Maternity Pictures

One of my close girlfriends is also an amazing photographer! What a blessing she is to us. Here's the link to her photography website. She is so good at truly capturing your family. We can't wait for her to take pictures of our next little boy! Here are a just a few of the maternity pictures she took.

Fall Events

We had a very fun and busy fall. Fischer this year really liked pumpkins. We had quite the collection here at the house. He would arrange, roll and carry them all around the house. Warning this is a long post, I wasn't lying when I said we had a busy fall.

Blake, Fischer and I all got to experience the McDonald's Ranch for the first time (yes living here my whole life I had never been). Of course the day we picked was super hot but we all had a good time. Fischer enjoyed the horse/mule hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Being the little boy that he is crawling through the pumpkin price sign was his favorite part. He would shove his pumpkin through and then crawl through himself to get it. Silly boy! When we went inside the petting zoo Fischer only wanted to be next to the pig. Not sure if it's just because he likes to make the oink oink sound or what but he kept going back to this pot belly pig.

We also got to go to the Desert Botanical Gardens for their pumpkin festival. Avery and Fischer enjoyed running around the pumpkin patch so much so we couldn't get them to stay still for anything so we got some pretty funny pictures. While we were there we went and saw the butterfly exhibit. Fischer and Avery were so good about not trying to touch the butterflies and loved watching them fly around.

At the very end of our day as we were just finishing up lunch, Fischer and Avery were running around with some older kiddos, well Fischer wasn't paying attention and ran right into a rod iron chair. He hardly cried which was surprising once he ran over to me because he instantly had a big goose egg under his eye. This war wound ended up being a pretty good shiner that last a couple of weeks.

And yes who would have thought we could have still gone to a splash pad at the end of October but we did. We thought we'd get one more time in before it got to cold. Fischer's favorite splash pad in Scottsdale Quarter so cousin Lily came to join in the fun.

This is the second year we have attended the Highland's Harvest Festival. This year Fischer and Avery had a blast. They were able to play games and jump around in the bounce houses. It will be a fun tradition that we can hopefully do every year.

Here is a picture of Avery and Fischer last year at the Harvest Festival!

Fischer also got to paint his first pumpkin this year. Some friends hosted a pumpkin painting event for the kids which they all enjoyed. Fischer ended up with paint everywhere which thankfully came out of his clothes and off the chairs!

On Halloween Blake worked so Fischer and I went to trick or treat with friends. It was the same group we went with last year. Fischer was walking last year but was very slow and spent most of his time in the wagon so this year he was able to keep up with the bigger kids and got the hang of the whole process. He had a great time running around and of course getting candy.

2 Precious Baby Girls

These past few weeks have been quite an exciting time for our group of friends, we have had two precious baby girls born!

Welcome baby Karianne Olivia Winkler, born 9/17/11 weighing 7lbs 13oz and 20 inches long. Jed and Sharla didn't find out if they were having a boy or girl so it was a long awaited excitement to find out they had a little girl. Jed and Sharla have been preparing for Karianne for so long, they are going to be great parents. Little Karianne is very blessed to be a Winkler.

Welcome baby Kinley Elizabeth McCormick, born 9/30/11, weighing 7lbs 5 oz and 20 inches long. This little girl has a great, loving older sister, Reagan. Reagan has been super excited to meet her little sister and has talked about her non-stop in the past couple of months. Little Kinley is going to have so much love come her way from her older sister and of course her parents. Chad and Christine have been such great examples to us when it comes to parenting, we know that baby Kinley is blessed to have amazing role models as parents.

We are so excited to watch these two little girls grow up. And our next little boy will only be a few months younger than them and hopefully they will all be buddies.

25 Weeks

I haven't posted a picture yet so here's a 25 week picture. Just over half way there! YEAH!!!!

Another Baby Boy on the Way!!

This year has been going so fast that somehow I've yet to blog about the newest addition to our family. Our newest little boy should be welcomed into our family the end of December or beginning of January. My due date is January 5th but I'll be having another c-section so we will be able to schedule a c-section date. It will be strange to know a day on which he will be here.

