I just wanted to show Tracy how she may not be able to post her videos, but I can.





Ha Ha! I win!

Christmas morning 2007

Here's our Christmas. Sophia's been a little under the weather so we actually woke up before her (I mentioned to Lynette how it was wrong that the parents woke up before the kid)

But I made a Fletcher tradition. Breakfast casserole. It was tasty and we ate it all. I hope we are hungry by lunch. I'm making our own Christmas dinner with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and rolls. Just the essentials of a Thanksgiving (or Christmas)

When Sophia finally did get up we gathered by the tree and as you can see, she loved getting her presents (oddly enough she seemed to know which ones were hers) but she still didn't understand that she was tearing open the present to get what was inside. She just tore it cause tearing stuff up is fun.

Merry Christmas Eve!

As it has become tradition with my family, we went to Kearney tonight to open Christmas presents and celebrate Christmas. As we all got older and started having families of our own, it was inevitable that someone was not going to be available on Christmas morning... so our tradition was born. I thought I would share some pictures of Christmas Eve at my grandparents house.





Sophia really took to my cousin Jessica and her husband Jason. Actually, while we were opening gifts we kept on trying to steal her back from him so she could open gifts with us.... she kept on escaping to his lap so we eventually stopped fighting it.






One last picture just to share. Emma, Katie and Sophia loved these snowmen that sang Christmas carols. They played them over and over and over.... you get the gist. Hope you enjoyed our little Christmas Eve. We will post videos tomorrow morning after we have our own Christmas. Lots of love to you all and I hope you are also having a wonderful Christmas Eve with your families.

More stories of Italy

Home sweet home. I loved every minute of our time in Sicily but there is something wonderful about sleeping in our own bed, snuggled deep under the covers with the windows open and the crisp, cool October air filling our room (Avery, you and I have that in common). We have been recuperating from the long plane rides and the time change. It's not been an easy task. Sophia still isn't sleeping normal but at least this morning she slept until 6am instead of 4am like she did a few days ago.

Today was my first day back to work and everyone was asking me to share stories of my trip. I had a hard time coming up with specific stories to tell. It was all so amazing. The only thing that I kept on coming back to my mind was Mt. Etna and all the lava that it has produced, from the lava church that we saw in Randazzo on Monday to the lava coast in Catania that we saw on Tuesday. It was all so amazing- although there was something a little unnerving about being on an island so close to an active volcano.



The other thing that keeps on coming to mind is the architecture. Everything looks like it has been there for hundreds of years, even the newer buildings. The churches and cathedrals are breathtaking. We went to the famous elephant square in Catania and saw the Piazza del Duomo. It was amazing. Pictures just don't do it justice. It is one of those places that its beauty just overwhelms you; you forget everything else around you.... that's probably why someone advised us to beware of pick pockets while we were there.

Hello again from the island! We've been here a week and it's been wonderful. Everything here is so beautiful and pictures just don't do it justice.

We had our dinner party... it was very overwhelming. The Italians were so nice and absolutely loved Sophia- but only 2 of them spoke English. They kept on trying to include us in (Italian) conversation but we had to rely on mom to translate. It was very interesting.



On Friday, we went to Taormina- the tourist mecca of Sicily. It is so beautiful there that I understand why it is so touristy, but the commercialism of it all almost ruins it's beauty... note that I said almost. The views were amazing. You can see Etna in all her glory and the sea and coastline are breathtaking. The pictures don't do it justice. We went down to a beach after we left the town and waded in the Ionic Sea. Sophie loved it until a wave almost knocked her over.


Something I've been attracted to over here is the plants. It's totally different than the US. They have chestnut trees, we saw holly, rose bushes bigger than anything in the US, cactus that bears prickly pears EVERYWHERE! The coolest thing is that every plant has a purpose. They have decorative plants, just not many of them. Everywhere you look are olive groves, orange groves, almonds, vineyards, plants that are very pretty, but mostly functional.

Hello from Sicily

Well, we made it... after about 12 in airplanes, and 6 hours spent in airports... we finally made it. We spent most of yesterday trying to catch up on sleep and adjust to the time change but we did get to Motta for a little bit of sightseeing. Mt. Etna wasn't very visible yesterday but I included the picture anyway.










