From Hawaii to Virginia and Everywhere in between!

Can I just warn you that this will probably be my longest post ever! So much has happened and it is not in any kind of order! On a whim...this last weekend I flew to Virginia for a "me" weekend. My good friend Cari is expecting twins in March and my wonderful in-laws flew me out for her shower. The picture above is the whole clan at the shower. It was so fun to see everyone and catch up. Better yet was that she didn't know I was coming so it was a jaw-dropping experience for her! So fun to see her cute belly growing! Below is the mommy-to-be!

This is Hyrum's baby blanket...for those who wanted to know, and you know who you are.

Happily reunited after Hawaii! Hyrum has gone through a little separation anxiety with all of our traveling but we are starting to get back to normal.

Our last day in Hawaii we went to Diamond Head Crater and hiked up it. This was part of the hike...steep stairs!

Had to laugh because on the USS Bowfin there was this placard showing how to do CPR. On your tummy?

USS Missouri! We got to explore the boat! Ben was like a kid in disney land!

Me in front of the big guns!

Me driving the USS Missouri...kinda!

This is me in the USS Bowfin (the submarine). Small hallways.

Ben peeking through the same hole!

USS Arizona. What an amazing memorial. It was really neat to walk around on it and see the sunken ship and remember what happened at Pearl Harbor.

The view near our hotel in Waikiki.

The girl baby blanket I made for Cari. Just wanted to have some pics to remeber it by.

Ben on the North shore. We drove up to see the Big waves!

Us in front of the Laie Temple. Unfortunately its under construction so we couldn't do a session. It was still beautiful and we walked through the visitors center.

Our dinner at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Yup...thats a dead pig!

Us at the PCC eating dinner!

The USS Missouri again.

Inside the Arizona Memorial. It was beautiful but windy!

Us before we boarded the submarine USS Bowfin.

All the boys watching football in Portland after our trip.

Many thanks to my mom who watched Hyrum for us. He really enjoyed her hot tub and is not scared of water whatsoever. He loves to dunk his head and blow bubbles and even jump off of the step! My mom said she got the best sleep she had in a long time the week she watched him! Thanks!

Ben's cousin had her baby 3 days after we got home from Hawaii and 1 day before I left for DC. We watched her little boy (thanks to Ben you're the best) during the time and here are the boys in the tub!

View from Diamond Head.

Boy quilt for Cari!

Hyrum with Mr. Potatoe's glasses on.

A cool fish we saw snorkeling at Hanuama bay.

A parrot fish.

Hanuama Bay.

We went to Kailua on the west side to do some kayaking and snorkeling. This was probably our favorite day. Here is Ben eating lunch on the kayak.

How attractive!

Even more attractive right?

Me on Kailua bay. Yes, we were the whitest people in Hawaii. And no, we did not come back brown. Most our coworkers asked if we even went because we were still so white!

It was a great trip full of fun memories. It already feels like forever ago. We had a great January and are excited for Hyrum turning 2 this month! Two years flies by! Now it is back to work and reality! Can't wait until the twins are born for another excuse to go back to Virginia! Aloha!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Can't believe it's 2010. I secretly think how funny it will sound when we tell our kids we were born in the 1980s! It will sound more ancient than when my mom said the 1950s seeing how ours is in a new millenium! Nevertheless, here's to a new decade and year! My picture are all out of wack but above was taken today! Hyrum and our snowman. We got about 6+ inches of snow the last day or so and we've had fun playing in it. Hyrum loves the snow!

Sorry this picture is sideways...forgot to turn it. Cute though.
Here is our house all covered in snow. My mom gave us her snowblower when she moved. We happily used it once and then went to use it last night and nothing...its broken. It is old and we'll see about fixing it...guess tonight we're clearing the snow the old fashioned way...shoveling!

We sadly took down our Christmas decorations yesterday and Hyrum loved reading his books in the boxes!

