Blessing of the Priesthood

As of last June, my siblings are complete. My sisters and brother are married and Ryan's brother and sister are married. We were lucky enough to have the entire group, including wonderful parents, together in our church and our house for Kennedy's blessing.

What a blessing it was! Ryan's prayer had all the blessings in it that we could ask from our Heavenly Father. I was really caught up in the spirit when I thought of all the men encircling her with God's power. I felt blessed to have the priesthood in my home and blessed that every single man in our family was there to share this with us.

My mom made this beautiful dress in just a few days because I'm spoiled and she loves Kennedy and she's extremely talented. Thanks again Mom!

Sweetness and Beauty

A friend from Ryan's Derm Center offered to take some pictures of Kennedy. This is a collage she put together as a sample. I wanted to give a picture to our moms for Mother's Day. I had 250 pictures to choose from! I think they turned out beautifully, even though Kennedy felt she needed her pacifier for lots of them. Thank you Jacquel!

Kennedy is 4 weeks old!

At 4 weeks old, our baby girl is getting cuter, getting bigger, and bringing joy to our family. Audrey has taken on her role as big sister fairly well. She can be quite helpful. For instance, in the car when we ask Audrey what Kennedy is doing, she says one of two things; she's either sleeping or blinking. Sooo helpful!
Anyway, we are in love with her and as the adjustments continue for all of us, life will only get better.

At Kennedy's two week check-up she weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. so she had gained a little over a pound. This is her at four weeks so I would guess she weighs about 9 pounds.

Kennedy is a great sleeper during the day. Most people who come to visit her leave without ever seeing her eyes.

Gotta love the Boppy!

Easter

Our Easter celebration began on Saturday in Salina. A Burr family tradition is to eat lunch at Grandpa Wayne and Grandma Arda's house in the garage. The tradition began years ago when the weather wouldn't permit an outdoor picnic and it was so much fun it stuck! The only problem now is that the family is growing and the garage isn't.

This is our niece Halle, Ryan's cousin's daughter Ashlyn, and Audrey at the little table.

Another tradition is to roll (usually ends up throw) Easter eggs down a hill. Ryan is very proud of this picture because he got Audrey's egg in mid-air. Somewhere at the bottom of the hill are cousins who are dodging the eggs.



We spent Easter Sunday in Bountiful. There was an indoor Easter egg hunt and in true Raylene (mom) fashion, there were about a million eggs for two little girls to find. My sister Emily's daughter Chloe was the other girl. Her daughter Gretchen (who's nine months old) and my Kennedy weren't interested in the hunt.


There were toys and candy inside some eggs and others had a ticket to get the girls into The Toy Store that was set up for them upstairs where they got to choose more toys. Audrey doesn't look thrilled, but she was.

My mom also made the girls these skirts for Easter. Making something absolutely adorable is also sooo like my mom.
We all had a blast with our families and Kennedy survived her first trips to Salina and Bountiful.

Baby Kennedy

Our second baby girl came into this world March 14. Kennedy was born 16 days early (exactly the same as Audrey) and she weighed 6 lbs. 8 oz.

So far she is extremely pleasant. She never really cries, is starting to get her days and nights straight, and loves to be held.

Audrey has handled the transition okay (not great, but okay). Most of the time she is interested in her tiny toes, tiny hands, poopy diapers, and all her squeaking and sneezing. But other times she wants us to "put her down" so we can play with her instead.

She's absolutely beautiful and we're so blessed to have these two girls in our life.

So this is Christmas.

Having Christmas at our own house this year was absolutely amazing.
Christmas 2007-Our Christmas tree was too tall to put up in our apartment.
Christmas 2008-We moved on the 26th and 27th so the decorations stayed in the boxes and we didn't celebrate with just the three of us until New Years' Day.
Christmas 2009-The Christmas village was up two weeks before Thanksgiving and the tree was about a week after that. We just couldn't wait for the season to begin.

Here's Audrey Christmas morning with her doll that Santa brought her. They're dancing.

We have to throw in some Christmas traditions with our families...
like gingerbread houses...

and reading/dressing up/acting out Christ's birth from the Bible.

(Actually, Audrey insisted she was Tinkerbell- not Mary.)

This is Audrey's fake smile because she was pretty tired of opening presents by about 9 or 10:00. The next day when she got to play with all the toys was when she realized how much she really loved Christmas.
The best part of this Christmas for us was that Audrey got into the WHOLE thing. She loved going to stores where they had decorations. She got excited anytime she saw Santa (not enough to go sit on his lap, but from a safe distance). She sang "Jingle Bells" and "When Christmas Comes to Town" (from Polar Express) about a million times. She liked helping me buy presents for everyone and wrap them and put their names on them. She was obsessed with the Christmas village and the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree lights had to be turned on the first thing in the morning when she came downstairs and they were the last thing we turned off before we went to bed.
It was so much fun. By next Christmas we will be blessed with another precious baby and Christmas will mean that much more.

Fall/Winter

Here are a few of the things we did in the fall and winter. (When you see them, you'll see how unexciting it's been.)

Ryan went to New York for work including a trip to both Yankee and Mets stadiums.

We went camping with Audrey for the first time.
She was okay. She didn't really love sleeping in the tent which meant we didn't love sleeping in there with her. But it was a fun family experience. My mom and dad, sister, and brother-in-law came as well.

More recently, Ryan has become BFFs with the BYU basketball coach's wife. She went into the Derm Center a couple of times and told him she'd get him some court side tickets to a game. Since then, I think Ryan's been six times. He has been a very happy guy. (It helps that the Cougars are currently one of the best teams in the country.) The seats include dinner before the game and snacks at halftime from a banquet room. But who needs all that when you get to sit close enough to smell the sweat on the floor?

Audrey is such a great fan! But she was not too great at sitting still at this game so she hasn't been since. Ryan has tried to spread the wealth to everyone in his family instead.

One of Audrey's favorite things about winter...shoveling snow. I wish Ryan and I felt the same way. For a few weeks there it seemed like we were shoveling a few times a week.

As for me? I have been growing a baby! (Hence, no pictures of me.) The first few months kicked my butt. Since then, things are going pretty well. I'll update more on this later.