We're so glad when Daddy comes home!

Curtis finally came home on May 29th and it's been busy ever since! We are so happy to have him home for good....again!

Curtis's first Sunday back we took a little trip after church to the wildlife preserve at Lake Lowell. The kids got to see the trash robots (robots made out of garbage picked up on the preserve).

After walking the trail we found a good spot to throw rocks in the water.

Me and my girl resting in the shade.  I was so tired I had to find a place to sit while the kids threw rocks.  Note to self, never go on long walks on Fast Sunday again!

The following weekend we went to Lion's Park with a lot of my family who were in town for my cousin's wedding.  I caught 2 of my boys hanging out in the shade. Garrett is loving having daddy home again.

After about 5 or 6 months of having this pottery wheel (she got it for Christmas), Nikki finally got to use it and make her first pot. Messy but fun!

And Curtis bought a new truck.  We can't wait to use it camping this summer!

Nikki decided her hair was too long and making her hot. She's been wanting it short for awhile so I finally gave in.  Here's the before front shot.

The before back shot.

And grandma Butterfield cutting it all off!

The after front shot.

And the after back shot.  She loves it!  I kept going back and forth on whether I liked it but now that I'm used to it I love it on her too  :)

We spent our anniversary traveling to and from Pocatello for a Butterfield family reunion.  There were some foam swords for the kids to play with so the boys were having at each other! They especially enjoyed chasing the big boy cousins around and ganging up on them.

A fun activity for the kids was to make some paper rockets.

Then launch them as high and far as we could using pipes and a 2 liter pop bottle. It was such a fun and great idea!

We took a trip to the Idaho Aquarium in Boise.  It was our first time and it was so fun!

We saw tons of tropical fish that you would only find in the ocean.  Lots of them we recognized from "Finding Nemo".

There's even some you can touch!  These are manta rays and small sharks.

Hanging out with the scuba diver  :)

Garrett looks a little worried about having his hand in that crab.

Nikki fell in love with the manta rays and was asking to have one for a pet.  I have to admit I thought they were pretty cute too.

The sharks were more difficult to reach for petting but we found a spot where it was shallow and this particular shark that he's petting was just doing circles around the tank. The sharks were a little more bumpy and rough skinned than that of the smooth slippery manta rays.

Jack was a little scared to pet them but enjoyed putting his hands in the water and watching them.

Garrett and Nikki

Jack and Nikki

Since we were gone to Pocatello all day on our anniversary we didn't celebrate until the following Friday night.

We celebrated with Dad and Laverne. It was my dad's birthday so we all went to Goodwood BBQ.  It was the first time for Curtis and me and the food was very yummy!

Wow, that's a lot of ribs! It was my first time eating ribs and they were delicious! Afterward we went over to the theater and watched the newest Star Trek movie.  It was very good! Happy 11th anniversary!

November 2012

Here we are in December already and it's time to highlight some of the things that have been going on in November!

 

This year all of my kids plus a couple of neighbor friends and a cousin (Katie) took most of their Halloween candy and we filled a box to send to the soldiers in Afghanistan.  Some of them made a card too and got very creative.  We sent the box to Curtis and he shared some candy with those he works with and the soldiers.  They all really enjoyed it.

 

I had the great opportunity to take my kids to the Boise LDS Temple open house.  We also had our neighbor friend Ashlie and her daughter there with us.

 

Jack was having a little fun with his underpants.  I think he's enjoying being potty trained now.  Don't worry these are clean!

 

We had a night of spiking hair.  I told Nikki hers was too long so she held it up.  Jack is also sporting a shiner on his cheek that he received that week when he fell and hit the piano bench.  It cut pretty good on the inside of his cheek.

 

Nikki has been having a great time playing basketball this Fall.  This was her 2nd year playing.

 

We had some small pumpkins that Grandma Vernie gave us so we made turkies out of them for Thanksgiving and took them to Grandma Norton's on Thanksgiving day for decorations.

 

During Thanksgiving weekend we had fun putting together a gingerbread house.  I put the house together and then I let them do most of the decorating on their own.

 

Then a few days later we made a train.  They were both beautifully decorated and yummy!

 

The train is heading for a tunnel!  Watch out!

 

Yep, even I had some.  Yummy gingerbread!

 

Our neighbor was showing Nikki his sword he had gotten when he was a kid.  He grew up in California where the church was very small and his teachers gave him this as a reward/gift for getting his Faith in God award.  They were an older couple and it was just their thing that they liked to do with the boys who got their Faith in God awards.

 

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we got our tree put up!

 



I was also able to get our Christmas lights up during the last week of November.  Yep, I even got up on the roof to get above the garage.  I told the boys to watch so that if I fell they could go tell someone.  They just thought it was cool that mom was up there.  I'm just thankful our roof is not too steep.  I'm also thankful for timers on our lights so I don't even have to think about turning them off and on every day.  Sometimes I just love technology!  And luckily I got the lights finished before it rained that day, as you can see the driveway is wet.

Now time to enjoy the month we celebrate Christmas!  It would make this holiday season so much better though if Curtis was here to share it with us!

Australia

Life got busy again as usual.  Curtis and I were able to take an amazing trip to Perth, Australia at the beginning of October.  We had to meet there.  It was a little scary for me traveling by myself and that great of distance but it turned out just fine.  It was great to see my wonderful hubby again and to experience a little of what he did when he served a mission there!  Here are a few pictures from our trip.  Most of our pics we posted on facebook so if you want to see more you'll have to go there.

