Birthdays, Sunshine and a New Car!

We have had a busy month in the the best ways possible. There have been birthday celebrations, trips to the park and this past weekend, we became the owners of our very first minivan (me, I am thrilled, Ben, he is still getting used to the idea). This month has also been a meteorological roller coaster with snow one week, followed by 80 degree weather the next. I told Ben the other day that I was getting tired of the weather changing so drastically from week to week and he told me, "I like it, it's nice to have variety." He's right, it has been nice to build snowmen one week and play at the park the next.

Ben and I celebrated our birthdays early in the month. My birthday was on a Friday, we spent the morning test driving cars with my Dad at Carmax. Then we all went out to lunch at Showmars. They have really yummy gyros. Mmmm... Later in the afternoon, Katelyn helped me make a cookie cake. It was DELICIOUS.

Yummy Cookie Cake

Blowing out the candles!

The next day was what we call "Date Day", or the day in between our birthdays. Our good friends watched the kiddos while we went out to dinner at Tony Roma's. We shared a rack of ribs, coconut shrimp and a slice of cheesecake. Yes, more food. Yumm.

Sunday, Ben's birthday, we watched the NASCAR race after eating Ben's favorite food of all time... taco salad. He was a happy guy. That night, our family came over to have ice cream cake. All in all in was a fabulous birthday weekend!

Ben's Ice Cream Cake

The birthday boy!

The week after our birthdays was absolutely gorgeous. We played outside and spent an afternoon at the park. It has made us totally ready for spring.

"Mom! Why can't I go out?!"

Our blue-eyed boy is 10 1/2 months old!

Katelyn, 3 years old and very...

...SILLY!

Katelyn has been helping plant seedlings for our vegetable garden. We are going to attempt a square foot garden this year Katelyn has loved coming to check on her plants every day to see if they are growing yet. I think this will be a really fun experience for her. Pictures to come.

Katelyn's Plants

This past weekend was dreary, cold and rainy. The kind of weekend where you just want to stay at home and watch movies. However, we bundled up and headed to Carmax and Saturday and came home with a "new" Nissan Quest! It's awesome. I love the feeling that I could buy something really big and actually fit it in my car! I love that I can get more kiddos in my car! I love driving a big car! Can you tell that I really love our new car?

2005 Nissan Quest

Interview with Harvard's LSSA President

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I often have the opportunity to answer questions about my faith. After watching this interview with the president of Harvard's Latter-Day Saint Student Association, I knew I had to share it. The questions are respectful and the answers are honest. I hope you enjoy it!


Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.

Burgess Family Giveaway!

Welcome to the first Burgess Family Giveaway! The first 5 people to comment on this entry will receive a special gift from us. What will the gift be?? You shall see when it arrives on your doorstep or in your mailbox. There is only one rule. In order to receive your special gift you must also post a giveaway on your own blog or family website. Good luck and happy blogging!

Katelyn's 3rd Birthday - (Picture Overload!)

What a day! Katelyn is officially three years old and she had a great birthday! We started of the day with our traditional chocolate chip birthday pancakes (in the shape of the number 3, of course).


When Katelyn came downstairs to eat, she immediately zoomed in the pile of birthday presents on the coffee table. All week long she had been saying, "Is it my birthday now?!" and we finally got to say, "Yes!" Strung through the entryway was a Happy Birthday banner with Tinkerbell on it. It was the next thing she noticed after checking out her loot.


After breakfast, she got to open a couple of presents every hour or so. One of them was Kung Fu Panda, which we watched as soon as we could get it open. While she watched her movie, I got a moment to finish her 3rd year video, which I hope you all enjoyed as much as I did.

After a late lunch and some finishing touches on her birthday cake, we headed to Monkey Joe's for the afternoon. Grandpa Bellinghausen, Uncle Brent and his girlfriend Raeanne, as well as Katelyn's friend Arwen met us there for some fun. Josh and Kate shared a blue ice cream cone (without my knowledge) and both ended up with solid blues lips and cheeks!

We planned a birthday party for Katelyn and a couple of her friends for after Monkey Joe's. I headed home early to get ready, and soon the guest began to arrive. Ben, Katelyn and Grandpa were off to get balloons and didn't make it back until after everyone had arrived, so we tried to get the kids to "SURPRISE" Kate. It was prety silly.

During the party, the kids had hot dogs and played with all of the balloons with the big "kids" enjoyed chili. When it was time to open gifts, we sat Katelyn in her flowered chair and the kids all gathered around her. The kids were so good! It was so neat, they just sat and watched her open gifts and got excited to see her new things. I was totally impressed.

Since it was a Tinkerbell party, we had to have a Tinkerbell cake.

We gathered everyone around the table to sing and it was so cute as she sang while we sang her "Happy Birthday". Check out the video:

It was such a great day! Katelyn is so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. Thank you to everyone who helped make her 3rd birthday so special.

The Boastful Bargain Hunter

Lately, I have had some time to peruse the bargain racks at Walmart and Target. I just had to share all the good luck I have had! Over the past week I have purchased all of the clothing pictured below:



5 T-shirts
4 Long-sleeved Shirts
1 Button-up Shirt
1 Pair of pants
2 Winter Coats with removable inner-jackets

My grand total was only... ...

$45.12!

Katelyn's 3rd Year Video

Christmas at Home

We had Christmas at home this year. This is the first year that Katelyn has believed in Santa Clause and it made for a really fun Christmas. We packed so much into the Christmas season and it flew by incredibly fast.

On Christmas Eve, we made sugar cookies to decorate for Santa Clause and watched a movie together. Katelyn is an expert cookie decorator and had a lot of fun with the sprinkles.


After dinner, we headed out in the car to see the neighborhood Christmas lights. They are always so beautiful, we love the houses that really go all out with blow-up snowmen, flashing snowflakes and lights covering the entire house. The tackier the better, in my opinion. :) We drove around for about an hour and then Kate was ready to head home. After settling down on the couch, Ben read the Christmas story from the Bible and we watched a video of The First Christmas. It was really beautiful. Katelyn asked to watch it again. She loves seeing the baby Jesus. Right before we headed to bed, Katelyn received a very neat phone call. It was from Santa! He told her that he thought she had been a good girl all year long and that she needed to go to bed so that he could bring her presents. She thought it was so neat! So, we took her right to bed and we read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas".

Once the kids were asleep, Ben and I wrapped gifts until nearly midnight while watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on TV. We set out all of the Christmas gifts under the tree and stuffed the stockings. It was so fun knowing Kate would be seeing it all in a few hours!



Kate and Josh woke up around 7:30 am on Christmas morning and we headed downstairs to see if Santa came. He had! Kate was so excited about all of the presents under the tree.



After opening our stockings, we started in on all of the presents. Katelyn played Santa Clause for a little while, handing out gifts to everyone, but then she was too distracted by her own new toys to even open anymore of her own presents. It was sweet. She and Josh received so many wonderful gifts. It was a very generous Christmas.







After the gifts were all opened and Josh was awake, we all got in the car to go over to Grandpa Bellinghausen's house. We had Christmas morning all over again!

It was a truly wonderful Christmas and we were very blessed to be with family.