Christmas Favourites

So, ...our Christmas consisted of a lot of poop-soup, a lot of puke and a lot of food.  A good combination I think!  When you are staying in a confined space with that many people over a period of time, the flu is bound to spread!  Thankfully no one was really bad on Christmas Eve or Christmas day, so we were able to enjoy those days more fully.

My favourite things about the holidays this year were:

-Taking the kids sledding.  It was a windier day when we went, and Jax and I had a bad experience a few weeks earlier with a windy sledding day.  It was so strong it kept blowing his sled away.  So, on this particular occasion he was especially concerned for his sled.  And my sled.  And Bethany's camera.  The list goes on.  At many points he was in tears for fear that everything in sight would blow away.  It was quite entertaining.

-The day before Christmas Eve, we went to a live Nativity outdoors at the LDS church that Colette organizes every year.  It was beautiful.  And what was even more incredible was the display of creches in the church gym.  Everything was decorated in white.  It almost felt like being in the temple.

-On Christmas Eve, all of the grandkids dressed up as Joe rehearsed the Nativity story.  It never really goes as smoothly as I imagine, but it's still fun to watch the kids in their little costumes.  As each year passes, it seems like the kids understand more and more.

-Christmas morning was interesting.  We chose to open stockings and eat our Christmas sugar cereal and then get ready for church before opening presents.  Colette organized their Sunday program which, again, was beautiful (she organizes a lot of things).  There's nothing quite like Christmas music!  Directly after church, we got straight back into our pj's (a MUST for opening Christmas presents!) and got at it.  Each year I always feel like there's not enough for the kids under the tree and every year I find that they are usually happy with their first present anyway.  We had to keep pulling the kids away from the toy they just opened to remind them that there was yet another gift for them under the tree.  We did better this year at being selective than last year, so we're getting there.

-A tradition at the Burnhams that we started up several years ago is  sharing a learning experience we had at some point this year.  It's neat to see where everyone is at and it opens the door for the Spirit to teach.  And a few tears.  (You can read about my experience in my "Wilderness" post).  A comment made that stuck with me was not to judge a book by its cover.  I've had some experiences with that and have found that sometimes if someone offends you or rubs you the wrong way, it is better to give them the benefit of a doubt. What if their Mom died that day, or what if they had a bad childhood, or what if they haven't had a dose of chocolate that day?  There is almost always a reason for people's behaviour.  That night's discussion was a good reminder.


Shockingly, I have not taken as many pictures as I normally would, due to being sick and just plain forgetting my camera!  I know.  What has happened to me?  Being sick blows.  CHUNKS.  No pun intended.

...okay, so it was.

(More pics to come!)

Our Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas 2011

 Its been an eventful and exciting year with a lot of changes. Here's an overview of what the Burnham Crew has been up to.

 Joe's world has changed! After working for over 10 years a series of events this year forced him to consider going back to school. It seems a little backwards but we both feel good about the decision. The benefit of going back to school at this stage in his life is Joe understands what his strengths are, what he wants to do and is looking forward to the change. The plan is to begin working on his MBA in September. There's a possibility that we may be moving out to Ontario because the program that Joe is keen on is out there. We are excited at the prospects of this new phase of life. We have been truly blessed to have had to make these major decisions and feel that the Lord has guided us to the place we are right now.

 I (Maren), have spent much of my time this year involved in musicals. I’ve been wanting to explore writing musicals, but realized I had no real experience. Watching various musicals can only get you so far. So I auditioned for both Annie and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers which were put on this Fall. I got to play Lily (Rooster’s girlfriend), in Annie (A Friends of Two Cities production), and Dorcas in Seven Brides along with being the musical director (An ELM Theatre production). It was a busy time, but in many ways it was a welcomed break! Most of my rehearsals were just in time for me to miss doing the dinner dishes/clean up and putting the kids to bed routine! Many thanks to Joe for being so supportive and picking up my slack! Now that they are over, all I can think about is what is next in theatre for me?

