Life these days

There's tons of news to report, as always! Since our last post, we have moved to Missoula, Montana! Aaron is going to start graduate school here at the University of Montana. Something new as far as that goes is that he is switching his program. He came over here originally doing Applied Linguistics. Aaron is reapplying to the Teaching Program. He'll be focusing on English (as a subject, not a language.) Pretty soon we'll be finding out if Aaron will be granted residency. We hope so, as it will greatly decrease his tuition!

Going back to May, Aaron was able to go to his first professional baseball game. He and Julie went and saw the Angels play the Dodgers. They were rooting for the Angels (who won!)




June 3rd was a really big day for Julie's family. They had a big family photo shoot, a family dinner, and afterwards, a small birthday party for Joseph! It was hectic, but in the end it was a lot of fun!


Joseph enjoyed his first birthday party. He wasn't too interested in opening his presents, but that's what cousins are for, right?

He did enjoy his first cupcake and he ate the entire thing! (Unfortunately our camera batteries ran out right about that time!)

Just a few days after his birthday party, we moved to Montana. We spent the first two weeks with Aaron's family in Kalispell. We were able to go and visit Joseph's great great Grandma Alice. We had 5 generations there. We're very glad we were able to capture that moment while she's still with us.

Joseph and Montana really agree with each other. He absolutely loves the outdoors. We've already seen dozens of deer, some out in the woods, a few outside our door, and some out near the street!

One of the activities we were able to do was horse back riding. A group of Aaron's family went. It was great. Quite a few of us were sore the day after, but it was a beautiful ride. Next time we just won't go for an hour and a half.

Then the Denney family went camping! We all went to Lake Mary Ronan, pitched up our tents (or pulled up the trailer) and started a fire! Jared has a boat that we were able to go out on also. That was tons of fun, although Joseph's first time out on the boat was pretty hard. He had a jacket on to keep him warm and dry, but it was a little too thick to have on under his life vest. In this picture he literally couldn't put his hands together in front of him. He was a sad little guy for a while. He was our "fat guy in a little coat" except he was in a really big coat.



We eventually did get some smiles out of him. (when we took his vest and jacket off)
Jared's girls love the boat and couldn't get enough of it. They loved when he would go in circles and make waves in the lake.


It was all fun and games until Jared got the boat stuck in the lake, trying to get too close to shore. All the girls (including Grandma Jean) had to get to shore somehow. The tough ones walked (like Grandma). The wimpy ones (pretty much just Julie) got a piggy back ride. But luckily the boat wasn't stuck for long.
We all went out on the boat the next day. Joseph did much better the next trip out. He did have a hard time because he got tired and refused to fall asleep. Luckily, sleep won out in the end and he gave in.
Eventually, we did leave the campground, and Joseph was sad, but it's okay. He needed a bath. Now that we're in Missoula, we go out a lot. There is a park not too far from us that has a great playground, and even a water play area that is on all the time. It's great, since it's been upper 90's - low 100's here!
In the most recent news, Joseph had his actual first birthday on July 24th! We went to Kalispell to be near Aaron's family. We went to a water park there. Ironically, Joseph had more fun crawling around the hot concrete than playing in the water. Then we had a little BBQ, ice cream sundae fun. It was a great time.
Joseph also got a big haircut. Julie was a little worried at first. His hair seemed so short. But as soon as she put a little gel in it and got him dressed for church, he was the most handsome guy ever!
Joseph has also found a new playmate. His name is Jordan Sisney and he is two months older. Most people think they are twins. They're both big blonde boys. It's pretty fun to see them interact. They have quite the love/hate relationship. They're both becoming possessive of their toys and things at the same time. But they still enjoy interacting and having someone to crawl around after. Joseph has finally met his match.
Joseph's beginning to be really interested in walking and wants us to hold him up with one hand so he can walk and not crawl. We're hoping he'll be walking soon because he's so heavy we don't want to carry him anymore! He was just weighed and measured. He's a whopping 27.5 lbs and 31 in.! Sorry this is so long. Now that we're established here we'll try and send them out more often so they can be shorter. Please check out our video page. Julie is going to be posting tons of new videos. We've left you with a little teaser (it may take a minute to get the file ready). Hope you enjoy it! We wish you all well and hope to be in touch.

