Christmas Week

The week of Christmas was so fun and busy! Monday, December 22, I had to work a full day, and Tuesday, December 23, I had to work until 2:00. Not so fun having to work the week of Christmas! My kids did not want to be there! I actually had 8 kids absent on Tuesday.

After work on Tuesday, Matt and I hustled down to Salt Lake. We stopped at Shivers on the way, of course! Matt and Lance were helping Diet put on all his trim and update his finish electrical in the basement. I didn't really have anything to do, and really they didn't have room for another person, so I called my dad to see if he wanted to see a movie. Luckily, he wasn't busy, so he picked me up and we went over to Jordan Commons to see "Night at the Museum 3." While we were waiting for the movie to start, we talked about seeing the movie "Exodus." There happened to be a showing at the theater right after our movie ended, so we made it a double feature! The first movie was cute, but the second movie was terrible! I didn't get home until after 1 AM and Matt and his dad were still working on the basement!

On Wednesday, Christmas Eve, Matt and I slept in and when we got up, Lance and Kendra were already there with the kids. Matt went back to work on the basement and I hung out with Myrna and Kendra, Kailee and Clayton. Soon Tim and Kamie came over with their girls, and not too long after that, Randy and Jenny were there with their kids. It sure is a full house when everyone is there with all 7 kids! We had a good time hanging out, Kamie did a drink run, and the kids were entertained making candy cane reindeer, reading books, playing with toys, and destroying the toy room. Around 2:30ish, we were ready to open some presents! Randy and Jenny had to leave early this year, so we did presents early so they could be there. Before we opened presents, Diet read the Christmas story from the bible, and Brad read another version of the Christmas story from one of Myrna's books. The kids were all huddled around Brad while he was reading, and Reagan was snuggling right up to him! Then, right when the story is almost over, Reagan randomly shouts, "I have a belt!" I almost died laughing! After the story, Diet was talking to the kids about what Christmas is really about and asked, "Whose birthday are we celebrating on Christmas?" and again, Reagan shouts, "Mine!" Oh my gosh, I love that girl! Then it was time to open presents! We don't do sibling gifts anymore, so all the gifts were for the kids and Diet and Myrna. It was crazy but so fun. One kid would open a gift and we were all working to keep the others entertained until it was their turn again. I had Harrison in my lap the entire time, fending off dinosaur attacks from his new dinosaur toys! After presents, Randy and Jenny left and Myrna started making dinner. She made a big German dinner this year, which Matt really liked. Then we played the present game and everyone packed up to go! We didn't go bowling this year, but it was really fun to spend so much time together!

After leaving Diet and Myrna's house, we went out to my mom and Jeff's. My mom wanted to go see the Tree of Life light display in Draper, so we got in the car and drove over there to see it! It was really cool to see, but it was super windy so we didn't stay too long. We got back after midnight, so all I wanted to do was go to bed!

On Christmas morning, Matt and I woke up fairly early, trying not to keep everyone from opening presents. However, Alex still wasn't there, so we ended up waiting for her and getting breakfast ready. Usually we open presents and then eat breakfast, but this year we did the opposite. My mom's Swedish pancakes are always delicious! After breakfast, we opened presents. This is much calmer with my family than with the Fischers! I love how thoughtful everyone always is with their gifts. Our big present this year was chairs that we can take to football games that sit on the bleachers! We have wanted these for a while, but haven't bought any, so it was a perfect gift!

After opening presents with mom, we got ready and went out to see dad and Laurie. All of the Hightowers were there this year, and it was fun to see all the kids! We found out that Kelly and Ashley are getting married and that Melanie and Jordan are having a baby! So excited for everyone! My dad had already given out most of the gifts to everyone else, so when we got there, we got to open our gifts. My dad gives cash now, since there are so many of us, but he is always looking for a clever way to give it to us. This year, Matt opened a big wad of $1 bills. We are saving to buy a snow blower, so this was great! We had fun spending our $1 bills last year and getting weird looks from people when you hand them a big stack of singles! After gifts, my dad and Laurie did a little devotional and then we left. Christmas is a little crazier when you have a lot of family to visit, but always very special!

We had dinner at my mom's house with grandma and papa, Janet, Toby and their family, and Scott and Mandy. We got to Skype with Sue and John and a couple of their girls, which was way fun! By that time, it was starting to snow, so Matt and I decided not to stay for games so we could get on the road. It was pretty snowy, but we made it home fine. We stopped at Randy and Jenny's house on the way home to see the kids and their presents! Tim and Kamie were there with the girls, and Nate and Jenni were there with their kids too, and it was a kid's fantasy land in the basement with toys EVERYWHERE! They started the tradition of having Christmas dinner with friends and then letting the kids keep all their toys out all night so they could play, and it is sure fun for the kids and nice for the adults!

