Fun Weekend

So here we are on the very last day of September and I'm sitting here wondering where has the time gone. There are pumpkin patches going up all around us and it's still 86 degrees around here. Aren't you supposed to wear nice cozy sweaters and jeans when you go on hay rides? I'm having a real hard time getting into the spirit of Autumn these days. In addition, I cannot believe my eyes when I go out shopping and stores are packed with Christmas merchandise.

Yesterday we took Isabella to our friend's daughter birthday party. Hannah turned 5 years old and we celebrated at The Little Gym. Scott and I weren't quite sure how Isabella would do with all the older girls, but she had absolutely no problem keeping up and she had so much fun.
Also this weekend we finally put together the "big" gift we got Isabella for her birthday. Because it's an outside toy and the temperatures around here have been unbearable until recently, we decided to wait until nicer weather to put it together. Needless to say, she LOVES it and played with it for hours this weekend. I think she especially likes that she can get in it and eat her yummy treats without having to fight with the dogs.
Finally I would like to congratulate my cousin Jessica and her husband Kenneth on the birth of their beautiful baby girl, Koral, last Monday. They are all ecstatic to be home with their new addition and doing well and we just couldn't be happier for them.

Update

So here's what's been happening in and around casa Butler these last few weeks:

* Isabella absolutely loves going to her little preschool. Her favorite class is music where they get to sing and shake bells and they get their hand stamped if they're good. She so proudly shows me her stamped little hand every time I pick her up. Her second favorite is art which usually involves paint, glitter and glue. Needless to say, her least favorite part of the day is nap time. And although she has actually taken a nap or two, she usually sits or lays quietly on her mat until snack time.

* Since this is his busiest time of the year, Scott's been working crazy long hours and weekends, which in turn is killing me. I so look forward to when he walks through the door after work and Isabella excitedly announces his arrival and instantly forgets I even exist. Here lately he's been taking care of bath and other nighttime duties which gives me a nice little break. We just keep reminding ourselves this craziness is only temporary and will be over in a couple of weeks.

* We joined forces with our neighbors and had a huge yard sale yesterday. I wish I would have taken a picture of what our garage looked like on Friday night. We had so much stuff in it it looked like it was ready to burst . And although our local newspaper messed up our ad twice, Christie made and posted so many signs, that the traffic we got was unbelievable. We sold about 90% of the stuff we had out, and what didn't sell went straight to Goodwill afterwards. I was so excited to get rid of a lot of the antiques I collected during our Louisville days. Apparently I am over antiques and very much into more modern furniture/decor.

* Finally, we do a have a bit of good news to share. Pending everything continues to go well, as of March 2008 the Butler family will have expanded by one. That's right, we're pregnant, about 14 1/2 weeks to be exact! This might explain to those of you who have been unfortunate enough to be around me lately why I have been such a useless and unmotivated grouch. If you happen to be one of those unfortunate people , please accept my deepest apologies. The good news is I'm actually starting to feel better and snap out of this "thing" I've been in for the last couple of months. I don't really think Isabella can quite grasp that she's going to be a big sister and that there's a baby in my belly, since she's pretty adamant she has one in her belly as well. She and Scott went with me to last month's appointment and through an ultrasound we got to see a very active baby ~ yeah, Isabella was not impressed. Anyway, hopefully we'll find out the sex of the baby next month so we'll make sure to keep you updated.

On that note, I will say good night now and go watch a movie with my hubby. Until next time.

Magical evening

It was family date night Saturday night when we took Isabella downtown to see Disney On Ice ~ Princess Wishes (or the Ice Princesses, as her daddy often called them). Although she's not really familiar with any of the Disney Princesses yet, she sure loved seeing all the different characters and all the action happening on the ice. Her favorite part of the show was pretty much any time Mickey and Minnie Mouse came out. Those she did immediately recognize and absolutely loves. I'm so glad we were able to go. We had such a nice time and seeing her so excited made the whole experience totally magical for us.

P.S. Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures. Between the lighting, the non-stop action, and the distance good shots were impossible to get.

