Moving on...

Today....I am sad.

Why? Because my baby just went to his last day of second grade. He is now officially moving on to 3rd grader land. Am I that old? When did this all happen? He's not supposed to be this old either! Sigh.
Here he is with his teacher, Mrs. Grubbs. Can I just tell you what a wonderful teacher she has been for him? Though he has never struggled academically, he has struggled socially in past years. He doesn't understand boundaries at times, and has trouble focusing. He finishes his assignments quickly and then doesn't know what to do with himself. So, he pesters EVERYONE. At the beginning of the year I was told by numerous parents that I should request a classroom transfer. Why? Because their child didn't like Mrs. Grubbs...or so and so's parents told them she was mean. I was a little worried because I know how sensitive my kid is. But, I'm a firm believer in taking what you get. In real life we don't get to choose who we deal with. We have to work with people of all kinds. It's best to acclimate them now right? Besides, if she really was that horrible, I could request a transfer if it was really affecting Landon.
I'm so glad I didn't listen to the other parents! My son...that loves art....brought home all of his art projects for the year THAT SHE SAVED. There were stacks of them. And different styles and REAL art forms too...like drawing styles like Picasso and what not. She thinks that art helps kids develop in ways that book learning can't. So she has art projects ALL THE TIME. And though I wouldn't say she is mean....she has rules and expects them to be obeyed. My son has been so much more obedient at home this last year.
Anyone who says that teachers don't make a "real" difference need smacked in the head! :0) She has been wonderful and we will miss her.

This is Landon with his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Burton. {She's related to the Burnhams VERY distantly} He LOVES Mrs. Burton. She was his very first teacher, and they created quite a bond. He still sees her at school and always gets so excited that he has to give her a hug. We took her a teacher present today because this was her last year teaching. She has retired. And though I know she was ready to be done...Landon will really miss seeing her in the halls at school. He had to give her one final hug....

And finally....my very smart little boy finally got his Math trophy. He was so excited when he brought it home. He was literally beaming! :0) It has his name on it and everything. I think he's told just about everyone about it. He's so proud of himself...and I'm really proud of him too. He worked really hard for it and didn't give up. I hope he keeps pushing himself to be better and do better. He asks so many questions now. He's so curious about how things work, and what things mean....his little brain is working hard. I just hope I have the answers for him! :0)

Baby Jeremy

I took my camera to Sunday dinner at the Burnham's in hopes of catching some shots of Mackenzee helping her grandpa feed the cows. She LOVES to help do that. Unfortunately it ended up raining, so she wasn't able to help out.

But, imagine my excitement when I heard little baby Jeremy was going to finally get to come up for dinner! I was so thrilled I had brought my camera! YAY! He has been taken off oxygen, and though still on "house arrest" the doctors cleared him on being able to be around small groups of family {as long as they weren't sick}.

His chubby cheeks are adorable! He's almost 11 pounds, which is good as he's 7 weeks old now. I got to hold him for the first time too! He's such a good baby and didn't even make a peep the entire time. I even got a cute little smile out of him.

Here is a snap of Jeremy with his "biggest" sister, Meghan. She is the oldest child. He looks a lot like her baby pictures too. Except he always has this concerned look on his face. I'm told that's a Jesse trademark. :0) {Jesse is Jeremy big brother} He's definitely a Burnham and we're so glad he's doing so well!

4 years and counting

I was a single mom. Because of this I had to work full time. My son was my entire life at that point and so dating wasn't really important to me. I worked all day, so my nights were dedicated to him. The only dating I did back then was blind dates. My friends would set me up with some guy and it would never make it past a second date. If there was no connection, it wasn't worth it to me to keep it going. Fun dating wasn't an option, because it took precious time away from my son.