Jackson turned five on the 19th and has been talking about his birthday nonstop up to this point. One of his latest obsessions is Indiana Jones, so of course his birthday party (which we just celebrated) was Doctor Jones-style! He also loves drawing/crafts, spelling out words, wrestling with Daddy, Batman and Robin (more particularly Robin), building things with Lego and playing his Lego games on XBOX (Indiana Jones, Starwars and Batman). Jackson is also a very sweet and caring little boy. I find that he is quite close to the Spirit and my favourite thing about him lately is listening to his bed-time prayers which typically include phrases like “the Spirit of our hearts and souls” and “the temple of our bodies.” Just too sweet! Jax is definitely my sweet and tender boy.

 Noah (3.5 years old) is famous around here for not quite being able to say his “r’s” (aahwes). It is adorable in every way. I find myself taking videos of him just to capture him talking. He and Jax are the best of buds and pretty much do everything together. Thankfully, they play really well together, so that’s a plus! Noah is really into Batman. Still. It is STILL his major love. If he is not pretending to be Batman, then he is usually playing with two guys that are fighting each other. Sometimes it’s his fruit-snacks that fight each other. Sometimes it’s orange slices. Sometimes it’s mini-swords without the action-figures attached. I like to think he has a bit of an imagination. He is also my really-snuggly boy. A total Mama’s boy. That is one thing I hope he never grows out of.

 Ellie (23 months old) scares me. While she can be a sweet little eye-batting Princess, she can also turn off that persona and turn into a drama queen. Dr. Jekyl and Ms. Hyde. Her latest trick is rubbing her eyes while she “cries” and then she will slowly peek up at you to see if you are still watching her. She also knows how to flirt. Already. She’s not even two! Girls are definitely NOT boys. A very different species! As the youngest, she likes to try to make her mark by being the funny one. She loves making the boys laugh; A true comedian like her Dad. She also loves to sing, or snuggle while being sung to. Having a snuggly little girl truly is the best (even if she IS a ball of sass)!

 This year may have brought us a few trials and we've also seen trials come to our close friends and family but we’ve also seen many blessings. We are convinced that difficult times can serve to strengthen us if we turn to the Lord and trust in Him. We are grateful for this season as we reflect on the birth of the One that makes it possible for us to make it through tough times and become stronger as a result. May the Lord bless you and keep you this year!

 Merry Christmas!

 Love, The Burnhams

Away in a Manger

The boys and I have done a few Christmas crafts over the Holidays; Stringing popcorn for the tree, making paper garland, decorating paper stockings, but I think their fav thus far has been making these cute little puppets (curteousy of the Sherwood Park craft room). When I say "they" I pretty much just mean Jackson. He was all over this. He dedicated hours to this project with all the detail and precision that an almost-five-year old can muster.  But the whole family got to enjoy them!

Once Jax finished colouring them, cutting them out and glueing them to popsicle sticks, Joe narrated the story of Jesus' birth for Family Home Evening while we acted it out with the puppets. It was so cute!  The kids were totally into it.  Even Ellie!  Love her expression in this shot-what a cutie!  Definitely recommend this activity!  Then we lit up our Christmas tree, turned out all the lights and sang Christmas carols.  I heart Christmas time.

Sherwood Park Creche Display

A couple of weeks ago I took the boys on a little Mommy-sons date to check out the Creche display at the Sherwood Park LDS Chapel.  This pic is one of the many displays that were set up in the gym (almost life-sized!)  There were some really amazing creches from all sorts of different countries.  I wasn't sure how much I'd be able to enjoy this part with the boys, but we played "I Spy" while going around the room to see if we could spy angels or baby Jesus, or sheep, etc.  It kept them entertained and I got to enjoy the displays.  It was an idea we got from this wonderful room below.

The Craft Room!

There was a fun little side room where the kids could do several different crafts, so the boys created an ornament for our little tree.  This is usually Jackson's territory, so I wasn't sure how much Noah would get into it, but he ended up loving it!  I think he's finally getting to that age where he's starting to enjoy sitting down and doing crafts (yeay!) or working in his pre-school workbooks.  This was the perfect Christmas activity for their age.

