Christmas Eve 2010 (Mostly Fisher & Abby)

Christmas Eve brought more family.  My brother Ken and his family drove up from Vegas with Abby & Ethan to spend the holidays and stay for a while after we left.  Fisher was so excited to see Abby.

 At one point in time they were in G &G's room watching a Christmas movie and this is how I found them.  Fisher found Grandma's sleep mask which must have been more exciting than the movie.

That night after a dinner of prime rib and clam chowder the kids (with help from Grandma) dressed up as Joseph & Mary to help act out the nativity story.  They loved it.

 We were short a baby Jesus and so a roll of paper towels had to suffice.  One of the best parts of the evening was when Fisher was cradling "Baby Jesus" and then we told him he was crying and he needed to quiet him down.  Fisher promptly handed the baby off to Abby.  It was one of those "you had to be there" type of moments but it made for a good laugh.

 Grandma read from the homemade Nativity book my family made when we were kids.  Ken helped with the narration with occasional outbursts from Grandpa which earned dirty looks from Grandma. :)

 Ken was humble enough to play the role of the donkey.

 After the story Great Grandma sat down to play at the piano for the first time since her surgery (and I am pretty sure even before then?)  It was a nice treat to have her play Christmas music.  Christmas Eve would not be the same in Reno without her playing and Dad singing. We all joined in from our comfortable spots on the couch. 

Cooper had actually gone to bed really early before all the festivities but later woke up and joined us for music.  Fisher feasted on Candy Canes steadily through out the day.

This picture, despite the fuzziness, is one of my favorites.  I think Todd and I will do this for our Christmas cards next year which we happened not to send out this year in case you might have wondered.  You would think Fisher & Abby are a married couple from the pose but I assure you they are cousins. :)

Christmas was so fun with the kids around to be so excited about Santa.  It took both of the older kids a while to settle down and go to bed.  Fisher was convinced he heard reindeer on the roof.  They left milk and cookies for Santa and later on when Fisher was unable to go to sleep Todd put in a phone call to the North Pole to tell Santa to skip G &G's house since Fisher would not go to sleep.  Fisher was yelling at the phone "Please let me talk to Santa!  Tell him I am going to bed right now!  I will go to sleep, I promise!"  It is so much fun to have a little boy who believes and is filled with the joy and excitement of the holidays.  Of course, we spent a lot of time discussing what the true meaning of Christmas is.  We are so grateful to celebrate the birth of our Saviour. 

Santa sure is fun though. :)

I am trying to update quickly so there are pics of Fisher's birthday below and more of Christmas and other pictures to follow soon.

Five Years Old!

Amazingly enough, we now have a five year old.  It seems like only yesterday we were bringing Fisher home from the hospital on Christmas day. 

We spent his big day in Reno.

That morning he was introduced to the art of falconry with Grandpa and Daddy.  They took him out with Yonder (dog) and Suka (Falcon) so that Suka could fly and catch some duck.

She ended up catching a Coot instead.  My Dad looks down on coot- apparently they are not as exciting to catch- but we still thought it was cool.  Fisher thought the dead bird was very exciting.

So proud of his bloody feather.

Those gloves were washed many times over the week.

On their way home from flying Suka, the boys took Fisher to a donut store where he was able to choose two donuts of his own choice.

Mommy helped him eat them.

(Daddy and Grandma helped with a bite or two behind Fisher's back as well.)

Then came time for presents.

He loved his Leapster Explorer.

I was so proud of myself for saving these costumes.  I had bought them on clearance after Halloween and actually held out for two months without giving them to Fisher.  That is huge for me.  Normally they would have been used as bribery within days of purchasing.

Then Grandpa took Fisher Batman down to the garage for some balloons including the famous giant one that has become a tradition for any of the kids celebrating birthdays while in Reno.  My dad uses the huge balloons to train his birds to fly.

After Fisher came in we skyped with G & G Church so they could say happy birthday to the birthday boy.

Cooper quickly confiscated the balloons.

It was a nice relaxing birthday with our little family, G & G Lund and Great Grandma.

But Fisher did not mind because he was preoccupied with his video game.

So Cooper played away with the balloons.

 We decided to take Fisher bowling for the first time.  Great Grandma stayed home (she is in the process of recovering from a hip replacement) so the rest of us headed out to Coconut Bowl. 

Fisher did pretty well.  He did become frustrated a few times but all in all he seemed to have a good time. 

He loved the dark and his glowing clothes.

Near the end we used the ramp provided for little kids more than in the beginning. 

One thing we learned is that bowling with bumpers makes the experience more fun for everyone. :)

Cooper hung out eating french fries while we bowled.  Grandma and I took turns walking him around so he would stay away from the lanes and bowling balls.

