Lucy Grace!!

Finally! The reason for this long series of posts: pictures of the baby! Lucy Grace was born January 23rd at 12:18am. She was 8 pounds, 8 ounces and 21 inches long. She has blonde hair! If I hadn't seen them place her directly on my chest after birth, I would have sworn they had switched babies, just because I was dead sure she would have dark hair. But no, she is my blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby.

We were actually scheduled for an induction on the 22nd, but the pitocin took so long to kick in and the baby so long to come down far enough to break the water that labor didn't really start until 9-10 hours after they started the pitocin. Also they did an ultrasound to try and make sure she wasn't a bigger baby than Calvin was (which would have been bad... 10lbs is about my limit). But they actually measured her at 8lbs 10oz, so they weren't far off. Once they broke my water at about 8-9pm things happened pretty quickly, and I lasted about an hour before I wanted the epidural, and then it seemed just a blink before I was telling the nurse that there was something pressing against my tailbone that needed to come OUT. Then I was pushing and then she was out after a few contractions. They put her right on my chest and she just kind of laid there, calmly adjusting to new surroundings. They rubbed her down good and she made a couple squawks, so they knew she was ok, but she didn't really cry until much later when they cleaned her up good. All in all though, I don't think she's really squalled more than twice in her week-long life. She is so calm and sleeps through anything and eats like a champ.

And then there were four... She is beautiful and there never was a sweeter baby in the world. :)

Laundry Room!!

John is building me a laundry room! He and a friend in the ward worked on plumbing, and them Dad Butler has been awesome with helping do framing and drywall. The washer and dryer are in the middle of the kitchen right now, taking over the pantry closet, and I am so excited to get them moved! I am also amazed at the things John can do. Plumbing and electrical and framing and everything else. He has worked so hard and tried to get this up as much as possible before the baby was born. Love it. Love him.

Christmas!! And John's Birthday!!

And our anniversary! 10 years. Wow. John got me these beautiful roses.

My Christmas Kids! Christmas this year was pretty low key. I did most of the shopping early so that was good, but still a lot of the festivities only happened because of Mom Butler's efforts. Thanks Mom! We went down there a lot during the holiday break and had fun with family and ate good food.

Torturing uncles: a favorite pastime.

Ice skating! I guess something was malfunctioning so only the kids could skate, but they had fun!

Calvin got pretty brave at the end--maybe he'll be as good as his dad soon!

We got a gingerbread house-making kit from G&G Durrans, and the kids had great fun with that! Kimmie and Calvin pooled their resources to make a fort (all right, my idea, but they went with it), and Emily made a cute little cottage all by herself. As you can see, they were pretty pleased with themselves.

Christmas morning! The kids got lots of stuff, but most popular seemed to be the pillow pets!

Calvin got a Little People garage from Santa, which ended up being worth its weight in gold when the kids played with it for three days straight.

Angry birds!

Playdough set for Kimmie

And for Emily, a horse of course!

Post-Christmas chaos...

John's birthday! He turned... 29. :) I outdid myself and actually found 2 gifts he liked: a BYU sweatshirt and a 2012 calendar I made with pics of the kids/family that he could use at work.

One nice thing about Christmas birthdays is having family around, so we had a "party" (everyone was so holidayed out that half the party fell asleep) and ate pie and ice cream.

Happy Birthday John! You are a great dad and we sure love you and appreciate the many many many many things that you do for all of us.

Emily Birthday and Baptism!

Well, my firstborn turned eight in November. How did that happen!?! And since I am too lazy to spend another half hour putting the pictures in the right order, we'll go backwards and start with Emily's baptism...

Emily was baptized on December 3rd, 2011. Her Grandma Butler was able to come, as well as Grandpa and Grandma Pugmire, and Aunt Laura surprised us with baby Boston by showing up on the doorstep!! It was great fun. Here is Emily on the Sunday after with her birthday/baptism gifts. She received a beautiful and warm blanket and a new scripture case from Grandma and Grandpa Pugmire, a locket from Aunt Laura, a white dress and her own scriptures from her parents, a white crocheted headband from Aunt Melissa (which she did wear on baptism day, just not the next day). It was a beautiful, cold, day and we felt so lucky to have family there.

The Fam

Grandparents!

Our great neighbors.

I can't believe I don't have a picture of Laura and Boston there! But they were, and I was very grateful for the definite effort it took for her to drive out just for the weekend.

One of Emily's best friends from school came to her baptism, which was very kind. Emily was so excited to share this time with her friend. And believe it or not, they really are the same age! :)

When the time came, I'm not sure who was more nervous... John or Emily. But they both did a great job and was a sweet experience. The Bishop said some very nice things about Emily before she was confirmed, and I have to agree that Emily is a very special spirit. She tries so hard to do what is right, and has a strong sense of integrity. She excels at so many things and is a conscientious and kind big sister. She is a great example to her younger siblings and is so great about watching out for them. I don't think she will ever understand how wonderful and special she is, and how much we love her. Our family would not be complete without our Emily, and we are so proud of her and the decisions she is making and how well she is doing.

Emily's birthday cake!! I was feeling pretty lousy and pregnant, so John and Grandma Butler took over the making of the cake, which was wonderful of them. And Emily graciously was willing to simplify the cake request a bit for all our sakes. :)

Since Emily turned 8, she was so excited to have a friends party this year. We have some fabulous people in our ward who own a couple horses and some land, and let us come over to see and ride the horses! They were soooo great about it and the girls LOVED it. Although I think Emily has decided that horses in movies and books are a lot less intimidating than the real thing...

Emily had a lot of fun "playing horse" with her friend Anna--and was a lot more sure of herself on the ground!

Calvin and John got to ride too! Calvin didn't think much of it though. He preferred the four-wheeler, much more predictable.

Kimmie ended up being the bravest of our kids, and even went galloping (accompanied, of course)!! Afterward we came back to our house for cupcakes and hot chocolate. And presents!! Emily got lots of horse stuff and so she was thrilled. Happy Birthday Emmie-girl!!