It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The boys were so excited to put up our Christmas Tree.

Bran's 1st Primary Talk

Bran gave his 1st Primary talk on Nov. 29.
He did such a GREAT job.
He even helped write his talk.

"My Family and I can Serve each Other.
To serve means to help.
I like to help my Dad rake leaves.
I like to help my Mom with the dishes.
I like to help my little brother pick up toys.
I'm glad Heavenly Father gave me my family.
In the name a Jesus Christ. Amen"

7 Years!

On Nov. 13, 2009 Brandon and I celebrated our 7th year anniversary!
Brandon's parents watched our kids and we got to have a night to ourselves at the Anniversary Inn in Logan. We stayed in the room, Joanie's Diner, which was so fun.

There was a phone booth, a juke box, and Brandon's favorite...

Betty Boop!

Here's to seven years and no itch! I love you, Brandon.

Family 2009

Thanks Lindsey for the fun family pictures!

Halloween

Oh, I'm posting this picture so you can see Trey Bug with his shaved head!

Bran the pirate and Trey our little superman!

We love FALL

My boys riding the animal train at Hee Haw Farms

Bran loved making scary pumpkin cookies...can you tell which ones he decorated!

So cute! Bran and Trey at South Ridge Farms, that's were we go to get our pumpkins.

Preschool

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Check out my cute little preschooler! Can you believe it...Bran is officially in school.
Here he is on his first day of school, which was Aug. 25, 2009.

Bran will be going to two different preschools this year. He has a regular preschool he goes to twice a week and then once a week he goes to a special speech preschool. I'm pretty excited for his special preschool because I get to go with him.

Good Luck in school Bran...you are getting so big!

Ohio 2009

Here are some pics from our vacation to Ohio. Me and the kids got to stay for 2 1/2 weeks and Brandon came for our last week there. It was so nice to go home, especially since I haven't been home in 3 years! We had such a great time visiting with everybody, even my grandma Ketterman who has Alzheimer's and had no clue who I was...I must say it was pretty amusing hearing her tell me who she thought I was and trying to figure out why I was there. (It is sad, but if you don't laugh and just enjoy being around those you love, it becomes way too stressful and depressing.)

My kids had so much fun playing with their Uncle Danny. Danny took a week off work to hang out with them and must say I was impressed at how much time he spent with them. Turns out Uncle Danny is a great little babysitter...who would have guessed that...certainly not me!

My boys are soooo Country! The boys loved riding in Grandpas old trailer. Grandpa would take the boys to the pond to feed the fish almost every night. Brandon loved fishing in our pond, and he was catching fish left and right, no wonder he loved it so much.

Brandon and I decided to take advatage of my mom and dad and we booked a cabin in Amish Country (Berlin, OH) which is just a little over an hour from my house. It was such a nice get away. We really enjoyed learning about the Amish and we even go to go on a horse and buggy ride. I think the highlight for Brandon was golfing 18 holes on a course that had a par 6. We both agree that Mormons and Amish have alot of similaities...the only things the Amish have that we don't are the cutest little boy outfits (I even looked into buying some for my boys, but couldn't find any in their sizes) and the Amish only have church every other week...hum, I wonder if there is such thing as Mormon-Amish, I might convert!!!

Thanks Mom and Dad for everything...we really did have a great time.
P.S. Dad, I really need you to come put Trey down for a nap! And Mom, my kids need breakfast!

I'm playing catch up!

Lots of fun and exciting things have happened over the past few weeks, but I've been a slacker and have not blogged about them. So, now I am playing catch up!
First, here is an update on the Trey/crib situation...he is now in a toddler bed in Bran's room. In order to get both him and Bran to bed we have to shut the door with a child proof door knob on the inside...that may sound cruel, but it is the only thing that works.

The most exciting thing that has happened lately is BRAN TURNED 4!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRANSON
You are becoming such a big boy!
I also want to add that Bran is OFFICIALLY potty trained and we are so proud of him.

Bran was way excited on his birthday. He got tons of presents from us and from his grandparents. He spent the day playing and swimming in our little pool and then got to go to Chuck E Cheeses with Grandma and Grandpa Buttars. It was a way fun day.