On Friday, Matt didn't have to work, so we spent the day together! We met Kenzy and Devin for breakfast/lunch at Village Inn, then did some random shopping. Later we met up with them again and saw the movie "Unbroken" which was good, but long.

On Saturday, we went to lunch at Cafe Rio (we got a gift card for Christmas from Molly and Andrew) and went and did some more random shopping. We spent the rest of the day relaxing at home. We got a movie from RedBox and made it a date night!

We had such a fun week over Christmas this year! We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family members in our lives. I am so lucky that I married into such an amazing family and that we all get along so well. I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas!

Phone Pic Update

Matt, Randy, and Brad all drew out for the swan hunt this year. Since Nate shot his swan last year, they have all been way excited. Nate is getting the boys really excited about duck hunting, so this was just a bonus to have a swan tag. They went hunting four or five different times, and only Brad was able to fill his tag! I think everyone was just as excited had they shot the swans themselves! Way to go Brad!

A couple weeks ago Jenny and I were texting and then she sent me this picture of Harrison, saying that when he saw my picture on her phone, he told her that I needed to see him! Love that kid!

Matt and I were out to dinner one night and my mom sent me a random picture of Jeff with some random person in the background. I didn't really understand what the picture was so Matt and I recreated the picture to send back to her. Totally random.

Matt was really sad that he didn't get a chance to hunt with all his brothers and dad this year. He was the only one who bought a deer tag up in Cache Valley, so he was hunting alone. He set up the tent, and borrowed Tim's truck and Randy's four-wheeler and scouted for a couple days. He ended up shooting his deer on the first day of the deer hunt. He was more interested in shooting a deer from the road (he was still recovering from his surgery) than in shooting a big deer, so he was happy. He took all the meat out to some guy in Idaho and had him make jerky.

Randy decided that he needed to buy a duck boat on behalf of all his brothers. Matt got a call saying that he owed Randy money for this boat. The boat didn't even have a motor! Matt of course had to run over to check out the boat.  He and Harrison were making sure everything was comfortable. Randy ended up selling the boat. Apparently, it wasn't the one he wanted!

Matt is the best husband ever. I told him that I wanted a crown moulding shelf for my picture wall and he created this amazing shelf! It took me longer to paint it than it took him to build it, but I think it turned out pretty amazing!

One afternoon, I came into my classroom and found this on my desk. My principal is the best! He could tell that I had been working a lot and gave me this gift. Matt and I enjoyed paying $12 for dinner at Texas Roadhouse that night!

The beginning of the month is always a little tight with money, especially since Matt didn't work for three months. On the first Monday in December, I got my mail, and this was inside. It is a prepaid VISA debit card loaded with $200 from Comcast. I didn't know if it really was money, or if it was some scam that if you used it you would be signed up for something. I called Matt and he said, "There's no such thing as free money." So I called Comcast to find out what it was. Turns out, we qualified for a promotion when we signed up for our Comcast service and it was real! Thank heavens! I was so excited to buy groceries!

Another random act of kindness... I found this card on my desk one afternoon. It is from one of my student's grandmothers saying thank you for teaching her granddaughter. The note was so nice, and the cash was a bonus. What a nice thing to do for a teacher! I loved the appreciation as much as the money!

Best Christmas gift ever from a student! This little girl's mom works at the Sinclair by my school. I stop in there a lot to get drinks, so she gave me this refill card for 10 prepaid refills and the delicious cookie! Seriously, such a thoughtful gift!

The Month of December

I have been very bad at taking pictures lately, so this post will be mostly text, so if you are bored, I understand! We have been sooooo busy this month. We really haven't had two minutes to relax!