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Lots of big news...again!

Once again we have waited too long to update our blog and there is tons to report! The latest would be Joseph's last doctor's appointment. Their measurements weren't accurate for some reason, but we finally got it all figured out. Joseph is about 30 inches tall and weighs somewhere around 24 1/2 pounds. He's a big boy!

Joseph and Julie were able to go to California Adventure, a theme park next to Disneyland. Joseph had a lot of fun watching everything and it was a nice outing for Julie too.

Joseph's newest accomplishments are eating table food and crawling! It took him a long time to finally get his groove with crawling but once he did, he started taking advantage of it. He's already ventured into the backyard on his own. He's going to be getting into tons of trouble now that he can move around and he loves every minute of it.

Lucky for us, when Aaron had spring break from Carter High School, his mom also had spring break and spent the week with us! Her first full day in California, we took her to a portrait studio for Joseph to get his picture taken as well as some family photos. Joseph ended up with a very adorable photo. We also took a family photo with us three and a few with Diane as well. It was tons of fun!

The next day we all went to Downtown Disney. That's an outdoor shopping area located right next to Disneyland. It was a lot of fun. There was an entire store for Legos and we got a great picture of Joseph with the Lego grandpa.

The next day we went a bit farther and headed to the coast. We ended up at the Santa Monica pier. It was an overcast day although Joseph still managed to get a small sunburn on his face! We're much more careful now. It was still beautiful and Joseph loved to stand and look at the ocean. We all had a nice time despite the somewhat cold weather. All in all it was great to have Diane spend the week with us and Joseph definitely loved having someone in the backseat to entertain him everywhere we went! He even started a new laugh while she was with us, just for her!

Joseph has officially had his first haircut. The back of his hair was just getting a little too long, verging on the mullet look. So Julie sat him down with a big biscuit to keep him occupied and went to town with the buzzers and clippers. It's not the smoothest haircut you've ever seen, but considering he's only 9 1/2 months old, it's not bad!

Before we forget, Julie's sister Heidi is due May 16th with their baby boy Athen Wilson. Julie will be attending the birth, giving Heidi and Ryan support and tending to nurses, etc. We are all so excited for this new arrival and will inform you when there's any news!

In way of baby news, Aaron's brother Tim and his wife Anna have some! They are expecting their first bundle of joy this year. We believe it's around the beginning of December, end of November. We are so excited for them and know they'll be fabulous parents!

Other news, Julie's brother Justin is graduating from Cal State Fullerton this Sunday. We are all really proud of him and know he's got great things ahead. Congratulations Justin!

So, our biggest news would be that we're moving to Montana! We should've put this first, huh? We finally decided to head to the University of Montana for Aaron's masters degree. We are very excited to be moving onto the next stage and are eagerly looking towards seeing his family again, since it has been two years since we've been able to relax and spend time with them. We're planning on moving about June 9th or so. We're going to go up and spend two weeks with Aaron's family in Kalispell camping and relaxing, and by then we're hoping to have an apartment lined up.

We hope we didn't forget anything and you were able to get the latest and greatest. You are all in our thoughts often. We love you, if you are far from us we miss you and if you are near to us, it's great having you around! Take care everyone!

What else is new?

Well, since it has been so long since we have posted, there has obviously been a lot going on. The mountain of things to tell you have almost kept us from writing!

In big news, Emma Madison was born January 10, 2007! She is a beautiful addition to Justin and Brittny's family. Even Ashley is starting to like her, calling her Emmy. She looks a lot like Ashley with Justin's nose and really long feet. She is very petite, though she eats like she means it and burps like a grown up.

At the beginning if January Joseph was very sick. For a short period of about 5 days, he would only sleep in our arms. This happened to coincide with when Aaron started his new position at Carter High School. So we were concerned with him getting enough sleep to feel prepared for work. Julie stuck out a few hard nights on her own with a very sad and sick little boy. Luckily, he recovered quickly. During that time he did not eat very much at all, which led to his loss of weight at his six month appointment. He weighed in at 20 lbs. 4 oz. and measured 28 3/4 inches. He only gained 12 ounces in 2 months! But since he has regained his appetite, we are pretty confident he has passed the 22 lb. mark, maybe even 23! Oh, and did we mention he now has 3 teeth! They're all on the bottom and he loves using them!

