Precious Gift

We didn't get a ton of pictures of Lily on her blessing day and by the time we did Lily had just about had it. Ashleigh was so sweet and took a few pictures of her for us. Here are my favorites: Here is the one picture we did get the day of:
I loved her blessing day. I love seeing our entire family together. I'm always so touched to see all these amazing men surround a little baby to give them a blessing. It's always a crazy day that I kinda dread to be honest, but it is great when all is said and done.

I'm a mean old witch with a hat...

My mom and I took the girls to "Breakfast with a Witch" at Gardner Village to kick off the Halloween season. It was so fun! Brea was in total awe of the witches. She only got scared once when a witch asked her if she could eat Lily. She was so cute and put her had on Lily and said hesitantly "...No..." The food was really yummy too! We'll definitely be making that a Halloween tradition!This was the witch that asked to eat Lily. Brea's not so sure about her.Brea and all the fabulous witches. What a blast!Brea rode the horses afterwards. She LOVES them. I've always wanted horses but wasn't too sure if I could talk Andrew into it... maybe Brea can!Sweet Lily K. after we got home. She is smiling for her Papa Bill. She LOVES him!!! And P.S. Lily is starting to get hair- YEAH! I was so sad for my sweet bald baby for a while but it looks like there is hope!

Announcing- Lily Kathryn Butler

So, here's the story. It was July 18th and I was thinking I still had AT LEAST two if not three weeks until our new addition joined us. I had been doing things like setting up her room, making about a billion freezer meals, going through Brea's old baby clothes... etc. I was totally waiting until the last minute on things because I was prepared for Brea like a month or two in advance and it drove me crazy so I was like I am going to only deep clean the house ONCE not 4 times like I did with Brea just to give me something to do and I didn't want to have to get up every morning and stare at that dang packed and ready hospital bag. Well, BIG SUPRISE... baby girl Butler #2 did not follow after her sister who was a week late... she came 2 weeks early. My bag was not packed, our SD cards on our camera's were totallly full, my house was a DISASTER, and we had yet to decide on a name for this little one. (WARNING: the following play-by-play may contain a little too much information, if you're worried just scroll down to the cute pics of Lily K.)A few weeks prior I had bought tickets to Harry Potter and planned for Brea to sleep out at my parents house so Andrew and I could have a hot date night (HELLO, Harry Potter- what's not hot about that date night?!) So, we went to the movie and ran to Wal-Mart afterwards to pick stuff up I needed for dinner the next day. We are standing in the check-out line and -SUPER FUN- I am TOTALLY confused... Did I just pee my pants??? I know pregnancy is tough on your bladder but this was not the normal "ooops" you may experience when you've held it too long. We start walking out and I ask Andrew if he can see anything and he's like "No... (pause) OH- yeah..." Luckily it was 11:30 at night, the darkness was on my side. So I hop in the truck still a little confused as to what just happened and then my "Maybe" turned into a definitely and I am assuming the most awkward position so as to avoid getting what has just been confirmed from the 2nd "wave" as amniotic fluid all over the car. We get home and I am in COMPLETE denial... I just kept telling Andrew this wasn't happening. I was seriously considering getting my jammies on and crawling into bed. I just kept yelling "I'M NOT READY!!!" Andrew forces me back into the truck and I keep telling myself that this is a nightmare and I am going to wake up in a few minutes... Nope. It didn't work. Lily Kathryn Butler was born the next day: 6 pounds 6 ounces, 19.5 inches long at 12:06 p.m. YEP, this little one took her time and decided not to show up until 12 and a half hours later. But once I got over the denial, we were really happy to have her with us healthy and happy. Here are the pictures Ashleigh took when Lily was four days old.

Not a baby anymore...

I wanted to get Brea's pictures taken before the baby arrived. Ashleigh did an amazing job. You can check out her photography blog: http://www.ashleighsbutler.blogspot.com/

Little did I know that Lily would be joining us only 9 days later!!!

Hoppy Hoppy Easter!

