A Year In Review

A year in review...short and sweet!

2 beautiful boys! We have loved every minute with our little munchkins! They are so curious, lovable, smart, and funny. I think I learn something new from them each and every day!

0 broken bones! Let's keep it that way!!

0h the fun we've had! Punta Cana for our anniversary, the boys' camper adventure with G & G Dunwell, Traverse City with G & G Burch, JD starting preschool, and countless memories made as a family of four!

9 more years (maybe even 10 or 11) until we can go out for a date night without paying a babysitter! :)

Our Burch Bulletin didn't make it into Christmas Cards this year, so here it is...in a nutshell! We have enojoyed 2009 together this year and look forward to 2010 with God's Blessings and anticipation. It should be fun!! Please leave us a comment if you read our blog. I know there are many of you out there...we'd love to hear from you!! Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas! We spent yesterday with my family and today with John's family. Great food, generous gifts, and lots of family time were enjoyed by all!! We hope you enjoyed this Christmas as much as we did!


Here are the boys in their Christmas outfits. I'll post more Christmas pictures soon! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!! :)

Halloween Pics!

I finally got our Halloween pics uploaded! Aren't they cute?! :)

sick-o boys

It's been a long week in the Burch house! JD came down with the flu on Monday night. We took him to the doctor on Tuesday and they confirmed it H1N1 and put him on Tamiflu. His fever has been up and down the last 5 days. Highest was 103.7, which freaked me out a little bit. Between the Tamiflu and Tylonel, we are keeping his temp manageable, but he is still running a bit of a fever. He is more active today, perhaps stir-crazy, but that's good. He's eating a little more, so I hope that means he's feeling better.

On Thursday evening, Ethan began running a temp, too. We took him to the doc yesterday and they found an ear infection in both ears and a sinus infection. So, we've begun new meds (we just finished Amox. for 10 days) in hopes this will kick both the ear and sinus infections!

I have a bit of a sinus/head thing going on, too....so we're really hoping all this crud goes away soon!!! Send a little prayer our way for good health. John hasn't caught any of this yet, so I'm hoping he doesn't!

Game on!

Check out my new adventure! Click HERE!

family pics

Here are a couple pics from our photo shoot yesterday! We had pictures done for my Dad's 70th birthday! :)

JD "working" with Mommy

Preschool! YAY

JD began preschool today! He LOVED it!! My baby is sure getting big!

The boys

I am so impressed this week at how much our boys are growing! JD can name more US presidents than I can and Ethan is talking so much. Last night when I got home he came out to the car and said, "Hi Mommy!" so clearly. He is such a big boy. I can't believe my little baby JD is going to preschool in a couple weeks. I love this stage for both of them, but my how time does fly!!

JD loves History and Geography!

Daddy's been working with him this summer...can you tell? :)

Little Eman

He loves his Papa belly!!

New Look?!

What do you think of the new look? I spent some time today updating our family blog. I think I like the new layout. Do you?

Dan the Man!

JD and Ethan went to see "Dan the Man" today at the Barber shop. JD was a little squirmy, but he got a nice haircut. Ethan was so tired...he screamed a ton! I don't know how Dan does it!! They both left with suckers and nice hair cuts and Mommy is ready for a nap!! :)

Pictures from Punta Cana

Click HERE to see our pictures :)

Home Sweet Home!

What a wonderful anniversary trip John and I had to Punta Cana! I can't believe it's already been five years. Time flies!! He gave me the most beautiful anniversary band. It matches my wedding band, making my set complete. It's just beautiful!!

The beaches were beautiful and so was the resort. We stayed at the Catalonia Bavaro Beach Resort. I really enjoyed spending the time with just John. Kinda reminded me of dating again since we didn't have the kids there. It was fun to just hang out together. I think my favorite part of the trip was swimming and snorkeling with the sharks and stingray! It was so cool. We both got super sunburned, but we expected that. And yes, we did use sunscreen. It didn't matter! The food was great. We did get a little sick the last day. Too much buffet food, I think. Oh well...at least I didn't gain any weight because of that! (Gotta look on the bright side, eh?!) I read three novels while we were there. Crazy! I never get a chance to do that! The three novels were My Sister's Keeper, Blessings, and Water for Elephants. They were all good...but My Sister's Keeper was probably the best. Now I want to see the movie.

We had a crazy adventure trying to come home. Apparently there was a horrible storm in Atlanta just about when we were supposed to land to catch our connector to Detroit. Our plane didn't have enough gas to circle around Atlanta and wait out the storm, so we backtracked to Jacksonville. This caused us to get into Atlanta two hours later than planned, so we missed our connecting flight. We tried to get a standby seat for the 11:00 flight, but were out of luck. There were 52 families waiting on standby. SO we slept in the Atlanta airport last night (as best as we could) and took the 6am flight this morning. When we arrived in Detroit, we had no luggage. One was in Fort Lauderdale (don't ask me how it got there?) and the other was still in Atlanta. We're hoping they deliver our luggage sometime in the near future! We'll see!!??

