Wichita Move Part 2 - G Makes the Move

Very early this morning {2:15am} I said "see you later" to the love of my life.

Thankfully, G's brother was kind enough to drive him to the airport.

As G embarks on this adventure, the kiddos and I are anxiously awaiting his Labor Day visit :-)

14 Glorious Years

Tonight, we got to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary with a quiet dinner for two at one of our favorite waterfront restaurants thanks to our best man (Uncle Z) who graciously agreed to watch the three little fish for a couple of hours.  It was a perfect evening!!!

Our sweet pink fish was our photographer and dictated our poses :-)

Yard Work Helper

This August we will have lived in our house for 6 years,

and for 6 years my hubby has been promising we would landscape behind our back wall.

Last summer, we cleared it (actually, we paid Kaitlyn's little brother to do it).

This spring, we finally added dirt (which Eli LOVED)

A huge pile of dirt provided hours of fun ~ digging, climbing, sliding down = F.U.N. Fun!!!

Following Daddy with many loads was also fun!

Finally, after 6 years of "planning," today was the day for buying and planting ~ YEAH!!!

Mommy placed plants where she wanted them, but the boys were in charge of planting.

 While Lukey napped (and Alli was with Barbie Gramma) these two handsome men worked hard.

Okay, the big guy worked hard and the little guy had fun with worms and asking questions:-)

Daddy found lots of worms while digging and Eli could not get over how cool this was!

He LOVES worms :-)

Our plants are small, and it may be another 6 years before it looks complete, but it's finally on the way and I could not be happier.  Poor G on the other hand has a sore back but a very appreciative wife!!!

Building El Chupacabra

Once again, the kiddos LOVED building their planes at 

This time, G decided needed some extra helping hands and Barbie Pop Pop was happy to come.

Daddy did plenty of help building but he was behind the camera ;-)

Eli has been having a blast flying Dusty "Grampopper" and El Chu.

Our Little Builders

After seeing Planes, the kiddos were even more excited to go build "Dusty" with Daddy at

Garrett said they both had a blast and Eli has been playing with Dusty "gramhopper" nonstop!

{I absolutely LOVE the names he comes up with!!!}

They had so much fun that they will be going back next weekend to build Dusty's pal.

Have I mentioned what an amazing Daddy G is?!?!?!

 



Daddy Daughter Dance

The third year of the Daddy-Daughter Dance was a huge hit!

Alli could not wait to wear her new, fancy, pink dress.

The sun was shining, it was warm and Daddy and Alli were so excited for their big date!

Alli felt like such a little princess that she had to show off her graceful dance moves in the street.

Of course, no dance would be complete without Mommy taking loads of pictures of Alli with her date! 

I think it is safe to say Alli is definitely a Daddy's girl!!!

Eli, on the other hand, was not interested in posing for any pictures ~ he wanted to get back to his cars!!!

No real pictures from the dance itself as Daddy and Alli were too busy dancing and giggling.

I hear that Alli really has some moves now!

After the dance, the two enjoyed some yummy frozen yogurt with the Huber gals.

Alli said it was an awesome night and both had lots of fun!

Happy Birthday Garrett!!!

Today is your birthday.

Today you are YOU,

that is truer than true.

There is NO ONE alive who is 

YOUER than YOU!

― Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday to the BEST

Husband, Daddy, Son, Brother and Friend 

we could ask for!!!

We LOVE you so much Garrett and are so grateful for another year with you!

Video of G's Tough Mudder Fun

Here's a video that Troy (one of G's buddies)

put together of the crew doing the Tough Mudder last weekend . . .

 

Definitely fun to watch!

G is one Tough Mudder!

This weekend, G had the chance to go down to CA to meet up with some Air Force buddies 

for the Tough Mudder Challenge

Although he is a bit sore now, he finished and had a great time with the guys!
The kiddos were so excited when he got home yesterday afternoon and loved trying on his
official, finishing headband . . .

Eli even decided he needed to wear it to bed but I missed getting his picture.  

Thankfully, I was able to convince him to hang it on his bed when it was time to go to sleep!

I hear there are some great videos of the many obstacles and cannot wait to see them.

11 Years and going strong . . .

So much has changed since we said "I do" eleven years ago . . .

We moved to the East Coast, returned to the West Coast, completed grad school (both of us), started new careers, went from being a full time military family to a part-time (Reserve) military family, suffered through infertility and a miscarriage, had three kiddos, lost our cat, bought a house,

and so much more. 

Through it all, we've made an amazing team!

Love that Alli jumps in the anniversary picture every year ;-)

Lukers was down for the night and Eli was way too busy eating his pizza to jump in the photo! 

We enjoyed a fabulous dinner at Stanley and Seaforts!

Cannot wait to see what the future holds for us . . .



Happy Birthday Garrett!

On January 11th, we celebrated the birth of my handsome hubby.

Given that we are not brave enough to go out to eat with three munchkins, we celebrated at home.

Garrett wanted Qdoba for dinner and was nice enough to pick it up on the way home from work!

He requested chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches for his dessert and informed me that he likes my cookies but my mom's are the best!  Thankfully, my wonderful mom was kind enough to make not only the cookies but she assembled the ice cream sandwiches as well ~ thank you Mom!!!!

I thought the tea light candle was quite creative ;-)

While Eli and Luke napped, Alli and I had decorated the house and made/wrapped presents.

Alli made and wrapped her presents for her Daddy all by herself and did a fabulous job!

She was so proud of her work and G loved it all . . .

She is such a creative and artistic little gal!

Eli had to get in on the unwrapping action too . . .

