and Grandma-Great Zierman. Caleb LOVES hats and is now old enough to know to keep his gloves on. This winter will be so much better than last where I had to put socks on his hands just to keep something on them. Shhh....don't tell Caleb how much his Mommy over-protected him as an infant :)

Sitting Up

Look familiar..........this is how we practice sitting in our house. This picture is of Anna Kate at 5.5months old, and the picture of Caleb below is around 4.5 months. Caleb did a little better with sitting than Anna Kate. Anna Kate tends to arch and fly backwards and until recently, stopped leaning so far forward you would have thought she was trying to eat her toes. So, we had to wait a little longer to get Anna Kate's core muscles a little stronger. I honestly think that we were just more intentional with tummy time with Caleb than we have been with Anna Kate. Oh well, it won't effect her in the long run. She is improving by leaps and bounds everyday!!

I told Caleb to sit next to his sister for a picture......

Anna Kate, "Whats going on Mommy, why is brother sitting on me?"

Caleb is HUGE! It is so crazy how fast kids grow.

Brother & Sister

We have been having popcorn and movie family nights! We either use the microwave to make popcorn which Caleb enjoys putting his chair in the kitchen to watch it pop, or he helps Daddy (more like watches intently) make popcorn on the stove. We need to get a air popper, but for now, we cook it on the stove. Caleb LOVES popcorn. He has been acting like a typical toddler and not eating as well at meals like he use to, so we bribe him with popcorn :) It works like a charm......most of the time. We have instant netflix, so we watch "Bob the Builder," "Arthur," Curious George," and other similar shows/movies with him. Anna Kate has no clue whats going, but she has been trying to sneak her hand in the popcorn bowl. Silly girl!

Anna Kate

Look at her hair! It is so FUN!

She is such a happy girl! She is more smiley these days and will laugh with Jarred and I more instead of just Caleb. She LOVES her big brother and just watches him all day long. Oh, and she got her first two teeth a couple weeks ago. They aren't big enough to get a picture of yet, but they are in and hurt if you put your finger in her mouth.

The Smoker

Jarred, in all of his spare time in between thesis researching and writing, built a smoker to smoke our turkey in for Thanksgiving. It actually only took him a night to build it, but there was quite a bit of research involved. He needs more hobbies outside of school right now, so this was a quick project for him. We have smoked a chicken and some pork ribs which have both been incredible!

To explain the pictures, the pot you see upside down, off to the side goes on top of the other big pot in front. There is a rack and pan at the bottom of the pot to keep the meat off the actual pot and to store the wood chips below. Jarred built an electric timer/temperature thing which lets him keep the temperature at a constant rate. And, I should probably stop explaining it now since I truly have no clue what I am talking about and I don't want to get any of the facts wrong. :) Needless to say, we love the smoked flavor and its something new. We will let you all know how our turkey turns out!