Charlie

Matt has wanted to get a puppy forever. Like since the second we got married. Luckily I am married to a very practical man and he knew we needed to wait until we were in a house with a yard. When Tim called Matt and told him that Paisley was having puppies, Matt thought that it was time for us to finally get a puppy! We went over to see the puppies on the day they were born. Paisley had nine puppies, and all of them looked totally different! There were a few black, yellow, and gold/brown puppies, some with long fur and some with short fur, and some of them had markings. They were not very cute when they were born, but sure got cute over the weeks! We visited the puppies A LOT and got a ton of pictures!

Whenever they were tired, they all got in a big pile. I know where the phrase "dog pile" comes from now. You can see the little white stripe on the lightest puppy was there the day she was born.

Matt was immediately taken by the big brown puppy.

Even Harrison, who isn't too fond of dogs, held the puppies! And there were plenty for everyone!

Reagan was always grabbing the puppies. They are all going to be good dogs around kids because of her!

 Brad and Claire thought it was more fun to play in the kennel with the puppies!

After 8 weeks, they were ready for us to choose a puppy! Matt and I had each picked a puppy that we liked, but the ultimate decision was Matt's because it would really be his puppy. He told Tim that he wanted the dark brown puppy. I was secretly hoping he would pick the yellow one with the white face.

When Matt and I went out to pick up the puppy and he changed his mind and picked the yellow puppy with the white face that I wanted! We are so happy with our choice! We debated all day over what to name her, and finally landed on Charlie.

Matt was playing with all nine puppies the day we chose Charlie. This was the last time all the puppies were together. Tim and Kamie sold all eight of the other puppies in the next two weeks.

Charlie's first day at the house must have been scary for her. She laid down on her bed and slept for most of the afternoon and was really patient when everyone came over to see her.

One night it started snowing. We weren't sure how Charlie would react, but she loved it!

We took Charlie over to Randy and Jenny's house one Saturday while we watched the kids. She played with them for hours and was exhausted afterward! Harrison insisted that she needed all her toys, even though she was sleeping. He even put snowballs on her in case she wanted to play!

Having a dog has been good for Matt and I. We have been good at taking her for walks every day to run off some of her energy. One day, we were out walking and Charlie jumped up and took her poop bag right out of Matt's hand and carried it with her on our walk! Dumb dog.

Charlie sleeps in the weirdest positions! I woke her up when I took this picture, but she was sleeping upsidedown with her feet up in the air!

Here she is sleeping with her head under the couch.

Charlie loves Matt. She has to cuddle up close to him when he gets up with her on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Sometimes she thinks she can lay her head on Matt's pillow with him.

This was the first night with Charlie. Matt felt so sad listening to her cry all night, so he got up and laid on the floor so she could see him from her kennel.

He was pretty exhausted the next day from sleeping on the floor with the dog. She was pretty exhausted too from all that crying.

It's a good thing Charlie is so cute. Matt takes her to work with him and she is getting more and more comfortable every day. She recently figured out that she likes sticking her head out the window while they are driving. Matt says she prefers to ride in his lap and then she can put most of her body out the window. He says that she is super close to just jumping straight out!

One afternoon, Matt couldn't find where Charlie was. He called her and looked everywhere and couldn't find her. He finally found her sleeping on the bunk of wood, soaking in the sun. He says he finds her in lots of places taking naps in the shade.

Matt can't get enough of his dog. He loves to play with her, and even gets mad at me if I don't greet her when I come in the door or play with her much. I hope that Matt loves our baby boy as much as he loves his dog, because I know it will be a lot!

Charlie has been with us now for almost three weeks! She has done so much better since that first night. She only cried at night for another two nights. After that, she stopped crying and wakes up at the same time that Matt does in the morning. Unfortunately, she doesn't understand that on Saturdays we sleep in, so Matt still gets up and lays on the floor next to her for a little while. Charlie is now mostly potty trained. She was great from the first day actually, but did have a couple accidents if we weren't fast enough getting her outside. She goes to work with Matt every day and he has slowly started letting her off her leash more and more. We don't ever put her on her leash while we walk, and she does great. She loves kids and gets a little crazy when they want to play. We are teaching her not to bite, and also teaching the kids what to do if she nips at them, but she has gotten a lot better! She is such a good dog! We are having so much fun with the puppy and can't wait for her to meet the baby!

