We brought Heidi home after two nights in the hospital and this little one received a whole lot of lov’in…

“What is this??”

First Bath... with our little helper, Lucy, of course.

Lots of napping in those first days!

The kids LOVE when we put Heidi in their beds to say goodnight to them!

Brent’s parents came to visit and brought Christmas…

Grandma Carrie and Lucy made a beautiful gingerbread house!

I never took time to post very many pictures of meeting Heidi in the hospital, so there’s never been a better time than now! Here are some of my favorites from 10 weeks ago…

I’m hoping to start regularly blogging again soon but have had to choose to put other priorities first in this season. I’m excited to update you more, we have been loving life with our baby girl. Loving it; as well as being stretched beyond our liking at times. We’ve been forced to slow down and let our “to do” lists take a little longer in order for our kids to get quality time with us, for dishes to get washed, and for food to be set on the table. We are learning to love life at little slower pace and enjoy each day as a blessing. SO, to update you on today’s big news is what we learned from Heidi’s two month check up. Our baby girl is growing like a weed… she is 24 inches long (95%), 12 lbs 1/2 oz (85%), and her head is 15 1/2 inches (70%). Our love grows more for Heidi each day. Her smiles and coo’s just absolutely melt us, what a precious gift she is to us!

Heidi is one month old today! Let’s start this out with some fun…

Name that baby… which Butler baby is which? Answers at the bottom of the post.

A

B

C

Before and After

As fun as it would have been for our little girl to have a birthday on her due date 11-11-11, that wasn’t the day we met her, but rather four days later. I was scheduled to be induced on the 15^th so our dear family friend, Becky Kelsay, drove over to watch Lucy and Brady that morning until my family arrived that afternoon. Brent and I got settled in our labor and delivery room around 9am, ready to meet our baby and feeling a little surreal having been through these same steps twice before. Doctor Wenzel broke my water by 9:30 and had the pitocyn going by 10am. Neither Brent or I had a feeling that our baby was a boy or girl but some of the nurses were not convinced since we brought the book, “Bringing up Girls” by James Dobson to read. It’s a book we heard great things about, hoping to apply any advise to our “sweet little, somewhat concerning, over-obsessed in princess land” 4 year old. Now the book will be referred to more than once I’m sure! So we read some, listened to calming music, and waited as the contractions picked up. I opted for the heaven-sent epidural around 1pm, making labor smooth sailing. As we were waiting I was thinking about how with the other two we just asked one of the nurses to take pictures for us when the baby arrived. They turned out great, but thought how nice it would be to have someone I knew take them for us. My sister, her husband, three kids, and my dad all arrived at our house in the afternoon to meet our little one as soon as they could. So we decided to ask my sister, Laura, if she would be interested in taking pictures for us since the guys could watch the kids and my mom would be joining them shortly. She was overjoyed when I asked her and drove right over to be with us. It was so so special to have her with us in the delivery room and bonded us in a whole new way. She was such an encouragement and has made me even more thankful that Lucy was given a sister that day. I pray that Lucy and Heidi will hopefully experience that sweet love of a sister, that I’ve experienced with Laura, as they grow.

I think it was around 3pm that I seemed “stuck” at 6 centimeters dilated, but around 5:30pm Dr. Wenzel came to check me and right away she said, “Ok, you’re ready. There’s hair!” I only had to push once and Heidi was born at 5:48pm. When Dr. Wenzel announced, “It’s a girl” and placed her on my chest my heart beamed with love for her! An indescribable moment for us!

We named her Heidi Carolyn Butler. Heidi means noble one, we love how it fits with our kids’ names. I read Lucy the book “Heidi” this fall; I loved the character Heidi lived out in the story; her love for people and God was so sweet, I think that is when the name went to the top of our list. Heidi’s middle name is after Brent’s mom, Carolyn, we call her Carrie. She is a hero to both of us. There are so many qualities we admire in Carrie and want for our sweet daughter to look to her grandma as a woman to be like when she grows up. Carrie’s love of our Savior, Jesus, her constant serving and giving heart, her contagious smile, and her sacrifice for others are only a few of the things we admire about her.

Heidi is an absolute wonderful gift to our family and such a fun surprise. Lucy and Brady have welcomed her and adjusted to life with a baby so much better than I was expecting. I pray every day that the Lord will help me remember how small she is, the noises she makes, the way she smells, the captivating cuddles because I know how fast I will forget because they just grow so stink’in fast… so I will cherish today. Happy one month old baby girl!

Answers: A. Heidi, B. Brayden, C. Lucy

One week ago our precious little girl entered the world. God gave us sweet Heidi Carolyn Butler to love and care for. Our hearts are overflowing with awe of God’s beautiful creation of her life, she is perfect. As our new normal unfolds everyday I can’t believe how blessed we are to have three, THREE, little ones entrusted to us and how natural it is. Here are a couple “one week old” pictures, I’ll share her story of entering the world later! 

