Congraduation, James!

I just wanted to congratulate my best James for GRADUATING with his bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering! He is my smart guy, and has worked hard for this! His graduation was really neat, and special. Elder Scott spoke, and he even came to James' convocation, since he was a ME graduate himself. James had the privilege to receive his diploma from Elder Scott, and it was really neat! I know that it feels nice for him to be done with that phase in life, and we both look forward to what the future holds! I'm so proud of you, James! :) We love you!

James & His Parents

James & I


James & Kiely

Our Family

Kiely had a long day, too...

Tricks/Inventions by James! :)

So I've been meaning to post this for a little while, and with it being Christmas break, I finally have some time to do it! James has come up with some inventions for Kiely to try to make his life more simple... The first thing he did, was a little trick to keep her binky in her mouth... it first happened quite a while ago, but I didn't capture my findings the first time when I got home. He had talked about doing it before, but I wasn't sure if he really would... but, here's the story: One day, I got home from class, and on the couch, I found a pacifier and a headband... hmmm... I just kinda ignored it for a while, and I think he eventually told me about it. I had figured that that's what had happened. It didn't work very well that time. (I actually tried it later, and it kinda worked...)


Another day, I came home, and James had one end of our broom sitting on the side of the swing, and the other on a little tote that we have, with Kiely's monkey hanging on it... SHE LOVED IT! It was in her face and she could play and grab at it. This is when I finally decided to take pictures of his inventions. I said, "Guess what, I have something more to blog about now! I just have to take pictures of this..." He told me to wait while he went to get the binky and the headband... I did, and she sat and looked at me and was happy while I took photos of her... I love the adventures we have together as a family, and I'm glad that James is creative and has fun with Kiely, too! :)

Daddy and Kiely Time!

James is so cute with Kiely! I love watching him with her. He is so great at playing with her and having a good time with her! It is so great to catch him and watch them in these wonderful moments! Here are some of my favorites that I have caught so far...

Just relaxing at Grandma & Grandpa Butler's. (Wayne & Arla's)...

This was hilarious! We have this duck washcloth puppet thing, which is Kiely's little toy friend... James decided to put it on her legs! :) It was pretty cute, and funny... After he tried to get it on her legs, she didn't like it so much, so he just put it on her bum.

How precious! I came home from class one day, and James was taking a nap with Kiely. This has got to be one of the cutest & sweetest things!

I had to get a closer shot of Kiely on this one. She is our little tree frog baby! :)

This was pretty cute, too! James is auditing an investments class this semester. They are doing this program and they are competing with who can gain the most money from their investments. (They type in the numbers as if they are investing real money, so it gives them the numbers as if they are...) Anyways, so James was holding Kiely, and teaching her about his stocks, bonds, real estate, etc... She was paying very good attention, and I'm sure she will learn much more from him when she gets older! :)

James is such a wonderful daddy! I love him so much! :)

Our Beautiful Baby Girl!

Chronological Order...

James & I the Sunday before I was due. (Due Date: August 12th...)

The basinet ready for the baby when she comes...

We went in for a scheduled induction Tuesday, 18 August 2009-- James' parents' anniversary! :) However, she didn't make it that night, because we went in at 8:30pm.... got hooked up to machines, etc. and waited... and waited...

I'm pretty sure this one was after our long night... without much sleep... if I can even call what we did get sleep...

But it was SOOO worth it! :)

Our little angel!

Kiely Joy Butler-- 19 August 2009

7 lbs. 2 oz., 19.5 inches long

We love our little Kiely bug! She is a sweet, precious, beautiful little angel!

Summarized Update...

