Birthday and Ethan's 6 month

Saturday we drove to Louisville to celebrate my birthday since Wednesday was pretty busy with YW and YM activities. We stopped for dinner at Red Robin and then went to the Kentucky Science Center. The website made it look a lot cooler than it actually was, but it still had some interesting things there. It was fun to see downtown Louisville, too. The Ohio River is beautiful there, very wide and serene.

Kentucky Science Center display about air flow

Standing in a bubble

6 months today!

Today is Ethan's 6th month mark. It's amazing how much he's changed just in the last 2 months. We went for his well check and here are the stats:

Weight      17 lbs           45%tile
Height       26 3/4 in      65%tile
Head         17.2 in          51%tile

His first tooth popped out a week ago on the bottom right followed closely by his bottom left, which came in today. Ethan has been surprisingly good for having his immunizations plus two teeth come in during the last week. I am grateful for Tylenol though, and I think Ethan is too.

In addition to his teeth, Ethan started rolling over from his tummy to his back several weeks ago and it currently learning to sit on his own. He can balance for a few seconds on his own, but he still needs a little support. He is also quickly reaching for things near him, including Mommy's cereal bowl, dinner plates, and the cell phone. He's already accidentally hung up on Daddy a few times. :)

Loves to splash in the bath

Ethan loves to play peek-a-boo right now and will just giggle and laugh when we play. He really likes having blankets waved above this face and can quickly go from complaining to laughing when we do it. He has also discovered his toes, and loves to play with them during diaper changes. He finally got them all the way to his mouth the other day and was very pleased with himself.

Finally got his toes to his mouth

Success!

Ethan still loves to observe everything going on around him so he gets bored if Mom isn't moving around and doing a lot. He's started to give more smiles to strangers, but only to very happy strangers. Otherwise, he just stares at them, and we smile at him. We just love our happy little boy!

A New Year - 2014

Well, January is turning out to be very cold and snowy. We try to stay inside as much as possible from the snowstorms and chilling temperatures. Just this week school was cancelled the last three days due to inclement weather, and at the rate that they're cancelling school, the kids will be going to school until July! A few weeks ago our car even froze to the ground in a large frozen puddle in our parking lot. I finally got it unstuck a few days later with a neighbor and city worker's help. I'm just grateful for a warm heater and windows to see what's going on outside to help keep the cabin fever away.

Monday was Martin Luther King Day and Jason had the day off. We drove into Cincinnati, called "Cincy" by the locals, so I could see where Jason worked and get a peak at the city. We weren't gone long, but it was nice to see some of the things that everyone else talks about.

Besides work and taking care of Ethan, it seems that we've spent a lot of time in church-related activities. We had a great Stake Conference a couple weeks ago. And we've worked on preparing Sunday lessons, Wednesday activities, and helping out the missionaries. We also went to the Louisville Temple last weekend. It's a beautiful temple packed into a really small space. It's a little over an hour from where we live. We've been taking turns watching Ethan while the other one goes inside the temple, so it usually takes us most of the day. We're always grateful for the opportunity to attend whenever we can.

Ethan continues to do well. He finally learned to roll over a couple weeks ago. I think he's been happier now that he can avoid the dreaded tummy time. :) Gratefully, he's still been very healthy so far. We got a swing from the Brunners at church that he has been enjoying, and he loves to keep his new teething rings in his mouth. We love to make Ethan laugh every chance we can, although it usually results in him getting the hiccups.

Louisville, KY Temple : And no, this is not what the temple looks like in January!

Merry Christmas!

We had a nice low-key Christmas Eve and Christmas Day together. My favorite part was playing the game Seven Wonders with Jason for a couple hours after we put Ethan to bed. We missed being able to play games and hang out with family. We ate the traditional Burningham Christmas breakfast of Safron Brod, scrambled eggs, bacon, and orange juice. I was glad I made it to the store 15 minutes before it closed on Christmas Eve to buy the food. :)

Our big family Christmas present was the purchase of a second car. We bought a white Honda CR-V that we hope will be a great blessing for our family. We drove all the way to Frankfort, Kentucky to get it after the car we intended to buy in Lexington didn't work out. We're happy this one worked out as we fell in love with it at first sight. :)

Safron Brod (Swedish Bread)

Christmas Letter

                                                                                                                                           December 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

We want to wish you a very merry Christmas from Florence, Kentucky! 2013 has definitely been a year of many changes and we feel very blessed for the Lord's hand in our lives.

