Merry Christmas! :)

This Christmas was our first Christmas away from all family and close friends. I guess we had to start some time. It actually turned out quite well! It was lots of fun starting our own traditions. We did the pageant on Christmas Eve and put out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. The girls were so excited and surprisingly enough they stayed in bed and fell asleep instead of trying to get a peek at Santa!

Christmas morning we had breakfast and then opened the stockings and presents. The girls scored big this year with lots of presents and I got Jeremy a keg! (for those of you who don't know, a keg is what Jeremy will be using to make homemade sodas like root beer, etc!) He was way excited about it because he has been wanting one since we moved to PA! This was Seamus' first Christmas, so he was a fabulous present. He loved the wrapping paper, so we got a picture of him in the middle of the pile we had made! Sammy & Constance got some dress up stuff and comforters for their beds from the Butlers and they got pajamas and wands from the Purnells. That is just to name a few of the many presents they got!

After calling family to say thanks and wish them a Merry Christmas, we started getting our turkey ready. Jeremy got a free turkey from work when they handed them out at Thanksgiving, which was nice. Since we had been invited to someone's house for Thanksgiving, we decided to use our turkey for Christmas! It was the first time we ever made a big turkey dinner, and it was fabulous! I'm sure it would have been a disaster if Jeremy was not a food science guy, but it turned out to be a wonderfully successful Christmas dinner! We have been eating the leftovers ever since and it looks like we will still need to freeze some turkey for later!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that your New Year will be just as great! :)



Our little present :)


Wrapping paper fun


These are the p.j.'s from the Purnells


Dress up stuff from Butlers


He takes after his daddy the old-school way

Haircuts and Family Pictures

All I can say is, "they made me do it!" I unwillingly gave in to Sammy and Constance asking for a haircut. Although they look adorable with short hair, I still miss their long hair. They have lost their baby curls. :( I guess it had to happen sometime. Anyway, they were both so excited to have short hair, because they are always yelping in pain when I comb their hair (especially after bath time) and I think they are feeling a little 'light headed' because they haven't had short hair like this since they were babies!

Other than that, we had our family pictures done a couple of weeks ago so here they are! The photo shoot went really well! Seamus never cried and the girls were so obedient to what the photographer asked them to do. I am very grateful that we have been blessed with such wonderful children.


Sammy's new look


Sammy's short hair


Constance's short hair


Constance's new look


Christmas Card 2010


Butler Girls


Jeremy Butler Family 2010


Family Fun


Butler Boys

Halloween fun!

This week was pretty busy, but so much fun! Monday and Tuesday were full of stress for me because I was studying for my Economics final, which I took on Tuesday. Lucky for me, I passed and then came home, had dinner, played with my kids, put them to bed, made myself a delicious Oreo milkshake and watched the BSU vs. Louisiana Tech game with no interruptions while I de-stressed! That was a good night.

Wednesday was lots of fun. We started out by dressing up in costumes and going to the library for story time! Wednesday night, we went to a friend's house for a Halloween party! The kids got to decorate cookies and we had 'mummy's' for dinner (pigs in a blanket wrapped like a mummy) and then we went to the Zoo Boo (the zoo sets up booths for kids to go trick or treating) and the kids had a blast! :)

Friday was our ward's Trunk-or-Treat, so the girls got a ton more candy! There were a bunch of centers in the gym where the kids had a ton of fun painting pumpkins, fishing, getting balloon animals, and playing other games just before the actual trunk-or-treating.

That being said, we did not go trick-or-treating Saturday or Sunday, and surprisingly enough, we did not have ANY trick-or-treaters come in our area. I couldn't believe it! Anyway, our girls got a TON of candy, and we have the leftovers of the candy we bought to give out, so we will probably be set for sweets for quite some time!

Now that Halloween is over, it is now officially time to get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas! Sadly, we will be staying here in Erie, PA for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I think it will be really hard for us to be away from family for the first time ever during the holidays, but we are trying to make it the best experience we can, and we look forward to next year when finances should be better and we can actually afford a trip to the Utah/Idaho area.

Anyway, here are some pictures, so enjoy! :)


This is Mr. Smiley


The princess witch


The 'girl' pirate!


The girls


The three musketeers--or not...

Life's Random Moments

Well, it has been about a month or so since I updated this, but not much has been happening! Jeremy is still working and enjoying his job. We had a fun moment when we saw one of his projects on the shelf at Wal-Mart! He has since worked on things for Schwans, Heinz, and General Mills, and although it is a stressful job at times, he still enjoys what he does. Jeremy is also keeping busy serving as the Young Men's second councilor and the Scout Master.

