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 :)

You probably thought I gave up.

Surprise!!!! I'm blogging :) I hope you haven't lost much sleep without my blog updates to keep you cozy at night. It is just hard updating so many different things. Anyway, the big news is Dave is still gone, I don't have a job and we still haven't sold our house in Massachusetts!!! Oh wait, that's all the bad news...boo! The good news is, I love our neighborhood (I've realized that I am quite great at making friends), the kids love the school, the ward is awesome and the weather is perfect! And I saved the best for last, Dave will be home in two weeks!!!!
I am actually going to Paris with my sister and her daughter and leaving the morning that Dave gets home. So, as usual we will be like two ships passing in the night (or day in this case - and at the Ontario airport). I am sooooo excited I have never been before, and I always have fun with my sissy and Imani :)
Oddly, not much has happened since we have been here. Kaia is already full swing in gymnastics here. I just signed Jaxon up for a Chess Club ;), and Kambria is the life of the neighborhood! I have really enjoyed my time home with Justus and Jonston and I am so grateful that I have had this weird gap in between school and a job to spend watching my two boys grow up before my eyes. Jonston is probably the fastest crawler I have ever seen (and I've seen some mad crawling in my day), he has 6 teeth - bites everything, and is standing up on the furniture and trying to maneuver. We bought a fish tank about a month ago and he LOVES the fish! It is the only time he sits still, he just stares for like 5 minutes at a time (which is like hours in baby time)...so cute!
Well, I hope everyone that we left behind in Mass is doing well without us...we miss you and we will never forget you! Oh, I forgot to mention that I am the Cub Scout Bear Den Leader ....you can all stop laughing now, and start praying for these poor little boys. Ha ha ha...I'll figure it out :)

Here we are....

Ok, so this picture is not one of ours, our camera is still in Massachusetts....... However, on the way to the kids new school (about 1 mile away) this is basically the view. We live in Temecula, Ca. For Dave it is about an hour commute in the morning and about an hour and a half in the evening to and from work @ Camp Pendleton. Janine is waiting to find out when she can take her RN Board, but she did manage to graduate with HONORS on May 26th! Kaia is going to gym at SCEGA and is having a really good time. Jaxon is going to test out his skills at football. Kambria wants to take piano lessons, and Justy wants to watch the movie Cars all day. Jonston is rolling all over the place and it is only a matter of time before he is crawling. We really miss our friends back in Mass and it still doesn't feel real here in Cali. The weather is quite nice and we look forward to wearing shorts all year.

San Diego here we come!

So if you haven't heard yet, we are moving to San Diego California! Dave will be there for May 1st and the rest of us are following on June 1st. It's exciting and exhausting news. Between now and then I have to finish school, pass my board exam, and sell the house. Needless to say blogging is not at the forefront of my "to do" list. Here are some pics for your enjoyment. I got a cute shot of my four boys, one of Kaia in her "get-up" from her last competition that had a Western theme (I made the chaps for all the girls on the team :)), and then one of Jaxon wearing Kaia's mustache, and one of Jonston in his Bumbo seat. He loves it already! And since Jonston looks so cute in it, I'm including a picture that I look horrible in.

Kaia's meet on 1/10

Kaia competed level 7 last weekend at the Fred J. Castor meet at Westfield State College. She scored a 9.6 on beam which was the highest score of the entire competition and placed 1st. She scored 8.7 on floor, 8.6 on vault and 7.75 on bars (two big mistakes on bars so she wont let me post them). She placed 9th all around and loved every minute! I can't say the same for Kambria and Justus who had to watch the whole thing. Here are 2 links to videos of her on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yxfbbrJsiE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UPe6QLAAlA

New Baby!

Jonston Robert Butters is here! After being bumped back a day for my "induction of convenience" and then enduring a two day induction he made his arrival on December 21, 2008. He weighed 7 lb and 2 oz and was 21 1/2 in long. It actually went really fast once things picked up and everything went smoothly. Dave, my mom, my friend Bessy and Kaia were all there for the delivery and it was a great experience (I can't believe it's over and I have 5 kids).

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! So we have had a weeks worth of spooky festivities! Last Friday the kids went to a ward Halloween party with my nanny (she's such a trooper) because I had to work. I guess they were pretty good there and she had a good time too. Last night I took Jaxon, Kambria and Justus to the Eastfield Mall to trick or treat while Kaia was at gymnastics. It was kind of lame but oh well. Tonight we went to base housing to trick or treat and the kids had a blast. They only lasted about an hour but they got quite a bit of candy. There was a young kid (about 12) that was dressed in a costume with a full scary mask and Justus (who was Indian Jones) went up to him and screamed "take off your mask" multiple times and then proceeded to chase him around someones yard attempting to whip him! It was pretty hilarious (Kaia thought it was the funniest thing in the world). Anyway, this was the year of musical costumes and although I bought Jaxon a Darth Vador costume ... he never wore it. In the pictures you will see, he is either Troy Bolton from High School Musical or Luke Skywalker from Star Wars. Kambria was a fairy at the ward party but then opted for last years costume of Belle. Kaia was a witch. All in all it was a pretty good Halloween season! Bring on Thanksgiving and Christmas... I'm ready to have a baby!