Weekend Adventures!

We have had quite the weekend adventures in the last few months! It started with Cheery Blossoms and a Math Museum!

We really enjoyed being out and about with good friends Bren and Sterling! These two know how to make the best of a wet Saturday morning and we are glad we got out with them! Plus we never would have discovered the awesome Math Museum on our own! Lucky we had them along to show us the way! Then my parents came for conference weekend and we had a blast! We went to our favorite Ted's Montana Grill for some Bison Burgers! Yummy! We filled the weekend with muffin making, conference watching, Sunday afternoon walking and quality time talking, talking and talking!

And then we had Aubrey and her girlfriends stay for a night which was a blast as always! We did some touristy things but mainly focused on the food this time! We made sure to fill them full of Cafe Rio, Chick-Fill-A and yummy nutella stuffed calzones! It was quite the successful weekend if you ask me and fun as always to see good friends! :)

Then we celebrated Easter with our favorites and had a feast! It was so nice getting together with our good friends to celebrate the Resurrection of our Savior! We got all festive for the celebration complete with a died-egg centerpiece and sparkling cider in our fancy cups! Now you know we are living big when we bust out the fancy cups!

Phew! Like I said...we have had quite the weekend adventures as of late! But I love making memories with Broc! We have so much fun and for that I am truly grateful!

Homemade Granola and Decorative Jars!

You know you are in for a fun afternoon when it includes homemade granola and decorative jars! Emily and Amy and I decided to mix things up a bit for dinner group last month! Instead of just making a meal...we decided to add some crafting into the mix as well! Thanks to a new found love of Pinterest, Emily found some creative and relatively easy crafts that we just could not pass up! So put it all together and it was one fun afternoon of using wax paper instead of parchment paper, shaking the frost paint vigorously, concentrating hard on cutting out the stencils and all around good company! At the rate we are going, we will have full bellies and beautiful homes in no time! Hooray for dinner group adventures!



Amy and I attempting to get the granola unstuck from the wax paper! Who knew wax paper was not supposed to go in the oven? But in our defense...both Broc and Billy loved the finished product so maybe using wax paper wasn't that bad of an idea! :)



Emily prepping the mason jars for our decorating! Apparently fingernail polish and rubbing alcohol help get the sticky stuff off the jars! Emily did an awesome job!



Amy following directions and shaking vigorously for 2 minutes before spraying! Way to be a great shaker Amy!



And then we sprayed the jars as evenly as we could and waited for them to dry! It was so easy and I think we were all pleased with the end product!



Perfect weather for an outside craft! It was so fun to try something new for a change! We have certainly taken dinner group to a whole new level now!



And the finished product! Not too shabby eh? :)

Girl's Weekend!

While Broc got to drool over this precious little thing...



I got to have a girl's weekend with these fine ladies!



The weekend included way too many cupcakes, talking late into the night, getting caught up on all of life's' adventures and just being girls! Sometimes I just sit back and thank my Heavenly Father for sending such amazing girl friends into my life! These two certainly are some of the amazing ones that have blessed my life in so many ways!

Well to recap the weekend we traveled the monuments!








We ate delicious food!







And most importantly made some pretty awesome memories! At the end of the weekend it was sad to say goodbye but we all know that the memories will only continue to get better! Thanks Bets and Aubs for an awesome girls weekend! Sure love you both so much! And just because she made it and I think it's awesome, check out this little video for a brief overview of DC Girl's Weekend 2012!

Lil' Bit!

Lil' Bit is here! She made her grand debut on January 6, 2012 weighing in at approximately 4 pounds 13 ounces! Although she was born small she is a fighter and has been gaining weight every day since!



Broc and I are constantly blown away with the little blessings that fall into our lives constantly! It seems that whenever there is important reason for us to be in Utah we find a way there! Well it happened again and Broc made his way out to Utah when Sophiee was still a small new born! Despite the fact that I didn't get to go with him I feel blessed that he was able to make it out! He had one demand and one demand only for his trip to Utah...TAKE PICTURES! In some small way I feel closer to her now that I have videos and pictures galore! Apparently when little Sophiee was first born she didn't even fit into the "adorable" outfit pictured above! I cannot believe how much she has grown in these first few months of life and I cannot wait to get my hands on her! So here we go with the long awaited Sophiee post! Your Aunt Natalie loves you little Sophiee! Don't ever forget that! This marks the beginning of many Sohpiee posts to come!



