Happenings...a lot of them

It has been such an exciting summer.  We have had a lot happen.  I used to think that as life progressed things would progressively get less busy.  Then I remember my dad telling me he had never been busier in his life...this was after all 9 kids were moved out!
First big news is that DONNY GRADUATED!!!  This was such a fun day.  As I saw him walking with the rest of the graduates during the beginning of the ceremony I was overwhelmed with a sense of pride, the good kind.  I was so proud of all that he did to get to this point and to be able to be part of it with him.  I can't even begin to explain the dedication that he has had through these past three years.  He has spent hours and hours studying, memorizing, researching, etc.  I think for the past 3 years he has had permanent red eyes from all the reading.  Yet through it all I have never felt second to it all.  He has managed to balance this busy time and has kept the most important things first!  Love him!

Well the fun was short lived.  After graduation bar preparations began, back to school.  Donny took a prep course that was just under 3 months.  This was a pretty intense course but we knew it would just be this short time and would pay off in the end.  Being the supportive wife that I am I took off to Idaho for "sisters week."  There is nothing quite like a sister, they just seem to understand you even when words are not spoken.  We got some things done at the house to prepare for the wedding...oh yea my sister got engaged while I was home.  So we planted the flower beds and trimmed the shrubs and bushes.  I LOVE yard work, don't tell my mom.  I miss being able to go out and just take care of it all.  My little porch with the flowers and tomato plant are just not doing it for me, all of which burnt up in the heat.  We did get 3 little tomatoes and it was a tasty tomato sandwich.  So after the work we did find time to play.  One of my sister in laws was performing in Time Out For Women in Pocatello.  So we all got to go to this.  Such an empowering experience that was magnified by being surround my all my sisters.  We were just missing mom, but she was where she needed to be (still on her mission for those who don't know). After all the work and fun it was so good to be home.  I'm still not good at being away from Donny for too long.

Fun with the cousins

How many babies can you pack in a suburban?

Love this picture.  These cousins were troopers during sisters week.  We drug them around to every store, kept them up late, neglected them while we worked, but they always ate well.

This time of year is so pretty at home

First taste of dirt

Growing up one of my favorite things was to have my dad push me on these
swings so that my feet would go over the apple trees.  Addison loves to swing!

Then came the event that we had been anticipating for a while.  This anticipation wasn't always a good one, but to have the event done was something we were so excited for.  This event was

the Bar

Donny had worked so hard for so long and the time to shine finally came the end of July.  This test is ridiculously intense.  It is split in to two days each day has two sections.  The first day's section was three hours comprised of 6 essays.  Then a little break then another 3 hours of 2 longer essays.  The fun doesn't end there.  You get to come back the next day where there are 2 more 3 hour blocks each block containing 100 multiple questions.  Glad it was Donny and not me, after 20 multiple choice questions I would have started drawing pictures with the bubble sheets.  Well Donny survived and I'm sure did awesome, we don't find out the result till October.  So we finally reached the point that we had looked forward to so much it didn't seem real, but we are loving it.  Oh something I almost forgot.  The test was in Phoenix and Donny stayed there from Monday night till Wednesday night.  We he got home Addison was so excited to see him.  She crawled right to him and wouldn't let him put her down for about 20 minutes! 

Addison Update

It has been way too long since I've updated our blog.  Since last post Addison has made quite a few advancements in her life.  She is now walking and talking in full sentences and every once in a while we let her drive the car.  Ok so maybe it hasn't been that long.  This little girl has really been so much fun to have around, I just wonder how we got so lucky to have it so good!  Here are a few things she is doing now that she's 10 months!

•  Crawling!  She has been doing this for a while.  She crawled for the first time on my birthday.  I know great gift.  She is a pro, in her own unique crawl.  She slides one leg partially under her while the other kind of walks along.  It doesn't seem to be any less effective than the normal crawl.  She pulls up to a stand on everything she can grab on to.

• Clapping and cheering.  She does this little squeal like she's saying YEA!  She loves to laugh and giggles at some of the most random things.

• Awesome eater.  There isn't a thing this little girl won't eat, including those things she shouldn't aka shoes.  When she is ready for more she kicks her legs and gets real excited/impatient if that spoon isn't getting to her mouth fast enough.
• Has a mouth full of teeth and loves showing them off as she smiles all the time.
• Loves to swim.  We swim her under the water and she come up out of the water ready to go again.
• She can wear pig tails!  Mom especially loves this, it is one of the joys of having a little girl.

• Continues to be an AWESOME sleeper!  She sleeps around 11 hours and take two 2 hours naps and sometimes one more hour long nap, on those days that are just exhausting.

• Stands on her head.  This is a new thing but she loves to stand on her head or push books around with her head.

• Favorite toys: Books, Tiger, kitchen utinsels, and mom & dad.