Born 11/15/11

@ 5:48pm 7 lb, 9 oz. 19 1/2 in.

Here are the rest of the pictures we had taken of Lucy’s 4 year, Brady’s 2 year, and maternity pictures. I think they turned out super cute!!

My due date for baby #3 is tomorrow… baby seems pretty content in there but a birthday on 11-11-11 sounds pretty fun to me! Here’s to hoping!

This year for Halloween we decided to scale back on the festivities and just do one dress-up, trick-or-treating night. Last year I had the kids dressing up about four times for different events. We might end up doing that again another year but with 2 weeks left till my due date this was plenty. We love that the small mall near our house, Sycamore Mall, has a night for the kids to come and have fun. We just walk around the mall trick-or-treating at each store, we got a few coupons, and the kids got more than enough candy for our house! We went with our friends, Glen, Brandi and Corbin Fagerstrom who are in town for the week. It was fun to have some hang time with them while we caught up, watched a Vikings win, and headed to the mall. The kids didn’t even know today was actually Halloween; it’s nice when they are so young they don’t know or care what day we celebrate. Tonight we went to Chili’s since they had a special kids eat free with an adult meal. Brent and I split a meal and so did the kids, then we stopped at Caribou for a buy-one-get-one-free drink! That’s what we call Adult Tick-or-treating!   Here are the kiddo’s all dressed up… Brady the fireman, Lucy the fairy, and Corbin the horse!

My favorite: the dental school brings toothpaste (last year they had toothbrushes too) and they let the kids brush the dragons teeth!

At Lucy’s preschool they focus on one color a month. September was Red and October was orange. Last Thursday was Orange Day and the parents could stay the first 10 minutes to hear all the kids sing the Orange song in front of the class. It was adorable! She loves marching around our house singing the songs she learns, it’s been so fun to encourage her in this.

Back in September we took advantage of a Mops fundraiser and had some pictures taken. Brady’s 2 year, Lucy’s 4 year, and some maternity pictures. We decided to wait to do family pictures until the baby arrives. Here are the sneak peaks we’ve seen so far…

Friday was quite a crazy day… One of those days I wondered what in the world I was thinking when I scheduled everything…

8am dentist appointments for me, Lucy, and Brady (2 cavities for me and Lucy. yikes!!)

9:55am OB appointment for me (Scheduled an induction for 11/15, so praying baby comes before then!)

10:30 staff team over (always love hearing what God is doing in the hearts of students and on our team on campus)

12:45 Lucy’s 4 year doctor’s check up and Brady came for a flu mist (Lucy had 4 shots and ice cream afterwards- sad day for our girl!) She is 39 1/2 inches tall- 50% and 33.7  lbs- 25%

2:30 Brady went down for a super late nap

3:45 had to wake him up to get to the Core to cover a shift in the Kids Club

5:30 drove downtown for the Hawekeye Parade with fun friends- Baumhover’s and Thompson’s (pictures below)

8pm kids in bed and collapse from a crazy day! Whew!

Saturday it was gorgeous outside. So after the Hawkeye game and naps we took advantage of most likely one of the last beautiful weekend days to enjoy as a family. We headed down near Riverside to the Sass Family farm.  We had a blast….

Today has brought church at home since the kids have some pretty bad coughs, a family outing for Brady and Lucy to fill up their shoe boxes for Samaritans Purse, and getting ready to cheer on our Vikes. They’ve had a pitiful season, but we are still rooting for them! 

Last week we let Lucy and Brady pick out their own pumpkins and took on the adventure of carving them together. They each told us what shape they wanted for eyes, a nose, and mouth and then Brent and I started carving. It was fun to help them see God’s love even in carving pumpkins. We explained the pumpkins looked nice and shiny on the outside, but inside we showed them how messy and nasty the inside was, like our sin. When we trust in Jesus he forgives us and cleans out all the mess. He puts a light in us with the Holy Spirit and it shines bright for the world to see when we walk with Him. It was a fun family activity… although Lucy did started crying as soon as we started cutting the pumpkins. I think she thought we were going to color them?! But as soon as the princess crown went on and she saw the candle shining she was much happier. Oh what curve balls our children throw at us… did not see that one coming!

We also put bunk beds up in the kids room! So far its been going great! Lucy loves being up in her tower on the top… and so does Brady. He did not want to sleep on the bottom bunk at first. But we found a few tricks to make him more excited about staying down there. I was just about to write that he has only gotten up in Lucy’s bunk one night, but I just heard Lucy yelling that Brady was in her bed again… so now we are to two times in the past week. I still feel like its going well, even during naps he does well with it. But we’ll see what’s to come!

Here are some fun family pics of the kids playing Frisbee, Lucy’s favorite thing to do with her raspberries, and Daddy helping the kids fly in the sky!