Randomness...

Thought I'd share a few things on my mind lately...

Last weekend some of our best friends from dental school, Matt and Rebecah Huff, were in town for a job interview and came to visit us for a little while. We went out to eat with them at P.F. Chang's, and then they came to our house so we could talk a little longer before they had to leave. It was such a wonderful night!! I was in heaven being able to talk to Becah again. We lived across the street from them in Richmond and saw each other all of the time. We used to exercise together a few times a week. Jacob and Matt also worked out together, carpooled, and of course went to school together. We'd go on double dates and watch tv or play games at each other's houses.

 As you can tell, we spent a lot of time with them! So it's been hard to have not seen them in over 3 years. Rebecah's been really sick the last year, so it was a big deal for her to travel here from Montana. She is very slowly getting better. They enjoyed the warmer weather here and loved meeting Katie. We would absolutely love it if they moved to Texas, but I know they need to do what's best for their family. Even if they don't move here, I hope we will see them before 3 years go by again. :)

Have y'all heard of google+ yet?  Well, you should join if you haven't already! :)  We use it for "hanging out" (video chat) with our families.  It's better than skype because you can see more than one person at the same time so my whole family can talk.  We love it!  (And it's free!)

I have been serving in the Young Women organization (12-18 y/o) in my ward (church congregation) for the past year and a half, and it's been one of my favorite callings I've had.  There is a program called Personal Progress that the girls have the opportunity to work on during their years in Young Women's.  They set goals to improve themselves in areas such as service, making good choices, education, and developing faith, integrity, and virtue.  Once they've finished the goals and projects, along with attending church regularly and reading scriptures, they earn the Young Womanhood Recognition, and are presented with a beautiful necklace. 

Well, I earned the award when I was a teenager, but I wanted to do it again as a leader.  It's been wonderful working on it for the past year.  I feel I've improved in many areas in my life, especially spiritually.  I've loved working on and completing the experiences along with the young women.  I should be finished in a couple more weeks!   

Since we are approaching our one-year mark of Katie's adoption, we're getting ready to start the application process again.  I also have several friends who are currently approved and waiting to be placed with another baby.  So I've been thinking about adoption a lot again.  I'm not as overwhelmed this time, since we've been through the process once before, but it is still daunting to think of everything we need to do.  I guess I needed a little adoption humor, and I found this cartoon that made me smile. :)

We really do feel it's a special privilege that we get to adopt children.  I {love} adoption!!

11 months old

It's hard to believe we're coming up on Katie's first birthday!!  She has been so much fun lately!  She's getting more confident with walking and walks all over the house now.  But she has to get started by holding onto the couch, wall, or our legs, and still crawls most of the time.  She is also getting 3 teeth right now, so her sleeping patterns have been a little off the last couple of weeks, but she's still really laid-back and happy.

I love this picture!!  It shows her teeth really well and her cute chubby cheeks.  And yes, those cheeks get a million kisses every day!  :)

Love this one too...adorable!

Other things of note this month:

• she can say "uh-oh" and "hi"
• is eating a lot more table food (just little bites of whatever we're eating) and likes everything we give her, even dill pickles and dilled green beans - I'm glad she's not a picky eater!
• waves all the time, especially when being carried upstairs for naps or bedtime because she usually waves goodnight to daddy :)
• loves music and has started to "dance" by bobbing her head and moving her arms when she hears a song

We love our Katie Jane!!

New Year's Eve

For New Year's Eve we invited the Kosters over to hang out with us. The Cheneys also came over later around 10:00.  We ate tons of food, shot off fireworks, played games, then watched tv to see the ball drop at midnight while drinking sparkling cider. 

Here are some pictures of us outside watching the fireworks.  It seemed like the whole neighborhood was out as well.  We could hear fireworks going off till 1 or 2 am.  I guess everyone was making up for lack of fireworks on Independence Day.  We stayed up until about 1:30, but luckily our church time switched this year to 1:00 so we got to sleep in (at least until Katie woke up at 7:30).  :)

This was Katie's first time to see fireworks since they were cancelled on the 4th of July.  She didn't show much emotion, except she got pretty excited when she saw the colorful fountains.

Kaden had fun with the sparklers for a while, but he would throw them on the ground before they were done burning.  No one got hurt even though I think we were all outside with bare feet.

Katie, Jacob, Rachel

Teagan and Todd

Happy New Year! 

2011 was a great year for us, and I'm excited to see what 2012 will bring!

The rest of Christmas vacation...

Here are pictures from the last few days we were in Idaho.

Katie learned from her cousin Kamery how to beg for food.  I thought this was cute when Grandma was feeding both girls.  Look how much taller Kamery is than Katie.  She was almost 14 months when we were there and is already wearing size 2T clothes! 

Jacob got pretty sick with a bad cold while we were there.  He was congested, achy, and chilled.  I guess you're never too old to want your mom to take care of you, especially when you're sick! 

