"Something's up with Jack..."

HE JUST TURNED 3!

My ONLY nephew (outside of the womb anyway), turned 3 this past weekend! I am so proud of him and I love him very much. He has such a loving and sweet nature.
These next 2 pictures are of me and Aubrey with Jack when we went to visit in Wyoming just before his sister, Evie, was born.
Although I haven't been got to be near him geographically, I have really enjoyed the times we have been together AND I love keeping up with him through pictures and videos my sister posts on flickr or her blog. Every time he and Aubrey get together, it is pure joy!
I also wanted to say how proud I am of my little sister - she has proved to be an awesome mother. I know it hasn't always been easy when there little family moved to Britten, CO and then to Casper, WY with to Jeremy's job. She moved to these places not knowing anyone in these towns but she has managed to make friends and take great care of two beautiful, awesome kids. GREAT JOB SIS!


Not to be biased but Jack is the most handsome 3 year old I know, there, I said it :) There are WAY too many cute pictures to choose from but here are a few of my favorites of Jack.























Did I mention he is a great big brother to little sister, Evie?

We are so excited to be near them soon. The Butlers are moving soon to Bossier City, LA from Casper, WY which is only an hours drive from Longview as opposed to an 18 1/2 hour drive. This makes me happy to get to see them A LOT more often than I have, to be with them over Christmas and for the birth of my second nephew, due in January! YEAH!

WE LOVE YOU JACK!
I leave you with a video of he and Aubrey the last time they were together this past June at Grammy's house-

Goin' down the track, clickaty clack...

All aboard!

Hop on the party train as we celebrate Pete's 1/2 birthday! Yep, he will be 6 months old tomorrow. It has gone by so fast and I still can't believe we have a son. We will have his 6 month appointment soon so I will let you know the details of how much he weighs and all that good stuff.

His status for now:
He can role over now from his back to his front both ways (meaning over his left and right shoulder), he can sit up for a good amount of time by himself, he is cutting his first tooth, he is getting more aware of faces/places, he is talking a lot (don't know what he is saying yet, but we will), we will start him on some rice cereal soon and he still loves his jumperoo. I will also add what Aubrey likes to tell people about her brother; as she raises her arms, she says "He is getting bigger, and bigger and BIGGER!"

As for now, I will leave you with some pictures Debbie asked me to take of Pete wearing a train engineer outfit his daddy wore when he was a little man. She even moved the buttons on the straps because Pete was a little too long for the outfit.

Bryan at around 7 or 8 months of age:


Pete at 6 months of age:

We think Harper is neat

Have you ever heard of the expression "Keeping up with the Jones next door?" Well, we have some Jones (Aaron, Jennifer and daughter, Harper) down the street and we think they are pretty cool. We have lived at the house we are at for almost 3 years (the Jones have been in theirs even longer) and Harper just turned 3. It has been fun knowing her for most of her life and watching her grow along with Aubrey.











Aubrey has hung out with Harper off and on the past couple of years whether it be walking around our block, riding around in Harper's toy jeep, having play-dates at each others houses or at the park, ect. Harper has taught Aubrey a lot of things, namely, how to not be scared on the swing when you go up high.
It has also been a wonderful thing to witness these two sweet girls as their friendship grows. We met up with Jennifer and Harper Friday morning (Harper's Birthday) and I took a few pictures:





Here are a few pictures Bryan took of Harper's party on Saturday. It was such a beautiful day!






Happy 3rd Birthday sweet Harper

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEREMY!


hehe - this picture of Jeremy always cracks me up -

Happy birthday to sweet Jeremy. We love ya.

Live it up Melissa!

Happy birthday to a girl who is always ready to be a little silly and have some fun! Okay, so some of these pictures are from trunk-or-treat but I thought this would be a great opportunity to show them off :)












Melissa,
I hope you have a wonderful birthday and I hope others show you (like I hopefully do) how much you mean to them and how your thoughtfulness has touched many hearts.





She is awesome at her most recent role, being a mom!

If you don't know Melissa, I would recommend get to know her.

Give me sugar water!!

Just thought I'd share some pictures of hummingbirds who have migrated to my block. I took these pictures in my neighbor's yard (with her permission of course). I was anticipating taking a clean shot of one hummingbird but I was so happy to see a whole group of them vegging out on sugar water at the bird feeder.

I was fascinated by these little creatures. Here are a few interesting (well, what I consider interesting) facts about Hummingbirds:

- The heart rate for a hummingbird is about 1260 beats per minute.

