Working in the Trees

G grew up "working" at his grandparents' Christmas Tree Farm.

It is a U-Cut tree farm but he earned $1 for every tree he cut down.

Picture a little guy chasing after families with a saw offering to cut their trees!

Great Pop gave the tree farm to Uncle Greg and after a few years, he decided

to offer it to Uncle Z to run so this year, Uncle Z was the tree farmer

and the Fisher kids LOVED that because they got to work with Uncle Z in the trees

~ handing out candy canes and pruning trees ~

Needless to say, they had a BLAST!!!

 Plus, Uncle Z pays very well!!!

Another plus to working in the trees was walking down the road to play with Great Pop.

The Fisher boys ADORE their Great Pop!!!

Thursdays

Every Thursday afternoon, Eli is on cloud 9 because his great buddy Ava comes over.

These two have known each other since birth and are too cute together!

It works out great as the boys get to play at Ava's house every Monday afternoon, 

and she comes to our house every Thursday (allowing the moms to work in the big sisters' classes).  

Lukey LOVES his Mondays with "Hoober" (Mrs. Huber) 

and Eli CANNOT get enough of his playtime with Ava!

They really are awesome friends and as Alli says, "the Hubers are family!"

Cookie Decorating

Every Christmas season, my Mom bakes gingerbread cookies for the kids to decorate.

I've been decorating cookies for as long as I can remember.

Our kiddos LOVE this and Lukey could not wait to participate this year :-)

We weren't sure if Eli would be able to do it but seemed to be feeling better so it was a go.

All three of them had a blast decorating . . . 

and Luke and Eli LOVE LOTS OF SPRINKLES!

Eli was done after decorating 2 or 3 cookies, Luke came and went, 

but Alli was a decorating machine and got very creative with her cookies.

Mommy decorated some stockings for the G Fisher Fam.

Last year, I decided to buy squeeze bottles for the frosting and it makes it so easy!

Good thing since there were LOTS of cookies to decorate.

Luke was such a little hoot, wanting to show off his cookie masterpiece . . . 

No worries, that little dab of frosting got about half a bottle of sprinkles ;-)

Fun time was had by all!

Plus, Uncle Danny agreed to take A and E shopping with him after they begged.

They had a blast and got new toys but Eli vomited all over Gramma's carpet as soon as they got home, guess the tummy bug wasn't gone.

Then, this evening at bed time, Lukey started vomiting :(

He vomited so many times, one of which had both him and I in the tub.

He's finally sleeping and now I feel sick too ~ bummer!!!

Hoping we all feel better by Christmas.

Snow Day

On what was supposed to be the last day of school for Miss Alli before break,

we woke up to a blanket of white snow, which was still coming down.

We knew it was likely that school would be cancelled but G and I got up to find out.

Nothing on the news about LCS but the school district was delayed 2 hours.

Since it was a half day for us, we figured it was cancelled but still didn't know.

Finally, a little after 6 a.m., we got the email . . . school cancelled.

We knew Alli was NOT going to be happy as it was the day of her Christmas party

and BOTH Mommy and Daddy were going to be there to help with cookie and ornament decorating.

So we did what any good parents would do, we decided not to wake her! HA!

I was in the shower around 8ish when Alli came busting in . . .

"Mommy, it's 8!"  She knows we have to be at school at 8:10.

I asked her if she looked outside yet.  She said no and then got very excited.

"Yeah!  It snowed!  Woo Hoo! . . . So does that mean school is late?"

UGH!

Me:  "No honey, school was cancelled because of the snow."

Alli burst into tears "but my party is today!"

Once realizing that we couldn't change things and Mommy emailing her teacher to ask if we could have a party the week we returned to school (with Mommy promising to run everything!), 

Alli decided to get excited about playing in the snow.

The kiddos were so excited to get on their snow suits but when it actually came time to do it,

poor Eli still wasn't feeling well and couldn't muster the energy :(

Alli and Lukey, however, had a blast in the snow with Daddy!

Lukey was especially excited, this being his first real snow experience!

He LOVED riding in the Escalade with Alli in the snow :-)

Daddy even got them "sledding" with one of our storage bin lids (yes, we need to buy a sled!)

They had such a blast!!!

After a fun morning in the snow, G took Alli and Lukey shopping.

Eli finally started feeling a little better and wanted to play in the snow so out we went.

He had so much fun sliding, making snow angels and building two snowmen.

First we built the little "Eli snowman" then we build the larger "Mommy snowman"

After about 30 minutes, Eli agreed he was cold and ready to come in for hot chocolate.

Sadly, after a few sips, this poor guy was feeling lousy again and back on the couch :(

At least he had a great hour or so of play time and fun in the snow with Mommy!!!

No surprisingly, the snow was all gone by late afternoon.

