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!

Kentucky, here we come!

Wow, what a week it has been! Lots of challenges and lots of blessings, but it's better to count the blessings. Just to catch a glimpse of our week, here is a brief summary.

Tuesday: Jason missed his flight to Cincinnati by 10 minutes because of some crazy regulations by Frontier Airlines (they are not our friends anymore). Due to the missed outbound flight, they automatically cancelled the return flight without any refunds. Spent all morning and afternoon trying to find another flight out, and rearranging hotel stays and car rental reservations. In the end, had to pay for a completely new flight that was $200 more than the previous flight. It was a very frustrating day!

Wednesday: Jason caught his new flight and made it to Cincinnati.

Thursday: Went to run an errand around noon and the car wouldn't start. Called retired automechanic neighbor who feared it was a broken timing belt and estimated $1500+ in repairs. Since Jason had the other car at the airport, I didn't have a car until Saturday. Had to cancel lunch plans on Friday since I didn't have a car.

Jason had a good day house hunting and it turns out that the new hotel was in a much better location than the original one.

Friday: Neighbor towed my car to the shop today for me. My friend brought me lunch since I told her last night that I had to cancel my lunch plans. Jason saw more places today, for a total of 24, and we decided on a nice place to live that we found that day. He made the arrangements and paid the deposit. My neighbor who towed my car to the shop called to tell me the problem wasn't as bad as he feared and the repair would be much less expensive. My other friend brought me homemade pizza and took Ethan and me to the Ward Talent Show that night. I also received several other calls and texts offering rides and checking on me when they found out I was without a car. I have great friends and neighbors!!

Saturday: Jason caught his return flight. :)

So, it was a rough week, but we definitely received many blessings in spite of the challenges. I think our apartment will be nice, although I've never seen it. It's a 2 bedroom/ 2 bathroom condo in Florence, Kentucky. We got a reasonable price for it and a short lease length so we can buy a home soon if we find one that's right for us. I'm excited to go see it for myself in a couple weeks! :)

Here are a few cute pictures I've taken recently.

Cute onsie given to us by Tiff Keetch

James and Claire love to hold Ethan. By the look on his face, I don't know what he thinks about that. :)

A little nap time with Daddy

My handsome little guy

2-month-old Ethan and a visit from the Roberts

We recently visited the doctor for Ethan's 2 month check and here are the stats:

• Weight: 13 lbs        76%tile
• Length: 23 in          57%tile
• Head Cir: 15.5 in    66%tile

Some of Ethan's new tricks...

• He has found his hands and likes to suck on his fists.
• He follows us with his eyes sometimes.
• He has some adorable cooing going on. 
• He likes to go on outings in the car or stroller.
• He started smiling more around 7 weeks.
• He started sleeping through the night right as he hit 8 weeks. This has been an amazing development that both mom and dad appreciate. :) Right now he sleeps from about 10:00pm-8:00am. Some nights are better than others though.

We love our little Ethan!

Melody and Brandon came to visit and we loved having them over to show off Ethan and to get them excited for the upcoming birth of their twin girls. :) While they were here, we took advantage of the perfect weather and went to the park for a round of croquet. It was both fun and funny and we all laughed a lot and had a good time!

Melody and Brandon holding Ethan

Jason and Melody playing croquet with Ethan hanging out in the stroller.

Ethan's Blessing Day

On Sunday, September 22, Jason gave Ethan Joseph a beautiful name and blessing in sacrament meeting. Normally it would be done on the first Sunday of the month, but because we didn't know how long we would live here and it was a good weekend for Jason's parents to come, we decided to do it early. Most of our immediate family that lives in Utah were able to attend.

We chose the name Ethan Joseph not only because we liked it, but also for its meaning. Ethan comes from the Hebrew word Eitan meaning strong and firm. We hope Ethan is strong and firm in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We chose Joseph so he could be reminded of the many righteous men also named Joseph in the scriptures, namely: Joseph of Egypt, the earthly father of Jesus, the brother of Nephi, and Joseph Smith.

After church we celebrated with the Burningham side of the family at our apartment by eating soup, salad, rolls, cake, and ice cream. It got a little rowdy at times, but we all fit and had a good time. :)
We were sad that we didn't have room in our small apartment for both sides of the family!

Jason's mom was able to stay with us a few days afterwards. We talked, played games, shopped, and cooked. Mom B. was able to teach me a few new recipes. Hooray! I'm on the hunt right now for great, simple recipes.

Family that could attend Ethan's Blessing

Admiring my cute baby :)

Ethan was blessed in his cousin John's blessing outfit.

Ethan smiling at Daddy

Waiting for the soup to finish after church

Cuddling with Grandpa B while watching the BYU vs. Utah football game

Grandma B holding her cute baby

Sally holding Ethan at Dallin's football game in the outfit she gave us. It really is toad-ally cute!

Labor Day Olympics

I think we were a little ambitious to have our 2nd Annual Rogers Family Olympics in our backyard with 5 week old Ethan, but we still had fun. I'm grateful to Keith and Kim who brought a table and some shade tents with them and to Kristilyn and Mark for bringing the hoppity horses. I think the grandkids really enjoyed it and Ethan slept through most of it. We had a simple lunch in the backyard after our games.

