My Big Brother Scott

I just realized that I had gone through the whole day and didn't look at the calendar. My mom posted a picture on Facebook and helped me remember that today was the day my oldest brother Scott passed away 35 years ago. He was just 3 years old and passed away from leukemia. I was obviously not around, but i love to hear stories of his sweetness and rambunctiousness. My mom says he was very big for his age ( I kinda think this runs in my family) and as you can see, just so handsome.

Scott Butler

 As I've been thinking about him, I've really been overcome with emotion.  Wishing that I could have met him and had one more big brother to watch over me and to tease the heck out of me. My parents are such wonderful people and have endured many trials. Yet, you would never know that unless you knew them closely. I admire their strength and their faith. I know that someday our family will all be united again. We have a lot of catching up to do Scotty, love you!

Thomas Family Reunion

This past weekend was the Thomas family reunion near Young, AZ. This is something that we really look forward to each year. We cut the trip one night short, because we didn't want to endure another cold night with Makenna hardly sleeping. We still had a great time being with family and enjoying the mountains.

 Grandma and Makenna

 At the creek

 Wow! It's Cold

 Hey, This is kinda fun!

 I love how brad's face is so happy when he is playing sports

Kids playing in the lodge

 Saturday night, Brad's Uncle Robert and Aunt Kim put on a carnival with lots of games inside the lodge. Makenna was having fun watching everybody.

Trying her first taste of Cotton Candy

Makenna's First Hair Cut

For quite a while now Makenna has had an issue with pulling out her hair. Lately it has been getting worse, like a big chunk in the back missing worse. So to try to help her break the habit we cut her hair. Honestly I'm quite attached to her hair, her hair has been freakishly long for a baby her age and makes her unique. So the hair cut was harder for me than her (actually she doesn't seem to care one bit).

 First off. What kind of 10 month old has this long of hair?! It is down past her shoulder blades. Second notice the big chunk missing toward the left side.

 She did pretty great. Brad helped to distract and she watched her little people movie and wiggled just a bit.

 It turned out to be like a little A Line bob, with the hair shorter in the back and longer in the front.

It's not completely even but it will have to do for now. 

Hopefully this helps, otherwise we will have to keep cutting shorter. She looks cute with her new style and not as straggly, so that's good. 

Yep, It's Grand!

Our labor day was spent at one of the world's wonders, and Arizona's claim to fame, The Grand Canyon.  To say the least we were not disappointed by its grandness. It was very crowded and there definitely were more foreigners there than Americans. Brad and I have both lived in Arizona our whole lives and we feel happy now that we can say we have been there.

 It was neat to see the view from the rim.

 but it was even more neat to hike down a little ways into the canyon. Makenna enjoyed the ride and kept slapping Brad's back like to tell him to giddy up.

August

 My friend Shan and I took the girls shopping with us and they sure were wiped out after running errands.

 Here is Makenna eating spaghetti, she was being a little bit of a cheese.