Oh baby

 

If you are 16 months old and you want a drink of water you should push a stool over to the fridge, get a cup and proceed to make a huge mess all while being extremely proud of your forward thinking and accomplishment...... She filled the cup all the way to the top and when it started to spill she decided that wasn't right and proceeded to dump out the entire cup on the floor before trying again..... all while I took pictures...... :) This girl is a problem solving handful!

Hailey Hailey

 

Hailey loves to dress up in anything and everything. The other day she brought me this costume - the Thing - from Fantastic 4 - and wanted me to put it on her. She was so happy about it. She even wears the mask. I threw in a picture of me for good measure. Maggie was the photographer. My eyes look so tired. I am so tired! Fingers crossed, I think I am starting to feel a little better but still exhausted.

Mags

 

Maggie loves to put on singing and dancing shows for us. She is always wanting me to take videos of her so she can watch them. I think I see a kids digital camcorder in her future :) She still wants to wear a skirt or dress everyday even with the cold weather. Oh well. I wonder what Hailey will be like as she gets older.

Graham cracker houses

 

We made graham cracker houses not long ago. The kids loved it. Hailey just wanted to eat everything - expecially the frosting but Jackson and Maggie were enjoying the building and decorating. Maggie kept saying "how beautiful, how cute" as we added pink sprinkles.

First day of sledding 2009

 

Whew! I have caught up through Nov. Bear with me :) Matt's parents came to help out while Matt was off to Florida again. We got a few inches of snow and the kids were so excited to go sledding. Hailey loved it and wanted to go again and again until she got cold. Maggie is an avid sledder. Where she is fairly cautious with a lot of things - sledding is not one of them. She goes all on her own - over and over. She is hardest one to get to leave. Jackson heads straight for the paths with the jumps and takes off. We had terraces just outside our house when I was growing up and we went sledding A LOT so it's fun to see the kids so into it. Although I would love to have the hill in our backyard.... Oh, and this time of year - I completely covet a mudroom. We have NOWHERE to take off snowstuff so there is always snow tracked through the house when we come home.

Oh Hailey.

 

 

Hailey is very insistent on feeding herself. She has been that way for months of her short life already. Most of the time she does a really good job. This was obviously not one of those times. She thought it was great though. We just have to catch her right when she's done or she starts to get creative...

Off to school

 

While the weather was still fairly nice Jackson started riding his bike to school with the pack of neighborhood kids. The 9 year old across the street said she would be in charge of him. We tried it and he did excellent. He is the youngest of the group (there are about 5 of them). He started riding withought training wheels in August so he was still pretty wobbly when school started but after a little while he was getting better and better and kept begging to ride with the other kids. He thought he was so cool riding his bike with the big kids. Our elementary school has free breakfast this year for the whole school so they head in early and eat before class. He loves it and since he has been listening well to Alli I let him keep going. Now one of the other Mom's drives all of them since it's gotten really cold. It's usually a high of 15-20 during the day.

Window decorations

 

We have discovered that you can draw on the window with whiteboard markers and it will just wipe right off. The kids love to do window art. Jackson was drawing a turkey to decorate for Thanksgiving. It's hard telling what Maggie was drawing but it involved a lot of pink and purple. I usually only let them draw when Hailey is asleep because she is a menace with a marker or anything that writes for that matter. She is a firm believer in "the world is her canvas". She draws on everything - walls, floors, herself....

Hailey has a silly hat

 

It's amazing how this is the third time we have had a 1 year old and yet the things they do are still so cute. Maggie at this age would put on a hat and sing "sil-l-l-li 'at". Hailey will say 'at every once in awhile but mostly she just loves to dress up in anything and everything! Can't forget the messy, messy shirts of this age either.... :)

Popcorn

 

This was one of those grill/campfire popcorns. We just did it over the stove top. The kids loved watching it get bigger and bigger. Jackson was starting to get concerned it was going to explode. Hailey said "oooo" when I opened it and she could see all the popcorn inside. Very fun to do once in awhile.

Talking to Dad

 

Since Matt has been a lot for Florida trips we have a bluetooth headset to make talking to him easier. The kids love to put it one and talk to Dad. It's so funny to watch the little ones walk around with and talk. Hailey will do it too but the expression on her face is very funny when she does. She will say "Hi" and then she just stares at you with big eyes when Matt talks back to her.

