Santa Pictures 09

Well, we finally had the formal picture with Santa! We tried to go Sunday night, but left when we saw the line that stretch into the Sears store! I thought I will just be her early on Monday morning, they opened at 9am so should be fine. Wrong, apparently I was not the only person with the idea of being first in line. I was there at 9:10 and the line was almost to Sears-UGH! I was not getting everyone dressed for a third time so we sucked it up and waited an hour. Finally to the big man in red! We had 2 minutes with him, but the kid’s expressions and the really great picture make it all worth it! Merry Christmas!!

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Bowling 1st quarter 09

Bowling just ended it's first quarter! I survived the humiliation of lossing weekly to women twice my age! It has really been so much fun and Avery and I are both looking forward to continuing in the new year. For the record my highest score so far is 135, so hoping to do better, but really just spending time with Grandma Marilyn and all the ladies is such a blast!

Signing Santa 09

Since I am working in a classroom again, Signing Santa was coming to visit! The Sertoma Club is a wonderful organization that has been doing this for years now! They are in with Santa and have one sent who is able to sign to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing kids. They make the rounds to all the local programs, so on Friday Avery and I had to visit my classroom at Lakeland as well as my old stomping ground of Zieger. It was great to see all the kids as they loved seeing Santa! Just another event that makes the season special! Avery was so cute with all the kids and she even signed "Thank-You" to Santa for her teddy bear.

Santa Breakfast 09

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Santa Breakfast 09

Last weekend we headed up to Lakeland Elementary. Kendall is in first grade there, because I also teach there part-time in the DHH classroom. So as she refers to it we went to "our" school for one the school's fundraisers. We bought tickets to have breakfast with Santa. The kids loved it! We had pancakes, ham and applesauce. We had our time with Santa and I even won a ham in the raffle we will be enjoying it on Christmas now!!!

It's Official

Congratulations to Jacqui and Chris who are officially engaged! The wedding planning has begun with the date set for June 2010! Chris is amazing and we can't wait for him to join the family. Congrats! We love you guys!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving 09

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Happy Thanksgiving 09

We had a great Thanksgiving! It originally started with me just cooking for the Fisher 5 and my mom coming up. Usually we have all went up to the cabin in Packwood for Christmas, but it has just become too much with Black Friday (Yes I go every year and love it) and now Apple Cup the same weekend. So later in the week the rest of the Fisher clan decided to join us for Thanksgiving! This was exciting to me since I had done Thanksgiving for 6 before it was going to be a challenge to do it for 11, but really it came out great and I have new confidence in my cooking abilities! After dinner we hit the bowling alley. Wow! The lanes at the Daffodil Bowl are really different from where I bowl weekly, Pacific Lanes. Our scores were not so great, but the kids and everyone had a ball!
Grandma Spencer stayed the night and watched the kids on Black Friday while Austin and I hit the stores at 4am, there was nothing I needed to start earlier than that! We finished our shopping and went to see New Moon, it was a nice relaxing and productive day. We spent the rest of weekend relaxing and watching the sad Apple Cup.

Epi-pens

Ok, so the kids go to the allergist every October for annual check-ups. They do some skin testing for the food allergies get flu shots if they don't react to bad and new perscriptions. Well this is the first year that instead of one kid I have two. Both Avery and Logan are allergic to Eggs and Nuts. The eggs is already getting better in Logan and most likely they both will out grow the eggs- YEAH! The nuts is probably a forever kind of thing--Sooooo every year I have to fill perscriptions for Epi-pens and weed out the expired ones. During Thankgsgiving I rounded up the pens and didn't think anything of it until someone pointed out the large quatities of adrenaline sitting on the counter, so I had to take a picture. Crazier is that this is not all of them- There are at least 8 more at Daycare, School and my purse!

