Christmas Cards

I have been catching up on all my favorite blogs and everyone is blogging about Shutterfly. They are offering 50 free holiday cards. I have not ever used Shutterfly but I am excited to try them out for Christmas cards this year. I browsed their website and they have some great products. The calendars are a great gift idea for grandmothers. I will have to plan ahead next year and get photos of all the great grandkids to give to Mema. She would love getting to see pics of the babies all year round. They are buy one get one 50% off wall and desk calendars right now. I love a deal! The photo books are great for those of us who don't scrapbook. I could just plug all Zoey's photos from the year into a book. They even look nice to display in your home. The stationary is my favorite because I love pretty note cards. Check out this adorable thank you card. How cute would that be for thank you notes from Zoey! I will definitely be adding Shutterfly products to my Christmas list this year. Be sure to blog about Shutterfly too!

Our Ballerina

I took dance forever and it has always been my dream to have my own little ballerina. I got an email one day about a program that comes to daycares and teaches ballet during the school day. They even offer a recital with costumes at the end of the year. I immediately got all the info and started marketing it to our parents. We had lots of interest and last Wednesday my dream came true...my little ballerina had her first ballet class! We went to Target the night before and got all the necessities-leotard, tights, and hair pins for a bun. Zoey was so excited! Her teacher is Ms. Brooke and she is wonderful. My little ballerina is the youngest in the class so it was a long 45 minutes but we have been practicing our plies and first position so she will be ready this week to go the distance this week. It was adorable and the girls loved it. I can't wait to see them all at the recital!



How adorable is she in her tutu!

Zoey and Tessa

Zoey and Stephanie

Pretty ballerinas

Talking about ballet shoes

Ready to dance

Look what Daddy taught me!

Joe LOVES dipping cookies in milk. This summer we have had sweet treats every night and it's pretty much become a habit to have dessert after dinner. It sure is a good way to get Zoey to eat her dinner! Joe has passed along his love for dipping cookies in milk to our princess. Now when she is given a cookie she says "I need milk to dip". You can see the evidence below!

Butler Cousins Visit

Summer doesn't end any better than when big cousins come to visit! Aunt Christie, Evan, and Caelin made the 10 hr trip from Williamsburg to visit us for a week. Zoey enjoyed her big cousins so much. Caelin had all her bears and Evan was the perfect gentleman taking care of all the girls. I can't believe we don't see these guys more often because it is so much fun when we do.
We also got a new car while they were here. Aunt Christie is the queen of car shopping so she helped us scout out the good deals and she took care of 3 hungry kids while we looked at cars. I'm the proud owner of a Chevy Equinox. It's so nice to have something bigger and Zoey loves her new car that she can walk around in!

PCB 2010

We took our first family vacation with just the 3 of us this summer. We headed south to the beautiful Florida beach of Panama City. Our hotel, that we got a great deal on 3 days before we left, was fabulous. The weather was perfect. The best part was that Zoey LOVED the beach. She loved the sand and made "muffins" for us and she loved the ocean. We jumped over waves and picked up seashells. It was so fun and we are already looking forward to next year.

Where have we been?

I bet you thought I had given up on blogging altogether! Not so much! Our computer died in March and I kept thinking we would get a new one but obviously it took us 5 months to do it. Needless to say, there has been so much that has happened. I decided to do a brief summary of the last few months.
March:
Women's Conference-My fav conference our church does all year. So much work goes into it and it's always great girl time. This year, Aunt Manda, Aunt Christie, and Aunt Hannah came as well as Rebecca and Christina. Zoey joined in all the girl fun with us!

April:
Easter:
Zoey had a fun Easter. Gran and Grandaddy were here. She had her first performance on stage at church. She wore her green linen dress and pink flower headband. She was so adorable! She would not sing the songs although she knew every word. Instead she just stared at the audience until the little girl behind her pointed out where Daddy was. As soon as Zoey saw her Daddy she ran off the stage and into his arms! Even our pastor was laughing!

Spring Break:
We took a trip to VA Beach to visit the Fischers! Baby Laney had made her arrival 7 days earlier so we got to meet her. Zoey loved putting her babies in all of Laney's baby seats. Brenna and Caleb were so fun and the kids had a good time together. Brenna knows how to take care of the little ones!

Joe's Birthday:
His 30th Birthday that is! We had a blowout weekend for Joe's 30th. We celebrated by going to his favorite spot, Brickstore, with our closest friends. After that we headed to Chocolate Pink for some dessert. We brought it home and Jake and Hannah continued to celebration with us and some chocolate cake. Zoey had her turn celebrating with Daddy the next day with an ice cream cake. She even made him wear a party hat.

June:
Zoey had her first trip to the Aquarium. She did go when she was 3 weeks old but that doesn't count, right?! She had such a good time. She loved seeing all the fish. She had been watching Finding Nemo every day so she knew what a shark, whale, stingray, etc. were. I can't wait to take her back!

