Christmas 2010

Whew! What an interesting Christmas we had this year. The normalcy of the Holidays was lost for many different reasons. We changed it up by having Christmas with Grandma Burch and family at 3:00pm Christmas Eve, Dinner with my parents afterwards, Christmas Morning at my parents and the rest of the day at Jon's Parents. Nanny and Papa, Leigh and Ty are in Minnesota with Co, Dan and the kids. Ryan had to work and Gene and Karin went off to her family's home. This is my first year without all of my Mom's side of the family; weird... My Mom did a great job of making the best out of Christmas this year and we all really enjoyed being together and relaxing. As always, we had Blue Cheese Stuffed Filet Mignon & King Crab Legs =) Delicious!

Hunter scored big from Santa this year! He got his very first BB gun, lots of IronMan stuff, and a Lightning McQueen Game for the Wii.

Brooklyn was such a doll the entire day!

And finally wore herself out.

Our family also got a Wii from Santa and have been having tons of fun each night challenging each other to Ping-Pong, Sword Fighting, Basketball and Boxing (pictures coming soon.)

I got a great new cookbook from Mom called "The Pioneer Woman," by Ree Drummond and have been using it since the day after Christmas! So many wonderful recipes in this book that I think my diet may have to wait ;)

The first meal I cooked from the book was a Southern Dish called Migas. It's a delicious blend of onions, bell peppers, jalapenos, crispy fried tortilla strips, tomatoes and eggs with a little half & half that makes my mouth water just thinking about it. We have since enjoyed a delicious Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes, a Melt-in-Your-Mouth Steak Sandwich and heavenly Angel Sugar Cookies. I think I have found my calling! Cooking, cleaning and raising my kids sounds like my paradise :) The cookbook gives me hope that I too could produce a wonderful collection of recipes I've made up myself someday, for other women, or men, to enjoy! How fun that would be!? (More on my food adventures later!)

Mom, Dad & JD left for Mexico yesterday with the Hunnels, (I am extremely envious as I sit here watching the snow fall in Longmont...) They left just in time; we are supposed to get around 4 inches and temps in the negatives this week. I am requesting that they have at least 5 ChocoBanana Milkshakes for me and 7 slices (minimum) of the delicious pizza I am missing out on.

For now, everbody can take a deep breath and just relax. The hustle and bustle of Christmas has come and gone, now onto the excitement of a New Year. Let's start fresh! What resolutions do you have this year? I will surely be thinking about mine as I go home tonight, cook a wonderful dinner for my beautiful family and reflect on what deserves the most attention in my life in the coming year. Happy New Year! See you in 2011!

~Savanah

Get Back Up, Dust Ourselves Off & Move On

Hello Friends!

Hmm, where to start? We had a bit of a different Thanksgiving this year; Mom and Dad had it at their house and we enjoyed the company of the Hunnel's and Scott, Deb and Paul. It was very refreshing and extremely laid back! We all picked a question to answer at the dinner table before eating and each of us also went around and said what we were thankful for this year. I think everyone had such an appreciation to just be around loved ones after a rough year. After dinner Jon and J.D. went off to work on the remote control airplane and helicopter, the girls cleanded up a bit and danced around to fun music, and the men slumped into the couches to watch football.

Shortly after Thanksgiving, we received news that my Aunt Co, my Mom's twin, has Inflammatory Breast Cancer at a late stage. Needless to say, our life has pretty much been a whirlwind since the news. My Mom has since gotten her first Mammogram (we are still awaiting results and a second visit,) and Nanny, Papa, Aunt Leigh and Mom are all in Minnesota giving her some much needed love and support. Here at home, we have received such an outpouring of love and kindness, it really shows how many people love and care for you!

Jon lost his job last Monday which was a pretty big blow to take... He is the main source of income for us, so it's pretty scary and right before Christmas makes it that much harder. We are staying in good spirits and trying everything we can to turn around this bit of a bad luck streak we have had.

In all of this, we know that we have it so much better off than a lot of other people out there and at least, if nothing else, we have our families and close friends to share our joys and sorrows with. Thank you to all who have shown their tremendous support and outpouring of love these last few weeks! You don't know just how much each kind and encouraging word means to our family.

Much Love!

Welcome To Our Blog!

Thanks for visiting our page! I am very excited to be able to keep track of our family through a fun blog!I'm going to try and do a splendid job at posting at least once a week, but forgive me if we get a bit busy and forget to post ;) Hope you enjoy!

~Savanah