Interview with an 8 year old

Today we celebrate Isabella, our amazing, smart, loving, funny and beautiful girl. It's so hard to believe she's turning 8 years old.  I know it's the biggest cliche out there, but really... where has the time gone?! It's been such an honor and a wonderful adventure watching her grow and turn into the extraordinary person she is.

In an effort to document her, who she is and where she's at in life right now, I thought it would be fun to do a short interview with her. And that went a little something like this:

What is your favorite thing to do right now?
Go swimming at Tata's (grandma's) pool with my cousins and my friends, because we use our imagination to make up a lot of fun games.

What's your favorite food?
Pepperoni Pizza

What's your favorite drink?
Diet Dr. Pepper... it's really yummy and tasty and good!

What's your favorite TV show?
Jessie

What's your favorite movie?
Monsters University, because it's about two "people" becoming friends in a very cool way.

What's your favorite thing to play?
Games on my tablet, especially Diner Dash.

What's your favorite thing about summer?
No school! (with no hesitation whatsoever!)

What has been your favorite activity this summer?
Our trip to Colorado. Going up a ski lift and down that long slide on a sled on wheels was AWESOME!

Who's your best friend?
Can I pick two? I have to pick two. Hudson and McKenna.

If you could travel anywhere right now, where would you go?
Back to Aruba. Everything about Aruba was awesome, the hotel, the pools, the beach, the waterpark...

What do you like most about being a big sister?
That I'm the oldest (read bossiest) ;-)

What do you like most about Sam? What do you like least?
Most: He's very funny!
Least: He's so annoying!

What do you like most about Max (I realize I have not introduced the amazing Max yet....oops!)? What do you like least?
Most: He's so joyful!
Least: He's so drooly!

How do you feel about going into the third grade?
I'm excited to learn a lot of new things and make new friends.

What do you hope this new year will bring?
I'm excited about going to to the American Girl store!
I want to get my first real American Girl doll.
I want to learn to ride my bike without training wheels.
And I want to learn to write in cursive.

Our girl:

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!
We love you SO much!

Halloween

Ok, so I'm back.
And It's good to be back.
Really good.
But, if it's OK with you, I think I'll just jump right in and act as if the last 6+ months never happened.
Although, in actuality SO MUCH has happened.
And I want to update you on all (or most) of it.
But I think I'll take my time and just post as we go.
Otherwise, blogging is just overwhelming.
And not fun.
And that's the last thing I want from my beloved blog.
Alrighty then... so, here we go!

Halloween 2012

This year the kids decided to bring one of my all time favorite childhood stories to life...

Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf

Normally, I'd be all about ladies first and such, but I really want to start with the Big Bad Wolf.

Originally, Sam was all about those scary, bloody wolf masks you find in the stores. But I struggled with it because, well, he's 4 years old! No way!!! So I decided to go a different route... my mom and I actually made his costume. Yep, we sure did! We bought the fabric and the materials and got really busy to meet our tight deadline. And I still have the hot glue gun burn marks on my fingertips to prove it.

Whataya think? 

Pretty awesome, huh?

Unfortunately, I can't take all the credit. I did find a tutorial for this costume on Pinterest. But my mom and I had the best time making it and changing a few things to simplify the process.

And the best part? Sam looked like a 4 year old. And he absolutely loved it! He got to wear it to school for a costume parade. He got to wear it for a photo shoot with mom at Shelby Farms. And he got to wear it to go trick-or-treating on halloween night, which kept him nice and warm. I'd say that's a win-win situation!

Now, let's move on to our Little Red Riding Hood. 

As much as I'd love to tell you that I painstakingly slaved and made her costume, that is just not the case. I did however order it from the internet. And considering all the hoochie choices you get when you enter Little Red Riding Hood into Google Images search box, I was delighted with how sweet and demure her costume was.

 She was thrilled with her costume, and looked dreamy in it!

And together they had a great time.

Posing for me when I asked (read begged) and playing and climbing and running all over the place.

I've been so busy with client sessions these last few months, that I've neglected taking the time to take pictures of my own kids. I'm so happy we took a quick break from our hectic schedules to go and shoot these photos.

And I especially love that we were able to have a whole lot of fun in the process.

Wordless Wednesday - My Girl...

...takes my breath away!

Ten on Tuesday ~ I'm back!

