Lincoln City

The ladies of the house, Julie, Me, Maryann, and Mars. Thank you Julie for the delicious crapes and yummy muffin cookies! It was such a relaxing fun getaway.

It was so much fun to watch Ellie and Jaz run around connected at the hip all weekend. They had so much fun and I am proud to say they love their brothers and boy cousins and made sure to include them in the fun. However, they did walk around giving each other high fives saying, "Nature Girls" and "Flower Power" most of the day. It brought back very fond memories of the time I spent with my cousins on vacation as a little girl.

My dad toughed it out this weekend. I know he was in a lot more pain then he let anyone know, but he joined the fun as much as possible. He is still recovering from open heart surgery and all the yuck that comes with post-op. He really was a good sport. I am happy the kids remembered not to jump on Grandpa!

Just a few of the fun moments at Lincoln City with the Fletchers

I almost forgot how to blog

It has been so long since my last post. WAY too much has happened in the past few months to try and catch up so I will just start with this past week. I was able to go with Ellie's class on a field trip to the Oregon Zoo. I had so much fun with Ellie and I lucked out with a really small group of sweet girls. We had so much fun learning interesting facts about the animals. Ellie's favorite new fact was: The lions mane protects his face while he fights other lions. Also, one of the reasons that the lioness does the hunting is because the male lion's mane does not allow him to hide as well as the lioness to hunt it's pray. Did you know that? My new favorite fact: Out of the 10,000 salmon eggs laid only 2-3 will survive and make it back to it's birth place. I always knew that the odds weren't good for the salmon but that is less then .02% chance of survival! Yikes!
Today the kids talked me into turning the sprinklers on in the front yard. It was a must since it was a stifling 76 degrees today! And yes, Blake is wearing his Optimus Prime suit. He showed that water who was boss.

On a more normal approach to the nice weather...we all spent quite a bit of time outside, even Ava! Can you tell the older children seem to be having more fun with Ava's toy then she did. She liked it but spent most of her time trying to find a way out. Finally she decided the best way out would be to just lean over the edge until she fell out...I stopped her and no she did not fall out...but if I would have let her she would have been one happy baby. Ava has earned the nickname, "Crazy Ava." We all have to keep an eye on this one. She is one brave little soul who is determined to walk before she is 9 months old. Precious little thing is CRAZY fun! It's a good thing she has her extra cautious cousins Ellie and Viola. I hear sweet Viola announce Ava's every move with much concern.
Today Blake, Viola, Ava, and I walked down to Ellie's school to watch her jog/walk in her jog-a-thon. She did awesome! A little too awesome. This being our first anything-a-thon, we learned to pledge low, then give more if you want. I really thought that in one hour she couldn't walk/run more then 10-15 1/4mile laps. She ended up running 20 laps, that's 5miles in 1 hour! So now Aunt Melissa and I have to brake the bank and pay up...WOW! She really had fun!

Bad Blogger

It's been way too long and way too much has happened since I last blogged. I have had great intentions but poor execution. I started watching my sweet happy 6 month old niece a few months ago bringing the kid count to four during the day. I am starting to get the hang of it and life has been adjusting accordingly...meaning - no blog entries. I am blessed to be home with my two beautiful children and also to have my sweet lovable nieces with us too. So for now I am going to rely on Mars for some blog fun. Besides she is a brilliant writer and makes me smile, laugh or cry at every single post. So check out Marlene's blog for some cuteness.

Ellie's new hair

After

(hard to see the new hair cut with side bangs! - we will take a better photo in the morning)

Before

She felt so big getting her hair cut!

After her hair was done we walked in the snow across the street to a coffee shop and got some hot chocolate together. It was so much fun! Ellie told me she "felt like a new person."

Pretty stinkin' cute.

Making the best of the unexpected...

Michael took this week off and will not be returning to work until after the New Year. We had big plans full of family fun. Unfortunately, it’s not turning out the way be planned. Ellie got the stomach flu last week up until Christmas day. We did have a sick free 24 hour Christmas and that was very nice! Then Saturday Blake came down with a nasty (when I say nasty I mean it) sore throat and high fever. We are still waiting for a diagnosis either strep or mono, neither one is fun. So we have had lots of sleepless night, movies, and “sit cuddles” (Blake named our cuddle sessions that). Even though we are disappointed with the start of this week we sure have been enjoying each others company. We made smores in our useless but pretty fire place (sucks the heat right out of the house due to a missing damper), but it was worth it and FUN! We used Ellie’s new Easy Bake to make some tiny cakes, and I am getting ready to take Ellie to get her first professional hair cut. We will post pictures tonight, I promise! We miss seeing our friends and family…hopefully we can come out to play soon with a healthy strong Blake!

Oh and playing in the snow too!

We love you Ellie

Happy Birthday Ellianna Kate!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Birthday Ellie

Our big girl Ellie turned 6 years old on Tuesday December 15th. Ellie had a couple of days packed with some of her favorite things. Monday night she got to go on a date with Papa and Nana. She got all dressed and waited by the window for them to pick her up. She was so excited. They took her to dinner and then to the Disney store where she picked out a beautiful Belle dress. On Tuesday she went to school where she got to bring a wrapped book for the teacher to read to the class. Daddy surprised Ellie when he picked her up from school and had a happy meal for her. She came home and opened her gift from us. She got busy right away painting her new magnets.

That night Ellie got to indulge in another favorite thing. Yaya took her to the Dollar Tree (one of her FAVORITE places) where she got to spend as much time (Ellie needs LOTS of time to decide) as she needed to pick out what she wanted. She came home with quite a lute! She even spent some of her money on a gift for Blake. The next morning she showed Blake (who has the stomach flu) her treasures. Oh and she even got a candle in her mashed potatoes at dinner.