August 2014

August 01, 2014

We spent the first week of August at a beach house with my parents and siblings in California. Heaven!

Catching a few Zzz's on the plane ride to California.

The very friendly guy sitting next to me took this picture with my phone. He didn't even ask first. Apparently, knowing each other for over an hour put us at that level of friendship! Haha I love it!

Blake had been clinging to me all day, but the moment he saw Papal, all that changed! They were the BEST of friends!

It was wonderful to see Debi and Russ! I miss them!

TWO babies in a swing!

Mamal ran around taking care of all of us and bringing us things and playing with the kids every minute we were there!

This girl LOVES her grandma!

Luke crashed Jared's guitar practice.

Poor Jeff and his brain freezes! At least I enjoyed our traditional trip to Golden Spoon!

August 02, 2014

Luke convinced Katrina that if she just climbed onto the raft really carefully, she wouldn't get her clothes wet (he REALLY wanted someone to swim with him that morning!). Haha! She is such a fun aunt! She just went with it and swam in her clothes with him all morning!

Sleepy babies on the way to the beach house. I think car rides put Katrina to sleep better than they do any of my kids! Haha!

Blake loves Grandpa! Grandpa was another rare exception to Blake's insistence on clinging to momma constantly for the first few days of our visit!

Jeff made use of the cool features on his new phone! This is our view from the street out in front of the beach house.

Katrina and my mom read the same few books to Jade SO many times all week! Jade LOVED it! She kept bringing the books to them to be read over and over again. There was a book about babies and a book about dogs, so by the end of the week, Jade was saying "baby" and barking like a dog.

Beautiful view from the upper balcony.

View from the lower balcony. We spent a lot of time on this balcony, which is connected to the living room, but even when we weren't out there, we were in the living room with the door to the balcony open. Feeling (and smelling) that sea breeze all week was heavenly.

August 03, 2014

Relaxing Sunday

LOVE this sweet, chubby girl!

Look at those thighs! I love them!

Our little family went for a walk down the beach and the pier after church.

Luke insisted that we make a sand castle "real quick" before we walked back to the house. He got sand all over my dress, but it was worth it!

Grandpa and his grandsons.

August 04, 2014

Finally, Monday was our first full beach day! Luke was so excited!

Jade was cracking up as she and Grandpa took turns blowing this little ball at each other.

Luke and I built a sand castle. He'd been talking about this for months!

Grandpa Lamb has skills! Especially considering Blake was NOT a fan of the beach the first two days we were there! He was so grumpy and only wanted me to hold him every minute!

Jade's hair got REAL curly in the beach air!

Someone caught me paparazzi-ing.

It's a good thing I've got such a cute sister who knows a thing or two about fashion, hair, make-up, etc. I'm clueless, but thank goodness I've got her to set me straight! I've literally been wearing the same plain black tankini for the past 7 years! Two summers ago, the bottoms were getting really worn, so I replaced them with a little swim skirt, which I thought was flattering, and this summer, the top was starting to look pretty rough, so I tried finding an identical one to replace it with, but to no avail. Pretty sad, right? But never fear, Katrina took me swim suit shopping, and even gave me one of her own tops! She also told me, "Kira, you're not 50 or 60, you should not be swimming in a skirt!" Haha So, at the end of the day, I  had two cute and colorful, non-skirt swim suits! Hurray!

August 05, 2014

Snuggly morning. That bed was SO ridiculously comfortable!

Beach time! Please don't be grumpy today!

This girl! She is just the sweetest, easiest baby! She just sat in the stroller and smiled at us while we all set up camp, patient as can be!

He may have been grumpy, but at least I got snuggles out of the deal!

The babies had quite the setup!

My favorite chubby legs!

Another beach nap for this grumpy boy?? Surely, it's too good to be true!

They climbed in there like that all on their own!

The story of my life the first couple of days at the beach! Thankfully, something clicked and he LOVED the beach for the rest of the week! I think it was the fact that we finally wised up and spent most of our time down by the water. He couldn't get enough!

August 06, 2014

Story time with Aunt Katrina.

Trina was feeling pretty crummy for a couple of days in the middle of the week, but she still gave in to Jade's demands for story time.

I wasn't exaggerating when I said Jade "demands" story time. Jade wouldn't even let Katrina finish the book before she took it and hit Katrina with it or shoved it in her face, just to be sure Katrina knew she wanted to read it again! Poor Katrina!

