Although I am not a stay at home mommy (yet anyways )  I found this to be applicable to all parents, not just those who stay home full time.  Hope you enjoy!

 

 

This was certainly true for us as we thoroughly enjoyed this holiday season ~ our first living in WA since we were married.  What a great feeling to not have to get on a plane to see our family!!!  Turned out to be such a blessing this year as well given the snow storms that hit WA beginning the Thursday before Christmas.  Once it started snowing, it just didn't stop.  We got probably a foot and a half of snow where we live and they do not plow or treat the roads out here, which meant we were stuck for the most part.  Even G was forced to work from home for two days because there was no navigating out of our neighborhood.  Unfortunately for many, the airport was pretty much shut down and very few flights were getting in and out.  Many people were forced to spend the holiday at the airport because the hotels were all booked.  We were so thankful that we were all home already before the snow hit.  I flew in that Wednesday night from Boston and thank goodness, because if I had gotten a later flight (which I tried to do!) I would not have made it home before December 26th!!!  YIKES!  It is so scary to think about

 

We had an amazing time getting ready for and enjoying the holidays.  The biggest excitement and joy for us was waking up in our own home on Christmas Day.  Since were moved to MA the day after we were married and flew to WA every year for the holidays, we never actually spent Christmas in our own home.  How exciting it was to wake up in our own bed and head downstairs with our little Alli to see what Santa left for us . . . Alli was so much fun this year and really got into opening all of the presents.  In fact, in the days leading up to Christmas, she would pick up packages and beg "open, peas (her version of please), open"  Too cute!  Can't wait to see her on her birthday in a couple of months

 

We hope that all of you had a safe and wonderful holiday season as well.  Let's pray that 2009 is good to all . . .

We have been enjoying the holidays here in WA with our family and friends.  This was our first year celebrating Thanksgiving in WA since 1999 and we convinced the family to let us host.  What a great day we had.  My entire family (minus Jenee, my wonderful sister-in-law who had to work ~ nurses don't always get to take a holiday break!) and G's brother Zach were here for a turkey dinner.  We had a great time and the food wasn't too bad, not as good as my mom's cooking but still respectable :)  G's parents joined us all for dessert and Adele was a huge help with the dishes, she even had Alli helping her!  The guys played cards after dinner.  All in all, I would say our first Thanksgiving in WA as a family was a huge success!

 

That weekend, we went and picked out our tree at the family tree farm, owned by G's grandpa and now run mostly by Uncle Greg (www.stockstreefarm.com).  Alli loves playing in the trees and especially loves the candy canes!  With the tree up, the lights on the house, and presents under the tree, we are ready for Christmas.  Remarkably, Alli pretty much leaves the tree alone other than to point at the "baby" ornaments that we conveniently placed higher than she can reach

 

This past week, my friend Cori and her son Cohen, who's 1 week older than Alli, came for a quick visit.  We had a wonderful visiting and the kiddos had a blast playing together.  The are the same age, size and development, which made for a lot of fun for everyone!  Cohen is a little daredevil and Alli a fraidy cat so it was very entertaining.  We have singing/dancing snowmen that Alli loves but was afraid to touch, fortunately, Cohen would do it for her ~ such a little gentleman!  Alli was sad to see him go, as was I.  We love you guys and hope to see you again soon!!!

 

This weekend was full of holiday fun as we enjoyed the Port Orchard festival of lights and chimes, went to a Santa breakfast this morning and a holiday party this afternoon.  Alli wasn't too sure of Santa but loved all of the activity and is actually very good at decorating cookies.  We all had fun, although I wasn't feeling too great this weekend.  I got the flu shot this year but I'm thinking it may not have worked.  Hopefully, I start feeling better very soon as being run down with a toddler is a tough situation!

 

We will try to post some pictures from the past couple of weeks soon!

