The Big Move!

It's official! We now own a home!....With all the benefits and new responsibilities that it entails! The benefits for us include a garage to park our cars, no downstairs neighbors so we can jump and dance as much as we want, a yard and basement for Ethan to play in, and an extra bedroom for visitors and a new baby. The new responsibilities part has already included trips to Lowes and Home Depot for rakes, shovels, ladders, a lawnmower, hedge trimmers, etc. The reality of of home ownership is still sinking in, but we're making it our own and loving it.

The arrangements for closing got a little stressful there at the end, but it eventually worked out after many texts and phone calls and a delayed meeting time. Fortunately, we had plenty of help with packing and getting our stuff moved which was a great blessing for us. Jason's parents flew in the Wednesday night before and worked every day dawn till we couldn't stay awake anymore! It's a good thing Ethan was there to provide the fun and entertainment. :) We had about 20 people from our ward show up to load the truck on Saturday morning. We had so much help that people did a lot of standing and talking, but I don't think people minded too much. We also had 5 people from the Hebron ward help us unload. They were so efficient that we were finished an hour later when 4 more people came to help. I'm also very grateful to Nancy and later Mike for taking care of Ethan a lot of the day so we could get things moved and settled. That was SUPER helpful for me! That evening we were able to take a break and go out for dinner at Applebee's. It was really yummy and Ethan had a blast eating and then playing with his food. :)

Loading up the truck

Our unloading crew at the house

Enjoying a nice dinner at Applebee's after the move

Sunday was a relaxing day at church in our new ward and people were very friendly to us. I think we finally got around to playing a few games together in the evening.

Sunday morning before church

Monday Jason and his Dad made a big trip to Lowes and then spent the rest of the morning digging in our backyard and trying to re-grade the dirt and grass to redirect the water from washing out under the patio. It was hot and dirty work! After a quick lunch and shower Jason's parents were off to the airport to fly home. And Ethan kept asking the next day for Grandma and Grandpa... He definitely misses them!

Digging up the backyard

Grandpa and Grandma Burningham with Ethan

Before the move I had one last Relief Society Meeting with our ward where we got to paint. It was such a fun and relaxing night!

We also got to visit Daddy at work and eat lunch with him.

Random Summer Fun Adventures

As if a new job, new house, and new baby weren't enough, we also tried to fit in some other adventures. These are pictures from August through Labor Day.

Free Friday night at the Children's Museum

Children's Museum

Cincinnati Museum Center

Awesome trip to the zoo with Kerrigan and Katie

Ethan with the Snow Leopard

Ethan feeds lettuce to the giraffe. The giraffe sticks out his long tongue and licks it out of our hands.

One of many trips to the park

Potty training :) Ethan think of it more as play time on the potty.

A morning at Jump Zone

After a while, Ethan got really brave and went up and down this slide by himself once.

Sliding with Kerrigan

Trip to the Temple

Labor Day Finale. After a full day of shopping for a washer/dryer and bed, we finally got to the pool at 7:00pm for the last day of the pool season.

Hanging out at home in new pajamas with Doggie. Somehow Ethan got Doggie to pose like this so we decided to take a picture. :)

Blessings in Threes

August has been a busy month full of change for our family. We feel very blessed as we've been guided and helped over the last few months that have been filled with important decisions.

The first change, which is literally a miracle for us, is that we're expecting Baby #2 in early March of next year. This baby has been prayed and fasted for by many and we're grateful for all those who have participated in helping us get another baby in our family. We had some initial setbacks, but fortunately this journey didn't have as much heartache as did the one we had to get Ethan here. I'm 14 weeks now and the pregnancy has gone well up to this point. I won't quit worrying until the baby is safely here, but at least the highest risk is over now that I'm into the second trimester.

This summer Jason has also been seriously looking to change employment. Although we would have loved to move back to Utah closer to family, another opportunity came up in Cincinnati that we both felt good about. He started his new job at Burke on Aug. 17. It's been going alright so far and it looks promising that he won't have to work as much overtime. The work culture itself is a nice improvement and his overall commute time is a bit shorter. We're grateful for this change and hope that it continues to be a better fit for Jason.

