December Recap

Well, it has been almost a month since I've blogged so I am way behind. I finally uploaded a bunch (heavy on the bunch) of pictures the other day because I am about to slurp all my posts into a 2010 book, and I want all the December stuff to be included. This won't really do December and all its fun justice, but I'm about to make the mother of all posts complete with lots of pictures of our holiday season.

The first weekend in December we headed to Salt Lake for our annual trip with my parents. This is a tradition that has been going on for a long time, and we all look forward to it. This year we decided to take the kids to ride the "Night Before Christmas" Train in Heber our first night.

Luke and Seth waiting for the train with grandma.  They loved it.  On the ride we heard stories and sang songs, and these two participated in everything.  Luke got a candy cane for answering a trivia question right, and I found out the next day that Seth had a bit of a grudge against Santa because he didn't get one too but he quickly got over that.  Ian on the other hand was a handful and a half.  Have I mentioned that this child does not like to hold still?  As long as he can run and play and be free as a bird, he is the happiest kid you will ever meet.  When you try to restrain him...not so much...but Jer and I managed him, and he did like the cookies and hot cocoa.

I love this picture.  When we pulled into the "North Pole" Santa boarded the train and talked to each child and gave them a Christmas ornament.  It really was fun and Luke said it was his "best Christmas trip ever."  The rest of the weekend was filled with shopping, swimming, eating out, and playing in the hotel room.  The boys used their money to buy these Lego headlamps which came on the yellow headbands.  The headbands also doubled as "ninja" gear while they were doing sweet moves on the bed.  The boys favorite part of shopping was when we helped them shop for each other for our $5 gift draw we do in our little family.  Luke had Seth and was truly so excited to use his own money to buy him something. 

We also attended the amazing Christmas brunch, and I tried to take a few photos for my Christmas card.  I took a bunch of pictures and there was not one where everyone is sitting and looking at the camera but there were tons (I probably took 50) where the kids are just being themselves and showing their personalities.  I posted a few more of those Christmas card shots that didn't make the cut here.  Santa also made an appearance at the brunch, so we have definitely had some discussions about Santa's helpers this year.  Jer was just excited to get his yearly fix of crab legs.  The food is really good.

Right after this Ian chucked his candy cane back at Santa and pretty much decided even candy did not make it worth it to sit on his lap!

We had lots of fun family time during the month from making gingerbread houses, to reading Christmas books, to caroling with a huge group of friends and neighbors, to making and delivering Christmas treats, to Luke's class Christmas party, to friend, family, and neighborhood get togethers...busy but fun.

I've skipped a million things inbetween but Christmas Eve we headed to a family party at my Aunt Tamras.  The kids were excited and had lots of fun.  Seth was a little under the weather and exhausted and actually took a nap that day but was still feeling kind of out of sorts.

Ian liked Santa a little more when I helped him out.

The nativity didn't go so well for our little family.  Ian rebelled about his sheep costume before the production even got under way and is not featured at all. Seth stubbed his toe on the way out to "perform" and due to his oversensitivity and tiredness he bawled and came over to me.  After he quieted down I sent him back out to stand by Luke...even though Luke was Joseph and Seth was supposed to be a wise man.

(By the way Seth also suffered a little injury at the party--at the hands of a two-year-old :)
--which did not improve his mood.)  I told Luke to put his arm around Seth which he begrudgingly did...

which Seth did not like one bit so he started elbowing...

which led to further tussling and retaliation by Luke...which led to Seth's removal....

which led to Luke being the last Burbank standing in the nativity.  Boys...got to love them.

The boys in their jammies ready for bed.  Luke had a momentary stomach ache, and they were all so tired they went to bed immediately.  Christmas morning was great.  Santa stopped here.

After breakfast at our house with my parents we headed up to Preston to spend the rest of the day with Jer's family.  We had a great time, and all the kids had lots of fun together as usual.  Jer's mom even got Luke a Steelers hat to complete his outfit.  He's convinced that's his team right now and even though Cid is the most die hard Denver Bronco fan in the world, she got him the hat!  I've had to peel the boys out of their jerseys to wash them. 

All of the kids were fascinated with these ball poppers Ian and Tucker got.  I think the little guys were grateful once everyone left them alone to play in peace.  Despite my hacking cough it was a great Christmas day spent with family and there's nothing quite like seeing the excitement of little kids at Christmas time although a long winter's nap would run a close second.

For the first time ever Jer had/took some days off over the Christmas break and it was awesome.  We found plenty of things to do...

• chilling around the house playing with our new Christmas stuff
• movies and bowling
• skiing twice with Luke--one of those being the coldest day ever (it got up to 5) but we took breaks to thaw out and had a blast anyway
• ice skating with TJ and Amy's family which was fun until Tucker had a run-in with a bench when we were turning our skates in and needed 5 stitches
• celebrating New Years with friends
• spending time with family

It was a much needed staycation, and it was really hard to see Jer go back to work and return to the routine of things but that's life so 2011 here we come! 

