He's gone :(

Dave is officially in Afghanistan! It took him about a week to actually get there, but he is there - safe and sound. He won't be able to call or email very often but hopefully he will about once a week. It was really hard saying goodbye to him last weekend - the kids had their share of tears (along with Dave and I) which made it difficult to be strong. We are very proud of what Dave is doing for our family and for our country and I have tried to explain to the kids how great it is that their dad is sacrificing so much for others. Dave really feels that he is "meant" to be there and that he has an important mission to fulfill while in Afghanistan.

I sincerely appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers on my family's behalf. It makes a difference. I can't begin to tell you how much it means to have not only my family move out here to help me but also have my ward family being so willing to help out in any way they can. I have really been able to hand my troubles over to the Lord and focus on trying to be the best me :)

He's Baaaaaaaaccccckkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!

Dave is back from 29 Palms and will be here until he leaves for Afghanistan in early April. The kids are soooooo happy to have their Dad back. They all have a list of things that they want him to do with them to make up for the time away. The cutest thing so far was Kambria and Dave playing Wii Dancing With the Stars...doing their little twist together was too cute! We are so glad to have him home, however short this stay may be, and we are so proud of the service that he provides our country and the sacrifices he makes for our family...you're the best Dave!!!!

Student of the Week(s)

A couple of weeks ago Kambria was the student of the week. The kids school has an outdoor Friday Flag Ceremony every week where they parents can come if they want and they do all sorts of nonsensical things like introduce fundraisers and announce the students of the week. Well, I went and took a picture of Kambria and she was selected during October which was deemed "Responsibility" month, so she was selected for showing that quality (which Kaia thought was hilarious). This week Kaia was selected from her class and this months theme is "Caring" which I think is hilarious...just teasing :) Anyway, last night Dave put the pressure on Jaxon and said he better get is soon and then all the Butters' will be represented. He looked all overwhelmed by the pressure last night but, this morning he woke up and told me he was going to be student of the MONTH! I love that kid!!!

Move over everyone else!

There is a new BFF in town. Not only have we been jogging together we decided to take part in a pumpkin baking extravaganza! I have captured the moment twice and I am now sharing it with you. Objects might not appear as delicious as they are in real life but just take my word for it. I'm not going to lie, making the pumpkin rolls was quite the undertaking since we decided to quadruple the recipe...I wouldn't recommend doing that (although I would recommend the recipe if you are interested in "dazzling" your friends - that's what the recipe said at least. I love you Mel :)

I GOT A JOB!!!!!!

For all of you that haven't heard I finally got the chance to interview and I nailed it!!! I am super excited :) It is at Loma Linda University Medical Center on a unit where people who just came out of ICU are that need heart monitoring. I should gain a lot of great experience. The RN to patient ratio is only 1:3 and that makes me very happy too :) I am so excited to be able to start my career as an RN. School was insane but I think that finding a job was even crazier so I am very happy to have not only found a position that would entertain the idea of hiring a new grad, but the perfect one! Thank you for all of your prayers on my behalf - I know that you all made a difference in our lives as we have been struggling through this transitional time!

Family Pictures

Okay, so we decided it was time for family pictures....barf! So of course the first thing was to choose a photographer and luckily there is an awesome one in our new ward so I was very excited to test her skills on my super spunky family :) Next was where to do it. This was a toughy!!! We went with beach since we just moved to California and thought that it would be fitting. Now for the really difficult part....what do we wear!!!! Ahhhhhh....okay, so I didn't want us to all be match"ing" but I did want us to match - does that even make sense. I looked at a ton of pictures of others (kinda stalkerish) and decided that most beach photo ops looked sort of bland for the Butters. I decided that we would be sort of rainbow like - very bold and fun. I think they turned out great and I can thank my new friend Alisha Hammond enough for capturing our sweet family :)

Halloween : O

I hope everyone else had as much fun as we did this Halloween! My sister Jennifer and her girls came here from Sandy for the weekend. We went to see This Is It (the Michael Jackson movie) - which was AMAZING!!!, had lunch at a German restaurant (just Jen and I), took the kids to the ward Trunk-Or-Treat and chili cookoff (which I won the spiciest :), and last but not least took the kids Trick-Or-Treating!!! They all had a great time and I even got Dave to dress up! Jonston was Yoda, Justus was Spiderman, Jaxon was Anakin, Kambria was a bunny, Kaia was an Eskimo, Imani was a pirate, Seneca was Snow White and Dave and I were an early 60's Ma and Pa :)