Andrew Cuteness

Enjoy a moment with our adorable little man! He learned this at preschool and wanted to share with all of our loyal readers.

Apology

Dear Blog,

Sorry I have not been updating you often. I know that I spend entirely too much time on Facebook and reading other people's blogs. I know that is not a good reason for my neglect towards you. Please forgive me.

Love always,
Keri

Surprise!!

Thursday morning at 5 am Dave got a text message from one of our favorite people, Mandy Jones. It said "Knock Knock, Let me in!" More than just a little confused, he went to the front door ready to take a picture of the empty porch and send it back to our crazy friend. To his great surprise, she was standing there! She had driven through the night with two of her kids to come and visit us for the long weekend. Usually when your phone rings at that hour people aren't calling with good news, but this was the best surprise ever!!! We met the Jones family in Rexburg 4 years ago and quickly became the best of friends. They currently are living in the Sacramento area while Mandy and I make plans to find jobs for our husbands in the same city so we can be close together again!!

We had a super fun weekend that went by way to quickly. On Saturday we took the kids to a fruit stand that has a hay maze and a hay pyramid with a slide at the top. The kids also picked out some pumpkins which we made homemade pumpkin pie with that night...it was delicious!



Kayli is the only child too small to run away from us so we made her pose with the pumpkins. We actually caught some smiles!





All the kiddos minus Aidan who stayed home to babysit his dad while mom was gone.

Thanks for coming so far to see me, can't wait to see you guys again! Andrew is already asking about when we can go to California...

Yummers!

Kayli has discovered the deliciousness of french fries!

The Petrified "Forest"

When we found ourselves with a rare Monday off we decided that we wanted to do something exciting and away from Yakima. So we headed out with the Snider family to the Gingko Petrified Forest near Vantage for a nice day hike.

It's beautiful here! The whole gang. Dave is pulling a Michael Jackson with poor Kayli.


Our family


The forest was actually a desert with petrified stumps, in cages. Still cool, I guess.


We saw a few little lizards!


We borrowed a backpack for Kayli and she loved it! She was laughing and giggling the entire time. Thank you Bradys!!


Walking through the forest :)


It wasn't exactly what I had envisioned,(does forest mean trees to anyone else?) but the kids had a blast playing and good friends can make even lame things fun. Since our families are too big for one car we took two and the girls drove in one and the boys drove the other. Somehow the crazy kids ended up with the boys and Christine and I had a fabulous time talking on the drive!

Back to School!

It's that time of year again...the mornings are cold, the afternoons are hot, and the kids are back in school!!!!

Kelsi started third grade at a new school this year. She is in the PAL program which is an accelerated learning program. It's a program you have to test into and because she is a smarty pants, she got into it! Should be a fun year! She already has made some wonderful new friends.


Andrew went back to another year of preschool, but this year he gets to go four days a week. Yay! He loves it so far, though he misses his teachers from last year a lot. They were the best. He has to stop and talk to them each day as we leave preschool :)

Urvina Cousin Christmas List

Enjoy!!
Here is the video showing who has who...we tried to make sure that siblings didn't get one another but at the end, Annika got Madi because she was the only one left. Ade- let me know if you want to trade and Kayli can have Madi and Anni can have Ben.

We also drew the adult names but didn't record it. Here is that list:
Joe-Jeff
Ade-Keri
Val-Dave
Jeff-Ade
Keri-Val
Dave-Joe

Remember: Kid gifts are around $15 and adults $25. Happy Holidays :)

Happy Birthday Valerie!

Today is my big sisters birthday. Happy Birthday!! My sister and I are 5 years apart in age so growing up we didn't have too much in common. As we got older we have become better friends. I love my sister!!


She is a great Aunt to my children. They all love Aunt Valerie. Maybe because she likes to go to Target as much as me?


This is Valerie with Kayli and her friend Amie at the NKOTB concert. I love that my sister went with me! She also went with me to Celine Dion last year. She is my concert buddy because Dave is not into that so much. We also saw Tim McGraw before he was even very popular. Who are we going to see next?


This is us at the beach last month. I love that we can call each other and have someone to complain to. Sometimes you just need to vent. If I had a dollar for every conversation we have had that started with "Can I just complain for a minute to you?"


