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

Camping with Papa Jack and Nana!

We went camping this Father's Day weekend.  We didn't get a lot of pictures, but here are a few that I took.  We had a good time even if Dan and I are sun burnt and we forgot to put sunscreen on when we went swimming!

Kids playing in the dirt!

Our Tent with our double stroller and my sister's double stroller.  With all the walking we had to do they were a life saver!

More time in the dirt!  Irene was being stubborn and didn't want to wear her jacket!

Papa and Nana's cabin

Uncle Nick's cabin

Beautiful up here!

Dan and the girls playing in the rocks!

Jennilyn playing with her cousin's toys

Irene giving Ruth a ride

Ruth giving Irene a ride!

Dillon has taken to the water this year!

Waiting to go in!

Irene

Ruth

Dan getting ready to go in the pool!

Netty and three of the kids!

Netty and all of the kids, this is were she wishes she had the sunscreen on!

This picture was taken on our way home.  It is a bad picture but off in the distance is a plane that crashed while we were there.  My mom saw the life flight fly away as she was headed back up to camp on Saturday.

We had a lot of fun with Nana and Papa Jack!  Thanks for having us up!  We hope to do it again sometime soon!

Slice of Life # 45 ~ From Scratch

This weeks Slice of Life is From Scratch....mmmm when I think of from scratch, I think of homemade pumpkin pie, homemade ice cream, dress sewn for Easter, stockings made for Christmas, art drawn, quilts made, homemade pizza....many things come to mind.  Here is a collage of things made by me or members of my family that I had pictures of.

Oh, when I make waffles and pancakes, and some of my cakes I make from scratch not a pre-mix box.
Each of the outfits and blankets my children are wearing and laying on for their blessings was lovingly made for us by either Nana Dillon or Grandma Burke.  The quilt was done for my Grandpa and Grandma Dillon's 60th wedding anniversary, each child and grandchild got a square, and on the back is hand-prints/footprints of the great-grandchildren.  The stockings and Pooh animals were made my my sweet mother-in-law.  The tiny baby is me in an outfit that my mother made for me since I was so small, she used a doll dress pattern to make it.  The chocolate suckers I did for Valentine's day this year.  Dan did the drawing years ago, I just scanned it into the computer.  And a Car Seat cover I made.

I am sure we all have memories of things that have been made from scratch for us to eat, wear, or just enjoy.  I am glad I have these pictures at least so if something ever happens to the cloths, blankets and such at least I have these to remember them by!

Slice of Life # 44 ~ Famous Places

This weeks Slice of Life is Famous Places that we have visited.  How Ironic that this was the prompt for this week, as I have been thinking about this trip, and had just sent a request to some of my family asking for pictures, as I seem to have lost mine.


It is July 2001, I had just come home from my mission a few months before and the "Jack Dillon Clan" set out on a adventure of our life.  This is one of my most memorable family vacations.  You see most of our family vacations were camping or going to Washington to visit family, we did go to Disneyland when I was 14, but that is the only time I have ever been there.


Back to July 2001.  My parents and my 4 sisters and myself headed to Buffalo, New York on an airplane and then we rented two mid-size cars, to fit all of us and we started our driving tour of the East Coast.  We then ventured to Niagara Falls, going over into Canada and raiding the Maid of the Mist right up to the falls, oh that was so worth the trip!  We then traveled to Rochester, NY and the next day spent the day in Palmyra, NY and saw the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  We then traveled to New York City, our hotel was on the New Jersey side, and we were running late to get to our Broadway play of  Les Misérables, wonderful play, we took the subway from New Jersey into the World Trade Center, and since we were running late we decided not to ride to the top of the World Trade Center.  This was July 11, 2001, just two months before they fell.

The next day we went to the Statute of Liberty.
The line was so long to get into it and then it was so long to wait for the elevator to go up.  But here is the kicker, you can ride the elevator up, but you had to walk the 23 flights of stairs down, unless you had some kind of disability that would let you ride it down.  Well my family decided we had had enough of waiting in line as we had already waited for about 2 hours just to get inside by the gift shop, we decided to climb the 23 flights of stairs up and then the 23 flights of stairs down!  We still made it to the top before some of the other people we had been waiting in line with did.  