- Hummingbirds can fly right, left, up, down, backwards, even upside down.

- Most hummingbirds flap their wings about 50 or so times a second.

- Hummingbirds lift from perches without pushing off; they rise entirely on their own power, flapping their wings at almost full speed before lifting off.

(note: check out the little lizard - I think he is jealous of these beautiful birds)

Happy 30th Angie!

I just wanted to send a shout-out to my really awesome sister-in-law - and say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!"
Angie,
I just want to thank you for being an awesome listener and a devoted friend. You are always a joy to be around - We love your fun and loving spirit.

(photo taken by Aubrey)
Aubrey and Pete wish you a happy birthday too and want to thank you for being there for them from the very start:

Aunt Gi' and Aubrey
Aunt Gi' and Pete

If you would like to know more about this wonderful person then check out what's going on In Bussey World. I am a devoted reader!

"May the force be with you"

Bryan's birthday was a great day. We had a nice feast for breakfast, went to get his hair cut, to the library, took a nap. This was all so fun because our little family was together doing all of these activities.

We then went to the Texas Roadhouse (one of Bryan's favs) with Darrell, Debbie and Bryan's Granny which was nice.

Lastly, Bryan opened a few presents and had some R2D2 birthday cake that Amanda Spiess, Aubrey and I made. (NOTE: I must give Amanda Spiess the credit however, I had some ideas and she ran with it and made it a reality - awesome)
I thought it would be good to keep the R2D2 theme going from when we got him the R2D2 robot for Christmas. It is pretty cute that Aubrey can now spot an R2D2 or a Wall-E anywhere. We are so proud!

Which reminds me, something you may not know about Bryan is that drawing robots has been a pastime of his.

5 months on the 5th

Today, Pete is 5 months old. It is hard to believe that he is growing so fast. I know Aubrey is excited for him to grow up so she can run around and play with him. I have been waiting for a few days to post these recent pictures of our precious son.
One of Pete's favorite things to do now days is jump in the jumperoo he inherited from his cousins. I was hoping he would like it but that is an understatement. Aaron delivered it to our house and as I was talking to him, I put Pete in it. We talked for a good while and just kept looking at Pete as he was jumping. He smiled, and jumped, smiled and jumped. He was in it a good 30 minutes the first time and now we will jump in it even longer. That boy is a certified jumper now. I must get a video so you can see this awesomeness. For now you will have to view his cuteness in a still-shot.
Also, I don't know if you read the post of his 4 1/2 check-up but Pete was 28 inches long and I thought it was interesting as I looked back at a post I created when Aubrey was 7 months old - she was not even that tall yet.

HAPPY 5 months Pete! We love your little personality already.

"No Biz like Showbiz"

Showbiz Pizza? Oh, Chuck E. Cheese I mean.
I was wondering why people ask if I remember when Chuck E. Cheese was called Showbiz. "ummm, not really"
Was Chuck E. Cheese actually "Showbiz Pizza" at one point?
Wikipedia says: Showbiz Pizza Place was a restaurant chain popular in the 1980's. It's history is greatly intertwined with that of it's main competitor, and eventual successor, Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre. So that explains it. I do remember going there with my family in the mid 80's however. Mom said we went to a Chuck E. Cheese for my dad's birthday when we visited my Uncle Randy who lived in Abilene, TX at the time. I treasure these pictures:


I have taken Aubrey to Chuck E. Cheese two times this past weekend. I think she has had her fair share of the big Rat for a while.
The first time we met with some some friends during the day on Friday and had a great time. It was nice that there weren't very many people do to the fact that school has started already for a lot of kids. Here are a few pictures from that day:
Bryan and I thought Grayson looked pretty grown up in this first picture. I think he is soaking it all in.
Addison and Mallory were pretty cute riding the horse:


Kiddos were dancing...They were getting their groove for sure and it was cracking me up. I don't think they even cared about eating pizza at this point.

Our second trip to C.E.C.'s, we met up with my brother Drew & his family (my sister-in-law, Charlotte and my 3 lovely nieces) and my other brother, Aaron. We were too busy with taking care of kiddos and playing games that I didn't bust out the camera much but I did manage to get these two shots.
Bryan was playing a game and our niece, Alyse crawled in his lap and then Aubrey did of course. I think they were all having fun:

This next one is of my sweet little niece Allie. She is growing so fast! She was so pleasant and slept most of the time were we there.

Last, I leave you with this:
If you ever seen The Rock-afire Explosion, you may find this humorous as I did: