Wishing You a Very Mery Christmas!

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Almost 6 months old!

My little truck is growing, growing, growing.  He loves to move, loves to interact with people, loves to be held, loves to jump, loves to be entertained by big brother Drew (no one else can get him to laugh as hard as D can :), loves to sleep, and We Love Him!!!

Love the rolls :)

He loves to roll around the house :) He got himself stuck under the piano bench

Got the high chair set up- he's loving his baby cereal so far!

Starting to sit up better... still have a ways to go, but he's getting there :)

We Love You Mack!

Heros! ..... or dancers... whatever, really :)

Here are the little super heros in action:

Trying to get Grant to look like a super-hero rather than a disco dancer was more work than it was worth... :)  Love these boys!

Happy Birthday Grant!

This little guy is three years old today.  Wow- it feels like he all of a sudden turned into a big boy.  He has spent his day saying repeatedly, "Happy Birthday Grant!" to himself.  Such a cutie/crack-up :)

His love for Thomas the Tank Engine is every so slowly fading-- but the love for Lightning McQueen and anything Cars related is still holding strong... as evidenced by his birthday loot:

See the Mater shirt in that pile?  I have a feeling it will become the new Thomas shirt-- hope it's made really sturdy!!

This sweet little Grant is so adorable, sweet, and silly.  We love him more every day! 

Happy Birthday Big Guy!!!

Lots of Updates and New Family photos

I have been MIA on my blog for quite some time... lots going on (including a traveling husband! He already has Costa Rica, Israel, Germany, and Jordan under his belt :) but I wanted to finally post a few new fun things:  So, feel free to keep scrolling down if you want to see more pictures of my cutie boys :)

A few weeks ago my friend Jamie offered to take our family pictures-- she got a new camera and wanted to get in some practice.  Of course we agreed!  She did a great job capturing our family and we love the pictures!

Thanks, Jamie!!!

The Middle Child

Who is not forgotten!  Oh, how I love my little G-man!  With Drew at school all day and a baby who still sleeps a ton, Grant and I get a lot of one on one time, and we love it.  His little personality is so sweet and determined at the same time.  He knows what he wants, but he is just so stinkin adorable in the way he goes about it.  We love him, his sweet little voice (if you want to hear him say 'kangaroos' -- so cute!--, click here), and his awesome personality!

One day he found my old HS graduation cap and a little cars box and said, "Mom! Look! My missionary things!"  I have no idea why he associated these with missionary things, but it was cute nonetheless :)

 Trying so hard to do a bridge like his big brother :)

 Sweet little face!!!

 I was making dinner, and Mack started to get a little fussy laying there on his blanket.  Before I knew it, Grant had brought a book over, sat down, and said, "I read you a story Baby Mack!"  It was adorable!

The Many Faces of Macky Boy

Our Mack is already 4.5 months old... don't want to talk about that.  Too fast!  Too fast.  But oh, so fun at the same time :)  He has really grown up and developed a little personality that is so sweet and tender. 

This little guy LOVES to be held.  And if he's not being held, he'd prefer to have someone right in his face talking to him and smiling at him.  He wants to be right in the thick of the action.

Or sleeping, which he does really well :)

And, one of my favorite features about him (other than his adorable smile and teenaged boy burps :) is his little neck fat roll-- seriously?  Have you seen something so cute on a baby's neck??  This picture doesn't even do it justice- this kid has got some rolls I tell ya:

And check out that double chin that's just been getting bigger since birth:  ( I love it! )

I know I've said this before, but it's true again: I can't stop kissing all these rolls all. the. time.  Seriously.  This poor kid probably wonders why he was sent to a home where his mother mauls him every second of every day ;)  Man, I just love him so much!

But really, he is such a good, happy baby and we're so blessed to have him here in our family!

Ninja Drew

This summer we saw on TV a show called American Ninja Warrior.  It's really quite entertaining, kind of an extreme obstacle course type of show.  Drew got really into watching these men do crazy, very impressive obstacles that require extreme strength and started doing 'ninja' things of his own.  He has always been into doing 'tricks', as he calls them- flips, cartwheels, handstands, etc., so this just increased his interest in it all.

One Saturday I hear, "Mom! Come look at me!"  I run to the hallway to find Drew like this:

He had climbed up the wall!  Made me laugh.

We finally got him enrolled into a boys tumbling class, and he is absolutely in love with it!  It is fun for me to go and watch him have so much fun :)  Totally worth the money! 

After the first week, he's been doing 'bridges' constantly:

I think I would ache for days if I bent that far... (and I'm only 27... sad :) 

And, the second week of class, I was totally impressed that my son, who has never climbed a rope in his life, made it as high as he did on his own:

(bad pic from my phone, zoomed way in, but you get the idea :)

Anyway, we may have a little monkey, but he sure is cute and we love him!!  I wonder if he'll continue to love and do well at this whole 'tumbling' thing?

