Pictures that go with last post

Here are the pictures I told y'all about, plus some from a friends' blessing ceremony, who just turned fourteen.
The people in this picture are, from left to right, Rees W. Jacob T. Erin Pollard, me (Kelsey), and my oldest sister, Kendal. Meredith (Alexander) monogrammed these aprons for Elliot's graduation, and us three girls thought we should wear them while we served the refreshments. Thanks Meredith!

                    My friend Cailin G. me, Olivia S. (it was her blessing ceremony) and Kendal.

                                            My good friend, Erin Pollard, myself, and Kendal.

                       This is the hummingbird I caught. It was a female Ruby throated hummingbird. In the picture you can see it's eyes closed from lack of energy.

It isn't actually standing on the perch, it was so weak it just layed on it's belly.

Erin Pollard, Kendal and me at the Pollard's house Friday night.

Joshua and Rebeka Pollard

Abbie Hilton holding the G's baby, Mrs.Hilton, and Mrs. G, on Sunday after church.

Mrs. C's amazing garden.She owns four different flavors of mint!

Left to right, Nate Waller, Luke Hilton, the two Hood brothers, Joshua Waller, and Caleb Waller, who are twins. Their whole family visited our church a while back.

Isaac found a furry little buddy at the Wilsons'. ;)

The crowd in general.

One of Maddie's goats. I don't think it was supposed to be out. ;)

The three legged race.

Little children's tug-of-war.

left to right, me, Morgan Wilson, Rachel Heffington, And Kendal.

Young adults' tug-of-war

Boys' side

While I was with the goats and cows, Kendal watched some of the other people play guitar.(and wished she had brought her own)

Same thing, from other side.

Last weekend

Hello everyone!
A few weeks ago we watched Tangled with our good friends the Larums. Kendal and I really liked the music in it, so Kendal bought the music book. So now we're all walking around singing, "I have a Dream." He he.Kendal tried to teach me how to sing "I see the light" but it didn't work out that well. I usually can't stay in tune on my own, so I just sing what Kendal sings and it usually turns out fine. Only yesterday I was supposed to sing the lower part, and she was singing the higher part, and I kept automatically switching to the higher part. It was pretty frustrating for both of us, in a funny way. Some day I'll get it down though. :)
Last weekend I got to hold a hummingbird! It was really neat! We took pictures, but they're on Mom's computer, so I'll put them on later. We were at our friends the Pollard's house and it had become caught in the space between a widow and the blinds. It was in their garage, so I was able to stand on a toy and after a few tries I got it out. It was sorta funny, because it was sitting on the bottom part of the blinds, (which were pulled up) but when I lowered the blinds so I could get it, it flew back up! It became stuck between two pieces of the blinds though, and I was able to grab it. it was really weak, and it's heart started to slow down alot, but I was able to shove it's beak in their feeder, and it was soon strong enough to fly away! It was a really neat experience, I'm really glad we had the camera with us!
On Sunday a group of people came from Israel, where their ministry is, and after church we went to another friend's house, and had lunch with some people from church and the people that came from Israel. The people were three Waller boys, Luke Hilton, and two Hood brothers. We had a really good time, and we got a few pictures from that day.
On Monday we went to the Wilson's house for their fourth annual Memorial Day celebration.We all had a great time, and the weather was beautiful! They had a dunking booth, a volleyball tournament, three legged races, stilts races, a pie competition,a lumber jack competition, and tug-of-war! For the tug-of-war, they had three categories, little children, young adults, and middle aged men. Us girls won the tug-of-war against the boys in the young adult category. I was really surprised us girls won, since I thought for sure we were going to lose. It was really fun! A little while later I watched Maddie and Hannah milk the goats, and then I helped walk them to their pen. Or rather, they walked me to their pen! ;)  Then I watched Hannah and Maddie milk the cows, and I was their "interviewer" again. :) After that we went back home. We took pictures from that occasion also, so I'll post them with the others, but if you want to see some now, you can go here.Katie Wilson's blog
I hope all of you are doing well!
Kelsey

Random

Recently we've been going to the pool nearly every day. We were all tanning nicely when we went the other day in the morning... and got sunburned. Really sunburned. I layed in the sun for a full hour, and got it the worst. Oh well. Thankfully it is turning into a tan now. :)
Our garden is coming along really well! We have   Swiss chard, tomatoes, cucumbers,squash,lettuce, and spinach.We started nearly all of it from seed, planted right in the ground, and it is growing really fast!
I'll post some pictures soon of what we've been up to.
 I hope all of you have a great weekend!
Kelsey

Yes, We Are Still Alive!