Grandma and Grandpa took Luke to Legoland for his birthday (it was at the end of June)! They stayed ALL day and Luke LOVED it!

Luke didn't even have to wait in line for rides! There were LEGOS to play with next to the line while the parents waited!

Legoland lunch

Only the best grandpas are willing to be the only adult on the kiddie ride!

In ride for the dragon roller coaster again! It was one of Luke's favorite parts of the day, so they rode it a lot!

I made pizza for dinner since my mom was at Legoland. She made us fabulous dinners every other night of the week! We were spoiled!

August 07, 2014

Katrina, the babies and I met my super-fantastic friend, Shelley for dinner and Farnosh came afterward to say hi. The babies LOVED her! They loved Shelley too! What's not to love? These ladies are the coolest and it was SO nice to see them again!

Attractive.

Conversation between Luke and Grandma Lamb on the upper balcony of the beach house while we were at dinner ...

Luke: What are you doing, Grandma?

Grandma: Just reading my book and watching the sunset.

Luke: Well, do you want to hug me right now or not?

Grandma: Yes, I want to hug you! 

Luke (looking out at the sunset): I wish Jade were here so I could hold her ... but mommy took her away.

Katina helped Luke build the LEGO car and train he got from Legoland.

Bedhead Jadey-bug

Sunscreen hair stylin'

Jade had to have set a record by the end of the week with how fast she could suck one of these down! She never even took her mouth off of it from start to finish!

Hey, Dad! Let's crawl all the way to the water!

Forget it! I'm tired. Dad, gimme a ride!

Yep, that's my baby licking the sand. I'm not even surprised.

Baby race.

Luke pulled this wagon every day!

He pulled it up big hills and everything!

This is the monster hill we climbed up and down everyday from our house to the beach and back. Ours is the white one way up there, just before the dark brown one on the right.

August 08, 2014

Jeff and Luke off to fly a kite one morning. I ran into them on the beach at the end of my nice long barefoot run in the sand and surf. Is this heaven? I think so!

Our fabulous beach set up every day we were there!

Blake gave up.

Katrina and I couldn't resist the ice cream cones we saw people buying at the little restaurant window down by the beach, and we really couldn't resist after my mom offered to buy us each one! Luke got his own too, sprinkles and all! It melted all over him, but I wasn't the least bit concerned, knowing there was a massive salt-water bath just a few yards away.

Katrina's boyfriend, Ammon, was not satisfied with the number of pictures Katrina was sending him of herself (practically none!). Poor guy was dying being so far away from her for so long! So I tried to help him out, snapping cute pictures of Katrina to text to him all week. He loved it! Favorite future in-law award! ;)

Katrina and I went for a run and I couldn't resist playing on the pull-up bars on the way back! Shout out to Ammon for convincing her to go with me even though they had just started talking on Face Time! What a guy!

Sibling reunion! I always love when we all get back together again!

August 09, 2014

Jade insisted that everyone take her for long walks around the beach house so she could practice and learn to walk like Blake. Patrick definitely put in his time!

 

Each day at the beach house, we set up camp in the sand next to a swing set. One afternoon, while we were all sitting there relaxing, we saw a guy do a back-flip off of the swing. It was impressive, but he made it look so easy and I (the totally ungraceful, anti-gymnast) said, "I bet I could do that." But then I turned to look at my family, and with the exception of Jeff, they were all wide-eyed and shaking their heads at me, so then of course I HAD to do it! It's a wonder my competitive side hasn't gotten me killed yet!

After a couple of days of practicing for a few minutes whenever I had time, I still just couldn't quite figure out the technique. It felt WAY harder and scarier than it looked, but I decided to go for it anyway one afternoon. Not surprisingly, I only halfway committed and bailed when I was upside down, resulting in a pretty hilarious fall, which elicited several shocked gasps from the people sitting on the beach and walking by on the path behind the swing set. Luckily, I ALWAYS held onto those chains for dear life, so even upside down, I was never worried about falling on my head because I would just hold on until I got pulled right-side up again.

Anywho, on the last morning of our visit, I went down to the beach for my run and decided to try a suggestion someone gave in a YouTube video I'd watched the day before. It worked like a charm! Something clicked, and now that I finally had figured out the technique, flipping over was easy peazy! I was so excited! I texted Jeff and he walked down to film it right away, like the awesome husband he is. Patrick and Jared came too. They had watched the fall video the night before and were (through hysterical laughter) strongly advising me against trying again for fear I might snap my neck, so they had to come see for themselves whether or not I'd really figured it out.

