A Vegas "Snow Day"?!

It is Vegas and it is snowing! It has been over 6 years since I've been in my own home whilst it was snowing! And today... Snow! Sticking to the grass and the palms and the red tile roofs ... Snow! Here, it seems terribly out of place.

































Growing up in SLC, on the cozy snow days, my parents would bake. So because I'm a creature of habit, and it's snowy & cozy; I've been bakin' like crazy! I'm not brave enough to try my parent's traditional recipes like Head Cheese (Yuck!), Fruit Cake, Raisin Filled Cookies and English Toffee. Instead, we've made Peppermint Hot Fudge Cake, Gingerbread Men, Parmesan Rolls and Chocolate Birthday Cake (for George's Teacher). Licorice Carmel's are planned for tomorrow! So stop by... we always have plenty for friends!

Thanksgiving With The "Other Butlers"!

Thanksgiving 2002 in Portland, Oregon was our first Thanksgiving away from our family and on our own... and it stunk! The mashed potatoes were runny, the gravy lumpy, the stuffing was soaked from all of my over-attentive basting and it all ended after about 2 minutes! It wasn't at all like the Grand Feasts of my Mom & Dad's or Dee's! And to top it all off, we were lonely! We needed visitors for Thanksgiving from that day forward. So we placed a desperate call and struck a deal! Every year since, the "Other Butler's" have been our honored guests for Thanksgiving Weekend! Some years the Judd Family makes the trip and maybe one day my family will take a break from cooking and join us! The more the merrier! There is nothing better than a full table (or two!) for Thanksgiving Dinner!

This Thanksgiving weekend was so fun and relaxing! Thanks to Dee and Auntie Kim, dinners were cooked, kids were entertained, groceries were purchased, house was cleaned, gifts were acquired, teasing was hysterical and laughs were plenty! I wish Thanksgiving came twice a year!

Cousins Tag and Hampton are full time entertainment for my kids! I would wake up to Ruby being bathed, changed, dressed and in the midst of an art project every morning thanks to the combined efforts of Lu and Hampton! They are quite the team! Tag had a shadow named George all weekend... he was even cool enough to take George golfing for two days in a row! When I asked George on Sunday "What was your favorite part of the weekend?", he said he had 5:

1. Golfing with Tag
2. Bike ride with Tag
3. Video games with Tag
4. Golf store with Tag
5. Watching football with Tag

Thanks Dee Dee, Auntie Kimmie, Tag and Hampton for making our Thanksgiving memories edible and memorable!

Tagged... Thrice!

I guess I have avoided this long enough... Thanks for thinking of me Steph, Allyson and Ali!

Question and One Word Answer:
1. Where is your cell phone? car
2. Where is your significant other? george'sroom!
3. Your hair color? dishwater:(
4. Your mother? tenderhearted
5. Your father? stubborn
6. Your favorite thing? myfam
7. Your dream last night? bizzarro!
8. Your dream/goal? oregon/mayberry
9. The room you’re in? loft
10. Your hobby? kids
11. Your fear? tragedy
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? oregon
13. Where were you last night? grocerystore
14. What you’re not? highmaintenance
15. One of your wish-list items? artclasses
16. Where you grew up? utah
17. The last thing you did? baked
18. What are you wearing? sundaycomfyclothes
19. Your TV? off 20. Your pet? winstonbeagle
21. Your computer? relic
22. Your mood? tightlywound
23. Missing someone? sis
24. Your car? volvo-always
25. Something you’re not wearing? bracelet
26. Favorite store? anybakery
27. Your summer? nostalgic
28. Love someone? mr. butler
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When is the last time you laughed? tonight
31. Last time you cried? ?notacrier
Tag
1. I hum. All the time.
2. I laugh out loud at Seinfeld re-runs, still.
3. I sleep with a blankie and one leg out.
4. I make my microwave times be multiples of or divisible by 4, always.
5. I still pretend my hair is long when it's wrapped in a towel.
6. I dream of pancakes at least once a week, always have.

Tagged

What is the best thing you cooked last week?
Gingerbread cake! Not a cook, I'm a baker!

If time, money and babysitting were no object, where would you go?
Christmas shopping in NYC for sure! I've always wanted to see the lighting of the Tree in Rockefeller Square!

When was the last time you cried?
Teary eyed at the Primary Program today. Not really a crier... Rich cries enough for both of us!

List five things you were doing 10 years ago (1998):
1. Enjoying being a Newlywed!
2. Chasing after Barks and Win as puppies!
3. Fixing up and enjoying our little Sugarhouse home and garden!
4. Opening Porcupine Pub & Grille
5. Finding out we were expecting George!