As promised, we finally posted some pictures of the house.  Granted, they are a little late and I still need to add some more, but it's a start

 

We're off to a great start to the Holiday week.  I'm on vacation this whole week and loving my time as a "stay at home mommy".  Alli and I even went to storytime at the library today, where she had a great time playing with the other kiddos.  We're also gearing up to host our first family Thanksgiving and cannot wait.  It should be quite an experience!  Hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

We have so enjoyed being back in WA and living near our families.  With the holidays quickly approaching, we are very aware how fortunate we are to back with our families.  Although we flew back to WA every year for Christmas, this will be our first Thanksgiving in WA since 1999!  We are so excited that our families have graciously allowed us to host it this year :)  Fortunately, they are also allowing us to host Christmas too!  This is particularly special to us because we have never woken up in our own home on Christmas as hard as that is to believe.  We love the holiday season, all of the decorations, yummy food and being with our families.  One thing we are particularly excited for this year is working at Pop's tree farm.  For those of you who do not know, G's g-pa owns a U-Cut Christmas tree farm.  It is so much fun to spend the day up there chatting with happy families and handing out candy canes.  Alli has already had her first candy cane this season and I think we may struggle to get her to give any away as she liked them so much

 

Not much else is new with us.  We had our Open House a couple weeks ago and had a wonderful time sharing our house with friends and family.  We had 9 little ones at the Open House (including Alli) and the kids all had a great time playing in the play room.  Alli seemed so excited to have so many friends at her house!  Must have gotten her over her little "shy kick" because since that day, she's had a blast playing at the nursery at church on Sundays ~ YEAH!  We love having her spend the days with her g-parents but we are always looking for ways to get her interactions with others her age.  We are going to start going to story time at the library and are looking into some dance and music classes so hopefully she will continue to enjoy playing with other kids.

 

We have finally taken lots of pictures of the house and will post them later this week.  On a slightly separate note, thank you for understanding our desire to make this blog private.  It came to our attention that random folks were veiwing it and that made us a bit nervous.  We hope you do not find this too much of an inconvenience and will completely understand if you choose not to visit the site, we just had to put safety first.

Today is Veteran's Day, a very special day to me and an opportunity to thank all of the wonderful men and women of this country to serve in our Armed Forces.  I would particularly like to thank four special men in our family who have served our country:  my Dad, who retired from the NAVY after 26 years of service as a CWO4; my wonderful husband, who proudly served our country in the Air Force for 8 years, separating as a Captain in August; Uncle Greg, who is a retired ARMY Lt Col; and Cousin Brandon, who also served in the ARMY.  We are so fortunate for all of the men and women who put our country above all and protect the rights and privileges we all have.  Thank you!!!

 

Here is a picture of my favorite Veteran from his tour in Iraq . . .

Here's one of the family at Captain Fisher's goodbye party . . .

It will likely come as no shock to anyone that we were less than pleased with the outcome of the election.  That said, we are so happy that it is over and we can move forward and pray that we will be proven wrong.  The majority (in every sense of the word) has spoken and we have to have faith that this was the right decision for our country at this time.  Certainly, in some ways, it is such a proud moment for our country and a true testament that we have come so far.  I personally would still like to see an end to the electoral college, however, I am thrilled that for the first time in 8 years, we will not have to debate whether anyone "stole" the election.  Although he did not receive our votes, President Elect Obama certainly received the majority of the American votes and won this election fairly.  It truly is a proud moment for America!  It is extremely unlikely that I will ever agree with the majority of his policies, particularly when it comes to taxes, but I will support him while he is in office and I pray that the rest of the country follows suit.  The Office commands our support and respect.  I only hope that this country will show him more respect than it has shown our current President.  Love them or hate them, they give up much to serve our country and they deserve our respect.  Okay, I will get off my soap box now!

Since we've been at this for awhile, I decided it was high time to change the look of the site.  Given that we just spent the past weekend in Pullman for the the WSU Homecoming festivities, I decided to go for a Cougar theme.  Probably won't last too long (particularly since PLU's homecoming is soon!) but I'm sure the Fishers will be thrilled as it works toward their brainwashing of Alli ("Cougars are the best, you want to be a Coug . . . ")   In all seriousness, we had a such a fabulous weekend over there.  Alli was great on both the drive over and drive back.  We, of course, planned to be driving when she would be sleeping ~ such sneaky parents we are!  We arrived late Friday night and woke up early on Saturday to a beautiful, warm, sunny day.

