Our Christmas gift to you

Seriously, I've nothing to do

DJ Time

Yes, I know, three posts in a matter of minutes. How will you keep up. We have had a lot of time on our hands with the snowpacolypse. Check out our lovely DJ boys.

Christmas Superhero

Christmas Superhero
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

He was a Christmas hero and I was a Christmas villain. Suffice it to say, Preston saved Christmas.

Yahoos in our complex

SNACKS!

SNACKS!
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

So all of Portland has shut down due to snow. Other people bought bottled water and chains for their tires. This is what we did. See more here: Snowpocalypse
Props to Wende for coining "snowpacolypse"

See Wende's documenting of this catastrophic event here.

Preston walks in the Storm of The Century 2008

Portland is a funny town. It seems like we have the Storm of the Century every year.

Preston and Santa

Preston and Santa
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

So Preston decided he did want to have his picture taken with Santa! Santa was super awesome and more down to earth than you'd think. They talked about what might be in all the presents around Santa and what Preston might want.

Artiste

Artiste
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Here's Les Dub using his new paint palette. Such an eye for color.

Messy eater

Messy eater
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Look at that face! So cute, so covered with food

Brothers and strollers

We went to Michael's the other day. Here is Preston pushing Finn

Wines

The Blue Jean was really good and only $8. The genesis was disappointing.

Thanksgiving dinner

Thanksgiving dinner
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

The food was awesome and the company was wonderful. As for the news: The BurkeWickers are moving in with T's mom. This is an amazing opportunity for us to reset some things as Tarehna starts her teaching career, and Brandon gets to stay at home with the kiddles!

Check out the rest of the Thanksgiving photos here: Thanksgiving 2008

What We Ate

Yum!

There was a fair amount of food from a bunch of places (bunch meaning: 3).

The turkey recipe came from epicurious

It was herb-roasted and came with cider gravy. It is definitely worth repeating next year.

Also worth a repeat: cream cheese corn in a crockpot. It's a once a year affair, but sooooo good and, from what I'm told, soooo easy.

Pie was pretty yummy: a 2 layer deal: ginger-spiked cheesecake on the bottom and pumpkin pie on top. FAB!

And coffee, on GiGi's silver. And we used the Spode!

Good day. Now excuse me while I enter a food coma until Monday planning day.

Quickly, not quick

Big news coming soon. But here is a random pic for now.

Promised Halloween photos

Halloween goodness!

Electionaryness

Wow! What an historic moment. We watched, we celebrated, and what an amazing time in American History. Preston wore his "Vote Today" shirt to school, a non-partisan reminder to all adults to particpate.

Yes We Can!

We did it! I am beside myself with good feelings. It's about time Democrats and progressives to patriotism back!

Obama blows me away...what a fantastic victory!




I brought coffee and blueberry loaf, so I'm claiming a little piece of this for myself.

Oh--and I VOTED!

Can't wait for January

Halloween 2008

More pictures to come, but here's some Dalek fun in the meantime.

Homesick?

I posted this to my own blog, but as it has pictures of the fam, thought I'd toss it up here as well:

Last year at this time we were in Paris.

Paris! It looked kinda like this:



And then we went to London.

Seriously! London! Where this lady was deeply offended by sculpture:


And where Autumn looked like this:



So the question is this: is it possible to be homesick for somewhere you've never lived? Because I think I just might be.

All done Dalek

All done Dalek
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Well, we are all done with the Dlek costume. Ready to go for Halloween!

Glogging

So, I made a Glog.

It's all about the boys...and punk rock (?)

There are lots of pictures in our cameras that we'll be posting soon with any luck.

In the meantime, go check out this glogging thing. I think you'll be seeing a lot more of it from us.

Dalek prototype

Dalek prototype 6
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

We have settled on a Dalek as Preston's costume for this year. Here is the beginnings of it. We need paint and paper bowls. Oh it will be glorious. Finn will be a viking. "Finn the Red"
For those unfamiliar with the Daleks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalek

Christmas 2003

xmas2003
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Brandon's been scanning like a madman, and I kinda like this picture of Gigi, Mom and half of Ted (sorry, Ted). Looks like Gigi's just opened up the Michael Moore books I gave her, and Mom's wearing the wacky knitted cap I made for her. What a good sport!

Anyway, this is the Christmas right before the Dub was born. It's weird, now, to think that Christmas even existed without kids!

Lou Whitmore, 1922-2008

Gigi, Finn, and the Dub
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

burkewicker wordle

yes, it is the night of lazy blogging and i am updating everything by creating a wordle.

rest assured, we'll be back to pictures and commentary soon!

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Adjusting

So, we've been two weeks in daycare, and adjustments are coming along. Finney, of course, remains his awesome self regardless of environment. The ladies in the infant room have proclaimed him the easiest baby ever and a good eater. They also wonder if it's okay that he's sleeping so much. I think being that big and growing that fast is bound to wear one out.

Preston is not having quite as easy a time as his little brother. He likes school and is making friends and playing and learning a lot, but he's having some difficulties with following directions and making transitions. And sharing (sometimes). Oh well. The preschool teachers are very sweet and understanding and are working with him to help sort this out, and everyone is confident that this is normal 4 year old stuff that he'll get over soon enough.

I certainly hope so.

The grownups are both largely exhausted all the time.

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Genius in the studio

Genius in the studio
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Preston begins work on his magnum opus: Guitarista Implementata

Tooth!

So first the big news: Finney is getting his first tooth! It's on the bottom on the right hand side and it's a little scratchy-pointy when he bites you with it.  Also, he's rolling over from back to front, which annoys him to no end because he does not enjoy being on his tummy.

Also, we had a trip to the zoo last Wednesday.



