Christmas Fun 2007!

This year we spent Christmas in Indiana with the Anderson's (Mark, Susan, Elizabeth, Ben, Josh & Lauren) and Jordan & Rebecca & Darin as well as Grandma and Grandpa Butler and Allison and her boys Jackson & Mason. We all enjoyed Susan & Mark's hopitality at their home in Bloomington. We had 10 days of fun! We ate lots of yummy food and enjoyed opening our gifts on Christmas together. We seldom saw Gabi or Katie though because they were off playing with cousins the whole time. We knew they were still arond however because we would stumble upon their messes throughout the house. They really enjoyed making various paper crafts (as they always do). In the picture above and to the left sits Uncle Jordan with his special cup hat that Gabi made for him...it doubles as a candy-holder, just in case one is in need of something like that. Notice Gabi's proud look at that piece of apparrel she personally designed and created. We also played quite a bit of "Guitar Hero" which Josh got for Christmas. I (Danielle) even played it and admit reluctantly that I actually went through withdrawals from it after we left (it was that fun!). I'm sad we didn't appear to get any pictures of Becca, Grandma & Grandpa as well as Ally and her boys on our camera. Sorry guys! I do think we got them on the video camera though. We also sang a few rounds of Karoke which was fun with the family. My personal favoite was Rebecca's rendition of "All by myself" by Celine Dion. It was very touching and poignant, sniff, sniff. It got a lot of laughs. McKay enjoiyed playing with all the fun stuff around the house that was new to him. He really seemed to get into feeding Lucky the dog from his highchair...it was amazing to watch it disappear! He continues to throw food off of his tray at home, but it just makes a mess on our floor:-) McKay also loved to disappear into the cavernous basement many times a day and loved to play out at the jungle gym in the backyard. Gabi & Katie got to go sledding one day when it finally snowed slightly but it quickly melted. Degan went and watched "I am Legend" with the boys one night and the girls went out for a lunch date to an oriental restaurant. We also enjoyed a nice chocolate fondue fountain on New Year's Eve and got to ring in the new year with the Anderson's and Jordan and his secret friend Emily. On the last few days of our trip we were all glued to the TV for many consequetive hours introducing Jordan to the world of "LOST." Good stuff. We had a great Christmas break and can't wait until we get to visit with everyone again:-)

Valentines day

Dad: Hopefully I did something right this year. It was our 10th anniversary. It was hard to plan a good one because I was very busy this week, as I am working two jobs and I'm in school and I have no money, and I have especially have no time. I got Danielle roses and green M&Ms and a card (Gabi: with a button on it) and a book Rough Stone rolling and um um we went out to eat at a La Vigne, the French restaurant that is nearby.
Gabi: Can I sing my song? It's about Valentines day. Valentines day, Valentines' day basket of roses, people all day, everyone cheering and going out, people are happy without a doubt. Everyone will be happy when they find presents hidden within.
Katie: [singing] I love you little, I love you lots. Sixteen cans. Fifteen buckets. Wait! Fifteen buckets yeah. 16 can comes after fifteen buckets. I didn't want you to say..... Hey that is not my song. That is very not good. I love you little, I love you lots hmm hmm hmmm, sixteen buckets sixteen cans, that's the end.
Dad: Oh, I got little boxes of candy hearts for the girls too.
Gabi: My singing part at the beginning it was a song.
Katie: I wish we could have more candy hearts. I gave McKay the last big one. I want to eat some more candies and cookies.
Dad: Let's go make some cookies.
Gabi: no no no I want to say more. On Valentine's day I got lots and lots of candies and I made like a hide and seek game that we didn't get to play yet but I'm going to play now. It is where you have to find the hearts and the love bug and the candies, there's seven of them.
Katie: Yeah Gabi, and you go potty every day.
Gabi: Hey Katie, you said that in the last thing we just did. Man.
Dad: Let's go.