Year in Review:

January: Jason passed the Probability Exam for Actuaries, a very difficult test with a 60% fail rate.
February: Jason was offered a summer internship in Denver, Colorado with one of the top actuarial firms.
March: A 20-week ultrasound revealed that we would be having a BOY in August!
April: We took a trip to Zion's National Park and visited family in Las Vegas and Boulder City, Nevada.
May: Jason moved to Denver and lived with Julie's brother and family while he completed his summer

internship. Meanwhile, Julie stayed in Orem and continued working full-time at Imagine Learning as an instructional designer.

June: We survived the whole month of not being together. Thank goodness for Skype!
July: We flew to Spokane, where Jason grew up, and enjoyed a week-long vacation on Lake Coeur  

        D’Alene with all the Burninghams.

August: On August 4^th Jason drove through the night from Denver and made it in time for the unexpected

      early arrival of Ethan Joseph Burningham. Weighing 8 lbs. 1 oz. and measuring 21 inches at birth, 

      Ethan is a healthy, beautiful, and perfect baby!

September: We made up for June by spending all day, everyday, together. J
October: Jason accepted a full-time position at Nielsen in Cincinnati, Ohio as a Market Research Analyst.

      Julie officially resigned from Imagine Learning and we packed up, loaded a trailer, and moved on

      Halloween day. We are still very grateful for the help of many loving friends and family members that

      made that possible!

      November: We drove 2000 miles across the country, visiting family in Colorado and Illinois, to arrive 

            at our new condo in Florence, Kentucky. Jason started his new job at Nielsen and looks forward to 

            what the future will bring.

     December: We survived our first freezing ice storm. Who knew a sold wall of ice could form around your 

             car?

Family Highlights:

Jason is getting up to speed on his new job. Unfortunately, he must be extra sensitive to Kentucky germs as he has already been really sick several times and has had to stay home from work more than once. He has a long commute to work because of traffic congestion, but is currently listening to Harry Potter books to pass the time. He has new callings as a Priest Quorum Advisor and the Scout Committee Chair for our Northern Kentucky Ward, and although he is very busy all of the time now, he still makes time to be a great husband and father.

Julie loves being a stay-at-home mom. She enjoys sleeping in as long as Ethan will let her and having time to explore some of her favorite pastimes, including cooking, reading, playing the piano, and making Ethan smile. She looks forward to exploring the city, the library, and the parks. Julie was also just called as the 1st counselor in the Young Women's Presidency, so she'll get to work with the 14-15 yr. olds in her ward.

Ethan is 4 months old now and is definitely worth the wait we had to get him. He is happy and mellow and a great sleeper. He likes to play with his toys and watch mom do pretty much anything. Our only mild concern is how much he seems to enjoy eating his animals. It looks like we need to get some stuffed fruits and vegetables for him as well. J

We are so grateful for your love and friendship. During this season of celebration, we want to remember our Savior, Jesus Christ. We have received many answers to prayer and have continually been reminded that "with God, all things are possible.”(Matt. 19:26)

We love you all!
Jason, Julie, and Ethan

Ethan at 4 months old

Here's a quick update on Ethan. He is as cute as ever and doing well. He had his 4-month well check appointment with a new pediatrician and here are the stats:

Weight:  15.8 lbs     63%tile
Height:   26.25 in    86%tile
Head:     16.5 in      39%tile

Ethan loves to put everything into his mouth and he's drooling a lot now. He can turn on his side and does a lot better on his tummy these days. I'm guessing it won't be long before he turns all the way over. A couple times a day he'll think something is funny and he'll give the cutest giggles. When he hears my voice, he can find me in the room, and he likes to talk to himself when he plays on the floor.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving this year we were invited over to Bishop Nealon's house. We ate a delicious dinner with the Bishop and his family. They had 3 of their 4 young single adult children at home with them. I didn't take any pictures, but I should have. I brought sweet potatoes and a cranberry salad. More neighbors came later on for the pies and dessert. Everyone loved Ethan and wanted to hold him.

After dessert we went to another member of ward's house for a game night with some other families. There were probably 15 kids ages 11 and under and it was imaginably loud and chaotic. Ethan didn't do very well with all the noise, etc. so it was a little rough and it took a really long time for him to settle down and go to sleep. The adults played a version of a game called celebrity. Jason and I never excel at any games that have to do with pop culture. We're both pretty clueless in that genre. :) It was fun to get to know some other families in the ward and they were really nice to us.