On February 6, Julie's nephew Brayden turned 1 and had one serious cowboy birthday party! It was tons of fun and Joseph was the cutest cowboy...of course not as cute as the birthday boy! It was a ton of fun. He even had a pinata and a bounce house! Eat your heart out! (Which Brayden did and was sick later that day.)
Joseph has been growing up so much lately. He's now an experienced sitter, with only the occasional tumble. Just last week, he started to say ba-ba and ... ma-ma! Although he doesn't know Julie is mama (we don't think) she still likes to hear him say it. Joseph acts like he wants to crawl really bad, but he hasn't figured it out yet. We borrowed a four-legged bouncer from Justin and Brittny and Joseph absolutely loves it. So now when he sits, he rocks back and forth, which is helping him on his quest to crawl. We figure in the next month he'll have it down.

In other news, Aaron's job (for those who don't know) is helping High School Juniors and Seniors pass the English portion of the High School exit exam. It hasn't turned out to be what he expected, in that he has a very small class size and a majority of his students do not need to pass the exam because they are considered Special Education students. Nonetheless, Aaron is making the best of this opportunity and when he has good days, he finds he is learning about the teaching profession and all the goes along with it.

We have had a new addition to our family in the last month. It is a white 2004 Nissan Altima. Julie has named him Moby, because he's the biggest car they've ever had and reminds her of the whale. Despite the added monthly payment, this has been a great blessing for Julie. Now she is free to move about with Joseph, make appointments, run errands, or just get out of the house.

Julie has just received a new calling in the ward. She is now the Primary Chorister! At first she was pretty scared, but is quickly getting the hang of it and actually enjoying it a lot. She has a lot of ideas to help the kids learn all the old goodies we learned as kids that they don't sing anymore. It's a good activity to keep her busy during the week, although it means Aaron has to take care of Joseph for the last two blocks of church. It's good bonding time for them!

Since this blog has taken so much time, another special event has passed by. Julie has turned 23! She enjoyed a wonderful birthday and appreciated all of the thoughts and well-wishes. The family went out to dinner and had a wonderful time! Julie also received an extra-special gift from her mother - a replacement baby blanket that is just like the one she lost a few years ago. She was so attached to it as a child and was devastated when it went lost. So now she has a new one and promises not to lose it! Aaron took Julie out to a very fancy restaurant. Aaron's dinner was so pretty we had to take a picture of it. Oh, and as you can see from the photo, Aaron had (not anymore) a goatie, which grew in pretty red and Julie cut her hair.

In other news, Julie has learned how to add videos to our blog! She attaches them through another website called blip.tv and then links them to the blog. There are a lot of videos already uploaded that are older. We'll put the link there so you can see them all and then from now on we'll just put the videos directly on the blog. The link will be on the left side with the others. Now, here are some of Joseph's latest videos! This first one is Joseph showing some amazing brain skills playing with his gumball machine. It has toy "gumballs" that you can put in the top.

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This next video is Joseph and Julie playing. It catches him doing a signature playtime thing...We guess no one taught him not to talk when his mouth is full.

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This next one Julie likes to call funny kisses.

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This last one shows what Joseph does when he's excited. He flails his arms and legs at the same time. You can't see his legs, but you can hear them hitting his tray.

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Well, we hope you enjoy all of our updates. We'll try and keep them coming regularly, so maybe there won't have to be so much in the next one. We miss you all and hope you're all doing well!

Happy Holidays/Birthday!

