Silly Billy

I just thought I'de put a little spotlight on this big personality. You really have to get through the 'hard' candy shell sometimes to get to this 'sweet' pea inside.

Crazy dancing at Gran'ma Bobbi's during Christmas. What about Christmas presents? Bah! We'll show those later. Today its all about 'US'!

Remember how I used to love showing off when I was little? The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.... Speaking of which...

We started these poses and then we couldn't stop!

This is the 'happy face'!

Heres the 'goofy' face. (Yes, those are our favorites!)

We got a little confused at what we were doing at this one, but we keep going!

And we have 'sad faces'. I think you can still see a smile in Keala's 'sad face'.

Right about now Brent is saying he's had enough.

I think his 'trigger' finger was getting worn out, but no, theres more!

Suprise! Its the 'North Going-Zax' meets the 'South Going Zax'.

(Thats Dr. Suess for those of you who are confused!)

Fine! We're done! Your trigger finger can rest and you can all go back to what you were doing!

Just kidding!

The Annual Butler Christmas Party

Yesterday, Kasey and I left at 10am to help G'ma Joan decorate for her family's annual Christmas party. They have about 80 people in attendance each year. We set up 8 tables, in addition to a craft table for the kids, the present table for Santa, a table to write the missionaries etc, etc. Brent's son Ryan is coincidentally serving in the same mission as one of his cousins. We talked to his dad at the party and reminisced at how the 2 boys accidentally ran into each other a while ago, and shared in a happy reunion. Its a neat coincidence, especially for lonely missionaries.

Decorating early helped us remember other things we needed, like music, food accessories, extension cords, etc, etc. We worked all day preparing. Joan has 5 other siblings, so they take turns each year as to who is the host. Thank goodness its another 6 years before we have to do that again. Kasey has worked all week helping Joan with different projects in preparation. The little kids had a blast playing with the others, and making crafts and ornaments.

Brent was in the usual chipper mood, but my energy was slipping fast. Everyone enjoyed lasagna, rolls, cruton salad, while I warmed up my baked potato and grumbly ate it. Sometimes celiac disease bites. But I guess dinner at mom's makes up for that. The tables had beautiful centerpieces, and cups of candies in all sorts, M&M's, chocolate covered raisins, skittles.

But the highlight of the evening was when Santa came. All the kids ran to give him a welcoming hug. Its neat seeing the reaction of little kids' excitement in anticipation for a new toy. My happiness was a little soured by the habit this Santa had at paying more attention to the adults than the little kids. Being a friend of some of the relatives, he talked over the kids, and quickly validated their questions to return to showing off stories of the adults. What can you do? I guess not even Santa is perfect! But the kids still enjoyed him and thats all that matters, I guess.

Maddox was with us this year, since Brent's sister Cindy now lives in Park City. She's a good gran'ma who takes him out a lot. Maddox's other gran'ma is really sick now with leukemia. This may be a tragic year for them, so its good having Cindy here for a number of reasons. We will spend Christmas day up at her home in Park City this year. Yeah for Christmas Day!

Brayden came up with his mom, Leslie on Sunday. But now Leslie isn't feeling well with back problems. She has to go to the doctor every day this week. We are having a rough holiday season, but the kids are being well tended in spite of it all. Brayden and Maddox are staying at G'ma Joan's for the week. They play with Kai and Keala after Kai is out of school. His last day is Wednesday. Kai sure gets excited when the boys come in town to play! The kids are so happy to have so much family around to play with.

Kai got an Iron Man mask and gun. He knows mom helped Santa with these gifts, and he showed his appreciation in kind thanks and loving hugs. Hes such a sweetheart. Earlier in the day he walked in on "The Grinch Stole Christmas" and was under the impression that the Grinch stole the dog that was with him. He started crying and we all had to calm him down. He's a very sensitive kid, in spite of all that energy and gusto. We told him on my birthday that we couldn't go for a hay ride because the company canceled it on account of a little boy falling off last year and dying. Without hesitate Kai immediately broke out crying in concern for the little boy. It caught me off guard and almost made me cry. We had a little talk after that about how all little kids who die go straight back to Heavenly Father and everything is ok. He felt better after that.

