Thursday, May 28, 2009

New post!?

We have been spending the last few afternoons at Nonny's as we prepare for the bazaar. Mae and Rylan have never been happier. They wake up excited to see their best friends.
Somehow in the midst of all this bazaar chaos, we pulled of a lovely dinner with the missionaries, even if it meant enticing them to a ball game.

We found a parachute at our local store and the kids had a blast with it ........for a while.
Brennan left for a 3 day two night 4th grade outdoor ed trip. We missed him terribly and were so excited when he came back today. It was adequate rest for him apparently, because tonight he had a game and he pitched like a pro.

Way to go Brennan. My thoughts have been with my friend Brooke all day today as she is dealing with the death of her grandmother. Even though it has been years since I lost mine, my heart aches for my friend for the loss of someone she loved so much. I love you B!

Monday, May 25, 2009

Need a laugh?


Bon Jovi is alive and living well at the home of the family photographed below.

Doublemint gum anyone?

Don't get too close!

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Memorial Weekend so far

Saturday was a much needed restful day. No baseball, no nothing! Although we did kick back most of the day, we made up for it at night by getting our room and Nathan and Myrons room ready to switch. We have decided to give up our large master bedroom to the boys and put double bunkbeds in. We will take one of the smaller rooms and finally Mae will have her own room. Well, Rylan will have his toys in there too, but I will finally get to have the little girl room that I always wanted. Yes, I know this is supposed to be about Mae, but I've waited longer!
Today after church, we went to a friends house for a big dinner with more friends. Yes, we played WII rockband on Sunday. I love it. I think everyone in our ward has played Rockband at the B's by now.

I am going backwards now. Friday was great as well. Beautiful, sunny, warm....you get the drift. How can I complain when my husband works at this home below? I arrive early to pick him up and the kids and I play on their beautiful lawn. I like to pretend that I live there.
;)

Friday was also a nice day to go to our new favorite beach.

I will leave you with a couple of funny videos.
The first is of our fun with Rockband.




This next video is one that I forgot to upload from last weeks FHE. We were having fudgecicles for dessert and Mae looked like a hillbilly without teeth after getting chocolate all over them.
We could not stop laughing. Definitely a memorable moment.

Sorry! I thought I digitally recorded the longer one. This is all I gots!

Getting the hang of this scanning thing

Mom, Eric and me. My little sister Tara is a spitting image of my mother. I wish she could have known her.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Happy Birthday Jenny

I was able to attend for the 5th year in a row, my dear friend Jenny's birthday. The first three I planned, including a surprise birthday that she walked in on (nice going Jenny). Jenny and I have known each other for 17 years? give or take, but only close for almost 6 years now. I have always enjoyed spending her birthdays with her because she does so much for everyone else and I love to get one day to celebrate the amazing friend/mom/wife that she is. We had a nice lunch at O's with friends. I feel very thankful to share such great friends with her.
Happy Birthday Jenny.

Cool new site

I am so excited tonight after finding this site about how to cook foods via solar power and a pizza box. You can check it out......here.
Enjoy!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Still here

Yes, I am still here. Things are insanely busy right now with the bazaar and baseball.
We are all fine and I will update soon.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mothers Day

The above photo is of my mother Julia, that died 15 years ago, this August. I will upload more photos when I find them. This not very clear photo is from her funeral announcement. Yesterday was such a beautiful and sunny day. I usually spend the day before Mothers Day, thinking about my mother so that the next, day, I am not an emotional wreck. This year was a beautiful peaceful spiritual celebration. After the baseball game at Hidden Cove, I walked the 1.5 miles home by myself. I felt overwhelmed at the beauty of where I live. I looked up at the sky and felt her spirit all around me. I stopped and picked wildflowers for her the entire way home so that when I arrived, I had a nice bouquet. It has been a week to think about mothers. Wednesday night, Bro. Rehder asked if Myron could give a talk in sacrament. At home later that night, I had an overwhelming desire to speak as well. If you know me, this is a big deal because as much as I love to talk, I am frightened of speaking in public and have turned down many offers to speak or even say a prayer. I felt the desire so strong, that I wrote the talk immediately and called Brother Rehder to ask if I could speak. The next day, the answer was....."no, we have plenty of people and I hope you'll offer in the future". I let him know that I probably wouldn't be offering again. I felt dejected and confused. Why was I feeling the spirit so strongly and yet, they aren't?? Here I am ASKING and you're telling me no?? I called Sharon Boundy on Friday hoping she hadn't had a chance to write her talk yet and convince her to let me speak instead. I ended up leaving a message and didn't hear back from her. I told myself, it was too personal, I wrote it for me......yaddi yadda. Even R and I last night talked about it and I read her my talk and I said, i'll bring it to church tomorrow just in case. I did have the prompting still you know.
Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I arrived at church, I hear a "sister Butler" from across the parking lot. As it turned out, the two speakers that they were planning on talking, didn't know they were supposed to talk. Apparently no one had asked them. He asked if I would share my talk. I had left it at home but felt so peaceful and overwhelmed at the same moment. I didn't share anything that I had written in my talk. Myron talked during sacrament and I followed. During the actual sacrament, I jotted down some notes. I just didn't feel good about what I was writing. I prayed to heavenly father to just use me as a tool. I let him know that I had faith in him and I really felt that all would be well. I didn't plan on anything I said. The message ended up being, that we really need to be thoughtful with our children. Remind them often, in clever and fun ways, just how much we adore and love them. I talked about my mother. After my talk, several people came up and bore their testimonies and talked about their mothers. It was so touching. One youth in particular opened up in a way that we had never seen before. A troubled youth who you could tell was really feeling the spirit up there. I got goosebumps thinking about his leaders and all the hard work they have done to make this boy feel special. What a great reward for them. I have so much more to write, but I think this is enough for now.