Mid November 09

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Mid November 09

Well since we went to Hawaii it feels like November has flown by. Before we left Kendall had her last practice and it was under the lights at Franklin's Pierce's High School Stadium. Pretty cool for the girls to get to play at night and on such a big field, however the weather was unkind and it rained a ton. The girls didn't care! Then while we were gone Kendall had her last soccer game, so no pics of that. She did well though a scored 3 times! They are not suppose to keep score at her age, but when I asked about the game she made sure to tell me that "they won!" The weekend after we were back was the Pizza weekend! We went to Logan's last game and then to Pizza Hut for his awards get together. He liked soccer and loves his trophy. Sarah Cypher did an amazing job as a coach and it was nice for him to play with some kids he knew already- Kennedy and Sydney. After Logan's party I took Kendall to her new friend, Maddison's birthday party. It was the longest party ever, for me anyways! The kids skated for 2 full hours before they went into the party room to eat pizza, cake/ice-cream and open gifts! Yes we had pizza again. It was pretty interesting to see the girls interactions, unfortunately it is clear that clicks exist even in first grade! Kendall did pretty good on the skates after I went out with her the first half hour, after that she did pretty well. Then on Sunday we had Kendall's soccer party at the Tacoma Soccer Club. All the kids had a chance to play the parent's and just run around on the indoor field, then you guessed it Pizza for dinner and then awards. Kendall coaches- Stephanie and Heidi were wonderful too. The families were nice and most of the girls will get to play basketball together with Jamin as the coach- Who-hoo! I am trying to warm-up to the organized sports. Well this last week I have been cooking up a storm, prepping for Thanksgiving and my class had a mini-feast as well were they prepared the majority of the food. I was technically off on Wednesday so Linda finished up the feast with the kids and Avery and I stopped in to eat. Great food! Avery loved it!

Leroy Update

For those who have been wondering how our Dachsund, Leroy, is doing? He is actually really good! Two round of steroids-Pregozone, seemed to fix him right up! Hopefully he doesn't re-injure himself anytime soon!

Hawaii 09

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Hawaii 09

Well, despite all the chaos happening around us. Austin and I were able to sneek away to Hawaii for 7 days to celebrate 10 years of marriage. We had a nice time. It rained a lot so the typical vacation of sitting on a beach didn't exactly happen, but it was still a vacation! We saw a lot of the island in the two days that we rented a car. We did have some beach time and when it did rain we found other things to do, I got a massage and we spent a lot of time shopping! While we missed the kids and called everyday they were enjoying their own vacation with the grandparents. It was a nice trip to spend time together, but we are looking forward to the next family vacation too!

Rough times ahead

Well, it has been a rough couple of days for our dog Leroy and the family. We found him Sunday night in the grass not able to move. We don't know what he did? We think he jumped off one of the hills in the yard and just landed the wrong way. He couldn't move his back legs. Austin took him to the vet on Monday and they did some x-rays and he didn't break his neck and the spinal cord looks good, but he is paralyzed on the left side. The next step was to schedule an appointment with the nureologist to have an MRI to do Surgery. We called the nuerologist who told us an MRI would be 1,700.00 with surgery costing anywhere from 5,000 to 8,000. Yikes! We were going to cancell our trip to Hawaii to help pay for this until the nuerologist said even with surgery he would not be able to go up and down stairs, run etc. That the risk of reinjury is pretty much a given! Oh this has been so hard! So we were told we could give him steroids and that in a lot of cases the steroids can relieve the inflamation around the nerves and he could regain some movement. We are waiting to see. Poor guy is just lying around in his diaper. Please think happy thoughts!

Halloween 09

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Happy Halloween 09

Happy Halloween! It is one of our favorite holidays and this year did not disappoint. Logan and Kendall both had soccer games to start the day off. We then hurried home to carve our pumpkins and then continued our tradition of pita bread personal pizza's. That started when we I found out about Logan's food allergies, but we all love making our own pizza's and Papa Murphy's is crazy busy on Halloween anyways. Grandma Spencer arrived and the costumes were put on! The kids hit the 2 houses in our neighborhood then we headed to a bigger neighborhood on south hill. It was great! All the house were decorated so good. Grandma Spencer couldn't even speak when a creature jumped out between two vans and grabbed her arm! One of the house was blasting Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and had a haunted house, but the line was really long so we decided to pass and the guy welcoming people was dressed with nails coming out all over his face- little worried the kids would be traumatized. Avery was amazed and just keep looking at everyone and taking it all in. Logan and Kendall were pros this year running from house to house. Kendall was Hannah Montana and by the end of the night had, had enough of the wig. Logan was the transformer Bumblebee and Avery was a witch. Another great year! Happy Halloween!

