Conference Rumors!

Every time conference comes around, I always hear from students and other teachers rumors being spread about conference. They are really easy to detect. They usually begin with a phrase like this: "My brother's neighboor's grand daughter is President Hinckley's neice and she said..." You know how it goes. Anyhow-- just so you know, this April's conference is supposed to be "Historic with a capital 'H'" and what President Hinckley will say will "change the church." And 15 minutes before conference starts I can tell you I already agree with such claims. Every time we gather for our semi annual meetings, it is Historic with a capital 'H'. The faithful Saints grow in number each year and this most certainly will be the largest gathering of faithful Saints since the Restoration in 1830 if not since the beginning of time. And when our beloved prophet speaks, it will quite literally change the church, one soul at a time. Certainly conference will prove to be a life changing experience for thousands if not millions as they heed the counsel given to them from these meetings. To quote from Elder Holland's stirring remarks in October conference:

"We are coming to the close of another marvelous general conference. We have been blessed to hear messages from our leaders, including and especially President Gordon B. Hinckley, the man we sustain as God's oracle on earth, our living prophet, seer, and revelator. As prophets have done in dispensations from Adam down to the present day, President Hinckley has figuratively gathered us in a kind of global equivalent of the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, has loved us and taught us and bestowed upon us his blessing.
"I think it is safe to say that the prayer all the brethren and sisters have had as they have spoken this weekend is that general conference will have been as uplifting, and if needful as life-changing for each of us....It is no trivial matter for this Church to declare to the world prophecy, seership, and revelation, but we do declare it. It is true light shining in a dark world, and it shines from these proceedings."

We are off to get our Ritz crackers and cheese, blankets and pillows (the hard, uncomfortable ones so we don't fall asleep), & pen and paper to enjoy yet another Historic and life changing conference with all of you. Ciao!

So we wanted to join the "one true media" party and
put together our own little slide show. This was inspired
by all the bed swaps that have taken place over the last few
weeks. Jenny and I got a new bed, that doesn't squeak (a
king size, since we always love sleeping on the king
at Mom and Dad's house). It is super comfy. One of those
memory foam ones. Fancy. (It's from Costco). We bought
Jack a bed from KSL. I fit it in our Saturn!! How about
that? He calls it his Lightning McQueen bed. He loves it! We
finally moved Christian out of our room and into Jack's old
crib. They sleep together now. They have done surprisingly
and amazingly well. We are kind of shocked. Last night was
our first struggle. Jackson woke up for some reason and came into our room. The squeaky door woke up Christian who started to cry and
rewoke up Jackson who had started to fall back asleep when
Christian woke up to cry. This went back and forth for who knows
how long because I barely remember what was going on. Anyways-- for the most part we sleep really well in our new beds. Oh, p.s. the best part about last night, if there was a best part-- Christian finally just came into bed with us. (well, I'm sure Jenny moved him in with us, not like he can really just come into our bed.) I loved it!! We are not making it a habit-- but I loved it!! He is so cute in his rhinosaurus jammies! Sweet dreams!

i love LOST

Ok-- Jenny and I just got finished watching another episode of LOST and I love it. It kind of consumes me. When I think of Wednesdays, all I can think about for my schedule that day is, "oh, today is LOST day." Ok, maybe I'm not that bad...ok maybe I am. Jenny and I were going to school in Hawaii when they filmed the pilot and had that huge plane crashed on the beach. We recognize different beaches and places when we watch it so it makes it doubly fun. Anyways--kind of random...oh well, are you surprised?

spring time, lollipops and...are you kiddin me?

Ok- if any of you know us very well, we are not fans of the snow...at all! This winter we even made winter goals to help us enjoy the winter. We didn't do any of them...so we still hate it. If I didn't have a testimony of the church I would question Brigham's famous statement upon entering the valley: "This is the right place." At times I find myself doubting. California seems pretty nice in the winter. And are we sure Texas wasn't the place? And what about the saints who came via Honolulu on the ship Brooklyn. (If you don't know me, let me interject here that I am just kidding-not about the winter, but about President Young).

A couple of weeks ago, we planted some flowers for the newly come spring time. I took a picture planning on writing a post about my excitement on spring. Well, these pictures will look good next to eachother. The irony is great, considering I took a picture of the first flower of spring only to have it covered in snow this morning. Another problem I faced this morning is that I made a vow to never scrape my car again on March 1st. So after some inner battles I decided in order to keep my job and my dignity I turned on the defroster and swept the snow off. So there! Oh well-- I hope spring comes back soon. I miss it already.