We also went to Elise Island and then we made our way to Gettysburg, Washington DC were we saw the sights, some of my sisters spent a lot of time in the Holocaust museum.   Then Jaclyn and I left everyone else at the National Scouting Jamboree, and we went and saw Williamsburg, Bush Gardens, and the Washington DC Temple before we went home. And Mom, Dad, Emily, Wendy, and Alysha visited those sights before they came home three weeks later.  Emily ended up meeting her husband to be at the Jamboree, so I think it was more memorable for all of us because of that!


I still want to go back to New York and see some of the other sites that we just didn't have the time for and get in another play, maybe one day Dan and I can do this type of trip with our kids.  It will be one that I will never forget.  Of course I can't find any of my pictures from this trip as this is before I got a digital camera.


I want to say Thank You to my Mom and Dad for taking us on this grand adventure to so many famous places!  The best part I think is that since we were all ranging in age from 23-16 that we will all remember this trip!
Thanks Again Mom and Dad for all the wonderful memories from not only this trip, but other family vacations.  

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!

Attitude

My mother sent me this poem, and I really liked it.  I know there are times when my attitude needs an adjustment.  Thanks Mom!

Attitude

by Charles Swindoll

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company—a church—a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. ..I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you. ..we are in charge of our attitudes.

Tree Cutting

Here is some pictures from going Christmas tree cutting with Nana and Papa Jack on Thanksgiving Day.  We also got to join Uncle Nick and Aunt Alysha and cousin Leo as they were cutting down their tree too.  Maybe next year we will get a real tree with them.

Wheeler Farm

We went to Wheeler Farm for Memorial Day this year.  We were joined by Papa Jack, Nana Marlyn, Aunt Emily, cousin Jonny & Steven and cousins Christopher and Sammy.  We had fun on the hayride, petting the horses, sheep, seeing turkey's pigs, cows, chickens, pony's and feeding the ducks.  Thanks for joining us for a picnic and having some fun!  Hope you didn't get too sunburned.

All together again!

Well Dan got home and we are all together in our new place for the first time. Dillon & Jennilyn are very excited to have their Daddy home, they haven't wanted him out of their site. It will be intresting to put them to bed tonight. Tomorrow we will go to our new ward for the first time. Then on Tuesday afternoon we will go to Kennewick and meet up with my mom and sister Emily and drive to Utah with them. It is exciting to think that I will be with my sisters again after 2 1/2 years. I hope to see other family and friends while I am there.

Having Fun!

Well we came back down to my grandparents on Monday and have been having fun with my parents, and two of my nephews, Jonny & Leo.

Dan was asked to stay in Ohio until May 30th so we are sad that he is gone. We are going to go to Utah to visit family and friends the end of May and I am excited about that.

We are also moving into our own place next week. I am excited to have my own space again.

Some pics of the twins

Well we blessed the babies on March 1st. We had family from Kennewick, WA and Ashton, ID come for it. I have two sets of twin cousins and one set of them Bryce and Chase came to the blessing so we took some pictures of the twins with them and me since I am a twin myself. I also got a 4 generation picture with my grandparents and my mom. Also Dan fell asleep rocking the twins while he let me get some sleep. I am grateful that he is willing to do that once in a while. Dan is gone to Louisiana with a job until Mar 29th so I will not see him for a total of 3 weeks. But we are surviving

My mother in law Nova made the dresses, booties, and hats that the girls are wearing.

Thank you so much for making them. I will treasure them for the girls forever. Now Jennilyn has one that was made by my mom and Dillon has a boy one made by mom. Thank You both for everything this last few months. I love both of you and appreciate all you both do for me.

They are Here!

Well the twin girls are finally here.

Ruth Lois was born at 4:17 pm Jan 20th. She weighed 5 lbs 13 ozs and 17 1/2 inches long.

Irene Marlyn was born at 4:20 pm Jan 20th and she weighed 6 lbs 4 ozx and 17 1/2 inches long. Both girls are doing great and so am I.

It was cute to watch Dillon and Jennilyn get introduced to the girls today. Dillon actually wanted to hold them more then once.