Mr. Hollywood

This morning, Eli decided to dress himself . . .

He brought out his wetsuit and swim trunks, saying "on, on"

It was too cute, I had to help him.

Here you have it, Mr. Hollywood himself.

He added the shades all by himself.

Reindeer footie PJs, wetsuit and swim trunks ~ ready for a cold day at the beach!

Princess slippers & Apples

Before G got home from work, while I was making dinner,

Alli decided both she and Eli should wear Princess slippers. 

 Alli was trying to be very sweet and share. 

Poor Eli wasn't quite sure what to think of the pink, frilly, princess slippers.

After dinner, the sibling fun continued with dessert ~ apples & caramel.

This was the first time Eli got to dip in caramel just like his big sister and it was a hit!

Fun times!

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.

Eli's phone conversation

Last night my baby boy actually talked to me on the phone!!!  He got on the phone and said "Hi" ~ twice!  I don't think I had ever heard him say "hi" before.  When he plays with the phone (which he does A LOT!) he always says "hello" but last night he said "hi" to his Mommy.  I was so excited ;-)  Of course, the little turkey waved at the phone when it was time to say "bye bye" guess we'll have to work on that one!

Eli's first haircut

G has been telling me for weeks that I had to get Eli's hair cut but I just couldn't do it. 

I love that he looks like my little baby boy but today I finally agreed. 

We just had to find THE place to do it. 

Neither of us wanted to take him to a chain so we decided we wanted

a barber who had been in the business a long time. 

G knew just the spot . . . Long John's. 

That's where he and his brother and dad went when he was little and that is where my dad still goes ;-) 

Still, we had to scope it out so G went in while we waited in the car

to see if John was willing to cut a little guy's hair. 

Turns out we couldn't have picked a better place!!! 

We made the appointment and at 4 p.m. today, Eli got his hair cut.

For the most part, he was a real trooper ;-)

Here are the before shots . . .

 I thought his curls were adorable but it was beginning to look like a mullet!

 During . . .

Poor guy wasn't sure what to think and had a few moments of tears.

 Intrigued by the electric razor . . .

Here's the AFTER shot ~ such a handsome little man. . .

 No more curls but still enough hair that he's still my baby! ;-)

A great experience and if you have a little guy, we totally recommend John.  He was AWESOME!

He even put Eli's curls in an envelope, wrote the date on it and signed it.

Too fun!

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 ;-)

Promoted

Well, the crazy commute hasn't hurt me.  I had my annual review yesterday and got the official word that I have been promoted from Associate to Counsel.  What does this mean???  That I need to start competing for partnership and work on marketing myself.  Hmmmm, I think being a mid-level associate forever sounds good ;-)  Seriously, Counsel is just a fancy title for Senior Associate.  Once upon a time, partnership occurred around your 8th year so it made sense to go from Associate to Partner.  Now, you're looking at not making partner until your 11th year or later for some so I think they figured they would give those of us who have been around 7+ years a fancy title.  They were so kind to update my bio with my snazzy new title before my review so I knew going into it that it couldn't be a horrible review ;-)

So there you have it, I didn't think I would stay at the firm for more than a year and I am now one of four from my summer class of 28 to make Counsel.  Go figure.

Saying "Goodbye" to Pastor Joe

Today has been rough. 

We had to say goodbye (okay, I couldn't bring myself to say that word)

to someone who has become a wonderful friend ~ Pastor Joe Smith. 

Alli & Eli both adore Pastor Joe!

We first met Pastor Joe when he was a guest pastor at our church in the summer of 2009. 

Little did we know then that he would soon become our Interim Lead Pastor beginning in September 2009. 

Garrett and I have so enjoyed his sermons, his honesty, his outside-of-the-box views, his friendship

and his willingness to be silly and have fun.

While we understand that his work here is done (he assisted us in finding a permanent lead pastor)

and he needs to keep his distance to allow the congregation to move on,

we feel a sense of loss and pray that our paths will continue to cross. 

His going away lunch was perfect and he seemed to truly feel the appreciation.

Wishing you all the best Pastor Joe!!!

a Fancy, Pinkalicious Party (the decorations & food)

On Saturday, February 5th, we hosted Alli's 4th birthday party at our house. 

Per Alli's request, it was a combination of her two favorite book series: Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious.

Mommy designed the invite numerous times at Alli's insistence to make sure it had enough pink!

 Alli invited 9 little girls over for an afternoon of fancy pink fun!

Garrett and I spent much of Thursday evening and Friday turning our house into a Pink wonderland

I was pretty proud of us as we made most of the decorations from scrapbook paper we already had.

My crafty side definitely came out and I had so much fun making the birthday banner but it took so long that I decided to laminate it so we can use it each year and just change the number ;-)

For party gifts, we painted wooden frames pink and used glitter paint to write each girl's name on the frame and added pink ribbon so they could hang it.  We also made wands.  Each little girl got to decorate a wand and frame with glittery stickers and jewels.  I was amazed by some of their creations!  Before they left the party, we took pictures of each in the cupcake G made from a piece of scrap wood. 

I LOVED this and so did the kiddos!

As you can see, there was pink everywhere!!!

In addition to the scrapbook paper in fun shapes, we decorated with pink candy

that later became part of the cupcake craft ;-) 

Alli insisted that everything must be pink, including the food

That was a challenge but we managed to do okay! 

Alli's favorite part was the Pink lemonade ~ a must and right out of Pinkalicious and the Pink Drink

To decorate the living room, we simply cut out pink circles and used pink balloons. 

And of course, crepe paper for the columns ;-) 

Alli and I had lots of fun making our first batch of cake pops, which were a HUGE hit! 

Pre-made pink cupcakes for the Moms (the girls got to decorate their own) 

It was so cute, at the end of the party, we found lots of cupcake bottoms

Guess they all at the tops with the frosting and candy

Can't say I blame them! 



Driving and Kissing . . . already?!?!?!?!

I'm pretty sure both of our kids think that they are part of the H family.

Miss Kaitlyn is their nanny,

Mr. H is Alli's Sunday school teacher, and

Mrs. H and the three littlest H gals are their buddies.

On Sunday, Alli ditched us to sit with them and this past Tuesday (like most Tuesdays),

Miss Kaitlyn took A & E to her house to play with the girls.

As you can see from the photos below, both kids LOVED it . . .

Alli got to try driving for the first time.  I understand that Miss Kaitlyn had to give some lessons ;-) 

We were thrilled to see how much she enjoyed that as we heard Santa may be bringing the Black Escalade next year for the kiddos . . .

Eli, being the little ladies man that he is, spends much of his time putting the moves on little Ava ;-)

Or getting into electronics!!!

How lucky are we to have met this family????