Dave & Katie Butler Family

Its been a long time...

2012-01-23T12:10:00.000-08:00

Okay so I haven't posted in almost 3 years... I have had 2 more kids since then and I think it's time to get back to blogging, even if no one reads it. It is still a great way to remember things. I will be blogging more with pictures soon.

Swine Flu attacked the Butlers!

2009-10-24T17:44:00.001-07:00

Like I have always said... Our life is NEVER boring. The girls and I were diagnosed with Swine Flu. We are the first ones that we know of that really had it. Kim was almost over it by the time we took her to the doctor and Hadley just was getting it. I got it as well since my immune system was already weakened with a bladder infection. Life has not been fun the last few weeks but hopefully it will pick up tomorrow and next week. We have all been on medication for 5 days so we are okay to go to church. I just wonder how many people will be there, it seems to be spreading really fast.
Tomorrow is our Primary Program in Sacrament Meeting. The girls are very excited! So I am, hopefully we all feel as good as we do today.

Life is never boring...

2009-09-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

Dave hiked Mt. St. Helens on September 17, 2009. The dome that has started growing again.

A beautiful view front the top of Mt St. Helens looking at Mt. Hood.

I think this one is of Mt Rainer.

This one he caught a bird in flight but the slope is shown really well here. It is still all ash.

Just another really cool view.

This is looking Northeast from the summit of Mt. St. Helens at the crater it left after it erupted on May 18, 1980. (Dave's Birthday, it was a big event!)

Life is never boring... Let's see last week Dave climbed Mt St Helens. He had a great time and pushed himself farther than he should have but still really enjoyed it. He got some great pictures.

His car broke down when getting ready to come home, so he called me to come and help him out. He called from someone elses cell phone because he didn't have reception. I could barely hear him when he was telling me what car part he needed and where he was. I was given a lot of help from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that night...

So I made it to the store picked up the car part and drew myself a horrible map of where he was. He took all of the good ones. :) I left my kids at my sister in laws (prompting that I almost didn't listen to) and headed up to get him. I got about 1 1/2 miles from him and my car broke down. I sat there wondering what on earth I could learn at 11pm on the back side of Mt St Helens. I learned that I would do whatever the Lord would ask I just didn't want to do it alone. I prayed that I would not feel alone. As scared as I was of not finding my husband or anyone else for that matter again I was never alone. I felt like my dad and others were helping me the entire way. I got about 1/2 way to him and a car came and drove right around me screaming that I needed help. It was like she didn't even see me. I then got a little teary-eyed but kept on walking and calling out for help. I finally got to camp, unknowingly because it was so dark, there wasn't a moon out that night. I can't believe I made it up the dark road without getting lost. I called for help just outside of camp and a million (5 or 6) people came running. They helped me find Dave and we finally got his car started. We drove down to mine and couldn't get it started, so we left it there. Until the next day when Eric helped us get it. I have learned a lot from the experience. I won't ever leave home without a flashlight again! :)

Back to School

2009-09-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

I can't believe summer is over and school has begun. It started a little late this year because Labor Day ended up later than usual. We always start school the Wednesday after Labor Day. This year was a big year for us, Kim started 2nd grade and our baby Ladybug started Kindergarten.

They were so excited for school that they packed their backpacks a week before school started. They had their outfit picked out 3 days before. Hadley set out outfits for the whole week on Monday (Labor Day). The girls are getting so big.

This year Kim had Mrs. Paveglio as a teacher. She really enjoys school so far (it has only been 3 days) Kim knows so many of the adults at school it is quite humorous. The first day all she did was say "Hi" to all of the staff. She enjoyed seeing her friends again but mostly the adults. She has already had homework! She got it the first day!

Hadley has Mrs. Bacon as her Kindergarten teacher. She is in the AM class so she walks to school with Kim and Dave. Hadley is adjusting really well to school. The other day she mentioned something to do with her folder that she had to take back and I gave her the strangest look. It hadn't really set in that she was in school. Which by the way is really difficult to get used to.

