Aunt Brook and Uncle Bob

They finally got hitched! Congrats Brook and Bob!!!



The happy couple.



Try as we might, Ruby did NOT want her picture taken. Linden snapped this one when she wasn't paying attention, so here it is, Brad and Ruby.



The boys. All of Brook's brothers, the brother-in-law and two of her sisters' boyfriends. I would have included a picture of the girls, but since not everyone looked good in the same picture I decided to opt out of that one. You can all thank me later.



Aunt Brook and Uncle Bob with the Nielsen nieces and nephews outside the temple. Anton is sticking out his tongue and Zackary is sticking out his lower lip. What a great photo op for them. (Zackary was quite upset that he had to be in another picture.)



Somehow Anton got to hold Brook's bouquet for a little while and I couldn't resist snapping a picture that I know he will not enjoy so much when he is older.



Zackary just had to have a turn with the bouquet, also. How adorable is he?!?



Brook in her wedding day dress, waiting for the luncheon to start.



The Nielsen family (minus Grandpa Nielsen in Heaven, we know he was with us for this special day). And a look at the back drop that Linden and I made.



Our darling little Isabel (and a look at the decorations for the reception).



Grandpa and Grandma Butler came to help in the kitchen at the reception. Grandpa did a great job of holding Isabel and keeping her asleep for a while and then happy.



We had a great time with Uncle Jeff. The boys and Isabel LOVED playing with him. We are so glad that he got to come for a whole week. Thanks to Aunt Sandy and David and Anna for sharing their husband and father. We wished that you could have been here for the wedding and look forward to your next visit.



We are thrilled for Brook and Bob as they begin their new journey together. It was a beautiful ceremony and the day was full of happiness. We are so excited to have Bob now be an official part of the family. Best of Luck. We love you both.

Miracles Do Happen

Yes, they truly do. I am finally doing another blog post. We have had a few busy months and blogging was just on the bottom of my list. I am hopefully going to get busy blogging regularly again. I can't promise once a week. I have been busy picking up extra shifts at work until Linden gets a job. So, while I am working more, it will be difficult to blog as I would like. Anything is better than nothing.

In addition to the miracle of me actually posting again we have been truly blessed. There have been many miracles in our lives. Despite the fact that Linden has been unemployed for now over seven months we still have all we need. We were truly blessed in December. Linden was able to work for a few weeks doing roofing in Island Park. We also had more than one Secret Santa that gave us food/money/and or toys for the kids. It was hard for me to want to accept the help, although it was greatly appreciated and an answer to our prayers.

We are hopeful that Linden will find a job soon. Some days I feel more hopeful than others. I know that we now have more faith and patience than we did seven months ago. I am truly grateful for the decision that we made to live in a trailer house from the 1970's, yellow toilet, sinks, fridge, stove and tub and all that comes with a trailer home. Our rent is super cheap which has been a great blessing over the last several months. We have been so blessed because of our decision to do the best to follow the prophets counsel and live in affordable housing and stay out of debt. We have also been blessed with many great family and friends that help us, including those that have chosen to help anonymously. THANK YOU!!!

More posts to come soon with updates on the kiddos. Thanks for your patience with my blogging habits as of late.

Our Favorite Aunt/Uncle Is.....

Linden and I both come from large families. I have nine siblings and Linden has eleven. That means that there are MANY Aunts and Uncles for our children to have in their lives. This is a great blessing. The boys really enjoy all of them. To date Anton, Zackary and Isabel have 30 Aunts and Uncles (this counts Bob, the soon to be uncle). There are more to come as I am sure more of our siblings will be getting married at some point. The boys truly enjoy playing with their Aunts and Uncles.

A couple of weeks ago we were down at Grandma Nielsen's house. Uncle Brad was also there. He gave something to Anton and Anton was asked who his favorite uncle was. He responded, "Uncle Alex." Considering that Uncle Brad was the only uncle present that was not quite the appropriate response to encourage Brad. Linden explained to Anton that he should say that Uncle Brad was his favorite uncle and asked him again. He gave the same response, "Uncle Alex." We explained to him that Uncle Brad was helping him and being nice to him right then. The third time he was asked he still gave the same response.

This last week we had Maria and Josh visiting us. Anton was having lots of fun playing with Uncle Josh. We asked him who his favorite uncle was and he responded, "Uncle Josh." Ha, ha, sorry Brad.

In all reality it really doesn't matter who the favorite Aunt/Uncle is. Anton and Zackary love playing with all of their uncles and aunts and it truly is whoever is there at the time. (Uncle Alex has had some good priming with Anton, asking him who his favorite is.) We are blessed to have such a great family to help and support us and to play with our wonderful children.

