My babies!!

Okay so don't judge me and I am sorry I am not a better updater... I will try. I just have to share a few photos of my babies because I finally got them back. Abby is 3 and Jaxon is 5 weeks....

I must say that my kids are pretty cute, and Hanna did such a great job on the pictures I couldn't decide which ones to put on here. We have truly been blessed to welcome such a sweet spirit into our home, Jaxon is very easy going, even when Abby is right in his face smothering him. I am so grateful for my small family!

We're having a....

Well I had my ultrasound today and for some reason I was really nervous... I don't know if it was just because I wanted everything to turn out fine (which it did) or if I was nervous to find out what we were having (which I did), but I was just a ball of nerves. My appointment was for 3:00 and Tyler showed up at 3:15 and the ultrasound lady kept coming out and saying is he here yet, just adding to my nerves because he was late. In the mean time Abby is asleep on my lap because she isn't feeling well so I am wondering what am I going to do with her when they tell me that we can't wait any longer. She woke up and the technician said that we needed to get started and i decided that was fine because I really had to go to the bathroom. We got in the room she checked my ovaries and bladder, let me go to the bathroom and Tyler finally appeared. I don't have a scanner but all the ultrasound pictures are kind of crazy because this baby would not hold still everything looked good and healthy the only thing she couldn't tell for sure on were toes and the babies fingers because it's hands were in a fist pretty much the whole time. What an awesome thing it is to be able to check on your baby while it's still growing and developing inside of you....and also to see the most important parts, this baby has a few extra so in case you haven't guessed yet our new baby will be a.......













BOY!!!

So I am excited but now I have a whole new set of nerves, I am not sure what to do with a boy but we will figure it out!

Much needed updates!!

Well we will pretend that in the last five months nothing exciting has happened not Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years ok? I will give a brief recap, at the end of summer we had two brief mini vacations one to Boise and one to Salt Lake. We stayed with Eric and Hilary in Boise and had an awesome time and we stayed at a hotel in Utah and enjoyed the Hogle Zoo and shopping for my birthday weekend. Abby was an adorable lady bug for Halloween, we went to boo at the zoo and fought the crowds with my nieces and nephew. This year for Thanksgiving we got to spend some time with Travis and Kim and family it was a full house but tons of fun. We also had family pictures taken and they turned out beautifully! Troy and Laura also came down for Thanksgiving so we had the best of both worlds. It's hard trying to divide time when you have two awesome families to pick from but hopefully we spent enough time with both of them! Christmas this year was interesting, all Abby wanted this year was a kitchen, so every present she opened she would say Is this my kitchen? then be kind of grumpy when it wasn't. Eventually we showed her the kitchen she didn't even take off the sheet she just looked under it and went Ahhhh MY KITCHEN!!! It was priceless and all captured on film:) We spent New Years at home playing games with Dece and Grant while the boys played video games downstairs all night it was a ton of fun and my stomach hurt the next day from laughing so hard!! Sorry that it took so long I will try to be more diligent with updates because it is hard once you let it go so long.

Wow really...

Okay I knew it had been a long time but three months really? Sorry I will try to be better. I am just going to do a brief recap on our summer and add some cute pictures... So in the last three months

*We went to the zoo ALOT, good thing we love it there

*Abby turned two :( sigh :(

*She also went to her first swimming lessons

*We had two fun filled camping trips with each of our awesome families

*We played

*And played some more

One of the tigers died this year at the zoo in idaho falls, everytime we saw the tiger Abby kept saying how sad he was because his friend died.

I think she liked it!


On the way to Alturas Lake finally he fell asleep no more whining dog HURRAY!

Apparently I only took pictures on the first day at the beach but we had a blast camping with my family in Alturas this year and can't wait for next year!!

Abby and her husband.

This is at Island Park, I have to put this picture in because when we first got there Abby was carrying around Tyler's little shovel and started telling us that it was her husband! I have no idea where she got that but I don't think we should let her live it down, ever, she even gathered flowers for him it was so cute!

Look at my beautiful girl, I can't believe that I am so lucky to have her in my life. It has been a whirlwind summer but I wouldn't change a thing, I am amazed everyday at what she can do she is awesome! I love you forever babe!

Your Invited

Okay so Friday is Abby's birthday but since everyone is going camping we are going to have a small get together on Sunday the 30th at 3pm. So please join us for cake and ice cream and a little bit of fun. She can't wait to see you there!!!

Baking Fun

I have a new calling as an achievment days leader in our ward so this week I was in charge of bringing the snack. This is what I made they are super cute and super easy I think that I will make them for Abby's birthday this year too!!

