Burton

Whats in a name?
Well lately i have been thinking about what it means to be a "Burton" and each time i find my self overwhelmed with emotion. Ya know the feeling when your physically body isn't strong enough to handle the amount of gratitude happiness and pure amazingness you feel. I cant describe it any other way. I usually just end up crying, that's a good outlet for overflowing emotions.
So why,  you ask are you thinking about this? Let me take you back to the first part of the month. I finally had a day away. And by day away i mean away from everyone and everything that takes my attention. I had a conference in Cedar City, so i had a 2.5 hour drive BY MYSELF to and from. This is heaven time. I have always loved driving. I drove far too many miles to count while i was single and in school. Really I drove A LOT. I loved it. It was time that i could really think. I could listen to talks on tape that would make me think. I did listen to my fair share of music and belted it out. Now, i usually have a husband or 2 children in the car everywhere i go. Which is lovely in its own way, don't get me wrong. But I am fully into talking to my husband or putting out fires in the backseat.
SO, this drive was back to the good ol days when i could think. I Blasted Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli on the way down feeling like a renewed woman. I love that music (Brandon doesn't, so this is why it was sooo lovely to blast it out, and yes i blast out that kind of music now)
Went to the conference, so rejuvenating. I knew not a soul and it didn't even matter. I left feeling like i can continue to do daycare, took away lots of good ideas for fun and felt like i am not the only one that is overwhelmed at times with the responsibility to teach and raise my own kiddos, not to mention the other kids that come into my house everyday.
I pulled out, went to Walmart, BY MYSELF! Enjoyed it. Ran into a cousin i have not seen for a while. Awesome timing, she is a Burton to. :)
So onto why i exploded with love and gratitude. I called my mom and talked to her a while on the phone. No interruptions. I could just chat freely and not chase a kid in the process or be whipping up dinner/snack/or anything else i do in the day while i talk on the phone. :)
She had had a dinner with all her brothers and sister and their spouses the night before. Just as she was talking, and then for the remainder of my drive, i kept thinking, "I'm proud to be a Burton"
Being a Burton is a big responsibility. That might sound funny, but if you know the long line of amazing people in that family you would understand. My Grandpa and Grandma are boundless in spirituality. I have never learned more about the gospel, how to live it, and how to love it, than i did in their house. It was there i could feel pure heaven. Really. As tears fill my eyes now just recalling that Strong spirit of out Father in Heaven in their home i am overwhelmed. They are good. They are perfect. They raised 7 kids. 7 Perfect kids. These 7 perfect kids are my uncles and aunt. They all taught me just as much about what being a good person is. They all taught me how a family loves. They all taught me how much i am loved. They all taught me how to have a good time and laugh till my sides hurt. They all have spouses. They all have amazing spouses. They are endless in charity. They are perfect examples of living a faithful life. They all have held positions in the church that are examples of the humble yet powerful examples they are. There was never contention in the family. We got together weekly at my grandparents house for Sunday sandwiches and ice cream cones. Every week. There are 32 cousins. My cousins. My friends. We are all close. I love them all as siblings. We spent tons of time together. I miss them all. They each taught me things about love, sacrifice, testimony and so much more.
When i think about what a family should be like i think of Burton's. I want a Burton house. I want a Burton family. I want a perfect family. That is what the Burton family is to me. I am Petersen too. I am thankful to be a Petersen too. From them i learned how to work hard. I learned the value of work. I learned to work with family. I learned to play with family. I learned to be responsible. I learned to be smart. That is what i want in a family too.
I'm thankful for my family. I am thankful for aunts and uncles who taught me and still teach me to be good. To keep trying. To be a worthy member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. To never give up. To be a good mom. Who validate me as a mom, daughter, niece, wife.
Thanks Uncle Fred and Aunt Judy, Thanks Uncle Mark and Aunt Janet, Thanks Uncle Craig and Aunt Linda. Thanks Uncle Ross and Aunt Fara. Thanks Aunt Becky and Uncle Craig, Thanks Uncle Dee and Aunt Kris. Thanks Mom. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa. Thanks for building me up to the person i am today. Thanks for loving me. Thanks for your guidance as a young girl. Thanks for your continued guidance, advice, and love today. I would be lost without you all. Thanks to all my cousins. You are just as perfect as your parents. We are all Burton's. We all have a higher standard to live. Grandma and Grandpa set it up for us. Build us all up to it. And now we get to do the same for our posterity. What a blessing. What a testimony of their faith and hard work. I want to be like them. I'm thankful i know them so well. Thankful they are always in the fore front of my mind.
Love you Burtons.