This is Preston trying to feed a lorikeet. Only I would take pictures in a tropical bird sanctuary in black and white.

And here's Finney enjoying the view from the baby carrier:



Sweetest. Baby. Ever.

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At the Urban Art Faire

So last weekend was the urban art faire in Mom's lovely, but rather warm backyard. Finney and I escaped to the relatively cool TV room/cave for much of the afternoon, but we did get a little time out of doors for playing and socializing and hanging out with Papa.



While Finney and Papa were occupied, Preston and I experimented and played in the water tub (really, the smartest thing a couple of people can do on a super-hot day). Part of our play included imprisoning tiny plastic frogs in a pill bottle and (for me) taking their pictures before releasing them again into the "wild" of the water tub.

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Square 2 Again

More fun at Square 2 today. Check out the tunes. Video is longer than first Square 2 vid due to overwhelming requests for, well, longer video.

Sound grounds

Sound grounds
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

We're here in the heart of Hawthorne for the hot hot Hawthorne Street Fair. But before that, we bee-lined it to Belmont for Breakfast.

I took this picture with my groovy new iPhone. Finney is grumpy and B looks a little less than thrilled too. Preston is just off to the right in a tiny toy corner.

Tummy Time!

lifting the head
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

As promised there are (finally) some new pictures up over at flickr. Finney is getting very strong and enjoys his tummy time. He's also loving his mobiles lately, full of smiles and kicking his feet like crazy.

Gigi, Finn, and the Dub

Gigi, Finn, and thr Dub 2
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

So, Gigi (Lou) came to visit with the new baby. Good times had by all.

Dub abstract

Dub abstract
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

The finished product. This was a lot of fun to watch. We will definitely do this for Preston again. Big canvas and a lot of paint. Preston did the whole thing himself and it went through a lot of changes. He started with markers and then covered that with paint. He needs a beret and an "e"

Doctor Visits

First: More pictures soon, we promise! We've been so busy with life that we're forgetting to document it. That will be remedied.

In the meantime, we've been to the doctor. Preston had a shot to get him ready for his return to Preschool and Finney had all of his 2 month shots. They both handled it quite well. Preston, for what it's worth, appears to feel no pain.

Preston was all over the doctor's office and wanted to be addressed as "Dr. Preston." The nurse and actual doctor were very patient and let him handle stethoscopes and the tools for checking out eyes and ears. Brandon was very brave and agreed to be Dr. Preston's patient while Finney got checked out.

Both boys are totally healthy and beautiful. And Big! Preston's in the 75th percentile for height and weight. The MIghty Finn is so big he's actually off the charts! As of last Friday, he was 25.75 inches long and weighed 15 pounds 9 ounces. He's already in his 6-9 month clothes...so many of the cute little things either never or barely ever got to get worn!  He's so going to be a Viking for Halloween.

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sockhands!

sockhands!
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

this is from a few days ago, but we're slow to get stuff posted lately. it has something to do with the added difficulty of taking 10 seconds to plug a cord in and then taking another minute or so to actually come here and blog a picture.

we are a lazy family.

but anyway, enjoy the sockity goodness and check out our flickr for the whole sockhands series because finn, it turns out, is something of a puppetry prodigy (say that 10 times fast).

Books for Big Brothers

So--I think it's awesome that the US has moved to being a more caring and decent place (no matter what we see on the news. And I particularly think it's awesome that people have bought gifts for the dub because he's now a big brother and we don't want to leave him out. We did this yesterday (though it was partially to feed our own ugly doll addiction). And if you're reading this and you got a little something for the dub to make him continue to feel special and important in the wake of baby finn, thank you!

But here's something odd that I noticed. Nearly every big brother gift the dub has so far received has been a book! Wild! And in further wildness, this sudden influx of book-receiving has totally coincided with a reading explosion for the dub.  which leaves me pondering in a chicken-and-egg kind of way: did the dub send out a "feed me books" vibe to the universe? or did the appearance of so much new reading material spark the explosion? it all happens so fast...i really have no idea.

either way: hooray for reading!

and have no fear, more finney and pdub pictures coming very, very soon!

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Sleeper

Sleeper
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Our newest looking so peaceful

My Kid Did Paint That

Carseat baby

Carseat baby
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Sleeping and yet still trying to eat the carseat!

Finn's first bath

Finn's first bath 3
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

oh yeah. clean baby. a little unhappy, but clean
~Brandon

An old joke, but a good one

Oh yes, he will be Prime Minister one day.

Brothers!!

Brothers!!
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

We have been pretty busy, but are getting settled in. Preston adores his new baby brother and comments on how cute Finn is all he time. More pictures on the Flickr account and many more to come.

Baby

Baby
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Finnegan Eugen Debs BurkeWicker arrived 2:10pm May 7th. More pics to come!!!!

So rock 'n roll

So rock 'n roll
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

So I couldn't stand it. I had to get Preston his own guitar. He is taking to it well. We even wrote a song:
Her name is mama and she likes to play piano
Her name is mama and she wants some chicken nuggets
Her name is mama and she is a baby
Her name is mama and she's going to have a baby

Easter

Easter 6
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Easter fun at home, not the zoo. I love the look on his face here.
~Brandon

Art gallery

Art gallery
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Some photos of te new house up on the Flickr account(http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_pdub/). This one is of the hallway between our bedrooms. The Dub's art gallery. More to come.

Bunny zoo

Bunny zoo
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Papa and Preston went to the Oregon zoo today while mama was in school. we had a really good time and as you can see Preston got a great big Easter hug.

Arts 'n crafts

Arts 'n crafts 2
Originally uploaded by burke_wicker

Cutting up paper into shapes is the best!!!!