Firsts and Lasts

2011 has been full of a lot of NEW adventures. To start things off just two days after the new year had begun Addison decided to show everyone her skills and rolled over.  We were all having family home evening together at my sister's and then she just rolled right over.  She is a champ at it now.  We have been tyring to get her to crawl.  Instead she prefers to roll on to her back and scoot around by arching her back and scooting in the direction of her head. 

password: scooting

Untitled from Crystal Burnett on Vimeo.

Donny started his LAST semester of law school!  So now preparation for life after school has begun. He will be taking the bar at the end of July so after graduation it's nothing but studying for him.  The warm weather has come early this year and we are LOVING it. We decided during Donny spring break that we would enjoy the weather as much as possible. We went to a spring training game to see the Giants play the White Sox.

Then we took Addison to the pool to go swimming for the first time. It was in the 90's but the water was still a little chilly so we didn't venture too far in.  Kind of funny we were talking about how if we were in Utah we would be in the water loving it.  However, two years of Arizona has made us a bunch of pansies.  I won't get in the water unless it feels like bath water.

We went and played at the park and this little girl loves to swing and go down the slide.  We also went to a park down here called hole in the rock and just as you would guess there is a big rock with a hole in it.

 Another first are Addison's two front teeth!  No she didn't eat a grapefruit for the first time, just something we let her play with instead of giving her a bath.  It gives her a fresh clean smell, tons easier than bathing. :)

First real food!  Since this picture she has turned in to quite the pro at keeping the food in the mouth.  She loves food!  She has had rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, apple sauce, strawberries, cheesecake, just making sure your paying attention.  It seems that we can't get the spoon reloaded with food fast enough before she is begging for more.  As you can see she is one "healthy" little girl.  Don't you just want to squeeze her!

First of many yet to be BYU shirt.  Addison was a big supporter of the Cougars through the tournament.  Her bracket wasn't the best since she had Utah State taking it all (flipping a coin to see who advances never works out).

Giving Thanks

This Thanksgiving...and when I say this I mean 2010! We got to spend it with Donny's family. This was the first time in a while that everyone was able to get together. It's so fun to see the similar personalities between everyone. 

The whole family

All the brothers and sisters

Showing their true colors

All the grandkids, except for Cole.  He's on his mission...and the other baby that is on it's way.  No that is not an announcement from us.

LOVE this picture with Grandma and Grandpa!

Finally, this is a video of Addison doing a few of the tricks she does with her mouth.

password: mouth tricks

Untitled from Crystal Burnett on Vimeo.

More Christmas

Ok I know Christmas was almost 3 months ago and I'm just posting pictures from it...but these are some cute ones I couldn't leave out.  Don't worry about my next post being from Thanksgiving, eventually I'll catch up.

 Addison at the ward Christmas party, again she loves Santa...this girl knows who's important.

 The three youngest grand kids on my side.  Poor little Lincoln didn't know what to do at this point, girls already pushing him around. 

 My mom made hats for all the grandkids, she is our little "Who Baby"

All but two of the grandkids!  Not a dull minute and so much fun!

Holidays

This year was a special Christmas. We traveled out to see my parents, who are serving a mission in Adam-Ondi-Ahman. We figured if we didn't get back to Missouri now my parents wouldn't be able to see Addison till she was a year old. So we loaded up the car and set out on our adventure. We love road trips and Addison was such a great road tripper! We drove to Texas and stayed at my cousins place who "coincidentally"(I think not) lives half way between us and my parents. Then we traveled the rest of the way the next day. We picked my sister Angie up from the airport along our way and then arrived at my parent's around midnight. I can't even describe how excited we were to get there. When we arrived we knew we were at the right house. Dad had really gone to town with the Christmas lights on the outside of the house. Mom had waited up for us and it was so good to see her and give her a hug.

Then we got to introduce Addison to her Grandma Permann. There are few joys that compare to seeing your parents hold your own children. Then next day she got to meet Grandpa as well.

This is a Christmas we will never forget. We would wake up and look out our window and see everything sparkling from the frost that covered it. It's hard to explain what you feel when you are on the grounds. Mom and Dad told us that people will drive through Adam-Ondi-Ahman because they love the way it feels, not knowing what that feeling is.

There are a total of six couples that serve there during the winter and we love these missionaries as if they were family. We got to spend time with them during scripture study, firesides, church, Christmas parties, and more. They took Addison in and loved her as if she was their own grand daughter. We had the Christmas party at mom and dad's and everyone came over including Santa! Addison LOVED him. She sat on his lap just as content as could be and when it was time for him to leave...well her face says it all in these pictures

Christmas morning was so fun. Even though Addison is still to young to know what's going on Christmas is just special when you share it with children. Poor little thing was so tired she didn't even make it through all the presents.

The hardest part of this visit was when it was over. Addison just fell in love with Grandma and Grandpa right away. We had so much fun playing games, singing around the piano, and of course eating.