 This is not the best picture between being fuzzy and the lighting but here's proof that G & G went bowling with us.  (Lighting in a dark bowling alley is not ideal for pictures.)

 And here we are with our five year old.  Crazy.

 After bowling we took a drive to see a house lit up with a nativity about whales and other sea animals..

It was complete with a key to explain the nativity.  The killer whales were Baby Jesus, Joseph and Mary.  There was a starfish of Bethlehem, three humpback WiseMen, dolphin angels...the list goes on.  It was very creative.

After that we swung by O'McDonalds (as Fisher still calls it) for a happy meal and then on to home for his cake and ice cream.

Fisher is not a fan of cake so Grandma made him some brownies. 

(There are a few things in this life that I do not stress over nor feel obligated to do for my children in order to feel like a woman. 

1. Make my kid spectacular birthday cakes.  I know plenty of people who do this and I will gladly pay them for their services. 

2- Make my kids their own Halloween costumes.  See explanation for #1.  Not to mention I am perfectly fine buying from a store. I feel it is my duty to help the economy by purchasing costumes. 

3- Giving birth naturally.  I am a woman.  I don't need to go without an epidural to prove it.  Props to all the women who do but I feel that epidurals were invented for a reason and I fully intend to take advantage of this.) 

Todd and I found some How to Train Your Dragon toys to top the brownies with and we called it good.

Fisher loved it.  He is easy to please.

Deep breath.

Blow!

Happy Birthday Fisher.  We love you so much.  You are intelligent and funny and bursting with personality.  You are a terrific big brother, especially with the patience you exhibit when Cooper decides it is time to wrestle and goes straight for the eyes and face.  You are creative and kind as can be (when you feel like it).  You love hugs and kisses and being told how much we love you.  You love to tell us that you love us.  You love coloring and art projects of any kind.  You have a very good memory (one that puts Mommy to shame when playing Memory.  That comes from Daddy.)  You are all boy and love being outside and getting dirty.  You love animals although you still are a little rough with bugs.  You love dinosaurs, dragons, robots, Transformers, Spiderman, Batman and playing on the computer.  You love decorating for holidays and planning birthday parties.  You have a sweet tooth to rival Cookie Monster and you love Happy Meals although that is much more for the toys than the food. You are also very complicated, but we won't go into that too much. :)  One of these days we will figure you out!  In the mean time know how much we love you.  This next year is going to have a lot of changes for you with adding another little brother, moving to Omaha and you starting Kindergarten.  We hope five will be a good year for you!

We love you Buddy.

Love,

Mommy & Daddy

Work in Progress

I have finally loaded my pics to the computer and am sorting through which ones I want to go on the blog.  Hope to have some new posts soon of Fisher's 5th birthday (Can't believe we have a five year old!!!) and Christmas in Reno.

Snow and Ice

We had more snow a few days ago.  Once again, it was not very much but Fisher could not wait to go outside and build a snowman.

It was really cold out that day.  (Like single digits cold, not to mention the FREEZING wind that was dropping temps even more.) At first we weren't going to let Cooper go out since he was barely over his three week coughing thing but as he stood at the window crying while watching Fisher play I decided to bundle him up for a couple of minutes.

 It was his first time playing in the snow.  He didn't really know what he was supposed to do so he stood there for most of the time.

 But he looked cute all bundled up in Fisher's old coat/snow pants.

 Fisher has his own little snow shovel to help with the driveway.  He worked hard at moving the snow.

 He even offered to share his duties.

 Cooper chose to walk around instead.

 Fisher decided to build his version of a snowman.  (It was freezing and we weren't about to go make a real one.)  Fisher took a pile of snow and created his.  Cooper joined in the fun.

 And was a little baffled by the snow sticking to his glove.

 Eventually he opted to have Daddy hold him.

 Fisher working hard on adding eyes to the snowman.

 And a smile.

 Here he is!

 Cooper, once again, trying to figure out the meaning of snow.

Once he found his truck to play with he felt much better about the snow.

We eventually convinced the boys to go back inside.  They spent the snowy day in their Christmas Frog PJ's.

Nothing like some hot cocoa and a candy cane to warm up after playing outside in the snow.

...

Now on to our recent ice storm:

 This morning we woke up to a sidewalk of solid ice.

 Along with driveway and roads. (Also solid ice.)

 The car covered in ice.
(Not only the mirror.  Look on the body of the car and the windows as well.)

 And the grass...

 And the plants.

It has made for a nice day to say inside.

This isn't the worst ice storm we have had but an ice rink for a yard is an ice rink all the same whether it is 1/2 inch or 3 inches of ice.