The first day I cried when Hadley had to go to class. She started crying then Mr. Howard (the Principle) had to come and get her because I was having such a hard time with it. (Mr. Howard is sticking his head in the classroom after sending Hadley in to make sure she was okay.) My baby started school. Sniff Sniff, they had tissues for all the parents who were cry babies like myself. Dave of course was very nonchalant about the whole thing. He didn't get why I was crying.

Hadley made it through her first day! She loved it and talks of nothing else.

It was really different this year verses Kim's Kindergarten year, because with Kim it was a new experience for her and me both. It was nostalgic because she was the oldest, but this time it was sad because I realized that we were done with kids at home during the day. The nap times, diapers, preschool, learning how to walk, talk, and play are all memories now. But now we have friends, after school activities, homework, summer time, teachers and most of all learning. I love to watch the girls learn to read.

After school we went hiking up to Angel's Rest by Multnomah Falls. It was a 5 mile hike round trip and the elevation change was pretty dramatic. The girls made it all the way to the top with only minimal whining. They did really well.

We had some great views.

Dave pointed out about where we live.

We had some fun snacks.

We found a great rock that looks like "Pride Rock" from Disney's the Lion King. Kim is our lion in this picture. It was really neat how the rock just landed almost level like a table.

The girls decided to take a little nap before heading back down. We had a great time but were really tired by the time we got back home.

Garden and Canning

2009-09-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

We have been very busy this summer with gardening. Our stake president asked that all of us grow a garden if possible. They plowed up part of the stake center field to allow people to plant if they didn't have a yard or the ability to plant anywhere else. We joined the Hazel Dell Elementary School Garden Club and had already picked out a plot behind the school. Our house backs up to the school so it is really close. We planted carrots, onions, sugar peas, basil and lots of pole beans. So far we have had over 8 quarts of beans from the plant and 6 onions have been ready. The girls like the carrots the best, they always pick one when we go to harvest or weed. I know we have been blessed because we followed the stake president's instructions.

At our Back to School Night Garden Party, the big topic was my bean plants. I had Master Gardeners ask me what I did to get such a beautiful plant. I laughed because all I did was mix some sand into the compost that was already there and plant the beans. As you can see from the picture it is bigger than Hadley.The other day I went out and picked over 4 quarts in one day. I have been freezing them to preserve them but they are really good.

We have also taken the opportunity to can fruit. Jenn and I decided we were going to can fruits this summer so we started with peaches and pears. We had lots of little helpers enjoying the fruits of our labor. We canned about 24 quarts of peaches and 24 quarts of pears for each of us. Then Jenn canned apple pie filling with a friend from her ward. I will do mine in a week or two. (Their recipe is terrific!) I couldn't stop eating it. :)

Our latest canning experience was tomatoes. We canned over 160 pounds of tomatoes. I canned 40 pounds of stewed tomatoes, which only yielded 16 quarts. We canned the rest into salsa. Jenn talked me into canning "Thick and Chunky" salsa instead of the ever easy blender salsa. And I am very grateful she did. I love it! We took several recipes and made Kann Salsa (stands for Katie and Jenn) We ended up with 71 quarts of salsa. So needless to say both of us are exhausted!

If you are interested in recipes just let me know and I would love to send them to you. So all together this summer we have canned over 300 pounds of fruit! By the way tomatoes are considered a fruit.

Playing in the Pool

2009-08-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

Uncle Robert came over today and it was really hot. The girls decided that they were going to play in the pool. Uncle Robert thought that was a great idea until he realized that the girls play dirty when playing in the water. (Learned from Papa and Dave no doubt!)

I stayed safely behind the sliding glass door while Kim and Uncle Robert played with the hose.

Aunt Mindy & Alestair joined us later.

The girls just love being able to go out back and jump in the pool, especially when it is in the high 90's with no AC. Yikes it is HOT!