Keala got this new babydoll since a 'certain' dog in the house has stolen and chewed up almost all our dolls and stuffed animals. I wanted Keala to know Santa was concerned about that. She was so excited, and has been taking good care of her baby ever since! Keala is very creative and loves to role play with her dolls everyday. She also makes time to do some coloring and helps 'teach' her friends how to color 'better'. Keala also loves reading time at night. She will sit on your lap and let you read for an hour (if you have the time). But g'ma Joan and g'pa Bill love that about her. Because most days you don't know if you are greeting the 'Happy Keala' or the 'Moody Keala', but she will always love to sit on your lap and read. (And she's very concerned if someone has put their name in the book, if not, she's happy to put hers!)

Joan and Bill closed the evening with a few sweet Christmas words. A majority of the Joan's family are active LDS members, so we always have a opening and closing prayer and a special thought on the Savior. I asked Brent why our Ward Christmas Party doesn't have a Santa to come visit and he said they like to keep the theme around the Savior. I guess it does give the activities a better feel when you remember the Christmas Season is to honor the birth of our Lord and Savior. (But I still like a good party to have a Jolly Ol' St. Nick every once in a while!)

Poor Bill tried the close the evening with a nice thought, but it was so hard to hear over those little kids playing with the brand new toys they just got from Santa. Overall the evening was a great success. I talked with Joan this morning and we agreed she and I both slept like babies last night. But she's relieved the parties over so we can focus on the Big Day! I think I get to this point every year where I start to wonder 'when will this be over'! But its still a great time of year, and will be nice to ride the wave of the activities till New Year's Eve, and spent that time relaxing from all the holiday hustle and bustle. Happy Holidays to you All!

Happy Birthday Blues

You ever find something you really wanna buy, only theres not a good enough excuse to get it until you convince yourself that "You'll get it for you birthday!" Well, thats what Brent did this year. He found a really nice leather jacket on sale and told me he'd count it for his birthday present. (So I did the same thing with a bunch of clothes I bought myself earlier in the month.)

But since he didn't have any gifts to open, I thought the nicest thing I could do would be to turn my brunette hair, back to blonded-highlights. (You have to understand he's been begging me to highlight it ever since I colored it all brown.) Its orange here. I had to go through 3 more toning steps to get it back to blonde after all the brown color I had in it to cover up my stinkin' gray! -Thanks alot dad! ;-)

We all sang Happy Birthday to Brent while the youngest kids crowded around him to blow out the candles when the song was done. (Yes, his birthday cake is in Christmas colors, I thought it was beautifully decorated, and had some snowflake rings on top. Lately the kids love to wear the rings off the cakes I buy. -We eat alot of cake in this family! About twice a month on average! White cake is our favorite - but everybody loves a good chocolate one too!) I bought a cheesecake for myself on the side. Good thing, because this cake was gone in 24 hours!

Right as we sang the last words of the song, Brent quickly blew out all his candles and turned to the kids and laughed in their faces. It was hilarious. Keala found it funny, but you can see Kai's reaction in this picture. As soon as Kasey saw it, she couldn't stop laughing. Such a Kodak moment!

Kai got over the dissappointment quickly, and we all enjoyed cake. By the way, I got Brent a Christmas decorated cake and asked the bakery attendee to write "Happy Birthday" on it. He looked suprised and asked "Happy Birthday?!" And I said yes. After he handed it back to me, I wished I hadn't asked. I looked up at him, and noticing his hispanic descent, realized why the words newly enscribed on his cake looked like a 4 yr old had written them! What can you do! At least he wrote the lettering correctly... I was actually impressed by that.

And with that, a Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Monday night Brent took the kids to get a tree. (I don't like the cold!)

Kai wanted this one. Looks like a Charlie Brown Christmas!

Austin likes to scare the kids.

Everyone needs a turn being scared!

