Anna decided to try out a new hairstyle for V-day. The two top "piggies" actually stayed in for a few hours. And daddy thought she looked ever so cute!

My Valentine Sweethearts

Wyatt really wanted to get flowers for his two pre-school teachers. He picked out these cute plants to bring to them on Valentines Day.

Wyatt Quotable

I was overhearing the boys talk in their bunk beds just now. I love listening to them chat when they don't know I'm there! It has revealed so much to be about their unique and wonderful personalities. Here is what I overheard tonight, which made me chuckle.

Wyatt: but Will, you HAVE to like me.....if you don't like me that's a bad choice. (pause) Do you know how that makes God feel? It makes Him sad.

Will: I'm sorry.

Wyatt: That's OK.

hmmmmm, I wonder where he got that theory?

Fun at DCP

One of the things I love best about our house is how close we are to the Dallas City Park. There is no excuse for me not to bundle up on these cold, but sunny days and enjoy some fresh air. And we have definatley been taking advantage of the sunshine! I just know it's going to pour in March and we'll be glad we did!

Her first ride on the park's baby swings. She loved them. But what she really wanted is to get down and "run" around. I am beginning to see her falling into Wyatt's footsteps.

Will's favorite thing is the monkey bars. I am so impresssed at how well he does. He can even do the swinging rings ones. Have you tried those lately? They are HARD!

Our budding artist.....

For the past month or two Wyatt has been really into doing pictures. His preferred mediums include water colors and pencil drawings on scrap paper or mommy's lists which he finds lying around the house. Here is a sample of one of his many portrait drawings. I am the orange figure at the top. Notice I have two "horns" coming out of my head near my ears. According to Wyatt these are actually my ear rings.

He is also very busy practicing the letters to his name. I thought with his energy we'd be lucky having him sit down long enough to work on letters before kindergarten. But he has suprised us with his interest. The "y" is backwards and the "a" looks kind of like a "Q", but not bad for 3 1/2! By the way, he is a lefty. Maybe that's why he has so much creativity!

Little cutie

Ok, seriously, is she not the cutest thing just sittin' on Daddy's lap with her little grin? :)

Whoops....I added the pic, but I forgot to flip it around. You'll have to turn your head to the left :)

Cute, huh?

Snow day project....

While shopping in Grants Pass on our anniversary in May we came across this perfect nightstand. We had been looking for matching nightstands for our bedroom, but since I liked this one so much we decided to buy it and Craig would try to "constuct" a similar one to match. Fast forward about 8 months to our 4th school cancellation this winter. Craig was getting a little stir-crazy and decided to see what he could create with scrap wood he had saved. About 5 hours later he was finished. Here are the two nightstands, the one he made still needs to be painted and then "roughed up" a little to match, but it turned out so nicely! Yeah! Now I have my matching nightstands!
(I switched to the "new" blogger so we'll see if I can post a pic, I've been having probs....)

SNOW DAY!

Oh, how I love a snow day. There's nothing better than waking up and finding Craig doesn't have to go to work! We got to spend time as a family playing the the snow just outside of Dallas. It was the boys first sled rides and they had a blast. Will loved the snow and didn't complain once. Wyatt happily played "Narnia" after a few rides down the hill until his hands got too cold. After about and hour or so they were ready for some hot chocolate. Anna stayed nice and warm in her snowsuit on Craig's back! Below are some pictures of our fun day.

Weight Loss Goals

Well, of course a New Year usually brings about "resolutions" and Craig and I have teamed up in a goal to lose a few pounds. My goal is 15 and his is 20. I am posting this for accountablitity from the few of you who read my blog! I figure the more people I tell the more I have to stick with it.

My progress so far has been losing almost 2 pounds! There is a really great website I heard about and it has really been helping me. It is called sparkpeople.com. Both Craig and I went on it and set up our plan and goals. So far, what has been HUGELY helpful to me is the food planner. Your program will give you the ideal number of calories, carbs, protein and fat you are to consume each day in order to reach your goal weight. It bases all of this on how much exercise you plan on doing, as well. So each day I go the the website and enter in exactly what I ate on the food planner and it totals everything up for me. I don't have to read labels or do any math! It is so cool. I also love the fact that I really can eat whatever I want.....I just have to plug it in on my food planner.....therefore I end up making better choices anyway. So far it has only been 4 days but it's working well. Check it out!

a Christmas snapshot

Merry Christmas and Happy 2007! This was one of my attempts to get a Christmas picture of the kids.....although I do like the way Anna is looking at her brothers in this shot. We had a very fun and busy Christmas break, with Christmas Eve at my parents house, Christmas day with Craig's fam at our house, and lots of fun activities during our two weeks off! (As well as the not so fun one of being hit with the stomach flu.....Craig was the only one who managed to escape the bug!) It seemed to go by way too fast, yet I am somewhat looking forward to the routine of school again. A New Year always gives me such a feeling of a fresh start!