Bran and Trey both were super duper excited for Bran's bug cake. In fact, Trey somehow got it off the counter and brought it into the office, how he managed to do that and keep the cake in one piece is beyond me! Trey also couldn't keep his little fingers out of the cake, as soon as, I opened it to put candles on it he got a handful of frosting! Sometimes, I think that kid is uncontrollable!!!

On Bran's birthday he also got to be in a Children's Parade here in Spanish Fork. Our primary did a float about Lehi's dream and holding to the iron rod. You can kind of see Bran in the pic. He is the one holding on to the rod...I guess he was holding on for dear life, he would not let go! It was pretty funny.

Here is our little Nephite!

When I get the chance I like to dress Bran and Trey in the same outfits....so here they are as twins!

Happy 4th of JULY!

The cousins waiting for their own personal firework show.

This freaked me out a little bit...seriously, who gives a 3 yr. old a sparkler!?!

Our yearly trip to the ZOO!

My little studs!

Finally...GIRLS CAMP!
We got to go to the Heber Valley Camp this year. It was beautiful. It was actually designed and invisioned by Pres. Hinckley. We stayed in cabins and my cabin had carpet and a skylight. Our meals were basically catered, we only had to roast hotdogs once and that was for certification reasons! Brandon says it sounds more like a retreat instead of camping, and as much as I would like to disagree with him, he is right on that one! I will say, this camp didn't go with out it's challenges, but the over all experience was amazing and I would do it again.

This lake was dug after Pres. Hinckley toured the camp and said, "Everything looks great, but where's the swimming pool?" I seriously love that man!

Me, Sis. Bean, and Sis. Davies

"My Girls"

Okay, I think this brings me up to date...I'll try not to be such a slacker in the future, but I'm not making any promises!

Trey the Escape Artist

Trey has officially become an escape artist. Check out Houdini in action.

Random pictures

Easter 2009

My Favorite pics of Trey...
eating a pickle!

Trains, Cemeteries, and Bridalveil falls.

So basically I just wanted to post some pictures for family...
Maybe some day I'll tell you the story behind some of these pics.

Brandon Buttars, 1979 - ?

OK. I thought I would write a blog post for a change since I'm suppose to be so good at it, well at least I'm doing it for a living so you'd think I was good at it. My vital signs are good. Looks like I'll be alive for awhile longer. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. Hopefully I would have been missed.

So Branson and Peggy call me the "Drama Queen" so here's the low down on my drama.

Sunday I got to start taking the "colon cleansers". What a joy. I guess they're much better than they use to be. I first took 2 times release capsules then I mixed up the jug of joy. I had 4 great flavors to choose from. I chose Lemon Lime in case any of you wanted to know. Then I got to drink it every 15 minutes for about 2 hours or so until is was gone. Yeah I got sick of it but survived.

Monday morning at 10:45am I went to American Fork hospital for my colonoscopy and endoscopy or whatever the heck they call it. Basically I got the scope from both ends. :) If you're offended on the bluntness of that statement you must not know me. The doctors were great. They treated me well and even turned down the lights before giving me anesthesia. Guess it helps the mood.

When I came to, Peggy and the boys were right there and the doctor told me that I didn't have a hernia so it must be acid reflux and then he told me they found 2 polyps in my colon and they removed them. They said all polyps are precancerous so they were going to do a biopsy on them and let me know if I needed to be concerned about anything. They said I'll probably need a colonscopy now pretty regularly. Yeah. It actually wasn't too bad. I took the rest of the day off and relaxed.

Tuesday was the sucky day. Whenever they do anything like a colonoscopy they have to inflate your organs with air so they can see everything. Well my colon got inflated and that air escaped fairly easily. They also inflated my stomach. The whole reason all this medical stuff started happening was because of some chest pains I was having. Well the chest pains came back and were worse than they had ever been. All due to the air in my stomach. I think they may have over inflated me. :( It took awhile for all the air to come out and I'm still not sure if it is. I'm having very minor pains still, but it's way better than it was. We almost went back to the ER on Tuesday.

Wednesday I tried going back to work and worked half a day but was very nauseous and ended up coming home. I ended up with a fever and decided to take some Tylenol for that. I took a nap and woke up a bit better.

Thursday I still hurt but wasn't nauseous anymore so Thursday ended up being my first full day back at work. It went good. Of course I got the expected jokes but I'm cool with it. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. There were actually quite a few people that had colonoscopies before or had relatives that had.

