Gavin's Birthday Bash
Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 11:05 PM | 1 comments  
Gavin had a great 2nd birthday. Here he is waiting happily for his birthday breakfast of pancakes and a strawberry smoothie (I even left the spinach leaves out since it was his special day)
We didn't do too much during the day since Boedy had preschool and I was getting him all registered for Pre-K for next Fall, but we did manage to make to a fun park. No pictures of that though. At night, we had Gavin's favorite dinner- spaghetti! And it's even better with his shirt off. This little guy is such a dough boy. It cracks us up. He's like a big pillow.
Grandma and Grandpa Fisher joined us for the party. We danced to party music and played limbo which turned into London Bridge somehow. Gavin loved it.
This pic is especially for Grandma Jack. She gave him a handmade bag with toy cars in it, and also this adorable felt monster for him to sleep with. It's supposed to scare all nightmares away. Gavin became instant friends with it.
Boedy was even more excited than Gavin about presents of course. He could not keep his hands off of the gifts and was very eager to help Gavin open all of them. He was especially excited about this one. I don't think Gavin minded at all. This is a remote control garbage truck. Every morning we hear the garbage truck come and Gavin runs to the window and watches with his face plastered to the window as the garbage truck does it's thing. Then the most exciting part is that the garbage man honks and waves at Gavin. Glad we can help make that guy's day too.
Here's Gavin's Bus Cake because besides garabge trucks, he loves siting school buses while on the road.
Don't look to closely. My piping is awful. But hey, what do you expect with no training, and a 4 year old elbowing me constantly because HE has to help with EVERYTHING?!
Here's another angle to show the "magnificent" detail I put into this cake- come one people...fruit snack head lights?! Amazing!
And here is Gavin devouring the engine of his Bus.
Some of you know that my dad recently was on TV for an interview about Mitt Romney. He must be getting used to the fame. Here he is posing with Gavin with Romney pins on. It was his "gift" to Gavin.
Here is Gavin noticing the pin that has been placed on his shirt. Gavin is thinking "Wait a second, what's this?! How did this get here? ROMNEY????? Who is Romney and why was he invited to be a part of this birthday photoshoot?"
Here's Gavin thinking " (Gasp!)I've been set up! Grandpa! You didn't want me in this picture to document MY special day! This is all about your own political agenda! Huh! Well I outta....!
Posted by leah
Gavin turns 2
Sunday, April 22, 2012 at 10:23 PM | 3 comments  
I don't understand how it happens, but something just seems to snap in an almost two year old's head one day where they suddenly decide that they don't have to put up with anything anymore, they are the boss, and they will not take "no" for an answer anymore. Ah yes, the TERRIBLE Twos. I almost thought that maybe Gavin would never go through this stage, the angel boy that he is, but I was foolish to think my kid would be any different than any other 2 year old. So here's a little show and tell of his new found attitude: Boedy and I were doing "Discovery Time." We were learning about different towers around the world and decided to make an eiffel tower out of marshmallows. Gavin wanted in on this of course.
After he stuffed about his 4th large marshmallow in his mouth, I decided that was enough "discovery" time for him.
He didn't like this.
Not one bit
It was the last straw.
We see this face often now. Just about 3-5 times a day. At least.
Posted by leah
As of Late...
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 3:59 PM | 0 comments  
I have some catching up to do. Within the last month or so.... 1) Boedy started soccer again. He has a bunch of preschool friends on his team now and he is loving it more than last year. He actually runs for the ball and kicks it instead of sitting on the field or banging on the sides of the wall yelling "MOM! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!" Improvement!
I ran the Diamond Valley Lake Half Marathon with a friend from my ward.

My friend got 2nd, and I got third in our age group and 4th overall in women. It was a small race, so I don't think that says a whole lot. But, it was a great race besides the nice calf cramps I got the last three miles. AHCK! (And no, that is not me flipping you off because of my calf cramps. If you look closely, my other finger is not bent and resting under the ribbon of the medal...just thought I should clarify) My brother Ethan, who has quickly become a marathon veteran, was there to cheer us on. He's a great coach too.

