halloween

Many of you have been begging for pictures of Halloween so here they are... Sorry there aren't many, as most of you know my parents took her trick or treating because Ken and I both had to work that night. They tried to take her picture but she wasn't cooperating very well. They did tell me a few stories of the night.... we had tried to teach her to say trick or treat before she went over there which came out more tritree but it was close enough. Anyway they showed her what to do as far as ringing the doorbell and saying trick or treat when they answered the door. She wasn't shy when it came to ringing the doorbell, but she never quite got the hang of saying trick or treat when they answered the door. She would say it over and over until they answered the door and she would stop saying it as soon as the door opened.

Another cute story: At one house they stopped, the lights were all on and it appeared as though someone was home but for some reason they didn't come to the door. She desperately wanted them to answer the door and give her candy that she tried to ring the doorbell again. When my dad stopped her and told her that they were going to move on to the next house she got really upset and yelled "NO! Trick or Treat".

I added this second picture because she looks so grown up serving herself popcorn at my grandparents house after trick or treating.

Monkey

This is Monkey. I don't remember exactly when this happened, but Fia decided that this is her favorite toy. We have such great friends that they have expanded her monkeys to many stuffed animals and even some awesome clothes. (Apparently this Small Paul thing is popular, but I don't know it past Fia's wardrobe)

A few weeks ago Sophie and I were running a bunch of errands. We went to about 10 places. She had monkey at the first place and didn't have him at the last place. No clue where he went. Uh oh. Oh No!

So then began the search for a new monkey. I already knew, what I thought would be enough to find it with a quick google search. It was made by Hallmark and the bananas say, "love ya a bunch"

Hallmark.com? Nope, not there. google search, "Hallmark monkey 'love ya a bunch'" Nope. every variation on the words "stuffed" "monkey" Hallmark" etc. Nothing. I was shocked that it wasn't just that easy. Not on ebay, not on google, not on anything.

So I was telling friends the story of lost monkey. And as it turns out, a friend of a friend works at Hallmark, in the toy department. He asked around, found the toy and yup, it's discontinued. So he went down the hallway to the toy designer and Monkey's designer said, "I got a few of those that I used as samples. Just grab one from over there."

And voila. We have a new Monkey. What are the odds that we live in the same city that headquarters here and I was only a very quick 3 degrees of seperation for the guy that designed this toy. Amazing.

Bedding: Plants and people

So I mostly wanted to post some pictures. This year we took some pots that Mom and Dad left with us before their move and actually filled them with plants. tomato plant (tomatiI got allo to be specific) serrano pepper, mint, thyme, marjoram, and some flowers. I'm getting some blooms and with any luck, it'll be a couple weeks and I will have my first tomatillo. Here is what they look like so far and the blossom is from the tomatillo plant.

This is just Fia being silly. She has a changing table that we use as a dresser. She had cleared off the bottom shef of all her shoes and used that as a bed. But the other day, she went up a bunk. Just because she can.

Sophia's first haircut

So, it wasn't so much a haircut as it was just a trim. But it was a much needed trim to cut away the dead ends and even up the length a little- there wasn't even enough cut off that I could keep it for her baby book. Anyway, she did great! We were afraid she would squirm and cry but she had a great time and I think Kit did too. (Kit is the lady who cut it.) I promised pictures so here they are....
Before...................................................During................................................................................................













............After..............

A non-Sophia post

OK, so first of all, I have a small rant.

I hate when online companies tell you that your username / password do not fall into their "safety parameters" On my sprint account, for example, not only did they tell me that my password was too simple, but my username had to contain at least 1 number. It's my account, why don't you let me select how secure it is. If you feel an obligation to, then tell me that I shouldn't use my social security number or phone number as my password, but don't tell me you won't allow me to. It's my security, let me decide.

Now, the reason I started this post in the first place. This is the funniest thing I have seen in a harvest moon, or longer. Maybe because I am a chef. Maybe because I love seeing complex situations brought down to their simplistic roots. Maybe because I like the idea that Vietnam is a spring roll and the US is a hamburger. I hope you enjoy it half as much as I did.



So the perfect video was not available. This is the next to perfect video. You may need the Cheat sheet.

Easter

After not really doing anything for the last few holidays we decided that we needed to start. I was a little skeptical that she would enjoy it. She is still too young to really take direction. But if we don't start now, when will we start.

It was exciting for me. We bought the eggs, dye, basket, candy, etc and waited until last night.


Then she went to bed and I had to clean up. Hiding eggs in plain sight doesn't work too well if she has thrown all her toys over the floor. But we got picked up, Lynette woke up and hid the eggs while I changed Fia's diaper and got her ready to search. As you can see, she took to it wuick. We had watched Dora the Explorer and Max and Ruby find eggs. Fia had called out "Egg" every time Dora passed one. But I was still surprised to see her find every last egg.



By the way, in the background you can see our new loveseat. Sometime eventually we will replace all our furniture.

Sophia being cute

Sophia is cute everyday. But today she did her normal cuteness and I caught it on camera. I had something to do on the computer sitting by the bed, I walk into the room and she follows me. I sit on the bed and she asks up. I help her up and she immediately lays on the pillow and pulls the covers up over her so she can watch The Backyardigans on her PSP.

I get smart and take a few pictures, then I switch to video mode and she changes from the PSP to taking care of some of her moms sudoku.

Just a clip from our Christmas in Joplin

We finally made it to Joplin and this small clip is something that Lynette took. It's too cute.



Mike named it perfectly.

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.