Cute sisters!

What a nice warm fire to keep you from getting cold... right?!

Keala was too scared to go close to the fire - good girl!

Everyones a comedian.

They picked a great tree. We got up the lights and ornaments.

I tried to participate, but my tummy was hurting.

The kids had a lot of fun. And our tree looks great and smells great!

Christmas Caroling at Auntie Erika's!

I see you lookin' at me Lauren! We walked in (late) and everyone was ready to go!

Adam gave me his seat - so nice! But I think he wanted to hide on the stairs anyways!

We love singing! And Christmas-time! And being a happy family!

My husband thinks I'm weird! But thats ok. I know I am... and I love it!

My daughters just like me! We like to be silly together! She's so cute!

Merri did such a great job of leading the songs and everyone in singing!

Of course, we can't forget all the nutcrackers!

I was NOT warmed up after "The Twelve Forever Days of Christmas"! But Bre sure sounded great - too bad I didn't. I think I ruined my voice trying to keep up with Doug!

We went to G-pa Bill's before caroling to sing HIM Happy Birthday! Isn't he cute! Thats why we were late to Erika's. Since Bill and Joan are on a mission, they were busy ALL day!

These girls are just the cutest sisters. Kasey carried Keala over to Joan and Bill's. And then they played around in the basement, torturing each other, waiting for the grandparents to get home.

Happy Holidays at our House!

This was our favorite Christmas photo but it wouldn't print up well, it stayed dark and foggy, so we had to retake the photo. We were bummed.

The was actually our MOST favorite, but we didn't want to scare anyone. Again, the picture wouldn't print well so you will see a different photo of us when you get our card this week.

So we spent a couple days a few weeks ago, baking, baking, and more baking. Mom's feet were killing her. One day we spent on the gingerbread house, and the other day on the cookies.

The kids HAD to do gingerbread cookies because the neighbors did and even the 'library'! I got reprimanded that our gingerbread house didn't look like the one at the library! Hello!

So after spending 6 hours on my feet making cookies, I finally sat down to eat lunch at 3 o'clock when Keala opened up this $6 container of silver candy balls, upside down! Thousands and thousands of silver balls rolled all over my kitchen floor. (That was a 'medication' moment!) It took half an hour to vacuum. (And I went for a long drive afterwards to de-tox!) I can't believe we actually had some balls left in the container!

This would be Keala's lunch. My kids love cheese quesadillas (in corn tortillas).

Here's the evidence, they eat a ton of these every day. Our usual assortment of meal options is: bananas, apples, mac-n-cheese, hot dogs, quesadillas, and cereal. 'We' have a hard time venturing out of those selection items. I figure its not worth the fight. (Otherwise I end up yelling, and I have a goal EVERYDAY to NOT end up yelling!)

Just to prove to dad, I am still eating vegetarian. This was MY lunch. (So good!) Except tomorrow my mother-in-law is taking me to In-N-Out for my birthday! Yeah!

My husband is so happy he has a job now! He actually shaves his face EVERY day (yeah for me!) and, he dresses SOOoo handsome, I just can't resist getting my hands on him!

Kai and Keala still spend every Saturday with their papa, where he takes them to different places for different activities. Yesterday they went to see Santa Clause. I had to ask if it was the 'Real' Santa Clause or one of his helper's. (I got a different answer from each of them!) An old man in our ward is one of 'Santa's Helpers' and grows out his beard every fall... he gave Kai a ride to school last week cuz mommy was sick. Kai thought that was cool!

The kids are so excited to see what Santa brings them this year that I get new additions to their Santa-Wish-List everyday! But I have to remind them that Santa has all the other kids to see, so he can only get us a couple of presents! But they will be cool! We are so excited! Especially moving the advent calendar closer to Christmas Eve every day!

Last of all, we still have our personality intact! But 'we' are getting sweeter everyday, with many more hugs and kisses to mom, and lots of "I love you's". Such a sweet season and special time of year. We are all very excited! Hope you are all having a fun holiday season as well!