I'm 24 weeks and feeling good. I cherish and look forward to Fischer's nap time. I didn't realize how much I was on my feet while playing with Fischer during the day until now being pregnant. I try and make his nap time my rest time, which usually is me working but at least I'm sitting in one spot. I just got approval to start working out so I have started Turbo Kick which I think has helped me feel better. When I look back the first half of this pregnancy it has gone quickly, I only hope the second half goes just as quickly because so far it seems to be crawling.

We have been talking to Fischer about his little brother, trying to get him aware he soon will not be the only kid in our household. He knows there is a baby in my stomach but beyond that he doesn't really understand what is happening. Which I'm sure is to be expected!! We are working on getting his new bedroom put together. So hopefully in the next couple of weeks he'll be moving into a big boy bed. Then we can start getting the nursery updated.

We are excited to have another boy in the house. I'm sure the noise level will significantly increase along with the number of cars & trucks in our house. But it will be super fun! I hope Fischer is best friends with his younger brother!

Fischer's 2 Year Stats

Just a few weeks late but I finally got Fischer in for his 2 year well check. He is a healthy and growing boy.

Weight: 32lbs - 90%

Height: 36.25 inches - 90%

Head: 19.5 inches - 75%

10 Year Shadow Mountain High School Reunion

Wait what?!?! My 1o year high school reunion can't already have come and gone! When I got my facebook message about our 10 year reunion I was in denial, I just couldn't believe that I had been out of high school that long. Don't get me wrong a lot has changed in my life since I graduated from high school but when I think about high school I feel like it was just yesterday. And maybe a big part of that is that I still hang out with all the same people I did in high school. They are a regular part of my life (in fact I'm in bible studies with most of them) and all the good times we have had in high school come up often. It is amazing that we are all still friends and all still live in the same town. In fact 2 couples live only minutes away from Shadow Mountain High School so I now drive by my high school weekly.

So to start out our evening we gathered together for a pre-party. We looked at our year books and pictures to reminisce. We all carpooled to the reunion so that we would all arrive together. I know I felt better walking in with a large group than by myself. The reunion had it's awkward moments and it's fun moments. I'm glad I went, it was good to see and talk to people we hadn't seen in a long time.

Here's most of our SMHS crew before we left for the reunion.

Here is all the amazing spouses that came!! They had fun too!

Blake actually asked for the day off work so he could come with me. I was very grateful he was there with me!

The whole crew that graduated from SMHS at the reunion. (Below I posted a picture of all of us on our graduation day)

Here is all the SMHS alumni that attended the reunion. Hard to see but all the girls are sitting in the front row.

I couldn't help finding some old pictures from high school. Here is the whole crew on our graduation day in May 2001. Do you think we have changed much?

This was taken after our homecoming parade our senior year.

The girls on our senior trip in Coronado, CA.

Happy 2nd Birthday Fischer!

It's hard to believe that Fischer is now 2 years old. What a blessing he has been to us in these past 2 years. We are so grateful for God giving us Fischer. It's crazy to sit back and think about how much he has already changed. He started walking just a few days after his first birthday and now he prefers running (and I have to say he's pretty darn quick). His vocabulary has has EXPLODED!!! We can now have little conversations with him and it's so much fun. The best thing he says right now is "I Love You Mommy & Daddy," gosh there is nothing better than hearing those words. I know he still doesn't fully grasp the concept of what it means but I soak it in every time he says it. He has also shown a huge interest is cars, trucks, tractors, airplanes, motorcycles and trains (anything that moves and has wheels). Everyday it feels like he is learning and new type of tractor or truck, and trust me there are way more than I even knew about but now I find myself driving down the road talking to him about excavators or tow trucks or fire trucks. The other major change is how much Fischer's hair has grown since turing one. He was a bald baby and had just a teeny bit of hair by the time he was one. In the last year we have had to get him a hair cut and even then his hair is so wavy and continued to grow.

Blake and I have had a fun time looking back at pictures of Fischer since he was born! Time fly's by so quickly so I'm so glad we have TONS of pictures to look back on and remember all the little milestones Fischer has had.

Fischer we love you so much! You are very special to us. You have such a loving, sweet, outgoing personality. You love to be the center of attention and to make people laugh. You will do just about anything to get people to smile. We love that you are all boy, you never cease to amaze us how quickly you can figure something out. You are going to be the best older brother! Happy 2nd Birthday Fischer!!!! Love you mom & dad