A Whirlwind of an Update: October

To the 3 of you who actually read this blog I will share a quick update on baby #2 and then proceed with October's post.

*****This is old news (obviously) but I wrote it and intended to post this before the baby came...less than a week later,,, "I went into my 38 week appointment yesterday (what!?! I wasn't supposed to make it this long!). We unfortunately found out that in the past week the baby has flipped and is now breech! What a naughty boy! The doctor scheduled me an ultrasound for Tuesday to check on the baby to make sure all is ok and that the cord isn't around or near his neck (I'm in tears by this point). He then said unless I go into labor naturally, we will talk at my 39 week appointment and possibly schedule a c-section. That had never crossed my mind and I am beside myself. I just want the baby here healthy and soon and so I'll ask anyone reading this to keep us in your prayers. I would love nothing more for the baby to flip back into position and to go into labor naturally but whatever we need to do to get him here safely, we will do. Thanks everyone." 11/15/14

On to an October update:
October consisted of more hanging with Hudson, playing with toys, reading books and attending Toddler Time at the library.

As I mentioned before, Bennett has had a lot of accidents as of late. This time we were at the duck pond at BYU. Bennett slipped and hit his head into the wooden beams, making his mouth bleed quite a bit. Another fat lip for Bennett and worries for mom.

We attended Aaron's mission reunion in Salt Lake with President Smith and his wife. It was fun for Aaron to see some old mission buddies, even though he has been home for 4 years! Crazy! Bennett loved it because there was Root Beer, pizza, donuts and cookies...

That was Conference weekend and Ethan, who just turned 16, got to come up to Utah to hang with us for a couple of days. We all stayed in Bountiful at Gma Wrays house and listened to conference. Carlie, Ethan and I were lucky to attend the Saturday afternoon session of Conference together. We then met up with the boys for a quick bite to eat and then Ethan, Aaron and Aaron all attended the Priesthood session. 

We all hung out that night and next day eating food and chatting. We attended the afternoon session at the Storys home and had a delicious dinner with them. Ethan stayed at our house that night and we played Pay Day. The next morning Ethan helped me with Hudson and Bennett and we went on a walk around campus and then I took him to the airport. It was fun having all of us siblings together.

Cousins that hold hands in the car together, stay together.

Bennett always comes in while I am going to the bathroom. I always ask him to shut the door and he does...but shuts himself in or he will look away and still talk to me until I am done. Haha.

The second week of October we got to head down to AZ to participate in Ethan's Eagle Court of Honor and being ordained to a Priest. We were excited to be with family and in warm weather.

Bennett somehow got his own seat on the flight which we were stoked about! We brought his carseat on the plane and strapped him in between us and he did fantastic!

And...he fell asleep right as the plane landed, of course!

From the airport we headed to Gpa and Gma Butler's house where Bennett loved playing with the toys and on the swing set.

But he was tired from missing his nap and it being late and so he plopped down on the rug in the kitchen and relaxed until we were ready to go home.

That next day we hung out at my house, the boys went shooting and us girls shopped for groceries, set up Halloween and talked. That night we had a spooky halloween dinner. Where we all wore crazy hats and ate delicious food.

The next day we had an "un-birthday" party for all of the birthdays in our family in October and September. We had a delicious breakfast and people opened up gifts. 

Bennett's favorite part of the trip was our dog Toby. He loved chasing him and we would find him hanging with him in his bed.

What a good Uncle Ethan is.

Here we are at Ethan's Eagle Court of Honor that night. He did so well and it was neat to be able to celebrate this big accomplishment with him!

We headed back to Utah early Monday morning. Aaron, Aaron and Carlie quickly headed to school and I took Hudson and Bennett home with me for the day. We don't have a double stroller so I just let Bennett walk and lead the way as Hudson and I followed.

The Provo Early Intervention program that Bennett is apart of had a Halloween Party in the park. I really wanted to take Bennett but had Hudson that day so I decided to be brave and take my 7 month pregnant self, a 5 month old and an 21 month old and brave it at the party.

Bennett didn't have much interest in the party but loved the park and running around with the other kids there.

Bennett loves swinging and so I was able to get Hudson to sleep in the stroller and then parked him while I pushed Bennett for a long time.

And then I would push Bennett, run back to feed Hudson and then run back to push Bennett. It was definitely a juggling act. 

Bennett came home with a pumpkin from the party and he was thrilled.

