Happy Birthday Harry!!

We had Harry's 3rd Birthday Party today at the Raptor Reef Waterpark. It was a blast and all the kids (and adults!) had a great time. I asked Harry what his favorite part was and he said, "Well, there weren't any balloons, but I guess I loved the hot tub the best!" (They have a hot tub that's half inside and half outside, he LOVES that!) I guess next year, I'll know to get some balloons... :)

Emma had to take a power nap after her cupcake! :)
Presents at home: I asked him to "hold it up and smile." This is what I got.

Emma trying out Harry's new Helmet Racer. She LOVES that it talks to her!! :P
He asked for a "cold ice cream cake with chocolate" so we got him a DQ cake like Mommy had. :)The boys setting up the SUPER COOL Speed Racer track!!! Even Emma was impressed!We also got snow last night and today. Ems got to wear her boots, which was great, but the hat was not as favorable... ;)

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!! We hope you all have a wonderful day and get lots of turkey, stuffing, and whatever else floats your boat. :) As for us, we'll have turkey and cheesy potatoes and whatever else comes up! 

In other news: We finally confirmed that Ems has a peanut allergy. UGH. We'd given her a taste of peanut butter when she had croup and she'd then had a breathing attack, but we chalked it up to the croup. A few weeks later, she stole a piece of Harry's toast and her whole little face turned red and puffy. So, when we had her dr's appt this last week, I asked about it and we had her tested. Sure enough, the little monkey has an allergy. They said it could do 1 of 2 things: get progressively worse every time she has a peanut, or she could outgrow it around age 2-3. Of course, we're hoping for the outgrowing thing, but we don't want to "test it" until she's older, obviously. They did say we were lucky to have caught it so early, so at least that's in our favor, right? 

Harry's birthday party is tomorrow. The kid has absolutely made out in money sent and gift cards so far- I took him to Target the other night and let him pick out a few things that he's been eyeballing. We got the Tag reader and a Speed Racer track set. He was actually very wise in all his decisions, whenever he saw something he liked he would say, "And I need this for my birthday!" So, I'd ask him, "Is this really what you want, or do you want to keep looking?" He would usually pass on the stuff he didn't need and waited until we had gotten to some of the stuff that he really wanted, like the Speed Racer stuff. :) I'm very proud of him!!! His party is at Raptor Reef tomorrow, we invited just a few of his friends to come hang out with us and have some cake and do lots of swimming. Ems and Jay are really really excited too, that place is SO much fun! I'll try and post pictures when I can.... 

Baby Pics

This second face is pretty familiar, eh? :) 9 months old....

New pics...

Okay, so really these are all of Emma, but Harry won't let me take his picture lately. Maybe its because he doesn't get thrown in the air quite as high as Lumpy, but ya know...

Ems and Daddy play this game pretty much every time she gets fussy. Which is pretty much every time she's not the complete and total center of his universe.

Calling Daddy on the phone. Every time the phone rings, she says, "HIIIIII DaDEEEE." Its starting to get annoying, especially now that Jay's home and doesn't call every 5 minutes, its actually other people. I bet every single person that calls me tomorrow to say Happy Birthday gets to hear it.... ;)

Lumpy on her "rocketstar." Jay says I have to stop buying Emma presents that Harry will LOVE and "stop reclaiming my childhood." Dad, I don't think I had anything this cool?

Yes, she looks, acts, and wants-to-be like her Daddy. :) Oh, boy, am I in for it!

Butterfields meet Santa...

So we took the kids to the mall yesterday to get our family Christmas pictures done. While we were waiting to see our preview, we ran down to "meet Santa." Harry was Capt. Fussybutt still from pictures, we still don't know what his problem is this week, but he's SO whiny. And Ems was her normal oblivious-to-the-world self, so our Santa picture came out like this. Not great but whatever. Harry told Santa that he wants a truck and Emma wants a bicycle. Later, he told me that he'd told him that he wants a kitchen, which is actually what Santa is bringing them, so we're hoping to play that up and make Santa a pretty cool guy. :) And obviously, the guy at the mall didn't help the picture either. I think he had about the same number of teeth as Emma... :(

Christmas Lists!!