1. I know, I know... many of you are probably thinking that this has turned into a "Ten on Tuesday" blog. Trust me, I get it! But rest assured that now that the school year is officially in full swing with both kids back in school, and we are back to our "old" routine, I have more time and quite a few blog posts that I'm dying to share with you in the next couple of days. With lots and lots of pictures.

2. Isabella lost her second tooth last week. There was some serious celebrating in this home,... that tooth has been loose for months. And of course, the tooth fairy made a pit stop and left her a little something.

3. Last week my Mom went into the hospital for what was supposed to be a routine 30 minute exploratory procedure. Well, that quickly turned into an overnight stay when they found 80% blockage on the front artery of her heart and immediately inserted a stent. Thank you all for your prayers and kind words. Fortunately, she has recovered beautifully and is right back to her amazing self.

4. Sam is really enjoying school so far. I was concerned since he kept flipping back and forth between dying to go back to school and dying because of having to go back to school. Luckily, he really likes his new teachers and he loves playing with a lot of his old friends. All is well in Sam's World!

5. Isabella had three different sleep overs this past weekend. THREE! On Friday night she spent the night at a friend's place, on Saturday night we had a friend spend the night here, and on Sunday night my parents took both kids (and their cousins) to spend the night at their place.  Needless to say, yesterday Isabella was WAY overstimulated, overextended, and oh SO grumpy. Guess who won't be doing that again! Ever!

6. I'd like to do a shout out to my dear friend Celimar... today is her birthday! She lives in Italy (jealous much? I know I am!), and I've only been asking her for, like, EVER to start a blog so I can live vicariously through her. Anyway, Happy Birthday, Beautiful! I hope you hanno un grande giorno!!! ;-)

7. I'm thinking of resurrecting the ol' OPAM (One Project a Month). We have a few home projects in the horizon and this would be the perfect way to share them with you.

8. I'll be making Kraft's Cheesy Chicken & Salsa Skillet recipe for dinner some time this week. You can find the recipe here. Seems fast, easy, healthy and yummy. I'll let you know how it turns out.

9. Have you seen the movie Tangled? If you haven't, you must. It is adorable! If you have, you know the song they sing when they're in the tavern, I've Got A Dream? (BTW, you can watch it here.) Well, I have a dream,... and this week I'm finally getting off my bootay and taking some critical steps towards making that dream a reality. EEK!!! I am so excited! Can't wait to share all the fun details with you once things start falling into place.

10. And since every post needs at least one photo, here it is:

 I can't help but think of "Oh, the places you'll go!" when I look at my sweet boy in this one.

Ten on Tuesday

(1) I feel like I've seriously neglected the ol' blog lately. I'm also WAY behind on reading and commenting on blogs. But I'm sure that as things start to settle around here, and our back to school routine is re-established, my time (and desire) for blogging will return. At least I hope it does. I miss my bloggie peeps!

(2) We didn't really do as many things on our Summer Fun List as we would have liked this year. Don't get me wrong, we certainly made a pretty dent. But in all honesty, when I think back to our summer, this is all that I seem to remember:

It seems like we spent most of the summer either taking swim lessons at the Y or swimming at my Mom's.

(3) Still on the list, and soon to come, a HUGE garage sale along with the kids' lemonade stand. My friend Tracey printed out a nice big banner for them to use on their lemonade stand. It is adorable and they can hardly stand it!

(4) I've got some really fun home improvement projects I am absolutely thrilled about, and lots of indoor painting that will soon take place. Stay tuned!

(5) Isabella survived her first week and is really enjoying being a first grader so far. We get to meet with her teacher tonight, and we're definitely looking forward to it.

(6) Sam has two more weeks before he starts his 3YO Pre-School. I'm ready! Him... not so much anymore! He's working overtime on his case for staying at Tata's all day, every day. How quickly things change! Poor baby...

(7) Scott has been lusting after a Dyson vacuum for years. No joke. However, I couldn't justify buying one while we had a perfectly good Hoover in the house. I mean, have you seen the price tag on those rug suckers? YIKES! Anyway, Scott decided to vacuum the house this weekend. Yeah, I'm not one to discourage anyone from such behavior! Amazingly, an item of clothing got misteryously sucked in and pretty much burnt the heck out of our perfectly good Hoover vaccum.

(8) Guess who is the proud owner of a brand new Dyson!

 

Yeah!

Coincidence? 

I think not!

