Itty Bitty Burcham

Meet Aubryn Joy

2011-01-31T16:47:00.000-08:00

We'd like to officially welcome our precious baby girl, Aubryn Joy, into the world! I'll rewind a little over a month to tell the story of her arrival.

I was due on December 24th and had an induction scheduled for the 29th if she hadn't arrived before then. So the evening of the 28th we anxiously made sure we had all of our last-minute items packed, and we tried to get some sleep before the big day. I was going to be waking up around 4:30 to take a shower and be at the hospital by 6, but at 1:30 in the morning (after maybe only falling asleep for 30 minutes), our plans changed. I woke up with pretty strong contractions, and within the next hour, my contractions went from 9 minutes apart to 4 minutes apart! This was really it! We got in the car, called the family, and then were quickly admitted into the hospital. Within the next hour I got all settled into my room and received my epidural. I was excited to see that I was already dilated to 5cm and didn't have to be induced...they say inductions make for tougher labor, so I was thankful my body kicked into gear on its own. My family arrived quickly, and we enjoyed visiting with my parents and sister while watching massive contractions on the monitor and not feeling anything! It was great! David and I tried to get a little snooze, and we peacefully watched an incredible sunrise while listening to the sweet sound of our little girl's heartbeat.

I was progressing steadily, and by around 11:30 we were ready to push. As I began pushing (which is challenging when you can't feel anything from your waist down!) Aubryn's little heartbeat would fall with each contraction and push. The doctors kept a close eye on us both, and I really was never worried. I LOVED my doctor- I felt very safe and confident in his care. Around 12:30 in the afternoon, the doctor decided to use forceps to get her out since she was already so low and in a perfect position for forceps. So, with a couple pushes and the biggest salad tongs you've ever seen...Aubryn was born. With a loud cry and an immediate cuddle on my tummy, I had my baby in my arms. She was a healthy 7 lbs 6 oz and 19 inches long.

It was such a surreal, incredible experience, and I really loved every second of the labor and delivery. God's design for life is so intricate, careful, and perfect. I feel so blessed and privileged that we were able to share in the process of God's creation! Stay tuned for one month updates!

We're ready for our baby girl!

2010-12-08T21:16:00.000-08:00

With a little over two weeks until this baby girl is set to arrive, we are as ready as we know how to be! Here is a picture of me a couple days shy of 38 weeks. We are anxious, excited, thankful, and a teeny bit nervous about all of the unknowns. Mostly, we are just eagerly anticipating laying our eyes on our precious little girl and kissing on her.

Here are some pictures of our nursery. The room started with tan walls and a BLACK ceiling! I think we transformed it into a sweet, girly (but not too sugary sweet) room. I love it and find myself just standing in it and dreaming about this little precious baby. My dear friend, Emily, was instrumental in the execution of this room! Thank you, sweet friend!! And of course David was so wonderful to attack the black ceiling, install the chandelier, refinish the dresser, and do all sorts of guy tasks in the room. It was a group effort, and I'm very thankful!

24 Weeks!

2010-09-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

21 Weeks!

2010-08-16T21:31:00.000-07:00

17 Weeks Pregnant!

2010-07-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

Seven Deadly Sins - Part 6 - Greed

2009-11-15T21:53:00.000-08:00

Seven Deadly Sins - Part 5 - Lust

2009-11-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

Seven Deadly Sins - Part 4 - Envy

2009-11-09T22:28:00.000-08:00

Seven Deadly Sins - Part 3 - Wrath

2009-11-09T22:17:00.000-08:00

Seven Deadly Sins - Part 2 - Sloth

2009-11-09T22:09:00.000-08:00

Seven Deadly Sins

2009-11-01T21:28:00.001-08:00

Our preacher is doing a sermon series on the Seven Deadly Sins and so we decided to make some videos to help illustrate each sin. Enjoy! All 7 parts will be coming soon!

Happy 5th Anniversary!