Alestair only had one diaper and needless to say it got really wet so he got to run around free for a while until Aunt Mindy decided that he needed some sort of diaper on. As you well know I don't have diapers in the house any longer... So we made one.

Yes, it does say Bon Appetite on the side of the dish towel we used for a cloth diaper.

We then added panties, or underwear if you are a boy. In my defense they at lease had blue on them. Uncle Robert wasn't happy to see his son in blue lace trimmed panties. We all had a great time, Thanks Robert and Mindy for stopping by.

Kim's Lost Tooth

2009-08-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

So Kim has been losing teeth lately but she finally lost one of her big front teeth. It was barely hanging on and she was getting a cavity in it so I talked her into really putting some effort in getting it out. Dave came home from work and talked her into letting him tie a string around it, tieing it to the door knob and shutting the door. She was kind of scared but excited by the idea. Well believe it or not it WORKED! It didn't even hurt her. Her big tooth was visible under her baby tooth. Dave is happy to announce that he got to pull a tooth using the string to the door knob trick. Here is Kim with her front tooth gone.

Catching Up

2009-08-17T19:10:00.001-07:00

We finally got the Internet again so we are playing a little catch up. So much has happened since I wrote last. Well for one the snow is gone. :) Now it is hot! It is supposed to be in the 100's again tomorrow. The girls are growing like weeds. Every time I turn around they are bigger. They say the cutest things. I just started typing and trying to decide where to begin and paused for a second and Hadley chimed in and said, "Okay Begin" like it was a speed quiz or game. Just a second ago Hadley went into Dave and said, "Dad, we are having fun without you." I had to smile. She gets upset if we have fun without her but she was upset that we were having fun without Dave.

Kim on the other hand, is very smart and sassy. I am surprised that my little angel that could do no wrong says things that make me crazy. Yesterday we were practicing our Primary Program songs and she said to me with great enthusiasm, "Mom, (sigh) Singing just isn't my thing." I wanted to be mad since there was so much sass in her voice but it was hard. Dave just sat there and laughed.
We had a Butler Family Reunion that we went to for a day since I had to work and our car broke down. We had a great time. We played on the beach with Aunt Misty, Aunt Heather, Uncle Ryan, Emerson and Norah. The girls had a great time.
We have a friend that owns a car dealership and he has a Volkswagen Beetle. We play 'slug bug' all the time in the car and Hadley's nick name is 'The Bug' so taking a picture with Hadley in the "bug" was more than appropriate. She had a great time sitting in it especially in the driver's seat.
I will be updating my blog more often since I can from home now.

Christmas in the Northwest

2008-12-30T13:09:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-11-10T13:29:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

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

2008-05-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-05-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-20T16:09:00.000-07:00

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.

Great Picture

2008-03-20T16:05:00.000-07:00

I don't remember what we were doing or where we were going but this is one of my favorite pictures.

Hadley Turns 4

2008-03-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hadley wanted to help with her birthday cake. So here they are helping....

Hadley's birthday was a few weeks ago and I have not had access to the internet to post so I am a little tardy. Hadley's birthday was a lot of fun. I asked her for about a month before her birthday as to what she wanted. Everyone kept asking me so I kept asking her. All she said was a Cinderella dress. Once that idea was taken by Everett I asked her what else she wanted and her response was priceless. "Whatever you want to get me." So that is what I relayed to family and friends. She was so funny about the whole thing. I would ask her what she wanted for a cake and she said, "Whatever you want to make." That is her answer for everything now. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, what to wear, what to do, her answer is always "Whatever you want." It was getting a little old so I said, "Fine, I don't want anything." Her response was "Okay, neither do I." When she is really hungry she will voice her opinion but on a daily basis she has no opinion.

She wanted a Princess birthday so that is what she got. However she didn't want a castle cake like Kim she wanted a Barbie cake with lots of sparkles. I have edible glitter that we sprinkled all over the cake to make it shimmer.

Everett got Hadley the prized Cinderella and this picture describes how 'prized' that dress really is.

