Our little Joseph

Charlie had his Kindergarten Christmas program tonight! He played Joseph. There he is in the middle, the big tall one.

It cracks me up that he's a year younger than most of these kiddos, but almost a whole head taller!

He did great, but was pretty stone-faced through the whole thing. I think he was taking his role very seriously, trying not to mess up or forget anything. :)

There's a little smile for his teacher. :)

Here was his first little "solo" line. He's saying, "T is tidings, shepherds heard that day."

And his second. He actually sang a line in a song. Then he tries to hand the mic to the girl next to him but she's oblivious so he kind of does the silly dance trying to figure out what to do with it! (His line here was, "In all that push and shove.")

I got all teary eyed watching our big boy up there on the stage. It completely amazes me how quickly the years go by as a parent. I just stared at him, and replayed in my mind pictures of day they handed him to me in the hospital for the first time. Remembering his chunky little baby stages. His wobbly toddler stages.

My goodness, he's not a baby, not even a toddler anymore. Can't we just slow down the clock for a while? I sure love that boy, our little Joseph.

Guess what?

Yep, if all goes well, Charlie will be a big brother sometime in July!

We are so excited, and yes, a little surprised. To be honest, I'm not sure either of us thought it would ever really happen. We had a bit of a scare yesterday, but everything is okay. However, 2 good things came of it:

One is that we got our first little glimpse of the peanut (above).

Two is that the doc hooked me up with some Zofran so I can stop gagging at EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME. Nope, haven't puked yet, but if I hadn't gotten my magic drug just in time, I'm pretty sure it would not have been far off! I think at this point (8 weeks) with Charlie, I had already lost 5 pounds from being so sick. So far, this pregnancy has been a bit easier on me, but I could feel the sickness coming! I've had some interesting cravings already - first it was salsa, salsa, and more SALSA! I even got so desperate that when I ran out of chips I found myself dipping my orange slices in my salsa. I know - yuck! Now it's on to red Sour Patch Kids. Just the RED ones. I normally would never want Sour Patch Kids, or even THINK about Sour Patch Kids. Random. By the way, anyone know where I can buy red Sour Patch Kids? I'm starting to feel a little guilty about all the yellow, orange, and green Kids I'm throwing out...

No matter how it goes, or how sick I get, we are just plain thankful to be pregnant AND that baby so far appears to be healthy and strong. Please keep this baby in your prayers. As most of you know, we haven't had the easiest time with pregnancies. It is hard to believe that this is actually my sixth pregnancy. We want this baby, SO MUCH. And we are already in love.

Apple Crisp, Pumpkins, and Soccer = FALL!

Charlie, Shawn and YaYa preparing apples fresh from our little orchard to make apple crisp and apple sauce.
(Yes, that is a real, sharp knife Charlie's using. Trust me, he is one of the very few four year olds I would feel okay handing a knife to.)

Finished product: the BEST apple crisp ever made.

Massive Zucchini harvest!

This pic doesn't even do them justice, these guys were HUGE!

Charlie was beyond excited about this delivery! He and Shawn got online and ordered some goodies with Charlie's "spend" money.

Charlie talked non-stop about this box for days, until it finally arrived! :)

Loralye got in on the action, too.
She LOVED the little "surprise" cans - you know, the kind where you take the lid off and something "springs" out at you? Well, these ones were of the very small, super cheap plastic variety, with some sort of weird pumpkin headed figurine that jumps out when you open it and in the process the pumpkin head just falls completely off and goes flying across the room - which, for Loralye, was the most entertaining part. These things are so cheap that the lids are nearly impossible to open and I broke 2 nails in the process of keeping this little gal entertained! But come on, look at that little face, how could you deny it?

Who woulda thought cheap crap from China could produce this much happiness?!?!?!

