Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, Happy Anniversary, Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so behind on blogging but there has been so much more fun stuff to do!

First off, we're expecting a GIRL in March! We are so excited and I've been working frantically to get everything together for the baby's room! I'll post pictures of what we've done as soon as it's all together! Happy that tomorrow marks the 3rd trimester and we are getting closer to meeting this little girl! Traveling back to Thanksgiving...we got stranded in Idaho due to weather and did not make it to Portland. So, we crashed Ben's sister's house for Thanksgiving and had a great time. Above is Hyrum and his cousin Candace-they have become quite good friends lately and it is so cute to see them play together! Below is Hyrum helping shovel some of the snow we have received lately!
This is Hyrum Thanksgiving morning with our dog Chloe.

Daddy & Hyrum Thanksgiving morning.

Please excuse the out of order pics...here is from last Saturday night! We've enjoyed a whole week off with Ben between Christmas and New Years so Ben wanted to grow is beard! Here's what a weeks worth of no shaving is! Silly man! Yes, there is a beard but the camera doesn't do it justice!

Since we could not travel to Portland for Thanksgiving, and I had to work Christmas Eve...we talked my mom and brother into coming out for Christmas! Hyrum enjoying his new "snowmobile" (it's a sled that looks like a snowmobilie) on Christmas afternoon. He got so spoiled and it is hard for him to pick which is his favorite Christmas present...snowmobile sled, train table, or train tracks from G&G Butcher?

Hyrum playing outside/helping dad shovel.

I've been busy crafting lately...Ben's cousin Lindsay came up with this cute nativity idea and one cold December day Lindsay, Amber (Lindsay's friend) and I put these together! Thought they turned out so cute! Thanks Lindsay!

Not the best picture but I've always wanted an advent calendar and have never been able to find one that was also a nativity. I got searching online and found this pattern on etsy and bought it and made myself one! This is how it turned out! There is a different character for all 24 days. Hyrum really enjoyed it and I look forward to the tradition every year now!

Here is the Butcher Family Christmas morning. Please excuse me...I was up all night!

Hyrum going right to his train table! Thanks Daddy, Grandma, Dallas, & Uncle Nate for putting things together all night!

Hyrum on his snowmobile sled! Such a happy boy!

Christmas Eve our neighbors got home from snowmobiling and Hyrum happened to be out walking with Grandma and Uncle Nate. They asked if he could sit on the the snowmoblie...he was in heaven. This picture will soon reside in Hyrum's room and he asks to look at it on my camera every day!

Dec 23rd we decorated sugar cookies for Santa. I'm not sure how many Hyrum decorated versus ate?

The family decorating...

A few weeks before Christmas we had dinner with some family and I made baby Paige this tutu for Christmas. Thought it turned out cute and can't wait to make one for our little girl!

My work party had Santa visit and Hyrum did better this year. He loved that Santa gave him a monster truck at this party and until Christmas was convinced that Santa only brought monster trucks. We'd see Santa at th mall and he'd ask to go see him to get another monster truck. Now he has realized Santa brings other great things too!

Cute little snow angel!

Feel guilty about this but...Hyrum can sing Jingle Bells! We didn't figure this out until several days after Christmas because we've never taught him this song. He told us he learned it at nursery! Here's a video of him singing!

Also, for G&G Butcher, here is Hyrum saying thank you for his train set since he refuses to talk on the phone! Thank you!

I almost forgot to mention that Ben & I celebrated 5 years of marriage Dec 17th! Love you sweetie!

We had a very blessed holidays and can't wait for all the exciting things 2011 will bring. We hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a wonderful 2011 as well!

October Fun!

October has been exciting for us! Somewhere mid month we went to Ben's sister's house for dinner and a halloween carnival at her kid's school. Hyrum was a dinasour this year (this was my little brother's costume when he was little). He loved the carnival and being with his 5 girly cousins! Above is Hyrum and Candace...the princess and the dinasour. Below is all the kids(except baby Paige). Kayla the nerd, Michelle was Jenny from Harry Potter, Candace the princess, Ashley the Cowgirl, and Hyrum the dinasour.
Tuesday October 26th we drove down to SLC and left for our trip to VA! Hyrum was so excited for the airplane ride! Thank goodness for portable dvd players or our airplane ride experience might have left us never wanting to travel again!

We did many fun things in VA-especially spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Butcher. Wednesday (not pictured) we went swimming at the rec center because it was raining all day. Thursday was beautiful and warm (I got sunburned) spent at cox farms. Cox farms is a not so little pumpkin patch with hay rides and farm animals and slides for the kids to play on. Hyrum was in heaven. Below is the crew getting ready for the hay ride. I had to stay behind and watch due to it being too bumpy for prego people.