Happy Mothers Day!




PS- I just realized where this message of "Little things mean a lot" came from. While my mother was in the hospital, she cross stitched me something and my dad gave it to me a month after she died for my 18th birthday. It was a picture of a little girl holding up a flower and it said " Little things mean a lot, to my dear kk, love mom". I cannot believe I didn't realize before now.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Crazy Maesy






Since my camera (new) broke, I haven't had much to post. I have been taking what photos I can with my camcorder. It's just not the same. It has been a rainy week, so no garden, no beach.....not so much fun! Last night at Brennans game, I got to do the announcing and scoreboard. THAT was fun. I had a microphone and got into it. Let's just say that I did a great job of embarrassing my kids. Especially when said kids were in the parking lot past outfield and I was able to call them up to the booth by name.
Tonight was Nathans game at the Sands field. Mae was her usual ragamuffin self. She kept taking her "stinky boots" off (we call Rylans very stinky boots, this and now she assumes that hers are too) and running around getting her feet wet and muddy. She decided to give her baby doll a bath in the muddy pond. Oh, and then found the chalk and played in that for a while. I didn't get a photo of that. Here's another one.....as all the women were watching her and remarking on her cuteness, she proceeded to announce to everyone that she had just farted. GREAT! Rylan said the cutest thing tonight. Upon arrival, he promptly found a rolie polie. Here's what he said. "mom, come look, it's a holy poky"! I said "what? A holy poky? What is that"?? Then he showed me. Too cute. He is such a sweet boy. He even let me take his photo tonight. The last photo is of the kids actually getting to play with their toys. I organized them tonight and lo and behold, they had something to play with! They hadn't seen their toys in quite a while due to baseball games, disorganization etc. Here are some photos and a video. Yes, Mae has learned to say "shut up". It's not nice and we do not think it is OK, but she does say sorry afterwards, and it does sound so cute, but you didn't hear it from me.
Take care to everyone!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Sweet Sabbath



Today, we played hooky from church. Nathan was feeling ill, Mae had a runny nose, and with the Swine Flu running rapid, we opted to stay home. I was so happy to get to cook dinner tonight. With baseball season underway, we haven't had a dinner at home for a long time. Mae was so excited to cook with me and I was happy to do so. For dinner we had pasta with lemon, cream and fresh basil sauce, topped with fresh shrimp, mushrooms, baby bok choy and halibut. It was delicious. I think next time, I will not add halibut.
Here's how I did it. (Photo below is of my weird boys. Shane decided to put glue in Myrons hair)

I cooked some egg noodles and set them aside.
I sauteed the bok choy and mushrooms in chicken broth with the uncooked shrimp.
As the halibut cooked, I put the vegies and shrimp in a separate bowl and used the broth to make
the sauce.
The sauce included a rue (flour and butter), the extra broth from the sautee and half and half.
I mixed in some basil and salt and pepper.
The shrimp had such a great flavor and texture. They were mexico fresh water gulf shrimp and were so sweet.

Flyer for the bazaar



Finally, we have something. Print, email and distribute!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Before sunset at the new hidden beach

We are quite smitten with this new beach that is so close to our home. The biggest attraction being the fact that we are most always the only ones there. We had planned to work in the garden last night. The garden was shady and cold because the sun was setting and the trees blocked the warm rays. We opted to go to the beach. Wouldn't you know it, it was beautiful, sunny and hot. I love being at the beach with my kids. It is so beautiful to watch their imagination at work, finding little treasures such as a hermit crab or a piece of sea glass. We are all at peace and happy. Gone are the fights and petty nonsense. I was happy to have the kids cooperate and allow me to take a couple of photos.


Rylan must always have a stick in hand.

I actually got him to pose for a photo.
Mae found this beautiful egg like rock.
Nathan scoping out the other side.

Brennan and Myron love to turn rocks over and catch the hermit crabs.

I just have to share this little video. It was a great night.

Talent show



The above video is of Nathan playing his electric guitar for this years youth talent show. I am pretty proud of him. He has been playing guitar since he was 8 years old and has taught himself. He plays by ear and can play a song that he has just heard within an hour. Here he is demonstrating his amazing geeetar skills.

Next we have Myron. He is a great actor and he and his buddies came up with three skits to perform throughout the performances. Way to go boys!