Fun in cooler weather

In order of events, this is what we've been up to the past week.  

Playing outside enjoying Fall weather

 Going to the Blank Park Zoo

 I actually went across this bridge...and yeah, the kids made it look easy, I totally almost fell on my face.

 I think this is a new addition to the Zoo, you'd better believe Chloe was thrilled!  (for those that need a nudge of a reminder, it's a monarch caterpillar)

Did you know the word "Iowa" means: WINDY? Well it does...

(at least in my book)

When our little Maple Grove Branch was created months ago, our Branch President came up with the idea to plant an actual Maple (tree) Grove, in his yard.  Well, despite that he, our Branch President, was released a month ago, he still went through with his idea.  It was so much fun to be at the Pence's house again, enjoying their lovely and paradise of a home and yard.  Planting the trees was fun for everyone, especially because the hole's had already been dug :) (thanks President!). 
Now when we make our way through Iowa years down the road we can stop by the Pence home and visit the Maple Grove we helped plant.

 Such a wonderful yard!

 I love this picture of Ted and P-man

Cold, but happy family :)

Happy Halloween!

Our Saturday morning started out kid-happy proof with watching a Tinkerbell movie and opening their Halloween package from Grandma Nancy (always something to look forward too), filled with plenty of yummy goodness.

The "Bugger-fields" roamed again!  I'm all about recycling anyway right, why not keep using the same awesome costumes?  Saturday night we all dress up (mom = lady bug, dad = grasshopper, Chloe = butterfly and Porter = beetle). We had fun doing a (very) little trick-or-treating and then went to our friends house for food and fun. The cheesecake at the top was made by Ted, we took it with us to the house party, doesn't it look AWESOME!

Originally, Chloe was Enchanted Christmas Belle, but after wearing it  for a couple different occasions (parties, dance class and zoo), she was wanting something different.  This picture was taken at the Zoo where the Kids totally enjoyed going wild.  There was a huge line to go around the zoo/booths to trick-or-treat, but we decided to skip all that and just go to the "fun-zone".  Good-times

 

Dance Class

A few months ago, Chloe started asking me to be her "teacher" for her (pretend) dance class.  I played along, but started to think maybe she was ready for a real dance class.  Well, I looked into and found a couple things out, 1- can be pretty expensive, 2- every dance class for her age had already started for the year and 3- all the classes were full.  Luckily, I felt inspired to contact my friend who had her girls in dance before they moved from Iowa and through her found a great ballet class for Chloe to do.  To help with the expense of dance (and the size of her class) the teacher (Mrs. Cindy) asked if I wanted to help in Chloe's class!  I love to be there and luckily it's the most beginner class possible so no real experience in dancing is needed .... :D

Raising Butterflies 2010 ~Sept 1st through Oct 3rd 2010~

Here is our documentation of raising Monarch butterflies for this year.

I believe we raised a total of 14 butterflies.  September 1st, Ted, Chloe and Porter went to the West Des Moines Library and caught a handful of caterpillars and then we'd through the weeks we'd gradually find more caterpillars.  Our first butterfly hatched  September 19th and today during the break of Conference our last butterfly left for Mexico ... :)

We all love holding the sweet little fragile butterflies on our fingertips and feel the whole process is just a wonderful miracle.  As always, thanks Ted for enlightening us with the wonders of this world.

 For those interested in knowing.  These little black-yellow-while striped caterpillars are found on milkweed.  They eat TONS of the milkweed and when they're baby caterpillars they can triple in size in one day... you can almost see them growing.

 After the caterpillars have had their fill of food, they then proceed to make their chrysalis. The chrysalis stays this vibrant green until a day before they're going to hatch (about 10 days).  Then the chrysalis turns into what seems to be a black color, but really if you look closely you can see that it's just a squished up Monarch, ready to break out.

 

Ta-Duh!

 FYI -the above butterfly is a female Monarch

 It takes around 3-5 hours for the butterflies wings to dry so in the beginning holding them is not only fun, but very easy as long as your finger doesn't get tired of acting like a branch or steam.

