"B" is for Button

Three years ago, when Eli was in the 4s Preschool class, we made 

Eli was super excited to go to JoAnn Fabrics to pick out buttons for his shirt and loved wearing it.

Last year, when Lukey was in the 3s class, he was excited to wear it.

When he found out he got to wear it again today, he was ecstatic.

The Fisher boys LOVE the button shirt. 

And the Fisher Momma is super excited with how well it has held up! 

Luke's First Week of 4s Preschool

After what felt like an eternity to this sweet boy, he finally started 4s Preschool on Wednesday.

It is tough being the youngest sometimes ;-)

Lukey was beyond excited to start school and see his buddies.

Seriously, he could not stop grinning all morning.

Thankfully, the bigs were happy to pose with Luke and the school signs.

After we dropped off the bigs, we had 15 minutes to wait before Luke's class started.

15 minutes is VERY LONG to a 3 year old so we took selfies to pass time . . . 

He is such a goofball but reminds me so much of his Daddy in the first pic!

Needless to say, he had a great time once he finally got into class.

Time passed quickly and soon he was coming back out . . . 

Wednesdays are also gymnastics day so to pass time, we went to Lighthouse to have lunch with Alli.

He sat right up at the 3rd grade table and had a great time with Alli and her buddies.

Gymnastics was awesome because he got to be line leader ~ big stuff!

Then it was back to Lighthouse to help with Kindergarten library time, 

it is so much fun to be there with Eli!!!

Before we knew it, the bigs were done with school and it was time for our first Cross Country practice ~ I'm one of the Kindergarten coaches and Lukey is my assistant ;-)

Eli did such a great job and Luke was a great coach!

Alli had a blast as always.

After Cross Country, we went to Subway where the munchkins inhaled their food.

After our snack, it was off to Alli's gymnastics and Eli's soccer practice.

Lukey stayed awake the whole time but crashed when we finally got home.

All in all, great first day but Wednesdays are going to be busy!!!

Today was another great day at school for Lukey . . . it was show and tell!

He was so proud to bring in Boulder (Rescue Bot) and share it with his buddies.

This afternoon, he was so excited to tell me how he had a "very important job" today.

When I asked him to tell me about it, he explained that he was the Caboose.

{I had actually known about this as his teacher let me know he took his job very seriously!}

I told him that sounded very important.  

He told me it was and that he "didn't even go potty once" 

when it was time for him to do his job ~ apparently this was an issue 

at times with other Caboosers when Eli was in the 4s class :-)

It was such a hoot listening to Luke and Eli discuss this!

While Lukey and Alli were in class this morning, Eli and Mommy had "special time."

I scored some major points at Target when I agreed to buy Star Wars Mac-n-Cheese :-)

Then, we headed to Toys R Us so Eli could spend his birthday gift card.

Star Wars Legos and a Nerf Blaster made for a very happy boy.

Lukers was only too happy to see his brother's new goodies when we picked him up from school.

These boys LOVE their Star Wars Legos!

Overall assessment of Luke's first week in the 4s class = 2 thumbs up!!!

He had THE BEST time and can't wait for Monday.

Last Day of Summer Vacation 2015

I cannot believe how quickly this Summer vacation flew by!!!

On our last official day of Summer vacation, we decided to squeeze in lots of fun :-)

The morning started with Lukey's "Meet the Teacher"

Lukey is so excited for school to start and chatted nonstop in the car on the way there but then acted shy when we got to his classroom.  That didn't last long as he headed for the blocks and began playing.  The morning got even better when his best buddy from last year showed up, turns out their in class together again this year and they had a blast building (and destroying!) block towers.  Two new little boys joined in the action and the four of them appear that they will be great buddies :-)

He also had a blast making a "snake" bracelet with Mommy.

After a fun morning, we grabbed the bigs from the Ellis Fam and we all headed to Chuck E Cheese.

2 moms + 7 excited kiddos + lots of other families with the same ideas makes for a fun afternoon :-)

These four loved being in a cage :-)

After a couple of hours of playing, 

we parted company and I took the kiddos to BluBerry's for some frozen treats.

Always a hit!  Once again, Lukey ate all the candy and none of the frozen yogurt ~ silly boy!

With all of that fun, I guess we wore out the little guy ;-)

Poor guy crashed in the car and continued snoozing on the couch for over an hour, 

until it was time to leave for karate (bigs) and Ducky Gramma's (Luke).

While Luke snoozed, the bigs took the opportunity to play with buddies and Alli insisted on taking pictures of Mommy on the last day of Summer vacation too . . . 

Gotta love the silly face! :-)

After karate, the bigs and I enjoyed a fun dinner talking about what we looked forward to most in the coming school year ~ lunch, recess and friends are high on both their lists :-)

Then it was time to read "The Kissing Hand" and a special note from Miss Huber,

complete with "magic confetti" to help Eli sleep.

They are both zonked now and hopefully dreaming of a great 1st day of school.

Praying for a great first day for all!

Back to School Night 2015

Hard to believe it is already time for Back to School Night again but that it is!

Our 4th LCS Back to School Night ~ WOW!!!