For these first few attempts, I just couldn't convince my hands to let go of the chains, so as soon as I would land, they would pull me backward, and not to mention, pinch my fingers! It just took one really painful pinch to my fingers at the park back home in Texas to teach me to let go and land a little more smoothly!

Troll doll!

Spin move!

This kid has the BEST uncles!

Read me a story, Uncle Jared!

Blake thought he was going to drive home in Grandpa's new truck.

We squeezed in one final visit with Mamal and Papal before it was time to head to the airport.

Selfies on the plane ride home.

Thanks for the glow sticks, Mamal! They were a great distraction on the plane!

Man, what a fun trip! But three kids at the beach is a lot of work! Jeff and I were really wishing we could have Take 2 the following week where he and I could just act like kids ourselves, running around on the beach all week instead of having to be responsible parents! Maybe next time!

August 11, 2014

Coloring Lightening McQueen at the library.

August 12, 2014

Luke and I found a sheet of stickers. He had no interest in spreading them over a few days!

Luke suggested and set up this picture himself. He was so professional about it! It was hilarious and adorable.

August 13, 2014

Caitlin had a doula consultation in the Woodlands, so I took all the kiddos to the splash pad.

We had to be creative to get there with 6 kids, 1 adult and no car! We got a lot of funny looks from passersby as I pushed the twins in the double stroller in front of me with my left hand and pulled Becca and Greg in the wagon behind me with my right hand! It was crazy looking! But surprisingly easy to maneuver! Thankfully Luke and Bethany rode up ahead on a bike and scooter, so I didn't have to worry about pushing or pulling them!

I don't even know that poor kid they're double-teaming! Haha!

I don't think you're going to catch any water like that, Bethany.

Not even the babies were safe from attacks!

This kid is the king of collecting other peoples' toys!

A giant box of PB&J and a big bag of apple slices is the way to go for lunch with 6 kids!

Cute sisters!

Cheers!

That is one crowded bath!

Haha! Oh, bearded Bethany!

August 14, 2014

Who would have thought getting my ring cleaned with all the kids could be so much fun! The man who was cleaning my ring, suggested we check out the kids' corner while we waited and we were all wishing it would take longer than it did to clean! The kids were cracking up the entire time and every one of them was heartbroken when my ring was finished and it was time to leave (sorry for the crying babies making a scene while we walked out of the store, Jared's employees)!

We played out front for a while when we got home. I love when I catch these two just playing and "talking" together in their own little world.

This boy really had walking down by this point! He was walking up and down the driveway and even turning around without stopping or falling down.

We had a hilarious 'Minute to Win it' Relief Society activity that night. It may have been my favorite Relief Society activity ever! So fun!

I was dying watching these girls trying to knock down water bottles with an orange in a pair of pantyhose!

Keep the balloons in the air!

Chocolate unicorn (stacking 6 Ding Dongs on their foreheads)

Katie claimed to have a lot of "experience with Ding Dongs" and it paid off because she kicked butt at this challenge!

Lisa was hilarious as always as the MC.

Our team may not have won, but we did pretty darn well (it was the trivia between the challenges that killed us!), and I was pretty pleased to have won first place in every challenge that I went up to compete in for our team! I really hope more hilarious and embarrassing activities like this are in our future!

August 15, 2014

Katrina was visiting her boyfriend, Ammon, and his family in Austin for a few days, and they took the time to drive down and spend a day with us! I was so excited! And we had a blast! We took them boating and then they came back to our house for a homemade pizza dinner. The two of them went on a little date that night (it was Jeff's and my date night too) and left early the following morning to hit the Houston temple before driving back to Austin.

Katrina rocked the wakeboard and totally impressed the boyfriend with her skills!

These two were SO sweet with the kids and played with them constantly. One of the reasons I totally approve of Ammon! He's great!

Jeff tried to throw these two off the tube for a while. It was hilarious to watch! He even moved the rope up to the tower, so the tube could catch some serious air! Ammon got thrown once and Katrina got thrown twice.

Ammon down!

Starting them young! Blake liked touching the wave when Jeff held him down low.

The best kind of exhausted! Ammon had to drive back to our house, so he couldn't nap in the car, but he crashed on the couch within a five minutes of being in our house! He had gotten an absurdly tiny amount of sleep for the past two nights, so he was beyond exhausted, but it was so funny that we were all talking and making plenty of noise and he still didn't budge! He woke up after a little bit and did his best to muster the energy to play cars with Luke in Luke's room, but Luke went to the bathroom, and when he came back, Ammon was asleep on his bed. Haha! Luke told me he was trying to play really quietly because Ammon was sleeping. Luke loved that guy! Falling asleep in the middle of playing cars apparently didn't change that because Luke still asks when they're going to come back!

