Long needed post...

Many things have happened since our last post...but I'm just going to do a fast forward of the summer and a few pictures. Then I will try to stay on top of it so I don't get so behind. So this summer we have had 3 additions to our family. One in Brian's family, One in mine and also my best friend had her baby.

Dan and Carissa's baby girl, Ellie Paige Jensen born in April

Tyler and Tracy's baby boy, Jaxon Rey Butikofer born in June.

Kendon and Michelle's baby boy, Ethan James Galloway born in August.

Babies, babies everywhere and I am loving having them around. We also had many more born in my extended family, Robyn, Jody, Erin (who had twins, a boy and a girl), Karen is having one anyday now and my cousin Teri Jo was able to adopt two beautiful babies. Also my cousin Miriam is having a baby in Jan or Feb. The family is a growing!!!

A project that we did this summer was covering Turk's digging spot and tearing down the deck. It was a crazy adventure...but it turned out beautifully and a lot better then the nasty deck. Turk wasn't very excited when he couldn't dig anymore....but on a positive side note, he doesn't dig anymore at all. YAY!!!!

Here is the before....

And I need to get a better after picture...but at least you can see the bricks here. And Brian and Tyler built amazing back stairs.

We also got the chance this summer for my neice Alexie to come stay with us for a week. It was a lot of fun to get to spend some time with her now that she is getting so old...and Turk absolutely loved her!

We did lots of camping this summer. We got us a tent camper at the beginning of the summer and we have loved getting to use it this summer. It is a totally different experience having a camper and it is a lot of fun, and will be lots of fun as the years go by.

I got to go to my first concert ever this year on the day before my birthday. Ronnie Dunn was here at the fair and my dad had tickets and he took me. It was so much fun and I absolutely loved it. Ronnie Dunn was amazing!


We had a lot of fun this summer and now it is on to fall and winter!!!

Family pictures and Christmas

Sorry this post is full of lots of pictures. Also they uploaded backwards from where I really wanted them to. But oh well. So Turk is getting huge. As these pictures show. He thinks that he is a lap dog even though he definitely isn't!

We got this bone for him for Christmas and he hasn't even touched it until two days ago and now he is going at it like there is no tomorrow. Since I took this picture an hour ago and since I took it he has already chewed off one of the knobs at the end and is almost done eating that! He loves his rawhides!

This is us watching the total lunal eclipse that we had not to long ago. It was freezing outside and we tried to take pictures of the moon, but of course they didn't work!

This is our christmas tree, which was much bigger when we brought it home, until I accidently cut to much off and had to sit it on a big tuperware thing so that it looked tall again! It was nice to not be in an apartment and get a bigger tree!

This was our dinner after getting Christmas trees and Abby is in love with my new neice Brooklyn. Good thing she is getting a little brother soon so she can have her own baby! But anytime that Brooklyn is around Abby is right there next to her.

This year Brian couldn't come to get Christmas trees with us, so it was me and Turk that had to pick out our tree this year. The snow was so deep that Turk got stuck and started whining, but it was fun to see him playing in the snow with Beau my brother's dog, and Bella my sister's dog. We had lots of fun!

Then for Thanksgiving all of my brothers and sisters were here and so we got the chance to get family pictures done. My brother that is in the military came home from Korea and was moving his family to Spokane so it was absolutely perfect and for some reason they decided to put the littlest sister in charge of it! So here is our Turk who even got his picture taken!! This was mostly for Brian's parents because his mom is scared of him cause he is so big, so we took a picture for her so that she could see her "grandpuppy" as she calls him!

Here are the ones of me and Brian and then our little family!

Then here is my big family! It just keeps growing and growing and the moment this picture was taken it was outdated because my brother and his wife are expecting in June. But it was still so fun to take this picture. Also my oldest neice isn't in the picture but my brother is supposed to photo shop her in where that whole is in the back! I love the pictures and Hanna at theturquoiseframe.blogspot.com did amazing!

So yeah life has been amazing! Thanksgiving and Christmas were really nice and it has been a good year so far! I couldn't ask for a better life!

more updates!!!

So the rest of the summer has been lots of fun. Things that are not posted about was...

*the Butikofer Family campout...the theme this year was the revolutionary war.
*our 2nd Anniversary

Then we have just been having fun at home and playing with Turk.
Beau, my brother's dog, likes to come over lots and him and Turk were hanging out in Turk's favorite place to sleep, under our bed!

Turk is loving his first family campout. He actually did pretty good for having to be tied the whole time.

Abby helping with the tents!

She also found a little perch on a log!

Here is my family all dressed up.

Uncle Brian and Abby doing the "squishy face"

Me and Brian felt like being rebels because one of my cousins was taking the costumes a little serious and me and Brian were on opposite teams, so we came as Indians and Turk was our horse!! He even has his own saddle.

Then for our 2nd anniversary, which I can't believe that it has been that long, we wanted to go to Yellowstone, but couldn't afford to go all the way up so we went to yellowstone bear world instead. It was actually pretty fun seeing the bears much closer and actually getting to see something other then buffalo. Then that night we went to one of the themed rooms at the Americinn in Rexburg. We went to the African suite and it was a really nice room. We had lots of fun and it was an amazing anniversary!