The Burtons

Families are Forever

This past weekend was a very special weekend. It brought endless feelings of gratitude for my Savior. Grateful doesn't even seem to scratch the surface of how I feel, but for lack of better words that is what I am. I'm grateful for the temple. I am grateful for my testimony. I am grateful for amazing family and friends. Thank you for all making a day that shouldn't have had to happen a special day, nevertheless.
I have been reading through several talks on Our Endowments, and thought this explains it so well, and explains the sacred reason why we went to the temple in behalf of our Quinn.

President Spencer W. Kimball said, 

"The temples are reserved for sacred ordinances pertaining to the living and the dead. Worthy members of the Church should go to the temples as often as possible to participate in this important work. One of the ordinances performed in the temple is that of the endowment, which comprises a course of instruction relating to the eternal journey of man and woman from the pre-earthly existence through the earthly experience and on to the exaltation each may attain."

Brigham Young has indicated the following concerning the endowment:
"Let me give you a definition in brief. Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels … and gain your eternal exaltation"

I know with all my heart my big littlest brother is where he should be. I know he has peace. I know he has happiness. I know he is busily working as a missionary. I know he is with my Father in Heaven. I know he is with my dad, my Grandma Burton, my Grandma and Grandpa Petersen and all the other family who have passed on before. I am thankful for sealing power. I am thankful for forever families. I am thankful for the priesthood that makes all these sacred ordinances possible. I am thankful for Joseph Smith who gave of his life to bring this gospel back to the earth. I am thankful for all the church leaders who give of their whole self to guiding and teaching us as members of the church. I am thankful. I am blessed beyond measure.

 (yes it was beyond windy)

When It Rains It Pours

Have you noticed an influx of posts....ya sorry, i have taken a personal challenge to journal more often and thus i am blogging more, cause this is my journal...so bear with me you most likely wont want to read them all, that's ok. :)
BUT the title of this blog has nothing to do with the influx of posts, in fact it has something to do with something much LESS cool than that.
It has to do with these two pictures:

The kids came to visit

I thought she was enjoying Elmo, but she was actually enjoying the back of her eyelids.