On the rocks looking out at the Indian Ocean from Fremantle, Australia (near Perth).

Our main purpose for choosing to visit Perth, Australia was because this is where Curtis went on his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints over 10 yrs ago.

We visited our friends, the Conlins, who had just moved from where we live to Yanchep, Australia last summer.  This is the beach right down the street from their home.  It was beautiful there! 

Curtis did most of the driving but I at least got to try it on some easy roads.  It's weird driving on the opposite side than what we're used to!

What's a visit to Australia without seeing some kangaroos! This is at a wildlife preserve in Yanchep where we had a BBQ with our friends, the Conlins.

These are our friends, the Conlins.  We had a great visit with them.

We also had a BBQ with a friend from Curtis's mission, Tina, and her son Jeremy and 2 other friends.  The food was very yummy!

Any time we saw the ocean it was just beautiful, even when it was stormy and gray.  I love the sound of the water crashing on the rocks.  This was in Bunbury.

This is in Margaret River when it was kinda stormy out.  I loved watching the big waves.  I know they're not tidal waves but I'm not used to seeing anything bigger than these ones. Beautiful!

From the beaches down to the depths of the mountain in a cave.  This was one of our stops on our little road trip.  It was great to be able to just stop wherever we wanted and do whatever we felt like doing, nothing planned.

Then out to the longest jetty (dock) I've ever seen or been on, the Busselton Jetty, nearly 2 kilometers (about 1.3 miles I think) out on the ocean.  It took about 20-25 min to walk from one end to the other.

Here we are in King's Park looking out at the City of Perth.  It was a great trip but we both wish it could have been longer.  It was worth it though!
  

Nikki loved her souvenirs I brought home to her...a penguin flashlight and t-shirt.

The boys also loved their shirts and penguin flashlights.  There's a flap on the front shark's mouth that opens and has a man inside that says "I've got a bite!"

They also each got an Australian stuffed animal.  Nikki got a wombat.  Garrett got an Echidna (ant eater).  Jack got a koala bear.  And I got a kangaroo  :)

August Adventures and more!

 

 

I had a couple of nephews born this summer and here's Nikki with one of her new cousins, Wesley, who was born at the end of July.  I don't remember the exact day.  She's been really wanting me to have another baby so this will have to do for now.

The first weekend in August we took a trip down to Utah to visit my brother and his family and my mom, grandma, and Hansen family.  Here's Nikki and her cousin looking fancy at Walmart.

This is where my boys got to sleep, on their cousin Gideon's bed.  They thought it was pretty fun.  They had a space blanket and an Incredible Hulk blanket.

Use the force Jack!  Or in this case, the Kinect.  We found a game even he could play!

The boys playing games in the hallway and making a nice mess too.

My Hansen cousins made a cousin Olympics in the backyard at Grandma Marsha's.  Here they are lined up with name tags and even a torch, which Gideon had held during the opening parade march around the yard.  It was a great idea and lots of fun for the kids!  They did some tossing games, running & jumping games, and obstacle courses.

Had to show at least one of the events, the standing long jump.  That's a pretty good leap there Gideon!

The very same night that we came home from Utah (Aug 6th) Garrett lost his first tooth!  The funny thing was that I didn't even know he had a loose tooth!  It was bed time and he was laying on the couch and tells me "my tooth fell out" and it fell on the ground in the front room, but we found it and the Tooth Fairy made a visit the next night (after he could show his friends his tooth).

We got a good groupon deal online and went to a new glow in the dark mini golf place with Chris and Tamara and Katelynn.  It was fun!  Of course you can't see us glowing because the flash was on but if you go be sure to wear white or some color that will glow with black lights!

Nikki all ready for her first day of 3rd grade!

Garrett's first official day of Kindergarten!  Unfortunately he had a bad toothache this day so he didn't want to smile.

They have free breakfast at the schools so I went in with the kids on Garrett's first day.  His toothache also caused him to not want to eat hardly anything and later he threw up.  But after I came around lunch time and helped him get food in his stomach he felt better.  We took him home to change his shirt but then were able to take him back.  He loves school and wishes he could go every day!  Nikki was the same way when she was in Kindergarten.

Garrett's first homeowork assignment, which he was so excited to do.  His first parent and me project as well.

The cause of Garrett's toothache turned out to be an abscess from a decayed tooth.  So this is his first visit to the dentist office where he got that tooth pulled by his uncle Casey.  We later found out that he has a lot more problems going on in there that we're going to have to get taken care of as well.  Yikes!  Feeling bad for not getting him in sooner!

So we decided to get Jack's teeth cleaned and checked too while we were there.  He was so zoned into the tv show he was watching on the ceiling that he barely noticed anyone doing anything to his teeth.  Luckily no problems with his teeth and he did great!

Yesterday my neighbor friend and I rearranged my front room after she and her hubby helped clean the carpet with the cleaner they rented for doing their house the day before.  I really like this arrangement!  It helps separate the front room from the kitchen area and makes it feel more cozy.  And I just didn't like the way we had it before, especially where we had the green couch.

And here's another view of it.  But it's even better in person so I just need visitors now  ;)  Maybe some day I'll get a nice little rug for the middle area but for now I like it!  (oops, forgot to fix the pillow on the couch before taking the picture)