The rest of the weekend we spent getting Christmas decorations up and looking for a car. Since we sold my car in Utah, we've been on the lookout for another one here. We thought we had found one that would work, but were disappointed when it didn't end up working out. We're just trying to be patient for the right one to come along.

We are so grateful for the Church and for the gospel. I don't know how other people just move across the country without another immediate social network to tap into. It's been so helpful and reassuring. We've definitely been missing having family close by, but we're grateful for the many blessings we have, including access to phones and Skype to still stay in contact with people we love.

Greetings from Kentucky!

Well, we made it to Florence, Kentucky! The last month has passed by like a whirlwind. After Jason returned from finding us a place to live, we spent our last two weeks in Utah packing, taking care of errands, and saying our goodbyes. None of it seemed real. And of course everything took longer than we thought it would. I still get a little teary-eyed thinking about the MANY family members, friends, neighbors, and practical strangers that came to help us even when we thought we could do it on our own. It’s a tribute to them that we didn’t have any all-nighters of packing, cleaning, etc. And since this is the month of Thanksgiving, I wanted to give a shout out to a few of them, although I know I’ll miss some since they are too numerous to mention them all.

Thank you to my friends and co-workers at Imagine Learning that truly cared about me and were so kind to me while I was there. It was hard to say good-bye.

Thank you to my neighbor and friend across the street for buying my car and connecting us to a large stack of great packing boxes from the hospital.

Thank you to Mom B for helping us pack and making dinner for us so we could keep packing. Sorry we were so boring while you were here to visit! J

Thank you to my parents for taking an extra week off of your Church Service Mission to help us pack.

Thank you to my childhood friend Marilee for coming and helping us pack and clean for several hours, and then coming back the next day and helping several more hours just because you could tell we needed more help.

Thanks to my siblings for storing and donating unwanted furniture so we could have something to take with us.

Thank you to the Relief Society President and Young Women’s President who showed up on our last day and cleaned most of the apartment. That was so helpful!

Thank you to the Young Women and leaders of the Sharon 8^th Ward for letting me be a part of you for a little more than a year and for helping me in more ways than I was able to serve you.

Thank you to the sisters of the Relief Society and to Sally for feeding us meals the few days before we left when we didn’t have time to cook or dishes to cook with.

Thank you to several of my neighbors/friends and to Chelsey who took Ethan for a couple hours at a time during really crazy packing and loading times.

Thank you to the Elders Quorum, Teachers Quorum, and my brother Keith, for showing up, even at the last minute, to help load and arrange our belongings in the truck. And a special thank you to Kameron Bascom who brought his three children in the car and left it running for an hour an half so that they could watch a movie while he helped us pack the truck!

Thank you to my parents, Mike and Desi in Colorado, and Andy and Kimra in Illinois, for feeding us and letting us stay overnight with you while we drove the 2000 miles of our journey.

Thank you to our new Relief Society President in Kentucky for coming on the day we arrived and welcoming us with a warm home-cooked meal.

Thank you to the Northern Kentucky Elders Quorum and Priests Quorum for helping us--people they had never met--unload the truck in the rain for over an hour.

And thank you, Lord, for helping Jason find a good job and us a safe place to live, and for blessing us with such dear friends and families.

Just thinking about all this service makes me feel so loved. What little have Jason and I done to deserve all this?!? That’s how I feel when I think about all of this.

Home Teacher, Elder's Quorum President, and Young Mens Presidency helping pack our stuff into an ABF truck. We paid by the footage, so we tried to pack it high and tight.

Halloween! The morning we left to drive across the country.

Our 5-yr-old nephew Grant LOVED to hold Ethan and usually asked to hold him several times each day. When no one was close by Grant would sing Ethan's favorite song, Popcorn Popping, to him to try and make him smile. Grant also asked if Ethan could eat candy because he wanted to give him some of his Halloween candy. So sweet!!

Ethan was definitely the favorite!

I think this is a great picture for "She who rocks the cradle rules the world!"

Just hanging out with Andy and Kimra and fam

Our stuff arrived all in one piece!

Our building in Florence. We live on the middle floor on the right side.

Here's Ethan sleeping like a baby. Which is pretty representative of how he took the move. :)

This little gym toy totally saved us. Thanks to my co-worker Sherry for giving this to us just in the nick of time to help Ethan not be so bored while we've been packing and unpacking. Perfect timing!