So proud.

They even had a little photo-booth thing set up for children who wanted to dress up and take pics.  I figured since I had no "Mary" that we would just pose with baby Jesus.  It was a lovely afternoon.  Will definitely do this again.

Gingerbread Fun!

Yesterday as one of our "Twelve Days of Christmas" my parents came over for some grankid-time and made a Gingerbread house. The kids have been asking about making it for days, so I knew that activity needed to happen sooner than later.  Of course Jax was all-business and got right to work.
Noah, on the other hand, spent most of his time in Candy-Heaven. Just checking to see that none of the candies were poisonous.  I do that all the time.
I love this next shot of Jax with my Dad making the exact same I'm-about-to-laugh face. Cute!
"Cheeeeeeeese!"
It was fun watching my parents be involved with the boys. They love that sort of thing AND it allowed me a chance to sneak out and get some grocery shopping in sans kids!  Thanks Mom and Dad!
And the final product!

And the Stockings Were Hung...

With a little help from Pinterest and Andrea Barnes, I decided to make an advent calendar, stocking-style, as well as make full-sized stockings. I like the idea of the knitted-look but I don't knit. So I asked Andy if she would help me out there and she suggested, "Why not just go to Value Village and find some old sweaters and sew them together?"

So...

 That's exactly what I did.
Here are the full-sized stockings. It's a little tricky to capture all the detail in this shot, but you get the idea.  I am really happy with how they turned out!

This is my stocking. I heart Christmas crafts.

My Baby is Five

Technically, my baby will be five on Dec 19th, but we celebrated Jackson's birthday today. He has been talking about this day since Dec 20th of last year. The day after he turned four he literally said, "I am almost five!" And then almost every day since then he has talked about having his birthday "soon."  I kept having to remind him that the snow still needed to melt and then it would snow again and THEN his birthday would come. Unfortunately that happens a lot in April, ...so I had to rephrase that one. Woops. With Jax looking forward to his birthday for an entire year, I HAD to make sure that it was special. I asked him what kind of a cake he wanted. Actually, I didn't. He was the one that told me out of the blue one day that he wanted an Indiana Jones cake. This was over a month ago. I thought he might lose his love for Indiana within that time so I would ask him every once in a while leading up to this day what kind of cake he wanted and he would repeat, "INDIANA JONES!"

 So alas, an Indiana Jones cake (which of course became the theme for the party).

Jackson even sat down with me all afternoon to watch me make it AND (as I'm sure) to make certain that I didn't miss any details.  Like his yellow shirt ("Mom!  But his shirt isn't white.  It's not white Mom.") and the buttons ("Don't forget the buttons Mom.  Three buttons.") and his satchel ("Mom, you're forgetting something.  Yup.  It's his Indiana Jones bag.").  Can't forget those!  Sheesh!

Once all the children arrived (all SEVEN of them), I gave them each an Indiana Jones hat and satchel to wear for our adventure!
There was a letter in the mail box from Indiana Jones requiring all of us to complete several missions in order to find a stolen treasure (all of my ideas came straight from Pinterest. Bless that beautiful site!  Basically, the "missions" are taken from scenes in the movies which I'm not sure any of the kids got, but Jackson and Noah sure did).
The first mission was to make a plane and try to have it land on the couch.
Can I just add as a side note that this morning after Jackson woke up he realized he didn't have brown pants like Indiana Jones, and since this day was a much-anticipated day by this little boy I gave in and we picked some up at Walmart! Haha! Now his outfit is complete!
The second mission was to take down the bad guys with Indiana Jones' whip. (Basically, I set up some toy monsters on a table and they had to whip them off. This one was a hit. No pun intended!)
The third mission was trying to find the next clue by digging through monkey's brains! There were a bunch of "decoys" so each child got a turn. And to my luck, the actual "clue" was the last one to be chosen!
Here's Noah eating some "brains."  I think they may have figured out it was Jello.
The fourth mission was a Mummy-wrap race. We divided the kids into two teams, although Brody pretty much just took charge while the other two boys cheered him on.