Sicily is amazing. Tonight we are having a Sicilian dinner party. I wonder how Sophia is going to do-it's going to last way past her bedtime. Anyway, I will try to post more of our trip while we are still here. If I can't, I will definitely post more when we get home.

Introducing the newest addition to our family...

Breanna Grace Cobb was born yesterday morning at 10:22. She weighed 8 lbs, 12 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. Both baby and momma are doing well.





For those of you who know the situation, Michelle is having her kidney stones removed on Monday but she is already feeling better now that she doesn't have a baby on her bladder. And as for Breanna, they have decided not to operate on her kidney at this time. She is having a sonogram at Children's Mercy in a few days to reassess her situation. Other that that she is a very beautiful and healthy little girl. Hope you enjoy the pictures!


Congratulations Richard and Michelle!

All about marbles

So I went to Moon Marble today. It's a little store near here that makes, sells, EVERYTHINGs marbles.

I'd known of it for a while, it seemed like a fun place. And I realized that I have a whole bunch of grandpa Fletcher's old marbles. I bet if these people know anything about marbles, they can tell me a lot about these.

I walk in and it's really cool. Marbles floor to ceiling. You can click above and see pictures of the place. Well someone came up front to greet Sophia and I and I told her I was just stopping on from curiosity. But I also brought some marbles. She told me that Bruce is making a marble right now, I can go back and watch. When he's done he'll be able to look at my marbles.

All this morning and on the way there I was curious what he would see. Don't all marbles look alike? But sure enough he was pointing out material and saying things like, "You see this groove loops down and then there are 2 hash marks? Kinda like a baseball." (I didn't see anything that looked like a baseball)

So here's what he said:

First thing. He said they came from about the 1930s and 40s. Marbles made at the turn of the century were often clay. Often imported and often expensive. So unless Grandpa started playing marbles at my age, they probably were Uncle Glenn's or someone.

He picked out a few. I'm going to do my best to recite what he said about what.

These are Akro marbles. They were the first glass marble company in America. Starting in 1910-ish. They are the most common marble from this era. (Though marbles from this era are not common) He even had a picture of them that he copied out of a magazine from 1939. He picked out a few others and told me that they came from a factory in Illinois from the same time.

These are not marbles at all. They are 2 brands of markers used in chinese checkers and other like games. Based on the hue he guessed the manufacturer, but I don't remember.

These are the ones I bought while I was there. He told me there were no modern day marbles in the mix. All of them came from the 30s. But now that I added these cool looking ones, there is a mix. You're welcome Mom.

And this one has the best story. He pulled a black-light pen light out of his pocket. While he was fishing for it he told us that in the 30s, they used Uranium in marbles to give it this green color. His black-light will make the uranium glow if it's in there. But alas, no glow. We don't have a radioactive marble.

Finally, he told me it's a great collection. Very old. Still good condition. And when talk turned to money (he didn't want to buy them, he just wanted to inform me) I told him I wouldn't sell them. He said great. "They probably have much more sentimental value than any other value."

Fia's birthday video

So it seems that I am posting this out of order. And I guess I am. We posted pics of Fia's birthday party with the promises of video. I posted video of her drinking and then I went back to the birthday video. But here it is. Watch the first one first.




It went really well until she started getting tired. Even then it would have been fine except she had cake all over her hands when she started rubbing her eyes from exhaustion.



Rubbing cake into her own eyes wasn't the best way to keep her going and at that point it was a question of how to wrap up th party and give her a nap.

Still a ton of fun and I hope you all enjoy.

Sophia drinks

So I love this video for a number of reasons. We were hanging out at Lill's and Sophia grabbed a cup near her and lifted it up to her mouth. It had noting in it but she tried to drink from it anyway. So we got her a cup with some water in it. She drank like a pro and we all cheered. I guess we cheered too much because once we started the camera (thanks to Annie for having a camera to capture this moment) she only went through the motions and stopped to get her cheers and hoorays!

I love this because she doesn't actually drink, yet goes through the motions then stops to get applause. I love it again because the camera is perfect, going crazy once the water is spilled.



Enjoy. I'm off to post the video of her eating her first birthday cake. Lynette promised I'd put it up.