(9) The Help

Loved the book!

LOVED the movie!

Did you read the book? Have you seen the movie?
The casting, the sets, the wardrobe, the acting...  It is AMAZING!
Seriously, go see it!
That's all I'm gonna say about that!

(10) Sam was being his silly self yesterday. So, I decided to pick up my camera and snap some pictures. This is my favorite one:

 

Technically, it's all wrong. But he's not making silly faces. He's laughing. Like, really laughing. And he's such an adorable and lovable and awesome child. And all that comes through in this picture. And that is exactly why I love it so much!

Have a great day!

Ten on Tuesday

1. I spent last weekend in Nashville. With some girlfriends. For a CKC scrapbooking convention. We stayed at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.  Took some layout classes. Did lots of shopping. Ate at the Cheesecake Factory. I'm not gonna lie, it was HEAVEN!!!

2. In fact, I enjoyed the convention so much that it apparently reignited my desire to scrapbook for us again. Here lately all I ever work on are my classes, but suddenly I've got an itch to get to scrapping. And well, that just hasn't happened in forever!

3. It's official... we are now the parents of a first grader. Eeek!!!

4. Even though none of her former classmates are in her first grade class (not a single one! how does that happen?), Isabella has had a wonderful couple of days so far. She says her teacher, Mrs. Franklin, is very nice and she's already made lots of friends. She's very happy, which of course translates into me being very happy!

5. My neighbor and I are now carpooling. She takes them in the morning. I pick them up in the afternoon.  I love it!

6. OK, so I am now hooked on Words with Friends. HOOKED! Have you played it? You must. If you decide to check it out, be sure to play with me. Just search for user name "liztbutler". All I'm gonna say is that with my addictive personality, it's a really good thing I don't enjoy gambling.

7. As I mentioned earlier, my neighbor took the girls to school this morning, so Sam and I got to hang out today. All day. Today was the first time in a LONG time that I didn't have anywhere to be. (Notice I didn't say I didn't have anything to do. I just chose not to do anything.) So I made sure it was a very mellow day. We sat on the couch and watched episode after episode of Justice League. I read some of my book. We had lunch. We took a nap. We went to pick up the girls. Apparently my body was begging for some downtime, because it felt really good to just chill.

8. What I neglected to realize, until about 5:30pm, was that I had an eye appointment scheduled for today at 11:00am. Oops, it appears I did have somewhere I needed to be after all! Guess I'll be calling tomorrow to reschedule.

9. I'm not certain of what Sam's MDO start date is, but he is definitely ready! He can't wait to meet his new teachers and reunite with his little friends.

10. My brother is healing and feeling better and standing strong in his faith. Often times it's hard to see the good in life's speed bumps, but they are definitely there. And I am ever so grateful for him and his faith journey thus far!

Ten on Tuesday...on Thursday

(1) Isabella got a surprise mani/pedi at Sweet and Sassy for her birthday. This girl is just like her Mama in the pampering department... she just can't get enough. Needless to say, she was in HEAVEN!

(2) The summer art program Isabella attended at the beginning of the summer is having their art showcase reception this coming Sunday. Unfortunately, we'll be helping a friend celebrate turning 6, and we won't be able to make it. So we decided to go and check it out last Sunday instead. It was amazing walking into the lobby and SO fun looking at all the colorful artwork.

(3) The class Isabella took was called Sculpture Safari and she made the following two projects:

An elephant:

A cheetah in its habitat:

We are so proud of our little sculptor!

(4) I came across this recipe on Pinterest recently. Are any of you as hooked on Pinterest as I am? Oh. My. Goodness! Talk about an overload of fabulous ideas. It is awesome!!! Anyway, I made it for dinner last week. It was delicious!

(5)  Our boy is desperately fighting naps these days. Claims that he's not tired and doesn't need one. The result, more often than not, is that he totally crashes at about 5:00pm. Anywhere and everywhere! And it is nearly impossible to wake him up without him throwing the MOTHER of all tantrums. Yeah, this is NOT working for me. So we're going to have to reconsider the whole skipping the nap thing... like, PRONTO!

(6) Isabella had her cousin and our neighbor over for a sleepover on Tuesday night.  Sam was almost as excited as Isabella was to have the girls over. The evening consisted of pizza for dinner, donuts, dance battles on the Kinect, lots of running and giggling, makeovers, a movie and popcorn. It was lights out at 11:00 pm. Scott and I were exhausted!