I went to an opera with my good friend from high school. She is also a beautiful friend too, isn't she? She treated me to the opera with an awesome groupon deal. The story was a comedy- written in italian and modernized to an old west setting. It was called Don Pasquale. It was VERY entertaining and actually very funny. I never thought I would laugh while watching opera because the script had some funny lines. The plot was pretty clever as well. LOVED dressing up as it was opening night. It was nice to feel cultured again.


We had Easter. The boys enjoyed coloring eggs and making cookies. They also enjoyed the Easter Bunny. They didn't enjoy taking Easter pictures. Apparently Toby didn't either. Toby bribed Boedy to take this picture by telling him we would go to Disneyland in a few weeks if he cooperated. Well that worked, but Disneyland? Come on! How about a piece of candy or a quarter? I guess Toby has been dreaming of saying hello to Mickey again. We are on the hunt for cheap tickets as Boedy counts down the weeks and reminds me everyday that we are going in a few days.




Happy Spring everyone!Sorry if my writing did not sequence with my pictures- I haven't done it like this for a while!
Posted by leah
St Patty's Day
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 3:20 PM | 1 comments  
St. Patty's day was never a huge deal in my family growing up, but for some reason now that I am older and have a family of my own...I seem to be pulling out all the stops. Really, other than green pancakes for breakfast and corn beef for dinner, I don't remember doing much else as a kid for St Pattys...well I guess I also wore green and maybe I searched outside far and wide for four leaf clovers for a good part of the day. It's just fun to have a reason to celebrate something or make a day more exciting than others. Plus, with Toby working all day on Saturdays, I needed something new to do for entertainment for the kids. :) We started our day off with Lucky Charms for breakfast and a green smoothie. I love the fact that I can hide spinach in smoothies and the boys don't even know it! Boedy talked with dad the night before about setting a trap for the leprauchan, so we made one after breakfast. It was just the simple cardboard box propped up with a stick and a piece of fool's gold underneath. We put it on Boedy's balcony patio and while we waited, Boedy and Gavin made a huge fort out of blankets and chairs and ate more lucky charms. By the way, it was POURING rain all day, so indoor fort building was a great idea. A little while later, I went upstairs and yelled for Boedy and Gavin to come quick! The leprechaun had been caught, and escaped, and left gold treasures. Boedy ran up stairs and Gavin followed of course. Boedy lifted the trap up and found a pot of gold. I pointed out that there was a trail starting at the trap and leading to somewhere else. We followed the trail of chocolate gold coins to my room and they led to an open door to my balcony patio. Boedy concluded that the leprechaun had escaped from the trap in a hurry and escaped off my balcony, accidently dropping his gold along the way. My plan exactly :) After that excitement died down, we got all geared up to go in the rain and drove to Bruegger's Bagles to eat Green Bagles for lunch. The boys were in heaven. Then we came home and made a green fruit plate with green jello in preparation for the St. Patty's feast at my parent's house. The feast was great, except there could've been more corn beef! My parents decided to do an irish stew instead and just a little corn beef. The stew was great though, and we also had irish soda bread, the green fruit plate, and then for dessert we had green homemade ice cream sandwhiches. Yum! We had lots of fun irish music and played a fun irish game that my mom had previously taught in her music program to the kids at school. Boedy found more hidden gold and we enjoyed admiring my dad in his leprechaun costume (he has clothes for all occasions). So, here's the pics and one video of Gavin dancing to the irish music while he devours his ice cream sandwhich.
Posted by leah
Gavin the Charmer
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 9:47 PM | 3 comments  

We always joke how Gavin is built like a tough guy, but loves like a softie. He can bulldoze Boedy over and LOVES to wrestle, but he is also such a cuddler, hugger, cutesie little guy who laughs like the pillbury dough boy. I love it. But now he has developed a new trick to really get the ladies. Check it out.
Posted by leah
Year of the Dragon!!!!
Monday, January 23, 2012 at 10:14 PM | 2 comments  