She has cute children! I love her family and she is a great wife and mother to them. They even let us come and live with them after we finished school and had no home or job. We only had to promise to try and find a job closer to them as soon as we can...we are working on that. Of course that would mean more frequent trips to the Supermall and Target which could be dangerous on the checkbooks.

Thanks for being a fabulous sister and friend!!

Life is good at the beach!

Last week my family took a trip to Lincoln City Oregon where we stayed in a beautiful beach house that fit all 19 of us with even a little room to spare! We had so much fun and the children were in heaven having so many cousins all in one place. The weather was good, maybe even warm for Oregon Coast standards. We were also half a mile away from a huge outlet mall, which the women thought was wonderful. We had so much fun, we all can't wait to go back!

The Button family in front of the beach house

All the kiddos out front

Our house from down on the beach

Playing in the waves

My (freezing cold!)toes in the Ocean

Dave celebrated his 33rd birthday while we were there!

Kayli and Grandpa

Kayli trying to figure out what that sand stuff was...

Andrew

The house from the back yard

Family Pics

We had family pictures taken last week by an AMAZING photographer! I have tried to upload more photos but blogger isn't being cooperative, so here are a few for you to see. Now I have to choose which ones to frame...

Kelsi's Baptism

Saturday was a special day for Kelsi! She was baptized by her father. We were blessed to have so many friends and family with us to share the day. Before the baptism we met at the church for pizza and cake.



Some of the cousins that were there...


This is the part where I started getting teary-eyed. She was just a baby the other day and she is growing up into a beautiful young lady.


Uncle Nick and Kelsi


There were 7 kids baptized, 4 from our ward. These children have been together since birth at church, and it was special for Kelsi to be baptized along with some of her best friends.

Kelsi is 8!

For Kelsi's birthday she invited a few friends and we took them to lunch and then went swimming. That evening Grandma and Grandpa Button and Nick came over for dinner and cake.

Silly girls enjoying their lunch...


One of Kelsi's presents...new scriptures! She is also wearing some fake glasses she got. I think they were her favorite gift.


She requested a carrot cake, so I made Aunt Cindi's yummy recipe and Kelsi decorated it by herself! She is so talented!


We still can't believe that our baby girl is 8 years old! She is going to be baptized next month...it's true that they grow up so fast! We love you Kelsi Bug!

They've still got it (The Right Stuff!)

Twenty some years ago I may have had a slight obsession with a group of young men known to some as The New Kids on the Block. I may have slept overnight in a parking lot just to get tickets to their concerts. I may have been ecstatic when I heard that they were getting back together and touring again!!

On July 7th, with my friend Christine (and Kayli of course,) we headed over to see the New Kids who aren't so new anymore. My sister and her friend Amie met us there to rock the night away...most likely with the same ladies who were rocking the night away twenty years ago at the Tacoma Dome!

Kayli and I before the party started...


Christine and I looking fabulous!


NKOTB!!!


Donnie was always my favorite one...He came into the audience and was sooo close to us!


The finale...


We had a blast!! We didn't get home till after 3 am and I could barely talk the next day. Would I do it again? Do you even have to ask?? Love these guys!

California...what more can we say?!?

We had a fabulous trip to Cali to visit our friends, the Joneses. Funnest trip ever. If you don't think about the million hours that were spent in the car that is. Here are a few highlights of our busy fun-filled week.

We ate lunch one day at Bubba Gumps...yummy.




We went to an aquarium in Long Beach (along with half the school kids in LA) and the kids got to pet the Sting Rays.


Putting their hands in those of Ron, Harry, and Hermione!


Outside the Hollywood Target. Super nice Target!!


At the zoo...not sure who fought more, our crazy kids or the flamingos!


Kelsi and Logan outside the LA Zoo.


What's a trip to Cali without going to Bakersfield to see a movie? :)


We played lots in their pool! Kelsi learned to swim!


Andrew hung out more in the shallow hot tub.


Santa Monica Pier...fun rides! Me and Andrew and Emily- before the scrambler ride. Makes me green thinking about it...


The LA Temple. Beautiful! We asked a nice man coming out to take a picture of all of us. We love to see the temple!


A quick summary-
Gas to Cali and back:$200.00
Lunch at Bubba Gumps:$85.00
Dave being pulled over by a very mean CHP who turned out to be a friend of the Joneses (the whole thing was set up): PRICELESS!!!!