Charlie's birthday...continued

Inspired by Autumn ... and at the very real risk of sending myself into a post-traumatic shock-induced session of curling up into the fetal position and rocking back and forth on the ground mumbling incoherently....

I take you back in time 3 years.
Here I was on Thursday, October 27th, 2005 - the day we went in to the hospital to "get induced" (yeah, right, how'd that work out for you, docs?) with Charlie.

3 very long days later...here's Charlie in all his newborn glory - 10 pounds, 8 ounces, a weight I will never forget!

Our first family shot - we were both more than a little traumatized, but very happy anyways... :)

This one cracks me up - Blake was a week old and came to the hospital to visit "little" newborn Charlie. Charlie was literally twice his weight.

Even though it was a rough start for our big baby boy, I wouldn't trade Charlie for anything in the world.

Happy Birthday, Charlie, we love you so much!

Happy Birthday/Halloween!

A trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

A failed attempt at a family shot :)

Pumpkin Carving 101: Professor Shawn Fletcher, MA

Shawn was the only one to actually "touch" a pumpkin, knife, spoon, seeds, or mushy-pumpkin-guts during the entire process...the 3 toddlers were merely spectators.

Charlie watching while showing off his sweet tats.

- OCTOBER 30 -
HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY, OUR FAVORITE LITTLE PUMPKIN!

Fletcher Beach Trip '08

This past weekend was our annual vacation with the Fletcher side of the family. This year we went to Rockaway Beach. The 3 of us were only able to be there for about 24 hours total...but we managed to squeeze in some fun times.

Charlie wasn't feeling very photogenic on the drive there...

Guess he was tired, too, because he fell asleep with that blanket still over his face.

The house was AMAZING.


Right on the beach, beautiful woodworking everywhere!

And ahhhh...the kitchen of my dreams.

Charlie was glad to see Ellie when we arrived.

Not sure what is with the "hiding" thing, but it seems to be a theme lately - that, and taking off his shirt to be "naked" - "I wanna be naked, mommy!"

Playing Scum of the Earth

Blake liked the kitchen, too!

Charlie and Ellie being silly

On our way down to the beach for our first (and only) trip to the water.

I realized this was only the second time Charlie's ever seen the ocean - the first time he was only about 9 months old. And we live SO CLOSE! It's a shame, I know.

At first, he was afraid to go into the water without Shawn or me holding him. But he warmed up to it pretty fast, and soon we were running out to the water and letting the tide "chase" us back onto the sand and he got all nice and wet.

Jaz and Ellie

Blake in sand heaven.

Back to the house to just hang out and be lazy! :)

We celebrated Charlie and Blake's birthdays with a pumpkin cookie cake.

Jasmine, Eli, Ellie, and Blake had a great time eating the cookie cake, opening Blake's presents, playing with all the new toys.

Charlie beats to his own drum, however, and sat away from everyone with just me and Shawn and opened his presents quietly. And, he didn't want any of the "yucky cookie cake", either.

He loved his new Mickey Mouse sticker and stamp set.

"Maybe I should just take off my shirt and put the stickers all over my arms."

Yes, again, with the "naked" thing!

Jasmine and Ellie sharing a secret, aren't they too cute?

Blake, Ellie, Jasmine, and Eli watching a movie together.

Where's Charlie? Yep, that's him down there on the floor. Once again, doing his own thing...

Thanks, family, we had fun - sorry we couldn't be there longer!

Go...uh...Beavs!

I'm not much of a football fan. I mean, it's alright, but...you know, I just don't watch too much of the stuff. I'm just not into it.

Okay, okay, the sum total of my football-watching experience has been the few minutes of the game I've accidentally watched while trying to make it back to the living room from the kitchen in time to catch the cool TV ads on Super Bowl Sunday.

This past Saturday, some of my dad's friends had extra tickets to the OSU Beavers vs. Wash. State Cougars game. So, Shawn and I decided to tag along for fun.

The first thing that really stuck out to me was the fact that about 99 percent of the people attending the game were wearing either orange or black or a combination of the 2 colors.

It was as if Halloween had just puked up a gigantic Reeses Peanut Butter Cup.

Yes, that's a chic in the middle wearing only a black bra, orange paint, and the letter "S" across her stomach...

Shawn and I accounted for the remaining 1 percent NOT wearing orange or black, along with all the Cougar fans wearing red and...um...I think it was gray...


My smuggled contraband came in very handy...until Shawn made fun of me so severely that I had to stop reading and actually pretend like I was watching the game.


Then it was all: "DEFENSE!" "BLOCKING!" "RUSH!" "YARDS!" "FIRST DOWN!" "TOUCHDOWN!" and a whole bunch of other nonsense terms. Sometimes I got a glimpse of the heavily-padded, hard-helmeted figures running around on the field, back and forth, back and forth, in no apparent order - and some other guys running around throwing flags in the air and refs in their black and white stripes getting down and dirty.

But, for the most part, my view was really just this:

Here's my dad with his buddies. That's Bob Gill (OSU quarterback from long ago) on the far left and Howard Joham in the middle in the shades, and of course, dad.

But alas! It wasn't all for nothing. We managed to catch the most entertaining part of the whole 4 hours on camera:

Oh, yeah, by the way, the Beavers won. The score was 66 to 13. Ouch.