VBS:
Mavis invited Zoey to go to VBS with her at Sugarloaf. The girls were so cute! Zoey had the best time. In fact she told her teachers at school that if she could fly anywhere on a plane, she would fly to vacation bible school! They came home with some great crafts every day and I got to watch them go to the big worship time. We can't wait for next year!
Here she is one afternoon after VBS.

July:
Vacation:
I have said from the beginning of the year that I wanted to do a family vacation this summer with just the 3 of us. I wanted to start the tradition for our little family. After lots of looking we decided on PCB and I could not have been more pleased with our choice. Zoey loved the beach! She played in the sand and made muffins with it, she played in the waves and loved jumping over them, she played in the pool and went under water some. It was such a great week! I'll do a post dedicated to just vacation soon.

Family:
Last week Aunt Christie, Evan, and Caelin came to visit! We were all amazed at what a good time the cousins had together. They played really well and Caelin even helped Zoey learn about the potty! We went swimming, to Monkey Joe's, to Yogli Mogli, and to the fountain. We were all sad to see them leave but it was a great way to end the summer!

That pretty much sums up the last few months. I know I'll be posting more soon!

Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's all week this year. When we got home on Wednesday, Zoey had a Valentine package...Valentine pj's from Aunt Sandra. They were perfect for her school party because everyone was supposed to wear pj's! Friday was our fun snow day. Saturday morning I made my traditional Valentine breakfast of heart shaped pink pancakes but I added a snowflake too in honor of the snow. Sunday we made chocolate covered strawberries. Check out the purple princess skirt below. I told you she loves that thing lately!

Snow again!!

We had the most amazing snow storm on Friday! I put Zoey down for a nap and she woke up to an inch of snow. Joe got home around 4pm and we played in 2 inches of snow. It was big beautiful snowflakes. Around 5:30pm we had to go out one last time and the snow was 4 inches! Zoey just kept running and falling into it. She made snow angels and snowballs. It was gorgeous!

Life at 2 years

I have been waiting until we went to Zoey's 2 year old check up to post this. We went last Friday. We are quite a sight at the doctor's office. Zoey starts crying and clinging to me the minute they call her name. We always get this nice male nurse Steven and thank the Lord he is kind and patient. Zoey would not stand on the scales or sit on the baby ones, so I had to stand on the scales with her and then Steven held Zoey and I had to stand by myself. He then subtracted our weight together from my weight to get Zoey's weight. I sure hope they pay him well! She is a whopping 25lbs(21%), 34in tall(39%) and her head is 18 1/4in(17%). I have to get the doctor to assure me every time about how my child eats. She eats about 1 good meal a day but the rest is nibbles here and there so I try to make that something good. She still will not eat any veggies. The doctor did assure me she is fine and will grow out of it.
Here are some other fun facts about my precious girl:
-sleeps 12 hours a night in her big girl bed. She has only gotten out twice during nap time. Now she wakes up and just sits and plays in her bed!
-sleeps with 2 bunnies, Cookie Monster, sheep, puppy, Brobee, teddy bear, a baby doll, and 2 blankies!
-would wear her purple dress-up skirt and crocs with every outfit if I let her!
-loves to talk about shapes, letters, and numbers all the time lately. She can correctly identify a circle, triangle, square, diamond, and heart. She often says "I see number 8 or letter a" when we are in the car but it's not right. I love that she is trying though!
-loves to read her princess book every night. Zoey still loves to read books and will cuddle to read at any time.
-takes care of babies by strolling them, feeding them, and giving them kisses
-favorite phrases: "What's that?"-even though she knows what it is, it's her new tactic for attention!, "I love my friends.", "Where did my ____ go?", "I want to play in my playroom. Mommy turn on the light!" Zoey continues to be very verbal and can say pretty much anything and everything.
-has a good memory, It seriously amazes Joe and I sometimes. She remembers people when she meets them. She remembers things she is taught at school easily. She remembers things we tell her.
-gets tickled when we joke with her and sometimes makes jokes of her own. She calls Joe "Daddy waddy" and laughs when she does it. She will make up funny songs or words. It's really cute!
-I am not even attempting potty training until I know we will be completely successful. I know Zoey is mentally ready but still not quite physically ready. She is still wet in the mornings and sometimes at nap time. We'll see how the next few months go but I am aiming for summer when she is wearing lots of dresses. It seems like that will make it easier?!
-I wouldn't say we are having terrible two's but more typical two's. Zoey has days where she is really fussy and whiney and needs more discipline. She has started saying no to us in the last few days and saying "my hair" or "my cheeks" if she doesn't want you to touch her or kiss her.
-For the part she is sweet, very loving, silly, girly, and still my adorable little buggie boo!




I've got my 'puter!

Working like Mommy and Daddy

My favorite thing:taking care of all my babies

Here I come!

I've got the diaper bag and all!