Merry Christmas!

We had a good Christmas this year, but I'm excited to put things away and get ready for 2011. Before I finish off Christmas for this year, I'll post a few pictures from our festivities. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve: The traditional reading of the Night Before Christmas in our new pjs!

Do these kids look ready for bed? Yeah right! Hurry or Santa will be here before you are asleep!

Cameron is excited...

And so is Jared (if you can find him hiding in all the wrapping!)

And just 4 days late, snow! Almost a White Christmas! Here Ryan is teaching Megan how to make a snow angel.

Duvall ended up with about 4 inches of snow. Perfect for playing in.

This weekend we are packing up and heading to Spokane for Drew's uncle's funeral. Drew's dad, Denny, is serving a mission in Romania for our church, and he is flying home for the funeral. So we are excited to see him this weekend. We all wish Grandma could come too, but we know we'll see her soon! (73 days, she said this morning!) Have a safe and Happy New Year!

SNOW!

After no snow last winter, we were all excited when the weather forecast predicted snow the week before Thanksgiving. And we were even more excited when it actually snowed! A whole 3 inches or so, but it was very cold and icy, so no school for 2 days right before Thanksgiving (the kids already had early release days due to parent teacher conferences). Perfect for sledding down our neighborhood hill. It was fun - all the neighborhood kids and the parents headed out for a beautiful morning of sledding and playing in the snow. If it snowed this early in the "winter", what are we in for this year? Bring it on!

On the way to his Eagle

Last night at our ward's Court of Honor, Cameron received his Scout, Tenderfoot, 2nd Class and 1st class rank advancements! He has worked hard this year, and had a great 11-year old scout leader who helped him get this far. We have heard that if Cameron could get through his 1st class by the time he turned 12, he would be well on his way to completing everything in time for his eagle. Now the fun begins with merit badges, lots of campouts and service projects. He is lookig forward to turning 12 in January!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! It feels like we've been celebrating Halloween for days now - our neighborhood party on Friday and the Halloween Party at church last night. I'll be glad when it's all over and the candy is all gone!

Fairy Princess Megan


Wizard Jared

Death Eater or Reaper or "Death" Ryan

"I'm not afraid of no ghosts!" Ghost Hunter Cameron

Watch out Megan!

Pumpkin Patch-ing

On a beautiful fall day, we headed to a farm in Snohomish for an afternoon of corn mazing, pumpking patching, mini-golfing and farm fun!

Megan loved mini-golf! She hauled around her putter, picked up every ball she could find (even if it wasn't her ball), and threw it in the hole! She thought she was helping! It was the funniest thing to watch!

Jared got the hang of it too.

Cameron - look Mom! I made it!

Ryan tried a different approach.

The Linerud Mini-Golf Team

Megan on the hay ride out to the corn maze.

The corn maze was in the shape of Washington state. So we set off in search of important places like Spokane, the Grand Coulee Dam and...

Duvall!

We made it out! The exit was at Grays Harbor.

Our visit wasn't complete without a stop at the pumpkin patch.

There were other fun things at the farm, including a petting zoo, a playground, a hay maze and a HUGE bin filled with dried corn that the kids (and adults) could play in. (Several of the kids came home with dried corn in pockets, underwear and socks.!) It was a great afternoon!

A Mommy-Daughter First!

I waited years to have a daughter and I finally got to paint her nails! Drew and the boys were watching the series premier of Star Wars the Clone Wars, and playing XBox. Megan and I were not interested in doing either of those things, so we headed upstairs to paint our nails! She loved it. She walked around showing everyone her "ink" nails. Then she had to get all dolled up. It's fun having a little girl who loves to dress up girly sometimes!

Happy Birthday Jared!

Jared turned 6 last week! For his birthday, we took him to Build-a-Bear workshop and he chose a black teddy bear, dressed as Darth Vader, of course. His first real day of school was on his birthday, so he got to take treats to class. And that night we took his friend Steven to Chuck-E-Cheese for a night of games, pizza and cake.

It is fun to see his personality emerge. We are quickly discovering he is good at sports - t-ball last spring, swimming this summer and soccer this fall. He loves soccer - and he's got a great coach this year (thanks Drew!). His coach says he is the best player on their team! =)

Happy Birthday Jared!

First Day of School

Back to school! Cameron and Ryan started school on August 31st, and Jared's first day of school was September 3rd (our district does a slow start for Kindergarten - orientations, meet the teacher, etc. during the first few days of school).

