Home Improvements

Well today we did some home improvements.

Our living room had no lights other then lamps.  And even those did not have a switch to turn them on.  It also gets hot and stuffy, so we decide to get a ceiling fan.  This ceiling fan has been in the garage for 4 months waiting for the rest of the supplies so we could run the wires, add the new switch and such.

But After 4 holes cut into the walls and ceiling we now have the fan and it cooled off the living room a lot better then the box fan we have been using.

We also installed a shelf in the kitchen so that I had some more storage space and I had more counter space to work with!

Yes I know there is still painting and such to do, but one project at a time.

Thank You Dan for all your hard work today!  I am loving it!

Little bit of summer

Well this summer is going quickly.  Only 4 more weeks and school starts.

Here are some pictures of our summer so far!

Dan installing some lights.  Some of the rooms in our house had only lamps with light switches.  Now we have ceiling fans and lights.  makes a big difference in the 2 bedrooms like that!

We were driving home from Delta, UT and I saw this sign.  My Grandpa Dillon's name is Leo and I have a nephew named Leo.  I have always had a thing for names on signs! 

on July 11th it was Free Slurpee Day.  Here are the kids with their free treat!

We also got to go swimming at the local pool to celebrate a friends birthday.  We had a lot of fun!

Until next time!

Happy Father's Day 2014

Happy Birthday Dan

This weekend was a busy one.  We had the chance to watch my sisters three boys from Friday morning to Saturday after noon.

Saturday was Dan's 41st Birthday.  We started off with Cake for breakfast and Dan opened his gifts.

Then I was off to a RS Conference were we had yummy lunch.  After I got home we loaded up the boys, dropped off a funeral potato's to the church for a funeral luncheon and Dan and I headed to the temple.  We did sealing this time, that is always fun to do.  Afterwards we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  This was my first time going there.  It was pretty good food.  When we got home we got the kids to bed and we watched the movie Catching Fire together.

It was a busy weekend, but we had a good one.

Honey Do List...

I didn't get the pictures taken, so maybe I will tomorrow, but this weekend Dan knocked off some items on the Honey Do List...

We have 15 windows in our house.  5 of them had screens on them, but two of the screens needed replacing.  The other 3 where ok.  Last week we bought window screen kits for all of the windows.  Yesterday Dan put together 7 window kits and replaced the screen on two of the windows.  So he only has 3 kits left to build.  He also started to install the new front Screen door.  We have to get a chisel so he can finish it, but he will get it finished this week.

Now we are ready for warmer weather to come so we can open windows and not let the bugs get in the house.

Christmas Newsletter 2013

It is that time of year again...I sit here reflecting on this last year...Wow what a year it has been.

One year ago this week we moved into our 1st home.  What a difference it is to live in a house and not in an apartment.  We are so glad we were able to do this last year.

Now onto what is going on with the family:

Irene will be 5 in Jan.  She loves going to preschool and is looking forward to Kindergarten next year.  She is the taller of the twins and loves horses, princesses, and playing with legos and playing games on Lego.com

Ruth and Irene are best friends.  The joys of being a Twin!  Ruth too loves Preschool and is looking forward to Kindergarten as well.  She is the smaller of the two and two loves horses, princess and playing with legos and on Lego.com

Jennilyn is our smart 1st grader and is 6 yrs old.  She is an excellent reader and is learning math and enjoying it.  She loves to play ballerina and she has a lot of the same interest as the twins with horses, legos, princess and such.  Of course they all share a room so that is not hard.

Dillon is our fun energy boy.  He is in 2nd grade and just turned 8.  Dillon was baptized on Dec 7th.  He is enjoying cub scouts and he loves legos.

This year has been a roller coaster for Annette and Dan.  Both of us have had some health scares this year. But we have had fun too.

The end of  January we found out we were going to have another baby and were very excited about it, but a few weeks later we ended up in the ER with Annette in so much pain.  They were trying to find out what was wrong and we heard the baby's heart beat, but then were told that it was another Tubal Pregnancy.  They took her into emergency surgery.  While they were there they found out that Annette had appendicitis and took care of that too.  Annette is doing well and is moving forward as a mother of 4 kids.