In the first moments of meeting her this picture was snapped! Obviously Broc is one proud uncle! I love how she is just content and sleeping in his big hands!



One big happy family! Robbie and Whitney are just beaming in this picture! I love it so much!



Just hanging out with GREAT grandma and grandpa Buttars! She seems to be so alert and attentive already! Love that little face! :)



Nap time in uncle Broc's arms! Her little eyes half open just kill me! Hahaha!



And just for proof that she really is MY niece Broc snapped this beauty! She sleep just like I do with her arms up! Keep it up Sophs! It's the most comfortable way to get some shut eye! I wholeheartedly approve!!! ;)



Bath time! She used to hate bath time but now it looks like she quite enjoys it! What a precious little thing!



Four generations! Love these women! Every single one of them inspires me in so many ways! Thanks for being good examples Grandma, Mom, Whitney and yes...even you Sophiee!



And another highlight of the weekend was getting to video chat! Hopefully by the time I get out to meet Sohpiee she will know my voice and recognize me! That's the goal!



Sophiee's favorite position is to snuggle up close! Lucky Broc got lots of snuggle time while he was visiting! Love this picture more and more each day!

I am so glad Broc got to go and meet Sophiee! These little photos and videos have brought me so much happiness and I am even more excited for my turn to meet Sophiee!

Oh Busy Life!

I cannot believe how quickly time flies! I have already been working at Family Matters for 5 months! YIKES! That is almost half a year! It is amazing! And while I feel ever grateful to be working, I'd be a fool to say it was easy! Sometimes when things get real tough I just have to remember the big picture! I am not in control and the thing that keeps me going day in and day out is the knowledge that Heavenly Father knows these kids better than I ever will! For now I will do my part and pray that it is enough to bring some peace and joy into the lives of these kids!

Alright...enough soap box! With all the business I have found it hard to keep up with the blog! Not that there are many people who read! But for the few who do I must apologize! All I can say is I will try harder to keep it current as best I can! So what updates might I have to share you ask?? Well for starters I have to give a shout out to my good friends that make me smile! We did dinner group again but this time we added a little mystery! That's right! We did a mystery dinner and it made me love my dinner group ladies even more! We added a forth couple and they could not have been more perfect! It was such a fun night!



You know you have good friends when they all show up dressed in character and acting their parts! Not to mention we had a delicious spread of barbecue chicken, grilled veggies, a killer white bean dip, cornbread, salad and to top it all off...ice cream sundaes! I think dinner group is one of the best things that ever happened to me! Puts a smile on my face every time and so far keeps my belly nice and full! No complaints here!

And as for this week...I'm all alone while Broc goes to Utah to meet our new niece! I tear up every time I think of it! So until he gets back with pictures galore (since he knows he cannot go to Utah without taking lots of pictures for me) I'll just have to include this little gem of a photo I got in CT over President's Day weekend! It's amazing how much sweeter family becomes the older I get! Man I love that little face!



P.S. He tipped his sunglasses down all by himself! Quite the ladies man if you ask me!

A Utah Christmas!

This year for Christmas we were able to go home to Utah for 8 whole days! Now I know to some this does not seem like that long but for us, it was the longest we have been back to Utah since we left! The time we got to spend with family and friends just catching up was priceless and we are already plotting and planning for how and when we will be able to make it out next! So get ready for some fun pictures documenting an amazing trip!



We started our Utah funness off right! We went on an awesome group date with a few of our favorite people our first night in Utah! We had such a good time talking, laughing, eating treats and playing games with this wonderful bunch! Certainly something we will have to do more often! :)



Then after much anticipation I finally got to see lil' bit! Whitney is the most adorable little pregnant lady! Even though this pregnancy was super hard for her, Whitney had a glow about her! She is amazing!



