Monday, June 13, 2011

Picking Crawberries

There's a strawberry patch near our village that the kids and I have been waiting to try out. Harry made a poor decision and had to stay home with Daddy and the baby, so it ended up just being Ems and I with Michelle and her kidlets. We had a blast picking "crawberries," which are Emma's favorite.




Wednesday, June 8, 2011

9 months old!

Little Sweets is 9 months old! He looks like such a big boy, as has been pointed out to me, he has a neck now. And we mothers all know what that means... toddler-hood will be arriving shortly. This is very bittersweet to me, I'm happy to see him growing, healthy, and happy, but he's our last little bundle and I've definitely enjoyed his babyhood so very much. I'll be sad to see those days behind us. I recently sold a pile (a huge pile!) of our baby stuff- swing, carseat, stroller- and was great until I started telling the nice lady how all 3 of my beautiful babies came home from the hospital in that carseat. And then the tears come (and now again, as I type this!). We definitely feel that our family is complete with these 3 monkeys, but its sad to end that baby phase.

 John is definitely my sweetest little baby, he's a snuggler and very lovey. He also got the temper that his sister inherited. When he's mad, the world knows it! But he's much easier to soothe and never holds a grudge (not something I can say about the Queen!).

 He is a HUGE flirt. He's been known to squeal when he sees a pretty lady or baby and then coo and hide when she looks over at him. It's hysterical and I'll credit his dad for that trait!
The monthly chicken shot :)

 He's giggly and sweet and ADORES his siblings. He thinks they're the funniest kids in the world. He squeals when they make him giggle and tries to join in on their conversations. To their credit, they try very hard to play with him and include them.

BBQ's and Farewells

My Boys
The kids had their End of the Year Luau at school the other day. Harry squeezed himself into his Hawaiian outfit from when he was 3. All he needed was a moustache, and we had our own Magnum PI. :P Check out those long legs!!!
My sweet little JohnBear

 Summer is also PCS season in the military life, we have a few families we know headed on to new things this month. One of our Martinshöhe Mafia families, is headed to Utah the first week of July. With all the traveling we all do, we had to have our farewell bbq this past weekend. It was a blast, as all of the Mafia events are, but we will be ever so sad to see them go.

My sweet darling girl


John and his girlfriend, Evelyn

They loving catching the Eis truck!

gorgeous rainbow!!

Also, in other family news, I've been taking my photography to the next level and doing shoots for some friends and families. A friend from Spokane is currently working on a website for me (Go Beth!), but for now, you can check out the blog overhaul at J Butterfield Photography Blog and my sweet FB page at J Butterfield Photography. VERY exciting!!!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Black Forest Trip, Part II

On Sunday afternoon, we headed to Insel Mainau, on the Bodensee (Lake Konstanz). It was incredibly beautiful, and we all had a blast. :)

In the SchmetterlingHaus

Harry was thrilled to see a Blue Morpho, his favorite!

The boys found a Volvo classic car show at the castle on the island.


in the Rose Garten


the views of the lake were just incredible

a water staircase

trinkwasser

 The park was just incredible. They had a moat set up for the kids to swim and play pirates in. There were lots of other parts to play on, but my kinder got hung up here for a loooong time!



 We also headed to Lake Titisee to play and have dinner that night. This lake was much colder, but just as beautiful.









On the way home, we stopped in Triberg at another cuckoo shop. This one was incredible, they were all completely hand made and handcarved. I could have bought everything in that beautiful shop!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Black Forest Trip, Part I

We had planned to go to Salzburg this weekend, but since the entire Autobahn was shut down from Stuttgart to Salzburg, we figured it made more sense to do that trip another time! So, I looked around and found a great deal on a hotel in Hinterzarten, in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest), so we headed there! It was gorgeous and so fun to re-visit the places that I had been in 1999 on my class trip. And so great to really experience things that I passed over at 15. :D

Emma checking out the waterwheel at Hofgut Sternum 
Cuckoo clock shop


Glasbläserei


That night, we used our Hochschwarzwald cards and went to Badeparadies, a brand new indoor water park. It was amazing and not crowded. Even John had fun- they had a small bathtub for him to sit in and splash! :) I WISH I could've had a picture of that!!


Braunlingen- one of the prettiest villages I've ever been to!

I swear, kitties just flock to him! This one showed up while he was pumping gas!

More Braunlingen
Sunday morning, we headed to Rheinfall in Switzerland and met up with Robin and Tina. This was another place that I had been in high school and had always wanted to return to.
Emma SO excited to see Tina!

family pic at Rheinfall, Schweiz



Rheinfall was incredible!

at the base of the island

learning about water cyclones

see the little island? see the tiny slippery staircase? see Jenn have a panic attack?

at the little Wasserfall

my handsome hubby and I
Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers Lilypie First Birthday tickers