This Easter was really fun because Brea was starting to understand the concept of the Easter bunny coming to visit. We kept letting her know that he would bring her something special and I loved seeing her face when she walked into the family room that morning! She was so excited & I was glad that Andrew wasn't bummed that his basket was half the size of Brea's! P.S. I've discovered that the cellophane wrap is just a total pain in the butt! 1 a.m. Sunday I'm trying to get everything finished up for my parents coming the next morning and I'm wrapping these baskets in the dang stuff thinking "WHY did I think this was a good idea?" It made it look so weird... I was like "WHY am I trying to make this homemade basket look like the pre-made baskets at Wal-Mart? If that's what I wanted it to end up looking that way I just should have bought one!" And the next morning my thoughts were confirmed when Brea was just trying to get past all of it to the good stuff! By the way... the good stuff was not the book about what Easter is really about, the fun egg shaped sidewalk chalk, or even the Pinocchio movie.... it was the dang treats! She was literally hyperventilating and when asked what she got for Easter she'd scream at the top of her lungs "TREATS!!!"

Those treats were all Brea could think about all day, and the next day, and the next... until she woke up one morning and those treats had magically disappeared. She apparently has no middle ground when it comes to treats. It's 40 a day (which resulted in 40 tantrums in the same day) or none. I have to be super sneaky now and just pull one out of no where and then they have to be "all gone" because if she knows there are still some SOMEWHERE she'll act as though it is literally the end of the world. Love our little drama girl.

After the having a great morning with my family- making breakfast (which I felt horrible about when the cute little fast-offering collecting Deacon stopped by our house- I swear I had totally forgotten it was fast Sunday!) and an Easter egg hunt that took a while since after each egg was collected we had to explain that the treat inside was for later. We headed off to church, treats in hand. After church and a nice nap for Brea we headed to the Butler's for dinner.Brea loves her Grandpa Butler!

Another thing Brea couldn't get enough of was Grandma & Grandpa Cummings trampoline. Sweet Ashleigh helped Brea out on the tramp since Brea kept begging me and I really did try it out but I quickly hopped off when I felt as though I was about to bring my August baby into the world in April.

I love getting together with all our family like this. Brea's older cousins, Ian and Mason, are SO cute with her. I love watching them interact. A day full of seeing family is definitely my favorite part of any holiday.

It's a girl!

We are pleased to announce that it was confirmed on St. Patrick's Day, the 17th, that our next addition to the Butler family will be another sweet little girl!!! We are so excited and can't wait for her to join us come August. Brea is still getting used to the idea and continues to wail "Noooo!" when asked if she is going to have a little sister. At least we have a few months to help her warm up to the idea.
I have to say I'm totally relieved. I would eventually like a little boy to join us, but I really didn't feel like a challenge with baby number two. Boys and their cute little personalities (not to mention all the extra parts) are totally foreign to me and I was so relieved to know that I wouldn't have to step too much out of my comfort zone with this next Butler Baby. I think it will be so fun to have a house full of girls and surprisingly enough Andrew does too. He loves his relationship with Brea and was really hoping for another girl to spoil and adore.
I really am 100% thrilled, but I do have to admit that a little part of me is already a little worried that we might not ever have a little mini Andrew running around here. I'm such a nerd, I swear- can I ever just be happy with what I've got?!

Discovery Fun

Today was such a fun day- Brea had a blast with her friends, Kyle and Ben, at the Discovery Gateway. There was so much to do and so many things to see. Her favorite area was the water area, of course! This was also her favorite area when we were at the Children's Museum in Ohio. She was so mad when I took her away to see what there was to do in a different area. She was getting soaked! This picture seriously says it all! Brea was loving it all so much that she'd stop & smile for a picture but her eyes were still going everywhere, taking everything in! Brea loved the tree house and for some reason she wanted to slide down the steps instead of climbing up them. I can't imagine it felt good, but no matter how many times I showed her how to climb up them and then slide down the slide, she was determined to do it her own way... I can feel us getting closer to her terrible two's every minute! Brea thought the helicopter was amazing! She couldn't believe she was standing inside it. She was loving every minute until the cute little boys "driving" the plane pushed a button that played a recording of the noise of a helicopter taking of that was so loud it even scared me for a second! Brea had such a great time with Kyle and Ben. I love that there is so much for her to do and learn there. I wish we lived a little closer so we could visit more often. And one of the best parts was the awesome nap she took when we got home because she was so tuckered out! What a fun day.

