Losing Teeth

Man, this girl waited a long time to lose a tooth.  She felt like the last kid in the world and then finally... one day it happened.  That day just happened to be her 7th birthday.  We celebrated and did the whole tooth fairy thing and that was fun.

Lately though, it's been a bit crazy.

I've had this dream where I am talking or eating and then I realize my teeth are falling out, one after another.  Just as I begin to freak out.. I wake up.  

Emma is experiencing this in real life.  One after another they are falling out, right and left.  Teeth that we didn't know were even loose are falling out while she eats or plays at the playground.

I think the toothless smile is adorable and that little trick with the straw coming through the open hole of missing teeth never gets old.

Now we know what she can wish for for Christmas... that never gets old either.

Happy Birthday Hunter!

Dinner time is quite often hectic with people coming and going, but we try really hard to plan around eveyone's schedules so most nights we can eat as a family.  We go around the table and each persons shares one good thing and one bad thing that happened that day.  We call it "good and bad"  and usually one of the kids reminds us if we don't bring it up at some point during dinner.  It's a fun way for everyone to contribute to the conversation.  The night before Hunter's birthday, it was my turn to share something good and bad about my day.  I started out by saying,
"My good thing about today is I bought Hunter something for his birthday that I think he is going to LOVE!"

Austin (who is my shopping buddy during the day) turned to Hunter and with all the excitement he could muster up blurted out..."IT'S GUMMY BEARS!!.....IT'S A SECRET!!"

That wasn't the gift I'd been thinking of, but he had been with me when I bought a giant bag of gummy bears for Hunter and I had told him it was a surprise.  Poor guy had been holding that secret for days and it just couldn't be held in any longer.  We laughed and laughed.

Hunter's birthday was full of plenty of other surprises and all sorts of good things.

Good:  Hunter was SO excited for his birthday, he got up extra early because officially being 10 meant he could be in a crossing guard.  He got to do it on his birthday!
Bad: Since Hunter shares a room with Austin, guess who woke up extra early too?

Good:  We had a delightful birthday breakfast with sausage and bacon just for Hunter.
Bad:  We missed Linsey, she leaves for school before 7:00 which is just too early.

Good:  Hunter had a great day at school.  He got to pass out really cool gummy lizards that his dad found for his class treat and his teacher let him sit in a comfy chair all day.
Bad:  School is still school... which means school work.

Good:  I promised Hunter I would come to school at 11:30 and bring his favorite lunch!
Bad:  I called the restaurant at 10:00 to place my to go order only to find out they don't officially open until 11:30 so picking up something at 11:10 isn't really possible.

Good:  They made it anyway and let me sneak in the side entrance, treated me like an old family friend and even threw in a Birthday Sundae for Hunter.  As I left their unopened restaurant, the cooks and other staff were all calling out... "Tell Hunter Happy Birthday!"
Bad:  Nothing bad about it... shout out for The Rock!

Good:  Hunter and I had a great lunch together.
Bad:  His teacher plays the Disney channel during lunch so our conversation was.. well... a little distracted.

Good: We had a yummy steak dinner (no vegetables even) as a family (no scouts, no mutual, and Hunter skipped soccer practice.. just for this one night).  Hunter opened presents and we all had fun playing with his gifts.

 

 

 New game and bean bag chairs... oh and gummy bears!

 

 

 
Bad:  The cool helicopter toy he got ended up on the roof.

Good:  Linsey gave Hunter his own can of whipped cream as a birthday gift!  (There is jello under that pile.)

Bad:  It made quite a mess.... oh well.  (I love Austin's face in these pictures.)

Good:  It was a great day, Hunter went to bed happy and exhausted.  I love that he took his new bean bag chair to bed with him.
Bad:  The big day is over... sad.

Good:  We still had a birthday party planned so the fun wasn't quite over yet!

 We had 10 boys over for pizza and games.

 

 Laser Tag!

 Bad:  Now it's really over... til next year!

Happy Birthday Hunter!  We love you!

Back to School

I have mixed feelings about the big day, but it's come and gone and school has officially started.

Ready or not, here we go!

I was really reluctant to let Linsey go to Middle School last year, but she loved it and everything went so well that it was much easier sending her off to 7th grade. 

 

Hunter is in 4th grade.  He has become very independent and although I walked to school with Hunter and Emma, Austin in tow, he walked ahead and darted off to his classroom all on his own.  Way too cool for mom I guess.  sigh...

 

Emma is in 2nd grade.  She was thrilled to have me walk her to class and gave me a big hug before she went in which made me just a little bit sad.  It's fun to see my kids grow up, but I just wish they wouldn't do it so fast.

 

Emma and Natty have grown up together, Emma will tell you they have been friends since Heaven which I believe is true.  I'm so excited they are in the same class together this year!

 ...and they have the best teacher in the world.  Mrs. Miller!  Both Linsey and Hunter had her and I just love everything about her!  It's going to be a great year!

And this little guy...  he's my buddy and it's really hard for me to see him growing up too.  Here Austin is on his first day of preschool!