Jr. Mustang Basketball

Luke played basketball this fall and had a blast.  He loves it.  He started asking at the end of summer about a basketball hoop for outside and Jer and I both told him we would really consider it for the spring.  Once he went back to school and started playing with friends there he was hooked.  After he started using our neighbor's hoop almost everyday I wished we had our own!  We are going to get one in the spring, but I told the boys they have to help earn some of the money for it.  Luke is very excited.

He had lots of fun playing.  I did a terrible job taking pictures.  I only took my camera to the last few games, and I would get so involved watching I'd forget to take any.  He is a great little dribbler and a pretty good shot.  He scored at almost every game and loved every second of it.  He had one game where he got the ball and had three different fast breaks but didn't score on any of them.  The first one he was way too excited and shot from like the NBA three-point line, but the other two just took unlucky bounces off the rim.  Nonetheless, he did great and is a good little ball handler for a first grader.  He played with some fun friends from the ward and neighborhood, and they learned a lot.  They were really quite terrible as a team at the beginning, but they were all starting to get the hang of passing and working together by those last few games. 

Luke's biggest fans.  Jer was also there for all the games and filled in as coach for severak.  Luke's grandparents were great supporters too.

Not sure why Luke is wearing the shortest basketball shorts in the world on this particular day.  Oh well, with the ankle socks and the bedhead it makes for a great look.  Go Sonics!

Classics

I have not had the time to blog lately.  We've had lots of snow, basketball games, our Christmas weekend in Salt Lake...I need to start catching up soon, but I decided to post a few quick pics that capture my kid's personalities.  (Sorry Ian.  You're really cute and any picture of you with a big goose egg would do, but I don't have one.  You pretty much lead with your forehead right now.)
I made Seth pose for this picture after coming in from getting the mail.  It was the day of the week the ads come.  He wanted to get the mail and after he had been gone a while I looked out to see him with papers flying everywhere (it was windy), and he was getting seriously frustrated.  I kind of laughed and watched him for a few minutes as he picked up one paper only to lose a few more and then went out to help him.  This could only happen to Seth.  By the time he got it inside it looked like he got swept up by a tornado or attacked by a pack of wolves...as Jer would say (to any of our kids) "this is why we can't have nice things." 

I just threw this one in here hoping it will become a classic.  Jer hung up Christmas lights for the first time at this house.  Don't worry he didn't do it before it snowed and turned frigid--nope he manned up and did it over Thanksgiving break when it was really snowy and freezing cold.  Go Jer.  He spent all this money on these LED lights and then several have burned out.  When I pulled in again tonight another one was gone--he will not be happy--way up on the highest part of the roof.  He has been out there muttering like Clark Griswold replacing them.  It does look awesome though. 

And then there is Luke.  I need to post all about the amazing changes this kid has been going through lately--for the better!  I think first grade is a great year.  This child makes me laugh like when he calls me "wonderful mother" or "my lady" or just pulls faces like these.  He really does have a great sense of humor, and he definitely keeps things lively around here.

The early snow has provided tons of fun and sledding in the "hole" in the backyard for the past few weeks but now the warm temps and rain have turned it back into a slushy, muddy mess so the kids are bummed about that.  I'm hoping the snow comes back.  If it's going to be winter, it may as well snow!  We will be hitting the slopes soon.  In fact, the Beav opened on Friday the earliest it has in years.

Big News

Okay, I've been working on this one a while so here it is...and no I'm not pregnant!  Let's just get that out of the way.  But since this is the month of gratitude and it is also National Adoption Month it seems like the perfect time to start telling everyone that we have our papers back in and are approved to adopt. This was not a rash decision by any means.  We have been talking about it since Ian was born, and we've been working on our paperwork since June.  It's a lot of stuff. We have put a lot of thought and prayer into this and feel like it is the right thing to do.  I don't know if we will end up with a baby, but we're going to give it a try (at least for a while--don't worry we don't want to be coming in on canes to high school graduation)!

Some people reading this already know, but I'm sure others are totally surprised and think I've lost my marbles and that's okay.  I've had mixed reactions from the people I've told so far.  For whatever reason I feel like I need to explain and even kind of justify myself on this one so here goes.  I guess the biggest reason we are doing this is because we would love to have another child.  Hopefully that's the reason anyone tries to have a baby.  I know we spent lots of money and time and emotion getting our other kids here and I am so grateful for them but that is in the past, and I just consider us like any other couple that would like a larger family (just one more I promise).  I don't really think anyone would question us if we were just like any other couple getting pregnant, but I guess we're really not. 