We attempted to get some cute pictures of G with the three munchkins but Eli was less than cooperative :-)

 All in all, it was a great celebration for the world's best (in our opinion!) hubby and Daddy!

Garrett's Promotion

With the excitement of Eli's 2nd birthday, I forgot to mention that at the end of the day on Friday (July 15th), Garrett received a promotion from Honeywell to Operations Manager (essentially the second in charge at the Renton site).  A couple weeks ago, when the Operations Manager resigned, management and HR approached G and asked him to apply for the position.  After about 4 or 5 rounds of interviews, he was offered the job.  In addition to increased responsibilities and a raise, he gets an extra week vacation each year ~ the biggest plus and a very nice surprise!!!  We are so proud of him!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Fathers' Day to our wonderful Dads and of course, the world's best Daddy :-)

G's best present this year was finding out that our little Guppy is another BLUE fish!!!

Let's just say that the little guy takes after his big brother and was not shy at all ;-)

10 years ago today . . .

I was spending the morning with some very lovely ladies 

as I anxiously awaited the moment when I could walk down the aisle to marry this handsome man

Just a few short hours later, my dream came true

Now, here I am 10 years later, anxiously awaiting the return of my one true love and best friend

as he is currently in Arizona on business but due home this evening ;-)

The past 10 years have been an amazing journey, that, although not always easy or fun, has always been one worth taking and I cannot wait to see what the future journey holds for us.

I love you more now than I could have ever imagined Garrett!!!

Our trip to Cannon Beach

As we mentioned in a previous post, we decided to celebrate our 10 year anniversary a weekend early and drove down to the Oregon Coast at the recommendation of our friends. WOW! They could not have recommended any place better than The Stephanie Inn in Cannon Beach. It was absolutely amazing!

The above pictures are the backside of The Stephanie Inn (taken from the beach) and G enjoying the fabulous view of the beach and Haystack Rock from our patio.  It was so relaxing and peaceful!

We arrived Saturday afternoon and immediately went to the beach.  It was such a sunny day.

A bit chilly but the clear blue sky and sunshine more than made up for it! 

We checked into our room and found a lovely anniversary present waiting for us . . .

They knew we are expecting as I had to book the prenatal massage ~ how sweet is that????

Once settled, our massage therapists came to our room to get us for our massages ~ they were Heavenly!

We were so relaxed.  After getting cleaned up, we enjoyed the complimentary wine (I had sparkling cider!) and appetizers in the library/game room before heading back to the beach where my crazy hubby decided he had to go for a swim ~ BRRRRRRR!  I was content to stay on the beach and take pictures ;-)

 We had dinner at the dining room in the Inn that evening and the food was so yummy.

As with everything else, the service was above and beyond.  On our dessert plate, they had written Happy Anniversary in chocolate ~ we loved all of the personal touches!

After dinner, we enjoyed the complimentary night caps (more sparkling cider for me!) and chatted with a lovely couple from Bellevue (the husband works for Merrill Lynch so we had lots to chat about).

That night, we watched a great movie Social Network about Facebook.  Okay, so I fell asleep halfway through it but G was willing to watch the second half with me again in the morning ~ such a great hubby!

After enjoying the incredibly yummy, complimentary breakfast, we spent more time on the beach.

 Once again, my handsome and somewhat crazy hubby decided to go for a swim while I took pictures.

While we were there, we decided to try and get a couple "belly shots" of our little Guppy.  Sorry to disappoint but I still don't have much of a belly ~ oh well!  Gotta love the background though ;-)

It was hard to leave as we had such a wonderful time together there, so much so that we decided to return for my birthday weekend and already booked the exact same room!  The kiddos were happy to see us though when we returned and as much fun as we had, home is always great too!

It was just so nice to spend the time together reflecting over the past 10 years of marriage.

Celebrating 10 Years of Marriage

So our anniversary isn't actually until June 16th, but G and I decided to celebrate this weekend by going to the Stephanie Inn in Cannon Beach, OR.

What an AMAZING weekend we had!!!

We drove down Saturday morning, enjoyed walking around downtown and having lunch at a local brewhouse before checking into our hotel, which was the BEST we have ever experienced.  We thoroughly enjoyed our massages that afternoon, relaxed by the ocean and had a fabulous dinner.

We could not have asked for a better weekend.  We loved it so much that we decided to return in September to celebrate my birthday.  Such great service that made for the perfect romantic weekend!

Major (select) Fisher

I love this picture of Captain Fisher at a luau in Iraq in 2005

Garrett found out today that he is being promoted to Major (O-4) in the Air Force.

We are so proud of him!!!

Not sure when he'll "pin on" those gold clusters, but as soon as he does, the bars will be replaced by

Until then, he is Major-Select Fisher.

Daddy Daughter Dance

This evening was the annual Daddy-Daugther Dance in Port Orchard.

This was the first year Alli & G went.

All day long, Alli was bouncing off the walls, soooooo excited for the dance.

She desperately wanted to get in her dress but settled for her new bathrobe until after she ate.

Alli & G before the dance

Smooches for Daddy.

Practicing their dance moves ~ I'm not sure who was more excited!

All ready for her first dance ~ my baby girl is growing up so quickly!

Of course, she had to throw in a silly face to remind me she is only four ;-)

Enjoying punch and cookies with E and her "very best friend A" before boogying.

In nearly every picture, these two are holding hands while dancing ~ too cute!

Really getting into the dancing

Dancing with Daddy to Somewhere Over the Rainbow

After the dance, the Rutherford crew decided to go to Cold Stone for ice cream and fountain fun . . .

I think these smiles sum up the evening perfectly!!!

Alli crashed when she got home but not before telling me how much fun she had.

I think she and G are already looking forward to next year's dance ;-)