2009-08-21T11:56:00.001-07:00

Happy 5th Anniversary to my amazing, beautiful wife! She makes me such a better person and I can't imagine my life without her. This has been the best 5 years of my life. I love you!

Shannon went to Scotland!

2009-08-11T22:04:00.000-07:00

Blizzard 2009

2009-03-28T08:53:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, Denver was hit with a blizzard! The morning started out calm and dry, but the weather forecast called for a huge storm front to roll in by late morning. Shannon's school was smart enough to see the writing on the wall and cancel their school day entirely, but went in to work only to close the bank early and send my staff home at 2pm. The roads were terrible and it took me 45 minutes to drive the 5 miles back to our home!

The snow wasn't as hard to deal with as the crazy blowing snow and white-out conditions. Here are some clips from the afternoon and next morning.

Typical Denver, it's already bright and sunny and the snow is almost gone!

Lake Tahoe with Stephen and Noemia

2008-12-14T19:04:00.000-08:00

Lake Tahoe was beautiful in October, and nobody better to spend it with than Stephen and Noemia! Welcome back to the States!

Democratic National Convention

2008-08-29T23:11:00.000-07:00

This past week has been crazy here in Denver with the DNC here in town. I work in the same building where Obama was staying which made for a long week of being searched coming into the parking garage every morning, street closures, and crowds of protestors. Despite the hassles, I enjoyed the hype and even got to rub elbows with some famous people.

Even though I'm not a Democrat, I was thrilled to partake in the various festivities around town.
Right outside my office, I saw Hillary Clinton come out of her hotel and shake hands with the mob on the street. I strolled on out and shook the crazy ladies hand and enjoyed every second of it.

I also got to sit at a table and each lunch right next to Mike and Kitty Dukakis, with Walter Mondale straight across from me. We were all at a luncheon tribute to George McGovern. Other notable people present were Tom Daschle, Gary Hart, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, and Tom Brokaw. It was fun!

Finally, while I was walking down the street with a friend of mine, I asked him if he'd seen anyone famous yet. He replied, "No, but that Michelle Obama right there!" I looked over, and there she was about 10 feet away from us, sitting in the back of a black SUV stopped in traffic. She heard him say that and looked at us to see if we were a threat. Instead of expressing my political views in an inappropriate way, I smiled and continued down the sidewalk. We had a pretty good laugh about it as we went on our way.

New Home!

2008-05-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

It was a long 3 months without a place to call home, but we feel very blessed with our new house! We moved in at the beginning of March and, as expected, we have been very slow to unpack boxes and start the decorating process. But things are moving along and we are so happy to get such a great deal on this foreclosure - and from some really great Christian people that took care of it well. Now we just need to figure out what to put on those bare walls!

We really want to thank our parents for letting us stay with them and being patient with us as we waited for the perfect opportunity. It was fun living at home again and being spoiled by you guys!

Come and visit us! We have a bunch of rooms and no one to fill them!

Spring Break!

2008-04-08T20:03:00.001-07:00

I was blessed to be able to go to Scotland over my Spring Break last week. My sweet parents made it possible for me to go over one more time to spend time with Holly, Luke, and little Isaiah. Thank you so much, Mom and Dad!

The trip started a little rocky-- after arriving in Edinburgh to find that our luggage was still in Denver, scraping the rental car, and someone (who will remain nameless :) ) filled the regular gas tank with diesel fuel, we were anxious to get into St. Andrews and get settled. Once we finally got into St. Andrews, everything was wonderful. We stayed in a cute little flat that is a 5 minute walk from my sister's flat. We had a wonderful time playing with Isaiah, eating scones, playing with Isaiah, walking around the quaint little town, playing with Isaiah, having High Tea at the Old Course Hotel, and playing with Isaiah! I love my little nephew! He is at such a fun age, and you can see the wheels constantly turning in his mind. It's also really fun to see my sister and brother-in-law be parents. They are doing such a great job and are training up a sweet little boy. Here are some pics from the trip:

Cute "wee" little nephew!

We were visiting an old cathedral, and Isaiah found little statues just his size!