After some afternoon naps, we had a family stroll around BYU campus to see all the changes there. The weather was perfect. We stopped by the BYU creamery for a family night treat.

New area between the Wilkinson Center and the Law Building

BYU Library

New Building south of campus

Ethan's Birth Story

So Ethan surprised us and decided to make his arrival two weeks early. Just as a reminder, his due date was Aug. 17th and I have always felt that he would come really close to his due date. This gave me a lot of peace since Jason was away on an internship all summer and wasn't planning to come home until Aug. 10th. Since I was pretty confident that he wouldn't come until mid-August I wasn't really ready with preparations for Ethan...meaning I still needed to buy several necessary items like a car seat and didn't have anything set up in his room. I was hoping that Jason could do that with me when he got home. With that background info., here's the story:

That afternoon my two pregnant cousin-in-laws came to have lunch with me and talk baby stuff since we hadn't really gotten to talk at the family baby shower the week before. We ate lunch at Zupa's and I started up with the normal braxton hicks contractions although I was feeling a little bit of crampiness with it. We talked a lot about all kinds of baby stuff and labor, etc. but I kept asking them how they knew if they were in labor. They said, "you'll just know, it feels different." I thought, okay, I'll just know, but apparently I didn't just know.

At 3:30 my mom came over to help me get ready for the baby since I still was very unprepared. My goals were to buy a car seat, pack a hospital bag, and organize the clothes I had received for Ethan. I wasn't feeling great after lunch so I just sat in a chair in the baby's room while my mom sorted through my stuff and helped organize it. In the meantime I was having more contractions and the cramping was increasing. I starting getting more worried about it. I asked my mom about it and she seemed unconcerned. Some of the contractions hurt and other didn't so I couldn't tell if this was real labor. I couldn't focus very well on timing them myself, but they seemed about 6 minutes apart. I still wasn't doing great but my mom said, "whether or not you're feeling good we need to get you a car seat. Maybe walking around will help you feel better."

About this time Jason called from Denver to ask how I was doing. I told him how I was feeling and he told me to start timing the contractions because he really didn't want to miss the birth. At the store my mom timed and contractions and they kept increasing. We didn't end up buying a car seat because I couldn't focus enough to make decisions. I texted Jason that the contractions were 5 minutes apart and that he should at least start packing until we knew for sure. I didn't want him to have to drive all the way home from Denver if this wasn't the real thing.

After leaving the store I decided we should go back to my house. I drank a lot of water and laid down while my mom packed the hospital bag for me. After my mom finished packing my bag we headed to the hospital. We there a little before 8:00pm.

We got checked in and they took us to a room to be examined by a nurse. The nurse checked my cervix and I was only dilated to 2 cm and effaced 90%. She said she would watch it for an hour and then check again.

At 9:30 the nurse came in and checked again but I was only dilated to a 2 1/2. I was in quite a bit of pain. The doctor gave the order to send me home again with pain killer if I wanted it. I called Jason to update him on my condition and let him know he could slow down and to be safe in driving home.

We got to my apartment close to 11:00pm. I had a very long night. I literally spent the night sleeping for 3 minutes intervals that were interrupted by painful contractions. It was miserable, but I was glad that I was able to sleep in between, if only for a few minutes. Jason arrived at 3:40AM.

We left for the hospital a little before 11:00am on Sunday. My mom led the way and Jason followed with me in the car. The nurse checked my cervix and after that whole night, I was only dilated to a 4 but I was now fully effaced. The nurse called Dr. Dabling and the anesthesiologist was in my room 15 minutes later putting in the epidural.The epidural was amazing! I don't know how people give birth naturally after the miserable night I had just experienced.

I was able to rest for the next 4 hours. I was finally at a 10 at about 3:30pm. Because I was a first time mom and pushing can take up to 2-3 hours, the nurse didn't want to call the doctor until I had made some progress pushing. The nurse gave good advice and coaching and I tried to follow it even though I was pretty  numb and couldn't feel much down there. I made good progress pushing and after about 6-8 repetitions I had pushed enough that the nurse told me to stop pushing while she called Dr. Dabling. Dr. Dabling came straight from church and didn't even take time to change into her scrubs. She got there at about 4:08pm and hurried to put on the protective clothing. As she was just trying to put on her gloves I could feel the baby sliding a little and said, "I think he's coming." Dr. Dabling covered her hands with her sleeves and reached out just in time to catch the baby as he came out on his own.

Ethan was born Aug. 4th at 4:13pm. Soon they put little Ethan on my chest and I got to hold him for the first time. It was such an amazing experience and seemingly unreal that here was the baby I had waited and prayed and fasted so long for. I was so grateful for the help of the nurses, Jason, and my mom. I'm so grateful for my little Ethan. He weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. at birth and measured 20 inches long. He is so adorable and Jason and I love him so much. I never seem to tire of looking at him and holding him close. What a gift from heaven!