Jess is Wiggin' Out because He's 30!!!

     Jess has finally hit the big 30. He was not phased by hit at all...and doesn't even feel older than 21! Go him :) My hubby gets sexier every year I swear. I wanted to do something fun and spontaneous to celebrate his momentous birthday, but not something ordinary. So, we went to dinner. With wigs on. Yup! We wigged out! It was so much fun, and Jess had a really good time. Not everyone was able to make it, but our group size turned our perfectly.
Happy 30th birthday to the man whom I associate everything good that has happened in my life :) I love you babe!

Our Happy Family!

Abbie and Lily. I thought she looked so cute with this hair!

my chocolate milk mustached buddy

Jess and Calvin riding the birthday saddle at Texas Roadhouse

Aren't we a colorful bunch?

Oh yeah..this is our new son: Chauncey :)

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Excuse Me??!

I am so tired of rain. And snow. Spring and summer need to get here asap! I am going crazy indoors as are my kiddos. So, I took Calvin over to the mall the other day to let him get some energy out in the play area there. I knew an inevitable meltdown was coming when I was going to try to get him to leave and get back into our stroller. I got a new double one by the way..LOVE IT.
 So, it came time to round up the buddy. I calmly walked over to him, and he knew it was coming, so he ran. And this little kiddo is fast. He has had super strong legs since he was a baby, and boy now that he can run he takes off. So I chased him around the play area for a while, even crawled into the fake tree house after him, and as soon as I grabbed him he started to scream. I was attempting to hold a writhing screaming 36 lb brick of a toddler and walk back to the stroller. What a scene we were making. It seemed like all the other Moms and kids for that matter were watching us struggle.

  Then I remembered I had some balls for Calvin in my bag that he did not know I had brought. So I screamed over Calvin's screaming so that he could hear me.
   "Calvin let's go so we can play with your balls!!!!!!!"
 Now I had no doubt everyone was looking at me.
 " Uhh..your TOY balls that are in my BAG..." I quickly recovered.
 I turned bright red. Put Calvin into his stroller and jetted out of there. Hopefully no one got the wrong idea from that. Yikes. Summer seriously..help a girl out here and show up. Soon.

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4 Months Old

 Here is a quick comparison of my little darlings at 4 months old. Shay will be 4 months in a few days, and alot of people have told me they see so many similarities of the two babes. So you decide..see any similarities? 

These first 3 pics are Calvin at 4 months. This was right before we packed up and moved to Baltimore. Notice the moving boxes? SO GLAD we are not packing up this year!

                        And now to Shay baby. She HATES the bumbo seat, or else I would have some pics of her in it as well. Maybe she will warm up to it. Who knows. But she is just a few days shy of 4 months, so not quite, but still about the same age as Ck in the previous pics.

            This last pic of Shay cracks me up, it's like her Blue Steel impression or something! So cute :)
 Thanks for looking!

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26

Thats right. I am 26, and do I feel it? Nope. Haven't really felt any different since turning 21.  30, that will be weird for me, but I don't feel different! And it's not just me...

  This beautiful specimen AKA Aly, my twin sister also turned 26 today! Oh Aly, what would I do without you? Only twins can truly know the love and bond that you have when you share a soul :) I cannot imagine life without my other half, we talk 10-12 times a day at least. The summers that Jess and I would move I would call Aly constantly. I miss her so much when we are apart that it hurts me physically. This summer is going to be SO nice because we aren't going ANYWHERE and I like it that way! I love to travel, so it's sort of weird to not be packing up our house and leaving, but I don't mind one bit!

 

I love this picture of me and Aly from my baby shower. Gosh I am huge, but I love it :) Happy 26th bday sis! I have a feeling that this year is going to be a doozie (but in a good way) Love you!!!!

      This is probably the gift I am most excited about: my first pair of Toms!!! Yippeee!! Aly got them for me- I have wanted them forever. I hope I don't wear them out too fast because I am going to wear them everywhere!

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Shay Baby

Our Shay baby was blessed last week by her daddy. We have her blessing recorded and I wanted to give some of the key things Jess said:

*To keep her body healthy and clean

*To mind the counsel of her parents

*To strive to live the Gospel, and to go to the temple one day

*To know she has parents who love her

*To be a good example to those around her

There is alot more he said, and it was such a lovely sweet blessing. Shay apparently had her eyes glued to her daddy the entire blessing. She is such a Daddy's girl, so this did not surprise me, but she uttered not one sound. She was hanging on Jess's every word. I was in the mother's lounge beforehand changing her, and I told Shay to listen to her Daddy, and it seems like she took my advice :)

It was a beautiful day. I am so grateful for my beautiful kiddos and my husband who is a worthy priesthood holder.