  Perfect for watching Zach play in the Alumni vs. Students baseball game.  The Alumni lost but only by 1 run and Zach pictched very well ~ 88 mph!!!  We had so much fun watching him play again.  We took Alli for a walk around parts of the campus, enjoyed some ice cream and then on to the football game.  Cougs didn't do so well (63 - 14 ~ ouch!) but they were not expected to so no one was too disappointed.  We had a great time in the stands and Alli made it to half time ~ we were thrilled she lasted that long!

 

Overall, the move to WA has been even better than we hoped or could have expected.  We are enjoying being close to the family and are thrilled to see Alli bonding with everyone.  She is loving all of her g-ma time!  I'm still enjoying the commute to Boston.  It really is not too bad and I find I actually get to spend far more time with Alli than I did when we lived in MA.  Fortunately, it is working well for my work as well so I figure I will keep it up for as long as it is feasible.  Garrett is really enjoying his position at Honeywell.  As much as he (and I) enjoyed being part of the Air Force, this is the first time in 8 years that he is excited by his work and it is AWESOME to see and hear this!  Being the go getter that he is, Garrett has begun taking accounting classes at UW.  Although he has his MBA in Finance, he is hoping to ultimately sit for the CPA exam and needs a few more accounting classes before he can do so.  So far, he is enjoying his class.  I find it interesting because with being a securities attorney, I deal with accounting issues constantly and now I can actually have an intelligent conversation with my husband about this ~ woo hoo!  While he was getting his MBA and talking to me about issues, it always went right over my head.  But now, I'm actually able to explain some things to him   Who would have thought that would ever happen???

 

As for pictures of the house, I promise to get some up soon.  I just want to finish a few more things.  We have posted some pictures here and there so be sure to check out all of the new photo albums.  More updates soon . . .

We have made the move to WA and are now settled in to our new home (pics will be posted by next week, once we get our Internet hooked up).  August has proven to be a difficult month for our family and we are now ready to share this with you all.  Many of you wondered why we waited so long to make the move to WA rather than going as soon as we sold our house.  We had our reasons . . .

 

Few of you know that Garrett and I had a very difficult time conceiving Alli.  It was only after we took Clomid and had an IUI that we learned the joy that comes from pregnancy.  Fortunately, we conceived Alli the first month we received treatment.  We had always assumed we would have two children but have now learned that God has other plans for us.  We have spent much of this year trying to conceive another child but after multiple failed IUIs and a failed IVF cycle (in August, i.e. reason for staying in MA!), we now believe it is not meant to be.  It appears that it is God's plan that Alli be an only child.  Many may say, just keep trying, however, the physical and emotional toll it takes on us is simply too great.  Moreover, neither of us believe that having children is meant to be this difficult. 

 

We tell you this for a number of reasons.  First, it is difficult for us to deal with and try to pretend that everything is okay.  While we know that no one means any harm, questions regarding when we are "having another" are very painful to us, as are comments about how Alli needs a sibling.  Second, this is what God has planned for us and we are trying hard to accept this, which is difficult to do when we are bottling it up.

 

We are beyond blessed to have Alli ~ she truly is our miracle baby and there cannot be a baby more loved and wanted than her.  Each day brings us closer to acceptance but please know that this is a difficult time and comments about how if we just relax, we'll get pregnant or we'll have more children some day hurt more than we can explain.  That said, we will accept this and move forward as the Fisher Family of 3, as we are pretty excited by our family and what lies ahead.

 

Thank you all for your prayers and support, we appreciate each of you very much!

I know that I have not updated recently (life's been hectic) and, unfortunately, I do not have time to update much now.  I am writing to beg for prayers.  Some dear friends of ours, who are currently pregnant with twins due in January, learned today that the mommy is dialated and there is little chance of saving the babies.  We are praying for a miracle for the family and would greatly appreciate you keeping them in your prayers.  Medicine can do only so much, the rest is up to God.