Leaf clean-up

 

Fall is always such a fun time... until you have to start cleaning up all the leaves. The kids love it but Matt and I? not so much. I love the sound of leaves blowing in the wind and the feel of the crisp clean air but it's a pain to rake and clean up so many leaves!! Notice Maggie's mismatched shoes? That's her solution when she can't find a pair or sometimes even if she can. She will just grab two and put them on.

Happy Halloween

 

Better late than never....... The kiddos loved Halloween. Jackson was a power ranger, Maggie was Cinderella, and Hailey was a dragon. They were so excited to go trick-or-treating. It was hard for them to wait patiently until it was time. Hailey went down for a late nap and missed the fun. It was hard to convince Maggie to wear a coat over her dress eventhough it was so cold. They loved coming home and going through their loot. Hailey was excited to find candy everywhere when she got up from her nap. We watched a movie in the living room and took turns answering the door for other trick-or-treaters.

So.....

Matt is off to Fl again so I am holding down the fort. Unfortunately I am not feeling well and it's not going away anytime soon..... we are having another baby!! I am excited about the baby but even more excited to get out of the first trimester so I can start feeling better. Anyway, that should explain why I am so behind on this blog...... I will catch up some time,

Pumpkin carving

 

We had fun carving pumpkins a week or so ago. I thought the weather would stay colder so the pumpkins would last longer.... but that was not the case, our pumpkins are now looking rather saggy and sad out on the front porch.
Maggie and Hailey helped me do a pumpkin while Matt did one of his own and helped Jackson. Notice Matt working with the dremel to carve :) The kids love to see them all lit up when we are done.

Banana Caterpillar

 

It's fun to make snacks for the kids and watch their reactions. This one was really easy to make. Matt called it a meal more than a snack :) Any other good snack ideas out there? We also like to make apple teeth if you remember that one.

Hailey climbing

 

 

Hailey climbs up and stands on this stool all by herself. She is a little braver than I am comfortable with :) Of course then she cries because she can't quite figure out how to get down by herself. She has tried to just step off but realized it was a little farther to the floor than she thought..... She wants to be big so badly

Jackson sleeping

 

I'm not sure how he got into this position or why he decided to stay there..... but this is what we found when we checked on the kiddos one night. I moved him back into his bed.

Snow day

 

We got some snow on the last day of September. It was only just the day after the fire hydrant. Funny how the weather changes so drastically this time of year. I haven't pulled out their snow clothes yet so it was kind of difficult to get them warm enough to be out in it. Hailey was kind of amazed and loved it until her hands got really cold. It just made enough to cover the trampoline. It was a great introduction to snow. The weather has been fairly warm ever since though.

Water

 

One day the city workers were flushing the fire hydrants to make sure water was running through the system correctly - anyway, there is a fire hydrant right in front of our house so we were close to the action. The kids loved it - Hailey was asleep so she missed all the fun. It made a lot of water very quickly. They only ran it for about 5 min but it was warm enough for the kids to get wet and splash around. It was funny to watch Maggie run away whenever Jackson would run by splashing then she would run to the water only to turn around and run away again as Jackson came back. It only happens once a year but it's great fun - like a holiday :)

Castle

 

A week or so ago I decided to break out the blow up castle. It kept them busy that whole afternoon. Today I packed it away again to bring out another day that we need some indoor fun. With winter on it's way that day isn't far away. This castle has been stashed in the basement for a more than a year since it needed some patching. Which was very easy to do. Don't you hate that - you avoid something for a long time thinking it's going to be hard only to find out that it was very easy.... oh well.

Creative challenges

 

When I do Maggie's hair I have to be quite specific on how many and what kind of hair clips or ties I want her to choose..... occasionally, I forget and just tell her to chose which ones she wants that day. When that happens I have to find creative ways to use all the ones she picked - on this particular day she chose 7 things. Hmmm. This is one of those 'choose your battles' moments - I have decided that it's just not worth it to fight about her hair-do, yet... Most of the time she will listen and chose the few I ask but on those days I forget to remind her..... well, it's just a way to boost my creative talents. Right?

