Arizona and Valentines Day

Scott and I drove down to Arizona last Valentine's /President's Day weekend. We didn't decide to go until Friday at noon, and two hours later we were on our way. In the midst of our packing flurry, my romantic hubby decided it was a priority to surprise me with these:

because he didn't want me to "go without" on Valentines day while we were out of town. I hated having to leave those beautiful roses behind! What a nice husband. He's nice even in the middle of the night when my sleep talking wakes him up. He drives me to work so I can put my make up on in the car, drops treats off to me at work, listens to me analyze my day, tells me I'm pretty with my retainers in (I'm not), goes to the grocery store with me on Saturday nights and snuggles with me while we watch Mary Tyler Moore re-runs. I keep being surprised at how much I like this marriage thing.

Anyway, this roadtrip was fun. We hadn't been on a roadtrip since we had just started dating and went to Southern California with some friends...on the way back everyone ditched us and squished into the other car so we could be alone and we just talked and talked and talked. Scott even went 15 miles UNDER the speed limit on the way back home on that 1st roadtrip so we could have more time to talk.

I keep digressing. This was such a fun time to just sit in the car and eat sunflower seeds and see the snow melt outside our windows as we drove down to sunny AZ.

We stayed with my cousin Kelly and her family:

(to see more of their family pics visit my photography blog, link on the right)


Here's us with Kelly's kids Daimon and Ellie at one of the many many restaurants we went to while there. The best thing about AZ, besides the sun and getting to show Scott where I went to high school and seeing my dorky pictures on the choir wall with the "Rachel from friends" haircut which I thought was SO awesome, was the FOOD. We ate and ate and ate and when we were so full we didn't think we could stuff another bite in, we went to Grimaldi's and got a pizza. Yes, Grimaldi's has a franchise in ARIZONA!!! I HAD NO IDEA!!!!!!!!!!I've craved that pizza at least 3 times a week since I moved away from NY 3 years ago.

We also saw Confessions of a Shopaholic (loved it, loved the book) and helped Kelly pick out new perfume:


Here's Kelly smelling my Gum Package to clear her nasal passage between sniffs:



And here's my Valentine, loving every minute of this gum sniffing exhibition.



A couple days into our trip, my parents heard we were having so much fun that they decided to fly down. Good thing, too, because my mom found 2 awesome tables at Dillards for a quarter of the price Thanksgiving Point and Dear Lizzie are selling them for. We made quite a scene at Dillards packing them up, and Scott and I drove them back up to Utah, and now I have one sitting in my living room. Thanks, Mom:)


BTW here is my new yellow purse, happy president's day to me:) TJ MAXX is better in AZ, too.


Apparently AZ really misses my sister Katie because they named a store after her:

I'm jealous, KaBloom.



Miss you, sunny Arizona!

Mickey's Stupid Clubhouse

A couple weeks ago Cameron and Jake took my mom and I on a date to go see Mickey's Clubhouse at the Energy Solutions Arena. We piled into the car, buckled them in their carseats armed with snacks and pull-ups and almost 2 hours later, we STILL hadn't gotten there because of a massive wreck on the freeway. Poor little boys.

And not that I have anything against Disney, because I don't, but the show was kinda dumb. Although who am I to complain because more than a few unsuspecting Japanese kids had to sit through our dumb show at Tokyo Disneyland when they could have been on the rides.

All in all I'm glad I got to go on a double date -Me and Cameron, Mom and Jake...I love spending time with these little boys and my mom.

Butler Family Pics

A few Sundays ago, before Scott's brother Mitch left on his mission, we took some Butler Family Pictures. My sister Katie was nice enough to come and hold the camera so I could be in some of them. I was looking through the pictures and this made me laugh out loud - Katie sat in for me while I adjusted the settings on my camera....



And here's the "rill dill"

Mike and Andrea!

Yesterday we spent the day at Scott's brother's wedding. We LOOOVE Andrea and I'm so excited to have another sister in law! Here is Mike and Andrea's Wedding and the ensuing celebrations. Mike was cracking me up all day:

Make Me Happy!

The family reunion this summer was at the beach. The first day we took Jakey down to show him the waves and he ran along the shore shouting "MAKE ME HAPPY!!!" It doesn't take much for that kid. He is so vivacious and grateful and throws himself excitedly into every new thing.

I am really going to miss these little boys. Ben got accepted to Business Schools in Austin and Virginia, and wait-listed at Wharton, and who know where Scott and I will be in the Fall, so anyway the dice turns I'm not going to be seeing much of "the littles" come September. I don' think it actually sunk in until last week that they would be leaving and I stayed up late crying about it. I couldn't help it! These little boys have been such a bright spot in my life these past few years. They are so simple and wise and sweet and happy and they just take your mind off hard things. I will forever remember Cameron taking me on a "date" one very dark day. What am I going to do without these little Stinkers?

I went to my parents house last weekend and walked into this:



I mean what am I going to do without being able to walk in and see little Cam Cam playing "monster eye" with Grandma Robin? Especially when he has that cowlick sticking straight up in the back.

And it will be so weird on birthdays to only light the candles once instead of 20 times to let the boys sing and blow over and over again cuz its so fun.

Oh well.

Not that it's any substitute, but at least I'll have these

and these


to MAKE ME HAPPY.
(Thanks, honey)

And LOVE YOU, LITTLE BOYS.

Honeymoon

Scott is finishing up (yet another) practice LSAT. I put some rice on the stove to go with dinner and decided I would quick do a blogpost while it cooked. So now I am sitting in a house that smells like smoke since I burned said rice while doing said blogpost. Not sure if I was trying to burn us out or freeze us out of home - now all the doors are open and it's COOLD.