Hyrum and the grandparents.

Hyrum behind the tractor picture.

They had goats that you could feed/pet which Hyrum loved. We opted out on spending the extra dollar to buy food for them which turned out to be a good idea because any kid that had food was being attacked by the goats! Hyrum wanted to touch all of them!

Hyrum chasing the goats.

The highlight of cox farms were the tractors you could sit on. We had a 2 year old melt down trying to pull him off. He was in heaven!

Family of 3 on tractors!

Hyrum on John Deer Tractor. Any tractor we passed he had to sit on and he still talks about the tractors from cox farms!

Ben took Hyrum down a rather large slide for a 2 year old and Hyrum loved it! He has no fear!

The one and only picture from Saturday...our day at the National Zoo in DC. This was probably my favorite day. We got to see all the animals and spend a beautiful day outside. No...we did not go to the Jon Stewart rally on the mall-but saw many rally-ers with signs walking downtown!

Back to Thursday...that evening we went to visit Ben's brother Rodney and his family. We went to Hyrum's only boy cousin's soccer game. Austin and Hyrum.

More of what Hyrum is used to...girls. Here is Jocelyn and Ella smothering Hyrum! He loved them and was sad to leave!

Friday we spent visiting our good friends the Freemans and their cute new additions (twins!). Cari was nice enough to take some family pics of us(will picture later). That night we ditched the kids and went downtown to a restaurant/miniature golf course in DC. I had to be carded to enter which was funny...Ben teased me that I wasn't old enough...j/k. It was fun!

Back to Saturday...we went to our old ward's trunk or treat and halloween dinner. Hyrum with our pumpkins from cox farms. So excited to get candy!

At the carnival he got a dinasour painted on his cheek. That is the most still I've ever seen him sit!

Hyrum loved trunk or treating and proceeded to say "love you bye bye" to everyone that gave him candy. He sure is a cutie! We are home now and happy to get back to normal...in come the holidays! Can't wait for the holidays and spending time with family! We leave for Portland in 3 weeks (unless a blizzard insues) for Thanksgiving. Time is flying by. We got a sneak peek of our baby but no revealing the sex yet...we'll have a 2nd confirmation on Monday and then let the buying begin!

Below is Hyrum singing itsy bitsy spider...twice. He has started trying to sing and it is so cute! Had to share!

Good News!

So we've only been waiting forever to finally share but here we go! We are pregnant and it's just one! Above is the two embryos we put in at 5 days old. Only one survivied which we are super okay with so we're 12 weeks now and due March 29, 2011! We are so grateful! Below is at yesterdays dr appt! So cute and less bean like!

I've been waiting to share all of what is going on due to my trying not to spill the beans although most people we talk to regularly already know. It's hard to keep a secret when you've done IVF. So, here is a catch up of August and some of September. My mom and brother Nate came out in August for a little over a week. We went to Island park while there and took some fun pictures.

We also did our traditional Redskin pics so here is Hyrum this year!

These pics are all out of order but we went to the zoo too in IF and it was fun. Pigeons and bunnies at a zoo are a little lame though...

Family Redskin Pic.

Island park bear! Hyrum was a little scared at first!

Hyrum and I by the bear.

Hyrum and Nate on the bear.

Hyrum went four wheeling while I stayed at home being a good pregnant lady. Here is Hyrum all decked out! Thanks Patti & Richard for a great weekend and showing us around!

Ben & Hyrum on the four wheeler trip.

Grandma and Hyrum riding.

Hyrum fell asleep on the way home on the four wheeler. So cute!

The family!

Hyrum & Ben.

Grandma and Hyrum.

I cheated a little and took Hyrum for a ride around the cabin.

Grandma got Hyrum some new tools. Here he is showing them off.

This one is for grandma....the race car pjs.

Labor Day weekend we went to the Idaho State Fair. Hyrum loved all the animals! He wanted to touch all of them but the pig "startled me" as he says.

Hyrum and the goat!

I also gave Hyrum his first haircut by myself in a while. It looks not as bad as the ladies I"ve paid to do it lately...

Cutting hair!

So everything is going well. We feel so blessed and happy right now and Hyrum is convinced it is another boy!

Hyrum is doing really well with speech now. He has been going for 6 months and we retested him and he is age appropriate now! Yeah! We're going to keep going through the end of the year but we're really excited. The speech therapist told me the first day he would need speech until kindergarten. She was so shocked how fast he improved! Hooray!

Our next big adventure is Virginia in 6 weeks! We can't wait to go see our family/friends out there and all of us get to go! Hyrum is excited for the airplane ride! It will be a quick trip of 6 days but we can't wait!