Pretty Pretty Princess

 

Some friends told me about a game called "Pretty Pretty Princess" - amazingly enough I found it at a yardsale not long after.... Maggie loves it. All you do is move your piece around the game board and collect plastic jewelry in your color. Once you have collected all your pieces you win! Is has earrings (which Maggie calls "earbells"), a necklace, bracelet, ring and crown. It's a very simple game that the kids can even play on their own without my help. It was missing a few of the game pieces but amazingly had all the jewelry - so I am ordering some replacements from Hasbro for just a few dollars. Fun! I just have to swallow my pride and decorate myself along with her as we play.....

Books

 

We read books every night as part of our bedtime routine.... Jackson and Maggie love it and always want to read more. Hailey is usually a menace, as you can see. She climbs all over us and everything else causing general mayhem. She does sit and flip the pages of books on her own though so maybe the day she sits still while we read isn't too far off.

Peach days

 

The annual celebration here is called Peach Days. On a Fri night they have a children's parade for all the local schools - with Jackson being in Kindergarden this year he could also be in the parade. He was very excited and chose to take his scooter...... the parade goes for about 4 1/2 blocks - which doesn't sound far but he was very tired by the end. He said "I don't think I want to do that again. It was too far!" The following morning was the big city parade. The kids loved collecting candy but got bored before the parade was over - and Hailey kept trying to run in the road and follow the parade..... Later that day I took Maggie and Jackson to go on some of the carnival rides. We had a good time but it took over 2 hrs to go on three rides. Sometimes I hate crowds! :)

I think I am finally caught up with my blogging. Whew. Now I can go back to posting once in awhile! I am trying to keep it up to date so it will make a good journal record someday. I am working on getting last years posts made into a book. It's a lot of fun. So I am trying to do an even better job of staying on top of things this year. Wish me luck and check in a lot :)

Here we go!!

 

We pulled out the rollerblades the other day.... even mine and Matt's! Although I don't have any pictures of the two of us on rollerblades I have some rather good ones of the little Fisher's :) They love to be out and active. We should do it more often! Hailey also loves to be in on the action so she rides her little bike around. Matt put her on Jackson's scooter one day and now she is addicted to that and tries to get it herself. They don't last long on skates but it's fun to watch them try.

Maggie starts preschool

 

Maggie's first day of preschool was last Tue.... but we missed it to visit with a friend from Alaska who had a layover in SLC. So she started on Thur - on the way there she said "Mom, I won't be scared today. I will be brave and it will be fun!". This was an improvement over the week before when she said she would be too scared to go there by herself. She has done great. She hasn't been sad at all and loves to go do projects and play games. I love her preschool because they always have some active playtime. It's at a gymnatiscs place so they will go out and play in the big gym or in the indoor playplace they also have. It's well organized and Maggie loves it. Couldn't ask for more I guess! So a few days a week it's just Hailey and I - but only for about an hour and a half. It adds a lot of running around into my schedule but the kids love the social time.

Puppy

 

We decided to go ahead and get another dog...... It's been two years since we've had one. I kept putting it off until we moved, hopefully, to somewhere with more property but who knows when that will be. The kids love it especially Hailey. She and the puppy play together like siblings. It gets a little rough at times. He is about 5 months old and he's a beagle/harrier mix. His name is Jasper (not very original since my family had a black/white dog named Jasper growing up - but oh well). He will probably be about 30-40 lbs when he is fully grown. He is fully potty trained which is very nice. So far he really hasn't added too much work - we just have to keep things picked up so he doesn't chew on them..... Jackson was ready to give him back when he started chewing on some legos!

Kid quotes......

"I've got a lot of skittle"
This is what Jackson said as he jumped off the trampoline yesterday. Huh? Matt translated - he must mean skill :)
Kids are funny. Especially at these ages that they use/learn new words. One of Maggie's favorite words is 'actually'. "Actually, I do want that Mom"

Washington DC

 

We went to Washington DC to see Matt's sister get married. It was a very quick trip but we managed to squeeze in a little sight seeing. We got there very late on a Thur night and flew back Sunday afternoon. We took the metro (something that was an experience all on it's own) into DC to see the monuments. Since we didn't have very much time we didn't go to any of the museums. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, the washington monumnent (that's Jackson in the orange shirt touching it), and the WWII memorial. We drove by the white house for a quick peek but didn't take any pictures. As you can see, Maggie and Hailey, crashed for the monument tour. Jackson was tired - it was a lot of walking - but he did really well and enjoyed the monuments.