Isaiah LOVES Spot the Dog! When the grandparents saw a window full of Spots, they couldn't resist! As you can see, Isaiah is one happy boy!

My class is doing Flat Stanley right now. We had fun showing mine around Scotland.

My mom took Holly and I for high tea at the Old Course Hotel.

Isaiah's first Easter-egg hunt. :)

Kids Say the Silliest Things!

2008-04-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

One reason I love my job is that the kids keep me laughing every day. Sometimes I have to turn around and face the whiteboard to not show them that I am holding back the giggles. This year I am trying to write down some of the funny things they say and do because I always forget! I hope you get a laugh out of them, too!

1. David came into visit my class for the first time. I asked the kids if he looked like they thought he would. The students all said, "No". I asked, "What did you think he'd look like?" One of the students replied, "I thought he'd look rich!"

2. When trying to drag the truth out of a student, I was asking him if something that another student did to him could have possibly been an accident. He finally replied, "I remember! It was half on accident and half on purpose, and they morphed together!"

3. When discussing what heirlooms our great-grandparents passed onto us before they passed away, one student said, "It was from my grandma. She passed out too."

4. After watching an introduction video on magnets, one of my very enthusiastic students was truly crying with excitement about magnets when I turned the lights back on.

5. Student: What is the name of this state?
Me: Pennsylvania
Student: Oh, that's where they make pencils!

6. Try to decode this phrase that a student wrote: akshiwol vertion of phonix

7. As a student was reading the lunch choices for the day, he said, "Oh, I always thought that sandwich was girl cheese".

There's never a dull moment as a teacher!

2008-01-12T11:00:00.001-08:00

Remember this funny stuff from P-dine?!?! I just found this on my computer and am loving it all over again!

Feliz Navidad

2007-12-30T13:35:00.000-08:00

Our family just got back from a week in Mexico over Christmas - 21 people in all! It was great to be together and enjoy the beach and sun while Denver was covered in snow.

We had some pretty sweet accommodations thanks to Russ and Vicki:

We both had a great time the first day on our Canopy Tour in the jungle just outside of Puerto Vallarta. 400 ft zip lines from treetop to treetop was a fantastic thrill.

Shannon had a chance to do one of her life-long dreams: swim with dolphins. She got to spend an hour in the water with a baby dolphin - doing tricks, feeding it, riding on it, etc. It was everything she had hoped it would be.

Meanwhile, David spent some time on the golf course perfecting his slice and hook.

The sun was bright and Shannon is soooo tan now...we almost left her there to be with her peeps. It was another great Christmas in Mexico!

A great view from the hotel balcony.

SOLD!!

2007-11-23T17:38:00.000-08:00

That didn't take long! After exactly three weeks to the day, an amazing offer came in on our house! The only catch was that we had to be out of it in exactly 10 days. WOW. So, the last few days have been crazy with packing up our lives into boxes and making plans to move in with the fam. Hopefully we'll find our next home in just a few weeks, but in the mean time we'll have some good quality time with families as the tentative plan is to stay three weeks with Shannon's parents and then several more with my parents (if needed). How great is it to have two sets of loving families to take care of us when needed!

We are just so blessed to have sold our house so quickly and for such a great price in this buyers market. We now have a great opportunity to get a lot of value with the next place we move into. God is good!

2007-11-15T20:04:00.000-08:00

Since college, Shannon's fashion sense has slipped a bit...

Actually, tomorrow is Pioneer day for the 2nd graders her school.

On the Market

2007-11-03T09:39:00.001-07:00

We've decided it's finally time to put our first little townhouse on the market and find something bigger to move into. Here in Denver (as with much of the rest of the country), the sub prime crunch has forced a lot of people out of the homes they are in to either downsize or file for bankruptcy. That's where I like to step in and take advantage!! Not really, but this is a great time to buy as there is so much inventory out there and the prices are dropping every day. If we are lucky enough to get out of our house at a decent price, we'll be able to upgrade fairly easily....at least that is our thought process.