Although we were only able to visit with Aaron's family through a web-cam conference, we had a great holiday season visiting with Julie's family in California. As for the changes since our last posting, there haven't been too many. Joseph continues to grow at an amazing rate. Julie thinks he looks as big as he feels in this picture. He is pretty much exclusively in 12 month clothes now. All of the clothes he received at Christmas fit perfectly! We are so glad he got them too, because he was starting to run out of things that fit! Joseph definitely had a fabulous Christmas. There was a total of 22 people (adults and children) at Julie's parent's house. It was chaos, but so much fun. Joseph was very interested with the shiny wrapping paper and showed interest in some of his toys right away. It was a lot of fun and Aaron took a lot of pictures to remember Joseph's first Christmas and to share it with others. In other Joseph news, he has started eating real solids now. So far he has enjoyed everything except peas. Aaron and Julie are also helping him learn how to sleep through the night. It's only been two nights now, but he is already learning and our quality of sleep has improved drastically! Joseph is becoming so much more interactive now. He laughs, babbles, smiles at everyone, loves to chew on his hands, play with his pacifier, and grab his feet. In the Burnham tradition, Julie's mom made Joseph a stocking. It took us a while to figure out what we wanted to be on it, but eventually came up with an elephant, and we love how it came out. Joseph really likes it too! Even though he can't enjoy most of it, he still got a full stocking anyhow. Aaron really enjoyed Christmas in California. Thoughts of snow in Montana were far away as he wore shorts, sandals and a t-shirt on Christmas Eve. He had to rub it in for his family just a little bit. Overall, this month was lots of fun. Julie was able to see a lot of friends she hasn't seen in a few years. Joseph met his grandma's coworkers at Pueblo Elementary School, Aaron's coworkers at Sears, and many other of Julie's friends. She loves to show him off because he's such a cutie! Aaron doesn't mind because now Joseph gets dragged around instead of him.

Well, as most of you know, on December 30th Aaron turned the big 25! He's officially a quarter of a century old. He's taking it like a trooper. And for the special occasion we went to an old haunt of Julie's - Mongolian BBQ. Joseph enjoyed Mongolian as well, even if he doesn't show it in the photo.

With the new year coming on, we are definitely looking forward. There are some opportunities on the horizon, but we don't know where they might lead us, or which ones we will take. But as changes come, we will let everyone know. For now, Aaron is working, Julie is taking care of Joseph and we're just trying to do our best to enjoy this time in our lives.

As for news outside our small family, Heidi has found out that she and Ryan are expecting a baby boy! As far as we know, his name will be Athen Wilson Davies. If that changes, we'll let you know! Brittny, Justin, and Ashlee are eager to welcome baby Emma into their family. January 10th is coming on fast, though probably not fast enough for Brittny!

We have appreciated all of the help we received from everyone this last while. The gifts for us and Joseph were so generous and are most appreciated. We hope to continue to keep in touch with you all as best we can. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas season and have a wonderful new year!

Joseph, the Moose

Aside from our blog's makeover, Joseph is the most exciting thing about us. So we'll just start out talking about him. Our most recent info is his four month check-up. Here are all of his stats. He weighs 19 pounds 8 ounces and he is 27 inches long. For those of you who aren't baby savvy (which is a small few) Joseph is one really big boy. Joseph averages in the 98th percentile with the 3 percentages the doctor gives you. So that is most definitely exciting, though terrifying for us since his car seat only holds him up to 22 pounds and after that we will have to get a four door to hold those mammoth-sized car seats that come next. A sister in our ward saw him for the first time a few weeks ago and was so surprised by his size she called him a moose. We thought that nickname was funny, and pretty appropriate.

This first picture is Joseph's 3 month picture. This is our favorite one. Julie looks forward to January when she wants to get Joseph's 6 month picture taken, as well as our first family portrait. Joseph's grandma Denney unknowingly provided the clothes he will be wearing for that by getting him his next church clothes.

Okay, onto his recent adventures. Well, there was Halloween. We had lots of fun, although Joseph's costume was already too small. Even though he was only 3 months old, his 0-3 months costume was too small. Had Julie known how fast he would grow, she would have gotten it in 6-9! He is sitting next to his cousin Cardon. Then on Halloween, Julie and Joseph went to the local mall with a few gals from the ward and they all took the kiddies trick or treating. Julie pinned that paper bag to the front of his costume and he collected candy for his mama and papa! We would've let him try it, but he's just too young. Maybe next year. He did have a fun time getting out his candy and looking at it so Julie could take some pictures.

