Alli's Christmas Choir Concert 2015

One of the biggest disappointments with the move to Kansas was that Alli wasn't going to have a Christmas Concert.  Anyone who knows Alli, knows how much this sweet girl LOVES to sing and perform.  The new school only does a concert for K-2nd grade and by the time we return to WA, she will only get to do the Lighthouse concert if she joins choir {which she may not desire if she inherited her Mommy and Daddy's singing ability!}  She was completely bummed :(

THEN . . . we got an email from our church that any child K - 3rd grade who wanted to perform in the Christmas concert at church was welcome ~ woo hoo!!!!!  Alli was super excited!

Tonight was the first performance and she was precious!

She was so happy to be on stage and sang her little heart out! 

We all loved watching her and the boys made for a great cheering section :-)

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Eli's bow tie and so did he ~ I'm ready to find more in lots of colors ;-)

After the concert, all three little fish were happy to munch on cookies . . . 

Can't wait for tomorrow's performance!

Eli's Kindergarten Christmas Concert

Last night this adorable little man had his Kindergarten Christmas Concert at CCA.

He was so excited to get dressed up and "look like Daddy!"

He is such a handsome little man and looked so dapper in his first tie!!!

He was so cute playing with his little buddies before the concert began :-)

We are so grateful at how quickly he has adjusted to his new school.

I have to admit that I felt more than a twinge of sadness as we got there and were sitting near the middle, only needing four seats.  Just another reminder that we weren't at Lighthouse or near family anymore.  We had bought front row seats for the Lighthouse Christmas Concert this year at the auction and the whole family was so excited for that.  Don't worry, my pity party didn't last long and I thoroughly enjoyed this adorable little Kindergartener performer! :-)

He sang his little heart out and was so precious!

So hard to get good pictures at these concerts ;-)

After the concert, we had fun taking little family pictures.

{photo by Alli}

I think the picture I got of G with his munchkins is beyond precious!!!

We got home a little after 8 and despite it being past bedtime, the little fish were wound up!

Of course, they had to eat again too {stalling} but they must have been hungry because they all downed their bananas ;-)

Definitely a GREAT night for our sweet Kindergarten boy!!!

Christmas Morning

It was another glorious Christmas morning in Casa de Fisher.

We told the kiddos not to get up before 7am due to our late night and they came bounding in our room at 7:02 a.m. ~ such good little listeners.  Our rule is that we all go downstairs together and Daddy takes our "stair picture."

The three little fish were so excited to see if Santa came . . . he did!

They had a blast opening their gifts and playing.

Transformers, Rescue Bots, Dolls, Crafts, Cars, Clothes, Books . . . FUN!

They were also extremely excited to give the gifts they had bought or made for others.

So precious!

 G surprised me with new running shoes that feel so great!  I tried them out and no knee pain ~ YEAH!!!

 G's gifts mostly focused on his new smoker.  He was thrilled and plans on trying it out tomorrow!

 We always open our stockings last and the kiddos LOVE finding 

gum, toothbrushes, candy and other fun little gifts.

After opening gifts, we had our big Christmas breakfast, finished our Christmas devotionals and finally got to put Baby Jesus on our advent calendar ~ the kiddos argue so much over who gets to put up Baby Jesus, so this year Mommy did it!

After breakfast, the kiddos settled down to watch Alli's new Barbie movie and play.

Super relaxing and fun!

One of best parts of this Christmas morning was that Daddy finally matched the rest of us in our Christmas PJs.  Usually we wear our matching Hanna Andersson long john style PJs but G has always refused to wear those so this year when he said he would wear lounge-style PJs if I made them, of course I had to do that.  The kiddos were so excited to get in their new PJs last night!

Such a fun, silly time we had dancing around in our matching PJs!

Santa Visit 2014

 Our 6th year visiting Santa at the Log Cabin was a success!

 All three kiddos were excited to give Santa their lists but Luke could hardly contain himself.

As soon as the family before us started to leave, he shot off my lap and scurried over to Santa with his list that had only one item on it ~ Grimlock, a Dinobot Transformer.  We looked over and there he was, chatting away with Santa about Transformers.  Too, too cute!!!

Big brother went next and Eli was excited because he wrote his own list this year!

He wants all Transformers from Santa . . . Optimus Prime, Bumble Bee and Omega Supreme.

That last one, Omega Supreme was hard to get when G was a kid, even harder now (going for over $300 up to thousands on Ebay for used ones and you can't get them new!)

Luckily, he accepted Santa's comment that we don't always get everything on the list 

and surprises are fun too :-)  Silly boy would NOT look at the camera but still very cute!

 Alli patiently (or not so much!) waited for her turn to share her list with Santa,

which she made into a scroll this year.  On her list is new rainbow goggles, a marker maker, dresses for her dolls, a gymnastics suit and her ultimate wish is a So Truly Real Linda Murray Doll.

We love that she is still a little girl asking for little girl stuff!

Three very cute 'lil fish with jolly, old St. Nick.

Such a fun visit once again!!!

The fun continued in the evening when we went downtown for the tree lighting celebration 

and enjoyed a tractor pulled hayride.  It is the most wonderful time of the year!

LCS Christmas Concert 2014

Last night was Alli's Christmas concert and she was darling.

She picked out her dress this year and was so excited to wear it.

The girl has her own style and Mommy is trying to back off and let her have fun :-)

 It was a LONG night, with the concert taking nearly 2 hours and Alli's part was the last 10 minutes.

All of the kiddos did fairly well considering how long they had to sit there quietly.

Alli was super excited to get roses from her fan club after the concert.

 Poor Luke was done for by the end so no pictures of him, but he was there climbing on Uncle Z.

Also part of the fan club was Barbie Pop Pop, Uncle Z and Uncle Tony :-)

After the concert we were so hungry and enjoyed some yummy Mexican food at a local restaurant.  

It was donating a portion of the proceeds to the school so we saw lots of friends.

A very fun and tiring evening!

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!!!

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.

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!

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!

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!!!