Three+ Months in Three+ Minutes

Sorry we have grossly neglected our public. I know you have been diligently checking in every day or two desperate for new news from us and you all see are those same old pictures from Southern Utah. I know they are nice and all (if I do say so myself) but what you really want is some verbiage so you can sneak a peek into our ever-so-exciting lives and satisfy your voyeuristic tendencies. Well, here you go...the last three months (plus) condensed into a few paragraphs and several pictures. Just follow the links if your visual thirst is not quenched enough. When we last left our adventurers, it was autumn. The leaves were changing, the weather was fabulous, and Jill was no longer able to hide the fact that she is (as her mother referred to her) "Great with Child". I think she was pulling off the cute mother-to-be quite well, even if she had had a few moments when she had stated that "I'm Done!". I will try to convince Jill to elaborate on her 'Adventures in Pregnancy' in her own post and will move on with the re-cap of months gone by. Carving Pumpkins October ended with the family carving pumpkins and enjoying some fine food. I decided to create a dutch oven meat only chili that (if I do say so myself) turned out pretty darn awesome. I made a huge pot so that it would last a couple of meals, but no such luck as it disappeared very quickly. Here are more pictures of the pumpkins. Training in Seattle and Chicago I was finally able to go some long awaited training for work. I had two training sessions outside of Seattle and one outside of Chicago. I did not get to do any site seeing while I was in Seattle but in Chicago I was able to catch a bus and the L-train to meet up with our friends from Baltimore, Shana and Adam. They gave me the quick tour of the city at night then we enjoyed some great Chicago style stuffed pizza at Giordano's. Here are a few more pictures of Chicago at night. Melvin and Ellen Going My Grandpa Going (my mom's father) passed away. I grew up living next door to my grandparents and in the house that he built. It was actually the same house that my mom grew up in. We always a great big garden that my grandpa took care of. His professional life included the Navy and building churches and temples (including the DC temple) for the LDS church. My step-Grandma, Ellen, went back to New Zealand with her daughter Georgie. We will miss her greatly even though it is probably the best situation. Here are more pictures of the funeral. Lexi's Blessing Little Alexia was blessed by her dad, Curtis. The event was held at Jeff and Kendra's since they have the party house. Of course the Wii somehow was turned on during the visit. Here some more pictures of the family. Aunt Judy's 70th Birthday We drove down to Manti to celebrate the 70th birthday of Jill's aunt Judy. It was good to visit with a bunch of Jill's relatives that live in the southern part of the state. Here some pictures of the birthday party. Thanksgiving We were lucky enough to be invited to spend Thanksgiving with Rick (Jill's cousin) and his family. They are fun to be around and we really appreciated the short amount of time we were there. We had a second feast with all the Burk's, hosted by Jeff and Kendra. The food was great and everyone had fun lounging, puzzling, playing outside or playing with the Wii. Maya went to her Grandma Haynes' for her third feast of the day. Maybe she actually ate something there! She can be such a picky eater sometimes. Here are some pictures of Thanksgiving. Zoo Lights Maya and I picked up Izzy for a Thursday evening diversion. The Hogle Zoo was all decked-out with animal themed Christmas decorations. We had a lot fun even though it was a bit cold. More pictures. Christmas in Utah We had our our annual Burk Christmas Eve party a bit early since we were going to out of town. We had great food and lots of fun. The kids exchanged their gifts then the adults exchange theirs white elephant style. More pictures. Christmas in Texas - (Jill's Section) It would take probably 5 pages to describe all the fun times we had in Texas for Christmas. What you need to know is that it was crazy, hectic, loud and a ton of fun. Those who know my family understand that silence or down time is not an option. Our five days were filled with fantastic food, driving around to see Christmas lights, the girls taking Maya out for a pedicure and manicure, a surprise baby shower, going geocaching, playing flag football and enjoying lots of great food. We can't forget the fierce competitions with Kneeland Olympics, decorating rice krispie houses and a lot of Wii. We feel so blessed that the entire family was there. We don't know when that will happen again. We treasured the chance for Maya to meet her Kneeland cousins for the first time and they all got along very well. She was found shooting some guns and sliding down the stairs and the boys were found playing dog which even included spending time in the real dog cage. Holly and Chris were great hosts who spoiled us all rotten. We can't thank them enough for opening their home and planning all the fun. Here are more pictures from Texas, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. New Years We both got sick after Texas and I ended up in bed for the entire week. I am still struggling with a nagging cough. So our festivities were very sedate. That should fill in the gaping hole of neglect and get you up to speed (at least up to the new year which was over a month ago!). We will try much harder to update more consistently.