Olivia turns 1!

Here are Olivia's 1 year pictures from a photo studio.  Isn't she just the cutest thing you've ever seen?

 

I can't believe my baby is ONE!

 

My little snuggle bug.  She love to cuddle and be held by Mommy!

Think they could win a modeling contest?

I got the kid's yearly pictures taken recently at Sears and here are the highlights.

Abbie 6 years old

Leah 4 years old

Porter at 10 months old

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!

Porter's 4 week old photo shoot

A friend of mine came over when Porter was just a month old and took a bunch of pictures of him with her fancy camera in different poses using different colored blankets and props. It was hard work getting Porter into certain positions while he was asleep and trying not to wake him up but we had fun and I couldn't wait to see the final pictures. Well, wait no more, here they are!

My favorite so far

Santa Baby

Hmmm...


My beautiful boy

Blessing outfit

Full body on black

In a basket

In a tiny Radio Flyer wagon (seriously, it's like 10" long)

I took these last two with my trusty Kodak. The one in the basket my friend set up the pose but had to leave for a bit so I snapped a couple shots and the wagon one I took later that day since we didn't have time to get to it. I can totally tell the difference in quality, probably because of my old camera or my composition (I took them in color but like the old fashioned/sepia tone). Either way, I'm glad there are people out there that know what they are doing. Thanks, Julie, I will cherish these pictures forever!

Abbie's photo shoot

Here are the rest of Abbie's 5 year old pictures. Is this girl a natural model or what?

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