Oh I love Miss Cindy too.  She has taught all of my kids and it seemed natural to drop off Austin at her preschool.

 

He loves preschool, just wants me to stay with him too.  He's slowly warming up to the idea and so far we've had no tears.

Now if I can just get used to the idea of all my children being one year older and one grade higher, and here come the papers and homework, busy weeknights and melt downs...

Like I said,

Ready or not... here we go!

Camping with the McInelly Family

We love staying in the cabins at Camp Zarahemla. 

We spent a weekend with some of the McInelly cousins and family, each family had their own cabin which was perfect for all of the little napping campers!  It was a fun weekend with great company, yummy food, games, and relaxing.  Just  perfect!
 

 

Over the years our kids have perfected the art of catching squirrels.  You can see in the above picture that they have 4 different traps set up, two with the blocks on top both have critters.  And what do you do with them once you catch them...

 This..

Emma and Olivia had the most adorable little hideout.  They hid inside had even caught their very own squirrel.  Too cute!

 Here are a few pictures of some of the fun we had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Fun!

Butler Family Reunion

Butler Family Reunion
August 2012

 

Everyone arrived Wednesday evening, just in time for dinner.
An amazing dinner.
I should have taken pictures of all the good food we ate the entire weekend.
Chris and Tally are the perfect hosts.
Coeur d'Alene is such a fun place to visit and they have a beautiful home that comfortably sleeps our crowd. Tally does a great job organizing all of us and thought of every detail from meals to snacks and everything in between.  Chris loves to use his grill and smoker and we really had the most fabulous food.

After a fun evening of visiting and catching up we went to bed too late which was only the start of our anything but relaxing vacation!

Thursday morning we packed lunches and headed off to Silverwood.

 A few of us in line for Aftershock.  One of the most crazy, thrilling roller coasters I've been on.

Loved the wave pool!

 

 This is as close to a nap as poor Austin got.

 

 

 

 

Everyone had a blast!  We got home late, tired and exhausted.
That's the best way to end a fun vacation day!

Friday morning we packed lunches and headed off to Hayden lake.  It's not far from Chris and Tally's home, in fact their new home will be right on the lake. (Next year we'll just have to walk across the front yard!)

We took turns going out all the boat all day long.  I think Chris drove the boat for 7 hours straight. 

 

 

 Jared with a bunch of the kids.

 Studly Anthony with a bunch of the kids.

 And this picture just plain cracks me up.  My dad looks like a little kid having the time of his life!

 The boys were nuts.

Desiree and I took Austin and Aleck for a turn.  Austin loved it, Aleck hated it.
Emma appreciated the calm ride.

There's no picture for the next ride, but Chris had the time of his life pulling Tally, Desiree and I around the lake.  After doing circles and being launched off of huge waves, I realized that he wasn't going to stop until he flipped us.  We hung on for dear life, but it was only a matter of time before Chris was hootin' and hollerin' with delight as that giant tube flipped and sent the three of us flying into the air.  Those in the boat described that all three of us were in mid air touching no part of the tube, just flailing before hitting the water.  Chris loved it!

 The boat was a lot of fun, but it was a beautiful day and hanging back on the beach was not bad at all either.

 

 

That evening we stopped for Cafe Rio.  (So excited they just opened one in Coeur d'Alene!)

We thought we were exhausted Thursday night, but by Friday night we were really, really exhausted.
Tired and sore. 
And to top it off we played a game after the kids were in bed that had us laughing til our cheeks hurt.
It was awesome!

Somehow we pulled ourselves out of bed Saturday morning and headed off for a 14 mile bike ride.
Yup.. the Butler's play hard.

The Hiawatha trail is really cool.
It's a scenic section of abandoned rail bed that has become a popular tourist attraction for bike riders.
You have to wear a head lamp because there are nine cavernous tunnels along the way.  The first is at the very start and is 1.7 miles long.   We also went over seven high trestle bridges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see how dark the tunnels were.  You really couldn't see anything except what light you got from your headlamp.

 

 

We got home that evening to a fabulous meal that Chris had put in the smoker earlier that morning, he seriously is amazing.  It was delicious and perfect after another fun day that left us tired and sore in every muscle.

We stayed up late visiting, laughing, eating snacks, watching movies, and just enjoying great company.  I love that my family is so much fun to hang out with!

Mom and Dad left Saturday evening to pick up Phil so he could spend Sunday with everyone and especially be a part of family pictures that we had scheduled for that afternoon.  It had been a little while since we had pictures taken with everyone in them.

Butler Family 2006

Sunday morning we miraculously made it out the door and on time for 9:00 church.  Our planned photographer cancelled at the last minute but luckily Anthony's girlfriend Elina stepped in and did a great job taking our pictures.

 

Butler Family 2012

(I have enough pictures for a post all on their own.)

It was hard to say goodbye and go our separate ways, but I left feeling so grateful for all of the wonderful people that make up the Butler Family!  I am so blessed to be part of such a great family!