I am so grateful for my husband and that I am with him for eternity. I can't imagine my life with anyone else. Thanks baby and thank you for the wonderful two years so far!

More summer happenings!!

So not much has been happening this summer since I last posted! but here are some recent things. Turk becomes lazy some days and eats sitting down or laying down. This picture shows his scale kind of to the cupboard. Although he is sitting so it's not the best picture for scale. But he is getting huge.

We had an awesome 4th of July. Brian worked from 10-5 but I went to the parade with my dad and sister and nephew. It was freezing which i can't even think of a 4th that was cold and neither could my dad. Then we just hung around the house and i made my wonderful dessert. Then my dad had flooded his front yard so i played with Turk in the water and watched the little kids play too. I made the desserts for our picnic at Freeman park and i made mini cheesecakes and made it look like the flag. I was pretty excited how they turned out. They were delicious and cute! We had fun at the park eating, playing volleyball, and bocce ball. It was alot of fun just hanging out with family!

Here is Abby, Me then Jessica (from left to right) Abby and Jessica are exactly 5 months apart. Jessica is the older of the two. They are super cute and I love this picture with them!

Here is me and my wonderful hubby right after the fireworks in IF were done. We hung around and waited for the park to not be so crazy and then we did our own firework show. My sister and her boyfriend provided the fireworks and they were pretty sweet ones.

Summer has been way fun so far. But there are still many things to come! Our 2 year anniversary is not to far away and I can't believe it! Summer is going great!

Summer so far!

So summer has started and it started out very cold and rainy. I colored my hair as the pictures show and I absolutely love it. If anyone ever needs their hair done my sister in law Kylee is amazing at doing hair! But yeah i am now dark brown and red! Brian also got me my very own 10/22 rifle and a pink camo case to go with it!! I can't wait until i get to shoot it, but we have to site in the scope before we can do any kind of shooting!! :) My husband is very awesome to buy me a gun that i actually like to shoot!

New Hair!

My own Ruger 10/22 rifle

A girl can't go wrong with a pink camo case. We actually had an older lady comment on my case when we were carrying it out of Sportmans.

For Turk's second time swimming in the river, he wouldn't go out in the water so Brian decided to wade out there with him and the water was freezing besides the fact that it was a cold rainy day too! But sure enough after Brian got in the water Turk went out there and was actually swimming and playing.

For his first time at the river he just sat at the edge and barked at the water and dug at it! It was pretty hilarious and he still does that if he hasn't been in that certain water before. He did it with our ditch out front until Beau (my brother golden lab) got in it and Turk could see that it wasn't that deep and he just loves getting in the water now.

We started off the summer with camping at the end of May with my dad. We went ground squirrel hunting and saw nothing until we were on our way back and my dad shot one while still sitting on his four wheeler. Me and Brian were up ahead of him and just heard a gun shot so we quickly turned around to see what happened and there was dad sitting on the four wheeler with a dead squirrel!!! That was the only one that was shot the weekend that we went up there! My dad's dog Sonny ate one, but that is different!

Dad and his proud kill!

We shot a lot of the guns the weekend that we went camping. We took the 22s and then Brian's big military rifle that was really loud in the Spencer canyon!But we had a lot of fun shooting and that is where we found out that I am pretty good with a 10/22 rifle!

Dad trying to shoot the Iron Man can and the silver can.

The two bullet holes seen in this picture were from me. My dad or Brian couldn't hit either and so i took a turn and hit Iron Man above the eye and then hit the silver thing. I was so proud of myself that i was the first one to shoot him.

Turk liked to follow Brian where ever he would go and always was right behind him when Brian was crossing the creek.

Goofy faces in the tent

The day that we were packing up to leave we had planned on going fishing and sticking around but we woke up to a blizzard! Turk loved it because he loves snow, but we quickly packed up and headed for home!

I can't believe that my little Turk is getting so big! I love all of the sleeping positions that he ends up in because they remind me of Zeek my brothers lab that died my senior year of high school. So far summer has been pretty fun, but now that the nice weather is starting to come around more hopefully we will have lots more fun!

Yes...we are alive!

So we moved into our new home and I am loving being back out in the country and Brian is also loving it. I knew it wouldn't be hard to change that city boy once he got out here! I don't have pictures of the place because Brian still needs to help me hang some pictures and then i'll get them up on here. We expanded our little family with a black lab puppy. He is about 5 months now and he is a monster. His name is Turkelton, Turk for short.

This is the monster when we first got him! He was about 8 weeks old.

This was him on Sunday he is now 5 months!

This little monster is growing so fast and yeah he is my little baby and to see his little pictures makes me miss the little guy that couldn't jump up on the bed or the couch! He is fun to have and was a really good addition to our little family.

Also I graduated from college in April and am pretty excited to be done with that. It is nice not having homework and worrying about making it to class! I am so very grateful for everyone one who came and supported me and even all of the family and friends that weren't there but have always supported me through school. I definitely wouldn't have made it without you who helped!

Well that is our life right now. I will get the pictures up of the house as soon as it is nice outside so I can get some of the outside!