List five things you were doing five years ago (2003):
1. Settling into our Oregon neighborhood
2. Running the Hood to Coast Relay
3. VP of George's Preschool (Multnomah Playschool)
4. New Member Committee Chair for Junior League of Portland
5. Enjoying every little, fabulous thing Oregon had to offer us!

List five things you were doing one year ago:
1. Settling into our Nevada neighborhood
2. Mourning the loss of Barks
3. Driving three times a day to Bartlett Elementary! Scarred for life.
4. Homework!
5. Driving back and forth to SLC, because we finally could!

List seven hobbies:
1. Gardening, when it's not 115 degrees!
2. Baking...oh soo fat!
3. Reading, if there's time
4. Writing, there's never time!
5. Sewing, poorly.
6. Painting, one day again soon.
7. Cleaning, i love it so much! ;)

Name five favorite foods:
1. My Pop's Pork Chops with Fried Potatoes!
2. Cheap Chocolate Ice cream
3. Oatmeal with blueberries or bananas or both!
4. My Pop's Spareribs with Yorkshire Pudding
5. My Mom's homemade English Toffee

Name (favorite) five places you've been:
1. CannonBeach, Oregon
2. Naples, Florida
3. San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico
4. NYC
5. Anywhere in the Pacific Northwest!

Five favorite memories:
1. My second date with Rich to a U of U play (the night I knew I would marry him one day!)
2. Rich and my mallrat days @ ol' Cottonwood Mall!
3. Pulling little George all around Sugarhouse in his wagon!
4. Pulling George and little Lu around our Sherwood neighborhood in the wagon, collecting wild blueberries for smoothies!
5. Pulling George, Lu and little Ru and (in the Bjorn) around our Brentwood neighborhood in the wagon, to visit the local farmer's market for strawberries and peaches, which were eaten by little mouths on the ride home!

Halloween and... Nevada Day?``

Halloween, in these here parts, falls on Nevada Day. For Halloween-Nevada Day, the kids dressed in western wear for school and had a rootin-tootin good time celebrating this great state and our favorite spooky holiday!






















It has been a whirlwind of activities! Harvest Festival, Pumpkin Run, Scout Bicycle Derby, Trunk or Treat, School Halloween Parties, Friend Halloween Parties and finally, the Big Day of Trick or Treating! It was just over 70 degrees and we were able to Trick or Treat 2 neighborhoods in short sleeves and flip flops. You cannot ask for anything better!
Lulu was an Angel, which isn't much of a stretch for her! Noodle really hung in there this year and actually lasted for more that five houses. She had two pieces of candy and threw up later that night. How can this sweet, non-candy lovin' girl be mine?

Ruby was planning on being an Angel Baby, but on Wednesday saw a Dora the Explorer balloon dressed as a black cat at the grocery store and declared... "I'm going to be a kitty cat like Dora!" So, we returned the Angel and pulled together a quick black cat. Viola! A happy baby! Rubes and ABBEE looked so stinkin'cute! Notice how Ruby carries her treat bag like a "purse".

George broke my heart this year! He has never been something scary before. To me, being something scary means you're growing up. I remember George wanting to be Spiderman when he was 5. It just seemed too soon, so I persuaded him to be a spider instead. But this year there was no getting around it, he was a very scary Wear Wolf! Then, the ultimate heartbreak! George decided not to use the pumpkin trick or treat bag we gave him for his first Halloween, (the one with GEORGE embroidered on it) he wanted to use ... his pillowcase!

Life is Good!

Pops is home! And he doesn't travel again until January! All our married life Rich has traveled for work. It has never been too awful. I think we both secretly liked a little break. The kids and I get in a groove with our routine, and I know he loves his weekly stay at Hotel Valley Ho and other fabulous digs he gets to frequent. But as of late, it's been too much... he misses home, the kids miss Pops and I miss my late-night treat accomplice! He always says, "We are unstoppable when we're together!" He's right! When he's away, I'm tired, the house is a disaster and dinner becomes mac n' cheese or cereal... okay, when he's home I'm tired, the house is a disaster and dinner is usually mac or cereal, but he's home :)

A Saturday in St. George!

The Butler Fam took a Saturday away to enjoy some cooler, cozy weather, the Staheli Family Farm and of course, the Pizza Factory! Saturdays can be so crazy with tennis, errands, friends, yard work... It was so great having the kids all to ourselves!

The Butler's Are The Proud Owner's Of A Brand New Mercedes!

Well, only Ruby can truly fit in it... but the ruby-red Benz is all ours! Ru won this Mini-Mercedes at the local Kid Fair @ the District last weekend! All the kids are in Heaven about it! George is extremely disappointed about his not being able to fit in it, but he sure has tried! Of course, he looks completely ridiculous... adorable, but ridiculous! Lulu has tried her best as well, still a little too big for the mini convertible. But it fits Rubes like a glove, snacks and all!


