Setting Myself Up....

I was just reading one of my best friends blog. She is dedicating her blog to her weight loss journey. Kudos to you my lady friend!

For me, I knew my weight was getting ridiculous when people would ask me when I was due or if I was pregnant. I could never think of anything clever to say at the time. I've thought afterward that I should have said, "....no, I'm not pregnant, just fat. Thanks for noticing"...or..."I'm due for another bowl of ice cream in about 10 minutes". But when my son Charlie rubbed my belly and asked me if I was growing a cute little baby in there...I was done! I am going to take my friends challenge of losing weight with her. I have of coarse attempted this many times. I'm not sure what is going to make this time any different, but it's got to happen. I know I am completely setting myself up here, but I've got nothing to lose....oh wait...I just made a funny...I have lots of lbs to lose...

It is perfectly okay to be frightened by the pictures you see below. The picture on the right was taken in about 1996. My good friend Tassie had bought this shirt for me. We had seen it in the window of some store at the mall. We thought it was so funny. I would love to get my body back to that again, but I am not delusional. The pic on the left was taken in November. I am wearing that sweatshirt in almost every picture of myself this past year. The bigger and bulkier things are, the more comfortable I am in them. Notice that even though about 12 years has passed between these photos, I still can't be serious for a picture. Anyway, I hope to find a happy medium between these two girls.

Christmas Eve

After all of our company left we had our family Christmas Eve traditions. The first thing we did was give the kids their Christmas Eve pajamas. This has been our tradition since Ellie was an only child. Ellie got some very girly silky ones, Henry got some x-box bottoms and Chuck got wii bottoms.

Another tradition we started a few years back was to have the kids buy each other presents and then unwrap those on Christmas Eve. This year, they drew names instead of buying presents for both of their siblings. After they got their jammies on, Jake had them go get their gifts they bought and sit on the floor. He then read part of the Christmas story out of the Bible and explained that when we give each other gifts, we are doing as the Wisemen did. The Wisemen brought gift's for the baby Jesus because they wanted to show their love for him. At Christmas time, we buy gifts for those we love. The kids then exchanged their gifts and had to say two things that they loved about the person they were giving their gift to.

After they played with their toys for a while, we told them they could watch the Polar Express in Ellie's room and have a little slumber party in there. Charlie opted to go right to bed. He is not one to stay up much past bed time. Ellie and Henry got all cozy and started their movie. I love this time of Christmas Eve, because after the kids are in bed, Jake and I get to visit and make any last minute preparations for the next day. Well, Jake is exactly like Charlie and was ready for bed at about 8:45pm!!!! I protested for a bit, but then realized that it's no fun visiting with someone who can't stay awake. I gave him the go ahead to nod off and within 5 minutes, he was snoring! I watched tv till about 11:00pm, then dozed off myself.

That was Christmas Eve in the Fisher household.

Christmas Eve Fiesta

Before we get into the details of the evening, there needs to be a little explaining about the picture above. The sweatshirt I am wearing is a joke!!! My sister and I were shopping at Big Lot's before Thanksgiving and we decided I needed to buy one because they were so disgusting. I also added some Christmas bows to my hair and shimmering powder to my face.

Okay, now that I got that off of my chest...We had my parents, Jake's parents, Megan and Lucy over for Christmas Eve dinner. We were trying to think of something quick and easy to make for dinner. We thought taco's would be both. I think we started a new tradition...a Feliz Navidad Eve. It was really low key and we had good conversation and good food....mmmm, popcorn cake!

I LOVE this picture below, because my mom was telling us a story and laughing so hard she was having a hard time getting through it.

Snowmen

A few days before Christmas I decided we better get our driveway and sidewalk shoveled off. I went out at 11:30am and didn't finish until almost 4:00pm. You have to realize that between close to 2 feet of snow, was a layer of thick ice. I had to use our shovel like an ice pick. It was crazy. I was sweating profusely and praying that I wouldn't break my back.

During that afternoon, we had Lucy (my great-niece) over. The kids decided to make snowmen. The snow up until this day hadn't been ideal snowman or snowball making snow. They all did an awesome job! Lucy's is the tall skinny one. At 4 years old, she was quite ambitious about building the tallest snowman she could. She also had a lot of help from Ellie. Henry's is the snowman on the right. He was very concerned about having a real scarf and hat. All of the features had to be just right also. Charlie's is the cute little one in the middle. I forgot to take the pictures in the day time, so I took them at night...sorry, it makes them harder to see.

Will it Ever End?

Once again, go down a few posts to catch up on this weather business!

At this point, we are a bit sick of the weather, but we figure we need to enjoy it as much as we can. None of us have snow clothes though. Our jackets are pretty decent for the snow, but we have no boots or snow pants. Actually, I found a pair of 4T snow pants that I forced Charlie to wear. He didn't argue much though. Will we have a white Christmas?

Day After Ice!

If you are starting here, you may want to go down a few posts and start there...

This was the day after we had our freezing rain. We already had a lot of snow, but this just added a thick layer of ice. The kids loved breaking it and picking up huge pieces. The pic of Ellie is with her friend Emma. They liked to pick up pieces and decide which state they most resembled. Even though we were a bit sick of the weather at this point, the house and yard looked beautiful!

Ellie Reporting Live...

Everyone needs to understand that the Portland area is not equipped for this kind of weather. Snow plows are pretty non-existent and so is anything else that helps make the roads safe for traveling. Plus, we got freezing rain with all of this and that just created a layer of ice on top of the snow. Things got crazy. One of the local news stations was having people send in their own weather reports from their homes. Ellie made this one.

The First Day of Snow

There had been forecast of snow for the Portland area for a week or so. From experience, we have learned not to expect much from these forecasts. On Sunday, December 14th, we received our first few inches of snow! Church was cancelled and we tried to enjoy the snow before it could melt on us. Ha Ha Ha! Little did we know that it would continue to snow through Christmas day! The kids were supposed to start Christmas break on the 22nd. They got a whole extra week off! This is from the first morning of snow!

Let it Snow!

Those of you who know me well, know that one of the only songs I can play on the piano is "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow". I guess I played enough to get some results! Snow in Gladstone Oregon! It doesn't happen very often. Church got canceled on Sunday and school has been canceled for the last 2 days. For those of you in Utah and Idaho, this is probably pretty funny. We gotta take full advantage of this! Our street is SUPER icy and slick. I don't even dare to attempt driving on it. Jake's Trooper has 4-wheel drive, so we have gotten out with that. Anyway, we are enjoying it. I just wish it would have come for Christmas!