The Butler's

Merry Christmas!!





We had so much fun taking our Christmas Pictures. We went to Ryan's grandma's farmhouse where she has a few old barns that we thought would be fun for the setting. We had so many to pick from. Can't wait to get one hung up at our house!

Christmas is around the corner

Just last year, we stayed in Florida for Christmas... we thought we should celebrate at least one Christmas there!

daddy, Scarlett and I at the beach

 

We went over to the Ronks to celebrate Christmas and made the gingerbread house.

 

The year before that, Scarlett had just turned two and we were so excited!

 

Scarlett was a mere 15 or so days old...we were still living in Ohio at the time.

 

This is a picture of my grandma who passed.

Things I have missed

i have been in ohio for almost 2 months, and didn't realize the things that i missed

- my moms cookies
- buehlers creme sticks
- heated garage
- scarlett's little dog yapping when we pull in
- osu games with the crowd
- my ohio friends
- having to slow down going over railroad tracks
- going to the grocery store and barely making it back out, due to talking
- lots of cousins running around
- consignment shops are the bomb in ohio
- Shari's crock pot dinners
- the fields covered with corn that the farmers didn't have time to combine
- grandma and grandpas house on sunday nights
- the barn... thanks mark
- curt figuring out how much babies do cry...especially mine
- driving to the gas station and knowing everyone that is pumping
- birthday parties every other day...yes family, i enjoy them!!
- feeling the need to pull my antenna up on my phone, due to lack of connection
- my ohio family

and much more but just thought i would list what was at the top of my mind

Septoplasty and Turbinate Surgery

If you click on the title of my surgery at the top, it will give you a little bit more detail. I am going to spare you any more details. i will probably post some pictures. I can't tell much of a difference. I can feel a difference but we will see how it goes over time.

Thank you

Thank you to these wonderful people in our lives.

Ryan's mom helped watch Scarlett and Willow throughout the days of the two weeks of healing... and grandpa helped too!!


Thank you!! You are so appreciated!

 

Ryan's dad and nana helped in the evenings and on the weekends.

We can't thank you enough for picking up and dropping off, that was convenient!

 

And my mom may as well been breast feeding willow, because she would come and wake me up, give me willow, burp her and then let me finish feeding her and she would put her back to bed. YES SHE DID THIS...amazing I know...that is how she is.

 

Of course, we can't leave out the other culprit that would so nicely stay out of the way of sleepless nights and long days that my mom and i would have... he was just as amazing as he didn't question anything that was going on and would help with the girls in the evening.

 

After about 5 full days after surgery, I could start to function normally and I was able to take Willow through the night, so my poor mother didn't have to.

Thank you moms and dads as you helped us so much and we couldn't have done it without you!

Extended Thanks

Thank you to friends and family with well wishes... Thank you for your prayers and thoughtfulness.

Especially my sister Amy and sister in law Joanna, who helped fill in when needed with my girls!!

 

Thanks to Joy who is in this picture that took Scarlett a few times.

Scarlett is quoted as saying, " Kora, I am going to get mad if you come any closer to my blocks."

 

My precious brother Curt... when he comes home or wakes up... Scarlett bee lines it for him, and he always entertained her for as long as she would let him.

 

To my grandparents, who drove me to the doctor for my checkups and even waited in the waiting room for me after i was with the doctor for over an hour.

 

Thank you

Rough

The person this might have been the most rough on was my husband. As he had to travel and work so that his girls could play.

 

Actually, I think it was very hard for him to be away from us that long. I would guess it was a good 2 1/2 weeks he was gone. We are so excited to see him around Christmas and then after that we are back to Florida, where he will be graced with our presence all the time.

Come to think of it, i bet he liked it a (little) bit....

Surgery

So after thanksgiving
and music concerts
and early Christmas shopping
and meeting up with friends
and Ryan flying out of town for a week
the day came.

It was a Friday.
I finally after many years
broke down and was going to get this surgery.
Hopefully if you are reading this i didn't complain much to you
i really try not to
but it was obvious i needed the surgery
when i went into
quick clinics,
doctors offices in
both
florida and ohio
and they all said,
you need to get your nose fixed
it would solve a lot of problems.

mmmm... problems
2 kids under the age of 3
a hubby that travels
live in florida
10-14 day recovery
narcotics that make you loopy
bruised and feel like someone slammed a door into your face
can't run or do any type of exercise for 6 weeks
must rest

problem: couldn't do it in florida
solution: did it in ohio


here is a picture of the happy couple before surgery... Christmas of 08 on the beach with just Scarlett, Willow was just a mere 6 weeks in my belly. Notice the nose, mmm...i won't take a closer picture, i don't want you to have nighmares.