Hadley barely gets it up and Kim flys over there to see it. My camera was set up to let more light in but the pictures come out a little blurry but there was no question as to how fast Kim got over to see the dress.

Hadley shows off her loot while sitting next to Uncle Eric. Which is a shock in and of itself. Hadley took a while to warm up to him.

Together Again

2008-02-19T16:24:00.000-08:00

We are settled in our new home and are loving it. We have a pretty good schedule down now and the girls are doing great. Dave is on a rotating shift so it seems he is always at work, but we try to spend as much time with him as we can.

I have never seen the girls so happy and willing to help. Kim loves to vacuum and askes if we can do it every day. She knows that we can't vacuum when Dave is sleeping so she askes the second he wakes up. Hadley on the other hand loves to sweep. Since she can do that whenever she likes she sweeps daily. The girls even love doing the dishes. I have to supervise a little but the girls do a great job helping out.

When I was still in California and the girls were in Washington. Auntie Heather was helping take care of them. She and Dave enrolled Hadley in a dance class. She is doing really well and has her first recitel in June. We are already getting ready for it. She loves her ballet class and is actually doing rather well. It took her a while to get used to it and start enjoying it. Now I can't get her out of her ballet shoes. If I would let her she would wear her tap shoes around the house as well but since Dave works the graveyard shift it is a little too loud.

Kim had a party at school that I went to they had a lot of fun trying to read their Valentine's cards.

I am happy to say I love being able to stay home with the girls. I have what I call "Proud Mommy Moments." It is when one of the girls does something remarkable. Kim is learning to read. We read the scriptures everynight and Kim reads her share of verses. She is getting much better and looks forward to it. Hadley loves to look at the pictures and askes me to tell her the stories about the picture. Then at night when Kim is already asleep Hadley tells her dolls the stories we have read about in the scriptures. I just get so much joy out of watching them learn and grow. I do miss the younger versions of them but this time is so much fun. It is hard to imagine it getting better.

White Christmas

2008-01-06T15:17:00.001-08:00

We had such a great time together as a family that I have to blog more pictures. Santa came to Aunt Jenn's house and the girls are so excited to come and see what he brought. Even Anna wanted to see what Santa had brought the girls. We got to Jenn's after they had opened all of their presents. Since Mom was there they naturally got up really early. Mom normally gets up at 5 or so in the morning because she is so excited to see what Santa brought.

Hadley loves Cinderella and got a coloring book and crayons.
The girls got dolls from Grandpa Paul and Grandma Sandi. Santa brought them chests to put all of the dolls clothes in.
The girls love them.

Hadley got her doll out and immidetely changed her dolls clothes into every outfit that she got. Santa brought her 3 outfits and Nana made her 2 more including a adorable raincoat. Right after we opened presents we looked outside to find that it was snowing. It has been several years but this year we had a white (and green) Christmas. I don't see much snow in California so I can call the little flurry a white Christmas. :)The girls had so much fun playing in the snow.

Christmas in Washington

2007-12-30T19:08:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't blogged in almost 2 months but there is a reason. My family has been apart and I am finding it difficult to take pictures without my girls around. We are moving AGAIN! Yes, again (with a big heavy sigh) This will be move 51 for me and 11 for Dave and I together. Dave and the girls are already in Vancouver and staying with Grammie (Thanks Grammie for taking care of my precious family.) Dave got a great job up there and Kim is already in school. We weren't sure if she was going to be allowed to go back to kindergarten because she didn't meet the deadline for her birthday for Washington but she did in California. They did let her start and between Grammie, Dave and Aunt Heather, Kim makes it to school every day. (Thank you again to Grammie and Auntie Heather for all of the help you have given to Dave and me.) We are renting a duplex as of Jan 15th. I have to finish up my job before I can move up. I will be moving up with our belongings that weekend. Dave and I get together as often as we can so I can see the girls but it has been pretty rough. When we finally are together again living under the same roof it will be 3 months of seperation. I am so grateful for eternal families. The knowledge that we will be together forever has made this seperation bareable. It is still difficult but we are pushing throw it. We were able to spend Christmas together which was a much needed time together.