• We went to my work Christmas party, which was dinner at Sizzler. Yes, you are all jealous. After dinner, Kenzy and Devin went with Matt and I to get ice cream at Charlie's.
• I just got called to be an Achievement Days leader with the 9-year-olds in our ward. I got to host the girls at our house. We played a get-to-know-you game, then read a Christmas story and had some treats, then put together little M&M bags about the true meaning of Christmas. It was a really fun night, and was so fun to plan! I'm really looking forward to this calling!
• All the Fischer siblings actually found a night that we weren't all busy so we could all go out together for our annual Christmas date night! We ate dinner at Ruby River in Ogden. The food was good, but no one got what they ordered originally because there were a couple parties going on and they ate all the food! After dinner, we all went to get ice cream at Farr's. I love that place! It was so good. What a fun night! I love this tradition!
• We got to go to Salt Lake for my mom's birthday. Every year, we go get a Christmas tree and dinner, then go home and decorate the tree. This year, Matt and I got stuck in traffic and missed picking out the tree, but met for dinner at Costa Vida. We went back to my mom's house to set up the tree. I am always in charge of putting lights on the tree and this year I ran out of lights! My mom decided she didn't feel like decorating, so we just went to bed. She took the lights off the next day and did all the decorating by herself. Matt and I had to go home because Matt was going duck hunting. We didn't spend much time in Salt Lake, but this is another of my favorite traditions!
• The next weekend, we went down to Salt Lake again. On Friday night we met up with Alex to see her new apartment and then drove up to Park City for the Hightower/Norton Christmas party. Before the party, we walked around and shopped in Park City, then stopped for dinner at a pizza place. It was so much fun! After dinner we tried to find the condo where we were having the party, but we had some terrible directions and couldn't find it. When we finally found the condo, it was after 9:00 and my dad and Laurie still weren't there. When they got there, Laurie had to put together some food because a lot of people hadn't eaten yet. Around 10:00, we started playing a present game with some very funny presents! Matt and I left after the game was over around 11:00, and got to my mom's house at 12:30. It was a late night! The next day, we went and saw Big Hero 6 and stopped by Cabelas, which was a mad house! Never go there on a Saturday in December! Then we met up with my dad and Laurie for dinner at Training Table and then went over to see the Forgotten Carols! As always, it was a great show and a fun night! We went home the next morning.
• Kenzy and Devin were able to find out the gender of their baby! They had a gender reveal party with their families, and it was fun to go! They are having a boy! We are so excited for them! We also found out that Molly and Andrew are having a baby girl! So excited!
• I did find some time to put up my Christmas decorations!

Growing up, we had a huge basket of Christmas books that we got out and read every year. My mom is slowly building her collection again, and so am I! I love finding cute new books to add! The kids always love to read them when they come over.

This picture was taken near the end of the tree's life, but it was a great tree! So fun to get a big tree and still be able to put my star on top! Thank you vaulted ceiling!

My Santa picture that Matt hates.

I made Matt put outlets everywhere because I knew I wanted to put lighted garland everywhere at Christmas time!

We always get a ton of Christmas treats from friends, neighbors and students! I love putting out my decorations so I can display all of our treats!

When we got married, I bought two stockings. Then I realized how stupid that was because I was never going to find matching stockings! Last year, when we were living with Randy and Jenny, I found four matching stockings! I wanted to get stockings that were all different, but also went together, so I was so happy to find these! I figured I'd buy enough to last us if we end up having four kids. For now, they are just decorations that I love!

And all that was in the weeks leading up to Christmas! Such a fun month, but so busy!

Thanksgiving!

I can't believe it's already that time of year! 2014 has just flown by! This year for Thanksgiving was pretty traditional. Matt and I drove down to Salt Lake on Wednesday afternoon to meet my sisters, dad, and Laurie for dinner and a movie. Dinner this year was at Buffalo Wild Wings, and after we saw "Mockingjay- Part 1". This is a fun new tradition for us, and really nice that it's the night before Thanksgiving, because holidays are crazy!

On Thanksgiving we had scones for breakfast at my mom's house, and then went shooting. This used to be a Fischer Thanksgiving tradition and for the past few years, my mom, Jeff, and sisters have always been able to come, and less of Matt's family is able to come! My mom and Jeff look forward to it every year. This year, both my sisters were off work (which is amazing considering that they both work retail!) and were able to come! Alex has never been shooting before, so she had some fun trying out all of Matt's guns!

My mom hates the bigger guns, and so Alex was a little hesitant to try, but she ended up liking it! Shooting clays is my favorite type of shooting, so that's mostly what I did.

Matt threw tons of pigeons- we went through almost 150 pigeons.

Lance came out this year with Diet, and Alex brought her friend Colby. They both really liked shooting Matt's bigger guns.

Matt and his dad shooting shot guns.

Alex even tried out Matt's black powder rifle!

All the girls!

First Week of Snow

This week we experienced the first week of snow! It is so fun to be in our house now that winter is setting in. It has been a full year since we started building our house, and it is so great to be able to park the cars in a garage (no more ice scraping in the morning before work!), and kick the heat on whenever we want! Last week we had a BBQ for dinner while we watched the Aggie game, and we had some food leftover, so this week Matt had to shovel the back patio so he could get to the BBQ. I have to admit, the food was great!