Happy Easter

Easter was pretty quiet this year at our house. I didn't really talk to Abby about the easter bunny and since we woke up with 4ish inches of snow on Saturday we did not easter egg hunt, maybe next year. On Sunday Abby woke up and found her basket,

We watched the morning session of conference and had family over to color eggs and have a yummy lunch. Dece, Grant, and Tanner hid some eggs for the little kids to find in the backyard, and we enjoyed each others company and the wonderful spirit of conference on Easter Sunday.

When all is quiet you know something bad is happening...

I was folding laundry the other day and Abby wasn't helping me (which is me folding her unfolding, me folding her unfolding, etc...) I was enjoying not folding the same basket of clothes three times until I realized that Abby wasn't making a peep. This is what I found:

I have no idea how she got on the bathroom counter or into my makeup but when I asked her what she was doing she said " I pretty Mommy look at my Makeup" You are beautiful my little racoon. I love you!

Abby's first real live Pony!!

I had you going there didn't I. No we did not buy her a pony but I was able to put her hair in a ponytail!!! It is so cute, but sad at the same time my little baby is growing up:( She was very proud of her beautiful hair so of course here are the pictures.

?Springtime? Fun!!!

I guess this would be Idaho springtime fun but none the less it was fun as you can see by Abby's facial expressions:

Is it really spring if your puddles are surrounded by snow and ice? Abby thinks so she bawled when I made her come in the house.

Please go away sickies!!!

This will be short and sweet, as always I need to vent. Why is it that Tyler never gets sick? On Tuesday Abby threw up, then it got worse I won't go into detail. Needless to say at 2:30 am on Thursday as I am just getting to sleep I have to make a run for the bathroom and have been throwing up all day:( Abby is still sick too, so when Tyler got home at four this afternoon we were both still in jammies watching Finding Nemo for the second time, lame huh, but that was all I could do today. It's a good thing Abby won't remember some of my bad mommy days. Anyway I hope we will be feeling better soon and that Tyler doesn't get this one it's pretty bad.

Happy Valentine's Day

Wow I am really slow but here is what we did for Valentines. We celebrated at my dad and mom's house on Saturday, with Grandma Ruby, Blake, and Elizabeth. We thought it would be fun to take Abby and Blake sledding at Freeman Park, so we headed out with all our gear and my camera died, of course. Here are the few pictures I did get:

Look at those smiles! And they were just as happy when we got back to the house for our dinner. We made chicken enchiladas and Valentine's cupcakes and just had a great time being together!!! Valentine's isn't just about being romantic with your sweetheart (although that is nice) it's about spending time with the people you love and making great memories. It's so fun to watch Abby making memories with Great Grandma Ruby and spending time with her cousins. Great idea mom!!! Love you all!!!

We want Spring!!! (but here are some fun things we have been doing in the meantime...)

I am ready to say goodbye to winter!!! My skin is dried out, my hair has out of control static, and I am always freezing no matter if I am inside or outside. BRING ON THE SPRING!!! Although I say this we have been doing some pretty fun things with this years snow. Here are a few pictures:

Abby all bundled up so mommy can pull her in the sled during a snowstorm. (It was really beautiful snow, huge flakes, and a little work out for mom:)

Abby loved to stand and watch the snow fall!!!

Then daddy came home from work and joined us for a little more fun (throwing snow balls for Beau to try and find and eat, Abby thought it was hilarous)

Fingerpainting

It has been cold and nasty in Idaho Falls this past week so Abby and I went to the store to find something fun to do. This is what we picked:

Abby loved this everytime I tried to get a face shot I would say Look at Mommy and she would look at the paper smile and say cheese!!!

One of the few times she looked up at me was to tell me she needed to wash her hands because they were dirty. (Her first love is water, she always wants to wash her hands and any excuse will do!)

The smile says it all, I think we will be fingerpainting ALOT until the snow melts, it was so fun to watch her make a pretty picture and washable fingerpaints clean up so easily with water!!!

Late Late Late!!!