Modeling the shades...

I accidentally left the house to get in the car and locked the keys in the trunk of the car with the house key on it. We had a spare to get into the car but our trunk is broken and can only open with the button on the electric remote thing (I'm so technical and great at explaining things). Bennett and I luckily had the stroller and so we walked to meet Aaron at BYU (because he had the spare key and I couldn't get in the house). We then attempted to get the key out of the trunk for a while and then we found a way to "break" into our house through the front window. Once inside we got the other electric remote key and got our house key...not sure if that makes sense but I'm too tired to reread and fix it.

Bennett loved having the window open and screen gone. 

Mom and Dad Butler came into town and attended Homecoming Spectacular. We had tickets as well and it's crazy, out of the whole Marriott Center, our seats ended up being right behind each other. Afterwards we went to the creamery. The line was long and so we ended up just buying a carton, some spoons and bowls and sat down in booth and ate it that way. It was good to be with them and catch up. The next day we met them at Brick Oven for dinner and Bennett was not sad about that because it meant ROOT BEER which Bennett loves and could drink a whole lot of...Dad Butler even tried ordering Bennett his own refillable drink. After that we walked around BYU and saw where Aaron worked and hung out in the Wilk. We then came back to our apartment, talked and Dad Butler gave Aaron a nice blessing. 

The next day was the BYU homecoming parade. Aaron was participating in it with the BYU Alumni so Bennett and I decided to join too. We hung out at the Bush's apartment until we saw Aaron's float and then we jumped in with the Student Alumni, wearing our matching shirts, and helped to throw out candy and wave at people. It was so much fun!

Not sure what Bennett ate but it sure left a great mustache!

Carlie had a couple days of Fall Break and so we got together one day and went to Target with our boys. It was so much fun and trips are even better when you get a Slurpee.

We tried on hats. costumes and clothes as we browsed each isle.

We also went together to the Springville Pumpkin Patch with our boys. Bennett loved the animals, the corn kernel pit and just running around. Bennett enjoyed it so much that I took him back the next week to play some more. 

"I'm so glad when daddy comes home"...but seriously. With Aaron working on campus (his internship), being on the Student Alumni Board and taking a full load of classes, we rarely see him and so when he is home we both are very grateful.

Aaron went out of town for the weekend to participate in a triathlon (see below) and so Bennett and I tried some new things...like trying to go see a move at the Dollar Theater. We lasted about 20 minutes. Thankfully it was a dollar. We than ran a bunch of errands to get our Halloween costumes ready to go. I can't sleep while Aaron is gone and so  I decided to stay up and make our Halloween costumes. Cheap shirts and duck tape and there you have it, our Halloween costumes for 2014. 

Aaron signed up to do a relay triathlon with  Aaron doing the swimming portion, my Uncle Jer doing the running portion and my dad doing the biking portion. With a busy semester Aaron didn't have much time to train but he got a fancy swimming wet suit and headed down to Nevada to participate. Here it how it went in his words:

"Five months ago, I signed up to swim a mile in a lake. Now, I’m aware that some of you may do that sort of thing in your sleep, but for others of us, signing up for a one-mile  swim is about the same as signing up for a hundred-mile swim—both are like unfathomable distances.  Up to that point, the longest swim I’d performed was whatever’s required for the swimming merit badge—three laps in  the pool. And I thought that was pretty far!   Then I realized a one-mile swim is about seventeen and a half football fields. And there’s no bottom of the pool for my toes to touch. I trained for a couple months and realized just how much of a beginner I really was. I knew I wouldn’t win this race, but I promised myself one thing: No matter what, I’m finishing. Before I knew it, it was race day and I found myself standing on the shore of Lake Mead in Nevada at sunrise, in the cheapest wetsuit I could find on Amazon. I waded into the lake waste deep and got into what I imagined would be a good starting position. As the race official slowly raised the starting pistol towards the sky, I looked around at the hundreds of other swimmers with me in the lake and experienced that moment, like in the movies, where all I could hear was my own pounding heart. Then, the pistol fired. We leapt into the water and I started to wildly stroke through the water. Then a few things happened: First, I couldn’t see. I put my face into the water and realized all I could see was green murkiness. Gone was the clear water and the familiar black line of my training pool.  And when I looked up, all I could see was splashing arms and feet. Either way, couldn’t see. Second, I couldn’t breathe. I turned to take my first breath and realized how constricting my new wetsuit was. I couldn’t  breathe and I started gasping for air. So, I put my head down and held my breath as long as I could. And third, I couldn’t swim. Any good swim form I had developed was gone, like my training never even happened. Then,  after holding my breath and staring into the murkiness, I looked up to see that I had veered off course at least 40 degrees and the other simmers were way ahead of me—like I was swimming a different course. The race was quickly turning into a disaster. And I was starting to experience actual panic. I grabbed hold of the nearest safety boat to take a rest and to reevaluate what was going on.

