The Graduate

     It has been over a year since I have written on this blog. A lot of events have happened, so it is my intent to write more often and highlight some of our family events. I'm certain that in doing this, I will recognize the hand of the Lord so much more in our past year than I realized. 
      Last Fall (2014), everyone went their various ways in their school pursuits. DD1 was an online student with BYU-I and worked part time at a call center. DD2 decided to stay and work at a local bookstore before heading back to school in January, 2015. DD3 chose to head to college for the first time away from home. She had a struggle with homesickness but soon grew to love her roommates and had great experiences the whole school year. DD4 began her high school years with lots of fun friends and extra-curricular activities.  
      DD2 was able to have enough credits to graduate in April, 2015. Yippee! She stayed in an apartment just around the corner from DD3.  We all went down to her commencement and helped pack them both up to come back home for the summer.

This is my feeble attempt at posting a video of dd's graduation. So....here goes.

Video of Graduation

Brighton Beehive Girls Camp

This picture was taken on Saturday afternoon. It was move-in day. You could really feel the excitement in the air as parents, siblings and girls hiked their gear up hernia hill to their various cabins.  I couldn't help think about how beautiful they all were and what a force for good they will be to all the many Beehives that will go up and experience camp and many for the first time ever camping or being away from their family for a week.  There are three other girls pictured from our other stake. It was fun to see them again.
   DH and I took them up last night to begin their "dry run" before the Beehives start next week. KSL says it will be snowing up in the mountains on Tuesday. Fun times! There was snow still up there and it covered some of the roads to get up on top of the camp. It was beautiful. We also got to see five moose drinking in the river on the way up. It was so wonderful to watch.
P.S.   Don't like how quiet the house is today.:(

May Part 2

For some reason, blogger wouldn't let me continue so here is another post to continue May Happenings. Dh spent much of his evenings and days off working on the yard. He pulled up all of the old bushes, trees and the overgrown tams on the north and west side of the house. Here are some pictures....

Here are more pictures of the cute quilt the girls made.

Take  notice of the cute quilt stitches on the grey fabric. They used Perle cotton. So sweet.

It happened in May!

I don't know about ya'll, but, the beginning of May went very fast. It seemed though that it was "twenty-something" for more than allowed. Finally June has come and so here is a recap of May's top events in our family. May began with the annual ninth grade dutch oven cookoff. DD4 and her friend made Panko fried chicken strips and baked beans. They served it with Creamies and lemonade as a full meal. Dh helped them learn how to use the dutch oven and was there to supervise. They cleared $30.00 to share between them. The weather cooperated until time to shut down. The wind came up and blew many of the awnings over and then came the downpour. Everyone was soaked.

Mother's Day was combined with both my dd1's and my birthday. My wonderful girls secretly made this fun quilt for me. They embroidered some of the cute blocks and then sewed them altogether and quilted it by hand and then bound it just it time for the party. I told them they didn't EVER need to get me another Mother's day gift...EVER. This was so cool! The pictures doesn't even give it justice. 

MY DARLING DAUGHTERS

Daughter #3 is a Senior and May has been especially busy for her. She received an award for most valuable team member on her ProStart team.(ProStart is the Culinary Arts Program) She also helped cater a few parties and end of the year dinner for the program. Here she is at the Arts Fest with one of her friends selling baked yummies to the attendee's.

Senior Ball

It is spring finally. My bulbs I had planted came out and the daffodils are so cute.







It's prom time again. To ask her out, the young man put Hershey kisses on the pathway to our door and balloons she had to pop to reveal who it was that had asked.

 When the big night came Saturday evening, there was a lot of excitement getting hair done and last minute hem fixed on the dress. She came back home later that evening with a big smile on her face. She really had a great time with the group she went with and of course, her date.

A Finished Project

Over a year ago I had cut squares for DIL's friends and relatives to write advice to her. I put them into quilt squares. I used a pattern found in McCalls Quilt magazine. I think it turned out very nice.

 I wanted to finish it for Christmas but ended up finishing it for Son and DIL's first anniversary. I learned a lot from making this. Yes, a quilt this size can indeed go under my very small sewing machine arm space. It certainly didn't want to very bad. Free motion is quite a skill. I will have to do more to get more proficient at it.  I put the backing on, quilt and bound it in one week. It gave me a good feeling like "hey, maybe I should finish a ton of the rest of the quilt tops that are storing away in totes."

Blackbeard the Pirate

Dd#4 was in a play today. They tried out for parts on Monday, rehearsed all week, and then put it on for the community twice today. She was singled out as one of six crabs. They did some singing and dancing too. The  play was sponsored by Murray City and the directors were from a company called the Missoula Children's Theatre. The company brings the props and costumes and they help young actors put on the play for the community.
 #4 was on her knees much of the play. She said her knees were screamin' tonight after it was all done. Her costume was darling.

Happy New Year!