The kiddos were super excited to see friends and "meet" their teachers.

Well, Lukey was simply excited for the ice cream that came at the end of the evening :-)

 Playing on the Playground before the festivities began was fun for all.

Eli was particularly excited for his very 1st LCS Back to School Night and seeing his classroom.

Hanging out with Miss Huber {aka Miss Kaitlyn} was exciting for all of us!

Eli was so precious sitting at his chair and listening so intently.

How is it possible that my sweet little man is starting Kindergarten?!?!?!?!

Alli's biggest excitement of meeting her teacher was getting to pick her own desk.

She made sure to sit next to two good buddies and is hoping that she gets to stay there.

3rd Grade seems so much older to me ~ how did she grow up so quickly????

Aaahhhh!  Time is passing so fast, wish I could slow it down just a bit ;-)

Praying for a wonderful 2015-2016 school year for the little fish.

I must admit though that I did tear up a bit knowing we will only be at LCS for 2 months this year.

Mommy Son Weekend

Garrett and Alli are enjoying a fabulous Daddy Daughter Campout this weekend 

so the boys and I are having our own fun this weekend :-)

We played outside in the sun yesterday then went bowling and to the Family Pancake House for dinner.  We had the best time and the boys were super excited to run into Mr. Roddy at the restaurant. 

The boys were so cute at the bowling alley and I did pretty well, scoring 101.

Eli likes to drop the ball with a thump and Luke pushes it so it goes VERY slowly, a couple times I wasn't sure the ball would get to the pins.  They had the best time, it was AWESOME!!!

Despite it being late when we got home, we decided to play in the sandbox before tubby time.

It was such a fun evening!

The fun continued this morning when we went to Lowes and sat on "tractors"

They were so good while we shopped and had a great time sitting on the riding mowers.

This afternoon, the boys headed to the beach with Barbie Gramma and Grandpa while I worked on Garrett's Father's Day gift . . . new shelves for his smoker (hope he likes it!)  

Turns out I can use power tools and levels pretty well :-)

After I finished, I drove to the beach to have dinner with the family.

The boys told me all about their fun afternoon of searching for shells, gooey ducks and crabs.

They were exhausted and went straight to bed when we got home.

Garrett & Alli get home tomorrow evening and we cannot wait to be reunited,

though we have truly enjoyed our Mommy & Boys weekend!

Our Mini Builders

This morning was so much fun as we headed to Lowe's to build Monster Trucks.

Garrett has taken the bigs before but this was a first for Mommy & Lukey.

There was much excitement and anticipation.

All was going so well as Daddy helped Lukey while Mommy took pictures and helped the bigs with the occasional nail as they could "do it without help!" :-)

Lukey LOVED being able to build.

 Eli had a blast and let me help start the nails on the wheels and help with stickers :-)

Our poor little Alli was doing so great until she hit her finger with a hammer and got a blood blister.  Apparently she has her Mommy's queasiness when it comes to that as she lost all color in her face, was dizzy and felt like she was going to be sick ~ poor thing spent the rest of the build on the ground and even laid down for a bit when we got home.  I was so similar when I got a blood blister (also 8 years old!)

She couldn't even muster a smile for the final picture.  

I have to chuckle that this really was the best we could do for a picture of all three ;-)

Luckily, the rest of day went much better for Alli and all three little fish enjoyed a sunny afternoon of playing outside with friends.  All three are excited for their next build in two weeks!

Diapers are a thing of the past!!!

This incredibly adorable little man is now a proud member of the big boy undies club!

Although he is still two, Lukey desperately wants to go to preschool in the Fall just like big brother.

Eli's school agreed to put him in the 3's class despite not being 3 because they saw how ready he was this year as he begged to stay in school with his big bro each day BUT the caveat was that he had to be fully potty trained.  I truly thought this would be a deal breaker but we explained to Luke that if he wanted to go to school (he does!), he had to go big boy potty.

I planned to start it in August but the Wednesday (July 23rd) after we got home from Disneyland, 

I got the crazy idea that I might as well just give it a try then so on went the undies.

So I couldn't turn back, I had Eli take all of our diapers down to our neighbor for her little guy.

We decided to use the 3 Day Potty Training method with Luke since we had a deadline.

It definitely took longer than three days but in less than a week, he figured it out!

We tried M-n-Ms as the potty prizes with little excitement but he was all over stickers.

A friend had given us a bunch of Toy Story Stickers and Luke found them July 28th.

When he asked if he could have one, I said sure when he went potty.

Well he was all over that!

Beginning that morning, he would come running to tell me when he had to go potty.

He is even staying dry all night now :-)

Who knew that printing out a picture of Buzz Lightyear and putting stickers on it could be so cool?!?!

The ultimate potty prize was a big Buzz Lightyear toy just like Eli's from Disneyland.

Lukey finally earned that this week and the boys LOVE playing "big Buzz" together.

Although it is hard to believe we are done with this "baby" stage, the diapers will NOT be missed.

We are all so proud of our big boy!!!

Books, Spinning and Chocolate

Need I say more???

After VBS today, we went to the library to pick up some books the kiddos had on hold.

We got there about 15 minutes before the library opened so we walked over to "dizzy" park.

The three of them LOVE spinning :-)

Since we were going to the library, no arguing when I said it was time to go ~ score!

After getting the books, the kiddos said they wanted ice cream and I decided to say "YES!"

{Note that this gave me super cool mom status for the afternoon}

We walked to the new public market and found ice cream.

Alli is her Mommy's girl . . . choosing vanilla, while the boys wanted chocolate.

As we were getting the ice cream we ran into two of our favorite people:

Pastor George and Norma, we were all thrilled.

After visiting a bit, we headed back toward the marina to enjoy the ice cream.

Needless to say, Lukey got a tubby as soon as we got home!

Fun afternoon!!!

Little Bro

It can be tough being the little brother and having to watch from the side lines . . . 

Luke LOVES to play ball with Daddy and Eli at home, and he's pretty good!

This weekend, Eli had two t-ball games and Luke wanted nothing more than to join the team.

He walked around wearing Eli's batting helmet 

and at one point nearly broke my heart as he told me 

"I'll be bigger, I play t-ball too!"

All weekend he told us 

"I big Lukey, I play t-ball now?!?!?"

So hard to tell this sweet face that while he can play at home, he's just not old enough to be on Eli's team.  

Shoot, Eli is one of the youngest on the team.

Your time is coming soon sweet boy!

Fun Family Weekend with SNOW!!!

Our weekend started out great with Friday Family Fun Night.

The kiddos were geared up for pizza and a movie but poor Lukey didn't quite make it . . . 

The little guy zonked while snuggling Mommy on the couch, and slept right through to the morning!

The bigs, however, loved watching a Care Bear movie :-)

Saturday was fabulous and so much fun!

We started out that morning at the Y for Alli's swim lessons and Eli's sports class.

Before we left home, Alli asked us to bring swim suits for everyone and we did.

After their lessons were over, all five of us had a blast swimming for an hour.

It's amazing to see how much the bigs are learning and Luke, though hesitant at first,

was jumping in and wiggling all over by the end of our pool time.

We went to Costco for lunch before heading home for naps and reading.

After dinner, we decided to go to Ducky Gramma and Papa's house to see their new kitchen.

It is GORGEOUS!!!!  WOW!!!

We were there under two hours but when we went to leave, we saw it was snowing.

No big deal, we have All Wheel Drive ~ HA!

We couldn't get home.  Our neighborhood is up a hill no matter which way you go.

We tried every way but no dice.  It was a mess and cars were everywhere on the road.

Alli was terrified, so we said lots of prayers and sang "When I am afraid, I will trust in God"

We also called Barbie Pop Pop, who assured our frightened girl that he would come get us if necessary in his huge four wheel truck.  That helped a little.

We were finally able to make it back to Ducky Gramma and Papa's house,

where we all stayed the night. We were so grateful to have family to joyfully take us in.

Thank you so much Mom and Dad.  We love and appreciate you to pieces!!!!

We finally made it home around 8am this morning.  Roads were still challenging, many cars lined both sides of the road and two of the three roads to get to our neighborhood were closed.

Kiddos were so excited to put on their snowsuits and play, so we did.

They had so much fun on their new sleds from Barbie Gramma ~ they were awesome!

Alli especially loved it when Mommy ran up and down the street pulling her :-)

The also learned the fun of a snowball fight . . .

Mommy and Daddy may have had better aim but the kiddos sure were good at sneak attacks!

They tried to build a snowman but the snow was still too powdery.

Luckily, after church, the snow was perfect for building a snowman, and the bigs did just that.

Actually, they build a "Snow Princess" complete with Tootsie Pop eyes and a sucker nose :-)

A & E played outside for over an hour and giggled nonstop.

Sliding in the snow is apparently loads of fun . . . 

As is making snow angels.

Poor Lukey missed this snow playtime as he crashed during the 5 minute drive home from church,

and didn't wake up until the bigs had come inside and were enjoying a late lunch.

He didn't seem to care too much about missing out and just enjoyed looking at the snowman.

Given that it was a cold day, we decided to watch another family movie ~

the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

The kiddos LOVED it, calling it the candy movie.

We were thrilled when they were pointing out the rotten "inappropriate" behavior of the 

golden ticket children, especially Veruka Salt, thank goodness they didn't think it was okay.

Lukey though the Oompa Loompas were the funniest ever and kept singing the song :-)

Our fun weekend wore them out and they crashed hard tonight, very early.

The snow is melting and life will go back to busyness tomorrow, but it was a perfect family weekend.

Winterfest Fun

The kiddos LOVE going to Winterfest at Alli's school!

All three of them had a BLAST on the bounce houses, playing games, eating and hanging out with friends.  Alli LOVED spending the evening running around with her first grade buddies, especially Lilya and Liam.  Eli and Luke proved how comfortable they are at the school, taking off by themselves to play games and bounce ~ we had a chat about that one :-)

A fabulous night and just one more reason we LOVE Lighthouse!

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.

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 :-)

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!