 I made her bow!

Our family of 4!

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Aloha!!

Ok, overload of pictures. But these are from our trip to Hawaii. We went the end of February to Oahu with Homeshield's top ten salesmen and their wives. We had so much fun, we stayed at the Turtle Bay Resort this time, and it was amazing. Baby Shay came with us, and she was seriously the BEST baby the entire trip, even though we discovered days before we left that she had a double ear infection, and when we got back home that she had RSV probably our entire trip! 

Anyways, we had so much fun, and we definitely did not want to come back home, except to get Calvin of course :) But he had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa Butikofer up in Rexburg, or "papa" as Calvin calls both of them. I felt bad that we took Shay and not Calvin, but he had so much fun up in Idaho, that he will never know the difference :) 

  Shay and Berkley loving the beach (in the shade of course!)

 Waimea Bay

 This lookout was so pretty, and we saw whales everywhere! I have never seen a whale before and I could have sat here all day and watched them.

  Waikiki Beach with "Duke"

           Jess and I tried paddle boarding in Waikiki!! It was so fun, and I saw a sea turtle out there!

           This was our hotel view :)

            LOVE the beach!!

                           Luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center

 We found out on February 23 at dinner that Kendra, an employee at Homeshield, and one of my friends passed away in a terrible ATV accident. Kendra and I had become close this past summer in Kansas City. She and I would text all day long, and then she would come over almost every night when she was done working and we'd have some girl time. I have never had someone close to me pass away, so her death has been really hard on me, but I know she is in a better place and can't wait to see her again. I suggested that we throw our leis from the Luau the night before into the ocean to celebrate Kendra. It was a small gesture, but I felt like she knew we had done it, and it gave me such a warm feeling in my heart.

   As we had been letting our leis go for Kendra, we did not realize that Courtney Cox was watching us the entire time! She was nice enough to take a photo with us, and said she was very sorry for the loss of our friend.

 Apparently her show "cougar town" was filming at our resort, because in the lobby we met the actor who plays her ex- husband!

         One final pic of these cute patootie little babies! They both did so well on the trip, but both had RSV when we got home. Poor things :(

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Thank you kind stranger...

On our way to the airport in Honolulu...( I will post about Hawaii when I have more time!)....we were late. Not surprising. So, Jess had to drop off the rental car and I just told him to drop me and the bags and Shay off at the Delta terminal. Unfortunately in our rush we missed the terminal so I just told him to stop and I would get out and figure it out.
  Little did I realize just how far I was from the Delta terminal. It looked like a mile!! I had two huge suitcases...yeahhh we overpacked juuuust a bit :)....a stroller my ginormous diaper bag and shay in her car seat which unfortunately did not fit into the stroller because it was one of those cheap umbrella ones.
I probably stood there for a good minute just trying to figure something out. I wanted to cry...Shay was crying and I was sweating. Then I did the only thing that made sense.
   I ran about 50 feet with the luggage...then jogged back and grabbed shay in her carseat and pushed the stroller with my other hand. Then I would repeat the process. This was going to take FOREVER. After about 5 mins I was convinced we were going to miss our plane for sure. I was ready to just give up and wait for Jess.
  Suddenly a voice behind me startles me back into reality. A man in his mid thirties and a boy about 6 years old approach me. He has a heavy accent but speaks perfect English. He very kindly says they were going to help me. I hesitate at first and tell him he probably has to catch a plane himself and shouldn't bother..I will be fine. But I am literally holding back the tears flooding my eyes and am sweating profusely. He says no no...they are trying to get back to Peru where they are from and are on standby for at least 5 more hours. They were bored, and really wanted to help me. I am so relieved and he takes both our rolling suitcases and his son pushes the stroller while I carry Shay in her carseat all the way to check in. We chatted along the way, and he even waited and they helped me all the way through the customs check necessary in Hawaii where they scan every bag before it's checked in, and they waited with me all the way through the line until I was at the desk to check in.
 I gave him the biggest sweatiest hug ever, and finally burst into tears. He gave me a kiss on the cheek and said it was nothing really.
   Thank you kind stranger, we need more people like you in the world. I never even found out his name.

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