In  April Dan had a scare that took us to the ER with him.  He has had problems with High Blood Pressure for a few years, and they were having trouble getting it under control.  He started seeing a specialist this year and with a lot of hard work we now have his BP under control, but he is also now seeing a cardiologist and it has been determined that he has a mild heart condition called  left ventricular non-compaction.  This is a hereditary family condition.  As of right now we just keep moving forward as there is not a lot of things to be done for it.  He will continue to be monitored for it.  But he is doing well and has lost 30 lbs this year.

 In June Dan and Annette traveled to Minnesota to attend Dan's sister Annette's wedding.  While we were there we got to visit with many friends and family.  Dan's Grandmother also celebrated her 90th birthday while we were there and it was very neat to get to spend time with her.

The kids and Annette spent a week at Camp Tifi with Papa Jack and Nana this summer and we had a lot of fun.

In October Dan and Annette celebrated 9 yrs since they got married.

We had the chance of having both sets of grandparents come and visit us a few times this year.  Also Great-Grandparents have come too.

In September we had a chance to have all of Annette's sisters come to Utah and spend time with all of them, and have some of them come stay at our home.

We are loving having a house and having family come visit.

Dan is still working at Sportman's warehouse.  And has had a busy year with them.  Annette is still enjoying being home with the kids, she has started doing some babysitting.

This year we have really been blessed and watched over.

We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

From Our Family to Yours!

Love,
Daniel, Annette, Dillon, Jennilyn, Ruth and Irene

Dillon's Baptism

On Saturday December 7, 2013 Dillon Archibald Burke was baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by his father Daniel P. Burke

This was a special day.  We want to thank all that were able to come and let those who were not able to come know that they were missed.

Weather, work and illness prevented some of the family coming, but we had a great day with those that came.

We love you Dillon and are so proud of your choice to be baptized!

Dillon and Dan before the services

Annette, Dan and Dillon

Our family

Cousins together

Nana Dillon and Dillon, Papa was sick and not able to come

Aunt Jaclyn, cousins CPC, SRC and MJC with Dillon

Grandpa and Grandma Burke with Dillon

Dan with his parents and the kids

Congratulations Dillon!

Dillon with the cake!

Family Camp

This month we participated in Family Odyssey.  This is a family camp for families of those participating in Timberline and other training groups.

I volunteered to come help on staff for Family Odyssey so we could have some time with my parents.   Here are some pictures of our time.

While we were gone, Dan built this gate for the top of the stairs to the basement.  I love how it turned out!

We saw lots of deer at camp.  This is from one of our little walks and the deer is at the top of the hill.

On Monday night after the campfire program, the kids and I were walking back to the truck to go back to camp and Irene slipped and cut her head open.  No stitches, and she was a trooper while Papa Jack and others worked on her.

Ruth and Irene crashed for a nap one day.

We had some special visitors from movies in camp.

I worked with Miss Amy and the Shining Stars (ages 2-4 yr olds)  Miss Amy was amazing with the little kids!

We got a kiddy pool towards the end.  The kids loved cooling off.

Another of our visitors.  I did not get pictures with Megamind

The kids having fun with marshmallow shooters and some of the camp staff joined us.

Dillon's age group made cardboard boats  with cardboard and duck tape.  He was so funny crying to me that his boat wouldn't win.  Guess what it did win!  He had so much fun!

We are all tired coming home after being gone for a week, and we brought home an extra with us.  My younger sister Wendy went to Mississippi to help my baby sister Alysha when she had her baby girl this last week.  So we got one of her kids while she is gone.  Rivers will be with us for a few more days.  The kids have been enjoying having a baby around.

So until next time!

Our Trip to Minnesota!

This last week Dan and I had the chance to go back to Minnesota for a few days.  Dan's sister Annette got married in the St. Paul Temple on Friday.  We then went boating on Saturday with our friend's the Hunt's and then went up to Floodwood, were we got to spend time with family on the Bolstad side of the family to celebrate Grandma Rene's 90th Birthday.  We had a great time.  It was wonderful to see Annette and Gabe get married, I have never seen her so happy!  At Grandma's birthday celebration, it felt like it was a goodbye, as that was probably the last time many of us would get to see her again.  On Monday morning as we leaving we were told that Grandma's cancer from 4 yrs ago had come back.  So we really don't know how much time we will have with her.  I am so glad Dan and I got to go and be there and spend time with her and the rest of the family that were able to come.