Sophie's Birthday Party

I thought that I would share some pics from Sophie's party for those of you who could not attend. I will post a video later after I get it uploaded to you tube.









Just a little taste....

Before she digs in!

Happy First Birthday Sophia!

Well, it finally arrived... Sophia's first birthday. It doesn't seem like it has been a year yet but the calendar and the ticker on our blog say differently. Most of you who read this have heard about the bear that we made for Sophia the day she was born and how I wanted to take her picture each month to show how she has grown... well the final picture was taken today. So I thought I would share a couple of them with you. Hope you enjoy seeing how our precious girl has grown. Love you all.

Her first word is 'three'?

Sophia and I have a game. I count very slowly. "Ooooone... Twwwwwo..." and then I say "Three" and drop her at the same time. It's only a half-drop and I catch her. She gets excited when she hears me say "One" and is practically giggling when she is dropped.

Today her and I were doing this and she finished for me.



The first time she said it, it sounded like, "Tee" Then it kinda dissolved into her saying, "Tay" or "Teh" But does it count? I'm a little skeptical. You tell me if Sophia's first word is, "Three"

Rainy Day

I know I posted a blog entry earlier today but that was before I took these great pictures of Sophia playing in the rain. We had some pretty heavy rain earlier today and Sophia kept on going over to the back door and looking out so I let her out to play. It was really cute. She was having a blast and got really mad when I decided it was time to come inside. Hope you enjoy!

Perfect day to fly a kite

Well, just as the weather man promised it was a very windy day yesterday. So Ken and I went to the park to fly kites. We went to Englewood Park, which if you have been there you know about all the geese that demand bread as soon as you get close to them. And of course we took what bread we had left in the cabinet with us. Sophie didn't really react to the geese- she just watched as they chased after the bread that Ken threw. Just thought I would share some of the pictures we took yesterday.

When did she grow up?

Every time I log onto our blog I notice how close that number is getting to 365 days. It seems like it was just a few weeks ago that we brought Sophia home from the hospital and now we are starting to plan her first birthday party. Where did the time go? Anyway, for those of you who don't get to see our precious girl very often, here is a video of how grown up she is now.... She is crawling like a champ, cruising around the furniture and now can even crawl onto the furniture... nowhere is safe now. Hope you enjoy!

Koala Pics

Well, you asked for them, so here they are.... pics of the koala. Now, I wasn't sure which koala you wanted pictures of so I included them both. Hope you enjoy the pictures!


We went to the zoo yesterday for Mother's Day.
It was PACKED! We waited in line for 2 hours just to get into the zoo, but once we got in it was fun. Sophia did pretty well considering she didn't nap the entire time we were there.








Here is a pic of all three of us... one of the very few. Our friend Sara and her daughter Kalia went to the zoo with us and took the pic.





And here is a pic of them. It's hard to believe Kalia is only 2 weeks younger than Sophia.

True. Blue. Tradition.

We took Sophia to her first Royal's game on Sunday (even though it was rainy) and we had a pretty good time. I think that Ken was disappointed because he didn't get to see the Royals score. We ended up leaving during the seventh inning stretch because it was threatening to down pore again, and the Royals were down 10-0. Anyway, I thought I would share some pics, and blogging gave me an excuse to use our new laptop, but that is Ken's news to blog about!






In true baseball tradition, we munched on hotdogs and peanuts, drank sodas, and hoped that we would win one of the MANY contests that they had during the game. Sophie even got to nibble on a hotdog too!

Perfect day for playing at the Park!

Today was a perfect spring day so Sophia and I went to the park. She loved swinging!!!












Unfortunately there weren't many things she could do. I need to find a park that has a playground for toddlers. She loved watching all the other kids playing....
and there were a lot to watch!






Hope you enjoy the pics I took while there. Ken will post a you-tube video of her swinging later. I'm not really sure how to do it.

She's crawling and standing

The latest from our little girl

It's not quite crawling, but she's getting where she wants to go.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our little girl wanted to wish all of you a Happy Valentine's Day! (and eat the card we made)

Love you all!

Cable's Out

My cable company, Time Warner, is boasting big improvements. Caller ID shows up on your TV, browse shows and movies up to 2 weeks in advance. Search for a show by keyword, subject, title, star, etc. And to do this they send my cable box the upgrade overnight... It's actually a series of upgrades over time.