My parents had a get together at there house for Chinese New Year. We all either made or bought different chinese dishes and had one big yummy Chinese smorgasborg. We ate egg rolls, orange chicken, kung pao chicken, shrimp chop suey, fried rice, chow mein, and lots of yummy chinese treats. My mom even found these flavorful fortune cookies in bright colors at World Market. Boedy opened 3 cookies and each one fortold a future of successful business endeavors and investments. Hmmmm, we will just have to see. Mine was something weird like "You are never selfish to give advice or help." Maybe I give it a little too much and should start keeping my mouth shut? (That's what Toby said) Boedy and I wanted to add a little spark to the party, so we made a Chinese dragon and all the kids had fun parading around with it to Chinese music. We got the idea from Family Fun, E-HOW, and several pictures of chinese dragon costumes. We put craft sticks underneath the body so the kids could move it like a real chinese dragon. It was a lot of fun!
Posted by leah
My Christmas gift to my dad
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 3:45 PM | 6 comments  

This is my Christmas gift that I gave to my dad. Sorry about the weird coloring and bad cropping as this picture was taken on my phone! I don't mean to post this because I want to show off. I want to post this because I am so proud that I actually accomplished a piece of art this year!!!! I've been wanting to do this for my dad for a LONG time, but have never been able to make the time to do it. Father's days, birthdays, and Christmas's have continued to pass, and finally this was the year! I was determined! This is based on a photo of my Pop Pop, my dad's Father James Fisher. My dad and I took this picture of him when we visited him years back in Pensacola Florida. This is him sitting on one of the beautiful beaches near his home. My Pop Pop passed away about 6 years after this photo was taken. I loved this photo because it was so picture perfect of what I loved about my Pop Pop. He was an easy going and fun loving grandpa, always giving hugs kisses, easy to make laugh, and had a song for everything. He also has italian heritage which I LOVE. His Father was italian, so he is 1/2 italian, which makes me about an 8th.... he he. I love this picture because it reminds me of an old italian man- something about the pose and the fact that he is naturally posed holding an apple in his hand. I chose to do this drawing with colored pencil. This is the second attempt. The first one I did on watercolor paper to get a rougher texture, but it wasn't giving the feeling that I wanted. So, I started over on thin drawing paper and it worked ok. I redid his face several times- I was really trying to get a certain feeling from his face. I have more of an impressionistic style I guess- I like to bring out the colors and feelings of things rather than a point blanke picture. I love to blend colors to create moods which is why I love working with colored pencils and oils. My dad opened his present without me being there, so I was bummed I didn't get to see his initial reaction. My older brother was there though, and I was touched to hear that both my mom and dad had tears in their eyes as they studied it. I really didn't think it would have that much of an affect on them, but I'm glad he liked it. I admit that I was a little scared to give it to him and let others see it. I feel so rusty on my drawing skills and I had to relearn a lot as I did this. Plus, I realized as I was doing it that it was quite the undertaking to draw someone so personal to my dad. I'm glad it turned out, and I'm so glad I actually did it and finished it! It gives me confidence that I can make time for my passions and use my skills still- they aren't completely lost yet! I hope to make a goal to accomplish something else artistic this year...maybe even two!
Posted by leah
Christmas Day and New Years
at 3:25 PM | 1 comments  
Christmas Morning, Boedy and Gavin opened their stockings and then we went to church. Boedy didn't even complain that he couldn't touch the other presents under the tree, including Santa's gift. I was so grateful that things went so smoothly! We finished up after church.




New Years Eve was at Grandma and Grandpa Fisher's House. We had lots of yummy food, visited, played a few games, and celebrated when the ball dropped at 9 pm so the kids wouldn't have such a late night...and for their parent's sanity. I straightened my hair for the occasion and have been enjoying my flat iron here and there (when I have the time! It takes about an hour to do!) Thought you'd like to see my other personality :)





After New Years, we enjoyed the warm weather of San Diego and went for a little hike by the Coast with Grandma and Grandpa Fisher. The view was gorgeous and the boys loved being outside exploring.
Posted by leah