School definitely did NOT need to be cancelled but it was a fun family day :-)

Eli's Christmas Concert . . . one we will NEVER forget!!!

Tonight was memorable for sure!

To begin, it was Eli's first real Christmas Concert for school.

He has been practicing the songs and motions for weeks, even teaching me.

He could NOT wait for the concert tonight and even willingly took a nap!

We arranged for Miss Kaitlyn to watch Lukey since the concert was at 7:15 p.m.

Eli happily got in his "Christmas sweater" as he calls it and hammed it up for pictures :-)

Seriously, most adorable 4 year old ever!!!

We piled in the car and headed to LCS (Alli's school) where he was having his concert.

Though it was crowded, we got some great seats just a few rows back and anxiously waited.

All was going great!  I even got to visit with my college roommate who was there to see her niece.

Then, it was about to begin and wouldn't you know, Eli was the first on stage!!!

Yep, top row of the riser on the end.

We had a feeling that wasn't going to end well as Eli loves to wiggle.

Well, he started off GREAT, having fun singing and doing the motions ~ such a little ham.

Then he started acting funny . . . we thought he was being goofy at first.

BUT, then he was really acting strangely and rubbing his eyes, even swaying.

Finally, the teacher standing next to him asked if he was okay and his eyes started rolling back.

She immediately grabbed him and brought him down.

Then, beneath the legs and risers, we saw our son vomiting on stage :(

I immediately ran up to the stage to get him.

His assistant teacher (who had been standing behind him the whole time) and I took him to the bathroom.  She said he likely locked his knees and was too hot because of the lights.

I carried him back in and he sang his favorite song "Feliz Navidad" from the audience.

Poor guy!!!

He did fine in the car but vomited again as soon as we got home and then again around 11 p.m.

Looks like the stomach flu :(

"Lucky" for Eli, Uncle Z got the whole thing on video :-)

Fortunately, Eli wasn't bothered by the whole thing at all, just happy to snuggle.

Love this little man so much!!!

Holiday Lights at Wild Waves

What better to do on Friday the 13th than enjoy Holiday Lights at Wild Waves???

 The kiddos all had a great time, and stayed snug and warm in their snow suits :-)

They had a fabulous time on the rides.

As always, the cars, boats, trains and planes were a huge hit!

As was the bouncing frog and kangaroo, which Eli was finally old enough to ride!

There was also a "snow" tent and they LOVED this!

Another high point was visiting the "North Pole" and seeing Santa.

By 9 or so, kiddos (and parents!) were wearing down so it was time for hot chocolate.

Luke liked it the most!

We finally left around 9:30 and the kiddos crashed hard in the car :-)

Another perfect Holiday Lights visit!

Sleepy Boys

Last night was a first for the G Fisher Fam . . . 

After putting the boys to bed, we heard Eli yelling "NO" really loudly,

and then he was yelling "come quick, this is really bad!"

Turns out little Lukey decided to try getting out of his crib 

and was straddling the railing when G got to the room.

Neither Alli or Eli ever tried to get out of the crib!!!

That was the end of the crib.

G got out the tools and took apart the crib that moment and moved in the big boy bed.

While Luke thought that was super fun, he in no way wanted to go to sleep.

Yuck!!!

Poor Eli had to go to sleep in our room while we spent the next couple of hours 

convincing Lukey to sleep.  Fortunately, both boys slept well last night.

Though must not have gotten enough sleep because this is what they are doing right now . . . 

I have to wake them so we can go get Alli but they both look so sweet!

Bitter sweet day.

Fun to see Lukey in his big boy bed but sad to say goodbye to the crib that has been up for seven years in our house :*(  I definitely wasn't ready for that last night, especially with no warning!

Apparently Eli wasn't ready either because he keeps asking if we can keep the crib :-)

Alli's 1st Grade Christmas Concert

On Sunday, we had the privilege of seeing this beautiful little girl 

 celebrate and worship Jesus at her Christmas Concert.

She was so excited and has been singing the songs at home for weeks.

We could not wait to see her sweet performance.

We got there early to get seats near the front and take pictures of our sweet girl.

The boys did very well considering they are 2 and 4 and had to sit still for 2.5 hours :-)

Love Lukey's face in the above picture.  He insisted on being in the pic with Alli but refused to smile!

The Concert was amazing and we were blown away by all the students but our favorite part was when the Kindergarten - Fourth Grade performed O Holy Night, Whatcha Gonna Call that Boy, Welcome to Our World and Go Tell It on the Mountain.

Sweet Alli sang her heart out and I swear we could hear her voice above all others!!!

Such a great way to start the Christmas season!

Santa Visit 2013

Another fabulous visit with Santa at the Log Cabin

So we didn't actually get Lukey to really smile in any of the photos, but he was super excited to see Santa this year and had a great time giving Santa his list ~ huge improvement over last year!!!