Charlie and I got home from soccer practice that night to find this: My mom and crazy aunts and uncle, wearing some of the new animal masks that came. Charlie thought that was the coolest thing ever! (Well, after the initial "freak-out" moment before he realized there wasn't really a pig, raccoon, panda & lion in his house!)

Heading for the pumpkin patch with Charlie's school.

Charlie reminding me that he's ALMOST FIVE!

Okay so the sun was pretty bright. Didn't get a whole lot of shots where Charlie wasn't squinting like this:

Or this:

Or this:

Or this:

"Found a good one, mom!"

Ready for the tractor ride, Charlie was pleased, as you can see.

See the little girl on the end, on the right side? With the glasses and the striped shirt and jeans and cute yellow boots?
That's "Josephine", and Charlie has informed me that she is his girlfriend.

There's a couple things that are funny about this:
1. I'm pretty sure Charlie has NO idea what "girlfriend" even means. I think he just means that she's a girl, and his friend.
2. As we were driving home from the pumpkin patch, Charlie says, "Josephine was wearing a pretty dress today, mom." I said, "Oh, is she pretty." He says, "Sometimes."
Okay. First I tried to argue about this "sometimes" things. I ended up just informing him that this might be something he should keep to himself for now. (I can just picture him telling her she's "pretty...sometimes.")
3. Well, then we get home, and look at the pictures, and she's not even wearing a dress! You can plainly see: she's got JEANS on, right?
Sigh. Charlie's clearly got some room to grow in the romance department. But I suppose that's okay, seeing as he is only 4. ;)

Soccer season is almost over already.
Here's a couple great shots of Blake:

Charlie hanging with his team, looking for mom and dad in the crowd, as usual. :)

Just a cute shot of my favorite little baker, making me a pancake:

And last but not least, getting a birthday surprise in the mail today from Aunt Phyllis:

A Choice

We can't seem to get pregnant.

I know Charlie is a miracle. You may not know the whole story or how big of a miracle he actually is, but let me just tell you right now that he is a miracle. The more I read about pregnancy and "infertility" (I hate that word), the more I realize that EVERY SINGLE BABY who makes it to term and is born is a complete miracle.

It took us 4 very long years to get Charlie. Years of waiting, loss, waiting, loss, waiting, loss, waiting...and then loss again. Why, oh why did I think that this time would be different? Why did I think that somehow we had paid our dues with him and this time we'd get pregnant "on the first try"? I feel like I can't do all of this pain and disappointment again. Do we just give up? But what would we miss if we did? Is there a sweet little soul just waiting for the perfect timing to come into our lives and if we stop trying, he or she will never be?

So, here's that choice. I could choose to let myself live in that place of disappointment, pain and bitterness that visits me, oh, about once a month...

Or? I could realize how amazingly lucky we are to have a child of our own - and a totally perfect one at that. I had the incredible privilege of carrying a baby inside of me for 9 precious months. How I loved being pregnant with Charlie! A lot of women who long for pregnancy never even get to experience it one time, not once. I can only imagine how painful that must be. I know, because I was "almost" there by the time Charlie finally came into our lives.

The truth is, I AM lucky. Because no matter what happens from here, whether we are able to have 2 more babies, 1 more, or none at all, we have this adorably sweet, perfect-for-us, almost-five-year-old Charles Michael Fletcher.

Who showers me with affection, hugs, kisses, and tells me every day, "Mom, I love you more than anything in the whole wrild (world)."

Whose art projects are right now scattered across our kitchen table.

Who wakes up every single morning giggling outloud and running into our bedroom to snuggle with me.

Who would rather spend his soccer games searching for his parents in the crowd and waving then actually "kicking the ball" or "paying attention to the game". He's just happy to find the people who love him more than anything in the "wrild" and give them a wave.

If Charlie is "all" we ever get, he's more than enough. He leaves no room for disappointment.

So. Darn. Cute.

I've been going through some old pictures and videos and found this little treasure again. Just makes me smile. What a precious toddler Charlie was. I can't believe he is almost 5!

