Hello Friends,

I have been terribly behind in my communication, as usual. I have meant to get this post up for months and just have been so busy I haven't gotten around to it. Here is a brief photographic history of Butler Family Highlights since November 2005. I just want to say a quick HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN, we love you!

Christian's School went on a field trip to a ice cream shop recently. They had a fun time making sundaes and seeing how the food is made.

Nick and Mattie go along for the tour. And the ice cream.

CRAZY HAIR!!! Nicolas had two friends over this week. He ended up not feeling well so I had a "playdate" with the girls. We played Beauty Shop and then the girls kind of went to town on the boys. The kids all really liked their crazy hairstyles. Gabriel even got in on the action.

AWANA NIGHTS

Christian graduates from "Cubbies" to "Sparks" at the end of the year award ceremonies. Awana is a great program that the boys are in . The boys attend their groups once a week and are expected to memorize bible verses and through their groups they develop a better understanding of Bible teachings. It has been a great benefit to them over the past 3 years. Next year Mattie becomes a "Cubbie".

Nick gets his award for his group, TNT (Truth in Training).

THE AWANA GRAND PRIX... Nick's favorite event of the year. He and Dad make a new car each year. This year Dad couldn't get out of work so he was "On Call" for updates as Nick raced.
There is Nick's car... #38, THE GOD RACER!

Christian's Cubbies group has their own little race. He picked a yellow car, of course, it is his FAVORITE color. Grandma and Grandpa got to come see the races. It was fun.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Mom. The boys brought grandma a really good cake for her birthday. Grandma and Grandpa LOVE cake! And so do the boys!
Speaking of cake... my friend Rachel made this fantastic Buzz Lightyear cake for Mattie's birthday. He turned 3 and we all loved the cake. See, Matthew and Christian both think they are Buzz Lightyear!
Gabey likes cake, too.
Matthew opens Christian's present. Christian fills up this funny pumpkin with toys from the toybox (they don't even have to belong to him) whenever his brothers have a birthday. Then, he gives them the pumpkin. The really funny thing is that he gave some of these things to Gabriel for his birthday. It is so cute and Mattie was very happy with his "new" used toys, that he plays with everyday already.
Christmas at Grandma's. Nicolas loves to play chess at grandma's house. Nick and Dad get a game in after Christmas dinner.
Christian - 4 years old
Matthew - almost 3 years old.
I just like the Christmas morning picture, taken before everything gets REALLY messy. Stockings are hung, left to right...

Dad, Mom, Nicolas, Christian, Matthew, and Gabriel

Clean Babies is a group that I started with a few friends in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Through much hard work and many generous individuals we were able to collect, purchase, pack and send 205 kits to affected areas. In addition we also sent 68 extra packages of diaper wipes. Each kit included a diaper bag, diaper changing pad, diaper rash ointment, a complete package of diapers and a complete package of wipes. It was a great success.

Packing up the items for the trailer pickup Saturday morning was crazy and fun. We had diapers and stuff all over our kitchen and living room. Rachel was/is amazing in all she does. I couldn't have done it without her. She exemplifies the meaning of the word, "Friend".
We are only halfway there and the 6 boys running around are getting tired and cranky. We got them off to bed and finished in the wee hours of morning. Luckily the trailer came early because we couldn't even walk through the living room!

That's all for now, Steve is waiting for me to come to bed. Goodnight.

K.

Pictures - better late than never... Christian playing firefighter at the Children's Museum (august 25)

Christian and Nick waiting for the Children's Museum to open.

Nick and Christian, playing at Vetran's Park

Every once in a while I catch the boys rocking together and I just love those little moments.

Steve and Matthew after opening his birthday presents. Mattie loves to wear his hats but will only wear hats backwards... funny little guy!

The back of Daddy's birthday shirt. All the little pictures mean something!

Daddy showing off his birthday shirt.

Christian loved all of his presents but showed the most enthusiasm for these bats I paid $1.20 for.

Steve loves this picture of Nick's shock (and probably jealousy) over Christian's playdough factory.

The boys playing in Kelly's kayaks when we were packing up to leave camping.

Nick and Charli playing something, I think the "wheels on the bus..." song.

Charli and Nick while we were camping. Charli is our neighbor (born 3 weeks after Matthew) and Nick is her favorite Butler Boy! She always likes to sit her little pink chair right next to his.

Charli hanging in our gazebo while we were camping.