 

Notice from far away you really can't tell, or at least i didn't think so, although you can probably see the bump i was sportin, and i am not talking about the bump on my nose either...i was about 6 months along with Willow Grace

 

but the minute a doctor would walk into the room, he would say,

"so, what happened to your nose"

i started to get a complex
i would start to sweat if i had to go the doctor
in fear they would say,

"tell me, does your nose bother you"

finally, it was decided i would go through with the surgery, but guess what
my nose may not come out completely straight either but my health would benefit from it.

it is well

I love this song.
Click on the title "it is well"
I have been up in the middle of the night for about 2 hours.
I love this song.
I am so blessed and sometimes I have to be reminded.

Hope to post soon about my surgery details and show some pictures!

Maddie's Christmas Concert

Well, I was back on Green Local turf... I went to see maddie's christmas concert

its like find waldo? maddie is on the second row about the 40th one over!! kidding..

 

the girls gave up and just ate candy the whole time

 

did you find her yet?

 

I also ran into my cousins from Ryan's side, who were there to see Hannah. It will be nice to attend things at Green and see the Miller kids as well!

Jess's Baby Shower

Ryan's cousin Travis married Jess... She is so sweet and just so kind. She is due to have a baby around Jan. 5ish.

We adventured to her baby shower with both kids and it went pretty good.

Her adorable belly!

 

The cupcakes!

 

The wonderful presents!

 

Opening up gifts!

 

Everything at the shower was so yummy, and its always nice to catch up with everyone. Andrea baney was there too and i just miss her seeing her and talking with her.

Happy Thanksgiving

Turkey day has arrived and we were off to church in the morning.

The girls all dressed up ready for church.

 

Scarlett kissin on sissy

 

 

We went to the Butler side at noon for Thanksgiving! It was so nice to catch up with everyone, especially Amanda and Greg who were here before the give birth to their little baby sometime in late Dec or early jan.... we wish them God's blessings as they deliver a baby and then send daddy off to serve with our troops. I will post an address to where you can send him cards, treats and gifts as soon i get it.


Us girls just hanging out and relaxing..reading the ads and everything else that comes along with thanksgiving.

 

jenny was probably one of the only ones to really hold Willow...she was either sleeping or eating and such a good baby that day!!

 

After the butler's we went to my grandma Hartzlers for dinner!

If anyone (joy) or anyone else has pictures from Thanksgiving, i would love some, I have absolutely no pictures of the girls in their matching outfits...AHHHH, this is not good, this is bad, i can't believe it!

Thanksgiving night was a night that i look forward to from one year to the next and i am using that as an excuse to my limited pictures.

My sisters and i, and who ever other nut cases want to join us.. we usually adventure to the Prime outlets to wait in line for 15$... yep, thats right 15$. So in the freezing cold, we stand outside for a mere 4 hours and then we shop all night. Except this year was different, at least for me. I am breastfeeding, so curt if you are reading this, you may want to stop, as this may continue to disgust you.

So, willow hasn't been taking a bottle very good at this point, so we thought what better night to practice before my surgery then now. SOOO, daddy dadcare opened for the night. I was kidless for a serious 9 hours!! I know sit down as this gets better. So we waited in line from 7 unti about 10, which at that point, we were freezing, we were crazy and we were super excited because we were on channel 5 news....YEP, you know a celebrity. I would have signed autographs but we were so cold we couldn't find our fingers.

After getting our 15$ at 1100 pm, we rushed to all the stores and had a grand ol time. called Ryan and he said, willow took a bottle! HIP HOORAY, i can shop longer! OH yah, every three hours, i went out to the freezing car and my freezing pump... yes, i think my pump was talking to me at 2:00 in the morning. By 3 in the morning, i went back to the house, slept for about 2 hours, fed willow at 4 and was out the door by 445 so that i could meet my sisters who had been shopping all night in Orrville. We were off to Canton! We were back home by 10:00 the next morning.

Love these nights, love these moments, if only i could freeze them in a bottle and remember them like it was yesterday. Love the fact that my sisters are awesome, and my sister in law on my side fits in like a glove. (although love my sister in law from my hubbys side too) Oh, and i can't leave out my brother in law, who just goes along with the flow and let us girls run around with our heads cut off... that was our van load, our fun van load... and you know I think i got the best deal of the night...spending time with family that sometimes people take for granted and they don't realize it until they move away like we have and you have to cherish every last minute you can when you are with them.

