New Year's Eve at the Museum

On New Year's Eve our family went to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science with my parents and Sage.  It was a lot of fun and educational.  I learned that Koala bears have two thumbs on each hand, but only one thumb on their feet.  Who knew??


It was fun to show Lily the exhibits.  I think the rocks & minerals and the animal exhibits were a couple of her favorites.  She also really liked the dinosaurs.

Lily and Sage played on the piano in the kids discovery zone.

By the end of the day we were all pretty tired.  Lily did really well considering we only had the umbrella stroller and Claire spent most of the day in it.

I Love Ice Skating

Jeff and I took advantage of the free babysitters available to us and went on a little date.  We went ice skating at a nearby community center.  We both really enjoy it.  Jeff grew up ice skating on the rinks over baseball diamonds in Chicago and I took an ice skating class at BYU to fill some of my PE credits.

The last time we went skating was 2 years ago for our 3rd wedding anniversary.  Our 5th anniversary is in just a couple of weeks on January 11th.

Christmas Day

Christmas day was really special and I learned you can have a great Christmas even on a small budget.  We had a lot of fun together.

We "slept-in" until about 6:30.  I woke up at 4am but Jeff made me go back to sleep.  Lily's Santa gift was a little mermaid trike.  She LOVES it, but hasn't figured out how to pedal yet.

Claire's big gift was a warm snow suit.  The little ears are my favorite part.

We all had a great Christmas.  Here are a few more photos from the day.

Christmas Eve

Lily saw her first movie in the Theater on Christmas Eve.  Jeff, Lily, Tristen, and I went to see The Princess and the Frog.  It was great.  I recommend it!  Here's a picture of Lily in the theater.  I forgot the camera so we took the picture with Jeff's phone and it doesn't do a very good job.  Lily was a little wiggly, but she enjoyed the movie and it kept her attention the whole time.

We had an awesome Christmas dinner (bacon-wrapped dates, squash soup, peppered turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, etc.) planned and prepared by Skye.  He's quite the cook after his first semester of training in the culinary arts.

After dinner we had to complete a Christmas trivia quiz (Jeff and I won!) and then we had our Christmas program.  After the program everyone opened a present.  The Butler tradition is to get PJ's for Christmas Eve so I made some matching jammies for Lily and Claire to open.  They turned out really good!

After the presents we had dessert.  Skye made his award-winning pecan tart and I made molten chocolate cakes.

The chocolate molten cake is one of Jeff's favorites.  Can't you tell?

I got the recipe from Kraftfoods.com.  Here's the link in case you need an awesome chocolate dessert recipe:   http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/molten-chocolate-cakes-69182.aspx

The Wildlife Experience

For fun, Jeff and I took the girls to The Wildlife Experience.  Its a interactive wildlife museum.  Lily had fun playing in the butterfly maze which has you start out as an egg and progress all through a butterfly's life.  You  have to make choices throughout the maze and if you chose wrong you DIE (like deciding to eat the wrong plant or hide in the wrong place).

Her favorite part was the play area.  She and Claire played dress up and then we made a little Christmas craft.

Christmas Goodies

Here are a few Christmas goodies for you to treasure.
1)  Its been DANG cold here in Provo.  Here is our back living room window one morning - covered in ICE!

2)  I made peanut butter cups this year to give away as gifts to neighbors and friends.  I tasted them the day I made them and they were awesome, but the ones I tasted a few days later got a little chalky.  I think I got the chocolate too hot in the microwave.  Tristen tried the peanut butter cups and loved them as you can see.

3) Great Grandma Allen gave Lily and Claire some slippers for Christmas and we opened them early.  The slippers are really cute... and so are my kids.  This is the beginning of many fun matching presents to come in the years ahead.

4) Lily really likes Christmas carols.  She's got the chorus to Jingle Bells down.  Naturally she performed this little number at our 3rd annual Christmas party.  Its never to early to start the joys of Karaoke.

5) And finally, the cold weather is a great excuse for winter hats.  Grandma Butler brought new hats the last time she visited.  Here they are modeled by my munchkins.  Notice how the hat accentuates the roundness of Claire's face (and the wetness of her shirt).

Lily is so big, but so little

I was looking though some older pictures of Lily.  She was so little!  I remember at the time thinking that she was getting so big.  Pretty much every day I think, "Lily is so big" but I know I'll look back and think, "She was so little!"

Here are some pictures of Lily when she was about 18 months old .  She still had a little baby fat and it was so cute.  Notice the creases at her wrists and elbows look like a baby's.

Hopefully I can remember to enjoy how little she is now and try to not rush her into getting bigger.

Happy Hanukkah

Lily is really enjoying this holiday season, although she is confused about which holiday we are celebrating.  I think Lily is celebrating Hanukkah because she is opening presents every day!  She opened her princess sleeping bag yesterday and today she opened a toy princess camera.  Hopefully the time out I gave her will help her resist the temptation to open every present under the tree.  We'll see.

She asks me every day if it will be Christmas tonight.  I tell her "No" and then I tell her how many days we have to wait, but its definitely not sinking in.  Oh well!  We say we want it to feel like Christmas everyday.  It sure feels like Christmas every day to Lily!

Snow Day!

It started snowing on Saturday night...and it just keeps coming.  Lily and I went out in the backyard to make a snowman, but I couldn't find my gloves.  We just played instead.  The snow is up to her knees!

The snow has turned our backyard into a winter wonderland and erased the effects of the mudslide.  Isn't it pretty?

A Festive Weekend

We had a lot of fun this weekend because Grandma and Grandpa Butler, Andrea, and Steve came into town to visit.  Lily loves spending time with her Aunt Andrea and Uncle Steve.

Since we won't be with the Butler's for Christmas this year, we tried to fit in some fun Christmas activities while they were here to visit.  We went to a Christmas Tuba Choir performance at BYU, we saw the living nativity at the Provo Tabernacle, and we decorated Christmas sugar cookies.

  

Fairy Godmother

I finished sewing Lily's Cinderella dress last night right before midnight.  It made me feel like the Fairy Godmother!  For my 3rd sewing project ever, the dress turned out pretty good...just don't look too close.

Jeff needed his Fairy Godmother last night, but unfortunately she was a "no show".  He had to do his homework all on his own and didn't finish until 2:30am.  Brutal!

My girls have fantastic hair

Lily's beautiful hair is almost to her waist!  Someday we'll have to cut it, I suppose.

Claire's hair, on the other hand, is a work in progress.