Christmas in Boulder City, NV

We had our family Christmas on Christmas Eve morning. Ethan enjoyed ripping the paper off, but didn't quite understand that there were gifts for him inside. :)  We had a nice breakfast, finished packing, and then headed to the airport to fly to Las Vegas. Fortunately, the flight was uneventful and Ethan did fairly well all things considered. The woman sitting next to us fell in love with him and kept wanting him to sit on her lap and look out the window. :)

Christmas Eve Morning in Kentucky

Christmas morning in Nevada. Because of the time change, Ethan woke up for the day at 4AM.

Ethan and Dad opening Ethan's new car track

Ethan's very cool new car track from Grandma and Grandpa B

Ethan and Mom

Melody and Brandon came to visit us the day after Christmas with their twin girls

Ethan loved feeding popcorn to the fish and ducks at the dock. He was so focused on the fish that he wouldn't even look at me so I could get his picture.

The beautiful view of Lake Mead from their deck.

Jason played Risk twice that week. Playing once was enough for me. :)

We played around-the-world ping pong and had a Ping Pong Tournament. Jason was the champion of the boys and I was the champion of the girls. :)

Aunt Chelsey and Ethan. We played kickball, bump, and dodge ball in the church gym. Ethan just loves basketballs!

We celebrated Charlotte's and Kate's 1st birthday with them.

Happy Birthday to these two cuties!

Kristilyn, James, and Grant were also there to celebrate with us. James and Grant loved playing with Ethan's car track!

Ethan learned how to crawl downstairs since he had some stairs to practice on.

The six of us made it to the Las Vegas Temple on New Year's Eve and we all really enjoyed our time there.

We rang in the new year playing these pipe chimes that we gave the Mom and Dad B for Christmas. We also sang karaoke, had a dance party, and played Bang before we watched the ball drop.

Here's the 2014 Christmas Boulder City Crew

We had a wonderful time! We ate well, slept well, and relaxed. So fun to spend the holidays with family. Thanks for the great time, Grandma and Grandpa B! Ethan was so exhausted from all our fun that he slept half the way home in my lap.

2014 Christmas Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Merry Christmas! We wanted to share a quick update of our family for 2014. We hope this letter finds your family healthy and well.

We are finishing our first full year in the hills of Kentucky. Jason's job with Nielsen has had it's own hills and mountains this year. Jason has grown a lot as a market research analyst, and so has his work load. He hopes it calms down soon because he really misses his sleep and time with family. He is serving as ward clerk at church and spends many hours each week in the details of making things run a little more smoothly.

I feel like this year has gone by very quickly. Apart from spending most of my time taking care of Ethan and the everyday household chores, I serve in the Young Women's and go out with the sister missionaries. Ethan and I spend a lot of time at parks, in the library, and in the kitchen. One of my biggest accomplishments was learning how to research my family history and being able to submit names to the temple. I also helped teach the Young Women how to do their own research so we could all take family names to the temple.

Ethan has obviously changed the most this year. He is 16 months old and is such a delight and a handful. Highlights for him include learning to crawl in July and then learning to walk in September. He's a great sleeper and often fairly mild-mannered, except when it comes to eating! He is very good and sweet, especially when he's not tired or hungry and gets what he wants. :) He loves to get into things and explore. He likes to try and figure out how things work/fit together, how things taste, and what happens when he throws just about anything. He especially likes the utensils from the dishwasher as well as the broom. He loves lift-the-flap books and to play with balls. He is also very observant and likes to watch other children. It takes a bit for him to warm up to new situations and people. He prefers to just watch and observe for a while. He is showing his cute personality more and more and is so fun to just watch. We love having Ethan in our family.

We were able to take a few fun trips to see family this year. For Memorial Day, we drove to Washington D.C. and stayed with Jason's aunt and uncle, Cheryl and Wayne. I had never been there and loved seeing the Monuments and Memorials. In August we flew to Utah for a Rogers Family Reunion. We loved seeing as many family and friends as we could. We spent Thanksgiving in South Beloit Illinois with Jason's brother, Andy, and we are excited to fly to Boulder City, Nevada to spend Christmas with Mom & Dad Burningham. 