The Fischer Curse

When Lance and Kendra had Kailee, that sealed the deal. Matt and I knew that we would be the ones to carry on the Fischer curse. Matt has all brothers. His dad has all brothers. His grandpa has all brothers, and so on for like five generations. Only one son carries the curse, and we were so sure it would be us! When we got pregnant, we told everyone we knew it would be a boy. During the course of all of our ultrasounds, the seed of doubt was planted. When we went into our gender appointment, we really were not sure either way.

Then the tech said, "That's a penis!", everything was confirmed! We are officially having a boy! The tech was excited because we were the only boy of the day. She kept asking us how we were going to tell our families, and if we were doing a gender party, and we just had no idea! On our way home, Matt wanted to stop by the bookstore at USU and I saw this tiny little Aggie hat and had to buy it. I found Matt's hat and sent everyone a text that said, "Baby boy is going to be just like his daddy!" with this picture:

The ultrasounds pictures weren't great, especially the 3D pictures. Here are the few that were okay:

Baby boy had his legs tight together but we were able to get a quick peek at his penis.

A decent profile picture

The day I went in for my gender appointment, I had my kids at school guess what the gender would be. As you can see, most of the kids thought it would be a girl! The next day, I brought in doughnuts with blue icing to share the news!

I've had the kids giving me baby name ideas, and here are a few...

Matt and I are so happy to be having a little boy. Matt said that he was a little scared that the tech was going to say it was a girl! We are so excited!

February Updates

I got out my camera to see what pictures I had taken this month, and the only ones on there were from school. My camera has been acting funny since last summer and I don't like to get it out as often. Hopefully I'll be better when the baby comes.

• I had another doctor's appointment at the beginning of the month. I was able to hear the heartbeat again and get a few more questions answered. I still am nauseous unless I diligently take Zofran. Twice this month Jenny let us come over to her work to play around with the ultrasound machine. We were hoping to get a glimpse of the gender, but baby wasn't cooperating. One time, Jenny had to step out to help a patient so I got to play around with the machine on myself. It was so fun to see the baby! I have been trying hard to feel the baby moving, but haven't been sure what I've felt. When we were looking at the baby, it moved a lot and that was when I really felt it, and now it is a lot easier to know what I'm feeling. It helped to see it move and feel it at the same time to really know that it wasn't a gas bubble or something. 
• Blakelee turned 1 on January 24. We celebrated her birthday the next weekend. She is such a happy baby! She loves interacting with everyone and has gotten so good at crawling! She'll be walking in no time! We had the traditional first birthday baby cake, but Blakelee wasn't interested! I remember watching Reagan lick the icing off her first birthday cake but Blakelee kind of just picked at it. It was a fun day too because we got to see the puppies again! Matt is so excited to take one home!
• We also got to go down to Layton for Kailee's birthday party. I can't believe that she is already two! She sure is getting cute! It so so fun to hear her talking and playing with all the other cousins!
• One Sunday we went up to Midway to celebrate Matt's grandpa's birthday. He is 84 years old, and has so much spunk and energy. He is one of my favorite people. He is so excited for us to have our baby. He predicted that it would be a boy. Matt loves spending time with his brothers and uncles. I love how devoted he is to his family that we would spend four hours in the car just to stop by for birthday dinner.
• One Saturday, my dad and Laurie came up for an Aggie basketball game. We hit Pepperidge Farm and had dinner at Pizza Factory before the game. My dad and Laurie had so much fun in the Spectrum. They thought the students were a riot! It helped that the Aggies won! We were able to buy tickets to the last home game, so they'll come up again in a few weeks!
• This Friday we celebrated Brad's birthday dinner. I can't believe he is already 11. He will be in middle school next year. It was fun to have all the family together to celebrate. The Fischers are so good to each other.
• Yesterday Matt and I brought home our new puppy! More to come!

We are just loving life right now! It is nice to take things slow until the baby comes! 

USU Memories

With Cassie starting to plan to come to Utah State, it reminds me of all the crazy experiences I had while I was a student. Seriously the best few years of my life until I got married. I would never go back to being in high school, but I could go back to being in college.