Ben's been home this past week and we've really enjoyed it. We went to Rigby to see his cousin Lindsey and their new lab puppies. Only a week old! Hyrum loved them. NO we will not be getting one! I haven't forgotten the puppy stages yet!

This picture is taken from Christmas morning. We had a great Christmas holiday! This is the best present and probably could have been the only because he has rarely gotten out of it since Christmas morning. He cries when we pull him out! He proceeded to open all his presents in the car that morning.

I worked Christmas Eve so Ben kindly fixed breakfast for us Christmas morning. Here are my two boys Christmas morning. I then got to sleep for 2 hrs and then finish Christmas in Rexburg with Ben's family.

Ben's Aunt Colleen sent Hyrum this cute outfit! Such a handsome boy!

Ben's parents came for Christmas and it was great. They stayed with us a few nights and Hyrum really enjoyed being with them. We also appreciated the babysitting, date nights, and quality time with them. Some highlights included going on a sleigh ride/dinner/date show in Ririe. It was fun and a nice kid free adventure for all the adults!

I got brave and made sugar cookies with Hyrum one day before Christmas. He loved playing in the flour. Think he's a little to young for this tradition still!

Ben's parents and Hyrum!

Hyrum first thing on Christmas morning. Of course he had no idea it was Christmas and was probably wondering why I took pictures of him?

Handsome boy again.

Hyrum & I Christmas morning. Don't judge...I had just worked all night.

Here is a little video of Hyrum sledding yesterday in the snow. I was holding two cameras at once trying to film so sorry for the shakiness.

We're looking forward to the adventures 2010 brings. We are excited for our trip to Hawaii in 2 weeks! After living in cold a warm 80s sounds nice. We've got other little trips planned/scheduled too that we look forward too. Can't believe my baby will be 2 soon! Time flies!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

So I am really slacking with blogging...I've been wanting to post Thanksgiving for a while now just haven't got around to it yet! Well, so much has changed I have to remember what to catch up on. Mom and Nate came for 6 days for Thanksgiving and it was great. We miss them now that they are gone but excited because Butcher grandparents come tonight! Anyway, my mom helped me cook the big turkey dinner and it turned out yummy with lots and lots of food and leftovers. We put up our Christmas tree while they were here so here is Hyrum & Nate showing it off. Christmas is a lot different than last year. Hyrum is more into the tree than we'd hoped. Lets just say all the unbreakable ornaments are on the bottow for him to pull off and on all day. He loves to tell us the lights are "hot."
We've had more snow but this was our first big snow and Hyrum loved it!
Below is just Hyrum and Nate being silly.

We drove up past Ririe to a Snake River outlook and my mom kindly took Christmas card pictures. Sorry if you didn't get a card. Leave me your address and I can send you one if you want. Here is one of the ones we used.

My Cute boys Thanksgiving morning. Hyrum is really into "hats" right now.

Guess Ben was taking this picture but here is most of the Thanksgiving gang!

Grandma & Hyrum.

My sister-in-law Becky told me about a great find. Free pictures with Santa at BYU-I one night of the year! We hauled Hyrum up there to get our picture with Santa. ( I wasn't about to pay $30 like last year for 3 crying pictures of Hyrum). Here is 3/4 of Becky's girls with Santa.
I guess I just realized Hyrum's pic with Santa is lower...so keep scrolling.

My little boy loves to wear daddy's redskin crocs all around the house!

He is my child...he loves chocolate kisses!

Two years in a row...still doesn't like Santa. He was a really nice Santa though.

Lastly, tomorrow is Ben & I's 4th wedding anniversary! Can't believe how time has flown! I am so grateful for him and the wonderful husband and daddy he is. He is so selfless and helpful I couldn't ask for more. Since our anniversary is 1 week before Christmas we decided to celebrate a month late and go to Hawaii! We are dropping Hyrum off in Portland with grandma and then heading to Hawaii for 6 days. We are super excited and figure we might as well do it now...who knows when we will get another chance! After 2 weeks of -15degrees the peace of the 80's sound great! Already I'm missing Hyrum but it will be good for us.

