Memorial Weekend Recap

So not all of these pictures are from the weekend but here we go! We had a busy Memorial day weekend. Ben flew to Des Moines on Friday for his brother's graduation and flew home Saturday night. Hyrum and I went to Island Park with family and friends Friday night and came home Saturday to pick up Ben. Sunday was church and work for me that night. Monday we washed cars and played in the sun and enjoyed a quiet bbq! Now we can rest! Above is a picture of Hyrum in his favorite summer pjs. They have "goggies" aka doggies all over them.
Above is a picture of Hyrum eating dirt in our backyard and playing with the hose (his favorite outdoor toy). He now likes grass which is fun!
Below is a cute picture of Hyrum smiling! Getting so big now!

Daddy and Hyrum going for a walk.

Here is my mom and Hyrum and I at Island park. We went for 4-wheeler ride to some natural springs and had fun.

Hyrum gripping the bars! He loved going for rides!

Mommy and Hyrum cruising!

Grandma, Hyrum, and doggie enjoying the morning!

The kids! From L to R: Braxton, Nathan, Hyrum, and Madison. (Tyler and Steph's kids on the edges). They were just waking up!

We had a great weekend and enjoyed the great weather! Happy late Memorial Day!

Below is a video of Hyrum and I four wheeling for the grandparents.

Dr. Butcher

I forgot to put on my last post what we did last Monday night. Ben's brother Michael has been living on and off with us for the past 4 months and he is now graduating medical school and going to become a Doctor! Horray! He leaves this weekend for graduation (Ben's going) and so we had a little family party Monday night at Ben's sister's house to say goodbye. Of course, I forgot my camera but for part of his graduation present I framed these pictures of Hyrum for him. Michael is going to West Virginia to do his residency in urology and Hyrum has some WV attire (from his roots as Ben says, although I don't know I want to claim WV as roots due to the reputation-just kidding). Anyway-thought they were cute pics so here you go! We had fun with our family and seeing Michael one last time. Next time I see him he'll REALLY be a doctor-graduated and all. Congrats Michael! We proud of you!

Happy Late Mother's Day!

We had a busy but fun Mother's day weekend. Not to bore you but I'll catch you up on our happenings...yes I'm writing from work tonight at 0100 so excuse my randomness.
Friday Ben had the day off so we headed down to Pocatello to stay with my mom. We had yummy pizza and quality time with family. Saturday we left Hyrum and Ben & I drove down to Utah for his cousin's wedding reception. We made it a date day and were spoiled with Chipotle burritos for lunch (I'm thinking of starting a chain in Idaho I miss it so much j/k) and then a session at the Bountiful temple. It was beautiful. I had been there once before but it was rushed so it was nice to take our time. We then made a quick pit stop at Ikea to pick up a few items- really miss that store too! We then headed up Provo canyon to the old Steven's hot chocolate guy's "summer home." Ben's cousin's husband is a family friend so they got this beautiful reception site-wish I had pics! It had 3 kitchens, a HUGE theatre room, multiple bedrooms very nicely furnished, hot tub, full play ground, tennis courts, stable aka arena, multiple laundry rooms..you get the picture. It was gorgeous for a cabin! We had yummy dinner and got to catch up with the bride and other family. We then made a long drive home and got in around midnight. Ben did awesome driving through the tight construction areas covered with deer! It was scary!
Sunday we spent in Pocatello with my mom for Mother's day. Ben spoiled me with a cricut machine so I can cut vinyl and dicuts now! Thanks sweetie! Mom spoiled us with a combo mothers/fathers day present- a bbq-a big one-not one you have to bend over to use! We love it! So-anyone up for grilling come on by! Now we just got to get the patio done!

Really- it was a great Mother's day weekend with beautiful weather. I'm so grateful to be a mother this year- I thought after trying to have Hyrum for 1 year that last year I would be more grateful-and I was grateful. But this year after losing a baby so close to Mother's day I'm so grateful to be a mommy at all! If he is our only I will be grateful but hopefully we'll get to enjoy more! I love Hyrum so much and he makes me laugh even when I should be telling him no or that he is doing something bad but he is just so darn cute! I love my husband for being such a great partner and helping me be a great mommy. I'm also very grateful for our two mothers who have been great examples to us and showed us love and support. Happy late Mother's Day to all the moms and future moms and new moms!

Bad things come in threes...

Well I was planning on blogging on something completely different but then today happened. They say bad things come in threes and we've hit our three so we should be done now, right? First off, we lost a baby last month. Second, Hyrum had surgery on his ears last Friday. Third, Ben passed out today at work and we spent the last 4 hours in the ER trying to figure out why he does this every now and again. We actually have 4th bad news which is we can't refinance our house because thanks to the market it has dropped in value (but that is only minor compared to the others). So, WE ARE DONE!

Actually, Ben received a blessing tonight that said we are being blessed through our trials and that they come because of our faithfulness. I guess that gives me a little comfort when things aren't going as planned or I feel not faithful enough.

I should mention, Ben is FINE. They did an EKG (heart test) and he had a slightly abnormal thing so we will be following up on that but the dr thinks its minor.

Today is Monday! I hope the week gets better.