I'm not sure if anyone will read this or not, but yes, Kelsey Butler is still alive, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. ;) I hope all of you are doing well.
We had a great Easter, and I'm pretty sure that Mom had  a good Mother's Day. :)
As all of you know, Osama bin Laden is dead. I have to say when I heard that, I wasn't quite sure what to think. (well to be honest, at first I couldn't even remember who he was)
I think I was about to turn six years old on September 11th. I can remember watching on the News the pictures and things, and a while later in my grandfather's house, looking through the huge book full of pictures about the catastrophe. I really was too little to understand anything about the people who died, or  any of the subjects related.
So, when I heard that Osama was killed, I have to admit that I felt a deep sorrow for him. Since I was to little to understand the hate surrounding the event on Sept. 11th, I didn't feel like rejoicing or anything like that when I heard the news.  I hadn't ever really felt any anger towards him, or any feelings at all for that matter.He had never directly affected my life.  But if he had, I wonder how I would feel now? Would I still feel sorry for him, that he never was able to experience true fulfillment through Christ? Or would I feel like America had had it's revenge on him, like so many others? "Revenge is mine sayeth the Lord."  He's now in hell, where he will stay forever.
Forever is a really powerful word, and I've been thinking about it for a while. I'm going to be in Heaven forever, and I hope you will to, but do you ever think, "It must be boring to be in the same place for forever." Well, let me tell you something! Have you ever had just a really good time, doing something wholesome,and thought, "I could do this for forever and never get bored."  Heaven is going to be something like that, but even better, 'cause it will be forever with you true friend, the one who will never leave you, nor forsake you, the one that you can always count on, and knows everything about you. Just something to think about.
I'm sad that Osama's life was so full of hate; he never had a chance to experience true love for anything worthwhile, because hatred and murder were the driving forces in his life. He thought by killing those people, he could somehow gain a place in paradise. He is now in torment, living a life in hell, which isn't even life: it is a time of continual death, with no relief, whatsoever.  I can understand how people could feel so much anger and hate against him, especially if they had a friend, or loved one who died, or suffered as result of Osama's hate. But if you are angry with someone, you have committed murder against them in your heart, no different than what Osama has done. The only difference is contact, but to God, it is the same.
If you'd like to, you can leave a comment to express your thoughts on the matter.
~Kelsey

Waltzing (by Kendal and Kelsey) This includes a video! :)

Hello, everyone! This is a video we made the other day of Daniel and Anna waltzing. (They are 11 and 9) We think it's pretty cute.

I (Kendal) watched an instructional video on YouTube a few weeks ago on waltzing, and after figuring it out myself, I taught Kelsey, Daniel and Anna. Anna and Daniel looked so cute dancing together that we just had to take a video. :) They are sort of behind the music during almost the whole song, but they at least they were being cooperative with the whole dancing thing. :)
 



Daniel's birthday pictures, and other fun stuff! :)

This is Daniel and Grandma  Butler on Daniel's birthday outing.

This is my littlest sibling, Joshua. He is nine months old, and I think he is the cutest baby ever. ( I know, I'm so modest) ;)

This is my little brother Noah, my great aunt Bess ( grandma's twin sister) and Daniel.

Joshua quietly played through the meal, sitting beside Mama. Okay, I'll admit, it was only for a little while. :) 

My oldest sister, Kendal, Grandma, and me. (Kelsey)

This is Anna and Isaac.

Mary and Joy.

This is D. Dale Sides teaching a neat class we attended a few weeks ago.

Joshua and Daniel

I told Joshua to smile at Mary,and he did!

(and then he growled at her later)

Sweet Anna Grace and Joshua. By then he was tired of having his picture taken and wouldn't smile.



