Our Birthday Boy

Dallin celebrated his 3rd birthday on Sunday. These are the portraits we got taken the other day. Isn't he a handsome boy?

Before General Conference on Saturday morning, Danny took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's per Dallin's request months ago. Megan and I stayed behind due to her pooping issues and having no place to wash her bottom at Chuck E. Cheese's. They had a great time.

Dallin's birthday fell on both Easter and Conference this year (the Easter post is forthcoming). Lucky boy! First thing in the morning on Sunday Dallin saw a decorated family room. He loved that. We made his cake while Daddy made him a big birthday breakfast, which consisted of pancakes, grits, eggs, and grapes - all of Dallin's favorites.

After breakfast, it was on to opening presents. There were a LOT thanks to extended family and it took a good while to get through them all. He really made a good haul.

After Sunday morning's session of Conference, we had a delicous Easter dinner made by Danny. Then, of course, it was cake time. Dallin's request: a green cake with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles. He opted for three candles instead of a "3" candle. He loved every bit of that cake!

We love you, Dallin Boy! Happy birthday!

Poor Baby!

This week I've been up to my armpits in POOP! Poor Megan has had some sort of bug that's going around and has been pooping like crazy. Mind you, this is just two weeks after recovering from bronchitis, complete with breathing treatments. If having diarrhea weren't bad enough, it's caused severe diaper rash. The yeasty kind that creates open sores, etc. So, we've been washing her little bunsies in the bath every time she has a messy diaper (like 6 or 7 times a day) and have used all sorts of ointments and creams and things: hydrocortisone, Lansinoh, Desitin, buttermilk, jock itch cream, Aquaphor, and Maalox. We finally got a prescription from the doctor yesterday to use four times a day, but she still recommends using Maalox and a mixture of Aquaphor and the jock itch stuff in between. She also gave us a probiotic to sprinkle in her food to get the good bacteria back in Megan's tummy and soy formula to use for a few days (she's FINALLY taking a bottle - twice a day!!). Whew! Is anyone else tired??

Of course, because Megan is the happiest baby ever, you wouldn't even know anything's wrong with her. In spite of every nap being interrupted by a bowel movement and sores all over her little bunsies, she's as pleasant as can be. We're crossing our fingers she gets over all this soon.

Circus Circus!

I'd never been to the circus before and had really wanted to take the kids when the opportunity presented itself. Well, on Friday, Danny said he drove right by a little circus not far from our house. The Carson & Barnes Circus had pulled into town for a couple of days, so we went kind of on a whim Saturday afternoon. Though it was just a small one, we all had a good time and it was fun to see the kids really into it. The best part was printing off buy-one-get-one-free coupons from the website, so we only paid for two of us!

Emily's favorite act was the contortionist, mine was the hula hoop girl, Danny's was the flying trapeze artists, and Dallin's was the silly clown. We all liked the elephant act too.



Well, for whatever reason, my many attempts to upload our circus photos have been unsuccessful. I've been trying for a few days and I don't know what the problem is.

Spring Break with the Burnhams

All last week we had visitors: my brother, Brian; his wife, Heidi; and their little boy, Hunter. It was the best! Here's a recap of the fun we had.

The weather was just perfect and playing outside was one thing all the kids loved doing.

A bike ride to the park was an outing one morning.

We went to the library for story time another morning.

We went to the Dallas Aquarium on St. Patrick's Day. It's a really good one and we had fun.

A few of the animals we saw.
After dinner, we made shamrock sugar cookies for the kids to frost. Yummy.

On Thursday morning we made a big breakfast, the highlight being Heidi's home made buttermilk syrup. It's exceptional.

On Friday we went to the Heard Museum.

When the kids were in bed was when the good stuff really happened - way into the early hours of the morning. Heidi said she and Brian would do all the desserts. They made Hello Dollies, Chocolate Pudding Cake, and Caramel Popcorn. Delicious! We also watched two movies: "The Cove" (just won best documentary at the Oscars) and "Amelia". A quick shout-out to our Clear Play machine. I LOVE IT! The favorite part for everyone was the game tournament. We played a few rounds of 10 different games over three nights and kept track of everyone's points during each game. The winner of each game got 4 points, second place got 3, third place got 2, and last place got 1. We tallied up all those points and it was determined that Heidi was the winner, of course!

We loved every minute of their visit and we're so glad they came. Thanks, guys!

Spring, Shming!

Friday. Ahhhh, lovely.
Today, officially the second day of Spring. What in the heck??.

Snow, snow, go away. Come again another - NEVER!

8 Months and Counting

If you can believe it, our sweet baby girl is already 8 months old! We got these pictures taken today and, really, can there be a more charming baby?

My favorite part about the pictures is that she's helmet-free. I got to see her once again in a bow and with her hair combed. It had been ages (6 whole weeks to be exact). It was a shame to have to put the helmet back on once we were home.

She's really just a gem; a smiley, contented, playful baby. I love everything about her. Her incredibly squeezable thighs, the way she touches my face when she nurses, how she smiles every time we make eye contact, her irresistably kissable cheeks. I love her still-toothless grin and her sweet baby babblings; how patient she is - constantly waiting, waiting, waiting as I perform my intricate balancing act. How I love this little one!

"Frankly, my dear,......"

On Saturday Danny and I finished watching "Gone with the Wind" for the first time. It took us two sittings, but we did it and we really liked it. A very pleasant surprise after the last really long movie we tried. "Ghandi" seemed to last for eternity.

We got the idea to watch it months ago when we moved to Alabama and went through a string of Southern movies. Netflix, however, couldn't deliver when it came to this one. We waited for months. When it finally was available, we kept putting it off, not ready to take on a 4 and half hour movie.

We finally did it and thoroughly enjoyed it. We recommend it, though we're probably very much in the minority of being first-time viewers.