I didn't have my camera for Christmas so I am copying pictures of my girls from Heather's blog page. Thanks Heather :) I am hoping to get more pictures from all the other family we were able to see so I will post them as soon as I get them. :)

We spent Christmas Eve with the Butlers and had a great time. Auntie Heather taught the girls Christmas songs and they sang them. Okay Kim and Norah sang Hadley was too shy to sing.

Grammie Cakes as Hadley calls Grammie read the Christmas story out of the Bible and everyone played a part. Dave was a sheep. (No picture of Dave, Sorry it really was a sight to see) Kim was the angel.
Hadley was Mary. I can remember doing the christmas story play when I was young and I was always Mary. I never had to speak just sit there. Hadley did it perfectly. Aunt Misty gave the all the kids Jammies. They had fun changing and waiting for Santa.

Inspiration from Yosemite

2007-11-07T22:44:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law Misty, takes the most beautiful pictures and so I decided to try my hand at it. These are just some of the pictures I took at Yosemite. Thank you Misty, I started to see life in a whole new world. I wanted to capture a piece of the beauty there and bring it home. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

8th Anniversary in Yosemite

2007-11-07T22:10:00.000-08:00

Dave and I just celebrated our 8th Anniversary. I can't believe it has been 8 years already. It felt like only yesterday the girls were born and we got married. We have had a great 8 years. This year Dave surprised me by planning a special trip to Yosemite National Park. He went last year with his scout troop and couldn't wait to take the girls and I there. We left Saturday night right after I got home from work and then we drove to our hotel in Mariposa about 40 miles outside of Yosemite Valley. We got up and drove around the south and west end of Yosemite. We saw several animals. The girls had a great time looking out their window for different animals. We saw a 4 point buck (this one is for you Andy)About 10 deer...
2 Coyotes....
And Yes a BEAR! It was a very little cub but none the less a bear. Dave and I both wondered if this was a baby bear where is his mommy??? We didn't stick around to find out... We hike 2 granite hills. This one was so huge you can hardly see Dave and the girls. We walked pretty far up together and then I ran down the hill to get pictures so you could get an idea of how huge this rock really was. The rock was surprisingly really easy to walk up. We got to some pretty steep angles and still had a great footing. There is a little dot in the middle of the rock... That is my little family.
We let the girls run as far and as fast as they wanted to straight up the hill. They actually got pretty far but the got tired and sat down to wait for Dave and I. I am amazed how little oxygen there is at 8500 ft. It couldn't have been how out of shape I am... Okay maybe it could. The views were breathtaking.We then stopped for lunch at Silver Lake (at lease that is what I think it is called.) From a distance it was the most amazing blue I had ever seen. Dave said when he went last year the water was really cold about a foot below the surface. We also climbed this rock... The girls had so much fun climbing and playing on the granite. It was such a great view we took pictures from every angle. I think in all together we took over 180 pictures. So I had to be very selective on the pictures I post. :)

I have always wanted to see a redwood (or Sequoya) tree that is more than 20 feet in diameter. Well we did. This tree fell down several years ago and is on the very beginning of a trail. I couldn't wait to see what else there was to see. The picture of the biggest tree didn't turn out but this one tells a little of how big these trees get. Some of them are over 3500 years old. And I learned something really interesting... It takes a Sequoya 20 years to drop a pine cone. In this picture below the roots aren't even completely in the picture.

Primary Halloween Party

2007-10-28T18:23:00.000-07:00

We just had our Halloween Party for Primary on Friday. The girls were so excited to go that they were ready an hour before we had to leave.

Kim wanted to be Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) this year. That is all she has talked about since we went to Disneyland in Septemer.

