Our Year in 2013

2013

Hello to all our family and friends! We pray God blessed you with another great year! As always our life was a bit of whirlwind and we loved every minute of it! 

This was by far the most eventful year for us so far! In January we adopted a puppy who needed a home and Tim named him Maverick. Maverick is a pit bull/border collie mix and is the "smartest dumbest dog" you will ever meet. Protective of his family, yet chases his own tail! Maverick loves Asher and accepted Laila like his own baby, he can't wait until Asher wakes up every morning and snuggles on the floor with Laila, sometimes even sharing his beloved tennis ball with her! We sure are blessed with a dog that fits well into our family! 

An opportunity presented itself for us to move into a bigger home for about the same cost.Three weeks later we went from a tiny little townhouse with no basement to a 4 BD 4 BA home with a finished basement, a driveway and a yard with woods! Church family helped us move, my Mama and Mama-In-Law helped me clean the new house and paint the old house. Tim and I worked quickly to unpack, and of course prepare for baby!

The biggest event of the year was of course the birth of little miss Laila Makenzie. What a blessing her sweet smile is in our lives! Laila was born on May 7th at 1:09pm just 2 days before big brother's 4th birthday. We were blessed with a wonderful birth experience where God brought us closer together in our marriage and love for each other. I give credit to my Mama for inspiring me to believe that I could give birth with no medications, what a miracle the human body is! Tim displayed his true dedication to me throughout Laila's birth, I fell more in love with him through that experience. 

Laila reveals her personality a little more each day, she is sweet and spicy all at the same time. Very loving but if she doesn't like something she lets you know. When we are tickling her brother, she thinks we are hurting him so she will screech at us until we stop. Laila is already a people person and smiles at nearly anyone who looks her way. Big Brother Asher adores his baby sister and in turn she thinks the world of him. The joy I feel watching them play together doesn't compare to anything else. Sometimes Laila tries to take the tennis ball from Maverick's mouth, he is gentle as a lamb with her and often sneaks kisses on her hands and feet. Each week brings a new talent, new teeth, new sounds, new motions, sitting, crawling, pulling to a stand, calling me "mama," apparently she is trying to keep up with Asher as quickly as possible! Tim could not be more proud of his little girl, who looks just like him! What a blessing to witness a father's love for his child. 

Asher Elijah is still my pride and joy, the smartest, cutest little man I know. I am honored and to call myself his Mama, he makes me proud every day. Asher turned 4 on May 9th and instantly turned into a little boy, leaving all baby tendencies behind. Suddenly he had reasoning and logic, arguing with us and as always his own strong opinions. We celebrated his birthday on a smaller scale this year with his baby sister due any day, we made tentative plans to go to Chuck E Cheese and his grandparents took him to his restaurant of choice (Texas Roadhouse) after we were able to leave the house with the baby. What a great big brother Asher has turned out to be, rarely does he exhibit jealousy. Instead he sings his own praises of how wonderful he is. We tried out soccer this year as well, Asher loved it and even scored a few goals. We were so proud of him and look forward to more sports next year. 

This year Asher gave his heart to Jesus and talks about how we will all be in heaven together one day! Nothing is more valuable to a Mama than to know her baby's will spend eternity with Jesus!

In July we started a new business and I am sure most of you have seen us post about it on Facebook, we are as excited about it now as we were the day we signed up! We bought a franchise in the Juice Plus Company and are quickly growing a business that will sustain us, which we are loving every step of the way! We plan to create this business to support us entirely in a few years so we can finally do the things we thought we could only dream of. The product is improving our health and that of our family a little more every day, it's something we are proud to represent. Juice Plus is for everyone, we want to see all the people we care about taking preventative measures with their health so please ask us about it!

This year Tim turned 29 and we celebrated modestly due to Christmas being the following week. We were able to go to dinner as a family and again with his parents. It's been an emotional roller coaster but God has richly blessed us. About a month before Laila was due to arrive Tim lost his job and was unable to find something for the next 8 months. We survived with the help of his parents, side jobs and friends from church hiring him to help on construction jobs. Just before Thanksgiving Tim was hired at Roger L. Ensor Plumbing & Heating in Reisterstown. This company worked with him despite his driving record and gave him paid holidays from the start, what a blessing! At home we miss him terribly and realize how spoiled we were to have him at home with us for so long but I am so proud of him and happy for him. Tim is making big efforts to grow spiritually and be the spiritual leader in our home, we have been working together to improve every aspect of our parenting and our marriage. As a result we rarely argue and Asher is learning wonderful life skills. I can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for my hard working man!

Well I turned 25 (woohoo) and thought my car insurance would go down, but it didn't.. Tim took me out for dinner and bought me a beautiful gift, it was a great day. Becoming a mom of 2 was not as difficult as everyone told me it would be. Maybe because I am blessed with a fantastic baby, maybe because Tim was home for much of the transition. It's so fun to be the Mama of a girl and her hair just can't grow fast enough! This year I have learned to really trust God with finances, to lean on my husband more for strength. I am working on becoming a more efficient homemaker to give me more time with my precious little ones and future little ones. (no I'm not pregnant, yes there will be more Baby Burtons.) I have to let go of my perfectionism and live in the moment before it's gone. But I still want a clean house. Like I said, I'm working on it. I am still doing hair in a bigger better studio in our home, it is a little more challenging with an infant but we make it work. Oh and I LOVE my Juice Plus business. This business allows me to use all of the gifts that God gave me and get paid for it! My mom always said this would happen and darn if she wasn't right…again! 

In closing, we have had a rough year but through it all we have been blessed, we have grown, we have learned, we have been challenged. We have decided that God gets the glory for every triumph, big or small. We will praise God regardless of our circumstances and no one can steal our joy! 

Tomorrow isn't promised, if you were to die today do you know where you would go? If you don't know for sure, get right with God. We want to see each and every one of you in Heaven for eternity with us. The ONLY way to get to heaven is admitting you have sinned, believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth. 

We wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year and already look forward to sharing what 2014 will bring!

The Burtons