Happy New Year

2008 was a great year for our family. Chad and I became parents to sweet little Parker, have loved watching him grow up this year.

Highlights from 2008:

-January 16 - Parker Anthony Burnham was born
-March 4 - Parker has hernia surgery
-Easter - Parker's blessing in Utah
-April 9 - Elder Josh Burnham leaves on his mission to Florida
-June - Our first real family vacation to Atlantic City
-July - Florida with the Zwick family
-August - Zwick family moves from Alpine, UT to Henderson, NV
-September - Lake Mead with the Burnham family
-Thanksgiving - Deep Creek Lake cabin with friends
-December - Disney World with Chad and Parker
- Spending time in Nevada and California with family!

Can't wait for 2009.....

-Park's first birthday
-Chad finishing Pharmacy school and graduating as a PharmD, MBA
-Moving out west
-Spending more time with family
-Having our second child in July

Yes, you read that right, we are pregnant again, due July 12. We are so excited to add a new little bundle of joy to our family. Parker is going to the best big brother. They will be almost 18 months apart, and only one grade apart. Fun Fun! 2009 will be a busy one. Hope everyone is haveing a Happy New Year!!!

PS-
I still have lots of Christmas pictures to post, so stay tuned...

Thanksgiving

I have been slacking with my posts lately and I have a lot to catch up on.... First, Thanksgiving. We had a great time with our friends out in Maryland. We rented a sweet cabin on Deep Creek Lake with the Skinners, Dastrups, Walkers and Millers.
It snowed the day we got there, which made the trip even better. The cabin was perfect, decorated for Christmas, complete with multiple flat screen TV's for football and parade watching, a hot tub room, and beautiful sunsets. We had a blast staying up laughing and playing games til about 3 am every night once all the kids were asleep. Thanksgiving dinner was fabulous, as everyone made their specialty dishes, and Jeremy made one of the best turkey's I've ever had. Since Parker can crawl now, he tried to experiment with the stairs, which resulted in him falling down this entire flight of wooden stairs on Thanksgiving night. Amazingly, he didn't have one scratch or bruise, and was perfectly content after about 2 minutes. He's a tough kid. It was so nice to be with such good friends on Thanksgiving since we are all so far away from our families. We all have a lot to be thankful for. I am so grateful for all of the blessings in my life. Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!!!

So You Think You Can Dance

Yes, we went to the live tour because we love love love the show, and the live performance was even better. Twitch, Will, Kherrington, Katie, Gev, etc. etc. It was so fun to see all of our favorite dances from the season in person. Chad and I had nice floor seats with our friends, Joe and Lindsey. Me and Lindsey were screaming like little kids... we were SO excited. It was such a fun night and a great, great show. Can't wait to go again next year!

Fishy Night

On Friday night we went down town to the new East side of Baltimore's inner harbor and ate fish tacos at little place called Taco Fiesta. They were really good, but I am still searching for fish tacos that can compare to Rubio's. Yum. It was a beautiful night, so from there we walked across the bridge and went to the National Aquarium at the inner harbor. Parker was amazed with all of the water, fish and especially the dolphin show. I was really impressed with the aquarium and can't believe that this was our first time there! We got to see some really cool sharks, sea turtles, sting rays, and alligators, and even walk through a rainforest. What a fun night!




He wouldn't take his eyes off the gigantic sting ray


Parker, trying to catch the fish through the glass


Dolphin show


Doesn't this look like one of those screen savers?

Trick or Treat

This year we dressed up as Barney, Betty and Bamm-Bamm Rubble from the Flintstones. Our good friends the Austins were Fred, Wilma and Pebbles. The festivities started with ward party last weekend. We won "Best group costume" and had a great time passing out candy from our decorated Bedrock classroom, complete with the Flintstones music playing in the background. Chad tried to spray his hair yellow, but it turned out green, so on the real Halloween night, we skipped that step in the costuming. On Halloween we trick or treated with a huge group of friends. I had forgotten how much fun trick or treating is! Parker had a blast and loved sifting through each bowl of candy, very seriously, to find his perfect piece.... we realized he is pretty indecisive, just like his parents.

Flashback to Halloweens of the Past

Chad and I both love Halloween. It is such a fun time of year, and I love coming up with a new costume idea, and then whipping out the sewing machine to see what I can do. Chad and I started dating around Halloween back in 2001. I know I have a picture of us at a party, me in my Ninja turtle costume and Chad scantily clad as a lady bug... but I can't seem to find it. Oh well, here are a few pictures of our costumes since being married. Sorry they're kind of small, but they all blow up if you click on them.

2002 - Devil and Angel



2004 - "1920's" ...(think Bagger Vance)




2005 - Elphaba and Scarecrow (from Wicked... not the Wizard of Oz .. hint hint:)



2006 - Wendy and Peter Pan (we conned our friends into being Tinkerbell, John, Michael, Captain Hook and Tigerlilly)



And yes, Chad wore tights... haha



2007 - HEFTY and GLAD trash bags... (a pun on the fact that I was about 7 months pregnant, hence my beauty in the picture)




Stay tuned for pictures of THIS YEAR's 2008 costumes, with Parker making his Halloween Debut... they just might be our best costumes yet!!!

