Christmas with the 'Rents!

We did it!

We finally conned family into coming for a holiday ;)

Cameron's parents arrived late Thursday night, and we were so pleased to have them here for the week! We stayed up chatting and updating each other on the latest goings on, then off to bed!

Friday, we had a late morning, then went out to brunch. We ladies did some last minute grocery shopping while the men cleaned our garage and built shelving to corral all of our quickly growing supply of out-grown baby things. I am SO EXCITED to have the garage back! (did I mention we've had a car in there that we donated last week? It hadn't been working for 4 years. Time to go, eh?) Now I can park the car out of the rain and frost. ahhhhh :)

Friday night, it was off to Chuck & Diana's house for a glorious turkey dinner. BACKSTORY: for those who don't know Chuck, he's Cameron's Dad's Boyfr...I mean best friend. They've known each other a VERY long time, and get together for all kinds of shenanigans when Bill comes to visit. We opened up our Christmas Eve presents at home and all received our new Christmas Jammies!

Christmas morning was so nice! Very laid back, cinnamon rolls in the oven, baby/grandma snuggling time kinda morning. Everybody got great presents (including the whopper cameron surprised me with...an iMAC!) and it was such a fun day.

We spent the rest of the week enjoying each other's company, living life with no schedules, laughing and eating. Boy, did we eat!

Tuesday night, we headed up to Clayton to Cameron's cousin Heather's house for a family get-together. Lynette & her two sisters and their families all came and we played with the kiddies all night! We had another great meal (EATING! mmmm), then enjoyed the annual ornament exchange. So fun to catch up with them all, and to finally meet Cameron's Aunt Sharon. We know each other very well, but hadn't met yet! She's a joy!

Now, as I sit here typing, Bill & Lynette are sitting on the couch reading and I'm realizing they head home tomorrow morning. :( We so rarely get to be with family I really take advantage of the time we have, but it still feels too soon. We loved having them here, and Miles LOVES his Grandma & Grandpa so very much. He likes to mimic Grandma's sighs and he steals Grandpa's glasses the second he's in his arms. What a wonderful week.

:)

Fah Rah Rah Rah Rah....

Merry Christmas!!!

From the Stone Family to yours.

Please, Christmas Don't Be Late!!

Our tree has been up and decorated gor some time, but to get Miles to stand still for a picture is a little harder. We did it though!

He loves the "tee". Miles asks to flip the light switch every day to turn the lights on, and says "oooooh" each time. So far, Christmas is just so exciting to him! We sing Christmas Carols, and talk about how Baby Jesus was born. We also taught him that Santa says "ho ho ho!" and he proudly tells everybody!

Cameron's parents are coming for Christmas, too!! Even more to be excited about! They'll arrive either tomorrow or Friday depending on weather and what time they leave Boise. Can't wait!

Another of Miles & his "tee"

(along with his new favorite toy, an empty wrapping paper roll)

Post-pone

:)

I've been taking a break! I was very busy at work over the last week before I took a TWO week vacation for Christmas!!!

I also have had no time to blog because I have been doing a lot of homemade gifts for Christmas, and that takes more time than I thought! I usually make a few things at a time, but never as many as I made this time! Phew! Finally finished on Sunday, and the gifts are all wrapped and sent. Now. If only I can figure out what to get my husband...

Picture post after Christmas of all the fun I've been making lately.

Does it get any better than this?!

After one year of going through all the craziness that is entailed in an adoption process, (check out their journey here) My big sister Katie and her husband Matt announced on Friday that they are expecting (through a wonderful, selfless woman) a baby boy on January the 10th!!!! Our whole family has been praying endlessly that these two could be matched with their child. I've prayed for the birth mom, the baby, K & M, their families, EVERYTHING! This baby boy is so lucky to be joining the Fischer family! KAtie and Matt are just going to be the best parents!!
Me (left) with Katie
Won't she be such a fun momma?!



Matt with Miles sportin' their UCLA gear




Katie with Miles last Christmas




One of my favorite photos!

Matt is going to be such a caring Dad.









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After going through becoming a mother myself only a year ago, it is the happiest thing for me to hear that Katie will also be going through it with me VERY soon!

SOON!

I gotta get going on making baby stuff!!!