Our big girl

Today was Isabella's first day at Preschool/MDO. Scott and I have been preparing her for this day for weeks telling her about all the fun things she'd get to do while in school ~ playing with boys and girls, drawing pictures, singing songs, going to the playground, eating lunch and snacks, taking a nap. All of which she was anxiously looking forward to, except for the dreaded nap. I even spoke to her teacher about it (the nap I didn't think she'd take) during orientation. She was great about reassuring me that Isabella would be OK and that this is probably the one time in our kids' life when peer pressure is a good thing.

Anyway, this morning she woke up very excited. We ate breakfast, watched a little TV and the three of us went to drop her off for her first day of school.
There was only a little bit of hesitation this morning when we walked in and she saw the classroom. She took two steps back and decided this school thing might not be a good idea after all. Daddy reminded her about the fun things she was going to do, she looked inside the classroom, saw that there was paint and paper set up on the table and ran inside without giving me a kiss or even saying good bye. She looked back long enough for me to snap one last picture and that was that.
Needless to say I missed her terribly, but truth be told I enjoyed having some free time and those 5 hours absolutely flew by. When I went to pick her up this afternoon she showed me the artwork she'd created and the happy face stamp she got on her hand for being a good girl during music class. She didn't actually take a nap, but I was told she was very good about lying down quietly on her mat until nap time was officially over. She was so very proud of herself and us,... well we couldn't be more proud of our big girl.

Back from the black hole

WOW, can you believe it's September already? So much has been going on around here. Let's see, where do I start?

OK, so I got reprimanded today for being "the worst blogger EVER!". An accusation which I acknowledge to be true most recently and to which my only response is I AM SO SORRY! August was an extremely difficult month full of unpleasant A/C issues which I will spare all of you from; one because it's an unbelievably depressing topic for us and two because we're truly sick of dealing/talking about it. So, what better way to get over an atrocious situation than to leave it behind, way far behind, like 500 miles away from home.

As we did this time last year, we took an 8-hour road trip and spent Labor Day weekend visiting our great friends Rob, Rachel, Jack and Luke in Indiana. This year though we were also joined by our good friends Scott, Kathi, Isabel and their new baby girl, Gabrielle, from Wisconsin. The last time we got to spend any time with them was over two years ago. This was a totally different experience from the last time we were all together being that there were almost as many kids as there were adults. Quite honestly I wasn't sure how that would all go, but truth be told we had a fantastic weekend. And it was actually very relaxing. The kids got to play together and the adults got to do some much needed catching up.

Although much nicer weather than back home it still got pretty hot outside during the day, so in an effort to keep cool we visited the pool and played with the sprinklers and slip-n-slide in the front yard. All the kids were more than happy to play in the water. As you can probably guess, Isabella made sure to stay far away from any and all sprinkler-like activities.


Actually, it got so hot Rob decided he needed to cool off as well. Unfortunately, he was the only adult brave enough to cool off in this specific manner. I know the rest of us were secretly wishing we could do the same. It sure looked like fun.

While all the outdoor activities were going on Baby Gabrielle was inside taking her nap, but we made sure to get lots of photos of this sweet and happy baby girl.

On the way back home on Monday we decided to make a stop at Dinosaur World in Cave City, KY. We weren't really sure what it would be like, but every time we've driven by it in the past it's peaked our curiosity. So in order to ensure Isabella would not be frightened we kept telling her about the "really big dinosaur toys" we were going to go see. She loved it. It was set up like a path, very Jurassic Park like, and every few feet there were different dinosaur exhibits with information. Isabella loved that she got to do a whole lot of walking, so much so she actually asked her daddy to carry her for a while. And she only got scared a couple of times, mostly when the big dinosaurs were extremely close to the path.

Uncanny resemblance, don't you think?



I thought for sure after all this walking this child of ours would pass out in the car and take a nice long nap. WRONG! Apparently mommy was the one who was beat after our stop and took a nice long nap while daddy continued to drive and Isabella watched episode after episode of The Backyardigans on her DVD player.