Christmas Newletter 2009

Hello Everyone,

As 2009 is drawing to a close we decided to do our Christmas Newsletter online this year to save trees and money, and it is the off year as we have done cards and newsletter's every two years.

This year has been a busy one for us, on Jan 20, 2009 we welcomed two beautiful addition's to our family,
Ruth Lois  was born at 4:17 pm and weight 5 lb 13 oz,  Irene Marlyn was born at 4:21 pm and weight 6 lb 2 oz.

We were really lucky to have Netty's parents move to Washington in Dec 2008 and her mom came and stayed with us for a month while Dan's parents (who we were living with) were out of town for a week. It was great to have both mom's at the hospital when these two little angles were born.  Because Dan loves Netty so much he couldn't handle being in the room when the c-section was preformed so Netty was privileged to have her mother there in the room with her and she got to cut the cord too.  What a blessing that was, Grandma Burke was with Netty when Jennilyn was born and Grandma Dillon was with her when the twins were born.  The girls did great and they all got to come home a few days later.  Then Grandma Dillon took Dillon and Jennilyn to Great-Grandma Alcorn's house for 3 weeks while mommy and the twins got adjusted.

In March Dan's job with CompuCom took a change and he was traveling quite a bit, he was gone from 3-7 weeks at a time without coming home at all, thins was a challenge for Netty, but we realized how much we missed him when he was gone so much.

In May we decided to move out of the basement of Dan's parents home and back into our own place, Dan was of course out of town again and we did it the day before Netty's birthday.  But we chose a place that was still close to Dan's parents so that if Netty needed the help it was still close by.

A week after moving in Netty traveled to Kennewick, WA were her grandparents live and then traveled with her mom to Utah for a visit since she hadn't been home since her sister Wendy's wedding 2 1/2 years earlier.  The kids did great with the traveling, they drove all night and it went very well.  The trip happened to collated with the Leo Dillon family Reunion, it was great to get to see everyone and show off her kids to everyone.  Thanks to all the cousins who helped with the babies that day, seeing you do that reminded me of how when I was your age I was the one on hand to help with the babies, it is fun to see things come full circle.

On June 3 just 3 days before Netty and the kids were to travel home, Netty was buckling some of the kids into the van and went to step out of the van to get the other kids and lost her footing and fell and broke both bones in her right arm.  This was the first time she has ever broken a bone.  It was a long recovery, and she has finally regained most of the use of her arm and hand, somethings are still hard for her to do.  And a big thanks go's out to her mom for coming and staying with her for 6 weeks as Dan was out of town during most of that time.  It was a challenge having 6 month old twins and not being able to take care of them.

In August  Netty saw that her cousin had posted on facebook that he was in need of a computer tech, so she told Dan to apply for the job, he did and the end of Aug he had two phone interviews and was hired, that meant a move back to Salt Lake City which put us close to her family.   Dan left Sept 11 and Netty and the kids came down Oct 1.  We are loving our new home in Midvale, UT, what is great is that we only live 1 1/2 miles from Dan's work, he comes home for lunch almost daily and he is at home at nights and on the weekends, which the kids and Netty are loving! :~)

Well as for the kids, they have been busy growing and learning each day.  Dillon is 4 and loves cars and airplanes he is still slow with talking and is in preschool, which seems to be helping and he loves getting on the school bus.  Jennilyn is 2 going on 16 with her love to talk, and to wear dresses.  The girl lives in the dresses the more frillier the better! We are working on potty training both Dillon and Jennilyn, but are not having much success yet. Ruth and Irene are 11 months old.  They are both crawling and into everything and  it is fun to watch them eat.  Ruth is very clean and Irene shoves the food into her mouth as quickly as she can. Ruth now has 7 teeth and Irene has 6 teeth.  Ruth took her first step Dec 15th.  Irene isn't quite there, but Irene  crawled first so it looks like Ruth will walk first.

Well we hope this finds all of you well and that you have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
May you remember the Reason for the Season, and that the Lord does answer prayers, he has answered many of ours this year in which we are truly grateful for.

With all our love,
Dan, Annette (Netty), Dillon, Jennilyn, Ruth & Irene Burke