Last weekend we also visited the Annual Summerlin Arts Festival. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a blast! They could hardly wait to create their masterpieces. Every year the Art's Council passes out pastels for everyone to decorate the sidewalk and the Nevada Ballet Academy even gave my future ballerina's each a pair of toe shoes! I thought you all might enjoy some pics of our little Fine Art enthusiasts!

The Summer Review

It has taken over a month to get back into the swing of things here at home! Life is so much more overwhelming when I'm cleaning our home, cooking our meals and watching our kids! In Salt Lake, everyone spoiled us! I didn't lift a finger for a whole month! It was fan-tab-u-lous! Anyway... we are back now, both physically and mentally! School is about to begin and I thought we needed to update some of our non-Salt Lake memories, so here is our late- summer review!







Big Rock Candy Mountain, a childhood fav of mine, may have been a bust! Everyone, including Rich, kept asking me, "Where is it?"







Snow Cone Sale with the Avery's at 7:00 pm - any earlier was just too hot! (George coerced Lu and Ru to be the "entertainment")










Our Bougainvilleas! Just because they are wonderful! And my daily reminder that beautiful things can survive in the desert! ;)










A stay-cation spent at Mandalay Bay Hotel! The kids (and Mom) loved sipping faux-margaritas by the pool.






The Boys of Summer - Carson, Evan, Chase, Jakob, Kyle, Greyson and Geo! George's All-Boy Birthday Bash!

We LOVE Wheeler Farm!

Okay, so it might just be me that loves Wheeler Farm... but I take my kids (and usually some cousins & friends) every time we visit Salt Lake... rain or shine. My Grandma lived off of Vine Street nearby and my mom grew up with the Wheeler kids. She even has pictures of Mr. Wheeler pulling she and my aunts and uncle on a sleigh behind a horse!

Wheeler Farm has always intrigued me. I love it! It's beautiful! The grounds surrounding are shady and green, the small creek is cool and refreshing, the animals are well taken care of and the heritage of the farm fascinates me! Bringing life back to the basics! George and I talk all the time about being able to own and live on a farm... it's one of my wildest dreams! George has always loved that idea, and I think we could easily recruit Ruby. However, Rich and Lulu, we may have a hard time convincing! I can't remember Rich ever visiting or wanting to visit the farm with us and Lulu's eyes start to itch, and she starts to complain within the first few minutes... City folk!

Seven Hours At Hogle Zoo!

My sister Sam and I decided to take the kids to the Zoo last week... we spent seven long, hot, filthy, smelly hours visiting the animals... it was a blast!

It was Ruby's first true time at a zoo (I'm sure she doesn't remember her earlier visits). She loves animals so much and truly was amazed at seeing them so up close and personal. She stood watching the monkeys with pure astonishment!

George, Allie and Morgan loved the rare, white alligator and even talked me into an extremely, squeaky souvenir version, which I regretted on the ride home :)

Miss Memphis (Muffins) kept Sam running by behaving like a wild animal... she's in that 18 month old busy stage :)

And Lu, who is not much of an animal enthusiast or one for being dirty, definitely enjoyed her cousins company and her share of frozen treats! All in all, it was a fabulous zoo trip with lots of laughs and memories!

George's Birthday Rocked!

This is what a nine year old looks like! Our dear old Georgie Boy turned nine on Friday! Nine! How is that even possible?! This was the first birthday since George turned three that we have spent back in Salt Lake. It was so fun to celebrate his special day with family!

George had a great day which started out with a cousin sleep-over, Grandma Dee Dee's chocolate chip pancakes and a treasure hunt to find his birthday gift... Rock Band! He and the cousins rocked out all morning long! That afternoon we met Aunt Sam, Morgie and Memphis (or as Ruby say's "Muffins") down at Liberty Park for the Aviary, a picnic and some splashing in the Seven Canyons! George and Morgan even got to feed fish to the pelicans at Tracy Aviary... a real birthday treat... yum!

Later that night, the Morgan's and Butlers all met over at Mill Hollow for presents, cake and ice cream, and movie in the park! It was the perfect end to his first day being nine! Happy Birthday Bud!

Ladies Luncheon with the Rich Girls!

We had a "Ladies Luncheon" at the Zinn Bistro with our good friends Melissa and Kate Rich! It was an afternoon reserved for ladies only! Lunch started with some lady-like conversation over hot, spiced, apple cider...yum! A large basket of their homemade pastries was served and we could have easily made that our lunch, but that wouldn't have been ladylike. Kate ordered tomato basil soup and Lu had a Chinese chicken salad. Both girls brought their best manners, remembering to put their napkins on their laps and keep elbows off the table!

It was such a fun afternoon with my big girl! Lulu has always been a little lady and loved the special treat of a ladies lunch without little sister Rubes!