Go Cougs!

Such a fun Apple Cup today with new friends!

Both kiddos had a blast playing and

G LOVED watching his Cougs make a big come back to win in overtime ;-)

Gotta love these sweet girls who can have fun while rooting for rival teams.

Happy Turkey Day!

Our Thanksgiving started early thanks to our littlest Turkey,

but we are so thankful for the fun family time with these three,

each doing something they love . . . 

    We pray you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and family!

G is for Grandparents . . .

This {short} week was "G" week in Alli's Kindergarten class

and what better way to celebrate the letter G than to have 

Grandparents' Day

 Alli was over the moon excited to have all five of her living grandparents/great grandpa

visit her class today for a presentation and craft time!

Alli's class sang the most precious Grandparent song to the tune of Take Me Out to the Ballgame

{These were a couple shots I took of them practicing before the grandparents arrived}

After singing a number of songs and doing the alphabet in sign language,

the grandparents got to help the kiddos make hand turkeys with ABAB patterned feathers.

Alli was so sad when it was time for her five special guests to leave, and shed a few tears.

Fortunately, Mommy {the class photographer of the day} was able to stick around long enough to get her smiling :-)

What a great opportunity for both Alli and her grandparents.

She loved showing them her classroom and I think they all enjoyed seeing her in action.

What a blessing it is for all of our kiddos to have 

all of their grandparents (AND a great grandpa!) living so close.  

Thank you Ducky Gramma & Papa

 Barbie Gramma & Barbie Pop Pop

and Great Pop!

You all made Alli's day!

Two years ago . . .

We learned that our surprise baby Wrinkle no longer had a heartbeat. 

G was in Minnesota for work so I was on my own.

The pain was something I thought would never go away.

I still often think about Wrinkle and wonder what life would be like if we had met him/her.

But I truly believe Wrinkle is the reason we have Lukey.

I believe God was preparing our hearts to welcome Luke into our family.

Neither G or I thought we wanted three children and were in shock two years ago.

We came around and fell in love after seeing Wrinkle on ultrasound,

But the fear was there and we cannot erase what was said or felt that first night. 

I would give nearly anything to go back and change my initial reaction to Wrinkle,

but I cannot.

  I can only be grateful for God's forgiveness and pray someday I forgive myself.

The instant I saw Luke, I knew everything happened the way as it should.

Luke completes our family in a way we cannot explain - and we all feel that way.

He is so loved and wanted.  I am so grateful for the gift of Luke.

And I am grateful that God sent us Wrinkle.

On Luke's first birthday, I once again saw the most beautiful rainbow

 and felt completely at peace, knowing our family is complete.

Today is still hard but also a day when I can reflect on love and forgiveness.

I am also looking forward to the day when I will meet Wrinkle.

A weekend away . . .

This weekend, G and I enjoyed a much needed vacation at The Stephanie Inn in Cannon Beach. 

This was our third visit there and it was as amazing as the first two trips! 

 We enjoyed incredible food, amazing views of the ocean and fabulous massages. 

We read books, relaxed and completely enjoyed our uninterrupted conversations. 

We missed the munchkins but knew they were having a great time - the bigs had a fabulous time with Miss Kaitlyn and Lukers loved his time with Gramma and Papa. 

We returned home recharged and rejuvenated!

Halloween 2012 - Neverland Fisher Style :-)

This year, the kiddos shocked us by announcing that they wanted to be Peter Pan and Wendy Darling.

Thankfully, my sewing skills were good enough to make these costumes!

Fleece is such a forgiving fabric and perfect for our chilly, WA Halloweens ;-)

Although Eli wanted Lukey to be a "mini Peter Pan" we bought a lion costume and called him a "Lost Boy"

Alli and Eli loved their costumes ~ Luke, not so much ;-)

They had a blast at our church's Trunk or Treat the Saturday before Halloween.

Both A & E won a yummy cupcake at the cake walk, loved the fishing and the bean bag toss game.

Luke just enjoyed crawling around . . . he was worn out by the end and zonked in the car!

On Halloween, Daddy and Uncle Z took A & E trick or treating around the neighborhood.

Thankfully, the horrible rain let up for the 30 minutes they were out there,

it started back up within 5 minutes of them returning home!

After trick or treating, they decided it was just as much fun to hand out candy.

Lukey LOVED helping me hand out candy and even snagged himself a dum dum sucker.

He was definitely a fan!

Great Halloween and we now have loads of candy, which acts as a great incentive for eating dinner ;-)

Luke's first haircut

Unlike A and E, who barely had any hair at a year, 

Lukey was in desperate need of a haircut but we tried to hold out until his birthday.

We almost made it!

On Saturday, October 27th, we took Lukey to see Barber John for his first haircut.

