The Fletcher Family: January

New family pictures meant it was time to update the photo we have displayed in our entryway. It was fun to see all these old photos hidden in the picture frame. These kids of mine are growing up way too fast!

June 2009 – Dec 2009 – Fall 2010 - Sept 2012 – Nov 2013 - Oct 2014 - Nov 2016

Drew has become quite the little singer. During the holidays he picked up the chorus to “Angels we have heard on high” and will still randomly break out singing his version of the song. I was able to sneak a little video one afternoon while I was frosting cinnamon rolls. Both entertaining and delicious!

I found a few really great deals at Gymboree right before Christmas so Katie got a few coordinating tops and bottoms under the tree. She put a “matching” top and bottom together one morning and was head to toe Flower Power.

This will likely be one of those pictures she looks back on and asks, “Why did you let me wear that?!?” To which I can reply – the joy you felt that day is far greater than the embarrassment you feel at this moment.

We get some pretty strong windstorms up here. I swear some nights it sounds like our bedroom window is going to burst. We lost a trashcan during our first year here, but hadn’t had any other loss or damage until early in January when a portion of our back fence blew down. Thankfully we have a pretty proactive back neighbor who reached out and offered to help Justin fix it the following weekend.

Jason’s teacher sent out a request for prizes for the students to bid on with coupons they’d each earned for good behavior. One afternoon I was organizing all of the stuff we were donating to DI and came across a bunch of pens and wallets that Abigail created years ago out of duct tape. I wasn’t sure if the kids in Jason’s class would like them or if they’d see them as junk but I sent them in and according to Jason they were a HUGE hit!

Jason didn’t bid on any, but he won a late homework coupon (which is much needed as he often forgets to turn in his homework) and he also won a “graffiti desk”.

T-Mobile Tuesdays continues to award us each week. Mid-January we were able to buy any movie ticket for $2. When the kids got home from school I took them to see Sing in 3D (Abigail had a babysitting gig so she missed out). We were the only ones in the theatre.

We signed up to clean the church on Saturday, January 14 – as an incentive / reward we visited George’s Bakery beforehand. I even called the day before to order a chocolate Texas donut for myself. Unfortunately they were short-staffed that morning and didn’t have as much selection as usual, but it was still delicious.

Abigail and Carly received a last minute invitation to go skiing with Sarah Ricks and her daughter on Martin Luther King Day. Sarah is an instructor and had to be at the slopes and available to give lessons and her daughter wasn’t thrilled about going up alone. Abigail and Carly were both thrilled and nervous to try skiing for their first time. I drove them over to the Ricks early that morning and thankfully they had all the gear the girls would need for the day.

Turns out Sarah only had to teach one lesson so she was able to be with the girls most of the day and basically give them private lessons. The girls loved it and apparently only fell once all day.

While the girls were skiing, Justin and I found ourselves with just the three littles for the entire day. We spent the day shopping all over the Puget Sound. Katie had a gift card to Kohl’s from Grandma Fletcher so after we’d finished checking out the new Restoration Hardware in Seattle we headed down to Tukwila so she could use it. She knew just what she wanted – "feetie" pajamas. Unfortunately, feetie pajamas aren’t an easy thing to find, especially for a tall almost seven-year-old girl – there was one only one pair – but they were Christmas and size 10. I let her try them on anyhow and she fell in love.

She still had a balance on her gift card so we headed over to the shoe department where she found a cute pair of booties – they pushed her over the $25 gift card, but she was willing to pay the extra $5 so she could have both. Pretty sure this was Katie’s first purchase over $1. She was so very pleased with herself. Though quite camera shy.

Drew likes to look at the back of the cereal box anytime he eats cereal. We ate a lot of cereal when I was growing up and I very much remember sitting at the bar eating my bowl of cereal surrounding myself with walls of cereal boxes.