Eight is great!

On Saturday my nephew, Jesse, got baptized. We were so glad we were able to attend this special day of his. He was really excited and looked so handsome in his suit and tie. His mom, Beckie, said that Jesse wanted to know if you had to pay to get baptized. He also wanted to know if he lived in China if he would still be getting baptized. Good questions..he is a thinker, this kid. :0)

We are so proud of you Jesse! What a great choice you have made in getting baptized. I hope you can stick with your goal of staying clean for a WHOLE year. :0)

A girl after my own heart!

Conversation between me and my Mackenzee this morning...

Me: How about you go and get dressed?

Kenzee: Where are we going?

Because apparently she's learned from her lazy mommy that you only get dressed if you are going somewhere! Sigh.

Me: Do you think we should go somewhere?

Kenzee: Yeah. Two stores.

Me: What are we going to buy?

Kenzee: Uuuuummmmm.....two Lella shoes. And Dora shoes.

First of all....thanks so much little Maggie, for teaching my daughter all about 'Lella' {Cinderella}. And secondly....yes, she is my daughter. We love shoes. It's a beautiful thing. :0)

Independence Day

We had such a great holiday this year. Normally we are pretty fuddy duddy and don't do much. In fact, a couple of years ago we even went to bed before the fireworks even started. True, Mackenzee was still a baby...but still! How boring of us. We've just never really gotten into the holiday. This year we decided to MAKE ourselves get into the spirit of this wonderful day we have to celebrate our freedoms.
So, what else do the Burnham's do? We invite people over and feed them of course! It's my specialty. :0) It's also genetic....so I can't help it! :0)
We borrowed a ginormous blow up waterslide from Jaysen's brother, Steve {THANKS SO MUCH GUYS! IT WAS A HIT!} and let the kids slide down it. We had the little slip and slide out for the smaller children, and of course, the trampoline and swingset. Jaysen got his BBQ skills going and we all had so much fun! Sadly, Landon was gone for this holiday, so he wasn't able to share in the fun. But, Mackenzee was in her element and loved every minute. She was sure it was a party just for her. :0)
The night before I took her to pick out some fireworks. She had specific instructions for the girl behind the counter at the sales booth. She needed a pink firework that was SCARY. Sigh. I think the girl thought I was crazy. Yes, I let my two year old pick out the fireworks. Is there something wrong with that? :0) Anyway, she found one for Kenzee that she thought would work and little Mackenzee would not let go of it. She actually slept with it the night before. {She takes after Jaysen, I swear!} And when it came time to light it, she had a hard time parting with her tube o' fire. But, the sales lady picked perfectly for Kenzee. It had big showers of purple, pink, and green with snapping lights that were "scary".
It really was a great day for us. We got to be in the company of some great friends at our home, and then we all went over to Lowe's to watch the big CSI fireworks show. They coordinate the fireworks with patriotic music and sitting there with people I have grown to really appreciate having in my life, along with Jaysen and little Mackenzee...I truly felt grateful. I remember looking around and seeing Jaysen holding Ellie who was staring adoringly at his face, and Mackenzee snuggled up to Montay's mom {Kenzee's new grandma}, and Nick and Rhett gazing longingly at the batch of fireworks to be lit, and even cute little Mollie who cried out of fear from the big fireworks......and with the song 'I'm Proud to Be An American' playing in the background....my heart felt very full.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I hope everyone had a great holiday and were able to remember what we really celebrate on this great day.

Blessed

Sometimes....

every now and again....

I get a warm and fuzzy mommy moment like this.....

See? They DO like each other! :0)

BTW...please ignore the really dirty floor they are snuggling on. They watched a movie and ate popcorn the night before, which inevitably means the popcorn gets scattered across the floor. :0)

The wonderful thing about tiggers.....

Is Tiggers are wonderful things..

Their tops are made out of rubber...

Their bottoms are made out of springs...

They're bouncy, floucy, trouncy, pouncy

FUN, FUN, FUN, FUN, FUN!

The kids are now in heaven...

We went and got the much anticipated trampoline today. When Jaysen got home from work we went out and put it together for family home evening. They make them SO much different now compared to the kind I grew up with. NO springs! We were wondering how it was going to bounce...but it works just fine without them. And it's even better because there is no chance of little fingers getting pinched between the coils. The kids bounced all night and are planning on having a camp out next weekend. We will all be sleeping under the stars. {I'm already hot just thinking about it!}

Mackenzee made me get up and jump with her and it made me remember all the fun games I played on our trampoline as a kid. BUT! Mackenzee still has a little bit of growing up to do before I play Alligator with her again. My tummy can't handle another cannonball! {OUCH!}

What happened?

Tonight, my heart broke just a little bit. My Landon...my baby....he said something that just about crushed me.

We were finishing up with dinner and as I was cleaning up he said that he had told his friend, Hatim, that I was crazy. {It's true!} I laughed and asked him what Hatim said.

"Well, I told him you were crazy because you liked to give me kisses. He thought it was pretty funny."

I asked him what was so crazy about that! And then I said, "You're not too old to have your mom kiss you are you?"

This is where my heart broke....

"Uh, yeah."

I'm serious...I think I could actually hear it breaking. I tried really hard to keep my tears back. I know he's getting older. I know kisses are gross when boys are older...but not from the momma! Right? Sigh.

I begged him {literally} to allow me to still kiss him goodnight.

"Well....maybe once a week."

Just once? Really? That's it?

"Ok then!" {he said this like he was totally annoyed with me...completely exasperated} "You can kiss me goodnight three times a week."

Still NOT good enough. I'm his mother. It's not like I'm giving him super slobbery kisses. In fact, it's just a kiss on the cheek we're talking about here! You'd think I was asking him to do something horrible! :0)

I told him I was kissing him goodnight EVERY night whether he liked it or not.

And then I proceeded to grab him and give him a big fat slobbery kiss on his cheek to let him know that I could still pin him down to do it if I had to.

Because I love him.

My Little Entrepreneurs

Landon really wanted to have a lemonade stand last summer. I promised him we would....and I failed. We ended up moving and it took up pretty much all of our summer. So, this year I couldn't let him down again.

We had my neice Savanna come and join Landon, Mackenzee, and my nephew Talon so they could all share in the work.....and in the profits. :0) They had so much fun making their poster for the corner by our house. It was supposed to direct traffic our way as we live off in a little culdesac and don't get much traffic. It didn't do much...but that's ok. We have awesome neighbors who happened to be thirsty at the same time our table went up.

We had both regular lemonade AND pink lemonade...because Kenzee wanted to make sure there was something pink there for the girls. And actually, the pink lemonade is what everyone wanted! She's one smart girl! And our neighbors....such good people...actually paid MORE for their glasses of juice...just to be nice. One guy gave them $1.50 for his. The kids were SO excited! And honestly...it was a great way to meet some of my neighbors I hadn't met yet.

The older three kids each ended up making $2.20 each! Kenzee was contect with a handful of pennies. :0) They begged me to take them to the dollar store tomorrow so they could spend their earnings. Heaven forbid they save it! It might burn a hole in their pocket! :0)

All in all, it was a fun little adventure for us. I told Landon we could set it up again when we had our yard sale in a couple of weeks. He'll rake in the quarters then! :0)