Hotel Adams

I said earlier this evening that I felt like we have been running a bed-and-breakfast at the Adams house. We have had company checking-in and checking-out all weekend! On Thursday, Amanda and kids stayed with us so that we could get up early the next day for some Black Friday shopping.

This was only my second time to do the day after Thanksgiving thing, and I must say, I don't really get it. Unless you're shopping for a specific, big-ticket item, I don't see the point of getting up before dawn. (For the record, we did not get up before dawn. More like 6:45 or 7.) I did have fun with Amanda, Renee, and my mom. Thanks again to the guys for watching all the kids!

The Fowlkes spent the night with us after the game on Friday. Jennifer and I did some more shopping on Saturday. It was much less crowded, and we were much more productive. Living in Mountain View, she is shopping-deprived, so we are very hard core when we get the chance to go.

Then after they checked out Saturday, the Johnsons checked in. They spent the night with us last night and went to church with us this morning. They headed back to PA after lunch and are spending the night in Nashville on their way home.

Overall, we had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We got to see most of our family and friends, had great food, and did a lot of shopping (and a lot of laundry)! Hotel Adams will be back open for business soon. If you need a place to stay in LR, just let me know!

TGE08

Happy Thanksgiving! Per Fischer Family tradition, we celebrated last night. Luckily, we did not have a last minute change of venue like we did last year! It was such a fun and surprisingly relaxing time for our big extended family. Now that the kids are bigger, they can play by themselves, and the adults can actually have conversations.

Nathan, Jeremiah, and Brandon sat at the "Big Kids" table. Mom bought them matching shirts so that she could take a picture for her Christmas cards (see above).

Mary Beth, Ashley, and Lydia at the "Little Girls" table

Each year, we write on the tablecloth what we are thankful for.

O, Sister Where Art Thou?

Amanda and the kids made it home for Thanksgiving already. I have to give her credit for making the 20+ hour trip by herself with the kids (again!) As you might imagine, she was dragging a little bit today.

Now we are ready for Renee and family to get here, too. We haven't seen them since May! This is the longest amount of time we have spent away from them since they moved.

But how do you hang it?

Amanda had this cute picture of Brandon and KayKay. I thought this was too cute not to share...

Whoever has my name for christmas....

Apparantly I'm hard to buy for. So to try and help out whoever has my name this year I have made a list. On top of my list is the "Snuggie". I mean I don't know how I've lived through two PA winters and not had a snuggie. Aaron and I laugh every time we see this commercial. By the way- whoever has my name better know I'm just kidding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Kittens

We got two new kittens for the boys from our neighbor for Jeremiah's birthday. The past two days have been interesting to say the least. The black one is "Blackie" and the gray one came with the name "Grayson", but we are unsettled on the name. Yesterday, J was calling her "Queen Fu" Thank God he forgot about that one by morning. We'll keep you posted on a name...

Happy B-Day, JJ!

Jeremiah is 6 today! Sorry, we waited until too late to call, but Nathan wanted to leave you a birthday message:

first snow

We had our first snow today (1-2 inches). This is the only picture that turned out.

The kids played a few minutes before school started this morning.

"Please sigh and return"

I guess it is important for Kindergartners to have a visual reward/punishment system. I've heard about other teachers using stoplights and such, but in Nathan's class, each kid has a "Fry Box". They each start out with 3 fries in their box. If you misbehave, you have to pull a fry. Most days, Nathan keeps all 3 fries in his box, but today he lost one again for talking too much. The parent is supposed to initial this little report each day and return it to school. I noticed today that it says "Please sigh and return" which is exactly what I did. : )

More Brother/Sister Pics

What a difference a year makes...

Fall 2007

Fall 2008

I took the same picture (same pose, same location, yes, Nathan's even wearing the same sweater) this morning that we took around this time last year. It's amazing to see how much Ashley has changed from last year. I think this will be an annual tradition, but I might have to spring for a new sweater next time. Nate's just about to outgrow the 5T!

Sand Sculpting Festival

This past weekend we went to the Annual sand sculpting Festival on Ft Myers Beach. It is apparently a pretty big deal for professional sand sculptors (who knew that was a real job). We had a great time and, as Josh put it "It beats the pants off the Pink Tomato Festival (Star City AR)."

*The kids said this looks like Papa when he gets old (It is Santa in a canoe)

Politically Correct?