Did You know? Cradle Cap edition

Miles has had nasty cradle cap since he was born. (For anyone without kids, cradle cap is bright yellow oily flakes on your baby's scalp, kind of like dandruff, but it doesn't flake off.) Now, I know that cradle cap is not painful, itchy, or even uncofortable for your baby. It's not even necessarily a bad thing! Our problem is that Cameron and I are both pickers. We were picking at Miles scalp to try to clear it up, when in reality his body would just make more.

I did tons of research on what I could do to clear it up. Many people use the special cradle cap shampoo and say that it is ok, but there are also those that say it didn't work on bad cases. Didn't want to spend money if it doesn't work!

What I found from mother after mother was that *Olive Oil* did the trick!!

Did You Know?!

I rubbed a small amount of Olive oil into Miles's hair (it was regular olive oil, pretty sure EVOO works fine, too!) . I let it sit while he ate his dinner so he wouldn't make a mess of the house,

then stuck him into the tub to play. I rubbed his scalp with a baby brush as directed, but that wasn't really getting the flakes up. so I took a comb and brushed with a slight amount of pressure backwards (forehead back) a few times. I then washed his hair twice and finished his bath. Result: No Cradle cap 2 months later!!!!

What a great trick!!!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Big holidays are hard on us, as we have no immediate family close-by. This was the 3rd year in a row we spent Thanksgiving away from everyone, and we're hoping to break that streak next year...

That being said, we drove on up to Paradise to spend it with a wonderful family that I've known for a long time. We had been trying to get our families together for quite sometime now, and the last time I had seen them I was 6 months pregnant!

I was thrilled to see all 6 of the Halls! Thanks you to Dan, Kerry, Ben, Peter, Emily & Chris for welcoming us into your home for such a big day. We enjoyed catching up, and while the men hung outside smoking ribs on Dan's home-made "white trash smoker" (made from two aluminum trashcans and other random items) enjoying lord knows how many brews, the women stayed in while Kerry readied the meal chatting about life and kids. The kids all took turns playing with Miles, and he was in heaven! Big kids that want to play with him?! Yes!

The halls also have two dogs that Miles chased around (and vice-versa) and enjoyed the slobbery kisses from.

We had an abundant meal of Ribs...so many ribs...ham, two kinds of Sweet Potatoes, biscuits, & coleslaw.

What a wonderful day spent with such wonderful people.

Hope you all had a great Turkey Day and had to unbutton your pants before supper was over.

Miles's First Birthday (catch-up)

Miles turned one on October 5th!

Miles at 4:11pm 10/05/10...one year to the minute of his birth!!

What a Milestone (pun intended)! I had a hard time getting used to the idea that he is no longer a baby, but now my rough and tumble toddler. But what a celebration we had! We sent out the invitations to just family and local "family" because we have such a small little place, but almost everyone locally showed up!! His birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, and because James and Grace wouldn't be able to make it to his party, we decided to have a cake and balloons and presents at work on his birthday. How fun!

The kids were so excited to sing to him and to help him blow out his candle.

We had cake, then Miles opened his present (with the help of J & G) from the twins

and he was overjoyed with his Choo choo!!

Grandma and Grandpa Stone came on Thursday afternoon to help keep the celebration going, and we had Miles's party on Sunday!

It was so fun to have all of our very best friends come to celebrate our special boy. We had a ninja day

with everything from teriyaki chicken & potstickers

to ninja birthday cakes! So fun!

(sorry it's sideways!)

Poor Miles was sick all day :( He spent a lot of the day throwing up, but he help up through all the presents!!

We had so much fun, and missed all that couldn't make it, but most importantly...

Happy Birthday, Miles!!!

...and I'm back

...hopefully for good!

So sorry about the lack of posts. This last year has been very busy and tiring, and while I want to write a huge update about it all, intent just doesn't get the job done. Instead, I will start fresh. Start New!

With a mini photo update.

Miles in his first Halloween costume!

With Cousin Mya after Thanksgiving

Pooped on Christmas morning

Happy Valentine's Day!

St. Patty's Day!

Hanging with the Easter Bunny at brunch

Miles loves dogs, & Gracie Lou Freebush is his favorite girl!

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All dressed up with Daddy for cousin Hillary's wedding

First time swimming!

Happy 4th of July!

Miles's first Car

Such a character!

Happy Birthday!!!

Darth Vader, Halloween 2010

Ok, now you're semi-up to date (at least as much as I want to put in one post!).

I'll still do posts about some of the bigger events over the last month or so to bring you up to speed, then try (TRY) to stay up to date!

I am currently working on a HUGE update blog so that I can re-start on this whole

blog-o-sphere.