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

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!

Our Christmas Newsletter 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

This year has gone by so quickly and we are doing well.  Just a little update that of our family.

I guess we will go youngest to oldest....

Irene has grown and is talking so well.  She is also just about done with Potty training, and has done very well with it.  We love to hear her say each morning "Is it morning yet?"  Irene loves Princess and Dora

Ruth is growing and also doing well with her talking.  She loves her Belle doll and anything to do with Belle or Dora!

Both girls want to go to primary, but they don't turn 3 until January so they will have to wait another year to go.

Jennilyn is becoming a math wiz and she is only 4 years old.  Every time we go out she does the math of how many stops we have to make and how many we have left.  She loves her Barbies and her my little ponies.


Dillon started Kindergarten this year, and has really improved with his speech.  He loves Star Wars and playing the Lego games on the Wii.

Annette has been busy being a stay at home mom which she loves.  She has been enjoying learning to do crafts with her new toy that she got as an early Christmas/Late Birthday Present.

Dan has been busy with work.  He got to travel to Alaska, Mississippi and Washington State this year with work.  And to Pennsylvania for a computer certification class.  When he is not at work, he is usually studying to take more computer certifications.  Right now he is getting ready to take one in Jan and then one probably in Feb.

In July we traveled as a family to Spokane Washington, for Dan's brother David's wedding.  It was a wonderful event and we had a good time.  Dan had to travel back home to go back to work, while Annette and the kids stayed in Washington and went to the beach and had fun with Aunt Emily and Uncle Squire and kids.  They also got to spend a few days with Annette's grandparents and cousins in Kennewick.  Grandma Nova helped Annette drive back to Utah in time for Dan's cousin's wedding in Utah.

In August Dan's Grandma Burke passed away from cancer.  She will always be a part of our life, and we miss her very much.  Dan was unable to go to Minnesota for the funeral, so Annette went instead.  Papa Jack and Nana took care of the kids for the few days that she was gone.

As we come to a close of the year we think about the reason we celebrate the Christmas Season.  Christ came to earth to show us how to live and to make it possible for us to return to live with him again.  We are so grateful for the birth of our Savior and as we go through out this Christmas Season, we hope that each of us will remember the gift that was given to each of us from our loving Heavenly Father.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!
Love,
The Burke's

A Year in Review with the Burke's & Our Christmas Card

Wow, the year has flown by!  I can't believe it is already December and we are counting down the days until we go to Nana and Papa's house! (Annette's parents).

Here is the Year in Review for us!

January~ We celebrated the twins 1st Birthday with a party and lots of cake!

February ~ The Ruth took off walking and Irene was walking around on her knees!

March~ We celebrated Dan's 37th Birthday.  Dillon and Jennilyn started to Potty Train! Yea for Mommy now this next year hopefully we will see the twins also Potty Train! And Annette and the kids went to Ashton, ID to visit Dan's sister Marsha and her family over Spring Break, ended up driving in a Blizzard coming back home, thanks to her cousin Beau and his wife Joanne for housing us for a couple of hours while we waited out the storm.

April~ Dan took his first business trip to Kentucky, and there is at least two more scheduled for this next year!  Irene took off walking, now with all 4 kids walking you would think I could walk to the van without carrying a child, but 9 times out of 10 the twins still want to be carried to the van!

May~Annette turned 32 in May and we had fun getting out for walks with the kids!

June~ Found us going to back to Ashton, Idaho for a quick trip to see Dan's parents and younger brother and play with the cousins.  We also got to go to the Aquarium with Papa Jack and all of our cousins on mommy's side.

July~ Found us going on our first Airplane ride as a family!  Dillon hadn't been on an airplane since he was 11 months old.  And none of the girls had ever been on one.  We flew to Minnesota for a special Family Reunion and for Dan's cousin Beckie's wedding.  What fun we had spending time with the Great-Grandma's and letting Dan's grandma's and sisters who had never meet the twins meet them for the first time! Dan had to fly back early so Grandma Burke flew back with us!

August ~ Jennilyn turned 3.  Dillon started his 2nd year of pre-school. We also went to the Church History Museum to see the "I am a child of God" exhibit, before it was taken down for good.  We road TRAX for the first time.  The kids seem to enjoy it.

September~ Just found us busy with Dillon in school and going to the park.

October~ Found us with our 1st annual membership to Thanksgiving Point.  We went to the Dinosaur museum, the Children's Garden and to the Farm Country.  We also enjoyed going Trick or Treating with our cousins.  Dan and Annette celebrated 6 years of marriage.

November~ Dillon turned 5 and then the kids went and spent a week with Nana and Papa Jack.  Dan and Annette got to go see their 1st movie in the IMAX, they saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 of course.  Then Annette went down to spend the week with the kids and Dan came down the night before Thanksgiving.  We had a great Thanksgiving at Nana and Papa Jack's house with Uncle Nick, Aunt Alysha, Uncle Josh, Aunt Wendy and cousins Leo, Cole, and Jack.  We even went out with Nana and Papa Jack and Uncle Nick and Aunt Alysha hikeing in the woods looking for a Christmas Tree.  We are thinking next year we want to do this for ourselves.  It was so much fun!

December~ Has found us down to one car.  We decided after Dan's car didn't pass the state Safety Test to sell his car.  We sold it in 2 hours.  It was sad for Dan to see it gone after having it for 17 years, but now he is getting his exercise in walking a mile to work and a mile back each day.

We have had a great year and are Thankful for all of our blessings.  We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2010 Christmas Card

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