About six months ago here was the story. I woke up and the cable box was flashing letters and numbers. I call the cable company and tell them the problem. They say something went wrong with the upgrade and to wait and it will fix itself. I wait, call back and they say to wait longer. I wait longer and call back. They go through various tests and diagnose and tell me they need to send a tech to my place. He'll show up a week later and fix it. I ask if I can go to their store and trade out my cable box for a new one. That's what I did. 1 short paragraph, but it took all day.

So today here is the story. I wake up and the cable box is flashing the exact same letters and numbers as six months ago. I call the cable company and they tell me to wait and it will fix itself. I wait and call back. I tell them the problem and explain why I''m familiar with it, they tell me to wait a little bit longer but as opposed to the previous times, they aren't saying call back a X o'clock, they just say 'later'. And now I'm wondering what we can do 2 hours from now that we can't do now.

"This has happened before. It doesn't fix itself. Let's take the alternate route." I don't want to trade out cable boxes (I have shows saved on there) but I'll bring that up later after their tests and such.

She comes back and tells me, "Right now there is nothing we can do. If you are still having this problem later than call us back and we will assist you then."

"Well when is later? Should I wait 1 hour? 3 hours?"

"We are available 24/7 so you can call us any time you like."

"I'd like right now."

"But we can't do anything right now"

"I know this problem, I've had this exact problem before. Why must I call back later to get something done. Why does it always take 3 or more calls to get my cable fixed? Let's do it right now."

"Right now there is nothing that we can do. But if you will call back later..."

"Later when?"

"We are available 24/7. You can call whenever you like."

OK, we are now officially going in circles. "Please, give me some sort of resolution. If this will fix itself, tell me when or by what time. If you can't give me a time, than let's get to fixing it NOW!"

After this was all over. I got the worst answer that I could have received. She told me noon, then she followed it up by saying that she was only guessing at that number and it came from no actual information.

It's Superbowl week (in retrospect)

This recent week Lynette and I needed a babysitter. We called Laura, my good friend and ex-coworker at the restaurant. When she left to find another job I mentioned maybe calling her to babysit some day. She said yes, then made sure to bring up the subject again. Just in case I was just making conversation, she wanted me to know that she was serious. She wanted to babysit.

Lynette's parents and our schedule gave us little to no need to have Laura babysit, but this most recent Friday, we called Laura and her mother, Carol. Carol practically begged to babysit and when I called to confirm she interrupted me to say, "You better not be calling to cancel." So Carol and Laura hung out at our place last Friday to watch the baby and dog and some TV. Near the end of the night I called to check up on them and they said, "Don't bother coming home. We've taken over you baby, dog and TV." But I came home anyway. I need the TV.

They had a great time. And Carol took the stereotypical babysitter picture. Laura sat on the couch and did what teenage babysitters do best. If only she'd known that she could use my phone all she wanted and not used any of her cell minutes.

Then the following Sunday, as I'm watching the Superbowl, Lynette decides that Sophia is not dressed properly. So 5 minutes later she shows back up and Fia is dressed appropriately for a football game. It was sweet. The outfit was a little too small on her, but she still pulled it off.

So I gotta explain

I think the others have been making assumptions about why I haven't posted. Let' me clarify: It's because I'm a bad person. There. I hope that clarifies it.

So I've mentioned this story to a lot of people. But our car got a boo-boo. It was hit and a big dent in the door had to be fixed. We took it to the body shop and got a rental car. Enterprise was a little short on cars so they gave me a truck. A Dodge Ram 1500 with 4 doors and the cab had as much room (or more) as the interior of my car. And it was massive and superfluous and excessive and really cool to drive.

So here are the standard Sophia picks for you. Her last monthly pictures included the rock anthem climactic scene. We also see her in her new Beatles shirt. (who didn't see that coming. I only wish it was pink) And the last one is recent. We changed car seat and the new one doesn't have the shade that the old one did. So we tried the window shades that stick to the car but those don't work all the time. So we bought sunglasses. We figured that she will have the sun blocked regardless of where the sun or her head is. But she takes them off as soon as she can.