Hurricane Harvey

With the threat of Hurricane Harvey approaching, any weekend plans we had were scratched. Blake stocked up on some bottled water and canned goods on his way home from a work trip in Denton since the people in New Braunfels were preparing for the Apocalypse and stores were quickly running out of all the necessities. Since we knew we would be stuck inside all weekend, we headed outside Friday evening to play. Greyson was not a fan of the the darkening clouds and winds picking up. Fortunately, we were very blessed in not having any damage as the hurricane made it's way up through Texas. We had about 10 inches of strong, constant rain and high winds. We anticipated losing power, and although we had quite a few strings of flickers, it never did go out. There were so many people affected by the storm and abundant rain along the coast in Houston, it's hard to believe our family in the Dallas area and west of San Antonio were enjoying bright, sunny days. We are grateful we made it through without any damage and continue to pray for those that have lost so much.

Also, Blake broke into our "emergency supplies" (aka Cheezits) long before we knew we were out of the woods. Remind me to do the emergency food shopping next time. ;)

Rain, rain, go away...

Our adventurous Addison fell off a chair and ended up with this shiner and soon to be first black eye.

Cabin fever = crafting time!

8/26/17 - 8/27/17

Snapshots

This edition of Snapshots is called You Can't Make This Stuff Up...

Addison digging lasagna out of her belly button.

The playroom on a typical Saturday afternoon....

Lutzs and Lambs

While my brother, Bryan, and his family were down visiting my dad in D'Hanis for a few days, we took a quick day trip out to Dad's and the ranch. We stopped by Grandpa's for a while but he just had his second procedure done to remove more fluid that has built up around his lungs, so we didn't want to overwhelm him with so many visitors at once. After visiting with Grandpa and checking out his cowboy hat and the baby sheep at his house, we went to the ranch to visit the rest of Lutz family. The Moores brought the baby sheep they have been bottle feeding and they were the hit of the party! After one of the sheep licked Greyson and tried to jump up on him, he was hesitant to be so close to it, but Uncle Wayne held the sheep still while Greyson fed it. Wayne even showed Greyson how the sheep was wagging his tail because he was so happy to have a full tummy. :)

Enjoying fresh baked cookies with Nannie!

Just a more weeks to go for Aunt Amy until we meet Baby Jake!

Aunt Jenn was trying so hard to get a smile out of Addie, but she wouldn't crack a smile! She was in a good mood, but she didn't move a muscle. :P

8/12/2017

Snapshots

Going...

Going...

Gone! Lunchtime is tough!

8/12/2017

My Baby's Not a Baby Anymore...

I know Addison is getting big, but it's official now. She isn't a baby anymore. She was promoted from the last class of the "Baby" building to the "Big Kid" building at daycare on Monday. She gets to eat breakfast with Greyson after I drop them off and she had a great first week in her new classroom. Greyson also just moved up to the 4 year-old-class and starts PreK in a few weeks. He told me the day after he turned 4 that he needed to be in PreK because he's a big 4 year-old now. He's ready and excited to start, but its all too much at once for this momma to handle!

Day 1 - Playing with shaving cream with her new classmates.

I think she likes the Big Kid activities!

8/8/2017

Greyson's 4-Year-Old Check-up

Greyson had his 4-year-old check-up on August 3. Since Addison's last appointment in June, he has wanted to go to the doctor. I guess he thought Addison and I were sneaking off to do something really fun after we dropped him off at daycare because he has been saying he doesn't feel good and needs to go to the doctor for over a month. Luckily, he was feeling much better after the bug/heat exhaustion (??) from earlier in the week. Unfortunately, after all his talk of wanting to go to the doctor, he changed his mind once we were there. Even with the promise of a donut for good behanior, he wouldn't cooperate to get his height and weight measurements or even let the nurse put the blood pressure finger clamp monitor on his finger. He finally came around after Dr. Ernest started talking to him and checked him out. He got one shot in his thigh. Judging by his current mood, I was expecting a blood-curling wail, but he laughed a slightly wicked laugh and was OK after that. After the reminder of donuts, he decided he wanted to go back and let the nurse measure and weigh him after all. Oh, this kid!

Height - 3 ft 5 1/2 in (74th percentile)

Weight - 34 lbs (30th percentile)

Hardheadedness - 100th percentile
Cuteness - 100th percentile

8/3/2017

AC Out

Everyone has a dreaded story about their AC going out. Here's ours...  :/

While we were having a great time on our lake trip, we had a looming problem at home. Our air conditioner went out the evening before we were planning to be out of town for four days. It had been making all sorts of strange noises and limping along for a few days, but we were hoping to deal with it when we returned. It conked out and completely shut off about 8:30pm while we were in the middle of packing and bedtimes. Luckily, the house was cool enough and we managed to get some sleep that night. However, throughout the weekend, I received multiple weather notifications on my phone indicating that "Record Challenging Heat on the Way" and "It's getting hotter" and my favorite, "2nd day of Record-Breaking Heat: 105° in San Antonio Shatters 1960 Record." We returned home Sunday afternoon to a 91° house. We opened up all the windows, turned all the fans on and blasted Blake's new shop fan (that we purchased on the way home) on high. We took the kids outside to swim and had a sandwich picnic for supper in the backyard shade. Then we moved Greyson's mattress into the living room and planned to camp out there for the night. We tried to tough it out, but when Greyson got sick around 11pm and the house was still 91°, Blake took Greyson to the truck to sit in the AC while I got Addison and packed a bag. We checked into a hotel a few miles down the road and stayed there till the very last minute before check-out the next morning. I took Addie to daycare so she didn't have to stay in the heat all day. The old AC was temporarily fixed so we didn't have to stay in a hotel while the new AC was being installed. Greyson still wasn't feeling good and was running a fever on and off, so we kept him at home. We think maybe he had a bug and the heat made it miserable for him. Since we needed a whole new system, we decided to move it from the hallway closet (where it was so loud) to the attic. It was a rough few days, but we finally have a working COLD AC and Greyson is back to 100%.

Cedar Creek Lake

We traveled to Cedar Creek Lake (southeast of Dallas) for this year's Butler Family Vacation. We rented a large house right on the lake with a private boat dock and Blake's brother-in-law, Brad, brought his sister's boat for the weekend. Everyone had fun riding the boat and tube, swimming and fishing. Greyson got to try out his new fishing pole that he received for his birthday and loved getting to fish with Daddy. After being "sea sick" for several days after our lake trip last year, I was reluctant to get on the boat again but I really hated that Addison was missing out on riding the boat. I wanted her to be able to join in on the fun too, so Addison and I joined Daddy and Greyson on the boat on the last full day there and hoped for the best. Addison fell asleep within 10 minutes and I was sick not long after that. Well, at least we tried. Addie loved swimming in the water (even if it was just for a few minutes) and Greyson had a blast doing cannonballs and can-openers with his cousins. Blake and Papa went out fishing each night in Papa's boat, but unfortunately didn't get catch anything. It was a great weekend with family, lots of food and fun. 'Til next year, Butlers!

Greyson caught more fish than Daddy and Papa!

Cousins!

Nana and Papa fishing

We enjoyed beautiful sunsets the whole time we were there!

Braylon, Greyson and Gage

Safety first!

Annual Nana, Papa and Kiddos pictures by Bonnie

The cheering section trying to get the kids to smile

My attempt at a siblings picture, but they were fresh out of smiles.

Popsicles for all the kids after the pictures!

The Butler kids... and one tired 4-year old.

7/27/2017 - 7/30/2017