Yesterday, I had to go to Wilmington, Delaware for work.  The day started out okay; up at 5 a.m. and on my way to the airport by 5:30.  I got there and the lines for security were huge.  This is not typical for our airport at that time of day, and to top it off, they didn't have the business traveler line open ~ aagh!  Fortunately, given that I was on a 7:15 flight, they let me go to the front.  So I get through security and get to my gate as the flight is boarding.  No time for breakfast.  Great news, I have a row to myself so I'm thinking, okay day is looking up.  Then we sit.  We don't actually take off until 8 and then the Captain says that due to problems in Philly, we are in a holding pattern.  We finally get out of that but we're told to go slow.  I was supposed to arrive in Philly by 9, jump in a car and be to Wilmington by 9:30.  I was interviewing a witness for one of my cases.  I finally get to the interview, which was supposed to start at 10, around 10:30.  Thankfully, the interview goes well and I'm back in a car on my way to Philly by 1.  I was thrilled when I got to the airport in time to jump on the 2:15 flight (I was booked for the 3:15).  So I get to the gate only to find that the plane isn't there yet.  It arrived shortly and things were looking good.  Then the fun began . . . the weather looked fine, talking to people in Boston, I learn the weather is fine there as well.  We're not boarding and they are telling us nothing.  This goes on for quite awhile.  Fast forward to 4 p.m., still in the terminal, sky is starting to look dark, not surprising since severe storms were threatened for the late afternoon.  All they are telling us is that they do not know when we will be departing.  Fortunately, the gentleman at the desk is kind and tried to answer all questions.  He finally admits the problem is both airports.  It's not looking good.  I call my secretary trying to find other ways to get back to Boston that night ~ no way was I staying in Philly.  Trains are booked but I can take a car service.  Still not sure what to do, trying to be optimistic that the flight would go.  Suddenly, I look up and see one of the junior partners from my office.  He too had been in Wilmington and just switched to my flight.  I let him know the situation.  He's optimistic the flight will go, I'm not.  Then he gets a call from his wife, who tells him about the tornado warnings in New England.  Decision made, we're getting a car service and the car should be there within a half hour.  We wait, no car.  I call the driver who says he'll be at least another 45 minutes.  By this point, it's 5:30 so we decide to rent a car and drive.  Best decision we could have made.  No traffic, weather wasn't bad at all and I finally got home a little after 11 p.m.  I had to check the flights to see if they actually went and guess what, all flights had been cancelled.  YEAH!!!  We made the right choice.  I have no desire to return to Philly or Wilmington any time soon!

YEAH!!!  We could not be happier (okay, so we could if the price was higher but you take what you can get!)  We have been in negotiations with the buyers for the past week and it wasn't looking too great.  Needless to say, after counteroffering to multiple rounds of low ball offers, we finally settled on what was pretty much our bottom line.  Actually, their final offer was a little below our bottom line which led to our re-negotiating our realtor's rate from 6% down 4.5% to make the deal work.  I can quite honestly say that I'm pretty sure our realtor hates us but we can live with that.  It came down to a horrible market and some great negotiating.  We are thrilled!!!  The plan is to still stick around MA for part, if not most of August and be home by Labor Day.  Please pray that this works out for us!!!

By now, I'm sure that most of you have heard the GREAT news . . . Alli is continuing to gain weight!!!!    At her appointment with her GI doc last week, she weighed in at 19 lbs 8.6 oz.  So all of you mathematicians out there now realize that Alli gained 2 lbs in 3 weeks ~ Woo Hoo!  We are so thrilled, now if only we could get her to eat a bit healthier of a variety of foods, oh well, that's tomorrow's battle.  For now, we are just so happy that she seems to be improving.  Now, to be fair, she still is not a great eater, very picky and eats small amounts, but she's a small gal so we're not expecting her to eat a ton yet.  We are a little nervous for when we have to take her off of the stimulant (6 weeks on, 2 weeks off).  She has to go off of it so her body doesn't build up a tolerance to it.  Although we have been warned that it could be stressful, we are trying to remain positive and hoping that she will at least not lose weight even if she doesn't gain.