I am just taking care of 3 kids and going to school full-time! I just started my second semester on October 1st, and things are going alright, but still stressful. I am excited that I will be completely finished my schooling by September of next year, though. Jeremy has been very supportive, and lets me escape to the library after he gets home from work or on Saturdays so I can study.

Sammy is LOVING her preschool class, and wishes she could go every day instead of just Tuesday/Thursday. She has made quite a few friends and continues to make friends wherever she goes. Her social skills and etiquette have definitely improved, which makes me happy! Our ward just had our primary program and we received quite a few compliments on how well Sammy did. She loves primary. Sammy is always so excited to grow up!

Constance is doing great! It seems to me that when Sammy is at school, Constance kind of becomes a new person. I took Constance and Seamus shopping while Sammy was in school, and Constance was the most obedient child I could ever ask for at the store! Lately she will ask me if she can do her preschool work book while Sammy is in school, and I have found that she knows a lot more than I thought because of the many times she has seen Sammy do her school work. Most of the time, I try to ask both Sammy and Constance questions about numbers and letters, but Sammy is always the first one to answer, and Constance sometimes argues even if she knows her answer was wrong. I think sometimes she does that to keep life interesting, but other times I think she may be doing it because she wants to answer, too. I have been pleasantly surprised at the progression she has made. :)

Seamus is growing so fast! He just had his 6 month doctor's appointment (even though he will be 7 months in less than a week) and he is 17 lbs 1 oz. and 25 3/4 inches long. The doctor has been very impressed with him and thinks he should be a Gerber baby model :) Seamus is still a big hit in the ward, especially now that we found a little suit thing that looks just like James' outfit. I will post James' picture by Seamus and you can see the comparison :)

So, that is our life right now, and it will probably be the same thing until next year sometime. Sadly, we are not able to travel anywhere for Christmas or Thanksgiving this year due to finances. It takes a LOT more money to buy 4 plane tickets and rent a car than it does to drive, and driving 30+ hours in the winter is not on our list of fun things to do.

Here are some pictures of our life now-a-days.


This is what happens while I do the laundry. The kids play really well together, and Sammy &
Constance are wonderful big sisters. They love Seamus so much!


Again, this is a taste of Sunday evenings after church and dinner. Every child needs a picture doing horsie rides. :)


Here is Seamus in one of the 2 Sunday outfits I found for him. I think he looks so adorable in them both, even though this undershirt is a little small for him :)


Here is James in his adorable little outfit. I just wish we had a tie for Seamus. I can't seem to find those anywhere.


Jeremy is starting Seamus a little early on the Band Hero stuff. Seamus is always grabbing at the guitar, too!


I just love this hat...I can't help taking pictures of him when he wears it :)

Special time of year!

This has been an exciting time for our family--especially for Sammy! Sammy started going to preschool 2 days/week and she LOVES it! Although, I felt horrible on her first day--I walked in to pick her up 2 minutes late, and since she had seen other parents leaving with their kids, she was crying to her teacher that her mommy forgot her and her mommy wasn't going to pick her up. I felt so awful, because I told myself I would never be late to pick up my kids from things! I couldn't believe that on my first chance to prove myself, I failed! It took me a while to calm Sammy down enough to walk home, and I had to gain back her trust the next school day--I am proud to say that I did so! I was the first parent there after school, and Sammy was very happy--I haven't been late ever since! :)

Well, yesterday was Sammy's birthday (September 3rd) and she was so excited to turn 5 years old! I can't believe she is growing up so fast already! She is definitely ready to grow up faster than I think she should. She is such a great helper, which is good especially because I am doing school now and need as much help as I can get! Unlike everyone else in the world, I did not start school at the end of August, but completed my first semester. I have September to relax a bit and slowly work on the preparation things for next semester, which starts October 1st. If I can keep up my pace, I will be able to be finished my bachelor's by September of next year (2011)! Anyway...

For Sammy's birthday, she wanted pizza for dinner and cupcakes for dessert! We all got sick the day before her birthday, so we didn't invite anyone over to share our sick germs with, and Sammy was a little bit sad about that, but I bought some balloons and giving her presents seemed to make up for that! She did have a good birthday :)


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAMMY! :)


5th Birthday!