Christmas was wonderful at our house. Santa was very good to us. Dad and Mom came and spent a week with us. We are so lucky to have them here. We all enjoy their company. I hated to see them go.I am posting a few family pictures. After the grand present opening, we had all of the Butcher family over for snacks and a party. The house seemed very full and very happy to have so many people come. I never would have been able to host such a party at the other house. I feel very blessed to have this big of an area upstairs to get everyone together. DH worked very hard to make it happen and it turned out great.  We also realized we needed a few things changed and added to make it more comfortable for next year.

   I caught the flu bug the day after my parents left for home. I stayed in bed for two days and then last night I felt like I shouldn't expose the family at the New Year's Party so I stayed home and watched the ball go down on the couch. ( I switched channels to the ball only for the few seconds before it dropped because the smut that was shown was so worldly......wow...)

   Today we loaded up the sleds and took the girls up the canyon to a golf course/tubing area. The girls fairly flew down the mountainside because it was pure ice. Two of the girl's took on air. DH will certainly be sore tomorrow.
    Here's praying that 2014 will be a good and productive year for our family!

Beautiful!

We really got hit yesterday with lots of snow. First thing in the morning, we scraped ice caused by freezing rain off of the cars. Dd#4 was late to school. It was an ice rink on the roads. It reminded me of Portland and their ice storms. The snow just kept coming and cleared the gunky air. It's beautiful this morning. Here are some shots of the snow. The sun will be melting the roads today just in time for another pretty good storm tonight. I love watching the pieces of snow drop off the tree limbs to the ground. Christmas will soon be here!

Happy Birthday

It was Grandpa and DIL's birthday this past weekend. We had a nice visit with Grandpa on the phone. With the family that was available, we had a birthday party for our DIL. Here we are serenading her with our recorders. 

    The night before, dd#4 went to her first teen dance. She met a few there that went to her school and she had a good time. 

We were able to put together our dining room over the weekend. With two leaves, it will fit twelve. I am so happy with how it looks. 

Masquerade Ball

Saturday night was the high school's masquerade ball. It was girls' choice and dd#3 went with a wonderful young man. They went with three other couples. They had an afternoon of ice skating first. DH and I went to Ikea to purchase a few things, came back and saw the beautiful gown with the beautiful girl inside. How fun are masks!( I should have taken a picture of them with their masks.) They went to the dance and ended the night playing games and watching Phantom of the Opera.

Young Woman Medallion

Wednesday night was our ward's Young Women in Excellence. Our #3 daughter was able to receive her medallion. The YW President invited the mothers of the girls to pick a flower that reminds them of their daughter, explain why, present her with the flower and give a minute or two talk about her. I was so honored to to that for her. Her dad and I chose the sunflower. The condensed version of the talk centered around the ability of the sunflower to follow the sun. They are a symbol of radiant warmth, loyalty and pure thoughts. No flower can lift spirits quite like the sunflower can. They are bright and cheery. Our daughter is a prime example of these qualities and she does strive to follow the "Son."

She had her wisdom teeth taken out only five days before the meeting and she looked and felt pretty normal for the night's activity.

DD#4.....so proud of them!

The girls with our wonderful friend and their YW leader in our other ward.

October Fun!





Men folk hard at work!

 October just flew by as we were so involved in getting the kitchen finished. We had a lot of help with the flooring and putting in the appliances. Thank you all so very much! As of tonight, Halloween, we still need to install the backsplash, mouldings and purchase area rugs and a dining set. I will be spending quality time with all of the instruction booklets for the appliances this week. I will soon discover all of the bells and whistles before the big turkey day. Last weekend we had a birthday celebration for dd#2. She came from college with a room mate and we also had grandpa and grandma here. The kids went down to "Witches Night Out" at Gardner Village too.


Happy Birthday sweetie!





Birthday guests



PROGRESS!

Status on our kitchen:

Slow.

Slow.

Slow.

however, the cabinets have come!

Our kitchen before:

 Our kitchen from the front view:

The installer came on Monday. Voila!  Isn't it beautiful?!!!

 South wall, looking straight on...

 The bar in front will house the stove top and there are lots of drawers and a spice rack. The paint on the back wall is a Kwal paint called "cement". It is a beautiful color. I was a little concerned by the dark value but I love the color now that the white cupboards are against it. My dh and father have done a wonderful job making it just what I envisioned. Next up, the countertops. They will be here in a week and a half. More to come... 

Rights of Passage

Another daughter is on her way to fun and learning. We took dear daughter #2 to college on Saturday. She is gonna have the experience of her life! She has a great attitude and she has some fun classes. She has been emailing her new roommate and I know she will really enjoy the girls in her apartment. I am envious of her new opportunities and fun times she will experience. Needless to say, I got a little choked up as we drove off leaving her there. It's all apart of these kinds of transitions and I will never be good at it. We love her tons!