We had multiple Christmas gift swaps while we were home! Our first was with Whitney and Robbie on Christmas Eve! Obviously we all got the good stuff! ;)



Our next gift swap was Christmas morning with the family! Please excuse all the sleepy faces! We were all too excited to sleep! Boy was Christmas day wonderful! We got to be with family the whole day and even got to enjoy a musical Christmas program at church! What a perfect way to spend the day!



Our final gift swap was at Grandma and Grandpa Buttars house! We all got comfy, cozy slippers! Perfect for cold winter nights! We even got to meet Tyson's girlfriend Jessica which was awesome! We certainly think she is a keeper!



Part of mom and dad's Christmas gifts to the grandparents was dinner out with the family! We enjoyed an Olive Garden treat with Grandma VandeMerwe and loved the company!



The following evening we went to Lonestar with Grandma and Grandpa Buttars and enjoyed their company as well! Plus they had an amazing deal for 1 appetizer, 2 entrees and 1 dessert for just $25! Clearly we were sold!



And then as if we didn't eat out enough we met up with these good friends for lunch! It was quite the let down when our coupon for half off didn't even work! Garrett is going to use his lawyering skills to see if he can help us out on that one! Haha! We are trying hard to get these guys out to the East so we will see! Good times!



And then this little man stopped by with his parents for a night! I can't imagine what it must be like showing off your own children because I love showing off Edwin! :) He is just the cutest little nephew in the whole world! And yes I am allowed to say that still since Sohpiee is the cutest little niece in the whole world! Once we have more nieces and nephews things might get dicey! He was a good boy for mom and dad Buttars and helped them get prepped for their own grandbaby!



And then Liz came to visit which was so great! We went for a run, ate tons of delicious crepes and played phase 10! So low key but so perfect! I miss that girlfriend of mine!



And then we went to the dentist to get our teeth cleaned! Keith, Uncle Adrian's hygienist, totally fooled Broc! They told him they had new helmets for the patients to wear as they got their teeth x-rayed! Well since Broc hates the x-rays he totally fell for it! Hahaha! I love that goofball of mine!



And then Abby showed me the ways in Zumba! I had never done Zumba before but Abby helped me survive! We had a blast shaking our hips and strutting our moves! :)



And then we had an awesome VandeMerwe Family Christmas Party! We had almost every single member of the family there except Aunt Liz and cousin Josh! Wow! It was amazing! We even did a white elephant gift exchange and got some awesome gifts! I love family!



And then we threw a shower for Whitney and had so much fun! We were worried she may not make it to the shower but Sophiee decided to cooperate for another week! We had so much fun celebrating this little baby girl! So happy for Whitney and Robbie! Special thanks to everyone who helped out with all the preparations!



And then on our last night in Utah we brought in the New Year with some sparkling cider! Only way to drink the bubbly...pinkies up of course! 2012 be good to us and we promise we will be good back!

Pretty much words cannot express how much fun we had being home with the family! The trip was over all too fast but we made some awesome memories and look forward to our next rendezvous in Utah! Love you family!

Baby Girl Kohler!

So much to say and yet I know I will not be able to give the Christmas break any type of justice over the blog! So in the meantime, I'll just post about the newest obsession of mine!



You guessed it! We now have a niece! She is beautiful and wonderful and perfect...at least that's what they tell me! Sophiee Audrey Kohler was born January 6, 2012 at 2:50 pm in Utah! She weighed only 4 pounds and 13 ounces but is in perfect health! What a blessing and miracle she is already! We love her and we don't even know her!

Whitney is a trooper and endured the longest pregnancy ever! And now we are all happy to report that the pregnancy is over and little Sophiee is here! I wish we were in Utah right now to hold that little girl and tell her how much we love her!

What more could Broc and I ask for?! We already have an adorable nephew (who as of yesterday is walking!!!) and now we have an equally adorable niece! We are so blessed! Robbie and Whitney you did good! She is gorgeous and we cannot wait to get out there and give her lots and lots of love! Until then, Sophiee you be good to your mommy and daddy and feel free to put on a pound or two! :) We love you!