Splish Splash...

We have a little playgroup every other Tuesday with some of my good friends from college (and our kids of course). Last week we met at the Lehi Legacy center pool. That place is GREAT! Open all winter, the water is warm, and they have a fun little play section for the kids. Erin is always so on top of things and brought her camera...so here are some pictures of all the fun.

My Celebrity Look-alikes

My Celebrity Look-alikes

My Celebrity Look-alikes

My Celebrity Look-alikes

Lights, Action...And now camera!

Ok, so exciting news. maybe. We bought a camera. I had some birthday and christmas money and we were looking for a new camera, so we combined forces and got a pretty nice one. Our old one is pretty old (in camera years) and we had to bang on the side of it before we wanted to take a picture. (Unless we wanted just a black fuzzy mess) It was ok for us (I guess), but kind of awkward when you ask someone to take a picture for you.

Us: Hi, would you take our picture?

Them: Oh, I don't see a picture, it is fuzzy.

Us: Oh, just bang the side.

Them: (confused)

Us: No, really, just bang it.

Them: like this? (timidly tapping)

Us: No, give it a good wack! Really, it's ok!

We figured it out at DisneyLand (how to fix the fuzzy problem). We thought the camera had bit the dust, but on last day I banged it out of frustration, and WALLA! it worked. Long story short (too late), it no longer consistently works with the "single bang", "the double threat" or "the third times a charm" methods, so it is time.

Still, if you know us, this wouldn't be enough. Ghetto flies with us (well, me at least-david). One of the many advantages to seminary is if I want something, I can ask 150 students first what they know about it. Built in research. What do you know, someone in my 3rd period class is a photographer and she sent me to a Web site where it was more than half off Costco price--I know, shocking-- so no, we didn't buy it at Costco.

This could get long because the 'deciding to buy process' was much shorter than the 'purchasing process'--so after a couple late, late nights researching (i got that from my mom) and going back and forth (even though I am usually extremely decisive) and visiting camera stores and analyzing, and then analyzing more, and then weeks into it wondering if I should even get one in the first place and thinking we can still get along just fine with "old banger"...I accidentally hit the order button online (really) and it is on the way. By slow boat of course. So, I am not trying to be fancy, just wanted a new hobby (maybe my only hobby, but we'll get into that another time).

AND I must give credit where credit is due-- although I've always been a bit interested and I have some great models to practice on, I was given the bug by Shannon Petersen, my sister's husband's brother's wife, who is a real person (although the intro sounds like one of those Mormon myth stories) and has amazingly good camera skills. She is for hire by the way and she is GREAT! Her link is on this blog because we are kind of stalker like and look at her blog a lot and we are some of her models on the page:). I on the other hand am not for hire, just doing it for fun. Can't wait to get it and start trying it out. No worries-- there is a 100 percent satisfaction return policy just in case. Here is a picture of it--that's kind of funny if you think about it... (don't do it too long lindsey!)

Hawaii Rain

A couple of days ago we found a new blog of one of our friends here, Holly. She has a fabulous blog ya'll should check out. Anyways...one of her entries was about things she missed from Hawaii. Jenny and I sighed the whole time we read it. I am sure to anyone else it would seem pathetic to look upon, but Holly understands, and anyone else who have caught island fever. We went on a walk today in our neighborhood. Jenny was delivering invitations to a luncheon for the younger girls in the ward...part of her calling. It started to rain. Cold rain. I missed Hawaii rain. I miss it raining 5 times a day. I miss not running to get out of it. I miss that there is still a bright blue sky and sunshine while you are being refreshed or soaked, depending. I miss warm Hawaii rain. I told Jack and Christian about it. I hope he gets to experience it himself one day. Funny- that this was the first thing that inspired me to blog...

We're the Butlers

The Latest...
We finally have a family picture with all four of us (thanks to a little family shoot we had while the whole family was here for Jacquelyn and Josh's wedding). So this may be the first and last family photo we post - who knows, maybe we'll get the hang of this blogging thing and keep it up-to-date. We'll see....

Birth of a Blog

welcome to our blog. we are new to this, but think it will be fun.