All the girls wanted to be on Jackson's team. And he didn't mind ONE bit! Good thing too, because they won the race!
After this mission they found the stolen treasure (a pinata) that they got to break open and collect the treasure inside. Except they couldn't. Even I had a swing at that thing and it did NOT budge! (Notice how Brody is warming up for his turn?)  
Note to self, don't use a cardboard box when making a pinata. Eventually, we just ripped it open and dumped out the candy. The kids were just as excited.  No doubt in my mind there.
Then we had pizza. I was going to do an early-afternoon party so I could skip the meal-thing, but so many of Jackson's friends have started Kindergarten this year and I wanted kids to actually be able to come to the party. And. Each. Kid. Came. Last year I invited this many and only three came, two of them being his cousins! So, I was delighted that we had a full turn out. AND that my parents and Joe were there to help out. It was utter chaos by this point, but you could tell my Mom has done this before. She had super-dee-duper tricks up her sleeve with how to get the kids quiet and concentrating on other things in place of the LOUDNESS!  This woman just knows things.
Hannah and Jax.
Jax and Brody Harker.
Cache Hill and Cohen Eagle-Bear.
Mya Barnes and Jacob Hirsche. (We also had our neighbour Georgia Poots there as well but she had to leave early).
Let the present-opening begin! I love this pic because my Dad made a comment about how Jax should give Mya a hug AND a kiss, and she was so embarrassed and NOT wanting that. It was so cute! They seemed happy with a hug.  Dare I suggest that I wouldn't mind that in the future?  Like when they're both 25.  She's a cutie!  And Andy and I would see each other a ton!  ...I've got it all worked out.
 
Above is something else that Jackson has been talking about all year.  Well, more than a year.  Last Christmas he asked for Robin slippers (as in Batman and Robin) and that was the one thing I did NOT get him.  I thought he would get over it.  Move on to other things.  At least forget that he asked for something so strange for a kid to ask for.  Believe you me when I say you cannot find Robin slippers anywhere.  These babies are custom made by none other than myself.  That's right folks.  Me.  (Well, with a lot of help from Maria Hughs.  Tee hee!).
Jackson, it is time for me to get a little emotional here as I talk about you and how much you mean to me. You are such a rock, it kills me.  Tonight before bed, you said the sweetest prayer.  At first you talked about having a birthday all the time (who wouldn't want to ask God for that especially after the awesome party I threw you, right?  Haha!), and then you said, "Please bless that if people need help that they will find people that will help them and bless them and they can help each other with the Spirit."  Sometimes you like to randomly throw in jargon like, "Holy Ghost" and "Spirit of God" and " the temple of our hearts" (those are the most popular ones anyway).  But tonight, it made sense and it was so sweet that I started to tear up.  You are just a thoughtful boy.  You think about things and ponder things and listen and want to be your best and DO your best.  You are not satisfied otherwise.  From the time you were a baby, someone made the comment about how you look as though someone wise lives inside that little body.  I've never forgotten that and feel like it couldn't be more true.  You are a wise little boy and I couldn't be more impressed by you and proud of you.

Now before I go off and start bawling, let's catch up on a few little fun-facts about Jackson:

-You draw a picture or do a craft every day.  No fail.  You have this drive to just sit and have quiet time at the kitchen table and draw and draw and draw.  AND you're good.  You pay attention to detail and I can tell you are going to make one amazing artist.

-You love to spell out words and you've become really good at being able to sound things out on your own now instead of asking.  It's cute.  Every once in a while you will show me some of the words or phrases you have figured out and they come pretty close!  I don't have the heart to correct you sometimes because "dat" is just too cute.

-You have very focussed energy.  You could build blocks and legos for hours.  I will come downstairs to check on you only to find cities and spaceships and bridges all over the rumpus room.  Far too advanced for Mommy.

-You are very competitive.  I haven't decided if that's a good thing or bad thing yet.  It certainly motivates you!  But if you lose at something, the world might as well end.