Needless to say, my fear of the "silver stallion" as my Dad calls it is no longer there. I recommend anyone with digestive issues go get them checked out and don't worry about the colonoscopy. They put you under and it isn't bad at all. Now the inflated stomach, that sucked but that was the other procedure, not the colonoscopy.

If you need more details or would like to see the photos let me know. :)

Good News / Bad News

The Good News is...
The EKG Brandon had in the Emergency Room on Friday night suggests his heart is as healthy
as a horse.
Our health insurance kicked in just in time for Brandon to go to the ER (at least we are hopeful that it did, a lack of insurance cards makes us uneasy, however the lady at Brandon's work told him he was insured...but she also told him a few other things that weren't exactly true).
A missed episode of Friday Night Lights can be watched on NBC.com.
Also, we got a tax return this year, which is way better than owing taxes like we did last year.

The Bad News is...
Brandon probably has hiatal hernia and ulcers, he'll find out for sure when he sees the GI doctor he was referred to.
Brandon gets to experience a colonoscopy .... have fun with that Brandon!
Our tax return this year will probably all go to pay medical bills!!

HEADLINES from The Buttars Spread

THE BUTTARS SPREAD

WEB DESIGNER TURNS INTO A NINJA:
Brandon found out when we got home from Disneyland that he would be getting laid-off on March 1. Luckily that gave him time to find a new job. He now works for PMA in Provo. His official job title is CSS Ninja, basically that means he is a master web designer. He really likes his new job and we feel very blessed that he found a new job so quickly.

PRESIDENT LEARNS TO TEXT OUT OF NECESSITY:
Yes, this is true! I now know how to text message. I was called as YW President and the best way to contact my girls is by texting. Boy, have times changed since I was a young woman!

MAN TURNS 30 ON A HUGE INFLATABLE SLIDE:

Brandon turned 30 this year (March 2)! YAY, welcome to a new decade in your life Brandon....maybe now we can relate to each other better!! Anyway, we had a little surprise b-day party for him at Classics Fun Center in Sandy. The Melchiors and Minks joined us for the fun celebration which included pizza, pop, and a huge inflatable playground. It was a lot of fun and a great way to remind Brandon that even though he's 30, he's still just a big kid. Bran reinforced that by giving him a Hungry Hungry Hippos game for his b-day gift!

HUSBAND GETS VACAY TIME PAID OUT, WIFE STIMULATES ECONOMY:
I don't think I need to explain this one!

BUG MORPHS INTO MONKEY:
Aaaaahhhhh, Trey climbs on EVERYTHING! Nothing is safe at our house, it seems we can't put anything away where Trey can't get it. The kid truly is a monkey!

PEEING IN THE POTTY IS EASY:
Unfortunately pooing is not so easy for Bran. However, he pee's in the toilet every time, he hasn't had an accident in weeks. He can even go all by himself now with no help. Hopefully he'll figure out the number 2 thing pretty soon.

Well there you have it, those are the headlines from our lives!

Trey's first birthday party

I know I already blogged about Trey turning the big 1. But I wanted to share some pics of his birthday party. He had a great time eating his cake and playing with his balloons...he didn't really care about his gifts too much, good thing Bran liked them!
Alright, TreyBug, now that we are home from our vacation it's time to get you off those bottles and take the binky away...Welcome to being officially ONE!

Oh yeah, after Trey's birthday party, he decided to have his own party in the bathroom by throwing a roll of toliet paper in the toliet along with a few other various items and he found Bran's potty seat to wear....That's my BOY!

Our Disneyland Vacation

We had an AWESOME Disneyland vacation. It was more like a Disneyland (twice), California Adventure (twice), Universal Studios, San Diego Zoo, Sea World, and free tickets to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno vacation!!! Yeah, did I mention it was AWESOME!

Here are some of the characters Bran & Trey got to meet.

We only had time to play on the beach for half a day...but we sure had a ton of fun.

Here are some other fun pics.

Grandma and Grandpa Buttars and cousins.

Thank you SOOOOOO MUCH for a wonderful vacation Grandma and Grandpa Buttars.
You really made it a special time for our family.
Thank You.

Happy 1st Birthday, Trey Bug

WoW, Mr. Bug, you've come along way in just one year!
We sure love you and are so happy you belong to us.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!