Bicycles and Boo boos

Dad: A couple weeks ago Gabi finally learned how to ride a bike.
Gabi: Well, a big bike. A bike with training wheels. I mean without training wheels.
Katie: Out is a bad word.
Gabi: No it is not
Katie: Uh heh heh heh.
Gabi: The reason why Katie has that boo boo on her face is because she was running with her shoes on at church.
Katie: Um, Gabi she has played with me. She is nice. My boo boo hurted. I was running at church and had church shoes and I had circle on the bottom of my shoes. And I was running and my shoes tipped over. When it tipped over, it hurt.
Dad: I am very proude of Gabi learning to ride a bike. I had to take the training wheels off of Katie's so that Gabi could learn on it. Gabi has a bigger bike but hasn't learned to ride that one yet.
Gabi: It is way too hard that one. Katie got hurt because she was running with church shoes on, never run with church shoes on.
Dad: Katie got hurt when she was running like a maniac. She makes a habit of running and talking and yelling like a maniac without exercising self control.
Katie: I'm going to do a poem, you can write it on the computer. Humpty dumpty sat on a wall. All the kings and horses couldn't put humpty dumpty back together again.
Gabi: Katie, you missed a few sentences. It goes: Humpty dumpty sat on a wall, humpty dumpty had a great fall, all the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn't put humpty togther again, that's how it goes. And riding a bike, it starts out hard, but it starts to get easy once you do it for 3 days or something.
Katie: Well, Gabi she says I'm going to go potty on me and she is lying.
Gabi: HEEEEYYYYYY! Take that off! Take that off. I did not say that (crying). Take it off.
Dad: I know you didn't say that. Katie did. That is why I wrote it. I'm writing what people say, not if it is true.
Gabi:That's not very nice what Katie said.
Katie: [giggling] Gabi writes on the computer but she doesn't eat rats.
Gabi:[Growl]
Katie: One time Gabi she rode her bike the first time and she liked it, but she was not going to fall off. There was a phony obstacle on the ice, it flied up in the sky.
Dad: Katie talks like this all the time, she makes no sense.
Katie: Gabi is my friend.
Gabi: This is my turn. Why do you talk like potty talk all the time if you are my friend?
Katie: Potty talking is not good, because if you sit on the rat, that would be yuck. Don't put rats on your peanuts. If you put rats on your peanuts why should you get in trouble from your mom? Why do you have to put dirty rats on everything?
Gabi: Rats aren't dirty if you put them in a cup and clean them.
Katie: I'm going to say something that is not true. Well, one time I sat on a rat, it hurted so much it bited me. heh heh heh. On the next day, everyone had fun and at lunch. It was fun, munch munch munch. Why do you have to be a manic every day Gabi?
Gabi: Hey! I am not a maniac every day, you are ,really.
Katie: Gabi, don't fart on a rat, that is yucky. Is she going to toot on everything today?
Gabi: Hey, you are being mean Katie, a potty talk on the computer too.
Katie: Gabi don't write like a maniac.
Gabi: Hey, my writing is good. It is mean when you talk to me like this. If you are my friend, why do you talk to me like this? You are really being mean now.
Katie: Don't add fart music to my music. Chicken chicken fart fart. Chicken chicken fart fart. Chicken chicken fart fart. heh heh Chicken chicken fart fart.
Gabi: Crazy head.
Katie: Gabi, you're moo-haka.
Gabi: Grrrrr
Katie: Maybe Gabi can eat batterines.
Gabi: I would not eat a bat, and I would not eat green beans, no.
Katie: Gabi eats cockroaches.
Gabi: I do not. Hey we are talking about bicycles, not chickens and stuff.
Katie: I'm going to say something about bikes and it is not going to be true. I'm going to fart on my bike. Heh heh heh.
Gabi: You are a defininte potty talker girl.
Katie: heh heh heh. Gabi Gabi ping pong. Gabi Gabi ping pong.Gabi Gabi ping pong.Gabi Gabi ping pong.Gabi Gabi ping pong.Gabi Gabi ping pong.
Dad: Enough of this.

Katie's 6th birthday

Katie: This is my cake. Emily got the McDonald's pants (a friend of Katie). She is in my class. She came to my birthday party. She had fun with playing with Penny. Penny is fun. You get to do whatever you want with Penny.

A bunch of people had a bunch of fun at my birthday party. Rachel played with Penny too. Rachel had fun at the birthday party. I like Rachel being at the birthday party. Rachel had fun. I like you Rachel, I hope you had a good time at my birthday party. I hope you can go to my birthday party again Rachel. Rachel I hope you had a lot of fun.

I was sad because Teresa didn't come. She's my best friend and she was sick.

Gabi: She had the chicken pox.

Katie: I loved her. I hope everyone had fun at the birthday party. Jalen is very mean. I didn't want him to come and he didn't. Everyone was happy that he didn't come. When everyone was talking, they ate the cake. Everyone had fun. I turned 6 years old. I liked it!

I liked the presents. I got Barbie balerina dolls. I um got a cake set. I made some jewelry. I got pajamas from Sebastian. Sebastian came in our car. I got a ball from McDonalds for my birthday.

Gabi: Gabi found 2 rings. Well 4.

Katie: McDonalds, they bringed ice cream too.