(7) I don't know if it's just us, but my kids will watch a movie and pick that same movie to watch over and over and over for days... It gets to where I can recite them in their entirety. Yeah, I'm not kidding. Anyway, the movie the girls picked for the sleepover was Ramona and Beezus. And in true Butler children fashion, we've been watching it over and over and over ever since. But can I just say, I absolutely loved it. It is sweet and imaginative and funny and perfect for our 6 year old and her Mama to sit and enjoy together.

(8) I can't believe that school starts in a little over a week. I am SO not ready. Like, at all! I foresee some serious back to school shopping in the very near future,... quite possibly tomorrow?!

(9) And speaking of being behind, I'm participating in a consignment sale in a couple of weekends, and I still have not gone through the dozens of bins of kids' clothes, or entered them into the system or prepped them. Yeah,...

(10) I get to spend my evening with the very talented Marci Lambert at a photography seminar, and I am SO looking forward to it!

An Arsty Fartsy Affair

So, as many of you know, I live for planning my kids' birthday parties. 

I spend months thinking/planning/shopping/preparing... 

OBSESSING, really! 

And I love every single second of it. 

This year, for her 6th birthday, Isabella asked for an art-themed party. 

In our family ART=FUN! 

So I wasted no time and quickly got to work researching ideas and projects. 

I finally settled on a party at home (crazy, right?) with five different art stations: 

Marble Art, Art Studio, Scratch Art, Bubble Art and  Freestyle Art.

The invitations were sent, RSVPs received and the fun began!

Upon arrival, everyone walked in through our huge frame (you can kind of see it behind the kids).

It was kind of like walking into a painting. 

Immediately to the right was the laundry line with all of the kids' personalized aprons.

I got the aprons at the dollar store.

Pink and purple for the girls, orange and green for the boys.

My Mom and I paid Jo Ann's a visit to buy a variety of fabric.

I cut out the circles and the letters, and she got to work sewing them on.

I love how they turned out. 

They were a HUGE hit with the kids (and the parents).

Here is the birthday girl with most of her guests:

I just love how they all look with their little aprons!

Right after this photo was taken, we counted down and off they ran to get their art on!

Marble Art:

 I bought two big containers of oatmeal and covered them with paper.

Filled the divided tray with 7 different paint colors.

Dropped the marbles in the paint.

Placed a sheet of white construction paper inside the containers.

The kids used the spoons to scoop the marbles inside the container.

Secure the lid.

And shake it to your little heart's desire.

Open container, remove paper and you have marble art!

Needless to say, marble art was a VERY popular station.

The Art Studio:

I purchased three tabletop easels, lots of 8x10 canvases, a bunch of brushes, paint trays, and paint in every color available. 

 The kids enjoyed the freedom of painting whatever they wanted.

We had some amazing masterpieces come out of this station

;)

Scratch Art

All the supplies for this station came from Dick Blick Art Materials.

Have you ever shopped them?

They have everything you've ever thought of (and everything you haven't) related to art.

Heaven!

Bubble Art

It kills me that I didn't take a picture of the Bubble Art station before the party started. 

It was SO colorful! 

And SO fun!

So fun in fact, that some of the kids got a bit carried away when blowing...

Exhibit A:

HA! Just look at that face!

She's so proud of herself and her HUMONGOUS bubbles!

Love it!

Freestyle Art:

 I bought a good size poster board and nailed to the fence.

Then I picked up a bunch of cleaning tools at the dollar store that would add different textures.

And let them go CRAZY!

Unfortunately, once it was all said and done, the entire thing was covered in brown.

But Isabella has decided that she will use that as a background for a painting of her own.

We will then frame it (with the blue frame you've seen floating around this post) and place it in her bedroom.

That way she'll have something that all her little friends contributed toward.

Cute, isn't it?

Throughout the party, kids were constantly going up to 

the makeshift laundry line to hang up their art work.

Here are just a few fun random photos...

Then it was time to go inside and sing Happy Birthday.

Cake maker extraordinaire, Karen, made the cake, as usual.

 And as usual, it was adorable AND delicious!

When everyone was leaving, each child got an 8x10 frame to put their favorite art piece in.
Apparently I forgot to take pictures of those as well...

At the end of the day, her apron looked like this:

and when I asked her if she had enjoyed her party, 

with a HUGE grin on her face, she replied:

"Mommy,thank you for giving us the BEST parties ever!"