Piggy-tails

After Anna's bath her hair always seems so long....so this evening I started playing with it and realized I could get it into two pig-tails....sort of. She looked too cute! I took her out to the living room to show Craig. He laughed. He loved it!

The only hang- up is after about a minute and a half she realizes something's in her hair and she pulls and pulls until it's out. This is a brand new girly experience for me. How long will this last, I wonder. Should I just keep trying to get her used to hair "pretties"? Parenting is always such a learning experience......haha!

Turning 30

December 17th was my 30th Birthday. Craig and I spent our first night without kids in a hotel since before Will was born! It was wonderful. We shopped all day at the Lincoln City outlet malls, had a nice, romantic dinner at Kyllos, and watched a movie....in the theater!! (another rarity:) We returned home Sunday very rested and rejuvenated. Ama and Papa were so kind to stay with the kiddos at our house. Turning 30 was great!

It's always an adventure!

Today we headed out toward the Alsea River to find the perfect Christmas tree. We had high hopes, and were bound and determined to get the most out of our $5 permits! Turns out the tree pickin's were slim, but the adventure was great! After hiking the mountainside we finally settled on this one (here's Will and I showing it off before Craig cut it down). Later, Craig felt bad I didn't get a beautiful perfect tree (it's more along the lines of a Charlie Brown tree, but I like to call it a "wild" tree:). We talked about the memories we made, and I reminded him, "honey, it's just the Button way". Which it truly was.

Plus we got TWO tree's for $10 and so the boys got to put the smaller one in their room and decorate it, which they LOVED!

Anna joined in on the decorating. She managed to eat, break, and take off several ornaments! I should be busy these next couple weeks :)

Getting out the ornaments.....

The three in front of the finished product!

Let her eat cake!

Anna is officially ONE tomorrow but we celebrated early with our families over Thanksgiving weekend. In true Anna fashion she took her cupcake very seriously. I can't believe my baby girl is ONE! She is close to walking 100% of the time and is cutting her 5th tooth. She is so much fun!!

Presents! Anna got lots of girly clothes, a little people plane, a new baby doll and doll bottles! Ama Button recovered a child size cushy rocker chair and Anna has spent HOURS so far sitting in it with her babies. I tell ya, girls and boys are SO different!

Anna and Gramme.......

Notice the family resemblance??

One year......almost

An early one year photo of Anna. She is walking around furniture and even taking steps to us if we hold out our hands. I thought I'd have at least 'til Christmas before she started walking, but that might not be the case. She is as sweet as ever and such a happy girl!

Pumpkin Carving Fun!

We got together with some friends and carved pumpkins. Will wanted a "spooky" one, Wyatt wanted a "happy" one, and Craig carved Anna's to look like her...complete with girly eyelashes and two bottom teeth! Happy Halloween!

One apple + two teeth = hours of entertainment for a teething baby

Anna found this apple that Wyatt at taken down and enjoyed gnawing on it. With only two teeth it was hard work, but she did a pretty good job.

3 little pumpkins

Here are our three little pumpkins! We visited the pumpkin patch again this weekend to let Will pick out his pumpkin. What a beautiful fall day we had. The sunshine and crisp air felt great.

Here is Anna in the cart full of pumpins!

Fun at the patch

Wyatt's pre-school class visited the pumpkin patch this week! I got to go along for the field trip. Wyatt had fun picking out a "skinny" pumpkin. "I want a skinny one 'cause the fat ones are more spooky, mom", he said. :)

He also got to choose indian corn and a gourd to bring home. He picked out another little white pumpkin and said, "I want to give this one to my Annie girl!" I thought that was so cute!

His MOST favorite thing was the hay slide! He rode down again and again, oh and he also loved making "snow" angels in the wheat pit! Only my Wy-boy!

I'm sure we will be visiting the pumpkin patch again this week (Will was dissapointed he didn't get to go) so I'll be posting more pumpkin pictures!!