This week has been an interesting one. Saturday night i had a hard time sleeping because my lower back was killing me, but one i got up and moving most of the pain went away. I went about my Sunday as usual. Sunday night was horrible. I didn't sleep much more than a couple hours and they were just plum bad sleep at that, the most relief and slept i found was sitting in the rocking chair. My back was killing me, i couldn't hardly breath deep because it hurt so bad. It was miserable. I only had one little girl coming for me to tend, so I set up an appointment with the chiropractor thinking my back must be WAY out and pinching everything in my back and making it so bad that i couldn't breath. I got my mother in law to tend for me so i could run.
I got there, wanted to cry when he popped everything back into place. He told me to stay laying down, or standing, so sitting for the rest of the day.( I would later find out that laying down is the worst for pancreatitis) Blah. It was killing me still, i still couldn't breath well, Ibuprofen did NOTHING to help. My visiting teaching partner called and wanted to go visiting, i figured today was as good of a day as ever the rest of the month is pretty well booked out, so we went. Oh my i tried with every fiber of my being to not fidget while sitting for 3 hours. It went well. I lived and no one even noticed, not even my partner! Well done me, well done!
The kids were exhausted when i got home(7:30), so we got them in bed, got dinner around 8:30 for me and Brandon and i went to bed at 9:30 after taking a bath thinking I am going to do everything to make "my back" feel better. I even layed on a heat pack for an hour. I was out, mind you i had not slept good for 2 nights and this girl requires lots of sleep to function.
I woke up in HORRIBLE pain, just 2 hours later. I couldn't move, literally. I did start to cry, it was too much for me to handle. I told Brandon i had to go sit in the rocking chair i couldn't handle it anymore. Laying down was too much. He had to pull me out of bed, which then made me ball even more cause it hurt so bad. I couldn't move, i was crying, even though i was trying to be tough. I think I freaked Brandon out (I have a really high tolerance for pain and rarely, and i mean rarely let pain get to me), he insisted we go to the ER. At that point i couldn't take deep breaths to calm myself down, i was panting for air, so i gave up. We called his dad, he came to sit in the house with the snoozing kids.
Off to the ER, we waited and waited. With all the luck in the world, my Dr just happened to be the Dr on call. Miracle. He is great. They took blood, took a chest x-ray and found that i had pancreatitis, but also thought i had issues with my gall bladder and that was causing the pancreatitis. So he admitted me, Might i had for the first time in my life (besides tonsils and adenoids when i was 4 or something). I had to spend my first night, without a newborn baby in my arms, in a hospital. Thats no fun folks, no fun at all! They gave me serious pain killers, another new for me, i don't take anything but Ibuprofen. They worked like a miracle. I could finally take a decent breath, i could lay down without wanting to scream and cry. I sent Brandon home at 3 to let his dad go home and for him to get some sleep.
To make a long long story short. I got to have my first un-fun ultrasound, they are much better when you get to see a growing baby, not a boring ol gall bladder and spleen! After lots of blood tests, that ultra sound and a CT scan they concluded that they had no idea why i had pancreititis. He told me i would stay another night, but about 6 that night he said i was on the down hill of it all and wanted to save the pocket book (thank you!) and sent me home. Last night was a little better, and now tonight i just have a side ache and tummy ache and that is soooo do-able.
The raining and pouring part comes into play this morning when i call my mom-in-law to check on the kids(she kept them over night, bless her) and she said Brooklyn had thrown up 3 times and had a fever of 101. Blasted all the bad luck, i didnt even get to run my sick course before my beautiful baby got sick. So today we have tried to get her feeling better, but to no avail we have had fevers of 103.3, AHH! She is now snoozing. I just ate delicious Jello (working back into foods slowly, i didn't eat or drink for about 48 hours) and now i thought i would tell you all a ridiculously long winded story. There you have it, my first hospitalization. Its no fun. And my sick baby girl with her first high fevers. Also, no fun, none at all.
**Just in(the next day this post was made) Brooklyn got a fever totaling 104.7...when fevers happen that big a moms heart seems to freeze in panic mode. Today i am thankful for my Heavenly Father, and that he helps us with everything...I had taken my pain meds so i could sleep, lets just say they are big ones that can seriously goof a girl. I went in and touched Brooklyns forehead to make sure she was fine(this was about 10:30 last night) and she felt fine. So i went into my bedroom and proceeded to get pjs on, and i had a bad nagging feeling that i was being lazy. So i walked back down our deadly stairs and grabbed the thermometer, climbed back up Mt Everest(if you saw my stairs you would understand) and went in, only half effortlessly stuck the thermometer in my snoozing baby's ear, and pulled it back expecting a low fever and was knocked off my feet when i saw 104.7!!! Ahh, i yelled to Brandon to get 2 cold rags and Tylonal up to me stat! I ripped all her clothes off her, she was a limp noodle. Not moving. Scared mommy. I rocked her let her cuddle in, something that never happens, and typically love moments when she will, but i wont lie i was scared. She couldn't stay awake for nothing. Even putting cold rags on her tummy and head didn't faze her. Long story short it took almost 2 hours for her temp to drop to 100.9, i layed my naked baby in her bed and then woke her up every 3 hours to get more meds, and because i am a panicky mom i woke up in the middle time just to check her temp. This morning she is back to a normal temp. so far. Thankful today that Heavenly Father prompted me to re-check her, and that he helped me stay coherent to take care of my baby. Those same drugs the night before gave me a run for my money. I was hearing voices and the room spun round and round. Last night, i was fine. Thankful. Testimony grew once again.

Anniversary Trip

Back where it all began. . . .
We got to go back to Logan for our anniversary this year. It's been 4 years since we have been back and that's WAY too long. We pulled in late late Friday night. We took precious sleep time to drive around and see all that had changed that night(yes it was midnight, but in a college town it was surprisingly very awake). It's so different....and yet it felt like I was home. I love Logan. I lived there for 5 years....the same amount if time we have been married. A part if me still exists there, Brandon sadly only lived there just over a year and never got the chance to be fully converted to its wonderfulness. But me, I am still in love. I told Brandon I love Logan as much as him cause i lived "with" Logan for 5 years and have been living with him for 5. He was not amused. :)
We stayed in the crystal inn that first night. Watched 2 movies...yup making bed time somewhere around 3. We then slept in and then went about visiting all our favorite memorable places.
We started by heading to USU. Walked through campus. Went to the classroom we met in. Too bad there was a class going on, but that didn't stop me from making Brandon pose for a picture with me by the door. He humors me even if he doesn't want to. We met in a ASTE technology class(ASTE is agriculture systems and technology something)
Then we went to a movie that i balled my guts out in (The Lucky One, see it, its good)We then drove to where we got engaged. Walked through the creek by the fire pit where he asked me over the dying fire....memories i love them. It was a special day. Loved it. Then headed to the anniversary inn...I got a massage, we got take out from Chilies which was wonderful, watched 2 more movies (ya we are movie people and we dont get to watch them often) It. was. heaven. We got to sleep in again, got in the truck and headed back home. 
It was a perfect weekend.
Sorry for the low quality pictures, i forgot my camera, Brandon teased me the whole time, he knows i never forget it.