Griswalds

We're not the Griswalds. Far from it actually.
But for our very first (officially married)Christmas together we at least have some decorations up! It took us a while to get it all together, but hey we did it! Which is an awesome feat. :]

So these are almost all of the nativities I have. Tacky I know since they're all clustered over the TV, but with limited space this was what had to work. Then there are two on our bookcase, the top one is one that Becky has given  me pieces of over time, and the bottom one is a wood puzzle we won at our ward party. We were pretty stoked about that. :]

This is our tree. Oh the tree. This tree gave us stress, moreover it gave Troy stress. We bought our first real tree this year. I thought people who did fake were crazy and taking away from the entire experience of Christmas. I will not be surprised if we do fake next year. :] So we got the tree. Brought it home and got it in our stand. After about an hour of working and working the tree wouldn't stand up straight in the stand. It kept leaning back towards the wall. We finally just gave up, and started doing the lights. The first round of lights we bought didn't connect to one another (why would you need that?!?!) so Troy made a trip to Home Depot and got us some heavy duty super awesome Christmas lights. After we got all the lights on, we realized we needed one more strand to finish off the top. The next night we went back to Home Depot to find some. They had none. Both the Wal-Marts in Logan had none. Kmart had none. Lowes had none. There were no lights to be found in Cache Valley. We finally found some at Walgreen's (thank goodness!) We got home, finished putting up the lights and then had to face the leaning problem (yes we still had a crooked tree.) Troy struggled with it for another hour and eventually came to the conclusion it would not stand up on it's own. He took a small easel I had holding up a decoration and leaned it against the bottom of the tree. Ghetto. But hey, now our tree stands up super straight! Then we turned on Christmas music and put all our ornaments from years past on our tree. It was really fun and we both were laughing about the weird ornaments we had received. My mom had written out why I had gotten each one so we could easily remember what everything meant to me way back when. :] In the end our tree had a happy ending. And I'm glad to stay it is still alive and well, even though it's not a Nordman from Glover Nursery. :]

We're excited to get to spend Christmas at home with our families, and are really hoping to get some snow soon because this is just shameful. We live in Logan and usually don't get blue sky from October to March, and we have had nothing but lately! It's been pretty ridiculous.

We have also been keeping up on a tradition my family started a long time ago, the Jesus Stocking. Our's is a wicker Jesus Gift, and we have index cards that we write things that we are thankful for and then put them in the gift. It has been fun having it just being me and Troy, and he has gotten really into it. I'm excited to get to read them in a few days!

Even more excited to get to spend next year's Christmas with an extra addition!

Night Flight and Heart Beats

Some cool things have been happening lately.

To be warned, I have no pictures for this post. Sorry, but I haven't been super into blogger mode.

Yesterday we went on our first flight together! Troy, me, Zak (his instructor) and Kim (Zak's wife) all loaded into the little plane in negative degree weather and flew down to Salt Lake for dinner.

It was so cool! It was Troy's first time flying to that large of an airport, where the tower talks to you from Ogden on. This was a big deal because it's hard to keep track of where exactly they tell you to fly, because there are planes everywhere! Plus it was his first time flying at night. He did an awesome job! I wasn't even scared. When we were taking off I was a little freaked out, and flying up over Sardine Canyon was a little scary, but I kept my eyes open and was even looking down at the lights the whole time! It was such a fun experience and I'm so glad we get to do things like that. It really was a total blast! We froze, but it was awesome!!

Then earlier this afternoon we had an appointment with our midwife. We did the regular blood stuff and all that jazz, but then we got to hear the babies heart beat! It was the first time we got to hear it, and it was so cool!! It was funny because she struggled to find it at first, then when she did I laughed and the baby jumped out of the way. So she spent another five minutes trying to find it again, and after about 20 seconds the baby jumped out of the way again (this time on its own). This continued about 3 more times. Our baby did not want to be found. It was really funny. She was struggling hard. One of the times she got it, and then we heard this weird louder noise and she told us that was a kick, and then the baby took off again. It didn't like being put on the spot, and it sure didn't like her prodding around it's space! It was so cool and it made us both so much more excited. Plus, it reassured me that I am not making this all up and there really is something inside of me. :]

Stay tuned, we are going to show off our Christmas decorations this weekend! :]

Big News and Big Shoes!

Look at our good news!!

(sorry it's a tiny picture, we don't know what happened. click on it!)

Flying Solo

These are the photos from my first solo flight. There is also a video of my first solo landing.

Here is the proof I'm officially a pilot!

Click to see the video: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2451348813960

Airplanes!

This week we went on a field trip date to the Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum. It was really cool! Troy was telling me all about the different parts of other planes, and we had a blast. We totally recommend going, it's a free awesome date! Here are a ton of pictures:

These are all the planes they had outside:

So these red "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" canvas tags are all over the planes, and we found a cool keychain in the gift shop after that was a smaller version, so of course we bought one for the pilot. :]

We were practicing pulling the ejection cords:

This was one of the helicopters we saw (Not as cool as a plane, but still)

This is one of the exhaust things. (I have no idea what it is really called) In Troy's class he just learned the exhaust can be exerted up to 300 mph!!

This is the closest plane we saw to what Troy flies now. Except his is a low wing (he steps on the wing to get into the cockpit rather than ducking under it) and it weighs a lot less. This particular plane was a leaflet dropping plane instead of a bomb dropping one. :]

This is the cockpit of one of the planes

This was a cool shot of one of the propellers

This is an original engine from a plane. It has all kinds of corrosion and aging it was really cool

This is an instrument panel, and Troy was pointing out what all of the different dials meant. A lot of them were similar to what he looks at when he flies!

This was the plane that the women in WW2 flew. They were of course the coolest looking ones. :] They were also the safest group of fliers, with out of about 1800 pilots losing only 38.