So it's been quite a while since I last posted, and everyone is telling me that I need to post a belly picture. I KNOW!! lol. It's been so long, and my belly looks nothing like it did before. My belly button (that used to be the cutest...) is now stretching and I will probably soon have an outtie. SAD! No more cute belly button for me. BUT, I will have the joy of having beautiful children, so that will be worth the sacrafice of ruining my belly button. (Hopefully I don't get the flat-ish mom bum too soon, though!) Anyways, things really are going well for us, and I do have an excuse for not posting (at least for the past month...) When school got out, we moved in with my grandparents because we didn't want to have to figure out how to find an apartment in IF for only 4 1/2 months, and also to save money. It's been... Interesting. There are some things that are really nice, but some things I miss about it just being James & me. I was just thinking about it, too, and it's going to be a LONG time before it's just us again... It's okay, though. I'm excited to have little ones, and it's nice to be with my grandparents, especially because you never know how long they'll be around. (My grandpa is 81 and grandma will be 80 in November.) Okay... so, yeah. I'm also not going to be able to post a picture this time, because of this living situation, (we use grandma's computer for the internet) but I'll try to get James to take a picture for me, and maybe we'll do a family picture, too, soon! For those who maybe possibly didn't know for some reason, we are having a little girl! :) For the past probably month, she's started to get really active. She's a KICKER! It's so fun to feel her move around... and even the kicks she gives me. We are excited for her to join our family in a few months. (just over three left, now!) Nope, we haven't thought of any names yet, but if anyone wants to give suggestions, feel free... but just don't feel bad if we don't use your suggestions! lol. I'll try to put up a picture as soon as I can...

Ten Reasons Why I Love James:

In lieu of Valentine's Day coming up this Saturday, I decided to make a quick list of why I love James... there's definately much more to be said besides this, but I thought I'd just make a quick list...

1. He is the handsomest!

2. He loves to take care of me.

3. He is my silly/funny/crazy/goofy guy... sometimes I just have to shake my head at him...

4. He helps me be better when I'm struggling with things.

5. He helps clean, cook, etc... a lot of times without even being asked.

6. He is a hard worker.

7. The great example he is to both his siblings and my siblings.

8. He is interested in the things I do/want to do.

9. He always wants the best for me.

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10. He will be the BEST dad ever!!


Almost 14 weeks

Our baby is due on August 12th! :)

Catch-Up/Update...

So I realized that as soon as I was done with my photo journal, I quit being so dedicated to my own blog... I'd check others' blogs, but wouldn't take the time to update my own... So, here goes...



THANKSGIVING BREAK was pretty good. Nice to get away from school for a little bit, and nice to visit with family! We took quite a bit of time helping James' grandparents out. James was working on a shed for them, and I would help grandma in the house as much as I could... I think James was kinda excited about the shed project at first, kinda until they got started with plans, and actually building it. (It's not very easy to work with old people, or to build anything that you want to be nice out of scrap would...) Nuff said about that, though... We went to the Bulls' (same grandparents James was working on the shed for) on Thanksgiving day. It was the first time in quite a while that they'd had Thanksgiving there, I guess. It was delicious food! James thought it was nice to not over-stuff himself, and to just eat it like a normal meal. I did the same thing, but I actually wish I would have stuffed myself just a little bit. I think there's something satisfying for me about that. (Probably because I don't do it very often...) After dinner, we went shooting. I was nervous about shooting the gun again, because the last time I shot it, I got a bruise because I held it wrong. I didn't do too bad this time, though! Katie was hilarious to watch... the little kick it had, kinda flung her back! haha!... Apparently that happened to me, too, but not quite as bad, plus I wasn't watching myself, so yeah. After shooting, we went back to the Bull's and had pie and ice cream! YUMMMM! My 2 favorites are homemade banana cream and pumpkin. DELICIOUS! (Homemade pumpkin is exceptional... ya know, the kind you make with pumpkins, not out of the can... lol) We kinda hung out for a little bit & visited & stuff... then left. We went on a hunt for the Post Register to get the ads for Black Friday, but alas, there weren't any to be found in Rexburg. (We were curious how many Standard Journals were sold that day, because those boxes seemed pretty full, lol...)

Friday we didn't end up waking up early to go down and check out the sales, pretty much because I was exhausted. We went kinda later on in the morning or afternoon or so, and looked around for a bit. We didn't get anything, but it was kinda fun to look for a little while! Afterwards, we went to my parents' house to do the Perry party shindig thing. (get together with my mom's family...) It was really fun! We ate soup and pie, with Mignon of course having her Macadamia nut pie (basically macadamia nuts instead of pecans...) Then we played some silly games while the kids did crafts with Rebecca. (She's SO crafty! lol)

Saturday... I think we did some homework?? I honestly don't remember that day a whole lot, other than that we had to stay up late, yet again, to prepare our Sunday school lesson. We'll get better at it, though!

Overall it was a pretty good break from school, but now we're in the last week of school, and TOTALLY STRESSED with getting everything done! (We only had 2 weeks left after Thanksgiving break, which is kinda ridiculous if you ask me...) I'm REALLY excited for this weekend to come, because that means no school for like a month, and we can just RELAX a little bit! :)