 

Aren't they cute? Doesn't it take you back to your wedding day? It was a lot of fun to go to a wedding. The kids loved seeing Kami in her "married" dress. It was also great to see all of Matt's siblings together and for the little ones to see all of their cousins on that side of the family. There are eight of them with Jackson being the oldest. We stayed at a rental house that was big enough for all of us. It was chaos but so fun to be so close to everyone for such a busy trip.




Jackson started kindergarten the day after we got back from DC - these posts are a little out of order......

The first of many......

 

 

Jackson started kindergarten on Aug. 31st. I'm only just now posting about it :)He went for a week then had a week off as they did assessments. I know - I think it would have been easier on everyone to have scheduled that differently. Anyway, his first week went fairly well.... with a few snags :)
On the first day we decided to walk (it's only about 4 blocks) I pushed the girls in a stroller and he rode his scooter. He had been coughing from a cold and riding his scooter made it a lot worse. Before I knew it he was coughing so much it made him throw up.... right in the grass beside the sidewalk. We weren't on the main road next to the school yet so it wasn't too crowded. He just got right back on his scooter and kept going. He has always had an easy gag reflex. When he was a baby if he cried too hard he would throw up. He gags on food he doesn't like... nice, huh? His first day went well though at least he seemed to enjoy it but he said "I was good at first, bad in the middle, and good again at the end." So I'm not sure his teacher enjoyed it as much. On Wednesday (his third day of school) I get a call from a teacher about his defiant behavior. Hmm. However, it turned out that the principal happened to be in the classroom when he was acting up and decided to 'help' by taking him out in the hall to talk to him. He didn't want to "go with that lady" so he threw a fit and ran away from her and wouldn't listen to her at all. So the principal had the teacher call me later that day. Once we talked it over with him and he realized that a prinicipal is the boss of the school and she can discipline him if it's needed he said "oh". So hopefully that won't be an issue anymore :) He will not listen to someone if he doesn't think they have the right or authority to do what they are doing. Excellent skill in an adult - a little harder to deal with in a 5 yr old! We will see how he readjusts after this week off. He hasn't been sad to go at all and for the most part he likes it.

Cute kids

 

Obviously I love to take pictures of these guys!! Hailey thought having a tutu on was the coolest thing ever. It's Maggie's - Hailey thinks it's great when she gets to play with the big kid stuff. What a character!

Kids and pictures....

 

This was my attempt to get a picture of the three kiddos the other day. Maggie and Jackson love to dress up and they were looking rather cute that day :) so I decided to take a picture..... Good thing my kids sit perfectly still so I can take awesome pictures...... They all thought it was hilarious. Hailey was the instigator of most of it.

What a big girl!

 

 

Hailey has always wanted to feed herself - from the first day we gave her baby food. Now she wants to be big and use a fork and spoon like the big kids. She is getting quite good at it.

Michigan

 

At the family reunion in Michigan one of the relatives had a speedboat.... Jackson wanted to go out on the boat but wasn't sure he wanted to ride in the tube. After watching the other kids try it he decided that it looked like fun and went out on it. Later that day when they had the boat out again Jackson wanted to have another turn - since they were still at the beach he said "Maggie, come on, ride with me." To our surprise she jumped right in with him. They both loved it.

Swimming

 

We visited a family friend who had a pool when we got to Michigan. The kids had a great time. Jackson still loves to swim and still has no fear. Now I understand why he has two former lifeguards as parents...... we have had to save him so many times it's ridiculous. We really need to teach this kid to swim. Maggie has a little more respect for the water after having to be saved another time but she did get in and play despite being nervous. She even had to be pulled out of this pool by me which shook her up a little again but didn't stop her. Hailey is almmost the worst - she loves the water and has absolutely no respect for the danger. She wants to swim on her own, she doesn't want to be held all the time and she doesn't want to wear a lifejacket. She definitely has to be within arms reach at all times. These kiddos keep us busy but we love it. I will post more MI/reunion pics when we get back from Washington DC - this has been an incredibly busy summer....