Cameron is in 6th grade this year and started Middle School! He has PE, Math, Band and is in a multi-age program for Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. It has been an adjustment getting him out the door at 7:20 every morning. I've heard we can survive Middle School with a few tears and a lot of ice cream!

Ryan started the PAT program at Carnation Elementary. He is in 4th grade this year and is loving the new challenges in this class. His class is a 4th/5th grade split class, and his teacher is Miss Isler.

Jared is in PM Kindergarten at Carnation Elementary school this year. He is loving school so far - we are lucky to have a good teacher, Ms. Crane, and a small kindergarten class. I have to drive him to school every afternoon, but he rides the bus home with Ryan.

Summer Wrap Up

It's been a good summer and I am sad to see it come to an end. But we have survived the first week back at school, and today was my first afternoon with a quiet house while Megan takes a nap. Maybe I can get used to this new schedule!

We threw in a few last minute summer adventures in August. First we attempted a day trip to Bainbridge Island in search of good ice cream, pizza and state parks to explore. We made it as far as the ferry terminal in Seattle, where Megan tripped, fell, and hit her head on the corner of a vending machine. She had a nice gash on her forehead, so after manuvering our way out of a line of cars waiting for the ferry, we spent the next 3 hours in the ER at Swedish Medical Center. 4 stitches later, we tried to find something to do in Seattle so it wasn't a total waste of a day. We ended up at the Aquarium and Red Robin for dinner.

The next week we tried again, this time with much better results. (We all stayed in the car at the ferry terminal this time, to avoid any repeat trips to the ER!) The ferry ride was fun, the ice cream was super yummy, and pizza was good, and we had fun exploring.

Beautiful Seattle!

On the way back to Seattle, we had all the kids lined up for a picture, when the horn on the ferry blew just as Drew was taking the picture. I LOVE the look on Jared's face - it makes me laugh every time I look at this picture!

Yummy ice cream! It's a good thing we have to go all the way to Bainbridge Island to get it, or we'd get really fat eating it all of the time!

Butterfield Camping Trip 2010

It was time for our annual Butterfield family camping trip - and this year we ventured out to the Ohanapecosh campground at Mount Rainier National Park. It was a beautiful place to camp, and we'll definately go back again.

Beautiful Mount Rainier - view from Sunrise

If there is a mountain, Drew must ride up it. Coincidentally, some of his biking buddies had previously planned a day trip to Mount Rainier to ride up to Sunrise. So we dropped Drew off at the bottom of the steep, winding road and the kids and I drove to the top to wait for them.

The whole gang, minus Joanne and Krysten

(David and Madi, Mom/Grandma, Drew and Megan, Kade, Cole, Jared, Dad/Grandpa, Parker, Ryan and Cameron)

The campsite was full of logs and trees to climb on, and lots of pinecones for "pinecone fights". It was a great place for a bunch of boys to spend the weekend.

It was VERY foggy at Paradise! Here's Megan and Madi riding in style.

The boys at Sunrise

Megan and I at Sunrise - beautiful - and lots of mosquitos

Grove of the Patriarchs - Dang! That's a big tree!

Is Joanne out of her mind?

187 miles (the race started in Blaine, WA and ended in Langley on Whidbey Island)

24 hours

Team of 12 ladies in 2 vans - our team name was "Therapy on the Run" (we all needed a little therapy - we must be crazy to be doing this!)

No sleep (except for the hour and a half we tried to sleep on a hard gym floor - this included the fire alarms going off twice)

No showers

Lots of fun memories and beautiful scenery

And I can't wait to do it again next year!

RAGNAR Northwest Passage 2010

Each person runs 3 legs of the race - My 3 legs were 6.1 miles, 4.7 miles and 6.8 miles. The first run was in the middle of the afternoon and VERY hot. It also had some pretty good hills. The second run was about 3 am so the temperature outside was perfect, and it was fun to run in the dark with a headlamp, reflective vest, and a tail light. That run was VERY hilly. And my third run was very hilly, but at about 10 am, so it wasn't too hot yet.

What a crazy experience! Anyone want to join me when I do it again next year?

Zoo Pics

Cute pictures of the kids at the zoo!

Which ones are the monkeys and which ones are the kids?

Cameron, Ryan, Jared and Megan?