 

We had a very touching experience at Children's Hospital at her last visit that I wanted to share.  We were down at the lab because Alli needed to have her bloodwork re-checked.  While we were waiting, Alli saw a little infant with her Mommy and was very intrigued.  The other Mommy thought Alli was very cute and we began chatting while the little girls were watching each other very intently.  Turns out the little one was 7 months old and had just received a heart transplant.  You could just see the love and joy pouring out of her Mommy.  We were absolutely amazed by this and were reminded once again how fortunate we are to have Alli in our lives.  As we were leaving Children's that day, we saw a sign for a 7 mile walk to benefit the Hospital and we decided to sign up.

 

Although we have nothing to compare it to, we think that Children's Hospital in Boston is a wonderful place, a truly unique hospital—one of the best pediatric institutions in the world, giving hope to so many kids and their families, constantly finding new ways to treat or cure an amazing variety of diseases. The doctors and nurses here never say "never" and they treat kids from all over the world. We're fortunate that we have insurance but some of the kids have families who can't afford to pay for their care and Children's takes care of them all! If you are interested in supporting Alli in her walk for Children's, please visit her Walk page at http://howtohelp.childrenshospital.org/walk/pfp/?ID=FA0032.

Thank you! Your donation will make a difference in kids' lives, including Alli's :)

Alli had her 15 month appointment yesterday and it was AMAZING!!!!  She is up to 18 lbs 13 oz and 31 inches.  We were just hoping that she might hit the 18 lb mark finally, we never dreamed she would surpass it and almost hit 19 lbs!!!  I cried when the nurse told me the weight   I couldn't help it, I was just so excited.  It was a great appointment all around.  Alli only cried when she got weighed (go figure!)  She was such a little champ during the exam and chatted the whole time.  Although she has her own language and doesn't say a ton of recognizable words, her doc thinks she is right where she should be and was impressed by how well she understood directions ~ she showed him her belly, how she can shake toys, how she dances, how she can "pet" animals (he gave her a baby animals counting book) and she gave Mommy smooches when asked   Here's the most impressive part . . . she got two shots (one in each arm) and our big girl didn't so much as wimper!!!  That's right, she just looked at the nurse as if to say, "are you done yet?  I want to go play."  When we went out to the waiting room so I could book her next appointment before we left she played and flirted with the women at the front desk.  The consensus in the office was "WOW!  not a usual 15 month old reaction"  She was such a brave little girl!!!  I was so giddy yesterday that I couldn't stop smiling and crying ~ silly Mommy!

As I mentioned in our last update, although Alli had gained weight, she started refusing food and liquids again.  Garrett and I were completely beside ourselves and decided we simply couldn't wait before seeking help again.  We were determined to break this cycle so we attempted to contact Alli's GI doc last week.  We reached out to her last Tuesday and had a response by Wednesday: "bring Alli in on Friday at 10 a.m."  We were really nervous for the appointment, assuming that she had lost more weight, afraid she may be hospitalized, and concerned that we would have to battle to get help.  We could not have been more wrong. 

Well, we were partly right, she did lose weight.  She's now at 17 lbs 7 oz so she lost 6 oz in two weeks.  I have to say that while we weren't happy that she lost weight, we were relieved to see that we had hard proof of a need for further help.  Alli's GI doctor is AWESOME!!!  I truly think this woman is an angel sent by God to help us with Alli.  When she walked into the room, the first thing out of her mouth was "thank you so much for contacting me for help, I'm so glad you didn't wait"  What?!?!  We begged for help almost daily with Alli's former pedi and were told that nothing was wrong, she would grow out of it, blah, blah, blah.  We were made to feel crazy.  Not with her.  She even apologized again for the delay ~ she was in Brazil for a family emergency.  She re-reviewed all of Alli's tests and they are negative, but she said that the RAST (allergy) test may not be accurate so if we don't see improvement, she will do an endoscopy and colonoscopy.