Our camera died on our honeymoon. I forgot that we'd taken a few before it died so I was excited to find these: I obviously didn't know we were low in battery or we probably wouldn't have a dozen shots of our feet on top of stars in Hollywood. We saw Wicked our first night in LA, then went to Coronado Island and spent a couple days at Hotel Del, then spent a day at Disneyland. (No I did not convince Scott to wear Mickey Mouse Groom ears. But we did go for sentimental reasons - we went to southern california on a road trip with some friends early in our dating, and Scott managed to get just the two of us to Disneyland for a day.)


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WICKED! Scott loved it, much to his surprise.

The husband himself, downtown LA.



We have a half dozen pictures like this(above) and this (below) and then our battery died. Good thing, because it would have been really sad to have wasted our camera battery life on something unimportant! I mean, imagine going on a honeymoon and not having one picture of your feet on stars names, that would be sad....



Mike (Scott's Brother) is marrying the lovely Andrea this Friday, and
Scott takes the LSAT on Saturday. We are READY for this mad studying to be over.
Hurrah!

snowflake cookies

It was snowing outside and inside yesterday.
These were for my mom's Young Women New Beginnings night. Aren't they beautiful?
(I tried frosting a few and then was given the "special" job of silver ball putter-onner)

Scott's Birthday

Scott blew out 29 candles last week.


His Dad and Brother Craig cut the cake:


His Mom made the cake (and the delicious homemade chicken noodle soup over mashed potatoes dumplings - are you kidding me, yum!!!!!) His sister Emily gave him a beautiful picture of the San Diego temple



The nephews made him cupcakes and delivered them


Scott played with his Birthday i-phone courtesy our moms and dads.


And I pitched in and kissed him on the forehead


All in all, it was a great bday week for the great scottie b.

There is a dance move named after him....

Yes, there is. In the archival legends of EFY counselors everywhere, there is a certain dance move named "The Scottie B". I'm so proud.


Scott originally did it as a joke at EFY. I somehow talked him into doing this at one of Drew's break dance competitions (above), and don't you worry that the dance move even manifest itself at our wedding.



Love you, Scottie B.

Happy New Year!

We went to Tucanos for New Years Eve dinner. Too bad I wasn't on the ball enough to write the thoughtful "goodbye 2008, hello 2009" lists. I'm a little behind the game.

However, THANK YOU 2008. I like you. You gave me my husband, finally:
So I will always love you, 2008. And 2009, I'm so excited for all that you hold.

Happy Birthday, Mommy

It was this Girl's Birthday on Dec 30th.


I love celebrating my mom's birthday. It falls right between Christmas and New Years and is such a festive time of year. My mom is such a generous, compassionate, creative and funny person and I've been so lucky to have her as a mom. You feel so motivated and understood after talking to her. Perhaps that's why so many people feel comfortable talking to her and value her opinion. She's somehow able to make everyone feel important.

We planned on going to Zinn Bistro in Salt Lake for her Birthday. In fact, we drove to Zinn Bistro several times this Holiday season, and it has become a bit of a joke in our family, because we never actually eat there. It is a delicious family run restaurant in Salt Lake, and the food is YUMMY. The fact that they are still in business is a testament to how good the food is, because they are SO rude it is hilarious. The first time we drove up they told us they had run out of food (It was 1pm and we were there for lunch) They kept repeating the line "we cook fresh every day" which somehow was supposed to make us feel better about having taken time off to drive all the way up there. Don't most restaurants cook fresh everyday? A few days later we called ahead to make sure they were open (the answering service said they were), coordinated 8 schedules to get all of us up there, the sign on the door said they were OPEN, but mix those letters around abit and NOPE! , they weren't! I've actually only eaten there once and have tried 7 or 8 times. That one time I felt like they hated me for being there and actually daring to come to their restaurant and taste their food. The kicker is that a few days after this series of tries, we get a call from ZINN saying they had a reservation for us and why weren't we there? Then we were firmly scolded - "is there a REASON why you didn't call to cancel?" Sorry Zinn Bistro we've tried... a lot.

So here's us at another yummy restaurant at the mouth of little cottonwood canyon...we look happy enough for a bunch of foodies!

Dad Mom, me and my brother Ben.

We rented Cameron and Jake for a slumber party last Friday, and boy did we have fun.

We started with a roaring game of Simon Says



Jake didn't quite get the rules of red light/green light, he just ran as fast as he could

Then we played "tackle Scott"





Which resulted in being hauled to the kitchen

Jake waited patiently for his treat. "Tara, I NEED something!" What do you need Jakey? I NEED ICE-CREAM!"

So I gave it to them.

Their very handsome Uncle Scott put on a video

And they had treats and watched



Until they finally dozed off....with visions of the "spend-the night" fairy dancing in their ice cream filled heads.

They left their boots out for the spend the night fairy to fill.

Scott left early to study, and I awoke to two little boys calling "where are you guys" and wandering around the house holding boots full of candy. Being the responsible aunt that I am, I let them get in bed with me and eat all of their candy while they watched the rest of the video from the night before. Chocolate on the sheets but it was a great way to start the day:) Love you Cam and Jake!

Elder Mitchell Butler

Scott's youngest brother is going into the MTC on Wednesday. That makes 4 Butler boys who have gone on missions and it is a proud day, albeit bittersweet to have to say goodbye for 2 years. We took some Butler family pictures to mark the big event.
Here's Mitch

And Reed and Suzanne

Marry Christmas

Yes, It's January 9th. Yes, I took my Christmas Tree down yesterday. Yes, I start teaching again on Monday, and Yes, it's been over 4 months since I updated this blog.

During which time I got married.

So I decided it was maybe time to put this out.



And yes, I spelled Marry like that on purpose.
It was a lovely Christmas break and I'm sad to see it end.