We visited Jana and Rob in Rexburg one day.  I wanted to stop by my old apartment from when I was at BYU-Idaho and take a picture.  I lived in Apt A upstairs on the left (from 2000-2002).  The name has changed but it still looks the same.  It was fun to see it again even if I couldn't go inside.  Brings back lots of memories!Jacob dropped me off on that porch after our first date!

After lunch at a Chinese restaurant, we visited Jana's classroom where she teaches 5th grade. 

Jana & Rob

Then we hung out at their apartment for a few hours.  We mostly talked and Jana had me try Zumba on the Wii.  She's been going to Zumba classes every week and loves it.  I had fun, but would definitely need lots of practice to keep up with Jana.  Katie was a stinker and only took a 30 minute nap while we were there.

I'm glad Jana and Rob live close to Jacob's family so we can see them when we're in Idaho.

I just thought this was a cute picture of Katie talking on the phone and sporting her first ponytail.

Grandma Angela gave the girls matching dresses and tights for Christmas.  We tried to get a picture of them together, and this was about the best I could do.  We'll have to wait a while for Katie to wear the tights.  They were pulled up to her armpits.  :)

Kamery and Jacob

Grandpa Nielsen and Katie

Harvey and Jacob having what Jacob called "an intellectually stimulating conversation".  They go into their own little world when they're together.  I'm glad Jacob is friends with his brother.

Guess Harvey got a little frustrated by Jacob challenging his knowledge. :)

But they really do love spending time together.

We also celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary on the 28th!  We went out to lunch at Johnny Carino's while Angela watched Katie.  It was nice to have some time alone, even though we don't mind taking Katie on our dates.  We had fun reminiscing over the past years together and dreaming about the future.  What will the next 9 years hold?

We spent our last night there hanging out with the family.  This was probably our last year to travel for Christmas, at least for a while.  That made me a little bit sad as we left.  But then I thought of all the fun summer vacations we'll take instead and that cheered me up!  We had an okay flight home.  Katie didn't sleep as long as we would've liked, but she did pretty good.  It was great to be back home and sleep in our own bed!  I think that's what I miss the most when we travel.  We've grown pretty spoiled with our king-size bed.  I need my space when I sleep!

We had a great time, and already miss everyone.  Jacob's mom is coming next week though and will be here for a couple of weeks (to see her new granddaughter), so that will be awesome to see her again.  Just one more post about the holidays and then I'll be caught up!   

Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating with Jacob's family.  We started off by eating a big delicious breakfast before opening gifts.  We were excited to see how Katie would react.  She mostly wanted to eat the wrapping paper, but she loved her new toys too. :)

I finally got a picture of her playing peek-a-boo.

Katie with her Great-Grandpa Burch

opening presents

Jacob and ShayNiel

Rachel and Harvey

Nielsen and Angela with Katie trying to squirm away

Katie loved this musical walker she got from Grandma.  She pushed it back and forth every day we were there.  She would laugh and get so excited while she was walking with it.  We were sad we had to leave it behind since we couldn't fit it in our luggage.  (But she doesn't need it anymore cause she's doing a lot more walking on her own now!)

the newlyweds, Cryshel and Kolban

Liam (2 1/2 yrs old)

Jacob and Kael

Nathan and Truly

us after church

It was a special treat to attend church on Christmas Day!  The choir and soloists performed beautiful music, and Jacob had fun visiting with friends he hadn't seen for several years.  We enjoyed the rest of the day relaxing at home, talking, eating, and playing all the new games everyone received.  A few of Jacob's cousins, aunts, and uncles also came over to visit for a while.  I got to talk with some of my family on google+ that night.  I missed being with them, but they understood it was our year to be with the Burches.  I'm thankful for the wonderful memories we made on Katie's first Christmas!

Christmas Eve

I love Christmas Eve!!  It's one of my favorite days of the year.  We drove up to Idaho on the 23rd to stay with Jacob's family.  Christmas Eve we went into town and stopped by the Idaho Falls temple visitor's center. 

Harvey, Katie, Jacob

(I love Katie's cheeks in this picture.)

It was special showing Katie the place where Jacob and I were married, even if she doesn't understand it yet.  We'll have to take her again when she's older.

Jacob's sister Truly came over with her boys.  Here she is with her youngest son, Cyrus (5 months old).

He sure is a cutie.

We also visited the Museum of Idaho to see their Christmas exhibit for free.  Here is Katie with Grandma and Santa. :)

I loved seeing all of the nativities.  They were all so beautiful.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Anybody wanna crochet this for me? :)

There was also a room full of gingerbread houses.  These must have taken a lot of time and patience!

I have a weird obsession with barns, lol.

Idaho Falls temple

That night Grandpa Burch and all but two of Jacob's siblings joined us for a delicious dinner of ham and potatoes.  We read the story of Christ's birth from Luke 2 then sang a few Christmas hymns, and I played a medley on the piano.  Afterward, we had fun talking and playing games, including a new one called Know It or Blow It that we want to get now.  I went to bed that night filled with excitement for Katie's first Christmas.