Aaron and I dated for a little while. Dating was one of the fun adventures in college. And watching all your roommates go out on dates

Going to football games

The Howl... Seriously any reason to dress up

Matching roomie shirts

Random jam sessions with the neighbor guys

Roommate date night

Weekend visitors who scare everyone at church

Late night dance parties

Gymnastics in the kitchen

Hair color in the kitchen... I don't think I really did much cooking in our kitchens

Photo sessions on campus

Photo sessions at random parks with neighbor guys

Fires up the canyon

Day trips to Bear Lake

More football games and more matching shirts

Yellowcard concert!

Carving pumpkins

Eating cake for dinner

Playing Nintendo and watching Friends and Heroes

Hanging out with random people in the TSC at school events

Surprise birthday party by my awesome roommates

Not sure what we were doing, but I'm sure it was fun

College was so much fun. I can't wait for Cassie to make some crazy memories of her own at Utah State! I can't believe how young Matt looks in all these pictures. Seems like it was just yesterday.

January

The first month of 2015 has been pretty lame. I haven't even taken any pictures because we were so boring. Here is a little of what we've been up to:

• Matt was called to be the Teacher's Quorum advisor at church. He has had fun going to weekly activities and basketball games/practices. He is also enjoying getting to know the other advisors. One weekend, he went ice fishing with our neighbor. They stayed in the ranger's cabin and fished for two days. He was so happy to go fishing because he didn't get to go at all last winter while we were building the house.
• While Matt was fishing, I went down to visit my mom. It was nice to just sit around and talk. On Saturday, I got a pedicure while my mom got her nails done. Then we went shopping. Tori shopping. We went to one store and then got lunch at Red Robin. I made my mom go look at baby stuff at Babies-R-Us and Target. She was surprised at how fancy baby stuff has gotten. We hit IKEA too. That was as much shopping as I could handle! We spent the rest of the night watching "Hart of Dixie" on Netflix. Cassie kept asking when we were going to go do something. Doing nothing is so fun! I left the next morning. I realized how happy I am to have a garage when my car didn't start. It was the first night my car had been outside this winter. I was very happy to get back home to Matt. I miss him when we are apart.
• Kenzy and I got to do a CPR/First Aid training for afterschool clubs. It was more fun than I expected. I learned a lot. It made me feel more confident for when the baby comes. It also made us realize how much there is to do to help our kids in clubs. We really do have to be prepared for anything. I'm glad to have it all done so I'm more prepared in case of an emergency.
• I got to visit my friend Emily and her new baby James. It was so fun to see her little one and listen to her experience. We became friends when we lived in the Cottonwood Heights apartment. I miss having such fun neighbors. I wish our babies could grow up and play together!
• We had our friends from college over for dinner on a Saturday afternoon. We picked up some take-and-bake pizzas and had a salad bar. Natalie and Zach weren't able to make it, and neither was Jenni's husband, Jared, but everyone else came. It is crazy how much we have all grown up. Jeana and Marc are building a house and have two little boys, Aric and Dee. Jenni and Jared also have two little boys and live in Logan. Tom, Lindsay and Livi are in a new house in Syracuse. We have been working hard to get everyone to move to Logan, but it isn't working! We miss these guys! 

• We also got to babysit Lyndsee and Carter for the night. They played with the other kids and watched movies all night. After everyone else had left, we made a fort in the living room, popped some popcorn and watched a movie. Carter was asleep before it was over. Lyndsee was wide awake, so we watched another movie. She ate like 5 sugar cookies and was totally wired. She was still wide awake when Nate and Jenni came by after 10:00 PM.
• We got to go out to Tim and Kamie's a few times this month to visit their new puppies! Matt is going to take one home as soon as they are old enough. He is trying to decide which one he wants. We also went over for Blakelee's first birthday party! She is so cute. We love being an aunt and uncle to all these cute kids. Lunch was delicious and it was so fun to watch her delicately pick at her cake. She wasn't too interested in eating it. I wish I had taken my camera, I'm such a slacker!
• Cassie came up to visit, finally! She hasn't seen the house since we were building, and she was up in Logan interviewing for a job at the Old Navy here, and looking at apartments. She is moving up here in May (transferring from the Old Navy in American Fork), and will start at USU in the fall. I am so excited for her! I'm also excited to have another awesome babysitter!
• We met with Heather Miller about babysitting for us when I go back to work. She asked Jenny if I was looking for someone to watch the baby, which was amazing because we hadn't worked it out yet. We were looking at day care options, and not loving what we were seeing. Heather is going to be amazing. Four of her five boys will be in school next year and she was looking for something to fill her time. There are so many reasons why this is the best thing that could have happened for us, I just can't say how happy I am. I definitely believe that everything happens for a reason, and I think Heather was prompted to ask Jenny about babysitting. We are so excited to have this all figured out!
• We got to go to Caden's baby blessing the first Sunday in January. We love the Shields and were so happy to support them on their special day. I am always reminded of how many amazing people we have in our lives. I think of how many people I want to be there when we bless our baby, and I'm not sure the church, or the priesthood circle, can hold that many people!