August 16, 2014

Bethany wanted to ride a teeter-totter. This is what we came up with. It worked pretty well. Haha!

August 18, 2014

Facebook post:

My very first ER visit as a mom! Wish us luck!

P.S. We're okay. Luke just has really labored breathing and his inhaler isn't helping, so here we are! Luke just wants to be sure he's not getting a shot! haha

Kira Fisher Thanks everyone! We are now safely home in bed and Luke is breathing normally. The treatment in the ER did the trick! Whew! 

Kira Fisher Wellll we're off to the doctor. Luke's breathing is getting worse again despite continued inhaler treatments. Dang it! He's still a pretty happy camper though 

Kira Fisher Janet M Carroll, Luke's doctor has been suspicious Luke might have asthma since he was about 18 months old and had a difficult time breathing the first time he got bronchitis. Since then, whenever he gets a cold, we watch his breathing, and if it even starts to look labored we start the inhaler every 4 hours, and in the past, that has always kept it from getting worse and kept his cold from developing into bronchitis. But this time, it just isn't working. Hopefully, we find out why!

Yep, Luke got a little cough one day that quickly turned into some slightly shallow breathing the following morning. I got right on the inhaler puffs every four hours, knowing that has always stopped the breathing problems in their tracks in the past, but instead of improving, his breathing just got worse. Finally at 9:30pm when Luke couldn't sleep and his breathing was looking even worse, Jeff and I decided it was time to take him in. Unfortunately, the urgent care centers are closed by then, so the ER it was! Luke was SO sweet and patient the whole time! I just adore him. Breathing was really an effort by the time we got into the waiting room and I was getting worried, but Luke was just as sweet and pleasant as can be. He was watching Thomas the Train on Jeff's old Kindle, but when it froze I gave him my phone to take pictures with ...

Luke was given the same breathing treatment they gave him in the urgent care center two years ago, the first time he had this problem. Only this time, he didn't need help taking it. They also took a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia, and we were out of there in time to be in bed by 11:00.

Luke was okay all night, but his breathing started getting worse again in the morning, despite continued use of his inhaler, so off to the doctor we went. And we came home with our very own nebulizer machine. Poor kid. But he took all of his treatments like a champ without complaint, and in a couple of days he was back normal. It's comforting to know that we have the nebulizer in our house if we need it, so we can avoid any ER visits in the future, but I'm still hoping this boy grows out of this problem! There are much worse things, and I'm grateful that he is as healthy as he is, but still, fingers crossed!

August 19, 2014

The babies have started getting "Buddy Bucks" at HEB along with Luke. They LOVE pressing the button to stop the wheel, and so far Blake has been consistently lucky, bringing in big points! Luke keeps trying to change the order that he, Blake and Jade use the machine, so that he is in the position Blake was in the previous time when he earned so many points, but it doesn't change the fact that Blake almost always ends up with the biggest numbers, much to Luke's dismay! 

Taking his breathing treatment like a champ!

August 21, 2014

Bike ride to the splash pad on a beautiful day!

August 22, 2014

Blake woke up from his nap to find that Luke and I had been painting and he wanted in!

Luke painted the beach house. I love the way he depicted the huge hill down to the beach! After I took this picture, he added the train tracks between the street and sand.

August 23, 2014

Jade LOVES stuffed animals! Really, anything soft and squishy will do!

Bike ride and picnic at the park with this cute family of mine. The babies can't get enough watermelon.

Mmm .. wood chips..

Luke was a little apprehensive about climbing this tree at first, but once he was up there, he didn't want to come down!

August 24, 2014

Post-church photo op.

This cute little munchkin turned 2!

Indoor pinata is a dangerous game! There were some close calls, but we all survived!

Happy birthday, Greg!

