Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Butlers!
We've had a wonderful and eventful year! Jared got a new job and we moved back to Utah after living away for 8 years. Christina survived having a new baby and moving with three kids in tow. Abbie started kindergarten and has made lots of new friends. Leah started preschool and ballet and is adjusting well to being a middle child. Porter changed a lot from being 6 weeks old last Christmas to over a year old now and he is pretty happy and easygoing most of the time. We are so glad to be settled into our new home and to be closer to family and we hope you have had a great year also. Thanks for being our friends!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Like most of you, we've been pretty busy this past month getting everything ready for Christmas. The first thing we were able to cross off the list was getting our annual Christmas card picture taken. (To see our family one, look at the post above). My sister came over one morning before church and took them for us. It was so much easier than trying to get everyone to a studio dressed, clean, and happy and it was a lot cheaper too. Granted, they aren't as good of quality as professional but I think they will be just fine for what we need. I found these adorable dresses for the girls a month or so ago and then was on the hunt for an outfit for Porter. I finally found this vest/tie/dress pants set and we were ready to go. Here's the best one of the three kids together:

The second runner-up. I love how adorable Leah looks in this one, even Porter can't keep his eyes off of her!

This was the last one, I think Porter's look says it all! (If you take one more picture of me in this silly outfit, I'm going to kill you!)

The next thing we had to do was get the tree up. The girls loved helping out with that.

The finished product, it's a little pitiful looking but I had to put all the valuable ornaments on the very top and then the girls have redecorated the bottom half a couple times a day since we put it up so it's not much to look at. But they love it and there's meaning to most of the ornaments so that's what matters.

Our stockings are hung with care (I need to get another stocking holder, anyone know where I can get an iron one that looks like these?)

The olive wood nativity set I got from Jerusalem 12 years ago is up. I can't believe I still have all the pieces after all these years (and with three curious kids)!

The kids have written their letters to Santa

And visited him in person!

We've made a couple dozen cookies and delivered them to family and friends

And we've made the annual pilgrimage to Temple Square to see the lights!

Whew, I'm tired just thinking about everything we've done. And that doesn't include all the shopping trips to find gifts for everyone, parties that we've attended, and getting the house ready for all the family visitors that we've had. I am definitely ready for Christmas to be here!

It's Party Time!

We've had a couple birthdays in our family lately. That means lots of cake, presents, and fun! We've also been to a few fun indoor play areas with cousins, watched a cowboy show, and found a golden ticket in a chocolate bar! Keep reading below to see more details!

Leah turns 4 tomorrow and we had a cousin birthday party for her a few days ago. Here she is in the crown that Abbie got for her birthday a few months ago.

With her pink and purple cupcakes (that Mommy worked hard on finding in the store:)!

Painting trains and airplanes for an activity

With her cousins and presents

Yay, more princess stuff!

Hitting the Dora pinata (that we saved from 3 years ago when Abbie had a Dora birthday party)

Candy!

On her actual birthday we got her a big cupcake and had a family party.

She got some more ponies, which she loves!

Porter turned 1 on Nov. 12th! Here he is getting ready to eat his cake!

Mmmm, so yummy!

Sugar-induced blank stare

After we got him all cleaned up, he opened some presents. He got a pirate costume kit and a cool kid-sized tool box set.

I don't want to wear a girl birthday hat!

I'm ONE!

And I'm a big boy!

Jared turned 35 a few days after Porter's birthday and we celebrated by having a few of his brothers over. He keeps reminding me that he can now officially run for president! (yeah, that's not happening!)

My silly birthday boys

See the resemblance? Porter totally looks like Jared's baby pictures in this one!

A cute picture of Abbie and Porter together

And all three kids one random day

Playing at Classic Skating

We had a blast going down the inflatable slides. Here's Abbie:

Leah flying down head first. She has no fear and was going down really high slides and climbing places that Abbie wouldn't dare go.

Even Jared got in on the fun

At Jungle Jim's with their cousins

We had a blast at that place for a couple hours and then had lunch at the Arby's next door. Here we are all walking across a busy parking lot, trying to keep 7 girls in line.

Abbie practicing her cowboy lasso'ing skills

Abbie's kindergarten class has been practicing for a big cowboy program for the past month or two and they learned a bunch of songs and dances. Abbie was always singing them at home and telling us about all the things she was learning about cowboys. Here is her class at the big program! I videotaped the whole thing (on our ancient Panasonic VHS recorder so I can't include any clips on here) but didn't think to take any still pictures until the very end. Abbie is the fourth from the end on the left in the back row.

Jared has been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the kids and so one day we decided to get them a Willy Wonka chocolate bar with a real (aka made by a creative Mom) golden ticket!

Abbie was so excited, she couldn't believe she got the one and only golden ticket!