So we are not totally lame, I am just terrible at taking pictures. Hopefully I will be better this month. Matt promised me that he would buy me a new camera when the baby came, so I'll have to definitely get back in the habit before then!

We Have An Announcement...

It's true! Matt and I are having a baby!

We are very excited! I found out that I was pregnant on November 10, 2014. We had been trying for a little while and I had one pregnancy test left in the cupboard and I was three days late on my period. The weekend was killing me just waiting, so on Monday morning I decided to just go for it, and it was positive. I felt excited and scared, but mostly like it wasn't real. After work I went to Locker 42 and bought this cute little Aggie onesie to give to Matt. I put the pregnancy test in the bag with the onesie and left it on the counter for my snoopy husband to look at when he got home from work. When he came inside, he glanced in the bag and didn't say anything. I asked him if he saw what was in the bag, and he said, "Yes, a onesie for Jenni and Nate's baby." I said, "It's not for them..." and slowly he made the connection and I showed him the test! It was pretty funny to see him put the pieces together. He felt the same way that I did: excited, scared, and mostly just like it wasn't real.

Matt and I have talked long and hard about when it would be good to tell our families. We wanted to wait as long as possible just to make sure everything was good with the baby. During the time that we were waiting, a TON of people asked me if I was pregnant! Two of my close friends at work are pregnant, and everyone was waiting for me too. The funniest story was on Claire's birthday. I stayed home sick in the afternoon, and everyone asked where I was. Matt told them I was sick, and Randy asked Matt if I was pregnant. Matt said yes, and everyone just laughed it off! I guess being honest is just as good as trying to keep a secret if no one believes you!

It was ridiculously hard for me to keep the secret! I'm a terrible secret-keeper! Finally, I convinced Matt that Christmas would be fun. He wanted to wait but I just couldn't! On Christmas Eve we were with Matt's family. A few years ago, we made a deal with Matt's dad that he would play the accordion for our baby when we had one. So on Christmas Eve, we hoped to bring up the accordion somehow, but Brad did it for us! He told everyone about how his principal played the accordion, so I asked Diet if he knew where his accordion was and if he had been practicing. He said that he hadn't, so I asked if he remembered our deal. He didn't so I had to remind him. I said, "Do you remember you said you would play for our baby?" He said, "And I will." And I said, "Well you better start practicing!" Slowly, he put the pieces together! His surprise was classic! Slowly everyone else in the room figured out what was going on. It was super loud while we were having this conversation and no one really heard it, which apparently wasn't that big of a deal because everyone had started to figure it out on their own! For the rest of the night, Diet told every person who came by the house! It was so fun to finally share our news!

On Christmas morning, I was just going crazy waiting to tell my family. Alex came over late, so we decided to eat breakfast first. I was STARVING and if I don't eat then I get really nauseous so I had to have some breakfast while waiting for family breakfast to be ready. Finally we started opening presents, and I had a special one for everyone to open. I wrapped all the presents together and told them they had to open them at the same time because they all went together. I really just didn't want one present to ruin it for everyone else! My mom got hers open first, but she thought it was an Aggie tee shirt and covered it so no one else could see. Jeff got his open pretty quick, but had it covered too. When Alex and Cassie pulled their shirts out, Alex and my mom were looking back and forth at each other, like they were confused, until my mom finally looked at the Aggie onesie again and Alex realized what it was! Then everyone started putting the pieces together! When they realized what was going on, everyone started crying, even Jeff, and then screaming and then hugging! It was really funny to watch! I wish I had found a way to video their reactions, because they were hilarious! My mom took this picture with everyone's shirts and posted it on Facebook later that night. Jeff's shirt says, "Grandpa Jeff," Cassie and Alex's shirts say, "Great Sisters Get Promoted to Aunt," and my mom has the Aggie onesie!

