A*L*O*H*A

The whole Fisher family took off to Hawaii this past week for a little Sun and R&R. We did get some good relaxing in, but the sun was a little hit and miss. It rained most days, but I don't expect any one feel would sorry for us now would they? We had a blast and here are a few pictures of our trip.

The View from our Beach house. Not too bad huh?

Hanauma Bay where we did some snorkeling

The Hawaii Temple

Despite the rain, we got a picture in front of one of our favorite temples

My Poor father in law got an infection in his ear the first day on the Island and when he was able to venture out of the beach house, this is how he had to enjoy the rest of his vacation. Ahhh...memories. I have a feeling this is definitely a trip he will never forget.

Our Rough and Tough Boogie Boardin' Men!

Now this is what Hawaii is all about!

The whole clan enjoying dinner at one of our favorite restaurants

In our "fancy" bus at the Macadamia Nut Farm. This ended up being one of the funnest (is that a word?) things we did.

Drinking fresh coconut milk from my new man!

All the girls headed out for a day of SHOPPING!!! This ended up being the hottest day we had, which made about six hours of outdoor shopping a little miserable. I'm pretty sure my feet swelled to double their size..... which I didn't even know was possible!


Having dinner on Waikiki Beach....and having some fun taking pictures

is it any wonder he has back problems????

We were so grateful that my mom was so willing to watch our little handful for the eight days we were gone. Brooklyn didn't ever want us to come back she was having such a blast with her Nana. Thanks mom for watching Brooklyn!.................

But no thanks for the short, short, oh so short A-line haircut you took it upon yourself to get for Brooklyn while we were away!

This isn't a very good picture, it actually is quite cute. A little too short. A little too a-line for my liking, but this little girl looks cute no matter what, right?. And how could I get mad at the only person willing to watch my child for eight days?!?

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!!

BROOKLYN'S GONNA BE A BIG SISTER!
I guess it has been official for a while, but we just found out we are going to be having another little GIRL runnin' around the house come October! We are so excited, but also apprehensive. Though this pregnancy has been a lot like Brooklyn's, in many ways I hope it's not! I keep waiting for something to go wrong but so far so good. The ultrasound found that our little girl appears to be healthy and yes, we had them double/triple check to make sure the spine was closed!

We also feel so blessed that I have even made it this far in the pregnancy since we have lost two pregnancies this past year. I believe I have officially been pregnant for a year (don't act like you can't tell!) Here is a brief summary of our struggles this past year..........

I got pregnant early last summer and felt that I had won the lottery. I wasn't nearly as sick as I was with B and was going to have the baby in the spring which I thought was just perfect. I kept thinking how easy all this was finally going to be. There wasn't a day that I didn't give thanks or feel that this picture perfect pregnancy was the Lord's way of giving me a break, that I thought I deserved. Well at 12 weeks I realized that this pregnancy was not going to be. I passed out a few times at home with a frantic husband and mom who called 911 and I was taken to the hospital to stop my hemorrhaging. The recovery of the miscarriage proved to be much worse than labor. I couldn't lift Brooklyn for almost two weeks because of the loss of blood and I had and chronic headaches. Thanks to my wonderful sister, mom, and husband, I was able to lay on the couch for days (weeks?) recovering. My sister no longer fears another labor, it is a miscarriage she fears!!

Six weeks later I found out I was pregnant again. YAY! I didn't think life could be so cruel and take this one away, but it still nagged at the back of my mind. So I never told a soul, and suffered in first-trimester silence while being sick, tired and putting on ANOTHER 5 lbs. At exactly 12 weeks my worst fears came to light once again. Only this time I didn't have to pay the $2000 dollar hospital bill and was quite relieved for a "normal" miscarriage (oh, the things we become grateful for). Though physically I recovered from this pregnancy quicker, lets just say I didn't get dressed for about a month. This may be where ANOTHER 5 lbs came from but its hard to tell since sweats are so forgiving!