Constance wanted to go, too!


New backpack


First day of school!

Still growing...

Seamus is still growing really well. His 4 month doctor's appointment went well. The doctor is pretty impressed with Seamus' strength and development. He can stand up really well with support and hold his head up really well. He was 14lbs 7oz, and 25 inches long. I can't remember what the percentages are, but he is under 50% in every area, so there are no worries.

The only problem was a few days after his appointment. I think he had a really bad reaction to the immunizations. They have started giving one of the immunizations orally instead of injection. I really wonder if the oral version does it to him. He was throwing up so much for a few hours, and didn't keep anything down. He turned really pale and kept gagging even when there wasn't anything to throw up. He pretty much got everything out of his system, and then all of a sudden he was feeling better and kept food down and wasn't pale anymore. It was so weird cause it only lasted about 3 hours or so. It was scary at the time, and we really considered taking him to the hospital, but ended up not needing to. I think I will be telling his doctor about it and see if the oral immunization has anything to do with what happened.

Despite his being sick, Seamus was and is still such a little sweetheart. He is always so smiley and excited to discover new things. He is always putting things in his mouth and his favorite toy is my cell phone. One of his favorite things to do is watch Sammy and Constance playing and running around the house. The girls LOVE their little brother and are always making him laugh. If Seamus ever gets lonely in his crib or car seat, the girls are always willing to keep him company. He has been rolling all over the place but has started to scoot himself all over the living room floor, and he has already rolled off the couch once before I could catch him! He just wants to explore everything even though he can't walk. He will be 6 months old on September 19, so we'll see if he is crawling by then!


He is so cute when he sleeps :)


His shirt says "If you think I'm cute,
you should see my Daddy!" This is
his normal smile--always happy :)


He wants to taste EVERYTHING!


He LOVES sitting up!


Keeping Seamus company in his crib :)

Seamus is growing!

Seamus is already 2 months old and still growing so fast! Here are some recent pictures.


Jeremy can always make him smile
his biggest and best smiles!


Father and Son=Best Friends!


This is the cutest little bath robe with
matching slippers we got from our
friends! He is so adorable!


Love my baby!


We just love his smile!

Our New Adventure!

Well, we have moved to Erie, Pennsylvania! Jeremy accepted the job at the beginning of March and we moved right after the graduation and Seamus' baby blessing! It took us 3 days to travel the 30 hour drive in our little Hyundai Accent, so we were very grateful to have a wonderful townhouse to sleep in when we arrived!

Shortly after Jeremy started work and I was left at home every day without any transportation, we realized we needed another vehicle...and after the cramped 3 day ride in the Accent we knew we needed something with more space! A minivan seemed like a perfect choice, so we bought a 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan!

Once we got in to our new apartment, we waited a whole week for our belongings to arrive. We were living on air mattresses and eating lots of microwaveable food or eating out. I think sometimes the Lord has us experience things that make us feel more grateful for what we have. I know that a week is not that long of a time to go without stuff, but we were still counting our blessings the whole time! :)

Fortunately, we knew we might be waiting a week for our stuff, so I planned ahead. I made sure that we would have stuff to keep us-especially the kids-busy! I had my school work to do, and I brought some fun preschool stuff to do on the laptop!


Our minivan!


Our new home!


This is the fun preschool stuff on my laptop!


Even Seamus had his brain development
time. He worked on focusing his eyes!


Seamus' baby blessing! Granny Wendy got his
outfit, and Grandma Beth made the blanket!

He did it! :)

Well, Jeremy graduated and we are so proud of him! It was fun to have him hold Seamus as he walked the line, with Seamus only 1 month old! He did a great job with his schooling and endured to the end :) We are especially happy that he was able to find a full-time job in this economy. We feel incredibly blessed and we are so happy :) Here are just some pictures of the graduation.

Congratulations, Jeremy!


Thanks to all the family who came to the graduation!


Lucky Seamus got to experience a
college graduation first hand!

Brand New Baby!

We welcomed Seamus (Shay-mus) William Butler to the world on Friday, March 19, 2010 at 4:10pm! He weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 20 inches long. He has a full head of dark hair (curly when it is wet, straight when dry) and he is so easy going! He barely cries, even when he is hungry he waits patiently for the most part. It is so much fun having him here, and we all love our little buckaroo so much!


He looks so tiny in his car seat!


Sammy with buckaroo


Constance with buckaroo


Proud papa


Proud mamma