It's All About Me!!!

Emma has learned a new favorite song. Dusty got a Toby Keith c.d. and on it is the song "I Wanna Talk About Me". She has been wandering the house in her princess dress and dressup shoes singing "It's all about me...I'm number one"... This seems to be a perfect song for her. She has this hip move down now where she puts her hand on her hip and and tilts her head to the side. It is really, really, really cute!! We are defenitely considering putting her in ballet this fall. She also has been calling Dusty her "King" and she is the "Princess". Every morning she wakes up and runs to Dusty and says "Good morning King, can I have a kiss?". What a sweetie! She has her Dad wrapped around her little finger. What can I say, we love her. I thought you would all enjoy reading about how funny Emma is. Love you all...

Happy 4th of July

We had a great 4th of July! It began with watching fireworks on July 3rd. Our town has volunteer firefighters and they do the fireworks on the 3rd so that the firefighters can be with their families on the 4th. We headed over to the church because it has a great view of the fireworks and not a lot of people. We took Jacob's bike with us and I was determined to teach him how to ride without training wheels. I have to say it was the easiest job ever. After only a couple tries he was off and riding with no help at all. I tried to help and he would just say "I don't need help Mom". Thinking about his response I realize that we are passing milestones every day. Time is going by quickly and my children are growing way too fast!

The next day, July 4th, we participated in our Ward's first ever triathlon. Dusty was on a team where he did the swimming portion. I was on a different team where I did the running. The race was set up like so: the bikers raced from the church to the end of the walking/biking trail at the fairgrounds and then back to the pool. The biker would then tag their swimming teammate who would then swim 10 lengths of the pool. After this, the swimming partner would tag the running partner. This teammate would run from the pool to the soccer fields, one lap around the soccer fields and then back on the trail, past the pool, and all the way to the Sidney Pond. Dusty's team took Bronze. My team was pleased to just finish the race. Let me tell you, I don't think that my thighs have ever hurt that bad! I could not even move the next day after running that far (2.5 miles).

Our kids also participated in the kids race, which was to run around the pond 2 full times. Jacob and Alexis were fierce competitors with their friends and did awesome. Emma ran the race with Dusty. She was such a trooper and did the whole race. Just imagine her little, teeny legs running like crazy. All the other kids her age only went once around the pond, or got bored. But she was determined to finish. In the end, all the kids lined up and gave her high-fives as she ran by them. Everyone was cheering her on. She was so proud of herself, but I think Dusty and I might have been even more proud. This just proves how much fight she has in her (from the day she was born she had to fight to live). I believe that doing this race as a family has instilled some positive seeds in all of us. I came out of the race realizing that I need to run more often. The kids came away from the race knowing that they can do this type of thing and succeed. And Dusty came away planning on swimming laps at the community pool when they have adult swim time.

We went home for naps after the race and then went to the pool later that day. Emma and I relaxed by the kiddie pool and Alexis and Jacob swam with Dad in the big pool. This was when Alexis tackled the high-dive. She looked so big up there jumping into the water!

We did fireworks later that night as a family. We did lots of sparklers and then watched all of the fireworks going off in our neighborhood. Living in Utah we never saw fireworks like we have here. Many of our neighbors were doing huge fireworks and we just sat and watched the view from our driveway. In the end, Jacob ended up falling asleep in his chair.

The next day we tried to go fishing but had no luck finding a good spot at any of the local lakes (We tried Bridgeport Lake & Lake Minitaire). We decided to try fishing after church on Sunday and headed out to Chapell Lake. Our attempts to fish were laced with good intentions but our children and the lake had other plans. The lake was extremely mossy so we had a hard time finding a good spot. The kids brought stuff to play with and ended up in the water playing. They had fun but weren't really quiet. I think that Dusty had visions of sitting peacefully by the lake catching fish after fish while the children sat quietly playing in the sand giving each other hugs and kisses. Let's just say that the kids ended up wet and we didn't catch any fish. But I am not giving up. This is what I wanted to do for my birthday so I am going to see if we can try fishing the Sidney Pond tomorrow.

All in all we had a great weekend!! We had so much going on that it flew by and now here we are on Sunday night wishing we still had 3 more days of weekend.

Utah Trip

After Alexis' baptism Alexis and Jacob went back to Utah to visit with family for 2 weeks. Let me tell you it was the LONGEST 2 weeks of my life. I have never been away from my children for that long! I missed them so much. Dusty and I drove back with Emma to pick them up and stayed in Utah for 4 days doing vacation stuff.

First we went to the Hogle Zoo. My favorites were the monkeys. The kids loved seeing all of the animals. We rode the Merri-go-round and the Train and were quite ready to be done after wandering the zoo in 100 degree temperatures.

