Christmas 2008

Here are some pictures to highlight our Christmas celebrations.

First we Kate opened her stocking at out house:

New shades and jewlery.




Opening a present or "prize".




Next we were off to Wisc to Dean's parents house:

Dean's parents.


The Butters family.


Dean's brother, wife Melissa and girls Moriah, Ashley, and Shayla.


Dean's sister Angie, husband Don, and daughter Maggie.


Kate with her cousins.

Next we were off to my parents house. Kate unfortunately got sick in the process which you can tell in some of the pictures. Pictures below are my parents, my brother Nathan and wife Julie, my sister Becky and husband Rimas, and us.



Unfortunately we got good video but not good pictures at Dean's dad's house. We had a great time there as well although at that point Kate shared her cold with me! We used our new Tom-Tom navigation system on the way home through the fog and Kate loves her "Kate Butters" puzzle Grandpa made her! Hopefully I will get some pic's from Grandma Butters to put up here soon.

This is what Grandpa Butters sent us. You can see his new dog in the background.

The reason for no posts...

(Kate modeling new floors)

The reason I haven't been posting much it two fold:

First, we unexpectedly but delightfully have remodeled our first floor. My wonderful Dad, the master carpenter, call on a Friday offering to redo our floors starting the following Monday. This is something we wanted to do whenever he was available. So of course we said yes! This involved pulling the kitchen out, ripping out all the old flooring, putting in new flooring, etc. And while you have that all pulled out you might as well replace the fixtures in the dated powder room, replace the back door, fix the front door, put new baseboard on, and case out all the door openings. "If you're going to do it right." It's been quite a dirty and involved job but I am so thankful for a well skilled Dad who is so giving of his time and expertise.

Second, I have been using facebook much more and feel like I am doing double duty with the blog.

Soooooo, hopefully I will have some before and after pictures soon. Until then pray for my sanity and energy to get this project done! Off to prime some door jams!

Halloween 2008

Kate had a blast trick-or-treating. She really got the hang of going door to door and depositing her loot in her bag. She wasn't as crazy about handing out candy. She actually started crying the first time we handed out candy at our door until we figured out she may think we were handing out her candy. Once we showed her that her candy was still in her bag and we were giving out other candy she calmed down! I guess I would be upset too if I thought I did all that work collecting and then my mom just gave it away to other strange kids!

Our little butterfly (kissing Snoopy in one pic):


Tick-or-treating:


Playing in the leaves:

Kohl's Children's Museum

Today we went to the childrens museum and it was really alot of fun. From a mini grocery store, to a vet clinic, to a farm, to a water room there was tons for Kate to play and do without being told "no-don't touch that!" We had a blast!
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First Ponytail!!

Kate's very first pony tail. I told her if she was like me there would be thousands more to come!! (I think my hair ends up in a ponytail everyday.)

a few recent ones

Kate has been really into hats lately. The only way I could get her to hold still to get a shot was for her to go through the office drawer!


Kissing a pumpkin: