love. these. boys.

frugal tip for today

The worst thing about bean bag chairs is when they get all flat and deflated. At that point they're not good for anything really. We have a bean bag chair that's over 6 years old and it has long ago gotten to that point. I looked for some more filler but I couldn't see myself paying 20-plus dollars for a bag of foam pellets... so it's been sitting in our play room looking rather pathetic. That is, until Wendesday. Wednesday Rich came home with a box full of packing peanuts. We used those to fill up the bean bag. Perfection! (and FREE)...

Today was William's first day of pre-K. One thing I love about the schools here is that pre-K is part of the school system--so it's free! Also, since we have all day Kindergarten it's nice to have a year of half day.
William has been so excited for school to start. I was a little worried that he'd change his mind when we got there but he did so good! Rich went to work a little later than usual so that I could take William without the other two boys. We first found his hook and hung up his backpack.
Then we went in, met his teacher (again), took a look around the classroom, and then worked on a puzzle. We were also excited to see that his friend, Adrianna, from storytime was in his class! It's always nice to have a friend in your class. I think he seemed nervous for just a few minutes (which made me nervous too!) but when I told him it was time for me to leave he did just great! When I went to pick him up he hopped in the car and declared, "I had so much fun!" Yea! I'm hoping he'll keep up this enthusiasm for school!

p.s. He wanted to wear this shirt because it's the school colors... he's so excited to be a Wildcat!

FISHER FAMILY REUNION 2009

I have a family tree

With branches by the dozens.

I have grandpas. I have grandmas.

I have uncles, aunts and cousins.

When it's reunion time,

No matter what the weather,

It is such a happy day

When the family gets together.

Every four years my dad's family has a reunion in Colorado. And since we wouldn't miss it for the world, we packed up the van and headed north.The boys did pretty good in the car. We did learn however that we need to take more time for breaks...

They loved staying in a hotel. Swimming pools, jumping on the bed, fresh baked cookies--can it get any better than that? But William kept asking when we were going to get to our vacation. So we kept on going.

Here is the Ben and Marlene Fisher Family.

Sixty-two out of the sixty-seven family members were in attendance. (Two husbands who couldn't get off work, two missionaries, and one cousin who couldn't miss football practice.) Pretty awesome.

Every day we were free to do what we wanted... and there was plenty to do! Right across the road from our lodge was a park. We played there every day at least once.

We went miniature golfing with the kids. I like that Amy called it extreme mini golf! There was more throwing the ball than hitting it with a club.And we went with the adults too... I think that McCallin won--although we're not sure his score was completely accurate.

Rich went on a group hike to a glacier... and then he took the kids on a little hike as well. (I think he carried James and Olivia most of the way.) Isn't the scenery just beautiful?!

William did a fun nature craft with his Uncle Jacob and some of my younger cousins. (William just loved Jarom!)

We hung out with cousins. I don't know that Amy was too happy with Olivia being covered in dirt... but that's what happens when you only have boy cousins. They sure had fun together playing and making up songs.

There was fishing. (There's always fishing.) Despite the evidence to the contrary, I think the boys had a good time.

Of course, everyone wanted to hold the newest baby... because he is so adorable.

We even were able to go rock climbing. I was a little nervous about trying the hard wall... but after doing the easy wall I thought I'd give it a whirl. I got to the top! Pretty good for a gal who had a c-section just 2 months prior!

And it just wouldn't be right to get together and not have ice cream.

Then, after dinner every night, we all gathered together and had family night where we would learn more about each other and our ancestors. One night we got to watch some home videos from when my dad was a little kid. Fun!

Of course, some of us were so exhausted we didn't always make it to family night...

Once the kids were in bed we would gather back to the conference room to visit, play games and drink our confiscated chocolate milk. Seriously, so good. We stayed up way too late every night--but we sure had a good time.

We love these reunions! We can't wait until 2013!

While Alex was taking a nap on the floor, William ever so gently snuck his spiderman blankie under Alex's arm. He informed me that he didn't need it anymore so he was giving it to Alex.

not again

James loves to imitate William in every way. Do you remember this? It was one thing I was hoping he'd avoid imitating. But I should have known better with James. He is my little daredevil. I'm actually surprised it didn't happen sooner.
While William and I were gone one Saturday morning, Rich and James decided to play a game of basketball. Things got a little rough and James hit his head on the corner of the coffee table (why do we call them coffee tables anyway?). By the time they got to the doctor's (it's just down the street) James was jumping around again. There were no stitches... they just put steri strips on the cut. I arrived home about 5 minutes after them and shortly thereafter James had pulled off the band aid and steri strips. It was then a constant battle to keep something on the cut to keep him from picking the scab off. He'll have a nice scar now... but what boy doesn't like to show off his battle wounds?

We've been on vacation... so as soon as I finish going through the hundreds of pictures I'll post about it! Stay tuned...