Thanks to my mom and dad and my niece Sammy for taking care of our kids while we were gone.

Here is some photo's from our trip.

Annette(Dan's sister) and Gabe, Congratulations! We are so happy for you!

It started to down pour rain as we went to launch the boat.  We got it launched and took a nice ride up the St. Criox River.  By the time we came back it was nice and sunny!

Annette and Dan

Annette walking along the side of the boat from the back to the front of the boat.

Annette and Marie on the front of the boat

Brent and Marie Hunt, Annette and Dan

Thanks for such a fun ride!

The Burke Family with Grandma Rene!  Happy 90th Birthday Grandma!

Grandma Rene with her 9 children: Dave, Janelle, Dawn, Nova, Laurie, Lana, Faith, Joy and Marlas

Having fun with projects

We have been busy with a few projects in our home.  They make me happy and I am loving how our home is coming together and is more and more what we want. Here are some of what we have done.

Our kitchen  windows face the West so we get the heat in there in the late afternoons.  We finally got a ceiling fan in the dinning area of the kitchen.  I never thought I would be so excited, but it feels so good with it going, as right now the a/c is not working.  Thanks Dan for getting it in for us!

This is the before picture of our room above the garage.  That we have turned into a office/craft room/guest room

This is Dan taking apart the bottom shelf.  It was a wall built and hung on the wall.  It was too high to be a desk so we took it out carefully so that we could reuse some of the wood.  Glad we had bought a shop vac, as it helped clean up all the sheet rock nicely!

Here is the office with the desks the table for crafts (sorry about the mess.  I have been working on a project for girls camp that is in 2 weeks)

These are some of the cubby shelves that Dan made from the wood he took down from the long shelf.   It has really helped get things put away and use the space more efficiently.

What fun we have had.  It has been good for us!

2012 in Review!

Wow 2012 has gone by quickly!

Dan has kept busy with his job, he did have to travel a few times this year including going to Alaska for the 1st time.

Annette has been busy as a stay at home mom, babysitting  and in July started delivering newspapers.  She was glad to finally quite when we got ready to move to our new home.

Dillon lost his 1st two teeth this year.  He is now in 1st grade and is 7 years old.  He is getting tall and is usually kind to his sisters most of the time.

Jennilyn started Kindergarten this year and is loving to learn!   Both her and Dillon are starting to read, and are doing really well.

Ruth and Irene have been busy this year.  They both finally potty-trained (yes no more diapers).  They are learning their letters and learning to write.

The biggest news we have is that the end of Sept we decided to start looking for a home thinking it would take us a while to get into one.  By the end of Oct we had an offer in and we closed on Dec 9th.
We moved our things in on Dec 15th and we finally got to sleep in the house on Dec 21st.  We are loving the space that we have as it is a  2 story home with a basement.  There are things that we are learning to fix as we go, and we are still getting settled in, but we are loving the home and it feels like it is our place.  Everything moved so fast that we felt like it was a dream in some ways.


We hope all of you have a great holiday and that the Lord will bless you this next year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Updated Family Pictures 2012

In September we had some updated family pictures done by a family friend's daughter who is studing to be a photographer     I thought she did a great job and  we will have to try and do one more setting with her before she leaves on her mission next summer.

Most of the people who read this will have seen the pictures on Facebook, but since my blog is also emailed to family and friends there are some of my favorites for you to enjoy!  A big shot out to Savanna Skinner for doing these for us!  (Yes Grandma and Grandpa this is Jean Skinner's granddaughter).

Dan, Dillon, Jennilyn, Ruth, Irene and Annette

Irene, Dillon, Ruth and Jennilyn

Ruth

Dillon

Irene

Jennilyn

Jennilyn and Irene

Jennilyn

Jennilyn, Ruth and Irene...I am going to blow this one up for their bedroom!

Our Family

Irene having fun with Mommy

Kids being kids

Irene

Ruth

Dillon

Jennilyn not wanting to do pictures anymore!

The kids were done by now!