Mills First Day of K3

I'm way behind on blogging about life with the Burke boys! Here's to catching up!

Mills is in K3 this year and is a Sumlin Sea Friend. We love his teacher and his class! He goes three mornings per week and is learning a lot and having a fun time!

Random phone pics

 Perry's first family portrait 3/13/15

 Perry set up a beach retreat in the den 4/17/15

 Mills breastfeeding his puppies 4/13/15

 That time Alex set the fence on fire and thankfully our neighbor saw it and put it out 5/23/15

 Mills and Mae Mae riding the arcade motorcycle 5/30/15

 Mills on the day he graduated speech therapy. Ms. Shannon was teary to say goodbye because she loved Mills so much 6/1/15

 7/13/15

Perry loves to put "outfits" together:

  OK....he didn't love this next one (at all), but I had to... 

 James' 1 year pics

 I asked Mills, "pretty please with a cherry on top" to come lay down with me. He laid down and put this on his head. When I asked with it was, he said "it's the cherry on top."

 11/7/15

Alex and the big boys camped overnight in the backyard. Tent not pictured 9/12/15

Retested Mills for allergies. Still highly allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, dairy, and some others 10/20/15

Mills keeps it interesting 11/6/15

James' Hives

This post could be pages long, and would have been had I tried to write it months ago, but thankfully I'm able to write this now knowing James is ok. Long story short, James got some routine vaccines at 13 months old, then got really sick with a virus (I was shaken up with this illness because it seemed very bad), and THEN after he recovered from the virus he started breaking out in hives. We didn't know why this was happening and for several weeks, we couldn't control them. Finally, we were able to stop the hives, but only if we kept James on daily medications/sedating antihistamines...when I tried to stop the meds, the hives would come back. After hitting the 6 week mark, we were diagnosed with "Chronic Hives". I was so sad and scared of all the unknowns. None of the tests we ran showed any clue as to why this was happening, so the doctors (pediatrician, dermatologist, and allergist) assumed it was an immune system over-reaction, likely to the recent virus. I was terrified that the hives would never go away, but they eventually did! It was a total of 3 months, but it felt like 3 years! Myself and others prayed so boldly that God would heal James, and we've been overjoyed by this answered prayer.
Most of these pictures were taken so I could show the doctors the change/progression in the hives, which proved to be helpful in the diagnosis. At one point, they thought it could be something extremely serious and life-threatening, but a glance at pictures taken 12 hours apart gave the dermatologist enough info to say it was definitely hives and nothing worse....WOW! Thank you iphone!

 it started with just some some patches of hives

one morning his whole eye was a swollen hive 

 spreading 

 covered!

When the hives would fade away, his skin would become smooth again, but would temporarily turn a creepy purple color--called post-inflammatory hyper-pigmentation. 

Cousins

Helen and Caroline came for a visit in August. These cousins really love one another...most of the time.

 Mills 3 (almost 4), Caroline 23 months, James 14 months, Perry 5 (almost 6)

James looks like he belongs to Caroline more than to his own brothers 

2 Wheels

Perry's training wheels were giving us some trouble, so we decided it was time to take them off. Turns out, learning to ride a bike isn't always easy. It took a couple weeks, and some hard, frustrating moments for Perry and Daddy, but it finally happened! Whoo Hoo! Perry has been zipping around on his bike ever since, and now it's one of his favorite things to do. Starting Kindergarten and learning to ride without training wheels in the same week means this boy is getting big!

Teeth!

James finally cut his 1st (and 2nd) tooth at 13 months. Good job, James!

It's hard to see in the picture, but there are two little bottom teeth popping out. 

Perry's First Day of Kindergarten

Perry started Kindergarten at Ascension Classical School on August 17, 2015. He was really excited and couldn't wait to go to "Hilton's school"! There were no tears that morning, but I did get a little emotional in the afternoon as I was waiting for 3:00. It's been a big change having Perry in school all day, but he loves it and is doing great. We are so thankful for his school and his teacher, Mrs. Lawhon (fun fact: my kindergarten teacher's name was also Mrs. Lawhon)