Nathan's school has a Thanksgiving Feast next Thursday morning. I copied this quote from one Kindergarten teacher's website:

The children will be served “Native American Pancakes” for the Thanksgiving feast made with a pancake for the face, a strip of bacon for a headband, apples for feathers, raisins for eyes, a cherry nose, gel icing for the mouth and war paint."

I just think it is funny that they say "Native American" instead of "Indian" to be PC about the whole thing. But really, how respectful is it to represent a culture by making a pancake face (complete with a cherry nose and bacon headdress) and eat it for breakfast?

No school! No school!

I'm very excited that we have a 4-day weekend! Nate's school is closed for "Professional Development Days" - whatever that means - on Thursday and Friday. We don't have anything planned, but I'm sure we will come up with some things to do.

I'm also very excited to report that both Renee and Amanda will be coming home for Thanksgiving. Josh is not going to be able to make the trip, but everyone else will be here. (Aaron, however, is kind of on my bad list because he was in Arkansas last week and didn't even call us.)

One thing I have got to start doing soon is preparing for Christmas. I haven't even started on my list yet, so I hope to at least get some ideas on paper soon. It's hard to believe that Christmas is only 6 weeks from tomorrow! I should really get started on that list...

Kindergarten Pics

Hidden Treasure

I knew this would happen...

Ashley found one of her old pacifiers. I knew that we hadn't found all of them when we took them away from her a couple months ago. This week she found one, upstairs, tucked behind a file box. I let her play with it that night (but not sleep with it - that would have been disastrous!) She was so funny talking about how her other pacies "ran away", and she put this one in her back pack "so it be safe". This one "ran away" the next day, but I didn't throw it in the trash. I don't know why, but I wanted to save it. That's very out of character for me. In fact, I made fun of Jeff the first time that we made the big purge, because he wanted to save one. She will probably find the ones we have hidden away, and we'll have to do this all over again!

Kindergarten Flashback

I was looking through some old pictures and ran across Jeff's and my Kindergarten pictures. We look so much alike that it's hard to tell who the kids look like, but I definitely see more of me in Ashley and Jeff in Nathan.

I don't know if you can see them in the picture, but I'm wearing Smurfette earrings. Jeff's picture was folded in half, so I had to do a little Photoshop-ing to remove the crease across his mouth, but it still looks a little distorted. Ashley was sitting beside me when I was working on this. When she saw this picture, she said, "Nathan!"

Counting Blessings

I took my kids to the doctor on Halloween for flu shots and Nathan's 6-year check-up. I guess I'm a terrible mother for taking them in for shots on Halloween, but it turned out to be a great time to go. Our appointment was at 2:50. We got there a few minutes early and were strapping back in the car seats by 3:05.

Nathan actually did not have to get any shots. This was his second year to get FluMist (the nasal spray vaccine). He has been really healthy this year. In fact, his last pediatrician appointment was this time last year for his 5-year check-up. And other than this appointment, Ashley has only been once that I can remember since her last check-up.

Tis' the season to count our blessings, and I am very thankful that our kids are well and thriving. Our good friend Brooke had a baby in September who was born at 30 weeks weighing just 1lb. 15oz. After 49 days in the NICU, she got to go home this week. Yea, Brynn! She seems to be doing great, and we are very thankful for that as well.

Pics from Papa and Fisch's visit contd.

Pics from Papa and Fisch's visit

The kids love to go to Cabella's in Wheeling, WV. Going there with Papa was like a dream come true for the boys.

Happy Halloween!

PA towns are divided into townships and our township did trick or treating on Thursday night. The kids had a good time. The best part of the night was having Papa and Fisch here. J and Micah are transformers (if you can't tell) and Lily had to wear the frog costume one last time for old times sake. (this was Jeremiaha's first halloween costume when he was one)

May the Force Be With You

It was an all Star Wars Halloween for us last night. I was concerned that people wouldn't be able to tell who Ashley was supposed to be in the last minute Princess Leia costume, but when you're with Darth Vader, I guess it just makes sense. We did get one "Look at the cute angel!" comment, but most people got the theme.

We went trick-or-treating in Benton with Abby again. It's great because she carries Ashley around and does everything for her. (Ashley actually insists for Abby to do everything for her when she's around.)

Abby came home with us last night, and we are going to go to the zoo or something this morning. The weather is perfect here, so we're going to get out an enjoy it! Happy November!