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It's December?

Where has the time gone?

I feel like we just kicked this year off, and now its already coming to a close. Although I am sad that the time has flown by, I am so excited for the coming year. The past 2 years have been such a roller coaster for our family, and although I don't quite see the end of the ride yet, I have high expectations and only good thoughts and plans for the year to come!

I haven't been as diligent as I would have liked to have been with this blog, but that is another thing that I hope will change in the new year. I have missed several occasions and for that I apologize (especially to my kids, whose birthday celebrations didn't make it onto the blog).

This is my favorite time of year, and I am so excited that it is December!

Happy Holidays to all!

Birthday Time!

4 years ago (yesterday) we were sitting in a hospital room holding our newborn Baby Girl! We were so ready for her to be here with our family. At birth apparently she had contracted some kind of infection and we were told she would have to stay in the hospital for observation until they were sure it was gone. I was mortified because they weren't very informative about how serious it was and I couldn't get a good feel of how worried we needed to be! She had to stay in a special nursery and only Trev & I and grandparents were allowed in to see or hold her. She had to have an iv and at one point they weren't able to put it into her tiny little hand, so they had to put it in her forehead. I cried! I remember being so paranoid during my pregnancy with her about something going wrong because I wanted this baby girl so badly that I just felt like it was too good to be true! I remember making the ultrasound tech check several times just to be sure it was a girl! And sure enough it was! Josslyn Grace was born late at night on the 15th of August!

We are so happy we get to have her sweet little spirit in our home, and have loved watching her grow into the sassy little princess she is!

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

School, School, School

So we are one week into school... and the kids are loving it!

We have ended up with all 3 boys at different schools! Fletcher started school at one school with Evrett, but they only offered free half day Kindergarten. Fletch has been in Preschool for 3 years, and is soooo beyond ready for full day Kinder. He would come home before noon and be so bored all he could think of to do was to torment his poor sisters. Needless to say, half day just wasn't working out! So I found a school that offered free full day Kinder, and was able to get him in on a boundary exception. Hallelujah!!! The school is about 10 minutes away, but worth every minute we spend in the car! He loves it and I feel so much better having him there.

In other school news... Miss Josslyn (and Harper) started Preschool today!!! I am going to be the Teacher's assistant in the class, so Harper (even though she is not old enough yet) gets to be in the class too! We are so excited to go have fun with new friends twice a week and get ready for Kindergarten next year! The girls had a great time and can't wait to go back!

Parker has adjusted so well to being in "Middle School" and is doing great in his class. He has decided that he wants to learn to play the Cello, so he will be starting Orchestra this week! He is also looking forward to perfecting his drawing skills by participating in an after school cartoon drawing class. This kid loves to draw!

Evrett is also doing great in his class, and is making new friends every day! He is doing so good at reading, and math, and he has some really mad coloring skills! I have never seen a kid that can color as good as Ev! (He gets it from me!)

All in all I think this is going to be a really GREAT school year!

Back to school time again!

It's hard to believe it is that time of year already!

These boys were ready & excited!

School started for us on July 27th!

We captured some of the excitement & silliness

to post on here!

Check out that ENTHUSIASM!!!

Harper wanted in on the action...

Here she is with Parker's 50 lb. backpack on!

It's hard for me to believe, but after 3 years of Preschool

my baby boy is going to school with the big boys!

Fletcher started Kindergarten, so he an Ev get to ride the bus together!

Evrett is in 2nd grade this year!

It's Ev's turn to be the big bro. on campus.

He has done a great job taking care of Fletch and making sure

he knows where to go and what to do!

Parker is in 5th grade and gets to attend

"Middle School"

This made us a little nervous, but as usual he

has impressed us with his ability to adjust and fit the role

of a middle schooler!

They grow up too fast!

Different school means different bus for Parker!

His school starts later and gets out later than E & F's,

so he gets to hang out with the "BIG KIDS" to wait for his bus.

AHHHH!!!

Ahhh... such sweet brother!

Waiting for the bus to pick them up.

(The kid in the orange shirt is Evrett's best friend, Nathan!)

So excited!

What a CUTIE!!!

We are also very excited that Miss Josslyn

will be starting Preschool in a couple of weeks!!!

We have had a GREAT summer,

but were so ready for school to start!

Hooray!

Let the summer fun begin!

This weekend we took a family vacation with some friends to San Diego!

We went to Sea World & to the Beach!!!

Waiting to get into Sea World!

Joss is really excited too... it just doesn't look like it!

Our crazy boys thought it would be fun to sit front row in the "Splash Zone"

at the Shamu show! Not sure they felt the same way once it started!

They loved getting to see Shamu up close!

My little cuties!

Fletch & Parks touching the Sea Stars at the Tide Pool

Another group shot waiting to go see the Shark Encounter

Finally... a ride Joss could go on!

She was really sad that she wasn't tall enough to go on any of the water rides!

Crazy boys being silly!

We couldn't have picked a better day to hit up the beach!

Sunny with just the right amount of breeze!

BEAUTIFUL!!!

The older kids had a blast wave surfing!

While my girls weren't quite sure how they felt about the freezing cold water!

Joss was a little freaky about the sand too... so she spent most of the day on the blankets in the shade! Smart girl!

Harper on the other hand, thought the sand was GREAT!

Fletch too!

Our boys got quite comfy with the sand!

Lesson learned the hard way:

Apparently when you use spray on sunblock, you have to spray the WHOLE area that you want protected from the sun!

Otherwise your kids come out looking like a tiger!!!

It was a great weekend!

Memorial Day/Burk Family Campout 2011

This years campout turned out to be one we will not soon forget!

The weekend started out with lots of fun...

quad rides, zip-lines, swings, and lots of cousins to play with!

Harper... ready to get her camp on!

Joss playing with her 2 favorite new cousins!

This swing was where Joss spent 90% of her weekend.

We celebrated the birth of my BFF Tracie!

Prob my fav camping past-time... the tent nap!!!

Unfortunately I didn't get one!

Grandpa Dave taking the girlies for a ride!

I wish I would have gotten more pics of my boys.

They had so much fun on the zip-lines and shooting but I didn't catch

any of it... so sad!

Ev was happy that Dad let him steer on their quad ride!

And you gotta love the dirty faces that come with camping...

especially when its windy!

DIRT EVERYWHERE!

The real fun began on Saturday evening around dinner time.

Trac and I had gone out on one of the quads... and came back to everyone

yelling and screaming at us to hurry and for me to jump in the car.

Joss had been riding in the kids train (you won't really know what that is unless you know the Burk family... sorry!) and it had apparently hit a big rock and tipped over.

Joss smacked her head on a trailer that was parked nearby, and had a huge gaping cut on her eyebrow. I jumped in the car and we headed to the urgent care in Williams, which was about 10-15 minutes away. Luckily we got there right before they closed, and they were able to stitch it all up. Not without a good fight from Joss though. She kicked and screamed the whole time. They finally had to wrap her up so that she couldn't move. Anyways... they ended up having to do 2 layers of stiches because it was so deep. 3 stitches inside and 5 stitches to close up the cut. Then there was a little cut underneath her eye, and they put 1 stitch in there too. It was sooo sad!

This was a couple hours after the accident, when we finally got back from

urgent care.

Ahh... still smiling! Sweet girl!

She was a trooper the rest of the time we were camping!

The next morning she was up and running around like nothing happened.

This is the morning after the accident.

This is 2 days after the accident.

Everytime she would happen to see her reflection in the window or mirror, she would be surprised like she didn't remember that she was hurt.

Poor baby!

It is now 5 days later and it looks so much better!