We are so grateful for this time of year and reflect on our love for our Heavenly Father and His gift, Jesus Christ. We feel so blessed to have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and know that we would not have the joy and peace we do without it. We appreciate and thank you for your friendship and love. We want to wish you a warm and happy Christmas season!

Love,

Julie, Jason, & Ethan Burningham

December Activities

Here are a few fun activities we did leading up to Christmas! I love this time of year!

Thanks to our friends Katie, Kevin, and Kerrigan we went to see the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo. It was very fun to see the lights and the weather was great. I think it was in the upper 40's.

Visiting the giraffes

Yes, a real live reindeer

Ethan's first carousel ride. He actually really like it and immediately starting doing the "more" sign when it was over.

I think this was my favorite part - choreographed lights to fun Christmas songs on the pond

Ethan was so chill during the whole adventure. What an awesome little boy we have!

We also had Breakfast with Santa through the Boone County Parks and Rec. After we entered "The North Pole," Mrs. Claus read the kids a story and "breakfast" turned out to be 2 doughnut holes and 2 oz. of juice. Several people dressed up as Chris Mouse, Frosty, Penguin, and Rudolph. It was fun to experience a little Santa fun.

Ethan cried on Santa's lap, but at least he didn't cry sitting next to him.

Frosty the Snowman at the party

Thanksgiving + 15 mo. checkup

We had a great Thanksgiving with Andy and Kimra and their family in South Beloit, Illinois. We started our drive Wednesday after Jason submitted a project and arrived 8 hours later. We ended up driving through Chicago and it was pretty interesting to drive the expressway over the city. It made me wish we had made it there while the sun was still up. We enjoyed great food and great company--such a nice, fun, and relaxing weekend. We made a full weekend of it and didn't drive home until Monday. I must admit that it was nice taking a break from our normally busy Sunday schedule.

Our Thanksgiving Feast! Thanks Kimra!

Yummy Thanksgiving desserts

Our attempt to go sledding on a neighbor's hill. It didn't last long since the wind was bitter cold.

Ethan and Grant. I think their faces say it all. :) Grant loved playing with "Baby Ethan"

Forts in the front room while watching The Polar Express

Playing ball in the church gym

Enjoyed Ethan's first hockey game, he watched it more than we thought

Playing Christmas songs with Kimra's hand chimes -- Ethan also recently learned how to back up and sit down on chairs --so cute to watch him

Ethan just turned 16 months a few days ago. His molars have been coming in and that has made it a rough week for both of us. He just started exerting more independence and backing it up with some decent tantrums. It makes me a little worried about what the next year and a half will bring as he realizes that he can't always get what he wants when he wants it. Such a hard lesson for all of us!

On the bright side, he has been trying a lot more to say words, and the words he does say are becoming a little more clear. He loves farm animals, blinking lights, big balls, books, baths, and "cooking" with mom. He has become quite attached to me recently and always seems to want me or to sit on my lap. If Jason gets him after a nap, Ethan immediately comes looking for me after Jason changes his diaper. We love trips to the library and the librarians all recognize Ethan, too. It's fun to watch Ethan grow and develop. His smiles and giggles are adorable, even if he makes us work to get them. :)

15.6 month stats

Weight   27.4 lbs    81%tile
Height    31.5 in     56%tile
Head      19.1 in      80%tile

Trying to do his hair like Mommy

The Pantry - aka Ethan's play closet - he organizes it himself --wait, make that disorganizes it :)

Our first big snow storm of the season -- don't you just love those cheeks!

Having fun making faces at the camera

Halloween + Zoo trip

So, I know it's a been a little over a week since Halloween, which already seems like a month ago, but I want to post our Halloween pictures anyway. Ethan was a cute little dinosaur for Halloween and it fit his stage of walking perfectly since he still toddles around rocking back and forth as he walks.