Hadley on the other hand couldn't decide. So we went through several different ideas on what she wanted to be and finally she decided on a ballerina. We had rented Angelina the Ballerina from the library and she started dancing around the house. We got her some dancing slippers and she even wears them to bed.
Kim also has a school parade at school on Halloween and a party that they are looking forward to. So stay tuned for those pictures. :)

Who does she look like?

2007-10-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jessica I found this great website. Plus I get prove that my kids actually look like me. I wonder if the meter was trying to tell me, "This kid doesn't look like either of you."

The first time I did this I used a different picture of Dave and Hadley came out 6% more like me. I like this picture better of Dave plus, she looks equally like Dave and I. :) If you would like to try it just click on one of our pictures.

Kim turns 5!

2007-10-11T22:13:00.000-07:00

Kim turned 5 on October 9th. She got several cards from school and they sang to her. She loved going to school on her birthday.

I decided to make her a birthday cake that she would never forget. Well that is for sure. The cake took me just about 4 hours to decorate. I baked the cakes the night before and froze them to make it easier to frost. I had a great time making the cake.
Kim also had her first real birthday party. We had 3 friends come over and play. Kim asked if they could have Mac n Cheese for dinner. So we made dinner, opened presents, ate cake and needless to say played REALLY Hard.

We also went to the Golden Gate bridge when Misty was in town. These are my pictures from that day. Misty got some great ones too.
The girls were hanging on the rings while Dave pushed them. At Kim's school they had a fall festival called the Westival. Dave, Mike (our really good friend) and the girls had a great time. We donated cupcakes and Dave served for a while. They had the greatest time. I am wish I could have been there.

Catching up!!!

2007-09-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

I apologize for not posting in so long. I have accepted a promotion within Extra Space and we have moved to the San Francisco area. For several years Dave has been wanting to go back to school and now he is enrolled and going back. So now we have 2 of our family in school. Kim has started Kindergarten this year and is adjusting well. She is in one of the best schools in the area. The girls and I had to move up a few days before Dave so that we could get her registerated for school. She has afternoon Kindergarten which is pretty much all day. She starts at 11:40 AM and she gets out at 3PM. Here are some great pictures of Kim's first day of school.

Kim's teacher is Ms. Blythe. Kim says her teacher is the greatest and Ms. Blythe just adores Kim. Kim hanging her backpack. We didn't get a chance to go to the pre-school day, where they told us that the kids eat lunch during the day. So we had to get her a lunch box which she hangs right behind her backpack.

Kim was asked to write her name on how she got to school on her first day. Since the town is so small there is no bus service. The kids either walk, drive or ride their bikes to school.

Kim and Hadley saying goodbye. Kim was very excited about going to school but Hadley was very jealous of all of the great things Kim gets to play with. Kim sitting waiting for the rest of the class to get settled.

Hadley got really bored waiting for Kim to get out of school.

Kim and Hadley are seperated for the first time in a very long time. They surprisingly enough did really well. But they were very happy to see eachother again.

Kim was the first in line out of class. She is the class leader many of the times when they go to the library, PE, computer class, science class and recess.
Kim is showing off her first school project called "Helping Hands."

Hadley on the other hand is going to "Daddy's School." Dave and Hadley take Kim to school and then go for walks, the library and they work on her colors and numbers. They both are having fun.

Last Minute Trip!

2007-07-02T20:43:00.001-07:00

I got home from a very long month of traveling. Being home only 20% of the month I was ready for a break. I had travelled all over California these last few weeks and I get a call from Dave saying we have something planned for this weekend so be ready. I thought it would just be a great relaxing weekend at home. Little did I know we weren't staying home this weekend. At the very last minute we decided to go to Zion's National Park in Utah. Yes you saw that right we were in southern Utah this weekend. We really needed a weekend out with just our little family. It gave Dave and I a chance to chat and the girls got a fun time with both Mom and Dad with NO work! We took some great pictures.
We stayed in St. George, Utah on Saturday night. We stopped by to visit the Temple in St. George. It was so beautiful.

We got some great pictures of Zion's National Park.