Mack Truck

Although this is not his namesake, we couldn't help ourselves when our friend and neighbor brought home a big Mack truck one night (he works with all sorts of big trucks and machines).
Our little guy is big (like his brothers before him; like we knew he would be :), and his nickname around the ward is 'Mack Truck'.  I might be silly, but I love it :)

Drew is in Kindergarten!

No way is my little Drew-B old enough for school!  I swear, he was just born!  BUT, he has grown up and is so excited to be in kindergarten :)  He is loving it, and already learning so much!  I was worried that all day would be too much for him, but he seems to have adjusted very well.  I am pleasantly surprised :)  Grant, Mack and I have some quiet days, and we all anxiously await for Drew to get home!

My sweet little Drew on his first day--

 Getting off the bus at school : he insisted on riding the bus, even though mom wanted to drop him off on his first day.  No way.  He is a big boy who rides the bus now!  :)  His bus driver is the nicest man ever, which is just wonderful!

 Sitting at his table in his classroom: all grown up!

WE LOVE YOU, DREW!

Slip'N'Slide

Our boys have very different ways of approaching a slip'n'slide.... see for yourself :)

Grant:

Drew:

Mack Squeals

This is mostly for the Grandparents to hear his cute little voice :)  Sure love this little guy!!

Happy 3 Months Big Mack

I can't believe I'm saying that already....

You're too cute for words, and we love you more each day!

Changes all around---

So many changes!
Andy now works for American Extrusion International.

As a member of the sales team, he'll be traveling to these places:

(He's over sales in Europe, Middle East, and Africa)

Because of this, we got this book in the mail today:

And, we will no longer need this setup:



He was officially released as seminary teacher last Sunday.  After three years, he has really grown to love the kids, and we'll both miss hearing all 21 (would have been 26 this year!) tromp down our stairs each morning at 6 am.  (really, we will!)  But- it would be near impossible to teach when he's traveling up to 40% of the time.  And, everything happens for a reason-- the Lord is aware of every circumstance in each of His childrens' lives.  The timing is just too perfect to believe anything else--the new seminary teacher is going to be great!! 

And, secretly (or not so secretly :), I'm excited to have our basement back!

I'm so proud of Andy- he works so hard for our family and is doing everything he does to the best of his ability.  We're sure lucky to have him!!!

Magic Waters

This last Monday we took the boys to Magic Waters-- the little waterpark in Rockford.  They Loved it, with a capital L :)  Cute boys--

 Drew was having so much fun and going down so many slides, this was the only picture I got of just him :)

 While Drew & Daddy were in line for the roller coaster waterslide, Grant was having fun playing in the kids area. For a few minutes he just layed on this turtle-- silly kid!

 Grant, practicing his moves :)  I really have no idea what he was doing, but it was funny!

 Happy Boy!

We got into the park with a gift card that Andy's co-workers gave him on his last day at United Way-- that's right, Andy got a new job!  More on that in the above post--   Anyway, right as we were about to leave the waterpark, they started having electrical problems and had to close the park down.  SO, our tickets are good for another whole free day!  It's the gift that keeps giving :)

Do You Believe in Magic?

Well, Drew hopes we do!  He loves to do 'magic' tricks (something he watches his father do for him often). His specialty seems to be making things 'disappear'.

The first and only rule to viewing Drew's magic: close your eyes :) :)

He had just turned the big card into a little card ;)

Mack Talks :)

This little boy is growing up way too fast!!  BUT, we're loving how much he interacts with us lately!

Bham Family Reunion 2011

I am so lucky to have married into such an awesome family-- seriously!  The Burningham Fam is just so much fun!  We had a great time laughing, sweating, playing, sweating, going, dying of heat, eating, sweating, talking, dying of heat, and just spending time with them.  The reunion this year was in San Antonio-- never again will we travel there in JULY-- ugh:

Yes, it was crazy hot.  Yes, I don't remember the last time I couldn't cool down-- even in A/C.  Yes, we went through a ton of sunscreen.  Yes, some of us learned that sunscreen actually does expire (therefore, got burned ;).  BUT-- we honestly had a really great time!  We were not ready for it to be over.

A big, huge thanks to Andy's bro and sil Tim & Lisa for their awesome planning.  And to Andy's Aunt, for her hard work and planning as well-- everything went off without a hitch!  (and when you're planning for 26 people, that's not easy to do!)

We were able to go boating one day, do a ton of swimming at the Resort's pools, go see an actual Texas Ranch with Texas Longhorns, go to SeaWorld, see downtown San Antonio, and some were able to do a session at the San Antonio temple-- what an awesome trip!!

 Texas Longhorn and us :)

 Stick 'em up!

 Drew with Pistol Packin' Paula and the outlaw at the Ranch

 Some of the Bham clan in front of Sea World

 Remember The Alamo!

 On top of the Tower of Americas in San Antonio

 Walking along the beautiful Riverwalk

 At the Riverwalk Show (see the band playing on the bridge in the background)  Mack is naked b/c he had just blown through his second outfit of the day-- that's all I had brought with us!

 Mack did a whole lot of hanging out in his carseat/stroller :)

Grant in the Ranch's 'out house' ;)