We went trick-or-treating at our library for a little while on Halloween night. Ethan held out his bag and then examined everything that got put in his bag. Since we don't give him candy or chocolate, he wasn't that thrilled with his treats unless they were nerds or some box that made a noise when he shook it. He didn't love having the hood on his head, but he was a good sport about it. :)

Kind of blurry, but still a cute dinosaur

Ethan checking out his loot at the library

Picture in the Children's area of the library on Halloween night

The week after Halloween we also took a trip to the zoo with our friends, the Hymas family. We went on probably the last warm day of the season. We saw animals that we didn't get to see last time and just enjoyed the scenery and the company. Our trip was complete with a yummy lunch and train ride.

We squished together in one car and Ethan had so much fun sitting between Hailey and Tyler!

Some of the cool animals we saw this trip

Lindsey, Tyler, and Hailey

Saying hello to the elephants

And finally, just a picture to remember the last two weeks of Ethan's interest in brooms and sweeping... an interest that led him to learn how to open doors so he could get to the brooms. He is not sweeping quite as much now, but unfortunately his trips to the pantry are still on the rise. :)

Some double broom action, since one broom is just not enough when you have two hands.

October Fun

October has been more busy and active since Ethan started walking. Ethan walks pretty much everywhere he goes now, but he is still pretty slow and careful about his walking. Ethan loves to try to carry things around with him from room to room and gets pretty frustrated when he can't hold all 5-6 things in his hands that he wants to take with him. Sometimes I'm amazed at how much I do see him carrying around! This week he's been carrying kitchen utensils, boxes, lotion bottles, and pumpkins. It seems like he's starting to learn certain things more quickly now. For example, he learned to click pens on and then draw all over the couch cover, and he learned to unscrew the hand sanitizer bottle and dump it all over the carpet before Jason could catch him.

Ethan is starting to learn more sign language as well. He knows 'milk', 'food/eat', 'please', 'toothbrush', 'up', 'more', and 'all done.' And whatever he doesn't know in sign language, he is pretty adept at communicating in finger pointing. He is also starting to recognize and point out a few body parts like ears, nose, mouth, and tummy. He can say 'mama' and 'dada,' but he doesn't really use them.

There are a few things about October that I just love, and General Conference is one of them. We enjoyed hanging out all weekend the first weekend in October eating cinnamon rolls and other good food and watching the Conference sessions online. We are really grateful to the Hymas family for doing some toy swapping with us so that Ethan could have some 'new' toys to explore and play with over Conference weekend...especially since it was cold and rainy for two weeks in a row afterwards.

Watching Conference with Dad

Listening to the Prophet

Great kitchen toy with a few utensils

After it quit raining, we were able to get out to the park again and do a few other fun things.

Testing out the new car seat

Walking around the playground at the park

Visiting the play area at the mall on a cold, rainy day

The Sister Missionaries dropped something by for us on Sunday, just as the apple crisp was coming out of the oven. Perfect timing! :) We enjoyed the apple crisp and ice cream, and then took a few pictures. We've had Sister Widdison working in our area for 9 months now and she's going home next week. She's seen Ethan grow from a baby to a toddler. Sister Corbridge has been here 6 months and I've enjoyed having them both over for dinner several times, helping them out with some of their appointments, and playing the piano for some of the baptisms.

Last night I went with our church youth group to see the new movie, "Meet the Mormons" in Milford, Ohio. It was a little bit of a drive, but totally worth it. I really enjoyed watching it! It was very uplifting and inspiring and made me feel so grateful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Today Ethan and I went with Katie and Kerrigan to the Kinman Farms. It was a fun little farm and we enjoyed the tractor ride, the pumpkin patch, and the petting zoo. It was only in the low 50's so I was ready to warm up at home again once it over. :) Ethan loved all the little pumpkins in the patch and kept wanting to pick them up. Of course they were way too heavy for him and he kept falling over. :) He was also very interested in picking up the leaves.

Kerrigan and Ethan

Katie, Kerrigan, Julie, and Ethan on the tractor ride

Thanks to Katie for this cute picture!

It's too bad I couldn't get a smile out of him. But at least he finally looked at me. :)

Ethan's favorite part of our visit was just walking around in the big tent afterwards. :)

Up next ...... Halloween........