 It true that Porter loves sticks more than the butterflies, but he still enjoys pointing and looking at them.

 Cutest chrysalis I've ever seen... :)

 This was our last one today... good-luck on your journey home!

At one point we had about 8 butterflies hatch around the same time, but because of rainy bad weather we had to keep them inside for a bit.  The video clip is of letting many of those butterflies go.

A quick trip to Raccoon River Park ~9/13/10~

We decided to get out of the house and go enjoy what seemed to be "pretty good" weather. We had such a wonderful time.  As most people know about us Butterfields, is that Ted keeps us up to date and informed on bugs and other stuff.  Chloe and Porter have come to LOVE bugs and other stuff from Ted's enthusiasm, although I have to brag and a bit thrilled that my "Howard Bug Hatred" has at least persuaded them both to enjoy "smooshing" the spiders that come into our house :) !!!  Anyway, onto the wonderful experience...  At the waters edge there were tons and tons of Monarch butterflies drinking water (at least I think that's what they were doing).  Chloe spent a ton of her time just running all around the place finding butterflies and making them fly.  At one point she had a least 8 butterflies flying around her head.  It was so precious.  As with every time I get to be close to butterflies I feel Heavenly Father is saying that he loves me, after all, I am Princess Butterfly :)

I'm usually the one with the camera and seem to always be left out of pics, but this time Ted was the photographer which was nice to be a part of the action.

It took a bit but Porter did finally wake up and enjoy the water, sand and sticks.

 He's such a boy... I love it!

 Porter was most thrilled about the airplanes that were flying over head, hence the point.

Yup, that's me in a picture...sweet...

The water fun had to end pretty quickly because of the large, dark clouds with rolling thunder approaching us, but all-in-all a priceless experience.

Another year under his belt...

9-11-10

Ted I love you SO much and there are many times I feel I don't deserve your goodness and patience.  I think about your first birthday I participated in and I can't help but laugh at how it really didn't go very well, but at least I remember it.  There were 25 balloons and attached to each string was a reason why I loved you.  All those reason I love you are still there, but now since being married to you for almost six years, I've found SO MUCH more to love about you.  To add to the other 25, here are 10 more:

1. Your ability to bring peace to a situation between me and Chloe...and our head-buttoning-ness...
2. The time you take to make sure I'm feeling okay when I've had a tough day.
3. There is nothing that makes the kids smile brighter than when you wrestle with them
4. The time you take to tuck the kids in at night and sing them "one" song.
5. How you genuinely care for my foot care :)
6. The positive comments you always tell me.
7. Your heartfelt desire to be a better parent everyday.
8. Your active goal of being a better husband.
9. The ability you have to fix anything...ANYTHING!
10. The way you make me laugh, especially at night :)

 Keylime Cheesecake was the surprise dessert,  Ted ~ Chloe ~ and myself enjoyed eating, however Porter mainly enjoyed messing it. 

 Chloe and Porter picked some nice gifts out for dad: Chloe choose some lizard that she "knew daddy would love" and Porter picked out a "nice" golf club for the wii-mote (spelling?).  Of course Ted gave the lizard to the kids and love playing with them.  Ted also got some golf clubs and he is enjoying learning the sport of golf. :)

We love you Ted and Daddy!  Happy Birthday

Growing

Hi, I've been a bit...out of it for a while...no reason, really...well, kind-of :)
We're happy to announce (officially) that our little family of 4 is due to grow in size by one in March 2011.  We're super excited, ESPECIALLY CHLOE, who blesses her "baby sister" every night.  We've explained that the baby might be a boy and she has affirmed that she'd love the baby as a boy too, but she just feels it's a baby sister.

This pregnancy has proved to be quite different than the first two.  I now have a better understanding of what quite a few women feel like for the first few months of pregnancy. (blah!)
I think I'm on the up-n-up now and Chloe and Porter and Ted are thrilled... poor kids and hubby, I've been neglecting them for sure.