Wow I am a slacker!!! Christmas has come and gone but I will update you guys anyway. We spent Christmas Eve with the Butikofer's and had a good time playing games and hanging out. Christmas morning I was so excited to see Abby open up all of her presents because I was sure this was the year she would LOVE it.... she did like it but not as much as I hoped:( Oh well it was still fun and now I can't wait for next year cause I'm sure it will be even better. After opening presents at home we went over to my mom and dad's house because my brother Troy and sister Laura flew in from Washington. It was so good to see them and I wish that they lived closer so that we got to spend more time together. Luckily they stayed clear until the New Year so we got to hang out alot. I can't believe how big our family is getting it seemed like there were a ton of people at my parents house (25? of us all together, with lots of screamin' children). It was so much fun to see all of our kids interacting with each other you can tell which of them have siblings and which of them need them (ABBY). I won't bore you with all of the stuff we did over the week but I will say we had tons of fun!!! The New Year was spent at home because I had to work the next day, I did stay up to watch the ball drop but that was about it. Tyler made his chicken chili which was delicious, and Becca and Brian and Mike and Kendan came over and celebrated with us, the girls played cards while the boys killed things on the computer it was a lot of fun. I did take pictures this year but Tyler got me a new camera for Christmas and I haven't loaded the software yet so I will add some pictures later. Thank you to everyone for a wonderful Christmas season We Love You all and are so grateful you are in our lives.

FRUSTRATED!!!!

I am going to be crazy by the time Abby is out of her new phase. I can't take her anywhere not to church, the store, the visitors center at the temple with my girls, to get pictures, absolutely nowhere. She screams (just for fun not because she's upset), cries, throws herself on the ground, throws things out of the cart, runs away and is just plain NAUGHTY. I usually can't even bribe her to be good. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I just want to kick and scream too I don't know what to do with her and I have considered some things I won't type so nobody turns me into health and welfare. I just had to write this up to get some of my frustration out so that I don't beat my child today. Thanks for listening any advice would be greatly appreciated.

One good thing about Winter

I am a little late updating but here goes anyway. Our Thanksgiving was fabulous and I hope everyone elses was also. The best part of the weekend for me was going Christmas Tree hunting it is a one of my FAVORITE Butikofer traditions. This year was great because we got to take along one of our great friends Becky (I think most of you know her but if not you'll probably meet her at Christmas, she is having a tough time right now and I have been trying to invite her to everything so she can remember the good things in this life.) We started off late but ended up in Driggs to get our permits around 12:30 then off we went into the wilderness to find the perfect tree. It was then that I realized I had forgotten my camera :( Oh well hopefully someone else will get me pictures (Becca?, Dece?) There wasn't as much snow this year as in years past but enough that Abby could be pulled on a sled which she liked very much although her mother had her layered so much she really couldn't move her little body at all. It didn't take us to long to find the perfect tree I think ours is about 15 feet tall thanks to Tyler who always needs a huge tree (complex?, just kidding). Abby went sledding down a little hill with cousin Tanner and Lexie and Mommy but, I think she liked it best when she went alone because she is a little dare devil. We stopped an ate lunch in this little diner we always eat at and our trip was over. I had a great time like always. Thanks family for a great afternoon love you guys.

BORDED, BORDED, BORDED!!!

Although it has only been cold for about two weeks Abby and I are about ready to pull our hair out. I have been letting her go outside but it is so dang cold that we don't stay out for long not by her choice of course, if she had her way she would stay outside saying SNOW MOMMY SNOW!!! until her fingers and toes fell off. Anyway the purpose of my post is that I need some help!!! Does anybody have a great website or any awesome ideas of things that I can do inside with an eighteen month old (going on 30:(. If so don't be stingy send them along to me!!! Thanks everyone love you guys.

Colors

Ok I will update this as I get more info. from everyone. Please check the list and make sure you are not picking a color that someone else has already chosen. Thanks guys!!! So far
Mom and Dad: ?
Troy and Laura: Royal Purple
Tenille and Grant: Black
Travis and Ryann: Brown
Tyler and Neta: ?
Tracy and Tyler: Red
Tanner and Chelsey: Creme
Good Luck finding the right color and remember your shirts don't all have to be the exact same color there is a variety of shades and that is okay. Besides it doesn't really matter what we wear cause we are all hot anyway!!!

Victory!!! (maybe)

Okay I swear this will probably be my last post about family pictures ha ha ha!!! I think that we have found a building to do the shoot in (thanks mom). I am just waiting for an email from the photographer. So now I need to approach the minor details such as: what is the best time for everyone (take in to consideration nap time and such), I thought maybe 10ish but I don't know, and mom is not sure on all white shirts because she doesn't want to wear white so would everyone be open to each individual family wearing a different color? or does anyone have another idea, we could do all black?!? Ideas would be greatly appreciated I think we are still shooting for the jeans theme so please leave me your thoughts. We can't wait to see everyone and hope that all is going well lots of love.