Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Playing catch up yet again

It's been a busy few months. In April our 6th grandson was born - Jaxon Walker Butler son of Brian and Katie and little brother to Tyler. We love having two little guys in the house. On the 20th Joe and I celebrated our 32nd anniversary by attending the temple and going out to dinner.

At the beginning of May we headed down to Disneyland to spend a few days with Andrea, Todd and their boys. We had a blast with them. We took Ty with us so he could spend some time with Avery and Kaeden. They had such fun playing and riding rides together. Of course Papa spoiled all of them and we came home with a stash of pirate gear. At the end of May Kaitlin graduated from seminary. Nine down one to go. By the time Kevin graduates from seminary in 2013 we will have had a child in seminary for 19 year straight.

In June Joe had surgery on his left knee to fix a torn minicus. Then we headed to Las Vegas to help Andrea and Todd move into a new home. That was lots of fun! We got to babysit the boys and I got to decide where everything went in the kitchen as Andrea had to work.

July brought one of our greatest blessings as Amanda was sealed to Brian Carson in the San Diego Temple. We had the entire family together so of course we took new family pictures (when I say "we" I really mean Katie took new pictures for us) which is no easy feat since there are now 24 of us total. Todd pointed out that in 10 years our family has literally doubled in size. Kevin turned 16 and Kaitlin turned 18 while we were in San Diego. They are growing up too ffast! Shortly after coming home from San Diego Joe had a second surgery on his right knee as it had not healed well from the first one in October of last year. I was asked to do an interview for an online website called The Mormon Women Project. It was way outside of my comfort zone but with Joe's encouragement I did the interview and it is now posted at www.mormonwomen.com.

At the beginning of August I went to Arroyo Grande to be with Greg and Carinna as Greg was having a cervical fusion to repair a ruptured disc in his neck. A year ago I was in Denver with Amanda while she had her lower back fused. I hope there are no more August fusions in my future! I returned home in time for Joe to return to work in mid- August. After two days back he bent over to pick up his shoes and pinched a nerve in his back which led toanother 3 weeks off work. Talk about a long vacation! He was off work the entire summer (maybe he should have been a teacher!) Kaitlin started college at the end of August and Riley came home from college for a few months.
September brought the beginning of Kevin's junior year of high school and my birthday. Joe took me to lunch and then we went to the temple. When we arrived home I had a houseful of unexpected guests as Katie, Brian, Joe, Riley, Kaitlin, Kevin and Tyler had planned a surprise party for me. It was so much fun!
Brian, Katie, Tyler, and Jaxon left for Alaska. They will be gone for 10 days spending time with Katie's family and touring Denali National Park. We can't wait to see all of Katie's fabulous pictures when they return! Joe was finally cleared to go back to work today leaving the house very quiet and giving me the chance to catch up on my blog!