A picture of Dave and the girls standing on the slick-rock. It isn't really slick until it gets wet. So needless to say it was really easy to walk on.

This hill was really neat. It was white on the top portion and the bottom is red. It looks like someone put a white rock on top of a red rock. The picture just doesn't do it justice. We had a great time as a family.

4 Wheel Drive Trip to Big Bear, CA

2007-07-02T20:35:00.000-07:00

This picture is one that Kim took on our last 4 wheel drive trip to Big Bear. Hadley is usually scared of us airing down the tires. (Letting the air out of your tires, yes on purpose!)

This is Hadley just being really cute. Kim took this picture!
We took some great pictures of the Jeep. We found a couple out on the trail that wanted to follow along. We ended up having a great time.

Fun Pictures of the Girls

2007-06-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

Kim loves to take pictures of things around the house and when we go out off roading. She is actually really good at it. Instead of grounding her from toys we ground her from the camera. Here are some pictures.This is just a really cute picture of Kim.

We took some great pictures up in Vancouver when we were up there as well. These are the girls' glasses from Grammy & Auntie Heather.

The girls played with Grammie in a field with our cousin Norah and Auntie Heather. The girls had so much fun.

I know it is a fuzy picture but it does show my new hair style (cut and color).

Dave's Birthday

2007-06-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

Well I am finally going to blog again. We took some great pictures of Dave's birthday. Dave is telling Hadley not to blow out his candles. She kept trying so they finally blew them out together.

As a tradition in our family we always lick the frosting off the candles. Kim and Hadley had a great time doing that.

Dave's favorite gift for any occasion is socks. He loves the smell!
Then he convenience Hadley to smell them as well. What I didn't get was the picture of Hadley's face after she smelled the socks. She looked at Dave really confused as to why she was smelling socks!?!His next favorite thing to get is dishes. Yes, Dishes! He asks me monthly if he can purchase a new set of dishes. So I bought him new dishes and then at his birthday party he got another set from Robert, Mindy, Lecia and Walter.

Hadley's Birthday... Yes more

2007-03-27T12:42:00.000-07:00

Hadley had a great time opening her gifts.

I was helping her open a gift from Uncle Rbert and Aunt Mindy. She can't wait to see inside.

Inside was a set of large legos which both girls love. We built everything you see here.

Hadley's Birthday Continued

2007-03-16T19:18:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of Hadley's cake. I tried something this year that didn't work as well as I had wanted it to. So it isn't the greatest cake but Hadley sure loved it.

Hadley's Birthday

2007-03-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

Hadley's birthday was last weekend and we had a great time celebrating it. On Friday March 2, 2007 Hadley turned 3. She asked for Bacon, Eggs and Sticky Buns for breakfast so that is what we made. We were having a little party for her on Sunday so we didn't make 2 cakes. We just figured the sticky buns were sweet enough we could put a candle in it. So here she is blowing out the candle.

She had asked for Peter Pan the movie for her birthday. At the Disney Store you can preorder movies and they often times come with lithographs (pictures from the actual movie). Since the girl’s room is decorated in Tinker Bell we thought it would be very appropriate to hang them in her room.

Hadley got a princess castle with several of the Disney Princess Dolls. She and Kim love it so much. They play with it all of the time.

Nana came down for Hadley's birthday and she gave Hadley a tea set. Kim got one for Christmas and Hadley has been so jealous of it. Now that Hadley has her own, Kim is very jealous because Hadley has more pieces to her tea set than Kim. But they play tea together all of time. They are always bringing Dave and me things to eat and drink. They take our order just like a waitress and then they bring us our (pretend) food.

The Jeep got a lift!

2007-02-24T17:10:00.000-08:00

Dave has been wanting a lift for the Jeep to enable us to do a little more challenging trails than what we could do with the stock Jeep. Today we put it on. He got it on Thursday and couldn't wait for the weekend to put it on.

Kim saw what he was doing and insisted on helping. She had chores in the house to get done before she was allowed to go out and play with Dad. So she quickly finished her chores and ran outside.