Six weeks later...... I become pregnant again. Only this time I cried. I wanted to scream "how fertile am I ??"I didn't think it would happen so soon and had planned on waiting until I could function like a normal person again, not to mention I had no faith that his pregnancy would work out. This time the doctor put me on progesterone to lower the risk of another miscarriage. It is this stuff that I attribute to making me want to die every day until I was 16 weeks. I have never been sicker or more tired. Not to mention by this point I was so TIRED of being tired and so SICK of being sick from my other pregnancies, but this was much worse, so I took it as a good sign. Every day I couldn't get off the couch, I smiled to myself and thought "well I'm still pregnant!" Now I was grateful for being sick?!?


So here we are FINALLY! From day one Brooklyn told us this was a girl (we thought it was a boy), and she has since named her. I'm pretty sure she just thinks this one will "go- away" as the others have, but now that I'm getting a little belly, I think she understands a little more. Jonny is up for husband of the year award and is thrilled to not be Mr. Mom anymore. He has been amazing these past months, coming home from work every day and cleaning the house, cooking dinner, and learning to do pig-tails on Brooklyn sometimes better than I can. I couldn't do it without him and it's strange how trials bring you closer than before.

Wish us luck in the next few months!

Ride Baby Ride

About a month ago Jonny and I went out for a walk and ran into some friends who had a little boy who was just learning to ride a bike. The second we got home Brooklyn kept saying that she wanted to ride her bike. It broke my heart to tell her no, or that she couldn't, so we plopped her on her bike, grabbed some blocks of wood so her feet would reach the pedals, and then made the classy decision to duct tape her feet to the blocks, and the blocks to the pedals ( we were laughing hysterically as we duct taped her feet to the pedals.....the things we never thought we would do!). Well it worked for a few minutes until her feet pulled out of the tape, and she was thrilled, but we knew we had to improve it.......

So we bought some vecro and stuck the wood to the pedal, and the shoes to the wood. Though these are special shoes that fit over Brooklyn's braces and her best walkin shoes (and they were a very generous gift from a friend), she would not be able to ride her bike without them, so they remain stuck to her bike!

We initially thought we would just push her around and she would eventually get the idea of how to push her legs, but she surprised us and immediately took off and pedalled all on her own. We were shocked and thrilled. Since she refuses to use her walker for more than two steps anymore, this is great therapy and EXCITING!!! She shows us more every day what she can do.

I LOVE IT!


This is the first time on her bike. If you look closely, you can see about three different kinds of tape, and about four layers of duct tape going across her feet!

Three Year Pictures

These are some of Brooklyn's three year pictures that Holly took (I've added her blog link at the side). Once again I love them!

Love This Face!!!!

These Boots Were Made for..... Crawlin!

The other day I was in the Kitchen and I heard the loudest noises coming from our entry way, and wondered what Brooklyn was pushing along to make such a racket. Well she rounded the corner with my boots on her hands and smiled proudly at me and said "I'm walkin in your shoes mom!"

I know most little girls love to put on their mom's shoes and walk around the house, and Brooklyn found a way to do it in her own little way! Since then she makes it a daily routine to find either mine or Jonny's shoes and slip them on her hands and "walk" around the house just like us!

I love the quirky little things she does. There isn't a day that I don't find myself laughing out loud at the way she crawls. Her head is down, her hands turned in, and her feet fly out to the sides. When she gets going too fast she starts crawling sideways and can't seem to slow down. I love to think about her walking, but I almost wonder if these moments are funnier than most, more precious and unique. These are the reasons I love my little Girl.

Oh ya, and she is completely potty trained!!! The doctors gave me a whole booklet on how to potty train a child with Spina Bifida, but I decided that she didn't need any of the extra medicine, and techniques that are usually used, so I did it my own way. She really should not be able to do this for like 5-10 more years. My family often asks since Brooklyn does so well that if I found out I was going to have another child with Spina Bifida if I would even be upset, and I say "I would freak out!" I feel like as far as kids with Spina Bifida go, we won the lottery!