And that, my friends, is exactly why I spend months thinking/planning/shopping/preparing... 

OBSESSING, really!

She now needs TWO hands!

Today is our sweet girl's birthday! 

Today she turns 6 years old.

And today she is SO excited, because she now needs both of her hands to tell us how old she is!

There is so much I can say about my sweet baby girl. 

I so love that she is developing into a person who is...

compassionate

fun

thoughtful

forgiving

happy
kind

adorable

thankful

funny

smart

independent

loving

courageous, yet cautious

sensitive

lively

honest
silly

talkative

joyful

affectionate

faithful

delicate, yet strong

conscientious

loyal

methodical

snugly

responsible

friendly

genuine

respectful

competitive, yet graceful

unselfish

creative

confident

beautiful

she loves God and Jesus

she loves her family

she loves her friends

she loves life

wholeheartedly and unconditionally

And that is EXACTLY how we love her!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY GIRL!!!

Thank you for 6 wonderful years!
May God continue to bless you each and every day of your amazing life!

Ten on Tuesday ~ Playing Catch up

Hello???

Is there anybody out there?!?!

I so would not blame you if you gave up on me and the ol' blog. 

I have been a terrible blogger lately.

But finding the time (and motivation) these days seems to be a HUGE challenge. 

Sooo, I'm using the Ten on Tuesday to play a little game of catching up.

So, here we go....

1. We had a lovely Father's Day. Scott got his Father's Day/Birthday present early this year (a Motorola Xoom tablet, which pretty much elevated me to best wife ever status, thankyouverymuch!), but we still gave him some pretty snazzy new work clothes. Being that we had his gift exchange early in the morning before going to church, I didn't take many pictures. But from the few that I did take, this one is by far my favorite:

2. The reason Daddy got some snazzy new work clothes, is because he will soon be starting a different job. We are SO very excited about this. Trust me when I say this is most definitely answered prayer!

3. Also, speaking about Father's Day, look who signed his name on daddy's card:

Arghhhhh!  This is painfully adorable!

4. Did I mention that Isabella lost her first tooth a couple of weeks ago while we were on vacation?

She did! She was lying down on the floor coloring, when suddenly a tooth that has been loose for oh I don't know, 6 months or so, fell and landed on her coloring book. Lucky for us the tooth fairy found us in the Arkansas mountains. And needless to say, she was one HAPPY girl!

5. Last week, the kids and I spent some time in Barnes & Noble looking for a birthday present for my nephew. While perusing the Bargains section, I came across these books:
Shhh... please don't tell my nook that I broke down and bought actual books, OK?
It's just that at $4.98 each, I couldn't pass them up.

6. Speaking of reading, I've been on a roll lately. Out of the 35 books I set up to read at the beginning of the year, I've already read 26. Woo Hoo! I will definitely have to up that number next year. And if any of you have a good book recommendation, please feel free to send it my way. I'm always looking for good reading material.

7. The kids recently discovered, and are totally obsessed with, a bunch of caterpillars hanging out and devouring some bushes in our front yard.

Needless to say, we check in on them every single day. These are some very hungry caterpillars!

8. I already started all the planning and preparations for Isabella's upcoming birthday party. The theme for this birthday is ART! Shocker, I know! I have so many fun projects and decorations planned, I can hardly stand it! So stay tuned...

9. The kids started VBS at my brother's church tonight. I won't lie, was a bit concerned about the 6-8:30pm time frame. But today I dropped them off, had dinner at Subway, walked next door for a pedicure (my toe nails are PURPLE and I ♥ them!), and then drove by the McDonald's drive thru for a $.75 low fat vanilla cone. And I did all of this before picking them up. It was a good night!

10. The kids started their swim lessons yesterday.

One of them loved it, the other didn't. 

Wanna venture a guess as to who it was??? 

Let me give you a hint:

 Yep, this is pretty much what he looked like during the duration of the lesson.

And like this.

And later in the day, when his Tata asked him about his swim lessons, his immediate response was: 

It was a NIGHTMARE! 

HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa! 

That boy of ours cracks me up!

Isabella, on the other hand, loved every minute of it!

It literally seems like she shed all her "water" fears overnight.

In fact, her teachers mentioned she might be ready to move up to the next level.

We are so proud of our cute little fishy!