Next we went to Lagoon, an amusement park. Grandma and Grandpa Burke watched Emma while Dusty and I took Alexis and Jacob. Jacob was tall enough to go on most of the rides and might I add brave enough too; so all 4 us took advantage of it. One of our favorites was the new Octopus ride. It is a water ride and it was a blast trying to dodge the water squirting at us.

The next day we went to the Bee's Game with family. My sister Julie and her kids (Skyler, Kaylee, Mariah & Cayden) went and Dusty's mom went. It was fun to take part in seeing a professional game and to let the kids bond with their cousins. Snowcones were one highlight of the game as all the kids loved adding their own flavor to their snowcones. Another highlight of the game was meeting the team mascot "Bumble". Alexis had him sign her arm, the other kids had him sign their tickets and Jacob had him sign his new Bee's hat and bat.

A Visit to Raging Waters topped off our trip. We took my sister's kids with us and boy did we have fun!! Dusty and all of the kids (except Emma) immediately were drawn to the tube rides. So me and Emma hung out at the kid pools and played. She wouldn't go down the slides unless I took her. Let me tell you, there is nothing like a grown woman standing up from a kiddie slide with a "melvin". Those slides hurt your butt (I am not sugar-coating this at all). The wave pool also turned out to be a huge hit. I think Alexis and Mariah spent over an hour playing in there. In the end I had to be the bad guy and hauled us out of there around 5 PM.

We thouroughly enjoyed our vacation in Utah (visit our Burke Family Photo Gallery link to see all of our fun trip pictures). Thanks to all of our family for lettings us stay with them, helping with the kids, and hanging out with us.

Alexis' Baptism

This past weekend was a special weekend for our family. Alexis was baptised! We had both sides of the family make the trip from Utah.

On Friday I planned a surprise party for Alexis. Dusty told Alexis that he and she were going for a drive and then brought her to the hotel where our families were staying. Her cousins (14 of them), Aunts and Uncles, and Grandmas and Grandpas were all waiting at the pool and yelled "SURPRISE". She was so surprised and happy to see our families. We had a great time swimming and eating pizza with everyone.

The next day was the baptism. Alexis was nervous and I could tell. So Dusty and I took her in the chapel at church and chatted with her. She was making such an important decision and we wanted her to know how much we loved and supported her. She is such a sweetie and all I could think about was that I could not believe how old she was. Here is a picture of Alexis with her Dad.




Alexis asked her Grandma Brown and her Grandpa Burke to give talks. They both spoke from their hearts and were able to share part of their testimonies with Lex. Thank you so much Grandma Brown (she was really nervous!) and Grandpa Burke.


One funny thing that happened that we will never forget is that there was a black cricket in the font when Alexis and Dusty walked in. They were trying to scoop it out and when they finally got it out it flopped on the floor on the little kids that were kneeling by the font. A couple of the little ones squeeled but to my surprise most of them remained calm. Another funny thing that happened was that Alexis' cousin (we won't say who) asked her as she walked in the font "How's the water Alexis?". It was so funny.

After the baptism, confirmation and lunch we headed up to the Webb's property. The Webb's live in our ward and own some property that they let ward members come up and shoot guns on. We loaded up our families, the guns and the coolers and made the drive. We shot clay pigeons and most everyone tried to shoot (except the really little ones). Our niece MacKenzie turned out to be the best shot. Who knew she had a "dead eye" just like her Uncle Dusty? She is now known as "Annie Oakley". Dusty and I were glad that our families were able to experience some of the lifestyle that we have been enjoying while living in Nebraska.

We had a great weekend and were so blessed to have our families come to support Alexis. Alexis we are truely blessed to have you in our family. We love you!!

Welcome To Our Busy Lives

Alright, I have finally decided to create a blog for our family. With our children changing so much and with us living so far from family we wanted to make sure that our family and friends could still be tuned in to our lives. And we defenitely have BUSY lives. Dusty and I both work full time. We are extremely happy with our jobs and continue to strive and do well. We are also both college students. Dusty will be finishing his Bachelor's Degree in November and I am just finishing up my Associates degree in Accounting. I am also continuing my education and will be beginning my Bachelor's program in about 3 weeks. I know, you probably think that we are crazy, but we know that all of this hard work will pay off. Education is something that we know we will always have and it is extremely important to both of us. We hope that our children will see how hard we have worked and follow our example one day. Anyhow, I am very excited to have set up this blog. I will begin posting pictures soon (probably after this weekend because Alexis is getting baptised and we have 35 family members in town). Bye for now!!