This is "Companion." He is an  amazingly tame pigeon that has been visiting us every once in a while. 



He is also incredibly smart! I was sitting cross legged on our front porch talking to him one morning,and he flew down and sat beside me! So  I patted my knee, hoping he would hop on,and he did! :) He has also clime on Daniel's shoulder,and walked around behind his neck to the other side, and eaten oat bran from  our hands! One day, three of us were siting on the outside ledge of the trampoline, and he flew up and sat beside us!

At first he would only let Noah pet him, but then he gave up and let all of us pet him too.

We now have about six or so of these irises fully bloomed in our yard! Doesn't that fuzy thing in the middle look like some sort of sea creature?

I hope ya'll enjoyed the pictures! Have a great rest of the week ! ~Kelsey

The love of my life... Almost! ;)

I mean who doesn't love chocolate? The big thick bar in the middle is one of the best I've ever had, Daddy found it at Walmart for four dollars, and it was huge! The one on the right is a raspberry chocolate bar, which was really good also! Is your mouth watering yet? ;) ~Kelsey

Random... just for fun ;)

Here are a few random things... I hope you will find them interesting!

~A few months ago, only our service was having communion, instead of all the services. (there are three, plus an evening service) So Daddy was discussing with Mama where he could find Matzo crackers. If you don't know what Matzo crackers are, they're these tasteless wheat crackers made of wheat flour and water... yuck! (if you haven't had them before, be glad, you aren't missing out on anything) Anyhow, after Mama told Daddy where he could find them, she told him she thought they were yucky. If you personally don't know my dad, he is such a servant to others and very friendly, and he loves to make people happy. So, he bought garlic flavored Matzo crackers! (we didn't know he did though) So on Sunday morning, while we were taking communion, after everyone had their "bread" a strange murmur went through the room. We were trying very hard not to laugh, when Pastor Bradd said," I know if I don't say something, someone else will. It seems that the body has some spice this morning!" So then the whole congregation burst out laughing. It was really funny, especially since Daddy is famous in our house for adding strange spices to things.

~The other day Anna found a tiger cowrie shell laying on the kitchen counter. She picked it up and said, "If this was in our house long enough, could we hear people arguing?" It was truly funny, especially since she really thought that one could "hear the ocean" in it because it was in the ocean so long. ;)

~Tomorrow is my brother Daniel's 11th birthday! It is really neat though, because he is turning 11, it is on the 11th, and it is the year 2011! Isn't that cool?

~Kendal invented a new game for us called,"Brainstorm." this is how you play it. You think of a category, like countries, states, trees, plants etc. Then you set a timer for anywhere between one and four minutes, and in that time you have to write down as fast as you can, as many things you can think of that belong in that category. It is alot of fun! It is amazing how hard it is to think of things sometimes though! A really super hard one is, "places where you can buy food, or eat." I won last night with 17! Daddy won the countries and states category with forty some though! :)

~When I was little, the subject of many odd and unusual dreams were the "flying monkeys" from the Wizard of Oz. Daddy said his was the "child snatcher" from Chity chitty bang bang.

~A fun thing that Kendal and I do sometimes is fabric and dress trading. I'm usually the one trading the fabric for dresses though! (and shirts) the other day, I traded some fabric for a new dress, and a short crocheted sweater for a new blouse! I think I got the better part of the deal that time though, because Mama said the blouse looks better on me than it did on her. ;) But the sweater does look good with the dress she made out of fabric I traded her for a matching shirt and skirt she made! I took pictures of all the things we've traded recently, I'll post them soon.

I hope all of you are having a great week! ~Kelsey

Last weekend

Last Sunday we all went to Williamsburgh. We finally had a tour of the Governor's Palace, which was really neat. I was shocked though at how small all the rooms were! The doorways were fairly short also, so the people then must have been pretty petite.We met up with Aunt Carrie and Brian, and we also got to meet their foreign exchange student. Hear are some pictures I took while we were there.I'm sorry for the poor quality of some of the pictures inside the Palace. There was very little lighting inside, and it was a cloudy day.

This is my greatest photographic masterpiece! ;)

Later I might post a few more pictures. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! ~Kelsey