My neighbor set me up with a guy from one of her college classes. She said we were a perfect fit because I was a "Molly Mormon" and he was a "Norman Mormon". Ummm....ok. She obviously didn't know me as well as she thought she did. :0) She knew I loved to bake and that I loved family time. Apparently that makes you a Super-Mormon or something. {If that's the case...a lot of you that aren't Mormon now qualify as Super Mormon. :0) } Anyway, he came over...and brought his roommate along with him. What? And he came over at 10:00 pm. Ummm....3 year old son. Bedtime....he obviously had no clue. But, I figured I would endure him for a short period of time and he would then graciously leave. It didn't happen that way. He was oblivious to my hints for him to leave. And the conversation? He bore his testimony to me and talked about how his mission made him strong. What? On the first date? Sigh....my son tried to throw him a ball, and he didn't even know how to interact with the kid. He was clueless. The date was HORRIBLE. Blind date hell is how I like to refer to it. I swore I would never go on another blind date after that.

I was an assistant manager at an apartment community at that time. It was after this horrible experience that one of my residents {who I knew from high school} told me that her cousin {who I also went to high school with} had someone she wanted to set me up with. Really? Are you kidding me?

I was such a snot. I told her that I would think about it, but that my answer would be no if his name was Jason {I had already dated a couple of them since getting divorced. I figured they were bad luck} or if he was divorced {because when couples divorce it's always the mans fault right? Can you tell that I was still a little bitter towards men? And how hypocritical could I be? I was divorced for heaven's sake!} I really think I just didn't want to go through another horrible blind date again. Another guy that wouldn't cut it. It was kind of depressing. I had actually just resigned myself to being ok with being a single mom forever. It wouldn't be so bad right?

I ended up saying yes even though his name did turn out to be Jaysen {at least it's spelled differently right?} and he was divorced. I honestly wasn't holding out much hope. I told my friend from high school that we had to double date because there was no way I was going alone with some stranger. So, on October 9, 2003 we all went to Chili's for dinner {Jaysen picked me up at my house though} and then we went bowling. I tied him. Best game I've ever bowled...124! At that point we separated from my friend as they had to get home to their babysitter. Jaysen and I went to Dairy Queen for dessert and stayed there until they closed. I still wasn't sure about him after that first date. We went out again a week later. This time it was just the two of us. We went to see a Nicholas Cage movie and then out for dessert afterwards. We talked for hours again. He liked 80s music. I was intrigued. I still wasn't sure if I liked him or not, but knew there was something. I figured even if we ended up really good friends, it wouldn't be a loss.

Date #3 was exactly a week after date #2 and exactly two weeks after date #1. It was like he wanted to make sure to give the "proper" amount of time in between them. It was during this date that I knew. Which was scary. He accidentally met my son that night. I hadn't introduced them yet because I didn't want Landon to get to know him if he was just going to disappear. But, there was a flood in one of the apartments and so I had to go take care of the emergency call after work. I rushed home to get ready and Jaysen showed up right after I did. I told him to sit down and wait because I needed to touch up a bit. Landon came out with his little basketball and Jaysen taught him how to "slamma jamma". It was adorable. Anyway...our 3rd date was great. He knew I loved photography and so he took me out to Shoshone Falls and gave me a photography lesson {he has a degree in it} with his fabulous camera and all the lenses and cool gadgets that went with it. Afterwards he took me to Sunsations, which is a spa, and hung out for an hour while I got a massage from a masseuse there. He paid for it. :0) And after that we went out to Johnny Carinos for dinner. {Italian...my favorite!} Again...we talked until they were closing. They had to kick us out. It was a fabulous date.

After that, I lost ten pounds. I was stressed out. Have you ever heard about people praying to know if the person they are dating are "the one"? I didn't do that. I prayed that if he wasn't the one that God would make him go away. I was scared because I knew I was falling for him and I didn't want to get hurt again. It was a horrible feeling. Luckily I had a friend that talked me through it and I made it through it. Jaysen never went away. And I'm so glad.

We were married May 22, 2004 in the Boise Temple. It's been four fabulous years. We added a new member to the family since then and are now complete. Landon and I weren't meant to be alone. We needed Jaysen and Kenzee to finish the circle. My heart is so full of love for this man who completely changed my world. He opened my heart up again, when I didn't know if I could let it. His unconditional love for me amazes me. His spunk makes life fun. His compassion and love for our children is truly one of the sexiest things about him. :0) I love him more and more every day. I can't wait for the years to come!

I Want YOU, To Want ME!

