Christmas in the Northwest

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

So this is my pansy flower pot on my front porch. We got about a foot of snow over a week. December 2008 is the snowiest December in the history of weather in Portland. We went sledding several time and sliding around corners even more. During Christmas break we went bowling... Yes even with Kim's stitched finger. If you look closely you will see Kim's middle finger on her right had has a huge bandage on it. She rescued Emerson from a pair of really sharp scissors and got cut during the process. She had 3 stitches and was a super trooper during the entire process. Okay after going into shock and throwing up in Heather's kitchen sink as we tried every home remedies possible including super glue, we ended up in the hospital anyway. Because of the location we couldn't get any bandage to stay on. She also could have had tendons cut. Thankfully she just needed 3 stitches and a finger splint.

Grandpa Robins went with us bowling.

Lee came in to town with his wife Maki from Japan. It was great to see him and he got to dress up as Santa. The kids had a great time telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas and that they were good girls and boys.

Santa brought bikes for the girls. Unfortunately it was too snowy to ride, now it is raining. They have yet to ride them except around the house.

Everett and Mike joined us for Christmas. Dave and Mike didn't move very much from these positions. I was silly and gave Dave his new blanket as his first gift. I am not surprised that he didn't move much. His blanket is the size of a twin size quilt.

Jenn and I made Grandma Griffith's Chocolates. It took us about a week to make around 1700 chocolates and turtles. But it was great fun, I worked on the fondant as Jenn cleaned. I think I got the better end of the deal, but it was very tiring for both of us. Next year we are not going to wait until the first of December to start them. We are aiming for October and just freeze them. We might have to make several extra batches to make sure we have enough for Christmas. Boy were they good!

Fun things over the summer.

Heather and Ryan are in a Norweign Dance club and they got the girls involved. Now the girls do performances together. This is from when they performed at the Oregon State Fair. We had so much fun.

Did you know that the Funky Chicken Dance is Norweigen?

Kim doing the funky chicken.

Hadley and Norah doing the funky chicken.

They have since changed the name to "Children of Norway" since there is only one son of Norway.

So I found this pictures and I wanted to share them. Anna's birthday was a huge hit with Kim. Jenn took us up to Paul and Sandi's for the weekend. We went to the Pacific Science Center and saw the butterfly exhibit. A huge butterfly landed on Kim. She was a little scared but thought it was pretty cool later on. Everyone got a butterfly to land on them. Some larger than others but here are some great pictures. We also saw the Space Needle on a rare day where there weren't any clouds in the sky.

One of my favorite pictures that I took of a butterfly.

Dave got Kim a magnifier and she loved using it. She shared with Anna too.

A HUGE butterfly landed on Kim. She was pretty scared at first but once she relaxed she loved it. We had such a great time. Thanks Jenn, Anna, Paul and Sandi.

Halloween

We took the girls Trunk-or-Treating at the church this year. We all had a great time. All of the Butlers that are in the Vancouver area went to our ward activity. It really helps that Neil, Dannelle and I are all in the same ward. Heather and Ryan decided they wanted to join us and Grammie too. Here are some fun pictures.

Kim cleaning her pumpkin.Hadley investigating her pumpkin's insides. And of course I totally forgot the traditional completed pumpkin picture. We got the kit from Disney for the princesses. Hadley and Dad made Cinderella. Kim and I made Arura from Sleeping Beauty.
Kim wanted to be a bride. She used my veil and had to have a Star-Gazer Lily, which is what I had at our wedding.
Hadley was Cinderella AGAIN! She was Cinderella two years ago. We did her hair up which is hard to see but she loved it.

The girls together.

At our Halloween Party at church we had dancing and dinner. Okay so I am not sure if you can count chips, chili and cheese as dinner. But we all had a great time. Hadley, Kim and Norah were dancing like crazy.

First Day of School

Okay so I know it has been ages since I posted last. I got a new job and I have been working like crazy. I wanted to post a few pictures of the girls lately. Here is Kim on her first day of school. She is in first grade already.

I can't believe how fast she is growing up. Hadley goes to Columbia River High School for pre-school, which she loves.

Kim's first field trip to the Zoo

Kim had her first field trip yesterday and both Dave and I got to go. Since she is in kindergarten there were many parents that attended. Each group was made up of 2 kids and 1 adult and in some cases like Kim, there were 2 adults and 2 kids. There were so many schools there on field trips, it was a ZOO, literally. I think we out numbered the animals by a million to one. The other girl in the pictures was not Hadley if you were wondering... It is Jessi, a classmate of Kim's.