All about the pumpkins 2009

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All about the pumpkins 2009

So Friday the kids did not have school as it was parent/teacher conferences and since I don't work Fridays we had a day together. It was a great day to stay inside as the wind was whipping outside. We made chocolate chip pumpkin muffins and decorated our pumpkins we grew in our garden with Mr. Potatoe Head pieces. Avery did the princess, Logan made the firefighter and Kendall put together the witch. Kept them busy while the muffins were cooking anyways. Then they ate the muffins and watched all the Halloween shows I recorded earlier in the week. A great day and tomorrow will be even better since it will be Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch 09

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Pumpkin Patch 09

So it has been awhile since we actually went to the pumpkin patch so I thought I better post before Halloween had came and went! Things around the Fisher household have been revolving around the sickies this last week. Logan became sick last Friday, then Avery and I on Saturday. Surprisingly Austin and Kendall are still doing well. The good news is the rest of us are almost back to normal-Yeah!
At any rate we took our annual trip to Scholz Farm the Friday before last when the kids were out of school for a teacher inservice day, yes an inservice I opted out of. Austin meet up with us and we squeezed in some quality family time before the rain came. It was great to spend sometime together too before Austin headed off for hunting. He was gone last weekend to set up and will be off again after Halloween for a week. Hope everyone is enjoying the fall season despite all the sickies going around!

Chaos

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I Love Chaos

Well October is off and running and I do mean running.....Life is going at warp speed. So much has happened in such a short amount of time. The kids are both playing soccer and most of the games are at the same time so we are dividing and conquering. Kendall is getting better with every game and seems to really like soccer. Logan is still thinking he can use "the force" to control the ball- it's really quit comical to watch him try to control the ball with his hand.
Logan's school had their annual autumn fest and Kendall loved seeing her old friends again and Logan was so proud to show off all he has been working on at school and his new friends.
Football season is in full swing so that means party at the Clarks! Great fun, good food, great friends, crappy game, but the quad races made up for the game!
October is allergy month in our house as Logan and now Avery too, get testing, new epi-pens and the drama of flu shots.
I am also already of the quest for planning summer since camping has to be book 9 months out-Crazy!
Now with the weather chaning and Austin getting ready to leave for hunting season we had to deal with the yard. The trees don't quit look the same- hope they live! Again I really do love the chaos :0)

fair 09

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The Fair!

So we did make it to the fair this year, just didn't happen until the very last day! We had a great time none the less. We started off with Krusty Pups and then we toured the barns, hobby halls, and vendors. Then it was time for ice-cream and rides. We strategically planned to wait and do rides until Avery was sleeping and thankfully it worked! The lines were awful as it was really busy. The kids did great though. Once Avery woke up we went to the petting barn and the kids garden area. Everyone was tired by this point and it was time to head home. Until next September!

Soccer fun 9/09

This last weekend was the start of all things soccer. Logan had his first official game, which I didn't get to see much off since there was confusion with the schedule. There were several schedules changes but when I looked at them they seemed to only change home and away, not the time, but apparently when they change the home and away it does affect the time because all home games are at 9am! So we were thinking his game was at 10! Austin was able to get him there a little late while I keep getting the girls ready as Kendall had a game at 11 and Jacqui and Chris were taking her since Austin and I needed to leave to get to the Sounders game that started at noon! Crazy schedules, but didn't bother Logan. He had a great game and scored 3 goals- one for the other team, but he just wanted to share :0) Kendall had a great game too and scored as well, no pictures though as we were at the Sounders. The Sounders game was a first for us to go to a professional soccer match. It was fun and we were in a Luxury Suite so that made it even more cool. The Sounders tied and from what I was told it was considered a "chippy" game as the yellow cards and even red cards were being pulled every minute it seemed!I also wanted to share my high score in bowling 134--Yippppee hoping to keep improving!

soccer fun 9/09

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Miley Cyrus 09

Last night was the much anticipated Miley Cyrus concert. We bought tickets back in the spring and Kendall has been excited ever since. She had to wear her Justice outfit and told me what to wear as well! We had a couple of pictures taken at home and then headed to the show. It was every 6 year olds dream. We had great seats, but not sure we cared much for the opening act-Metro Station. Kendall just sat frozed starting at them. She picked a sno-cone for her treat and we tried to get a T-shirt at intermission, but the line was way to long, so she agreed to try after the concert and if the line was too long she would be ok with one from Wal-Mart. I must admit I was hoping I would get to buy one at Wal-mart since the t-shirt she liked was 40.00! Kendall loved seeing Miley and sang and danced a long to some of the songs. It seemed like Miley is trying to transition away from Hannah Montanna, but that is who Kendall really enjoys so she was excited that she sang "the climb" and the "ho-down-throw down." After lots of dances and screams it was over. Kendall asked part way through the last song to leave and get in line for a t-shirt-smart girl! We were first in line, but she picked a 35.00 T-shirt in the end! A lot of money spent, tons of dancing and screaming, but most importantly a mother daughter night that was priceless!

Miley Cyrus 09

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game on

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Game on

This last week has been all about getting into the routine of school and activities! Kendall had her first scrimage and game for Soccer and she did wonderful! I think she may like cheering for her teamates just as much as playing though. Logan is done with soccer practices and will start games this coming weekend. They both had pictures taken of there soccer team. I started my bowling league. Yes this is a first for me, but it was such a blast! I am the youngest person in the league by at least 15 years. I am on a team with Grandma Marilyn and her friend Corky and Corky's niece. Avery loved being dotted on by all the grandma's and I was adjusting to being beat by an 89 year old. I bowled 3 games to get my handicap or average- I broke 100 it is 105-Yipee! On Sunday, my mom and I headed to Tacoma for the Bank to Bay race. My mom agreed to do it will me only if we walked so we did the 5k and it was great!

Back to school 09

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Back to school 09

Well it is official we are all going back to school! What a busy week it has been. Logan had his open house on Tuesday and his first day of school was Wednesday. He requested chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast-big surprise. He was very excited and had a great first day, by Friday he was tired and I was called at 2pm because he was running a 99.8 fever....oh the fun begins! Kendall had her open house on Wednesday night, and her first day of school was Thursday. She went school clothes shopping with Grandma Fisher on Wednesday and wore her "Justice" outfit on the first day. She also ran into her "BFF" Lindsey and Ms. Dimmitt at Justice, so the girls had to buy "BFF" necklaces. Lindsey bought Kendall a letter K necklace and Lindsey has a L necklace. Ms. Dimmitt took a picture for me too cute. This is why Kendall was a little nervous about starting school as she will be making all new friends. However she had a great first week. She had french toast for breakfast her new outfit and she loves her teacher Ms. Redman. I took Kayla to freshman orientation at the UW on Thursday and picked her up on Friday she doesn't start until the 28th, but is really excited to have her schedule and to have had a chance to meet her roommate and walk around the school. I went to work on Friday and Avery went to Nikki's we all survived the first week-YIPPEE!

End of summer 2009

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End of summer 2009

Hard to believe the end of summer is really here! The kids and I will be back to school this week! We spent the last couple weeks making the best of the time we had left. We spent one weekend around the house cleaning up the garage and the kids went fishing with Austin and Grandpa. Then one day after swim lesson we meet the Marcele's at Wild Waves and then I took them on a trip to Northwest Trek later that week. All while we were still going to swim lessons in the morning and soccer practices in the evening! Kendall and Logan learned so much at swimming this year Kendall advanced 2 levels! Kendall is playing soccer with Kara and enjoying it. Logan just started and is on a team with Sydney Kowalchuk and Kennedy Cypher and we are so lucky because Sarah Cypher is the coach! We also took our last camping trip of the season to Potholes Washington with the Marecle's and Earle's. What a great time! All the kids play so well and the adults get to chill a little while the kids run wild. The kids had a ball at the playground, on their bikes/scooters, in the pool on the slip n slide and just generally running around. They had a great time with the boys out in the boat fishing too! We are looking forward to the camping season next year!