Birthdays and Back to School

Well, we have had a busy few weeks. Carol and I had our Park Friends Church Reunion 2 Sundays ago. That was alot of fun as we got to visit with childhood friends. You can visit her blog at www.carolsclan.blogspot.com. It is always nice to see old friends. We had fun. The next day was Christian's 4th birthday party. That was eventful!!! We had Christian's friends Mikayla, Talaina, Bridget & Braden over in addition to all of our own (also Talaina's sisters Morgan and Reagan came - more about that later). Well, as far as the mom's were concerned things were going splendidly while we visited inside while the kids all played outside. Steve was out there the whole time, grilling hot dogs (Christian's favorite) and playing with the kids. Christian had cake and ice cream and opened all of his gifts. Birthdays sure are fun for kids! He got a playdough factory and p.j.s and books and art supplies and all kinds of other stuff. Well, my good friend Marcie, gets up to go. Her baby Reagan needs a nap and they head out to the car. About a minute later there is just tons of screaming coming from outside. I look out the window and see Talaina's face is bleeding. I jump up to go get a wet cloth and they come back in. Talaina is hysterical and is bleeding everywhere. We try to look at her face and there is a gash under her nose and her nose is all skinned up. Worse is that everytime she opens her mouth blood is pouring out. Thankfully our friend, Tonya is there and she is a nurse. Needless to say Marcie had to leave her kids behind with me (one who shoved her little sister down and caused this facial trauma) and take Talaina to the E.R. Well, 3 hours later Talaina went home as her mom described "Looking like elephant woman" and worrying about people seeing her face. They don't call her Princess Talaina for nothing! Sounds like a fun party, huh??!?!

Steve's birthday was on Wednesday. Pretty uneventful. The boys and I made him a special t-shirt and he went to work.

Nicolas had a finger trauma on Thurday evening. He was playing with these 2 neighborhood kids that I hate him playing with and they had their bikes turned over and were trying to "spin gold" with Easter Basket Fluff and their bike tires. I told them to quit doing that and they continued. Soon after I heard the blood curtling screams and I run over and Nick's finger has been caught up in between the chain and the sprockets. It was in there tight and I couldn't get it to budge. He is just screaming and it looks cut and I am trying to calm him while trying to figure out how to get it out. My best thought was to turn it back but it was so tight and he was hysterical. My concern was that it looked cut and I didn't want to make that worse turning it out. Well, after a minute or so he tells me it doesn't hurt anymore and he ripped it out. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it and took him inside. I was sure we were on our way to the ER and I called my mom to come over. While we waited his little fingertip puffed back up and only had a small cut. It was purple and greasy but not cut. I called a good friend of mine (who happens to be a doctor) and she told me not to take him in. She told me what to watch for and we just kept his finger on ice. Nick swore, "I'll never do that again!" but the next day I caught him back at it. He hasn't ridden his bike since.

I have been busy planning my Croptoberfest event and am very excited about that weekend away. If you are planning on coming you need to register soon!

Steve had his fantasty football draft party today. He loves that event and I think it is the only social event he plans for himself all year.

Nick goes back to school on Tuesday and his good friend Tristan was just accepted to his school. That will be fun as Tristan will see Nick every day when I drive them to school and pick them up (and at recess of course - those poor recess aids!!!). Actually, they do well together.

Steve will be in Detroit for training on Tuesday so I am on my own. We leave to visit my parents mid September. The kids are very excited about that.

I have to run. I am going to try to figure out how to download pictures onto this laptop.

Have a great week,
Kaira

Bringing home the bacon...

My friend Betsy, who introduced Steve and I, sent me this picture... had to share it. So, next time Steve feeds you a line about how hard he works...

Vacations Over

We just got home Monday evening from our 3rd and final camping trip this year. We spent 8 days at Mitchell State Park in Cadillac. We refer to that as our second home... we LOVE it there. The boys had a great time. We had a few cool days and a little rain but still enjoyed a bit of everything. We went to the drive in and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and started to watch the Fantastic Four (I was falling asleep and we left early). We rode our bikes around the lake and went out for ice cream. The boys got to go fishing and to the beach and they flew their new kites. We had campfires and relaxed (think afternoon naps for all of us) and just enjoyed our family time away!!! I wish I could go back today! Well, when we came home, things got busy~ the A/C broke in the van on the way home (about a $900 repair), I have about 50 loads of laundry, Matthew who is potty training peed on the couch, Christian and Matthew removed the cabinet doors in the bathroom (yes, they took them off the cabinets for God knows why???), and so on. Oh, and our microwave died while we were camping so today when I went to heat up my chicken I had no microwave... AHHHHH, it is good to be home. Yes, that is a little sarcasm. On a more positive note, all of my flowers survived the time away thanks to Kassy and Cara ~ I was so happy to pull up and see them all in bloom.

On to other news, Nicolas starts school on the 30th. He isn't so excited about that but 3rd grade is almost here. I can hardly believe he is in 3rd grade already! Christian starts school on the 12th of September and he is very excited about that. He is in the 4 year old "Dinosaur" class. His friends Mikayla and Talaina will be joining him and we are so glad. Gabey is pulling himself up on everything and we think the little guy will be walking in no time.

Christian turns 4 tomorrow!!! I don't know where the time goes but it sure goes fast! He is excited and his Grandma and Grandpa are coming over tomorrow night for cake.

Well, I will get pictures online this week. I have a zillion and one things to do but I will get to it. Right now I have to go switch my laundry and clean up the kitchen and give Gabey a bottle and tell Matthew that it is not nice to pinch Christian and tell Christian that "NO, he can not sleep in my bed because Matthew pinched him".


Have a good week!
Kaira