Once Hadley had heard how much fun Kim was having she too wanted to go out and help. I really wanted to go and help too so we made it a family activity.

Once the lift was on the girls played in the car while I put the tools away and Dave cleaned up. Hadley decided that she was taking the wheel. Man, I am scared for her to drive!

While my little racer was sitting in the front seats dreaming of the day she can drive, Kim was in the back. She talks about going to Disneyland again. She keeps a map with her almost all of the time and it comes to haunt us. She and Hadley talk about all the rides they are going to go on the next time we go to Disneyland. Which by the way will be on March 5. Hadley is getting a her annual pass because we finally have to start paying for her because she will be 3 years old. I can't believe how fast these last few years have gone. I definitely love the age my girls are at. I don't have to do bottles, pacifiers, nor diapers. They bring so much life to our home.

If I can't see you, You can't see me!

2007-01-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

Kim loves to hid under blankets and try to sneak out of her room at night. She also does it in very random places. Like Robert's church basketball game.

Kim loves to hide under blankets.

Kim as a Princess Duck!

2007-01-26T14:08:00.000-08:00

The Girls Having Fun!

2007-01-26T14:06:00.000-08:00

Hadley eating!

Katie's Birthday

2007-01-26T14:02:00.000-08:00

My birthday was Jan 17th and Robert and Mindy came over Sunday to celebrate it. The girls had a blast. We had chips and dip for lunch. I know it was so healthy but we had 7 layer dip so there was lots of veggies and fiber there. We also had Ranch & Onion dip so we got our dairy in as well.

Hadley Got Makeup from Santa

2007-01-15T17:57:00.000-08:00

Hadley was so excited to get some makeup from Santa that she had to put some on.

Ain't she sweet?

The girls loved tearing into the wrapping paper

2007-01-15T17:12:00.000-08:00

The girls loved tearing the paper. There was no question on what they are supposed to do with all of these presents. TEAR AWAY GIRLS!

Christmas 2006

2007-01-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

Here we have the ever famous PJ's. In the Kruse family it is tradition to open pajama's every Christmas Eve. Dave helped with the wrapping this year. You can always tell a Dave wrapping from anyone else. The item usually doesn't make it out of the shopping bag he purchases it in. To be decorative he will often put a ribbon around the plastic bag. I have to love him. He says, "At lease I wrapped it."

Christmas 2006

2007-01-15T16:46:00.000-08:00

Okay I know I am a little behind on this. I have brought my camera to work for the last 2 weeks with the intention of updating my Blog page after work but I haven't had a chance. I have been working like crazy. One class after another. I will put in pictures once I get my office put together. Which will happen next week. So Be looking for those pictures later.

This year we spent Christmas at our new home in Whittier, CA. It was just the 4 of us but we had a great time. We opend some presents on Christmas Eve and some on Christmas Day. We finally got a tree a week before Christmas but soon realized we didn't have any lights. The girls were so set on decorating the tree that we decorated it without any lights and then once I picked some lights up we had to undecorate and redecorate the tree. It made up for getting the tree so late in the season. The girls did really well this year in helping out. Hadley helped with the lights and Kim hung all the ornaments all on one side of the tree. Dave had to help her out with spreading them out over the entire tree. Overall we had a great time.

Just wondering if this is working

2007-01-05T20:17:00.000-08:00

I am posting this to see if the emails are being sent out when I publish.

Welcome to the Dave & Katie Butler Family Website

2007-01-05T19:47:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Dave & Katie Butler Family website! I have been thinking about doing this for quite a while. Now I have done it! I am sorry I haven't been good about sending out pictures of the girls. Now I can just publish them and you get to look at them when you get a chance. I am so excited about putting this together that I totally forgot all the pictures. So I am going to be borrowing a few pictures of from family memebers. Thank you for all of your pictures. I will post more later when I remember my camera. We want you to know how much we miss all of you and can't wait to see all of you again.