After accepting the new job, and knowing we had another baby on the way, we decided to look at possibly buying a home. In a week of dedicated searching we learned a lot about buying a house and our particular housing market and found a cute little one-story, 3 bedroom house that we both felt very drawn to. I immediately liked it and couldn't stop thinking about it for several days until we went back to look at it again and made an offer on it. Fortunately, we came to an agreement fairly quickly and put the house under contract. We have a closing date at the end of September. The house is in a nice neighborhood and located about the same distance from Jason's work, but closer to our church building. We will actually be in a different ward, which will be a big change as well. We're excited to be in our own place where Ethan can run around and play and I don't have to constantly worry about the noise for our neighbors beneath us. Yay!


So, needless to say, we've been up to a lot of house-buying, job-changing, baby-anticipating craziness around here! And we're so grateful!!

Ethan is 2!

Ethan just celebrated his 2^nd Birthday. We visited the doctor for his well-check and the doctor said he seems to be pretty mature for his age and was impressed that Ethan would just sit on my lap and let the doctor examine him. In fact, he got a shot before we left and he didn’t even cry--first time for that. According to the stats, Ethan is doing well.

Weight : 33 lbs  (93%tile)

Height: 36 in   (87%tile)

He had a small cold on his actual birthday so we didn’t go out, but we had a low-key day at home until dad got home. We did go to a store to get Ethan a balloon.  I gave him the balloon to play with while I finished shopping. It had a clip at the bottom to keep it from floating away. Surprisingly 5 minutes later it was floating to the ceiling since somehow Ethan detached the balloon from top of the ribbon to the ribbon and clip stayed safely with us. We went back to the balloons and got another balloon. This time I kept it away from Ethan, to his great dismay, until we got in the car to go home. After pulling into our complex and parking, Jason called me on his way home. I took Ethan out of the car making sure the balloon was still tied on. In the next 30 seconds of talking to Jason on the phone, Ethan had the balloon detached at the top again and it was floating away into the sky. I don’t know who was more sad about it. I told Jason about it on the phone so he stopped and picked up a third balloon on his way home from work and brought it home to Ethan who was thrilled to have another balloon. In about the next 10-15 minutes he squeezed and punched that balloon until there was a hole in it and it lost enough air to stop floating. It was fun while it lasted….. :)

After dinner we opened presents and ate cupcakes. Ethan got some cute clothes and pajamas from the grandparents and we gave him a wooden train set. It’s nice to have another toy around to keep him busy. :) He’s enjoyed playing with it all week.

Here are a few favorites of Ethan:

Favorite toy: any and all balls, big and small

Favorite cereal: Life cereal and the marshmallows in Lucky Charms

Favorite person: Mom (who is the chosen one to do EVERYTHING for Ethan) :)

Favorite color: Green –well, it’s the color he says and kind of recognizes. :)

Favorite song: Scripture Power (requested every night at bedtime)

Burningham Reunion in Oceanside, California

We had a great trip to Oceanside, California for the Burningham Reunion. We had all 30 of us there, 14 adults and 16 grandkids. We had a lot of fun playing on the beach, visiting the Legoland rides and water park, and seeing the San Diego Temple together. The time always goes too fast! I loved the girls' morning out to breakfast. The funniest moment for me was trying to fit a week's worth of food into Kirsten's Pilot with all 6 us that went. We were all literally surrounded with piled up grocery bags everywhere....but we fit it all in! :)

We each had our own little studio apartments plus a big beach house. We were literally across the street from the beach so we could visit it as often as we liked. We cooked our own meals as a group and stayed up late playing games and talking. As the youngest grandchild, Ethan was still referred to as Baby Ethan and got this little cheeks patted and pinched dozens of times each day by the cousins. :) Ethan got used to the sand pretty quickly, but was a little scared of the ocean so he didn't play in the water much. His favorite activity was playing at the Legoland water park. We're grateful to Steve and Kirst for arranging it all. We had a great time!

Wearing grandpa's shoes. Ethan loved playing with Grandpa.

Hanging out on the beach

San Diego Temple Family Picture

Picnic lunch at the temple

Family Picture on the Beach

Ethan playing with the sand

Sword fight with pool noodles

Burningham Brothers

Jason, Jeff, Dallin, Andy, Tim, Dad B, Steve

Boogie boading

We spent a lot of time with Lisa and Josh since Josh and Ethan could go on the same rides together.

One of the Star Wars Lego scenes

Lego USA shows scale model of Washington DC. Legoland USA was one of Jason's favorite parts.

Lego play areas while the adults wait in the line for the ride. The line wrapped around this play area.

Playing with the cousins

Ethan really liked riding the carousel, but didn't like looking at the camera :)

Ethan's favorite activity was jumping off the side of the pool!

Beautiful ocean sunset!