The real fun lately has been hitting milestones. The one which we enjoy the most is his smile. He shows it much more regularly and not just for us, but for other family members, people in the ward, or at the grocery store. Julie is worried he is going to become quite the flirt. Our other favorite is his laugh, which is hard to get on the digital. We do have videos, which we are going to learn how to put on here so those of you who are farther away can see the fun too! Other fun milestones he's been hitting...He rolled over twice! He hasn't done it since, but it still counts. Joseph is also getting quite good at sitting. This picture is from Thanksgiving. He's wearing the very handsome shirt that his Great Grandma McNett gave him. Yes, the size is 12 months. Doesn't he look cute? The yellow really brought out the red in his hair. Another ridiculous thing he does for a four month old is he is starting to stand against furniture. Of course we prop him up against the couch, but the standing is all him. Joseph has quite the strong legs! Because Joseph eats so much, we have started to give him cereals. He does pretty well with sitting in the high chair and eating with a spoon. He usually doesn't spit it out. Although, he does grimace every time the spoon touches his mouth. We don't know exactly what it is he doesn't like, but it is a bit funny to watch. Joseph has officially found his feet, although his feet have not yet been introduced to his mouth. He does love grabbing them while we change his diaper. And his latest sounds, which he loves to make on the changing table, are basically screaming, screeching sounds. But you can tell from his face that he is as happy as can be. Another milestone for Joseph is he now sits in the front of the stroller. We're glad he fits so well, because he was starting to get really restless on walks when he had to sit in his car seat. He is very content to sit and look out when we go out now. Well, I think that is almost everything I can think of. Our little boy is growing so fast. He wears clothes for 6-9 month olds, and it probably won't be long before he is in the next size if he doesn't slow down! Joseph is catching up to his older cousins faster than we thought. He already outweighs his 10 month old cousin Brayden. Although Brayden can out-crawl Joseph any day! Oh, and Joseph's belly button is looking quite normal now and doesn't poke out anymore!

In other news, Joseph's cousins Ashley and Riley both turned 1 year old this last month. Riley on November 14th and Ashley November 15th. We had a fabulous party, despite the birthday kids were both exhausted and wanting their naps! They both had their own cakes. Ashley wasn't too interested in hers, but Riley was! I'll let Stacie enjoy posting those pictures on her blog. (There's a link to her blog on the left) After the presents and cake, we enjoyed the park for a little bit. Joseph was able to go down the slide (on his papa's lap of course) and feel the sand with his bare toes. Overall, it was just a great time.

In Aaron's news, he is now working part-time in the refrigeration department at Sears. But the real exciting news is his new substitute teaching job! He has his first one today! They called at about 6 this morning. He also has a job this Friday, December 1st. He will be with 7th and 8th graders. Please keep a prayer in your heart that day! He may need it. But we are really very excited that this new opportunity is finally getting rolling. He has finished his four grad school applications. He applied to UCLA, Cal State Fullerton, Northern Arizona University, and University of Montana. We haven't had any word back yet, but we will let you know!

As for Julie, there's not too much news. She takes care of Joseph full-time, which is a lot of work, but doesn't make for very exciting reading. She has learned how to crochet, making baby hats for the local hospital with the Relief Society. She also made one for Joseph! Her mom has had two "Sew Days" with all her sisters. Those have been tons of fun now that they all enjoy sewing and have multiple projects constantly. The most exciting isn't Julie's, but Stephanie, Stacie, and Heidi too. They have been making clothes (and Heidi is making quilts) and selling them on eBay! They make some really cute stuff! Stephanie and Stacie had a store (on e-bay)filled with baby items, but since then they've found they enjoy making clothes more, they have ended their store and just sell on e-bay like everyone else. Their clothes are really cute. We're sure they would send out notices of their new items for sale if anyone is interested in checking them out.

In miscellaneous family news, Brittny is scheduled to have their baby Emma on January 10th, and Heidi will hopefully find out the gender of her baby on December 14th. We are extremely excited for them both and will update you all on their sweet babies when the time comes.

Well, hopefully we've covered most of the bases. If you are farther away, please keep us up to date with your latest as well! We look forward to your comments. We love you all and hope all is well!