On Saturday we went to the Aggie game after a couple days of snow, and everything was still completely covered in snow! They had to use a snowplow on the field, and were slowly shoveling the bleachers as we were getting there. It was 25 degrees and even started snowing during the game, but being the true fans that we are, we stayed the whole time! Good thing it was the afternoon and the sun was out for a little while!

At least our drinks stayed cold all game.

Luckily, we ended up winning, otherwise it would have felt much colder! Good thing I was wearing my coveralls, a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, coat, two pairs of socks and gloves, a headband, and we still brought two blankets. At halftime, Matt bought me a hot chocolate, which really helped keep me warm until the end of the game!

Pumpkin Carving 2014

Every year, pumpkin carving is a huge deal for the Fischers. I don't really know how it started, but one of Matt's favorite things about Halloween is carving pumpkins. This year, Jenny and Randy were a little partied out, so I offered to host pumpkin carving in our garage. We set up tables and pulled out some tarps and we were good to go.

Melissa was babysitting until Randy got off work, so she had Wyatt, Brad, Claire, and Harrison. Jenni brought over her kids until Nate got off work, so it was just the girls with all the kids for a while!

Harrison didn't want to pull the guts out of his pumpkin, so I had to do it for him. I actually did just about everything for him. He helped poke holes, until he got bored. While I was carving his pumpkin, he really wanted a nose for his jack-o-lantern, but as you can see, there isn't one on the pattern, so I had to freestyle the nose while he was shouting, "Make a nose Tori!"

Wyatt did awesome!

Brad did his pumpkin on his own this year! He picked a pretty hard pattern and only needed help with a couple parts!

By the time Randy came, Claire was ready for some help. She did all the poking, and Randy helped with the carving.

Lindsay and Harrison did the same pattern. I think hers turned out better than the one I did for Harrison!

Carter and Brad did the same pattern. Carter kept trying to do the flying duck pattern, but Jenni didn't want to do all the carving on that one, so she had him pick a different one.

After the kids were done, uncle Matt was just getting started. He spent another hour after everyone went home carving his two pumpkins. He got online and chose his patterns carefully. He printed off an Olaf pattern for me to do, which was great because it was super easy.

The "super turtle" and minion! Harrison wouldn't call it a ninja turtle! He kept calling it a super turtle!

On Halloween, Randy and Jenny had already left on their cruise, so again, I offered to host Halloween festivities at our house. Diet and Myrna brought the kids over, and so did Nate and Jenni. Kamie had to work, so Tim brought the girls over. We had chili and scones for dinner before sending the kids out for some trick-or-treating! I stayed home to pass out candy, and was shocked at how many kids we had stop at our house! I almost ran out of candy! Matt said it was way crazy walking around with so many people out. Looks like our street is the place for all the trick-or-treating! We took the kids back to their neighborhood for a few houses, and then watched Godzilla at Nate and Jenni's house after putting the kids to bed. It was a great Halloween!

Halloween Festivities

The week before Halloween, Kenzy and I had to go down to Salt Lake for an After-School Conference at Thanksgiving Point. We were put up in a hotel, so we decided to make a weekend out of it! Matt, Kenzy, and I drove down on Thursday after work. We dropped Matt off with his parents and then headed off to see Thriller! It was fun to go with Kenzy, who had never seen it before, but I did still miss our big group! The show was amazing as always!

We spent Friday at our conference, and Matt went fishing with his dad. After our conference, we got free admission to the Museum of Ancient History so Kenzy, Matt and I wandered around while we waited for Devin to meet us. Then we headed downtown for dinner at Training Table and our annual visit to the Haunted Village at This is the Place! Kenzy was pretty freaked out, and I definitely jumped a few times! That is one of my favorite Halloween traditions!

On Saturday, we went to half of the conference, and then had to leave so we could make it back to Logan for the Aggie game! We had such a great weekend with Kenzy and Devin, and definitely will try to make this a tradition!

Mass Updates

Okay, I can't even give an update on my computer because I am SO FURIOUS about everything, so I will just update everything else.

Right after our anniversary, Matt and I decided that we were going to buy a new car. We have barely been thinking about it, and Matt found a car on KSL that he thought was worth a look. We took it for a test drive and talked about price. After the weekend, we called and made an offer. We usually don't think too long about these type of decisions. It was exactly what we were looking for: low miles, newer, comfortable, more spacious, etc. And of course, the price was right. Not exactly a steal, but good enough we couldn't pass it up! Now we are so happy with our purchase. Our 2011 Toyota Camry fits perfectly in the new garage.