He wasn't quite sure what to think but had lots of fun sitting with Daddy! 

He was so intrigued by what Barber John was putting around his neck ;-)

He shocked us by being so well behaved and patient during the cut.

He only got a bit squirmy the last 2 or 3 minutes!

How incredibly adorable does he look with his 

big boy haircut?!?!?!?!

My baby is growing up way TOO fast!

Thank goodness Barber John kept enough hair that he still has a baby look . . . 

Another first done!

Tomorrow . . .

Our adorable, handsome, baby boy turns the big O N E!!!

 Is it really possible that our baby has been here a whole year???

Here is Luke Daniel Fisher

on his last day as an 11 month old

As you can see, he loved his birthday party day!!!

 

This past year has been filled with many emotions but we are so incredibly

grateful that God chose Lukey to join our family and are so in love with this feisty little guy!

 

For his party, we focused on Luke's First Year in pictures.

Here is just a small snapshot . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much has changed this past year for Luke . . .

When he was born, he had a full head of brown hair that quickly turned very blonde.

He went through nearly three months of all day, every day crying (atypical colic),

but now is a very happy baby . . . except when he isn't :-)

Luke has no problem letting us know what he likes and doesn't like.

He took a bit to become a good little nursling but now is a champ and is showing no signs of stopping, we'll have to figure that one out as we go along!

Most of all, our love has grown to amounts we didn't think possible.

 

Lukey - we love you more than you will ever know!

You truly complete our family and we look forward to years and years of happiness with you!!!

Things to remember . . .

There are some things the kiddos say or do that I want to remember always.
These are in no particular order, just fun memories from the past week or so.

Two weeks ago, when I picked Eli up from preschool,
he came out of his class happy as could be, which is pretty typical.
Then, in the sweetest voice, he informed me that "Mrs. MacIntosh was really good today."
The other moms waiting there got quite a chuckle,
and Mrs. MacIntosh, who heard him said "aww, you were very good too Eli!"
He was beaming!!!
Now I suspect this comment stemmed from the fact that Mrs. MacIntosh was out sick that Tuesday
and was back on Thursday, but still one of the cutest comments ever ;-)

Another cute Eli moment was this past Monday . . .

He had gone to Miss Kaitlyn's house to play with Ava and left his cars there.
I could tell he was being a bit of a stinker to Miss Kaitlyn but he was telling me about his "lost cars."
I started saying something about him choosing not to look for them
and Miss Kaitlyn tried to explain when Eli, in full attitude mode turns to Miss Kaitlyn and says
"I'm trying to talk to Mommy.". 
(i.e. stop interrupting me or making me look bad). 
Needless to say, Kaitlyn and I had a very good chuckle over that one - silly boy ;-)

Two nights ago, Alli called down to us to tell us her PJs were ripped.

G went upstairs to see what she was talking about.
From downstairs, i could hear him asking her if she was doing cartwheels
(which she does nonstop these days!)
she was avoiding the question and I heard G say "ok Alli, I'm not even going to ask."
 He came down with the ripped footie PJs because she wanted Mommy to fix them.
The next morning, she fessed up and told me she was practicing her splits ;-)

Another sweet Alli moment was when we were talking about a new prayer she was learning at school.
Alli asked what prayer her friend was learning at her school.
When I explained that you don't learn prayers in public school, her immediate response was shock
 "why not?"
I told her that you didn't learn about Jesus in public school,
she didn't seem to believe me at first and finally just said "that's weird!"
I love that she enjoys learning more about Jesus everyday!

My final fun memory involves Lukey - nothing he did, more of a
Mommy is losing it moment.

It was a school night and I was cooking dinner while the kiddos were playing in the living room.
Suddenly, I realized Lukey wasn't there and frantically asked Alli "where is Luke, do you see him?"
She looked at me like I was nuts and said, "you're holding him Mommy"
Yep, while I was cooking, sweet Lukey was on my left hip
and I've gotten so used to the feeling, I forgot he was there.
Oops! ;-)

Needless to say, Alli enjoyed sharing that as her "funny" over dinner!

Fish Pumpkins 2012

The tradition that we started the year Eli was born continues . . . 

Garrett is so creative and the kiddos LOVE carving their fish pumpkins!

Even Mommy got in on the action this year of cleaning out the pumpkins,

while a handsome little man tried to climb my leg ;-)

This year, Alli and Eli even helped with designing 

(Alli wanted hear eyes and pigtails, Eli wanted square eyes and a mouth like Daddy)

and cleaning out their pumpkins,

though they did complain about the "slime" ~ silly munchkins :-)

Luke wasn't quite sure what to think of the whole ordeal and after watching for a bit while having a snack,

he opted for crawling around the floor (on all fours!) and getting into mischief! 

Such a fun tradition for the G Fisher Fam of five!