Mayfield Lake 09

This past weekend was our 3rd camping trip of the season. We headed to Mayfield Lake for Thursday through Sunday camping fun! It was a great time! We spent Thursday and most of Friday to ourselves, it was really nice to have the quality time together. The weather was pretty hit and miss between cold, wet and perfect- of course the nicest weather occurred when we were packing up, oh well. The Marcele's joined the party Friday night and the kids were together non stop! While we had wonderful water front campsites, they did present a little challenge with Avery 13 months and Bryce 15 months! Luckily they seemed to enjoy climbing in and out of the kayak, wagon and buggy car. We had lots of fun going on walks around the campsite, especially taking the kids down to the park. The boys took the kids fishing everyday and they all caught a fish! I took the kayak out when it was a little warmer and all the kids had a ride including Sammie-Sue. I have no pics as I was kayaking. This was a different camping experience since we had more time in the trailer and even went into town to get some rainy day activities, but it was fun none the less- kinda makes me excited for fall-sweatshirt weather! A good time and lots of memories were made by all. I love the picture of the boys bums as they decided to pee outside since Austin was giving Avery a bath in the bathroom in the trailer! That will be one for their senior yearbooks! Thanks to the Marcele's for making wonderful memories of our trip to Mayfield!

Mayfield Lake 09

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Fisher and Kowalchuk BBQ 09

Last weekend we had the first of what hopes to be an annual Fisher/Kowalchuk BBQ. Now I find it hard to believe that another BBQ has never happenned but for arguments sake we will call this the first! So for those who don't know the story of the Fisher and Kowalchuk's here is the cliff note version- if you can keep up :0)
Doug Fisher and Jim Kowalchuk grew up together in the same neighborhood, apparently it was rough at times but they were their own gang. Jim Kowalchuk married Diane and had three children- Shelby, Ryan and Lindsey. Doug Fisher married Carol and had two kids Austin and Jacqui. Ryan and Austin are about the same age as is Lindsey and Jacqui. The Fisher/Kowalchuk kids spent tons of time together including camping trips, ski trips, the boys hunt every year etc. All the kids eventually ended up going to and graduating from WSU. Austin and Ryan lived together and so did Jacqui and Lindsey, more memories were made with Dad and Mom's weekends. I meet Austin at WSU through my roommate Katie, she married Ryan and I married Austin. Shelby has since married Art Lago and they have 2 kids- Owen and Ava. Ryan and Katie have 3 kids- Drew, Sydney and Lily, Austin and I have 3- Kendall, Logan and Avery. Lindsey is married to Leo Gee and they are working on kids, but currently have the cutest Golden Retriever! Jacqui has now been dating Chris for almost 2 years-hmmmm :0)
To top it off the Fisher's and Kowalchuk's also own a cabin together in Packwood. We all live super close to each other with the exception of Lindsey who moved closest to our favorite shopping destination so we have an excuse to visit! Looking forward to next years official get together :0)

Fisher and Kowalchuk BBQ 09

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Begining of August 09-REALLY?

Hard to believe but it is already August! We started out the month resting from our trip to Banks and just catching up that lasted a couple of days, and oh what great "Jammie Days" they were!


Avery fell asleep with Kendall, Kendall loved it!

Another milestone was reached for Avery- she finally has enough hair for Piggies!! Yeah!!


We are trying our hand at organized sports again and Kendall has started soccer. She is playing in a 3 on 3 league and has practices twice a week now and games will go until November??? Did I mention she is 6! Logan is also going to play soccer in the fall and I am sure Austin and I will be doing some tag teaming to get everywhere where they need to be.


Kara and Kendall kicking the ball around


The Team


The ever faithful spectators


Avery was all smiles getting to hang out with the big girls- Kendall and Kara