This was the first flight simulator. The one Troy will use is much more high tech

Sardine Canyon is beautiful right now! We have been having perfect weather, and I'm sad to see that it might be going away. :/ At least we got to enjoy fall for a little while in Logan.

Trading Spaces

It's here! The tour of our new place!! (Warning, there are quite a few pictures!) It's not all the way complete yet, but after weeks of thinking we would get everything done I wanted to, I faced the facts. We are students who work, and one of us flies, so we don't really have time for home improvement. Here are the pictures of what we have so far..... (which is still great, and we love every minute of our life here!)

So first off we have the outside! This is our porch/big sliding door. This is one drab area but next spring it will get a makeover, and we will use the heck out of it! Very excited.

This is our bedroom, pic 1. Those shelves were one dollar! Plus we got ourselves a bed and night tables at Ikea for a steal! It was an exciting day in the Butterfield home. (Well, on my part anyway. I can't really see Troy being too excited about a day at Ikea.....I think he was faking.)

Bedroom, pic 2. These are our closets! (Yes, PLURAL! As in, we each have our own!) This is a big upgrade from our other apartment that had one little closet. Plus, look at all the light we have! We have a lot of big windows, and it is awesome.

This is the hallway, and the door to our second bedroom. This is our organization/calendar hub. Troy was opposed to putting this here, so out in the open but it has turned out to be absolutely awesome! It holds all our mail, and our lives together!

(Random jump to the family room, sorry) This is our TV and close up on the FAMILY we put on the wall.

The far wall of the living room with the sliding door you saw from the outside.

This is our back wall, with the cute decoration we saw on display in Rod Works. (That wreath I made, for about 10 bucks!) It's really cute and will bring orange and turquoise into our living room as the accent colors I want!

This is our dining room area. We love that we actually have a place for our table. We have real dinners like a real family. :] Eventually we will have a vinyl display with all different spices in a red vinyl for the wall next to the silverware canvases. I'm extremely excited about it, and there will be a LOT of pictures. :]

This is one side of the kitchen. I love our kitchen as well. That is our You Are Special Plate on the wall. I was excited about this placement as well. (I was clearly excited to decorate this place, geez)

This is the other side of the kitchen. It is a little smaller than the one we had before, but it is so much better set up that I don't even notice.

Dun Dun Dun. This is the one part of the apartment, that I was NOT excited about. Yes, Lime Green bathroom counter. I still cringe when I walk in there sometimes. But, it's kind of fun. (They did come to measure the counter top in here and the kitchen, so hopefully we will be getting something new soon!)

This is the hallway that leads to the bathroom. That curtain hides a place for a washer/dryer. (Which we don't have yet....and want one, so if you know anyone selling one, let us know!) It was a dark hallway before, and the white curtain really lightened the whole thing up and it's only scary to walk back there at night now! :]

This is the second room/office. It is also Troy's room. He got to put up all his Brazil stuff on the walls that we don't have a place for in this apartment. (Eventually I want to get it framed, and put up in a living room!) He was excited about this.

That is a massive map of his mission.

Those are some really cool paintings he bought in Brazil that I want framed and up in the house. They are AWESOME!

That is our place! We have a lot we want to do, and as we do it I'm sure you will see pictures! Just an update about our life:

We started school, Troy starting his Aviation Technology major. He flies with an instructor 3 times a week, and absolutely loves it. He bought his very own headset and has a legit looking uniform. He is really enjoying the classes and the flying. I learn something new from him every day! He just got a new job at Icon Fitness where he works on a line and puts treadmills together. It's not fun work, and he works a late night shift, but it is a job and still gives him time to fly.

I'm working away at my major, and really enjoying the classes I'm taking. I love learning about the developing kids, and can't wait to start working in the labs, having hands on experience! I work for a family who has a son who is severely mentally disabled, helping the mom get things done around the house, and then making dinner each night. I am really enjoying it and am glad I have a job that has good hours and I still get to see Troy before he heads to his shift.

Stay tuned, I'm sure we will do all kinds of crazy things this semester!!

Farmin'

So, we have been very MIA lately. Camp was nuts, didn't have time to blog or even really take pictures, and then school/moving all that overwhelmed me. But, we're back on the blogging bandwagon! Thank goodness. This is us prepping all the awesome produce we got from Troy's cousin, Luke's farm! (The one where he used to work, or rather slave himself away.)

We picked our own corn, and it was not that fun. I picked maybe 3 of our 48 pieces.

I left it up to the professional. (In this instance, Troy acted as the professional)

See? So professional.

He was also very allergic. This is a mid-sneeze picture.

Look at all that corn!!

Shucking it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I helped a lot more at this stage of the game than the picking.

We froze all of the corn. Hopefully I will eventually want to actually eat it,

because we have a TON. But that day was a blur of corn, and I haven't

found my appetite for it again.

We also made salsa! We got a bunch of tomatoes/salsa ingredients from the farm as well (picked for us this time) and we took Troy's aunt Nancy's recipe. It was an adventure, let me tell you. We cut up everything, washed out our jars, cooked up the salsa, and sealed our jars. We only got 4 of our 12 jars to properly seal, so we were handing out salsa to our friends/family. It was pretty good however, and I thought we did great for first timers!!

This is my favorite part. I took a good chunk out of my finger cutting tomatoes, so when we got to the onions, I was forced to resign due to the burning it caused (we had no band-aids.) I told Troy that putting a spoon in your mouth helped you to not cry. I legitimately heard that somewhere, but I definitely underestimate how entertaining it was going to be for me to watch.

Soon to come: pictures of our new place! The living room is still bland, so I'm waiting until I get it all finished to take you on a picture tour of our new place! We love it, and are excited to call it home!