-You love to sing.  I don't know if you like to sing in public much, but around the house you do.  Whenever I am at the piano writing or working on/practicing songs you like to hum along or sing along with me.  You're my back up singer without even realizing it!

-Daddy has officially gotten you into video games.  I don't like to admit it because I think you're too young to start getting hooked on those, but you love these games.  That being said though, you are also really good with turning them off when I say.  The only reason you came to know anything about Indiana Jones was all because of your XBOX Lego game.  So it can't be all bad, right?  Daddy rationalizes these games by saying that they are, in fact, good teaching tools because they promote problem solving.  Hmmmm.....  perhaps.

-You are such a good big brother.  You and Noah are the best of buds and are so good at playing without fighting.  Maybe it's because you are so laid back and easy-going.  I find you saying things like, "Hey Noah, do you want this?"  Or "I'll share this with you Noah."  And because of your example, Noah responds the same way back.  My polite little boys.  Well, ...every once in a while anyway.  AND you are so good to Ellie.  You take notice when she needs help, and you are the first to take her hand.  It is very sweet.

-You are an active little boy.  One of my favourite things to do is watch you and Noah wrestle Daddy.  Once, you even put on a ninja mask and Noah put his Batman cape on and together you fought the "bad guy" (aka Daddy) like superheros!  It happens quite frequently.  I know Daddy loves his time with you too, whether it's telling you an animated story about "Wipe Out" before bed time, or showing you how to build things or how to play certain games, or just plain wrestling like I mentioned before.  You kids are pretty agile too!  Things that I think would hurt, you kids just giggle off.  Boys.

-As I talked about before, you have this amazing, wise Spirit.  You can sense when I need a hug.  Or some humbling ("Mom, when you talk like that it makes people sad.").  You always make sure that we read the scriptures together as a family;  Something we have done every day since last January with the help of your reminders!  So far so good.  I love you so much Jackson and couldn't imagine my world without you.  Thank you for being my sweet little (almost) five year old boy!

Our Visit With Santa!

I heart this pic so much because each child has been captured in their truest nature. Ellie HATED Santa.  The second I put her on his lap, she did the loose-fish and flopped off.  I tried to give her a pink ball to distract her, but alas.  That did NOT do the job.  Poor Santa.  Hold on tight!  I wonder how much he loves his job?  Noah was in the middle of saying "cheese!" in his unnatural way.  At least he's looking at the camera!  Points there.  And Jax was being shy but brave.  He was able to do the important things, like tell Santa it was his birthday soon AND oh yeah, what he wanted for Christmas.  A light-saber.   Santa almost forgot to give the kids their candy canes on their way out.  That's how much he wanted us gone.

It was chaos.

I loved every minute of it.

A Murder Mystery Wedding

Joe and I have not left the house together for an actual REAL date in a long time! Tonight we were invited to a Murder Mystery Party. It was so fun! Joe and I were Tony and Mariana Giovanna, parents of the Bride. Joe was a Mob-Boss type of character, and I was the woman who married him for his money and turned a blind eye at all of his illegal doings. I got to be obnoxious all night long and it paid off! I was voted the "drama queen" of the night! Haha.

And I will fully enjoy that Toblerone bar.

Below is a "family" picture.  Matt is the Father of the Groom who is Brian Harker, and Ashton was our daughter.  Was.  Poor thing.  And Sarah (Gina) was the forgotten younger sibling who just wasn't loved as much as my dear Becky.

Get over it.

Matt and Tarilyn were the geniuses that put thing whole thing together! I think Tarilyn has planned more wedding receptions than I can count! I know who to call when my kids start getting married off! It was seriously so beautiful, the food was amazing and company was so fun (except I was missing my Barbara!)

Although there were about 40 people who came, here were my closest dance-buddies. I love you guys!  Thank you for dancing like fools with me.  Or watching ME dance like a fool is probably more accurate.  L-R: Kelli Gordon, Sarah, me, Cassie Bayly, Tarilyn, and Andy Barnes.  I had such a fun night.  Even Joe danced with me to a slow song.  It was nice.  I love dancing with my man.  Thanks Matt and Tarilyn for an awesome night out!!