Happy 11th Birthday, Evan!

Evan turned 11 years old on January 23rd.  We celebrated with dinner at Texas Roadhouse, and his favorite cake - triple chocolate from Sam's Club!

Growing up!

One wish...a PSP

Embarrassed to death at Texas Roadhouse!

Silly Alli

His other wish...a new suit.  Mama ordered it,
and sent him home with two of his favorites...
a jar of pickles and 2 half gallons of chocolate ice cream!

Celebrating with Annie, who turned 1 a couple of days later

Happy Birthday, Evan! We are happy that God gave you to us - even if you do steal all my dark chocolate!

Christmas Memories Part 5

It still feels like January, right? So I guess it's ok to go ahead and finish out blogging our Christmas!
:-) We typically have our Christmas celebration with the Burley side of the house on New Year's weekend. This allows Grandma and Grandpa to get their fill of grandkid madness before they head to sunny Florida to spend the rest of the winter! It was so good to be with the family again. We had a group photo session, and I had hoped to have at least on of the pics before blogging this, but I'm not sure where they are at in the process. Who knows...maybe we broke the camera.

Mom and Dad Burley

The first "real" smile I was able to capture
after the removal of the braces

It wouldn't be a celebration without all the extra calories!

Dad, Greg, Uncle Dave,Gene, and Mark

Ryan and Evan had fun with Kaden

Harmony and Chris

Amanda and Scott

These kiddos waited all weekend for snow,

and right before we left, it came down!  They

were able to have one good snowball fight!

~Good memories~

Christmas Memories Part Four

The Yount family is as dedicated as any I have ever seen when it comes to celebrating holidays.  Schedules are adapted, hotels are booked, miles are travelled, and it happens! 
This year we celebrated on the evening of the 24th as everyone gathered in.  The menu was a variety of soups with finger food type stuff and lots of desserts.
On Christmas morning, a pretty decent number of us attended church with my grandmother at Kenwood Bible Methodist.  It was a special time...it's not often that we are able to celebrate in worship and partake of communion together.
Family members continued to trickle in throughout the day, and by evening there were 71 of us.  A couple of in-laws joined (the Profitts and the Kennedys) for a few hours, and it was good to have them with us, as well!
The food was unbelievable, as usual.  You can't lose with The Honeybaked Ham Company!
Whenever we are together, I find a few quiet moments to just observe these people who have impacted my life in such a significant way.  Their incredible motivation and skill challenge me to keep pursuing excellence in my own life.  There are several small business entrepreneurs, physician assistants, registered nurses, teachers, pastors, one in Christian university administration, one in Christian radio, others in various Christian ministries, stay-at-home mommas, blue collar workers...just a huge variety of occupations, skill sets, and an unbelievable amount of motivation behind all of it! 
Here are a few pics of our Yount Christmas:

Aunt Jean always brings plenty of Play Doh for the little ones.

Two of Uncle Jeff's grandbabies...I think he and Andrea have
13 grandkids under age 8.  :-)

Sleepy little Sawyer (Sarah Ann and Aaron's third little guy)

The big guys get tired too...Uncle John finds a quiet corner.

Happy lil' Chloe (Andrea and Jeremy's little girl...she is
surviving her 3 big brothers pretty well!)

And 'not-so-happy' lil' Suzanna...I love her poochie lip.  :-)
She's usually a happy little camper. 

Eric brought his newest little puppy...

While Craig and Alisa brought their BIG four-legged friend!
 Allison is way over her dog paranoia..thank goodness!

How thankful I am to still have the privilege of
having this special influence in my life!  My grandma
and I share a birthday, and we've shared a lot of memories!

This would have been a great pic, had Greg not decided  to make
a dash for the food line about the time I snapped it!
Megan, Janel, Valerie, & Will

14 of the original 19 cousins who were there at the time of the
pic.  We sure have done our share of adding to the family tree!

Uncle John, Uncle James, Uncle Jeff, my mom, Aunt Carol, and Aunt Sarah
with their momma.  We sure do miss our Grandpa Yount.

Aunt Rebecca has a particularly facinating job...
she's a lifeflight nurse!

Jeremiah (Andrea's oldest) and Evan finish off the
homemade ice cream.

Andrea and I have always been more like sisters than cousins.
We even knew how to have a good fight! And yeah,
it could get physical.   :-)

 Aunt Jean, Aunt Rebecca, and Aunt Andrea
(Andrea is the one who made me the cook book that
I mentioned at www.stephanieburley.blogspot.com)

Kait and Becca (Jeff and Crystal's oldest) love the few moments
they get to spend together.  I think the unlimited fountain
drinks were having an effect.  :-)

Some of the guys with a little girl right there in the middle.

We love to stay at the Comfort Suites on the river.  This was the
beautiful view at Christmas.

These boys are getting so big!

#4 had just fallen and scraped up her knee.  Therefore, she was
completely uncooperative for a pic.  The other three obliged.

Christmas Memories Part 3

Every Christmas season has its own set of distinct emotions (at least for this emotional woman...lol), and this one was no exception.  Greg and I both agreed that Christmas 2011 was just weird.  It didn't particularly feel like Christmas because we were experiencing much warmer temperatures and lots of rain.  For this snow lovin' family, that was a little disappointing. 
Our moments at home were few, and everything felt hurried and rushed.  So...we have decided to lengthen our season.  Yup, we're still rockin' around the Christmas tree!  It doesn't feel like it's in the way yet, so we're still savoring those lights and bulbs.  I did put away the stockings last week.  They were looking a little out of place.  I think the "Merry Christmas" rug in front of the fireplace will be the next to go.  If it weren't for the adorable snowman on it, I probably would have put it to rest with the stockings.
Because we were to be out of town Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, our kids talked us into letting them open presents the Friday night before Christmas.  I guess it was still Friday...the clock said something like 11:00 when they started opening gifts.  I was one exhausted momma, and Greg was pretty tired, too.  We sat there in a daze and watched them excitedly open their gifts.  It's so fun to feel the energy, especially if they are clueless as to what is in the package.  I know that we spend well below what perhaps most people would on gifts for our kids, but we try to spend more of our energy and money making memories with them throughout the year.  Christmas gifts aren't the focus of our season, Jesus is.  But the gifts sure add to the fun!  :-)

Christmas Memories Part 2

Our first Christmas celebration was with my family here in Lima.  It was really good to be together again!  I didn't get too many pictures this year, but there were a few worth sharing.

The tree

Dad's subtle hint

Grandma Yount and one of her 19 grandkids

Me and my precious granny

Patiently listening to the Christmas story before gifts

Annie's first Christmas

Bank bags..this looks good! 
The annual 'money hunt'

Hands full of coins

And it ended with a serious plumbing issue that these two
bravely corrected.  :-) 

My beautiful mom and grandma...Proverbs 31 in real life.

Thanks, mom and dad, for another wonderful Christmas memory. Even though you were feeling rotten, you gave of yourselves to make our time special. We love you!