We got a few pictures while Maria and Josh were visiting. Here is Aunt Maria with Isabel.



Uncle Josh was giving shoulder rides to the boys and decided to try a double shoulder ride. Anton didn't like being in the middle very much.



I haven't forgotten about trying to get a picture of Isabel sitting. While she is doing better and better all the time, I never have the camera out at the right time. Here is one of my attempts. She is tipping over because she got distracted by her brothers. (Don't worry, no babies were harmed in the production of this post.)



Have a great week.

A Warm Fall

We have truly been enjoying great weather this past week. The high for the day most of this week has been in the 60's, about 10 degrees above the average for the beginning of November. That has made it easy for me to be motivated to keep running. I'll hope I can be motivated to run when it is snowing and colder. Notice I didn't say blowing. I don't enjoy running in the wind, so we will see how that goes.

We had a fun week. Anton and Zackary, aka Buzz and Woody enjoyed wearing their shirts from Aunt Brina this week.

Zackary was mad at me for some reason (I don't remember what), hence the scowl in this photo.



We also enjoyed playing in the leaves at Grandma's house. Grandma even joined in the fun and got buried in the leaves. Here she is popping up out of the leaves to surprise all of us.



Anton had fun getting buried in the leaves.



Zackary also enjoyed the leaves.



On Sunday while visiting Great Grandma she wanted us to get a picture of her and Oliver.



Of course we couldn't resist a photo op with the boys and Great Grandma, also. (Isabel was sleeping.)



The most exciting news is the new arrival of Leonora and Kevin's little baby, Katelynn. She came a bit early and will be in the NICU for a little while still, but is doing well. She looks so tiny!



What a precious, little bundle.

My New Niece!

She's here, about 6 weeks early, but doing well. She weighs 4lbs 6 oz, 17 in and will be in the NICU for a little while. Leonora is doing well, also.

Our Toy Story

As most of you know, Toy Story is a favorite around our household, so of course that was our theme for Halloween this year. Thanks to Aunt Misti we had costumes for the kids. Anton was Buzz Lightyear. Zackary was Woody. And little Isabel was Jesse. Aunt Misti gave Anton Buzz and Woody pajamas for his birthday back in March. Since then the boys wear them ALL the time (as evidenced by the numerous pictures of them in their pajamas on the blog). So, the big deal for them was the accessories that they got to have with the pajamas. A cowboy hat for Woody and a purple head cover for Anton (this didn't turn out very well, it looks more like a bonnet, but Anton liked it, oh well). Aunt Misti was also kind enough to make a wig and hat for Isabel. All I did was sew a little yellow fabric on a white onesie and put her in her jeans.

And the results are:



We took the kids trick or treating to Melaleuca again this year (on Friday). I am always amazed at the extent of the decorations. My favorite department this year was, of course, Toy Story! Marketing did an awesome job of creating the Wild West, but I loved all of the attention that the kids got from all of the other Toy Story characters in that department. We got LOTS of "Ooohhhh, how cute!" comments from everyone about Isabel in her wig and hat.

It wouldn't have been a complete trip through Melaleuca without a stop at Uncle Brad's desk so he could give the boys more candy than I wanted them to have.



The boys were thrilled when we let them stay in their "costumes" all day.

Anton in his Buzz bonnet.



Zackary playing with a magnetic book.



They were a bit confused when it came to bedtime. We made them get out of their costumes/pajamas and put on other pajamas. I needed to get Buzz and Woody washed for the next day of trick or treating. On Saturday we went to Aunt Kathy, Grandma and Uncle Don, Grandma Nielsen, Uncle Andy, Aunt Lori and Uncle John, and Grandpa Butler and David. It wasn't that many stops but we left about 4:10 PM and got home at 8:40 PM. I think everyone enjoyed seeing the kids on Halloween and I know the boys had fun.

On Sunday it became official. Linden and I have now had three different bishops in four months time without moving once. In the Third Ward we got a new bishop towards the end of July. Hence the old one and the new one, Bishop Kiester and Bishop Kohler. Sunday night at the Stake meeting they organized a new ward, the Foundry Ward, which we are now a part of, which means a new bishop, Bishop Bolander. We are looking forward to being a part of a new ward and getting to know all of the people we will be going to church with now, some of which are coming with us from the Third Ward, others from Mountain View, Seventh, and (I think) Fifth Wards.

It was a nice meeting, I spent most of the time out in the hall with Isabel. She refused to let me sit down. Luckily, we left the boys at Grandpa and Grandma's so that at least one of us could know what was said in the meeting. I don't think they would have done very well sitting through a two-hour meeting after having been to three hours of church already. We will still be going to church at 1 PM. Which is really nice in some ways, but not so nice in other ways.