So, we officially put our house on the market on Monday, but the websites didn't have our house up until Wednesday/Thursday. Some person took a look at our place when it first hit the market on Monday -- I'm thinking it was some savvy investor wanting first dibs on everything that comes out. Anyway, in about 2 hours we'll have our first "real" showing and I need to get out and clear the leaves from my lawn before they get here. Pray for us!

Here are the links to our Visual Tour and some pics:
Visual Tour
Realtor.com

World Series!

2007-10-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the Rockies finally made it to the World Series! What's even more crazy is that I was able to go to Game 3 here in Denver. This was the first World Series game to ever come to the city of Denver, and I was fortunate enough to be there. The stadium was electric and it was an amazing experience...one that I will never forget.

I owe this entire experience to my best buddy Toobie. The guy has connections to very important people and scored the tickets to this awesome event. His wife is even more awesome for letting me go in her place. Thanks Emily...I owe you big time!

It's too bad we lost the series, but it was very exciting and it's hard to be critical of what this team has done this season.

Summer 2007

2007-09-11T20:53:00.001-07:00

Summer is officially over. Shannon's back to school, I'm in my 4 Fantasy Football leagues, the Broncos won their first game, and all is well.

BUT, before we start blogging about recent events, we must recap our fantastic Summer Europe Trip '07!

So, Shannon finished her first year of teaching 2nd grade, and a week later was on a flight to Scotland. I couldn't take a full month off work, so Shannon ditched me and left a week before I did to get some good time in with her sister Holly, brother-in-law Luke, and our beautiful new nephew Isaiah, who live in St. Andrews, Scotland. I arrived a week later and we all had an amazing time.

Luke even hooked me up with 18 holes of a golfer's dream:

When then said our goodbyes and hopped a flight to Paris for three nights. The people weren't the friendliest, but we had a great time seeing the sights.

While in Paris, we got to spend some time with our friends, Eric and Meredith.

After eating too many croissants, we made our way to Venice, Italy.

Then, it was off to Florence by train to meet up with our friends: Toobie (Dave) and Emily.

Then a quick stop in Pisa:

And then off to Cinqueterra - absolutely amazing. I can't believe this place truly exists. The hike between the 5 towns took all day and was very intense...but incredible:

We then made our way south to visit Pompei at the bottom of the famous volcano: Mt. Vesuvious.

Rome was our final stop with the Machts before saying our goodbyes.

Shannon and I hopped a small flight to Athens...

...and then to the island of Santorini a few days later - where we finally found some time to relax.

Our trip ended back in London for 3 days, where we enjoyed speaking English, seeing Mary Poppins the musical, and all the fish and chips we could eat!

After it all, we were excited to get back home to our normal routine, which is exactly what every good vacation should accomplish.

I realize I way over-did this first major post...but I had to get it all out. Our life is now back to normal!

Drumroll Please...

2007-09-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the peer pressure from our dear friends, Jeremy and Amber Johnson, us we are beginning a blog! We originally thought that we didn't really have any reason to blog. We don't have any kids, we aren't living in a foreign country, and life is pretty normal. However, after realizing that we both can get stuck for hours at the computer blog hopping and getting the most up-to-date news on our friends around the country and the world, we decided it is a fun way to stay connected to everyone. So, here we go!

So, here's a quick overview of our lives these days. David is working as a bank manager at a very busy, active downtown bank. Overall he enjoys his job even though he works quite long hours. I (Shannon) am in my second year of teaching second grade. Besides getting sick constantly, the job is great. The kids keep me constantly entertained, and there is never a dull day! We are lucky to be living near both of our families, and so we are able to spend quite a bit of time with them. Both of us are really active in our church, which we love. I actually am the worship leader, and David is the sound guy. It's really a blessing to be able to work side-by-side at church together. We love it!

So, that's our lives in a nutshell. We do have a dog named Bella. She is our sweet little girl, except for days like today when she eats a little bit of drywall! Anyway, thanks for reading. Thanks, Jeremy and Amber, for thinking we are interesting enough to have a blog! We love you guys!