My daughters new favorite song is 'I Want You To Want Me' by Cheap Trick. She always says, "Mommy, I want you!" Which then led to me telling her that I want her to want me....because I tend to find song lyrics in most phrases people use. I can't help it. I loves me some music.

Anyway...Kenzee has me play this song ON REPEAT frequently. Just this morning she whined until I put the music on for her. She has little cute actions to the song too. So, I thought I better grab my camera and take a quick video of it for posterity. My video camera battery was dead. So, I grabbed our old digital camera that takes quick videos and used it. I noticed the battery was low and hoped it didn't die on me as I recorded Mackenzee.

The result wasn't quite what I was hoping for. I can't figure out how to turn her upright. So, you'll have to watch with your head tilted to the left. :0) And, she didn't do her actions or get all sassy like she does when it's just me and her boogeying down in the kitchen. But, she's still cute.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of 'Mackenzee sings the hits'. Hopefully next time I'll be able to catch her FOR REAL. :0)

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Mother's Day! Though I already told both mom's and my grandma....

Love you! Thank you for everything you do for us.

We enjoy living so close to both sets of parents. The kids enjoy having a close relationship with their grandparents and it makes days like today even better. Lots of hugs and kisses and "I love you's" going around. :0)

After 5 shots, this was the best we could get out of dear Mackenzee. Sigh.

We got to spend the afternoon in Jerome at Jaysen's parents house.

I was a mean aunt and made all the grandkids that were there pose for a picture with their grandma. Can you see her in there? :0) She got piled on. This one took several shots as well, and we still didn't get one of all of them looking forward and smiling. {My son played a BIG part in the problem. Sigh} So, I gave up...

Why try? Let them be who they are right? :0)

Then we got to go over to my Grandma Casperson's house for dinner. Again...this was one of several attempts to get Mackenzee to look pretty for the camera. This was the best we got. {Are you seeing a pattern here?}

I have been trying to get this four generation picture for FOREVER. OK, at least since Mackenzee was born. There are four generations of girls that I am a part of. It needs proper documentation, right? And, of course, we can't leave my stud Landon out of the photo shoot.

All in all, it was a great day. Full of family...just the way it should be. :0)

Too Big For Her Britches

It's official.

My baby is a big girl. We had to take apart her bed when we moved it out of her bedroom to install the new carpeting. As she has just learned how to climb out of her crib, we figured we might as well transition her into a toddler bed. So, instead of putting the crib back together the "baby" way, we put up the "don't fall out of the bed!" bars when it was time to put her bed back in her room.

She is now sleeping in her "big girl" bed. :0(

I cannot begin to describe how sad this makes me. When did she get so big?She was so excited to go to bed tonight too. Her first night sleeping like a big kid. Of course, right now she is screaming and kicking at the door, but at first there WAS excitement! {She hasn't figured out how to open doors yet. Thank heavens!}

What a Stud!

This kid continually amazes me. He truly is a stud. For the last month and a half we have been practicing his 7, 8, and 9s for his 50 in a minute tests at school. For those of you that don't know what 50 in a minute tests are, I will explain. The kids are given 50 math problems and have to complete them all in 60 seconds. So, this means that Landon has been working on his multiplication and division problems starting with 7s, 8s, and 9s. Like 8x9, 72/9, etc. Let me remind you that he is in 2nd grade. That's crazy to me! He's 8 years old. I don't remember having to do math problems that hard when I was in 2nd grade. Anyway...this last week...he passed them all! He is so excited and I'm excited for him! We had a little party Tuesday night after he came home and told me. We had his favorite for dinner, noodles with white sauce :0), and I bought those yummy {and naughty} Lofthouse cookies with the pink frosting. He ate two of them after having seconds on his ravioli. :0)
I am so proud of him. He had to work really hard for the last month and a half to get to this point. My son usually gives up after a while on certain things. And his really mean mom made him work on finding out what the answers were when we first started. He wanted me to just give him the answers. Yep, that's me. The MEAN MOM!
Because he has completed all of these tests he will get a trophy at school. He just barely didn't make it last year. He is thrilled about being able to display his new shiny award for all to see. And I am thrilled for him. Congrats Landon!