What happened to April?

Upon signing in this morning to catch up on everyones news I realized I didn't post the ENTIRE month of April. Not for the lack of interesting and adorable things happening...but for a lack of time and planning. One of these days I'll adjust to "Mommyhood" and get on top of things.

So, a quick catchup on all the happenings in the Boutcher household....

Janelle Cooke (Winburn) visited with her adorable new son Caleb. Janelle and I have been friends my ENTIRE life and her friendship has meant the world to me. We've shared childhood, young adulthood (living in DC), marriage to our fantastic husbands, and now motherhood together. Looking forward to many more years of memories and experiences.


We drove to Sacramento 2 weeks ago and visited the Sacramento Zoo. Unfortunately, my camera battery died so we have few pictures but many memories. I took Noah to the Portland Zoo when he was a year old but he didn't really get it. This time he had a blast. You would think his favorite part would have been the animals...but no...it was the train. He's still talking about it.

We had an Egg-cellent Easter! After church we went to my Grandmother's home with family and our friends, the Claysons. The kids had a blast hunting Easter eggs and eating A LOT of candy.

We're still in escrow on the house. My dear friend Tracy once told me while I was in another unrelated life transition, "Sarah, you're in God's waiting room...get a magazine." Well, I think about that a lot right now. We're at a time in our life that is trying, unsure and scary but I know that someday looking back I will see the positive in this trial and "count it all joy" (see James chapter 1).

Oh No, Not "One More Thing"

Why is it that when a Mother (or anyone for that matter) can't handle "one more thing" on their plate or they'll just scream "one more thing" ALWAYS hits?

Well, "one more thing" hit last week with a vengeance. Not only do we have 20 days and counting until we have to be completely packed and moved, but Scott came down with a HORRIBLE cold last Monday, followed by Noah on Thursday. They've been miserable! Noah has never been the kind of child who runs fevers even with ear infections. Therefore, when he started running 103.6 degree fever these last few days I was FREAKING out. Thank the Lord for Motrin! I kept on thinking about those poor children and mothers in the olden' days that didn't have our modern conveniences and medicine. What a horrible feeling that must have been to have a screaming hot child with nothing to give them to ease their pain. Boy, and I thankful it's 2009. Scott turned the corner Friday and is feeling much better. Noah's on the way to recovery now.

Please pray for me that I don't get it. I just can't handle "one more thing." Whoops, I jinxed myself. Hello cold, here I come!

Boutcher Big News x Three

Big News #1

So, I've been a BIG blog slacker. I never imagined that blogging would be such a daunting task but as life have become extremely busy recently I didn't know how to catch up. So, here's a factual and brief update on the latest in our household.

Big News #2

Big Celebrations! We celebrated Noah's 2nd birthday on January 20th. A day never goes by when I don't thank God for this wonderful little man! He is such a joy to be around and even during our most challenging times I count it a blessing to be able to spend everyday with him. We had a small but great party for him with our family and closest friends. He had a blast will all his favorite people( Grandma, Uncle Chris, Papa, Lala, GG, Uncle J, Kyle, Alex, Vada, Robert, & Miranda) , favorite food (spaghetti & cake), and presents (Elmo). He was so excited to blow out his candles we had to move it away so we could sing to him.

The next day Scott and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday that we were married, and then other times I can't remember what it was like to be without him. God sure did know what he was doing when he brought the two of us together!

Big News #3

When our dear friends, the Rushings, came and visited us in January they introduced us to the book The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. After they left we both poured ourselves into the book because finances have been extremely tight in our household since we cut down to one income when Noah was born. After reading it we knew that we had to make some big sacrifices in order to contine to raise our child the way we know God intended for us to. After much prayer, discussion, and the occasional tear we decided the best way for us to do this is to sell our home. It's just too expensive for us and we needed to make a big change. We listed it with a really talented local realtor on Tuesday, March 3rd thinking that in today's market it would take months to sell. Well, someone is looking out for us upstairs because we received an offer just four days later on the 7th. The buyers want to do a 30 day escrow so as long as everything works out well we will be moving out of our home on April 13th.

We've been scrambling to find a new place to live since we weren't planning on the house selling so quickly. My family still has my Grandfathers house so we'll be moving in there after the current tenants move out the end of May. In the meantime, we'll be living with Mom and Dad during the transition time.

Well, that's all I have time for now as it's 11:30pm and I should have been asleep hours ago. Please keep our family in all of your prayers and we face this new and exciting chapter in our life.

It begins!

One would think that knowing my family Jeremiah and I would have been on skis before the age of two but that is not correct. Neither of us skied until after two, therefore my child beat us. We took Noah skiing 1 week before his second birthday for the first time. I'm not sure who was more excited, Noah, me, or my Dad. Dad was just giddy and took the day off of work to come up and help us. Noah did terrific and had amazing balance. One of the instructors from Mt. Rose asked how old he was and upon hearing let us know that most of the 4-6 year old kids don't have the balance that Noah did. I'm so proud...he's a natural.

After a few runs he was nodding off on the lift. I had to carry him down the last run because we couldn't wake him up. Good job little man!

God is so good!

It never ceases to amaze me how good God is! Almost three years ago He gave me the greatest blessing in my life, a godly and kind husband whom I am madly in love with. God is so good! Sometimes it feels as if we've been together forever but then I remember the feeling of not having a person to share my life with before we were together. God is so good! Not long after our marriage, what joy filled my heart to find out that God was blessing us with a child. God is so good! Our precious sweet child has added so much to my life I can't even begin to put it into words. He teaches me lessons daily and has helped me to trust in God and praise Him as I have never before.

God is so good!

This Christmas as many in the world reflect on the blessing of Jesus Christ I am joining them. What a blessed life I have been given because God loved me enough to send His precious son to come to this earth, live as a man, and die so that I might live. God is so good!

Christmas Morning

I believe Scott and I were more excited about this Christmas than any others before. It's such a blessing to have a little one around at Christmas that is starting to "get it". Last year he didn't really understand what the whole Christmas thing was about but this year he was much more interested. We spent Christmas morning just the three of us. Here's a few cute pictures from our family time together. What blessings we have!

An Improvement

So, we finally made the time Chrismas Eve to go and visit Santa. We've been trying to talk with Noah about Santa and look at pictures to try and improve on our experience. He was close to having a meltdown but at least we have improvement. Smile next year?