My Baby Is Three!!!

I can't believe my little Brookie is 3! She woke up so excited that the house was decorated and all she could say was, "my cousins are gonna come over, and we're gonna have cake and ice cream!"

She was more excited about the cake than anything else, so I kinda made it a low-key Birthday. Usually there are a million kids running around, and I usually make a dinner for everyone who comes, but I decided to keep it simple and just do cake and ice cream. I only bought her a giant princess coloring book and a barbie movie that she now says is "stupid." That's why you only got two gifts from me kid!



This is Brooklyn when she woke up. We started the day by taking her to the pet store with her cousin Kayson to see the animals, and for the first time she didn't get scared when the animals inside the cages moved.......she must have realized that she was 3 after all. Then we took her to Costco for free samples. Every 3 year olds dream right? She thinks Costco is the most amazing place on the planet.

For some reason she really wanted a Tinkerbell party. I don't think she has ever even seen Tinkerbell, but she was adamant, so I slaved away to make this Tinkerbell cake for her. OK, so I didn't make it. But why would I when Wal-Mart didn't even mind?

Blowin' out her candles. Thanks to her Grandma for the 'Happy Birthday Tiara' that Brooklyn kept saying hurt her head, but it was cute!

Say Cheese Mom!!! This is how Brooklyn takes my picture, and she does make me say cheese every time or I get yelled at! I only got pictures of two of her presents. Good thing it is her two favorite gifts. Her Barbie Camera, and her Kitty (that personally I think looks like a rat)

My parents got this cat for her thinking she would have a fit and hate it. Sorry to disappoint both of you, but she loved it! My mom thought it funny to tell her that the cats name was puss puss. So I got Brooklyn on Camera yelling "Where is my Pussy!?" I believe I have successfully changed the name to Sprinkles.

Though she likes the name Sprinkles, she doesn't call it that. She just says over and over, "my kitties name is not puss puss." Thanks Mom.

Snugglin her new Kitty/Rat

And of course the best part, the cake and Ice Cream!

The Cutest faces EVER!!!!

Random

So I havent' updated in a while so I thought I would post some radom pictures and tell some funny stories about Brooklyn that have happened the last few weeks.

Better late than never......but here is the only picture we took when we went to Island Park a few weeks ago and stayed at our friends cabin. I remember a few days before we left I had been bragging about how Brooklyn NEVER gets sick. SO our first night at the cabin we got a total of about two hours of sleep because Brookie got a fever, a nose she couldn't breath out of that woke her up every twenty minutes. Oh, good times.

Daddy and Brooklyn on His new ride. This was her first time on a snowmobile and she actually liked it! Since it was like 20 below she only lasted about three minutes. Twenty minutes of getting her ready in all her snow clothes, three minutes on the snowmobile, and 5 more minutes taking it all off. I wondered why I just didn't say home ;)

Though Brooklyn said goodbye to the Binky a year ago, somehow she stumbled across one and came crawling to find me and said "mommy? I can have this?" She looked so funny, but seriously it took three months for her to stop asking/screaming/sobbing for it after we took it away, so I snatched it and re-hid it so we didn't have a re-lapse.

My little muscian. Her chair is the perfect height. And Boy is she CUTE!

Don't let this face fool ya. This little face has been waking up several times a night conviced that there are cows in her bed. I blame Jonny. For months he likes to scare her by mooing like a cow really loud and scary like, and it has finally caught up to him.

Since this is a random post, I might as well add that I got a job. Sort of. It just kinda happened. I work at the the Kids Klub at Gold's GYm. I get to take Brookyn with me which is why I took the job in the first place. I thought she could benefit from being around alot more kids more often. And it gets me out too. The first two weeks were challenging with her. She thought I was leaving her constantly, but now she loves it and I see her being alot better around other kids. Oh, and I get a free membership. Not that I have used it or anything yet!