Updated: 12/01/08 (I will try and keep this updated as people tell me what they're getting for the kids, that way we dont' end up with too many duplicates...)


Emma:

1. Abby Cadabby stuff (she likes her voice, and I like her pigtails!)
2. Little People Nativity Set (not sure where to find this, I've looked everywhere??)
3. Little People Learn About Town
4. Little People My First Dollhouse

6. Books (she loves ones with baby faces!)
7. Little People Noah's Ark
8. Blues Clues stuff
GCards: Toys R Us, Gymboree, Baby Gap, Coldstone, Hanna Anderson, Pottery Barn, Build-a-Bear


Harry:


2. tools (TRUs has Home Depot ones that are cute)
3. Space stuff (He's really into rocket ships and whatnot)
4. Imaginext Dinosaur (this is a remote control dino that's SO cool- this is one of his "dream items!")
5. Batman/Superman stuff- he's getting the Imaginext BatCave from us, but not any of the accessories
6. Red Truck (this is one of HIS items on the list?)
7. John Deere Truck/Trailer Set- this is from Walmart, and again, something he picked out
8. Hot Wheels tracks- we dont' have any, just LOTS of cars
9. Geotrax- we have the Grand Central Station and he's getting the Airport for his b-day, so any of the accompanying sets, trains, planes, or track sets are good :)
10. Tag Reader books- this is by LeapFrog and is really really cool! I think they have a Thomas book, a Diego book, and the Chicka-Chicka Boom-boom one looks great.
11. Ride Makerz- this is a create your own car website, and then they send it to you! www.ridemakerz.com
GCards: Toys R Us, Walmart, RideMakerz, Michaels (craft stuff!),

Jay:
1. Ipod Shuffle- green or blue, 1G
2. 007 for Wii

4. LL Bean Gift Card (for clothes)
5. REI ski waxing stuff
6. Ski Socks (wool, etc)

GCards: Sears, Best Buy, Gamestop, REI


Family Movie/Game List:

Trivial Pursuit
Hi Ho Cherrio
Candy Land
The Lion King
Sound of Music
My Fair Lady
Horton Hears a Who

A Bug's Life

My funny little children....

Emma:
1. Has a heat rash, so she's wandering around naked all day, on top of having a runny nose. It's attractive. She also thinks its hilarious because she can smack her tummy louder when she's naked. :)
2. Figured out her shake-n-go car today. Its hot pink and vrooms when she shakes it. She gets startled when it makes the loud noise, so she drops it, and it then zooms across the floor. She then screeches and runs after it, usually falling about halfway because her legs are too short/stubby to run and collapses into giggles. (I'm trying really hard to get a video of this!)
3. Got a phone call the other day informing her that she won a "movie package" from the corn maze people. (We got our names entered because we completed the corn maze!) Turns out, she won several movies, lots of popcorn, and some other goodies. She could care less, but apparently she's the lucky one for this generation- previously, its been Uncle Joe and Kates.
4. Wears pigtails when she's in trouble. Not sure if its my lack of patience that puts them in so I can't be mad at her when she's that cute, or she just knows she's cute and can get away with more... Its up for debate right now!
5. Has started hauling all her animals, blankets, toys, and loveys into the living room every time I turn my back. I think she's trying to tell me that a) my living room isn't cozy enough for her or b) she wants the living room to be her bedroom. I'm leaning towards b since she's been fighting naps lately.

