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.

Visit my Photography Blog!

This is where I post my latest shoots....

tarabutlerphotography.blogspot.com

Tyler's Blessing

This little booger was blessed on Sunday,

He's all smiles and adorable-ness and it was hard to take these pictures because all I wanted to do was throw the camera down and pick him up and cuddle him and kiss those chubby cheeks.

My brother Andrew, and then Cameron and Jake were also blessed in this little outfit. All the girls on my mom's side of the family were blessed in the same dress my Grandma was blessed in...which leads me Olive, Sadie's unborn girl chil', who will wear the dress next. I decided that we needed to document Olive-in-the-Womb and Sadie and Dan's 1st anniversary so I took some pictures that look like engagement pictures...only slightly scandalous engagement pictures since, yes, Sadie is pregnant. And, I have to add here that I spent a few days with Sadie in a swimsuit on the Beach and she gets the "i still look better than most people ever will in a swimsuit even though I am seven months pregnant" award.
Then Cameron saw that I was snapping his picture and all on his own scooted over and put his arms around Jakey like he had seen Sadie and Dan do.
Dan was whining about getting his picture taken, and Scott felt to mention that I had brought my camera on our first date - (we were hiking, okay? What was I supposed to do, leave it at home????!!!) Dan's response was "I'm surprised there was a second date" My comeback was:
So there, Dan.


And besides, Scott's gotten pretty good at posing for my pictures.

We love you, Tyler.

Independence Day

Yes, I am just now posting about the 4th of July. But you won't be sorry because that means you get to see that Ben's neighborhood had an Independence Day Parade and those peeps go all out for the Yoo Ess of Aaay:






Here's the Bloomfield contribution:



Good thing my mom had that red shirt on. Because otherwise you might have thought she forgot her USA cape. Or her flag balloon helmet.

Scott and Sheri's family was in town and they came for the big parade, too: Here's Preston being all hardcore with his beard and Tyler
Smiley Mark pushing Jakey

Pretty Paige with Ty
My pretty Aunt Sheri - I snapped a pic with her next to Ben...
and Uncle Scott decided he needed one too....haha.

Happy Fourth of July! (A month ago)