NYE, Bridger Skiing and family days...

NYE - we got the kids in their matching Hanna pjs. Theo was very agreeable, but Nolan wasn't having it. 

Claire, Ellie, Charlie holding Theo.

 Meg decided to hold Nolan for a few photos. 

 She ditched Nolan and things looked ok for a bit.

LOVE this photo!!! Nolan is perfect here. Claire. Ellie. Charlie. Theo.

 Nolan is so happy because he is back with his mama! 

 Love this clan.

Had to include this because Theo is TOO cute!!!

Thanks a LOT Nana (she gets all the blame for this one) for this Frozen karoake machine. 

We skiied with a few of my family members at Bridger (a ski mountain about 25 min from my parents house). The kids had a blast! Was a perfect place to cruise around. 

Claire and Charlie post skiing. Love the love between them all. 

The following day (Saturday), I stayed back with the girls while Bill took Charlie skiing with my dad and grant and suz. I went downtown with Dan, Meg and the kids. Then snowshoe with Dan and Lily in my parent's backyard. 

Then Nana had a great idea to pull the girls up this massive driveway and then we sledded down. 

The views were amazing!

Nana is a champ! 

What a fun family Christmas. It was great to all be together. So thankful for a fmaily that is fun to be with and that makes the extra effort to plan and carve out time to see each other! Love you Butz Fam! 

Bozeman Butz Family Christmas

We arrived really late on Wednesday night - so Thursday morning (NYE) was catch up time with the whole family! The kids haven't spent time together since Nolan was a baby. It was a delight to watch them slowly warm up over the course of the time together. 

Kids hanging out at the kids' table! 

Nolan's smile is the best! He is 20 months now. 

Suz and Tom playing it cool.

The kids were eager to get opening gifts.

Nana & G Pops gave us our "last ornament ever" (I think they gave me my last ornament ever a year or two ago though). 

obviously I loved it! It is a blown glass Family tree ornament. 

These kids were threatened to have their presents burned in the fire if they didn't calm down. They did the job. 

Claire hanging with Uncle Tom. checking out his beer?!?!

riiiiighht before present opening started - we had another drink spill by a handsome man who shall remain unnamed. Good thing for the Rug Doctor saving the day again. 

the flurry of presents started. 

no matter what gift was given - "stuffy" the name given to my dad's foam roller by the girls at Thanksgiving - was the most desireable gift. so classic (before Christmas I asked the girls what they wanted and they honestly said "stuffy", but I just couldn't get myself to go buy a foam roller for them!). 

girls tearing into their gifts from Uncle Dan & Aunt Meg.

Anna & Frozen accessories for the win! 

Ellie "helping" (ie: stealing) Stuffy from Nolan. 

Charlie getting more legos! 

Nolan opening his "a-panees" from the kids.

This is Charlie looking disappointed. He received this circuit connector gift from Nana & G Pops - he was totally shocked it wasn't legos. Thankfully, my mom knew Charlie was going to think they were legos and I begged her NOT to get him MORE legos so she was willing to see his face like this instead of over the top. Funny enough after getting back from our trip and opening this gift and playing with it he loves it! Said it was his favorite gift - wouldn't think that after seeing this photo. 

saying thank yous. who knows what Bill is doing - ha! 

The girls got matching doll and goil dresses and were thrilled .

Here is Ellie's!

Claire's!

Bill got a helmet! 

kinda dorky, but he loves it. 

Suz and Grant got house stuff from their registry! fun fun.

the fun times. 

Chaos ensued, but it was a great day. Our evening was delightful with an amazing dinner for NYE and at 10pm many of the adult kids went out to hear suzanne and grant's wedding band. The LAME parents - me, dan and meg (Bill rocked it and drove everyone) - went to bed. I was so happy to sleep! Happy New Years! 

Schweitzer Snow Ghosts

After Christmas, Nana and G Pops headed back to Bozeman to prep for our Butz family Christmas happening on Dec 30-Jan 3rd. 

Bill was on call through Sunday so super early Monday morning we headed up to Schweitzer to get Charlie to his STARS ski camp and for us all to ski. 

We brought Charlie to ski camp on Monday at 8:30am and off he went. Bill and I skied with the girls. At this point - Ellie was still playing her game of where she thought she wasn't good and was acting "scared", etc. We worked with her, but decided it was best to put them both in Kindercamp for the following day so Bill and I could ski together. {as a side note - we would pick charlie up from camp around 11:30 and have lunch with him and then send him back to camp from 12:30-3 -- everytime we picked him up he had snow packed in around his helmet from some faceplant or crash he had, but he also had THE BIGGEST smile on his face. It was delightful to see him so self sufficient and thriving being out there and enjoying the peer pressure skiing. he also turned into a completely different skier! wow}

It was a little foggy here, but we had FUN without the kids on Tuesday! 

We were able to ski with Bill's partner - Neil and his wife Lisa. We love being with them. I am OBSESSED with the trees - they call them Snow Ghosts - which is so fitting. I wanted to bottle them up and take them home! 

This is from our last day at Schweitzer for the week - Wednesday. We were skiing with the girls and I was giddy the blue skies came out. 

Me and my girls! 

Love this photo of Claire. 

Ellie. It was fantastic skiing with the girls on Wednesday - a flip switched for Ellie and she decided to show us what she is made of. She loves finding jumps and going in trees. Just doing those things made her ski like a mad woman. You have to find JUST what motivates a kid. 

After picking Charlie up from ski camp on Wednesday at 3pm we had a packed car and headed out for our long drive to Bozeman.