Brooks Lambert Burgess

Here are just a few pictures from Brooks' first few days:
First Family Photo

Sign from the hospital room:

First Bath:

My fight for the driveway

Ok, the Des Moines area has had the 4th or 3rd snowiest winter ever with over 60 inches of snow. It just happen to happen the first year I bought a new house with a huge driveway. So, since I spent all this money on a new house I had no money to buy a snow blower (snow thrower actually). I also have a pregnant wife so I wouldn't let her help me shovel. 4 or five times we have come home from work or a trip to somewhere and I had to park my truck at the end of the drivway and shovel my way up to the garage. The driveway also happens to be placed nicely that it always drifts over in the middle. So, I have shoveled hundreds of pounds snow. In the picture above you can see the christmas lights are still up because we have snow on the ground since December 10 or so. At one time my whole drive was like a tunnel snow up the mirrors on both sides. It was also up to the middle of the side window at the end of the drive another place where it always drifts. I think the city or my neighbors finally felt sorry for me because last week we came home and some one had plowed both of those down. Now I have to just wait for it to melt. Because if it snows again I'm going to have to throw the snow over my neighbors fence because I got not place to put it.

Here is where I have run out of a place to put the snow. If we get more it's going over the fence.

A look down our huge driveway which happens to go downhill. Makes it fun to go down when it's icy. Just so you know you can't see the end of it here this is about a 3rd of the driveway.

New Truck

Well, a couple of weeks ago I was just sitting around thinking about the future for Casey and I. The plan for a long time was to hang on to our vehicles until we had 2 kids and then Casey would get a new one. Because I had gotten the newest one, my old truck. But, as I said I was thinking that there would be no way for me to transport 2 kids in my old truck, which was only an extended cab truck with a jump seat. I would be able to fit kid in there though. I really didn't want to buy 2 new vehicles when a second kid come as I am sure that it would cost enough with two kids. So, I talked her into looking for a crew cab truck and we found this Canyon with low miles and certified pre-owned which is nice. I know my Grand Dad Lambert has always said don't by a black vehicle because it get's hotter and looks dirtier and breaks down more often. But, it was to good of a deal to listen to him, Sorry Grand Dad. It has been a good truck for the 2 weeks we have owned it.

More EGG

We got home late one night so we thought we would cook a pizza really quick on the egg. Really easy to do and really good.
This burger Casey made after her favorite burger at Red Robin. Teryaki Burger with a little spice added to the pineapple.
Those are sweet potato fries with it.

Painting

Mom and Dad came up this two weekends ago and they wanted to paint the baby's room while they were here. The paint we used above there in the picture is a Benjamin Moore Product called Natura. It is a real good paint and a great thing about it is that it's got hardly any smell to it and it a no VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) paint. So, it's OK for pregnant people. Had to use a primer to go over the dark blue. The room went so quick they wanted to paint the bathroom to. So I had to drive to town and get another gallon. We got it all done now we just need somethings for the baby's room.


Casey at 25 weeks

A few more from the Blizzard

I had to put 3 more pictures up of the Blizzard. The first 2 here are of the inside of the garage. But as you can see how hard it blew outside. There were drifts inside the closed garage door. Anywhere snow could get in it did. Bret and I went out with anemometer (it measures wind speed) that Mark had and the wind was blowing constantly at 32 with gusts up two 45 and it did that for 3 days.
The last picture is for Jane. I am sure she is disappointed I haven't put any pictures up of Chile. Now this dog is made for the snow and the cold. I don't think she was fazed at all by the weather. Either she is made for it or stupid. But the other two dogs were cold.

My other Baby

So for work, my Boss Doug told me that if I raised our sales at the store 10% from August to December that he would give me a big green egg and I did . This is a Big Green Egg. It's a ceramic charcoal grill/smoker/brick oven. I have been using the one at the store for the past year. I have smoked pork and briskets, cooked pizza, cookies cinnamon roles. Cooked burgers and steaks. It's a very versatile thing. It also has a huge following of people that love them. Just Google big green egg sometime and you will see. I got mine put together and got to cook on it for the first time the other night. One of the great things about it is that very efficient with it's heat. You are able to cook outside 0 degrees and fill it up with charcoal and cook 18 hrs on it at 225. Or you can get it up to 700 and throw some steaks on it and sear them. Which is what I did.

It uses natural lump charcoal and not briquettes. Lump burns hotter and has less ash and no binders like the briquettes.
Here is the finished steak. 2 min on each side ant 650. Then shut down the air vents and let it set for about 4 min. GOOD Steak

Blizzard part 3

These first 2 are pics of Casey and Denali and Scratch. You can't see it in the first but the dogs are standing on top of the outhouse. Which is like 7 or 8 feet tall.

Bret and I on the outhouse
Denali and Scratch running up the big drift in the back. Nali was waiting for Scratchy to make it up but Scratch was alittle fat so I had to go down and push her up then Denali ran up.

Christmas blizzard part 2

We made it to the farm but got snowed in for 3 days. These pics are from the day after Christmas.

The Dog fence below me there is at least a 6 foot fence. You can also see the window to the garage there. The next two are of the drift I got them put on backwards here and I am to dumb to figure it out. But the first one is me falling off the edge got alittle to close and Chilie fell after me. The next is what the drift looked like before I fell.


This is Bret and I chilling outside at the table. Wishing we had a cold drink.

The Christmas blizzard Part 1

We had to drive to Nebraska for Christmas. It turns out it snowed and iced on the way there. On the way were heard that the winter storm warning had been lifted and Casey and I were like yessss. Then they said it has been changed to a blizzard warning. We were in Council Bluffs at the time. Another 2 hrs to go. These pic Casey took in Iowa while it was light out. Mostly ice until Omaha. Outside of Omaha it turned to snow and blowing snow. Outside of Lincoln it was blowing and snowing so hard there were several miles that I had drive from dash to dash down the middle of I-80. It was fun. The picture of Denali is her in the back of the truck. We had to make room for her, we were going to put her in the dog carrier in the bed. But, the night before I had a dream of us crashing and denali flying out and Casey and I being ok but Denali was dead so we didn't want that. Oh yeah and it was really cold and snowing out. So she was crammed behind Casey's seat.