Scarlett's Day out

So before mommys surgery and before daddy leaves for over two weeks, we decided to take Scarlett out for her birthday and for just a "day out." When we get back to florida, we won't have to many of these, ok, .... we probably won't have one of these. So we decided to take advantage of the grandparents and go out.

We went to lunch at Applebees!

 

Scarlett and daddy

 

Then we took Scarlett to skateland.... she loved it! She even got to wear her new helmet and gear so that if she fell she would be ok... she only fell about once and loved that too!

 

 

We had so much fun but we were ready to get back and see if little Willow missed us!

Scarlett loved playing the games too after skating.

 

Her and daddy loved anything to do when they could throw the balls.

 

By game 4, she finally caught on to the "tickets" and she decided that every game just didn't quite give her enough, so she always checked the slot that they came out of to see if she could "see" or "get" anymore tickets.

 

Here is a picture of Scarlett and her tickets...she didn't want to CASH them in for a lollipop, she wanted the tickets. Yep, we payed 5$ for paper tickets...lovely

 

Round 2 for Scarlett

Yes, we celebrated a birthday party for Scarlett in Florida and also in ohio this year. She adores her cousins and so we had a combined birthday party with Tagen her cousin. THe boys wore camo and the girls wore bright Mexican colors in honor of Dora.

Happy 6th Birthday Tagen and Happy 3rd Birthday Scarlett.

 

Singing happy birthday to the kids!

 

All the girls at the party!

 

We did the pinata and we took it downstairs in the basement for the kids to break open the real way...with a bat!!

 

Little Willow is getting so spoiled in ohio which is a good thing especially by grandparents. Pappaw is holding her and she was just loving it.

 

Scarlett opening her gifts.

 

Scarlett got her helmet that we really needed for her to go skating, riding bike and for other things.

 

i just love this picture of my husband and his smile...isn't he a hunka hunka

 

Trying to teach your daughter manners can be a little challenging but glad to see that she went up to grandpa and grandma hartzler and thanked them for her gift.

 

Tagen opening up with gifts.

 

Things were a little intense with this gift as everyone wanted to get their hands on it...

 

We were going to have the party at the school house and then Doug/Joanna mentioned having it with Tagen at their house...so we all trucked in on them, so thank you to the Ingolds for opening up your house.

Just hangin around

Leslie had her baby Morgan a day before Willow was born. She stopped over at the OSU michigan game and for some reason i didn't take a lot of pictures.

 

Scarlett loved playing with all the kids that stopped out for the game.

 

Daddy and his sleepovers. Daddy loves building up a pile of blankets and pillows and having family fun night. Not sure if its because
- he can fall asleep
- he wants to teach Scarlett the importance of laying around
- he wants to show scarlett how to make the best way to pile blankets
- he wants them to fall asleep so he can fall asleep...wait, i already mentioned that

 

oh, well, daddy and his girls vegging out in ohio watching some kids stuff on tv

 

Ingold Christmas

This year it was decided that we would go to Columbus to celebrate our extended Ingold Christmas. What a great idea and a fun time we had. We stayed in a hotel with a big ol pool that was heated and nice rooms. We had the meeting room reserved for the weekend so we hung out in there most of the weekend as well.

This is our little diva girls Tori and Megan with Scarlett.

 

Family eating our wonderful meal that was mostly cooked by our Uncle John.

 

Cousin Chris and Uncle Dale serving up some drinks.

 

Uncle John himself who lives in Columbus, just a hop, skip and a jump away from the hotel.

 

The food table which was super yummy!!

 

The kids opening up gifts!

 

Everyone swimming in the pool.

 

Daddy and Scarlett having so much fun.

 

It was the weekend of the Michigan game so Ryan came down on Friday night and then left late to go back home. We just made it to the opening of the Michigan vs. Ohio State football game.

Friday before we went to the hotel, my sisters and I went shopping. We visited a handful of consignment stores around the Columbus area... we still think Canton and Medina beat out those stores!

Also, Friday night after shopping and before the hotel, I went to visit Alex with the girls. We had a great time but I didn't take any pictures...i already felt like a super old sister so i didn't want to look any more nerdier than i already was taking goofy pictures. Scarlett couldn't figure out where Nana was when we went to see Uncle Alex. She finally figured out and then when we were at Nana's house later in the week, she said "nana, Uncle ALex doesn't live here." I think she thought everyone else should know!

Mosers

When we first arrived in Ohio, we stayed at Grandpa and Grandma Mosers. Since we are here for awhile, we decided to stay with them first and then during my surgery stay at my moms and then closer to Christmas figure something out.