G'Day Mate!

Grandma Nelson has been off in Melbourne, Australia serving a mission for 18 months. We missed her so much, and not only because we missed her amazing cooking (Although, I'll admit that Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner have been totally lacking the past two years!!!) The last time she saw Brea she was just about to be 3 months old. I was so worried that Brea was going to be a little standoffish when we met her at the airport. We'd been looking at "GG's" (for Great-Grandma) picture and Brea had already mastered saying "GG" but I was still worried that she wouldn't be able to put two and two together. Well, about five seconds after getting into the airport all my worries vanished. I ran to Grandma and got a huge much needed hug from her and after a few other hugs while Brea watched, Brea was ready for her turn...And she wouldn't let go!!! A few of our family members had a shared hug, since once Brea got a hold of Grandma she wouldn't even think about releasing her from her death grip!

But she still has lots of love for Grandma & Papa Meadows and Aunt Shell!Here's a bunch of the Nelson, Larrabee, Meadows family members with our beloved Grandma! The Idaho Nelson's came down for the celebrations. We had a fun party that night with our family and some of Grandma's friends. I didn't want to leave that night. Even though we'd spent the afternoon and night with her, I just felt so weird leaving when we still had so much catching up to do! Eventually we did leave and Brea and I were back to Grandmas the next morning!!! We love her and all of our family so much.

Cookie Makin'

We always have to make super yummy (even if they are super unhealthy, too) sugar cookies every Valentines. And when I say "we" make the cookies, I mean I pretty much buy everything we need and then I stand around and watch Andrew work his magic. I have tried repeatedly to make sugar cookies and they always turn out HORRIBLY... not even the kind you'll just eat because they are around. They're the kind that I choke a few down because I spent so much time making them and I'm ticked off they were gross... again! Anyway, here's a few fun pics of this year's event. Brea & Daddy working hard decorating the cookies... I'm so lame I didn't even make frosting and I'm still waiting for Andrew to master that one!

Brea concentrating on her little cookie (hidden by the frosting!) The cookies turned out great again, but I think Andrew was bummed because Brea just wanted to eat the little conversation hearts. Nice job Daddy!!!

What a milestone!

Brea's hit a huge milestone, the mullet-free pigtail!!! Previously I'd been trying to squeeze and pull her poor little piggies into pony holders and after her hair would dry the center would pop out and she'd have two partial piggies on each side of her head with a lovely mullet running down the center. So, I'd given her head a break for a few months and this morning I was so done with the same old hair-do we have everyday...ta da- it worked! I love it and she looks so adorable. Only downer, she looks like she's ready for preschool already now and that scares me to death. Here's the lovely result...
Oh, maybe I should mention some other important milestones... She's now saying : Mom, Dad, Brutus, GG (Great-Grandma), Jesus, Up, Hop, Baby, Home, Juice, Book, No, Shoes, Ball, Cheese, Hat, Toosh. She's signing more, please, all done, hi, bye, dog, airplane, elephant, monkey,thank you, bug. She's growing up so fast and it's fun to start understanding her more. We love our little girl. She adds so much love and excitement to our lives. We are a bunch of blessed Butler's!

Brea's Big News

Brea's got some big news to share...

Translation in case the wrinkly shirt is a little hard to read-"August Third... I'm gonna be a big sister!" Brea wore her cute outfit for our parents when we broke the news to them. Thanks for the idea, Jeremy and Stacia!!!

2008 in Review with the Butler's!