What was even better about this appointment is we have action.  Like us, she found it interesting that Alli stopped eating two days after she stopped the Zantac.  Garrett got really nervous when she said this, but she quickly erased his fears.  She prescribed the appetite stimulant and another medication to treat reflux.  It's not Zantac but apparently in the same family, just newer.  We also need to continue giving Alli the Vit D, Vit E and Iron supplements.  She asked that we call on Tuesday to check in with her to determine if we need to up the amount of the appetite stimulant.  She also wants Alli back in three weeks to determine whether to schedule the further tests.  Here is what also impressed us, she went to the scheduling desk with us and made sure that we got an appointment for exactly three weeks even thought the scheduler thought she was over-booked that day.  We got the first appointment of the morning so there will be no problems :)  She asked that we call her that afternoon to let her know the vitamin concentration.  I was amazed, the number she gave us was her direct line ~ she actually answered the phone ~ WOW!!!

After a couple of days on the appetite stimulant (which is actually an antihistamine that has the side effect of increased appetite) Alli does appear to be eating a bit better.  She is still not eating a lot but she is no longer violently refusing food and she will actually ask to eat, which she never does.  It's pretty exciting but at the same time, we are afraid to get our hopes up since she does go through cycles of eating okay. 

We truly believe we are going to get to the bottom of Alli's issues and we're going to get help.  Praise God, the prayers are working!!!  We know there will be difficult days but at least we know that we are in good hands.  Please keep praying that the appetite stimulant works and Alli will not require a feeding tube.

 

As you know, we bought a brand-new house so all we were really doing was adding "us" to the house.  It originally came with wire shelving, which I detest, so as part of our purchase agreement, we had the builder remove all of the wire and fix the walls.  Garrett and I my dad completed the coat closet, linen closets and pantry.  We are having a company do custom shelving in the Master closet as well as a custom built-in office.  We will have to work on Alli's closet and guest room closet on our next visit.  We also did a ton of painting.  We went for earth tones in every room but Alli's.  The living room is a chocolate brown, the Master bedroom, bathrooms, and office are all tan, and the dining room (by far our biggest project) is an olive green with white wainscoting.  Alli's room is adorable.  We painted it spearmint green on top with green and white stripes on the bottom.  I have to thank my wonderful friend Michelle for the idea ~ future baby McDonald's room is blue and white stripes.  Garrett and I loved it and asked if we could copy them.  I had to return to work that Monday so Adele graciously offered to paint the stripes (I cannot say I was sorry to miss doing that!)  As you can see from the pictures, she did a FABULOUS job.  All we have left to do in Alli's room is put up the chair rail.  It was exhausting but fun working on the house and we are so anxious to move back there!!!

 

Now for the update on Alli . . . she's part of the reason that we're not sure when we'll be able to move.  We need to get her eating and weight issues under control before we move.  Now that we have such a great team of doctors working to address these issues, we are hesitant to switch.  Alli had her follow-up with her GI doc last Thursday.  The GREAT news is that all of the scary tests came back negative and she does not have reflux so no more Zantac ~ she is thrilled about this.  She is slightly low on iron and Vit D so she's on a vitamin now that she does not love!  They are re-running one of the tests concerning her absorption of fat because the results were not clear.  She is up to 17 lbs 13 oz so she gained 7 oz in the last 3 weeks.  This was a good thing (although it doesn't sound like much) because the GI doc said that if she had not gained, she planned to hospitalize her and place a feeding tube that day ~ WHAT?!?!  That made us nervous but thankfully, she gained.  Because she gained, the GI doc wants to wait another month before trying an appetite stimulant but agreed that if she does not gain substantially in the next month, we will begin Alli on an appetite stimulant ~ can we say "fat pill"? :)  We would like to just start it now but agreed to wait until her 15 month appointment to see where she's at.  We're praying she will finally hit 18 lbs!  The bummer is that she is working on more teeth and they are causing her so much pain that she is not at all interested in eating right now.  One step forward, a giant leap back.  We'll see what happens . . .