Harry:
1. Told me today that he's going to be an airplane guy like his Daddy. (Cute!) He is concerned about the size of the helmets though... ;)
2. Told me that his name cannot be Henry because he's not a train. (?)
3. Says that he has hurt feelings (this is at about 10 am). Later, he'd been playing in his room, and came out and said that he has good feelings now because he cuddled with his lovey. (how cute is that?!)
4. Asked me today if Daddy was EVER coming home again? I thought this was pretty darn sad, and probably has something to do with his hurt feelings. :( I explained that Daddy was busy being an airplane guy (which currently involves drinking whiskey at the Irish bar near the hotel while his plane doesn't get fixed) and would be home as soon as he could.
5. Is asleep on the couch and looks really adorable right now.
6. Asks me every single day at least 10 times when his birthday is coming. He is a very excited little boy and having a very hard time with the fact that both Mommy's and Emma's come before his. And Ga-ga's, but we're continuing the tradition of celebrating them on the same day (at least in spirit this year!), even though Harry was stubborn and was born 50 minutes into the 10th. Sorry again, Ga-ga!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!

It snowed on Thursday for us!! :) Just a bit and just for a few hours, but we had some great heavy flakes coming down. I took the kids out to play, Emma was furious in about 3 minutes for whatever reason, plus managed to catch a cold during that time. UGH. Harry loved it, but was mad he had to wear a hat. He also keeps asking when he can go skiing. I told him there wasn't quite enough snow for that and he says, "okay, then lets' go get some more!" If only it were that simple....

My wonderful husband left Monday for a 4 day trip, that we're now on day 6 of. Yes, my friends, Jay's plane has broke AGAIN while he's in a tropical destination. Well, Florida this time, but every single time he's been somewhere nice (Hawaii, Florida, Guam), his plane has "broken." I think I"m sensing a conspiracy here?? So, he'll hopefully be back tonight or tomorrow, although he's thinking Monday. :(

Emma playing with her birthday stuff from the Weber's! Thanks guys!

pretty girl posing! (Thanks for the sweater Bernard's!!)

Harry in the snow- he really was thrilled, he just doesn't like hats...

Ems during her 3 seconds outside. I think her little hands got cold...

Shannon sent this for Harry when he was small and now it fits Emma! It makes her little eyes look SO blue and pretty. Thanks again Shanoon! :)

Jenn's Birthday List

So. I'm going to be 25. Shannon says that's primo "quarter-life crisis" time. :P So, here's my birthday list. Enjoy, I know I will! :)

1. These are from Hanna Anderson. They're adorable. And pricey.

2. Canon Rebel SLR Digital Camera

3. LL Bean Bamboo Pajamas

4. Willow Tree Nativity Set (any piece, I have NONE!) and the "Brother and Sister" piece

5. Wii Fit

6. GCards: American Eagle, Gap, Hanna Anderson, Macy's, LL Bean, Barnes and Noble, REI

7. Season pass to Ski Resort- Schweitzer, 49Degrees, etc

8. Plane tickets to MN for Christmas or somewhere hot and beachy for anytime ;)

9. Movies: The Way We Were, My Fair Lady, Muppet Christmas Carol (okay, that one's not really for me!)

10. DS Games- Platinum Sudoku, Myst

11. I will also be accepting donations specifically towards some of these items- ie the trip to MN. If you'd like to see the children at Christmas, PITCH IN! We want to come home!!

***Also, if you'd like to save on shipping and combine packages: Emma's late b-day, Harry's early b-day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, that's okay too! :)***

More updates!

On Saturday, we went to Raptor Reef. Its an indoor waterpark in Coeur d'Alene- and SO much fun! Actually, I think we're going to do Harry's b-day party there, he and Jay are pushing hard to go there! :) As you'll be able to tell from the pictures, everybody had a blast. Even Ems went down the waterslide! I was a little freaked that she'd be furious, but Jay hauled her down and she squealed the whole way!

Harry's downhill skis came the other day! I can't say enough good things about the place we ordered from- the guy gave me an awesome deal, cut my shipping in half, threw in the helmet because he had it "lying around" and sent a bunch of freebies (hats, pens, magnets)!! www.skitrucks.com Try it, we LOVED it! Harry's super excited to ski this year- "me and Shane are going to SWOOSH right down the hill!!" Do you think we're ready for this, Kari???