Reading with Dad...

Anna and Dad spent some time in the rocker "reading" books a few days ago. Anna has started to sit still for a few minutes and look at books. She also likes to just pull them all of her bookshelf and make a mess! Moments like this are sweet and I had to take a picture.

Also, you can see our nice front lawn through the window so this pictures serves as double duty for an update on our grass!

Little punkin

I've got the knitting bug again. It's been about a year since I've knitted anything and my friend Christi inspired me to try this pumpkin hat for Anna. Don't look too close, there ARE mistakes!

Now our little pumpkin is all set for the pumpkin patch!

Hunting in Lakeview Oregon

This was a pretty big year for us. The last time we were in Lakeview Will was 6 months old. It's been 5 years and we finally drew our tags. Craig has been looking forward to this since we found out in June :) We had a wonderful time, and I thank the Lord that the kids all did great and everything went smoothly for us. Memories in the making.......

JT's buck! He got an awesome three point on opening morning. It was very exciting to have a buck in camp. Wednesday morning before we left Jeff got a forky for Craig to tag and his brother Chris got a bear! Meat in the freezer.....yeah!

Little pink cammo girl! Anna was the perfect little camper. We set up this gate for her and when she wasn't playing in there she was sitting in her "saucer" around the campfire. She loved being outdoors, the weather was awesome, and the scenery was beautiful!

The boys playing on the quads.....

We went road hunting one evening and the boys rode like this in the back of the truck for about two hours! They loved helping Dad look for bucks.

Thanks, Darbi!

My friend Darbi always gets the kids a little present when she sees them. We met her and her fam Sunday night for pizza and she pulled out two HUGE jaw breakers for the boys. They were seriously almost the size of baseballs! She said, "this is something I would never let Blake (her 3 year old) have, so I got them for your boys!"

Thanks, Darbi! I think when we see you next we'll give your kids a jar of honey :)

Look....a friend!

Anna found herself in the mirror the other day. I am enjoying my two morings a week with just her. I kind of forget what that was like with Will. Anyway, it was so cute to watch her reach out, touch and babble to that "other" baby. I had to snap a few pictures. She entertained herself with her reflection for quite a while!

Lawn project....

Our front grass has always had problems staying green. No matter how much we watered and fertilized it always turned brown by the end of summer. So....Craig decided to take out a bunch of roots, till up the dirt, work in new top soil and re-seed. Now we have baby green grass sprouting up and he is so proud!

I'll keep you posted on it's progress, it is quite the main event around our house!

Wyatt's first day

Can it be? Pre-school already?? Wyatt started this week in Mrs. Porter's class and seems to love it! He was very excited and not the least hesitant on his first day....figures! My little social bug always seems to adjust well. I am enjoying my two mornings a week with just Anna.....girl time!.......but when 11:00 comes I am so ready to pick up my little boy!!

Soccer....

Today Will had his first two soccer games! They were so much fun! I wasn't sure how it would all pan out, but I had a great time cheering for him, Wyatt and Anna played well along the side lines, and Will even scored his first goal! He was a great encourager, always cheering for his team when he was on the side lines, as well. He really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to an awesome season :)

Oh, ya....I forgot to mention the best part of the day. Gatorade and a hostess cupcake after the game!

Pretty little girl

This is a pretty recent picture of Anna. She didn't look too happy in the last picture of her I posted, on Will's first day of school. She IS however a very happy and content little girl who is easily contained to the playroom and entertained by her brothers. She "crawls" (on her tummy....still!) and has just recently pulled up to standing a few times which the boys think is so cool.

Look at those tummy rolls! This is Anna's sweet but bashful look. She is such a little girl!

1st Day of Kindergarten

Well, I did it. I got through my first child's first day of kindergarten with just a few tears. (I had my meltdown early on Sunday night and got most of them out of the way :) This morning Will was excited and just a little bit hesitant. When I picked him up he went on and on about his day and told me everything from reading a gingerbread man book to having rectangle crackers for snack. He even got to see Dad out on the playground during recess. I think he will make this trasition easily. It was sure a big day in his life.....maybe even bigger though in mine.

Wyatt and Anna sending Will off to school this morning.....

Will was blessed to have both Mom and Dad walk him to his class today! Here is is dutifully hanging up his backpack and coat before heading into class.

A NEW tradition! Wyatt and I made brother chocolate chip cookies for a special treat after his first day.