As far as why adoption, there are quite a few reasons.  Neither Jer or I feels like IVF is the right thing to do.  We think it is too big of a financial burden as well as too much time away, stress, etc. for me from our kids for something that may not even work.  We do not have any embryos leftover from our cycle with Ian.  It really was not a great IVF cycle other than of course the really great part where it worked.  Anyway, neither of us feels up to spending tons of money and making a bazillion trips to Salt Lake for something that may well fail.  We feel like if there is meant to be another baby for our family then adoption is the way it will happen.  We really are trying to leave this in God's hands.

I have spent a lot of time thinking and worrying about whether it is fair for us to try and adopt again when there are lots of couples with none or only one child out there also trying to adopt.  It has kept me up at night.  When we were taking the adoption classes before Seth's placement there was a couple in our class with four biological kids.  I can't remember exactly why they were trying to adopt, but I didn't even care.  I felt bitter towards them.  I thought she was very selfish.  Now I see it a little differently.  I don't think it's unreasonable to want to have four children.  I don't see that I have a lot of other options.  I am not preventing pregnancy.  It is just out of my control like it always has been.  I guess I'm a little more understanding now.  I also understand now that adoption is an inspired process and the right birth family gets matched up with the right adoptive family.  I have no doubt that Seth was meant for our family.  So with that in mind, I don't think that the same kind of birth moms are looking for young parents with no kids as would be looking for a family like ours.  That's what I think.

My last point is don't think for a second that Jer and I are claiming to be perfect parents...far from it.  We are just doing our best, trying to have lots of fun and make memories together, and trying to teach our kids the gospel and raise them to be good people.  When you adopt you have to somewhat sell yourself, but at the same time we are trying to be very honest about what our family life is like.  We are definitely a work in progress!  If you want to check out our profile please do:  https://www.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/24947784/ourMessage.jsf
and if you know someone who may be considering adoption please feel free to pass it on to them.  Thanks for reading this really long, rambly post!

This was the day we brought Seth home.  It was one of the most amazing days of my life. We experienced the intense heartache of saying goodbye to Seth's birthparents, brought home our brand new baby son, watched Luke become a big brother, and just tried to take it all in.  It is a day I will never forget.  Adoption is not easy, but it truly is a miracle.  I am hoping there is one more out there for us.
                                    


P.S.  If you have feedback on our profile that's great.  I am going to let lots more people know soon via FaceBook to get the word out.  I know our pictures look a little distorted.  The website compresses them.  I am in the process of resizing them and hopefully when I re upload them all they will look better.  Any tips are appreciated.

Halloween and Stuff

October went by in a blur.  I didn't take very many pictures, but we did do a few fun things inbetween the regular, everyday stuff.  Right now Seth is on my lap and we are jamming out to the Chipmunks.  If you are tempted to download that for your kids just be prepared to listen to it--a lot!!  It's also snowing huge flakes outside!  Last week I was wearing shorts and doing yard work.  Ready or not I think winter is coming.

A trip to the dino park in Ogden on a sunny day.

An outing to pick out some pumpkins.  We got awesome ones for dirt cheap and both painted and carved some.  Seth could care less about carving, but he is into smearing on lots of paint.

Seth still loves Ms. Jenny's preschool and had a very fun Halloween party.  He went in costume, but I took a picture of him in his spider hat later.  I also got to go help with Luke's class party.  I was in charge of games.  We played wrap the mummy and make the zomby laugh.  I think all the kids had fun.  I actually dressed up and didn't take a picture for the second year in a row!  Thanks to my friend Cami for being my costume hook up.  I would be in big trouble without her help.

Mandy and I took the boys (and Gentry) to the fall farm festival for the third year running.  They took away a lot of the fun stuff this year like the crazy slide, but the kids didn't really seem to notice and had lots of fun anyway.

Ian made a little farm friend.

The train now has this tiny little caboose.

I really tanked on Halloween pictures.  The ones I did take were pretty much terrible.  We went to our ward trunk or treat and party and by then it was pouring rain.  We trick or treated a few houses after that including our annual stop to my Aunt Julie's house.

Luke had his heart set on being a ninja this year, but we couldn't find a costume that he loved that much.  Seth also wanted to be a red ninja.  With the help of Luke's old karate pants we figured something out for Seth.  I decided to get some fabric for Luke's costume.  By the time the pattern came from Ebay it was kind of last minute but his Grandma Cid whipped it out for him, and he was so excited that she made it.  Thanks Cid!  He loved it, and he really thought it was special that his grandma made it for him.  Ian was a stinkin' cute puffy dragon.

Last Sunday we went down to my mom's house for her annual Halloween dinner.  As usual she went all out to make it fun for the kids.  I didn't take a single picture, but it was really cute.  She made up a really fun treasure hunt with rhyming clues that Luke read and the kids followed around to find some little prizes and they had a blast.  It was a great day with way too much candy consumed by all.  I owe my mom a special post all of her own just for all of her help this past weekend.  I was sick which isn't that big of deal but Jer was out of town, Ian had the pukes, and I had basketball games, church responsibilities, and no way to be two places at one time, so she was a huge help.  Thanks mom...you're the best!