Scarlett playing with her doll house up in her room!

 

We love The Barn! We had our rehearsal dinner there as well. So grandpa cool beans treated us girls to a dinner out at the barn and Scarlett loved it!

Click here to check the place out for yourself! http://www.thebarnrest.com/shops2.htm

 

Family

When we are in Ohio, it is usually at the TOP of our list to see our family, especially siblings.

So after being in town for about a day, we had pizza night over at the Ingolds on Sunday after church.


Megan and Tori loving on Willow

 

My wonderful and beautiful sister in law Joanna... she has been such a blessing to our family. I think i heard that Doug and her have been married for over 10 years this past November!

 

Joy who just returned to the states after enjoying Germany. If you would like to check out her blog click here http://sjgardner.blogspot.com/

 

My lovely photographer who steals my camera at all family functions and when I go to download my pictures, i have a gizelllion pictures of peoples face, noses, feet, and much more. Thanks Amy ... If you would like to check out her blog click here http://balticfamily.blogspot.com/

 

Crazy Family

While Joy was handing out teeth to all the kids... Amy caught Sam with Kora... they might have been sneakin some more pizza.

 

Tori with her fun teeth

 

Eli with his fun teeth

 

mmm.. Scarlett thinkin the teeth were not so fun

 

Our little diva girls.... Tori and Megan

 

Cooper missed all the pizza action because he was napping but he didn't let that stop him

 

Willow and Kora. They are the same length...26 inches long

 

Our precious little Willow and her lovely pink and pink headband

 

Dad and Mom playing with Ryder

 

Studly brother Curt

 

Joy with little Kora

 

Grandpa I-I, where we stayed for the first two weeks that we were in Ohio.

 

Ohio

So we are off and away
we usually fly
but this time we decided to drive
why?
because we have a luggage carrier on top FILLED
our back of our SUV is FILLED
the floor is FILLED
the seats are FILLED
but thats not fair because here is what is on our seats...

Willow (i know she is sleeping thought i would brag a little)

 

and Scarlett (yep, she was sleeping too, somehow we did manage both of them to sleep at the same time for at least 10 minutes)

 

One of the reasons we are heading to ohio is so that i don't have to do this anymore.

 

yep, you guessed it, cover my nose, although the surgery is done strictly inside my nose, it may straighten the outside too


as you can imagine, everytime we are in ohio, we feel like we are on skates, going from one place to the next.

 

we don't mind though
we love seeing family
and friends
and more family
and more friends

Our little princess all dressed up... Scarlett loves to dress up. She got some dress up clothes for her birthday so she was prancing around the house in it.

 

Our little Willow Grayce loves her bouncy seat. She was just a talking away!

 

Jill Stirling-Ronk won teacher of the year from her school! So we took her out to wine and dine at a fancy little italian place in town and gave her some roses. She thought we were going out because i was leaving the next day for Ohio. We got her pretty good!

 

Me, Jill, Anna and Lindsay trying to have some man take our picture...ahh, little blurry, but maybe a new camera is on its way~

 

Happy Birthday Scarlett

Happy Birthday Scarlett!

 

We have been friends with the other Jill and Ryan since we pretty much moved to Florida. We have been blessed with many friendships and they happen to be one of them. Jill made this cake for Scarlett and it took her a few days.. we are so blessed to have such a wonderful relationship with them and that she would do this for Scarlett.

 

Scarlett loving her cake.

 

Scarlett got a little shy while we were all singing to her!

 

This birthday party took place in Florida exactly a month before your real birthday. We wanted to share your birthday in florida with your friends as well as in ohio. We never had a birthday party for you in Florida, so this was extra special because you actually knew it was your birthday!

You are so much fun to take places and do things with.
You use to love Mickey Mouse just months ago, and NOW, everything is Dora.
You love your babies, feeding them, burping them and taking care of them.
You love to learn with your mommy.
You love to give kisses to Willow.
You love to golf with your daddy.
You love to watch soccer, especially if Grayson is playing.
You love to dress up and have recently loved doing that with Kira.

We love watching you grow, we just want to bottle you up and enjoy this age forever... happy 3rd birthday sweet Scarlett Elizabeth!

Scarlett and her good friend Carina... they adore each other!

 

Scarlett opening presents, she was so spoiled!

 

She even got an easy bake oven, we can't wait to use it more in january, since we didn't get to use it much before we left!

 

Ryan took this snapshot when everyone was opening presents,eating and leaving...its a nice view of the park! Its a beautiful and clean park in our town!