We also found out the week of Thanksgiving that I have some genetic thing where I don't absorb folic acid properly and clot my blood easier. (MTHFR) Don't ask what it stand for cause I don't know! The doctor has given me a baby aspirin and 2 extra pills of folic acid to take for now. Heparin and more folic acid will probably be the prescript when I get pregnant again. Not looking forward to the Heparin shots...wish I still had a my nurse friend that lived across the street-why did we move again? Ben has already said he won't give them to me. Any takers? Really, this is a blessing to find this out and its a pretty okay thing to have instead of lupus or ms. Just makes me even more grateful for Hyrum- he is our little miracle. Hopefully next time we will have better luck! Hope to have some good news next year!

Ben's parents are coming for Christmas. We are excited to see them. Hyrum hasn't seen grandpa in 14 months! He's changed quite a bit! (Hyrum that is). We look forward to a week of family packed fun! Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and I'll try to post Christmas pictures before Valentines!

Halloween Pictures

So this is going to be another long post but there are too many cute pictues to choose from. I have been working on a baby quilt for my cousin-in-law so I finally finished the quilt top. My mom is going to help me put the rest together. Below is a picture of Ben & Hyrum before church. Too cute and hansome!

Handsome boy! I have to post any and all pictures that he smiles for because it is rare these days. I miss when he was such a ham for the camera and he could be screaming and then I pull out the camera and he smiles....gone are those days!!

My pictures are never in order so here is Halloween backwards! Here is our adorable litte frog with his loot! We wore Uncle Nathan's froggy costume from when he was this age. Now he is almost 12! Crazy!

We hiked up to Rexburg to be with Ben's sister for Halloween(they have a much better trick or treating neighborhood...rich houses). Here are the girls + Hyrum.

Cute froggy!

Frog & dog.

If we ask him to wave to the camera he will wave and smile. He loved the carved pumpkin!

Peeking under pumpkin's "Hat."

First time with costume on. He cried every time we took it off. He loved wearing it. Too bad its a little hot for the house!

Froggy boy!

For family home evening last week we carved our pumpkin. We did it close to bedtime so nothing extravagant was carved. Hyrum was disgusted by the pumpkin guts. I thought he would love them but instead he cried when I tried to make him touch them. We carved our pumpkin on old "Friend" magazines. He was more content flipping through the magazine than carving the pumpkin.

Before carving!

Here are two videos of Hyrum....one of him and the girls saying Happy Halloween. Another of him showing us the parts of the pumpkin. Enjoy!

Is October really almost over???

So I realized I've been slacking in the blogging department but we've been busy...kinda. Ben finally got our gutters up on the back of our house and so the compromise was that if he did that we could paint and finish (kinda) our bedroo. So, we painted it tan and brown and I made the curtains (above). The are chocolate brown corderoy (sp?). I know its a weird fabric choice but being a nurse, I need something thick to block out the light during the day for napping! Below is our focus wall the dark brown. The camera put a weird dot on the wall that is not there actually.
This is the wall to our bathroom. Just tan. It was actually really fun and we felt like we did a better job than when we painted Hyrum's room. It took all week (working nights only) to finish but it is done and we like it!

I have been feeling crafty lately and actually went to enrichment and made this turkey. Don't know why its blog worthy but I thought it was cute!

Now to the main event. This is Hyrum this morning doing his "I'm too sexy for my..." pose. Yes, the dog scratched his face multiple times this morning. Like his pjs?

This is what entertains me all day! So cute and funny! Still loves the vaccum!

Last Saturday we took Hyrum to a great little pumpkin patch that Ben's coworker tipped us off to. It was really cheap and tons of pumpkins to choose from. Hyrum had a blast! Next year maybe we'll try the train ride and corn maze that went along with it!

Look at all these mom!