Picking Pumpkins

On Friday night we went with some friends to the pumpkin patch. Wow, we got so many great pictures of the kids with all of the pumpkins. They had a great time. I was a little surprised how much Parker loved it since he seemed to be a little scared of the big pumpkin the photographer had (see screaming picture in previous post)... but the cute little guy absolutely loved it. We picked out a really cute "fairytale" pumpkin. I LOVE those! And a little green and yellow one for Park. Afterwards, Chad and I got some Chinese take out, and put Parker to bed. It was a really fun night, and a successful first trip to the pumpkin patch for Parker!

Picture attempt

We took Parker to get some 9 month/fall pictures taken. He had just eaten, had just gotten up from a really great nap, and LOVES having his picture taken, so we thought we were in for a treat. Park threw us a little curve ball and decided he didn't like the photographer (so not like him!), so between sobs, I we ended up getting a few red, teary eyed shots. Oh well. Better luck next time.

I did it....

Well, actually Lindsey did it. My hair needed some help. After having Parker and feeling like my hair is 50% thinner, 50% less manageable, and with 50% less time to spend on it, I decided that making it 50% shorter just might be the winning solution. So, I broke down and joined the ranks of moms who cut their hair short after having a baby and never go back to the long stuff. I am a mom, I love it, and I love my new hair to show for it.... now I just need some of these

Four years ago today...

Most of you that actually read this blog already know parts, if not most of this story, but since it's been 4 years, I think its about time to document it... for posterity's sake. Four years ago today, We had lived in Maryland for a little over a year and Chad was a couple months into his 2nd year of dental school. On this particular Saturday morning there was a fun, and "harmless" intramural flag football game. Chad played on a team with some other guys in his class, and this day they were playing the 1st year dental school team (i.e. very important game). During one of the plays, Chad was on defense and was rushing the quarterback from the corner. Another guy on his team was doing the same from the other side. The quarterback stepped forward just as Chad and the other defender were diving, full speed for the quarterback's flag. Their heads hit with full force, and after a loud "crack", both were on the ground. I ran over to find Chad, a little out of it, with what looked like it was going to be a pretty big black eye, a little cut above his eye, a concussion, and a broken tooth (which all the dental students were, of course the most worried about). Chad blacked out one more time after that, so we decided to drive both guys to the hospital which was just down the street. Upon examination, and xrays, the doctors started to seem a little more nervous since they could not get any pupil reaction or movement out of Chad's left eye. The xrays showed that Chad had fractured the whole orbit of his eye (bones all around the eyeball), with some fractures going further back into his scull. They decided to rush us to Shock Trauma, at the University of Maryland since things were a little more complicated than originally assumed. Some of Chad's friends came and gave him a blessing before we were transferred, and I had to make the horrendous phone calls to both of our parents. It was a rough night at shock trauma. Chad's cut was stitched up and then they started tests and more tests. They were concerned about a little brain hemorrhage, nerve function, fractures, etc. etc. We were in the trauma center for 5 days. I slept on a cot right next to Chad, and we had visitors and phone calls constantly, which was great. Chad's dad flew in during our last day at the hospital which was so so wonderful. All in all, they called Chad's condition "superior orbital fissure syndrome". When the bones broke in his face, something hit the nerve bundle and damaged most of the nerves near his eye. He could still see out of it, but due to nerve damage, he couldn't open his eye, or move it at all. The eye was fixed and dilated. Some how the bones were all enough in place though, that they couldn't warrant going in surgically to do anything else. So we went home with some hopes, but hearing from the doctors that it would never be back 100%, if it even improves at all. Nerves are funny, its just a waiting game. Chad was seeing a specialist at Johns Hopkins, and finishing up the semester of dental school, trying to see if that was going to be do-able. 2 months later, Chad randomly could open his eye, and about a month after that, we started to see a little movement from the eye. Little by little things were starting to come back, but the double vision was a huge problem for being a dentist. Chad was given the option to transfer over to Pharmacy school to get his PharmD. After looking into this option, we felt that this was going to be best for Chad, as he would have to struggle with his eye every day of being a dentist. So, the following fall, Chad started Pharmacy school, and our 4 years in Maryland turned to 6. Now, with only a few months left, the time has really gone by fast. If you look at Chad today, you can't tell that anything is wrong. He still has some double vision, but he drives, plays sports, reads, etc. just fine. Chad loves Pharmacy and wonders why he didn't look further into doing this as a profession years ago. This whole experience really made us realize that things aren't always in our hands or our control. Sometimes the Lord has funny ways of paving the road before you, but in the end it's all for our growth and progression. I learned so much from Chad through the long healing process... he was always so optimistic and positive. I love you and look up to you so much babe. And, by the way, flag football is more brutal than you would think :)

That picture was taken when we were home from the hospital, about a week after it all happened.