I was orginially going to blog about the show "What would you do?". It's a show Ben & I occasionally watch about people posing in different ethical situations and how the public reacts. I had an incident today at Walmart where a couple began fighting in the check out line behind me. They were supposed to be helping a lady in a wheelchair with her two kids grocery shop. They decided to start a domestic dispute...aka fist fight...right behind me in line! This happy couple also has a little baby (why can crazy people have kids but not normal ones?) which they begin pulling at the carseat to decide who is going to take the kid because the relationship's over. Talk about white trash! I immediately jump in and tell them to knock it off and leave the baby out of it. He proceeds to punch the lady and then they run outside with the baby-leaving the poor wheelchair bound lady with her kids running down the aisles. Finally the "bright" cashier decides to call security but by the time they show up the couple has fleed. I try and help the wheelchair lady but she insists she's okay. I head out to the parking lot to find the security guards talking by some carts-not even attempting to look for the happy couple. I kept waiting for the host of the TV show to come out and ask why I decided to jump in the middle and why the others decided to rally around me once I began (as this normally happens on the show). I was dumbfounded to find out people behave like that in public for real! Needless to say-I might switch to Fred Meyer after the way employees handled things!

He's Alive!

Hyrum had a bilateral myringotomy (ear tubes) today (early this morning). We had to be there at 0530 and he did great. He was very snuggly before the procedure and did not want to get into his hospital gown. The anesthesiologist gave me a scare because Hyrum started acting like he was getting another ear infection yesterday and the anesthesiologist thought we should wait to do it but the doctor doing the surgery wanted to...anyway....we did it and it turned out fine. These pictures are of Hyrum afterwards (forgot to get some before). He didn't even cry when they took him and he was back within 30minutes. He snuggled with mommy after and only cried when he wanted his applejuice. He is sleeping great today and has been playing some. We are spoiling him with jello and applejuice. We are so glad he is healthy and everything went well. Hopefully no more ear infections!

April 2009 for the Butchers

To start- sorry the pictures are out of order. I'm not a smart blogger. It's been a busy month. It has been really nice weather so we've been outside alot working in the yard and avoiding updating the blog. Last night we drove up to Rexburg-just needed a night out of the big city of IF. We haven't seen the completed Rexburg temple up close since we've been back so we walked around briefly in the frigid wind. It's beautiful though-someday we'll have a chance to do a session...
Here is Hyrum working in the yard. We got a wheelbarrow and Hyrum is so strong he can push it around the yard! (empty of course) Below is Hyrum riding in the wheelbarrow being pushed by daddy.

So fun!

Hyrum is TERRIFIED of the grass. We are working on it. Shoes on-off, doesn't matter-hates grass. He does love to walk on the pavement and play in the dirt and touch the prickily weeds-weird kid. Good thing he's so cute. It's making it hard to get much yardwork done. He also loves to eat the pebbles on our driveway. Whoops!

Hyrum diggin with his dumptruck!

Our big projects right now include figuring out how the sprinklers work and digging a dirt hole for our paverstone patio that we are making. It will be great! We'll take pictures when we're done. I'm also starting a garden which my mom is helping me with because I know nothing. She took us to the nursery today to get some essentials.

We celebrated Easter a week early due to me working all of Easter weekend. Here is a picture of the kids after the Easter egg hunt (Ben's sister's kids). Couldn't get a good picture of all 5 of them looking at the camera at the same time. Good enough for grandma to enjoy though!

Here are the Luke girls (Hyrum's cousins).

Hyrum loved finding the Easter eggs.

Here is him with his Easter duck that quacks annoyingly.

Just one last cute picture of Hyrum-it was obviously a little colder outside.

All in all we're doing well and alive and happy. We've had a few struggles this month but who hasn't! We're grateful for each other and for our small but thriving family!

Hard Week

As promised but VERY late, here are the pictures of our new car-we now own two silver cars. We love our new car though and are grateful for it! I will spare you the haggling details and the frustrating car dealers but I must say-when we finally got to this car it was a piece of cake! It snowed like 5inches today so I was really grateful to have the 4wd! We glided across the snow!
Inside view and another side view. Check out the nav!

No-we did not get a dog. This is Hyrum with my grandparent's new puppy. My mom's parents came to visit and we went to see them at Grandma's house. Hyrum loved the puppy-sorry kid not getting one anytime soon! Cute pic of Hyrum though!

Well, we've had kinda a hard week this week. Between work and time off Hyrum has gotten another ear infection and has to get tubes put in his ears. I'm not excited he has to have surgery but I am hoping this will terminate our weekly visits to Dr. E. He must be sick of us coming and I'm sick of antibiotics! Poor Hyrum just got done with a 3 day course of Rocephin (antibiotic) shots for this current ear infection. We meet with the ENT in 2 weeks and then we'll set a date for tubes.

The saddest part of my week happened on April 1st. My grandpa (Dad's Dad) died at the age of 94. Now I know he lived a good long life but it is still very sad and I miss him and feel for my grandma right now. I feel sad that she has to be alone and go through this. They had 71 years together of marriage. My grandpa was an OBGYN and I loved to talk to him about medical things. Also, in his later years (like 90) he went back to college to take computer classes. He also was a craftsman and carved beautiful wooden birds that look authentic. I will miss him so much and can't wait to see him in the future. It gives me temple work to do!


Here is Hyrum walking...not doing it perfectly but he's trying much more now.