Because of that I don't have any pictures to show yet, because my camera/computer cord is packed in my luggage. So, as soon as we get our luggage back, I'll upload pics. :)

Hands-on Museum

We went to the Hands-on Museum with Emily, Ian, and Nicholas. I forgot my camera, but did manage to take a couple pictures with my phone. Ethan really liked the magnets!

School's out!

I am so excited for summer with JD and Ethan!! We had a blast today after school. A friend of mine had a shaving creme fight with all the neighborhood kids, so we went over there. JD was a bit unsure when we arrived, but once most of the kids were hosed off, he decided that he might like to give it a try. Silly guy! Ethan did not want any part of the festivities. Instead he played with the basketball. They both had fun. I enjoyed watching them interact with older kids. It was cute. :)

Fork!

Ethan used his fork all by himself this morning to eat his whole breakfast! He was so proud of himself (and I was awfully proud, too)!

Our Little Bowler!!

JD bowled for the first time up north last weekend. He bowled a 97!! Enjoy the video of his spare! :)

proud :)

JD knows his address! We've been singing the address jingle in the car for the last week and tonight in bed he finally got it correct! Yay!

Happy 3rd Birthday, JD!!

What a fun day JD had!! Grandma and Grandpa Dunwell took JD and Ethan to Castaway Cafe to play for lunch. They had a great time. After I picked the boys up, we came home and JD played with his new trapeeze that Grandma and Grandpa D. got him for his birthday. We then took JD into the garage to see his new bike. He didn't notice it right away, because he was putting "gas" into his car with the watering can! But when he noticed it he said, "What is that bike? Who is it for? Is that bike for me?!" It was too cute! He hopped right on and rode around the garage like a pro (with a tiny bit of help from Mommy and Daddy). We then went to Red Robin for his birthday dinner. Afterward, we had him open his other two presents (slinky and books) and we sang and enjoyed cupcakes with feet! It was such a fun night!

New Swing set!!!

JD had a blast this evening on his new swing set! My girlfriend gave us her gently used swing set last fall and we're just getting around to putting it all together again! My dad and brother worked on it all day today. They want to make sure it's ready for JD's birthday party in a couple weeks. Tonight, just before bed time, my dad and Uncle Bill came over to finish putting on the slide. JD had SO much fun playing on it. Although he did get to bed a little late, it was worth it!!

Beautiful Day!

The weather was beautiful this weekend! We went to the park. JD had fun climbing, sliding, and spider swinging with Daddy. Ethan really enjoyed swinging!

Pics from Easter

We had a nice Easter. We went to church with my parents and enjoyed an Easter Egg hunt afterwards. Then, we pigged out with John's family at Fox Hills for brunch. We all then came back to our house and hung out. It was a nice day!

Ethan's First Haircut!

Well, we finally broke down and got Ethan's hair cut!! At almost 16 months, I guess it's about time!! I think he looks like such a big boy now! Here are before, during, and after pics! :)

Skating with the Easter Bunny

On 4/8/09 we went skating with the Easter Bunny. It was crazy, but the boys had loads of fun!! Ethan enjoyed riding and JD tried to skate! I think he spend more time on his bottom than actually on the skates, but he had fun. Here are some pics:

March update

Greeting from our crazy life! The last few days have been beautiful outside. The boys have really enjoyed getting out to play.

Ethan is growing and changing every day. He loves to play with balls best of all. He has several sizes he enjoys playing with. It's cute. He's talking more now. I'll try to get a video up soon. His hair is pretty curly and really needs to be cut! Daddy won't let us yet, but it needs to be done soon! He's my snuggle bug and is working on his 10th tooth!

JD is such a smart little man. He points out shapes, colors, letters, and numbers all over the place. It's really cool to see. We're going to visit preschool on Saturday. I can't believe my baby is almost ready for preschool, but it's exciting, too! We're looking at putting him in the co-op down the street. The location is perfect and my parents are willing to "work" when needed. It is considerably cheaper than preschool at our church, so we're going to check it out. Praying that he loves it and that this preschool is a good fit for us.

John and I are busy planning our trip to the Dominican Republic for our 5th anniversary in June. It will be a nice week for us!!

That's about all from us. Leave a comment or drop an e-mail our way so we know what's going on with you, too!! :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Ethan!!

We had a nice day today. We relaxed, went for pictures, got ice cream, took naps, went to Red Robin, watched Ethan devour his cake and open presents...whew!! He was so cute today, and JD was so good!! JD even cut some food at Red Robin to share with his brother! It was a great day!! Enjoy the pics :)


Ethan clapping along as they sang to him












He didn't want to use his hands, so he just moved on in with his face!












Enjoying his cake at home!














Playing in his new tunnel!