Thinking I had already conquered a good chunk of the race, I looked back and realized that I had only just begun. In terms of those seventeen football fields, I was one the 20 yard line of the first field. Maybe. Another girl swam up alongside me, gasping just like me. And I watched her battle with herself for a moment, and then turn around, heading back to the nearby shore.  Knowing I still had some more “umph” in me, I detached from the boat and continued along the course. But only after a minute more, I turned to my back, floating in the water, limbs dangling, my chest rising and falling with  each heavy gasp. I stared up into the sky and realized that everything was quiet. Both the spectators and the other competitors were out of earshot. I had reached the conclusion that it was literally impossible for me to finish this race and I had no hope of keeping that 

promise to myself. Then I started my own personal battle. “But, Aaron,” I thought to myself, “You’ve gotta do this! You made a promise to finish this thing.” But no was going to think any less of me if I turned back to the shore—plenty of swimmers were doing it. And, besides, I  couldn’t really see finishing as an option.  So, there I floated, out in the middle of the lake, battling with myself, when up paddled another safety kayak. “Hey! You can do this,” she shouted. I couldn’t help but think how wrong she was.  But she persisted, “You just focus on getting to the next buoy. Don’t worry about the rest.” And she was right. I kept my eyes on the next buoy and then nothing else. Then the next and the next. And 51 minutes later I was heading for finish line, the last person in the lake, with a whole fleet of safety boats behind me cheering me on. Did I win the race? Not even close. Was it a little embarrassing? Yeah, a little.  Was in over my head? Way over my head. But did I do what I said I would do? Absolutely.

I talked to Aaron afterwards and he explained it was the hardest thing he had ever done but it was awesome to complete something so hard! I was so proud of him and grateful he didn't drowned ;)

Aaron's flight was delayed coming home and so Bennett and I went with the Bush's and went to the Riverwoods Halloween Party. Bennett loved trick-or-treating at the different shops.

When Aaron got home we made caramel apples that were delicious and a Fall tradition.

Bennett and Huds.

Who doesn't love a goof trip to Hobby Lobby?

Love this sweet boy of mine.

On the 29th we attended a BYU Halloween Party for kids of students and staff. We all dressed up and Bennett absolutely loved all of the games. He was actually quite good at them and won lots of prizes and treats. 

In this particular game it was "mini golf" where you roll a ball down a hill, through a hole where there is a moving windmill and then it goes down a chute where you try to make it in the hole. Bennett randomly pushed it down, on his first try, got it past the windmill and made a whole in one! Boom baby!

Cosmo was there but Bennett wasn't too sure about him and kind of gave him a high five.

We had to keep returning to this game since Bennett loved it and did so well.

Love my Charlie Brown and Linus.

Bennett was sick Halloween weekend had the cold that had been going around and the poor kid was miserable with a bad cough and constant runny nose but he was such a trooper. 

We attened our ward halloween party on the 30th where we dressed up again and Bennett got to go trick-or-treating to different classrooms. He loved it and was cute to say "Thank you, bye" whenever someone gave him something.

We also participated in the other Halloween activities they had, including a doughnut eating race.

The Peanuts Gang: Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Linus.

Halloween Day, Bennett, Hudson and I headed to BYU and Aaron's office to go trick-or-treating on his office floor. Bennett loved going to each office and getting some candy. It was fun to meet some of the people Aaron works with as well.

We over-extended our Halloween party participation this year and we also went to the Provo Rec Center to go trick-or-treating and participate in the fun activities they had going on.

That night we headed to a Halloween Clue Murder Mystery party that the Bush's put on at Mom and Dad Bush's house. Aaron was Lord Gray and I was Mrs. Meadowbrook (characters from Clue FX). We had a fun time dressing up, eating a nice dinner, playing a live version of Clue as we questioned people about people. places and weapons and tried to find out who did it first. 

And lastly, some nice pics of us in our homemade Halloween costumes :)