So it has been cooler (although this week it is nice) so on our evening walks we've had to bundle Hyrum up! Such a cutie!

We call it his marshmallow coat!

One night after our walk we took his hat off to find this...

He thinks mittens are pretty cool. Hence the thumbs up (although I'm pretty sure his thumb wasn't in the thumb spot)

His new thing in the bathtub is to eat bubbles. He had a bubble beard. Funny boy!

I just realized there were a few more pictures I wanted to post but I think this will due for now. I can't believe my little boy will be 2 in 4 months! How time flies! He is so fun and funny and we love every minute of him!

I've been filling my days with little projects to keep busy. I'm already dreading winter and the long days inside. Thank goodness the holidays are in winter to keep us busy!

To clarify...I am not pregnant. Yes I was, we actually lost another baby a few days ago and look forward to going to see the doctor next week to find out what is wrong with me! j/k. I just have to remember to be patient and try to be on the "Lord's time." It really is a miracle to have Hyrum and I can be happy with that...but I can still hope for more too! We are happy and doing well. Ben's excited to not have to mow the lawn anymore and we're looking forward to our families coming for the holidays! I love this time of year!

Long Post Warning

Warning Long Post Ahead! Can't believe its been like 5 weeks since I blogged and we've been busy. Hyrum turned 18 months! (above picture on that day). He is 34 inches tall, 24 lbs 11oz, and a wild man! We love him! I finally got around to doing something with my blank walls and this is what I did on our wall in our living room. (below)
Here is my big 18 month old again!

Shortly before my mom moved to Oregon we got her to take a few family pics of us. Here is Hyrum not wanting to be piggy back anymore in our Redskin jerseys. Yes, he can still wear the same one from last summer (we can wear ours too j/k). He posed much better last year. He's too busy moving now!

Here is the best family pic we could get!

Ben's mom came from Virginia and visited for a couple weeks. We went to Yellowstone with the whole family in a 12 passenger van and what an adventure! It was really fun. We also stopped by the Tetons and went through Jackson on the way home. Here is us under the famous arches.

Ben & I with the Tetons in the background.

The beautiful Tetons. It was kinda smokey that day due to wildfires-so not as spectacular in photo.

Saw Old Faithful blow... Hyrum could have cared less about watching it blow but was more facinated pushing his stroller around and picking up little rocks and throwing them everywhere.

This is our typical lunch time. He loves to take the PB&J apart and smear it everywhere! So cute though, how can you get mad?

Just a cute picture. Love him!

Earlier in Sept we went to Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot and took Hyrum to see the animals. He loved it!

Here is with the horses. He wasn't too sure about petting something bigger than him!

So I messed up and this picture is crooked but Hyrum loves to vacuum! I was trying to get him dressed for church one day and this was his top priority. Funny kid. Warning, partially nude photo!

Here he is hard at work.

We've been busy having my mom move and then having Ben's mom come and now things are finally starting to settle down. Football season is here and fall is arriving.

I'm still trying to like our dog. What was I thinking? Seriously, anyone can HAVE her for free! I'm trying to train her but I feel like I have two 18 month olds-a baby would have been much easier-diapers and no movement!

No headway on the baby front either...we are going to be starting some tests in the next few months to find out what's going on. I know I got pregnant somehow before and hopefully it will happen again. Still have some sad days realizing I should be huge pregnant and having a baby this December but faith keeps us going! Wish us luck!

Meet our new BABY Chloe

Meet Chloe Butcher...no we are not expecting, but we did jump ship and get a purebred black lab puppy today. She is six weeks old and TINY! Hyrum loves her and so far she has been so good. Knock on wood...she has not peed or pooped in our house yet...only outside. And she has only barked mildly and rarely. Here are some pictures of our new baby!
Hyrum loves playing with her.

Such a cute face!

Sleeps most of the day!

More playful this evening so far!

Figured this would give me something to do while I wait to have another baby. Should be intersting these next few days!