After we finished the house, we had no interest in doing any landscaping. Then as some time passed, I became envious of everyone else's nice grass. I wanted to be able to sit outside on the lawn! So we made some phone calls, and after a ridiculous amount of time, finally were able to get a company to come out and install the sprinkler system for a decent price. This is what it looked like before they got started:

One Saturday, the girls all decided to get together for a Girl's Day Out. Jenny and Kamie met up first at 7:00 (too early for me) to garage sale in the rain. I met up with them around 11:00 to head down to Brigham City to meet Kendra and Jenna for lunch at Old Grist Mill. After lunch, we went shopping. Everywhere. Downeast outlet in Brigham City, D.I. in Brigham, and a bunch of places in Logan. We shopped ourselves silly and had to get some dinner at Chilis after we were finished. Then we went to see "The Giver". Jenny and Kamie had to make sure we used up as much of their day out as possible! What a fun day with all the girls!

For Lance and Kendra's birthdays, we got them tickets to the BYU vs. Utah State football game in Provo. We fully expected to lose. After a five hour drive from Logan to Provo in the worst traffic I've ever faced, we finally got to the game. I have never been in such a huge stadium. As anyone who watched the game knows, WE WON! It was sooooo fun. We sat up in the student section with all the other Aggie fans who made the drive and we were cheering like crazy the whole time! We didn't get home until 3:30 AM, but it was totally worth it!

Halloween is coming! This is absolutely my most favorite holiday of the entire year, and Matt and I have been extra excited to get our house all decorated! The first thing I did was pick up my pumpkins! There is an awesome "Pick Your Own Pumpkin" patch just down the street from my house, so I stopped by to grab some huge pumpkins! I only had to pay $5 for the ones that were over 30 pounds and $3 if they were less than 30 pounds. Love it! I bought a bunch of baby pumpkins too. Such a fun tradition, and super fun to support some of our neighbors.

Then I got out all my other decorations. We have been trying to collect some creepier decorations. We are trying to copy the old witch's house on "Hocus Pocus." So we have been collecting candles, old candle holders, skulls, jars and bottles, and of course my big book. I searched everywhere for a big old book that I could pretend was a witch's spellbook. It is actually a 100-year-old dictionary, but it looks amazing! When we get a little closer to Halloween, we'll put everything out on the porch. Hopefully in the years to come, we can grow our collection of creepy stuff and eventually have a full on witch's graveyard with tons of gravestones and fog machines. We'll get there eventually, but I love what we have for now!

Back to the landscaping.... This is what the yard looks like now that the sprinklers are in. The hydroseed was sprayed a few days later and we are patiently waiting for it to sprout. Hopefully we'll see some growth before it gets too cold.

More pumpkins...

We love having a second bedroom with a spare bed in it because we get to have visitors! Last week, my grandma came up for the Aggie vs. Air Force game and stayed the night. It was so much fun to catch up and spend some time with my grandma, even if she was also cheering for Air Force.

This weekend, we were able to invite our friends Natalie and Zach up to spend the night. Nat and I went to Skyline and lived together at Utah State for two years and have become very close friends. She and Zach live in Draper now with their darling little boy, Noah. They came up and we gave them a tour of the house, went for a walk, had dinner, then went and played mini golf and had hot chocolate. The next morning we had breakfast before they headed home! It was so much fun to catch up and get to spend time with cute baby Noah!

Okay, last pictures, I promise. On Saturday night (after Nat and Zach headed home), Matt and I met up with the rest of the Fischer crew, including Lance and Kendra who drove up, for dinner at Pizza Factory. Table for 15 please! Reagan had to sit in between Matt and I. She kept snuggling up to us, and even tried to give Matt a hands-covered-with-ranch-dressing hug during dinner. After dinner, I got a birthday ice cream that I shared with Blakelee. She is definitely a little girl! She was moaning in ecstasy after each bite, and was even trying to grab ice cream out of my mouth when I gave myself a bite! We had yummy dinner and great service before we went over to American West Heritage Center for their fall festival Haunted Hollow. We went last year and had so much fun. This year, Tim and Lance came with us, and even Harrison was big enough to come! We had fun standing in line, with the uncles harassing Brad, Claire and Harrison. Harrison would not let me put him down! He was wearing his birthday batman sweatshirt and was telling everyone that he was Batman. When we finally went into the Haunted Hollow, he was definitely a little scared, but Jenny and I kept talking to him and laughing at the scary people and he started telling all of them that he was Batman! They were all pretty cute when they realized how little he was. After the Haunted Hollow, I carried Harrison back to the car and he talked my ear off the whole way. I love the age that he and Reagan are right now because they are both so talkative! What a fun night! Love spending time with the whole family! So glad that Lance and Kendra could come up!