Our Discovery

From last week, for those who were wondering, Zackary was the top picture, Anton the middle and Isabel the bottom. Isabel is easier to tell apart than the boys, maybe because she is still a baby. Anton and Zackary I can tell apart from the hair and mouth. Zackary has darker hair and Anton has his papa's mouth.

Yesterday we had an announcement in our ward that left lots of people questioning where they will be in two weeks. Next Sunday our stake is having a special meeting during which they will be organizing a new ward and changing the boundaries of the other seven wards in the stake. (For those of you who don't know a ward is a geographical area in which the people living there meet together for church, a stake is the next step up, like a county and then a state, but not that big, more on the neighborhood/city level.) Who knows which ward we will be in, when we will have church and which building we will be attending. What a blessing to be able to participate in this great event, the creation of a new ward.

We had a great week, again. (Of course nothing is ever perfect, but I prefer to highlight the things that did go well.)

Isabel got a new shirt from Aunt Misti. Of course we had to get a picture of her in it to show it off. She is just so adorable and I love the fact that this shirt announces it. She is now seven months old. She still chooses not to roll over. However, she is getting more demanding. She wants to be sitting up or standing up so she can look around and see what is happening all the time sometimes, it seems. She is getting closer and closer to being able to sit up by herself. I have been hoping to get a picture of her sitting, but she only lasts a few seconds before she gets distracted by her brothers, a toy or something else and topples over. Maybe next week she will have mastered sitting enough that we can get a picture of her sitting for all to see.



Anton and Zackary could hear me get the camera out if they were two miles away. They can never resist getting their picture taken. Hopefully this lasts throughout their life. We will see. In the mean time, we always take their picture when we have the camera out. Hence, we got this photo of the three of them. It only took about five minutes and MANY, MANY, MANY tries to get the picture below. We still didn't get all three looking at the camera and smiling without any blurs from motion, something that I am getting used to now. In the meantime I have a PLETHORA of photos with the boys and all sorts of different fun expressions and lots of great memories.



Our week started out with the boys not wanting to wear their undershirts. It took a little convincing to get them to wear them. The second day it turned into a competition to see who could wear the most shirts. In the photo below it isn't completely apparent, but, Anton is wearing his undershirt and two other shirts and Zackary is wearing the required undershirt and three other shirts. I didn't need to worry about them getting cold that day.

After I got home from running one day I was doing a few situps and the boys decided to join me. Linden readily agreed to get a picture considering that he says I am never in the pictures on the blog. Please excuse my appearance and remember I did just finish a run.



Of course, when getting a picture of the boys and I, Linden couldn't resist a cute picture of Isabel who was wondering what all the fuss was about.



Friday afternoon we went to the Pumpkin Walk where the boys were able to enjoy lots of different scenes all incorporating pumpkins, a straw maze, and a some picture boards.

I thought this pumpkin totem pole was quite fun.



This was just one of the many pumpkin scenes there. I haven't seen The Wizard of Oz for years. The monkeys always scared me. Maybe it is still worth seeing again.



Had to get a shot of my handsome husband and our little Isabel.



This was a fun picture to get. The boys were so busy looking at themselves being Ernie and Bert that is was impossible to get them to look at the camera. Grandma Butler got to be the Count while I tried to hold Isabel in place and stay where I needed to be at the same time. It worked and I didn't whack Isabel's head on the board, either, go me.



Linden had a great discovery on Saturday morning. I will let you see this picture and see if you have any guesses as to what it is.



Saturday morning Linden was out hauling wood, helping us to get ready for winter. He came to the door holding the discovery in the picture above. He told me he thought the boys might enjoy seeing it. I looked at him and looked at what he was holding and thought he was crazy. Why in the world would the boys want to see a wood chip. They have seen plenty of wood before, what is the big deal about this one. As these thoughts were running through my head I continued to study the piece of wood, wondering if Linden had lost it. After studying it for quite a while I finaly realized what the wood chip really was.


Don't scroll down until you have a guess as to what it is.












A butterfly. What a great disguise it has. Linden found out what kind of butterfly it is on the internet, we aren't 100% positive, but we are believe it is either a green comma or a satyr comma. (Named commas for the tiny silver/white comma shaped mark they have on the underside of their wings, the side that looks like bark/wood.) They hibernate over the winter. Here is the top side of the butterfly's wings. What an amazing little creature that our Heavenly Father has created.



Have a fabulous week, and make sure to watch out for little wood chips. Don't squish them.