The trip started off a little slow. First we got onto the wrong bus. The entire morning and afternoon classes were packed into the bus before it was noticed that we were on the wrong bus. Then we got onto the correct bus and found out the driver had to be back earlier than we planned. So our trip was cut even shorter. On the way to the zoo there was quite a bit of traffic (for Portland) so it took us 30 minutes longer to get there. By the time we finally got there we only had 2 hours at the zoo so we basically ran from exhibit to exhibit. That is why Kim is walking so fast in the picture. There was a dinosaur exhibit that was there but it was extra so we didn't get to go. Plus there is a 3-D dinosaur movie playing as well. We still had fun looking at all of the dinosaur stuff that was around the zoo.
We loved walking through the zoo, looking at all of the animals and sometimes the statue animals were more entertaining that the real ones.
Kim's favorite animal is a leopard. Her school in Northern California, Lafayette Elementary, their mascot is a leopard and the office was full of different leopards. So she wanted a picture of a real leapard.
This is the bridge over the black bear exhibit. It is also the 'gateway' to the Great Northwest part of the zoo. It isn't visited as much as you would think because most of the animals there we see outside of the zoo.

Aunt Dannelle, Uncle Neil, Josie and James decided to meet us at the zoo. Since we didn't have much time there we watched a bird show and ate lunch with them. They had a great time as did we.
This is the bronzed goat that is touched by all the little children every time they walk by. So needless to we had to get a picture.
The hippos were lounging around and the girls thought it was really cute.
The Meerkats were pretty much the only animals out and playing. So we had to take a picture. The LCD screen on the back of our camera is cracked so you can only see the corner of the picture and it has no hole to look through so some of our pictures don't capture all of what we would want. Kim was in this picture, at lease part of her. :) Most of the exhibits were closed for cleaning. Plus, we used to watch Meerkat Manor.

Okay if this vehicle looks a little familiar, it should. This is the same make of Land Rover that Dave drove when we first met. He really enjoyed this picture but the Rover has seen better days. If you were wondering we still see the old Rover around town. The new owner changed out the diesel engine for a gas one. (I bet he is regretting that right about now, since we changed it to the diesel because the diesel gets such better gas mileage.) He also put back on the old hardtop which leaks and is very noisy. We converted to a canvas top because it didn't leak and it looked better. He also took out the roll cage that Dave put in. (The guy must have a death wish.) But it will always be known as 'Dave's Old Rig.' The new owner doesn't care to hear that either.

Here we are back at the school after the trip. We were all very tired. Dave had worked the night (graveyard shift) before and then came on the trip without sleeping. He was out cold right when we got home. Kim fell asleep on the way home and I took a nap once we got home. Needless to say, last night the house was very quiet except for Hadley. She refused to go to sleep, which she often does. She ended up snuggling with Daddy last night for a while and the funny thing about it is that Dave had no clue she came in.

*There are more pictures if you go to older posts. I posted the day before yesterday as well. Don't miss out on Hadley's ballet outfit. *

It's been a long time...

Okay, Okay, I have gotten enough flack from family and friends that I am finally updating my blog. I don't have Internet at home so I am at my Mother-in-law's house using her Internet.... Thanks so much Grammie. :) We have been pretty busy lately...Today we played at Grammie's pool. This picture shows how many Bulters can fit in a small hot tub.


Josie loved being in the water. She cried because it was time to go. But as you can see she had a great time.Kodiak tried to throw Grammie into the water but Grammie was not going to have it. So they wrestled a little but no one got thrown in.
Kim and Dave swam and swam and swam. Kim is a little fish. Hadley on the other hand, doesn't like to be any where but the hot tub. She would run from the steps of the pool to the hot tub. Kodiak thought that Josie's floatation device was pretty fun. I am not sure it was made to hold his weight though.Hadley is in a ballet class with her cousin, Norah, Heather's daughter. Their recital is coming up pretty soon and they got their costumes. We took several pictures of Hadley and Norah and more will come at the recital and dress rehearsals.
Norah enjoying herself in the mirror in her beautiful new costume.
Most of Hadley's class.

Easter Eggs

We went over to Neil and Dannelle's this morning to decorate eggs. We had a great time watching Josie try and eat the eggs.
Josie enjoyed putting the eggs into empty bowls and hadn't even discovered the dye yet.

Kim really enjoyed dying the eggs. She took her time decorating each egg very carefully. Hadley on the other hand didn't want to get her hands dirty. But she did get dye on her nose. It's red just on the end of her nose. It was too cute.