Matt and I sent this picture to some of our other close friends that day too.

After mom's house, we went over to dad's house to open presents. We did the same thing for my dad and Laurie, but all of Laurie's family was there and it was super chaotic. They started opening their present several times before they actually got inside. Laurie did the same thing as my mom- she thought it was an Aggie tee shirt because our other gift to them was tickets to a USU basketball game. My dad's shirt said, "Official Moula." I better explain the Moula joke. My step-sister-in-law is a doula. My dad didn't know what a doula was, so she explained that a doula supports the mother while she's in labor. My dad thought it would be funny if there was a doula for men AKA a moula, who supports the husband during labor. The moula would be responsible for bringing an XBOX and games to the hospital, providing buffalo wings and cold beverages to the husband, and just generally making sure the man is comfortable while his wife is in labor. Matt has always joked that he will have my dad as his moula when I have a baby. It took my dad a second to realize what his shirt meant, but eventually they both got it and gave us big hugs and Laurie started crying. It was a very funny day!

Matt and I also got the chance to tell my mom's family on Christmas night. My mom hung the little onesie on the wall with her Christmas cards and figured someone would see it and ask what it was. Well everyone came, and no one saw. My mom was going crazy! She finally grabbed my grandma and grandpa and took them over and showed them the onesie. Finally everyone in the room figured out what was going on. The best part was that everyone was congratulating me and Matt, when Alex shouts out, "What about congratulations to me? I'm going to be an AUNT!" It was hilarious! My aunt Sue called on Skype and it was fun to tell her the news too! She started crying! So much fun! Of course I had to call my grandma and grandpa Norton, and Matt called his grandpa and Ramona too. Definitely the best Christmas ever!

This week we had our first ultrasound appointment. I made Matt go with me. He was a trooper. Dr. Blackett had to do a quick check for infections before the ultrasound and he didn't even act grossed out! When she started showing us the baby, it was crazy. I think I said, "Wow, it's really in there." This whole process hasn't seemed too real for me, and I always had a thought in my mind that it wasn't really happening. It was great to have confirmation that baby was in fact there and growing and moving around! Baby was upsidedown and moving a little, moving arms and legs around while we watched. I couldn't believe that we could see the little fingers and toes. It was fun to see all the bones that are already forming and watch the pulsing of the little heartbeat. She said everything was looking great, about 7 cm and the heartbeat was 158 bpm. The pictures didn't turn out great because every time she tried to pause the picture, the baby would move and it would be blurry, but oh well.

Baby's head is bottom left. Baby is facing the front, so you can kind of see the arms folded up and the legs crossed.

Baby's head is in the bottom middle, and body is toward the left. Can't really see legs, but can kind of see folded arms.

Heartbeat and picture showing where the heart is in the body.

This one is the worst. The top of the head is at the bottom of the little arrow, and bottom of the bum is near the top left. This is when she measured baby, you can see at the bottom 6.94 cm.

As far as my pregnancy has been going, I've been okay. Tomorrow will be my official 13 week date. I am realizing how lucky I was to have such good health now that everything in my system is going crazy! I have had sore breasts, a lot of nausea but I've only thrown up a handful of times (some days I can keep it manageable and other days nothing seems to work- I've lost ten pounds already), I've had a hard time sleeping at night, I'm EXHAUSTED all the time, and had back pain and constipation. The joys of pregnancy! Thankfully Kamie shared some Zofran with me for the nausea and that has been helping. Cute Jeff suggested to me a few days ago that I try the Zofran too. Although the Zofran makes me more constipated so I have to take a stool softener, and I get headaches, so I have to take Tylenol, so I am just a bit of a mess! I'm not really showing yet, but my pants are starting to get tight and uncomfortable in the waist. Whew. Sorry for the information overload!

To sum it all up, we are very happy and we hope that everything continues to progress naturally and that baby grows safe and sound until it's time to come out around July 17. Thanks to everyone for all your support, and to all my friends who have been answering millions of questions from me! We are excited for this new adventure!