Hello, world.

Well. It seems like the only time I ever blog anymore is when Shawn's out of town. Which he happens to be tonight. And, obviously, his trips are not all that frequent! Somehow I can manage to break into Christine's blog and write a post...but still neglect our own blog.

So, what's been up with the Fletchers? Charlie started soccer about a month ago. He is an absolute crack-up to watch out on the field. For one, he gets tired after about the first, oh, 10 minutes, so then he'll just start sitting or laying down in the middle of the field whenever he gets a spare moment. During the games, he is absolutely CLUELESS as to what is going on, which way the ball should go, who's on his team, where the ball is at any given moment, or the mere fact that there is even a game taking place... He spends most of the game time looking for me and Shawn (or anyone else he knows) on the sidelines and giving us big cheesy smiles and waves. He will literally be waving and smiling at us as the ball is rolling right past his feet. Sigh. But he sure is cute out there!

The practice and games are all at Deep Creek Elementary School in Damascus, which just happens to have the most amazing view of Mt. Hood from the field:

Charlie's team on their first day of practice:

Getting some pointers from "Coach Mike" - who also just happens to be "Uncle Mike":

We've been having some serious car issues lately (think 3 new transmissions in 4 months). On the way to practice a couple weeks ago, the car decided to - once again - break down. SO, Shawn brought Charlie back home and they had their own little practice in the side yard. It was pretty cute:

Shawn's long-lost best friend, Tim, his wife Helen and their 3 ADORABLE girls came to visit. This is seriously the sweetest family. Oh how we wished they lived closer (hint, hint guys).
Rilanna, Kalanie, Adia & Tim:

Rilanna enjoying a cupcake:

Adia enjoying Charlie's silliness:


We made a trip to Wildwood and walked the trails with this gang:

Trying to get a decent shot of 18 kids, most of whom are 6 years or younger...not easy!

Fun times. :)

Well, Shawn is out of town, and in keeping with tradition I have a date with the TV to watch gory emergency room reality shows and "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" and such, until I can stand it no more and finally crash into sleep around 3 or 4 am, only to have strange dreams about being pregnant with a crocodile or getting impaled by large tree branches.

Night all!

Kindergarten!

Charlie's first day as a big Kindergartner was a success! I'm pretty sure he didn't stop talking from the time I picked him up from school (2:45) to the time he finally crashed into sleep in his bed. It was a 7 hour long run-on sentence, no joke!

Our camera broke (yes, our BRAND NEW camera), so here's a shot I snapped with my phone as we were leaving for school:

There are only 10 kids in Charlie's whole class, which I think is awesome - especially since he's pretty shy and not big on large groups of people. He did great, and was happy all day after, hence the non-stop chatting. :)

Bring on Kindergarten, Day 2!

Some days you just need a good laugh.

Okay. Seriously folks. There are so many things wrong about posting this, and possibly even laughing at this. I truly apologize if you don't find it as funny as we did. I really do.

But OH MY GOSH, this is the funniest thing I have seen in a really long time, okay possibly EVER. I can't even tell you how many times Shawn and I have watched this in the past few days, and just laughed ourselves to tears, over and over. Some days you just REALLY need a good laugh, and this worked for us.

You have to watch this one first, then the next:

Mickey Fisher: I don't know if you necessarily "want" the credit for sharing this with us. But you get it. Thanks, man.

Cuteness

So. Things have been CRAZY busy lately. I wouldn't even know where to start with the update: 4th of July fun, birthday(s) craziness, my nephew Jack performing in The Sound of Music Play in St. Helens, zoo trips, endless summer barbeques, running/walking/limping through my first 10k trail run, VBS (times 2!), crazy camping fiascos, phew! It's been a blast, but man am I TIRED!

So, I'll just share some cute pics of two of my favorite boys.
How could you not love these little guys? Makes my heart melt.