All of the kids worked hard on their lists this year, and the boys drew pictures for Santa.

Alli insisted on doing her list all by herself this year :-)

Santa was so patient as they showed him their lists and they talked about their wishes.

It was a perfect visit!

No tears and everyone happy!!!
Thanks Santa!

Fun with Pottery

This afternoon, Alli and I picked up her good buddy Alaina for a visit to Java & Clay.

The girls had a blast painting pottery!

They were so cute painting their giraffe (Alli) and Hello Kitty (Alaina).

Both girls are quite artistic!

After they finished their masterpieces, we enjoyed some hot chocolate.

A very fun afternoon and just what the girls needed!!!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Yesterday, during half-time of the Apple Cup, we picked out our Christmas Tree.

Normally, this is a long process of hunting through all the trees,

while Garrett explains to all of us why the ones we chose won't work, but not this time.

Nope, Garrett simply said okay when I said we wanted the beautiful one right by the road.

Maybe he was just so happy that the Cougs were up going into half-time {so sad that it didn't last}

 that he wasn't his usual "critical eye for trees" self but we NEED that Garrett back

because I apparently have NO concept of size ~ our tree is HUGE!!!

Last night was almost comical as we lovingly {sort of!} joked that we got a Griswold tree.

Really, it is gigantic ~ took up half the living room, 

so we moved out the dining room table and set it up in there with the Christmas train table.

In there, it looks stunning and the kiddos LOVE it so much!

They could not wait to decorate it so tonight we got in Christmas PJs,

 blared the Christmas music and got to decorating Griswold.

The Bigs were so into decorating this year and were a hoot to listen to as they 

squealed and reminisced about each of their ornaments.

Mommy even put on a couple ornaments, though mostly just the red balls at the end :-)

Eli's real joy came from getting to put the star on top for the second year in a row . . . 

He felt like such a big helper today . . . first hanging lights outside with Daddy and then the star!

Of course, the little turkeys goofed off plenty too.

Fortunately, only one ornament broke and it was a boring red ball.  Luke was quick to help clean up!

So here is Griswold, all decorated and lovely . . . 

It's starting to grow even on me!!!

Grandparents' Day Video

LCS Grandparents' Day - 2013

Another FABULOUS day for Alli and her four grandparents.

{She missed Great Pop being there but understood}

This year, her class performed a skit about the first Thanksgiving, sang songs, 

recited bible verses and read stories with their grandparents.  

Alli started reading a book she had never read before and then decided it would make more sense to read her grandparents one she had practiced ~ much better choice ;-)

It was fun for all!!!

Veteran's Day

"While we are grateful to all the brave men and officers . . . we should, above all, be very grateful to Almighty God, who gives us victory."

Abraham Lincoln

 Once again, Daddy and Ducky Papa were honored, along with many other Veterans, at Alli's
Veterans' Day Chapel at school this year.
Alli LOVES having her Daddy and Papa come to Chapel with her.
It is such a special day where the students thank the Veterans and worship God.

Papa didn't have to carry the flag this year, but Daddy did!  He did a great job too!

It was really neat watching the Marine carry the flag as he was a student's great grandpa

(96 years old!) and WWII vet.

 

Lukey had a great time playing with Gramma during Chapel and eating the treats after :-)

 

It was an honor to celebrate the Veterans and thank God for His faithfulness.



Star of the Week: Eli

The week of September 30th, Eli was so excited to be the Star of the Week at Preschool.

That Sunday (before Church) he decided to decorate his poster.

He took this task VERY seriously and thought hard about his answers,

while big sister sat next to him trying so hard to give ideas ;-)

We got such a kick out of his answers!

He was so proud of his finished product and could not wait to take it to school the next day.

Part of the joy was sitting in the rainbow chair all week and sharing his poster with the class.

He worked so hard that he wanted it laminated and hung in his bedroom,

so of course that is where it is now :-)

The Last Day of a One Year Old for the G Fisher Fam . . .

October 28, 2013

Luke Daniel Fisher

"last day as a one year old"

 As you can see, he thoroughly enjoyed this day and 

he fact that it is so close to Halloween that he gets to enjoy Candy Corn ;-)

We were all pretty excited to celebrate the last day of having a one year old in the Fisher household.

Then again, Mommy may have been quite a bit sappy too, after all, this is my last "baby" {sniff}

Can't stop the clock but I do wish I could slow it down just a bit!!!

Oh well, he's going to make one very cute two year old as well,

and he already has the two year old attitude at times ;-)

But tell me this is not the sweetest ever . . . 

He loves practicing his animal sounds so I decided to ask what Mommy says

"Love you"

Too, too sweet!!!