August 25, 2014

You may have noticed the giant band-aids on Jade's arm in the picture of her on the slide eating wood chips a couple days back. Poor baby had a nasty run in with my bike tire. She leaned out of the trailer and grabbed the tire while I was riding and it rubbed off a couple layers of skin! It was so sad and totally my fault! I got a little too comfortable with Jade being unbuckled in the trailer as long as she was in there with Luke. She would get really mad if I strapped her in when she was really tired because it made it harder for her to sleep, so if Luke (a.k.a. her hyper-observant, slightly paranoid big brother) was in the trailer with her, I wouldn't strap her in because nine times out of ten, she would be asleep within a couple minutes and if she made any move to stand up or lean out of the trailer, Luke was on her instantly! But this one time, she didn't go right to sleep; Luke did. And Jade had free reign to lean out of that trailer as far as she wanted. Yikes! I'm SO grateful she didn't fall out of the trailer and that this wasn't a worse accident! It could have been! It's crazy the things you can convince yourself are safe! What was I thinking! Lucky for me, Jade is one tough cookie! She hardly cried when it happened and never acted like it bothered over the course of the several days it took to heal! On our first bike ride after the accident, I texted this picture to Jeff with the caption, "Safe!" And they ALWAYS will be from now on!

And as if I could get any luckier, Jade hasn't complained about being strapped in since the accident and she sleeps just fine! (How cute is it that she fell asleep with her arm around Blake!)

This boy likes to catch some Zzz's on bike rides too.

We revisited an old favorite during the babies' nap: painting the bathtub!

August 26, 2014

With just under 20 pounds to lose, my mom and I decided to be accountable to each other each week to make weight loss a little more fun. We report our weight loss and workouts and whoever gets the most total points gets a little prize ($5 or less) in the mail from the other. My mom sent me this adorable handmade oven mitt and potholder (from a quilting fair she went to with her sister, Brenda) as a prize and I had to take a picture to show her I was already using them!

We met our awesome neighbors at the splash pad. It had been much too long since we'd spent any time with them and Luke was SO excited to finally play with these four cute sisters again.

Even though she doesn't see her all that often, Jade has always been a big fan of Valerie!

August 27, 2014

The twins are usually so content being in the bike trailer together, but sometimes, this happens.

This sign cracked me up! I had to send Jeff a text asking, "Should I turn back?!"
Fortunately, all of the workers we passed were fully clothed! ;)

Luke wanted me to take a picture of his bath time creation.

August 28, 2014

Luke always wants a car cart at HEB, but there are only two seats in it. I used to sit Jade up on the back with her legs hanging down between the boys and just hold onto her while I walked, but she wasn't having that anymore. She doesn't care that there isn't room for her; she makes room! And all three of them are surprisingly content being packed in there like sardines (as long as nobody makes any sudden movements)!

Awkward car selfie. I wasn't driving, promise! I feel like these days most pictures I take, I'm distracted by and covered in kids, so it felt like a good idea to snap a picture when I had a rare moment to myself, and I was showered, dressed, make-up on! Haha!

Best brother-in-law of the month award goes to Ben! He got Texans tickets in exchange for some work he did and he invited Jeff and I to the game! I had never been to an NFL game before! It was SO cool! The sight when we first walked into that stadium was amazing! It brought me back to the good old days going to all the games with Jeff at BYU (and memories of Jeff leaving me behind on his bike in an effort to make kick-off! Haha! That guy can move!)

It was so fun to be on a kids-free double date and experience a game live! It would have been even better if the Texans had won, but what can ya do!

  I forgot to finish painting my nails red, but at least the one I got was my thumb!

August 29, 2014

Jeff's and my 6th anniversary just happened to fall on a date night, so we got to enjoy dinner and a movie together at Studio Movie Grill. We laughed at ourselves afterward because it seems like we always go out for dinner on our anniversary because it's a special occasion and we almost never go out to eat the rest of the year, but then we remember why we never eat out: it never seems worth the money! Haha! We are cheapskates and the simplest eaters. We'd be just as happy eating sack lunches! It was a fun date, but the real celebration is coming at the end of November when we go for a week long cruise to the Caribbean! We can't wait! I love, love, love this man! He is so incredibly good to me and I still can't believe I landed such a catch! We have so much fun together and I never get tired of having him around! I am one lucky lady!

August 30, 2014

We had some visitors staying with us from late Friday night until Sunday afternoon after church: my cousin, Brooke, and her family drove down from Tyler for a little visit! It was so fun having them! Luke loved having so many kids around to play with! And they were joined for a few hours by Bethany, Becca and Greg on Saturday night while we were babysitting, bringing the grand total to 10 kids!

We all went to Galveston on Saturday morning to play at the beach and ride the ferry. It was a little overcast, but everyone still had a great time! Jade was determined to just crawl right out into the waves! I don't know when she was planning on stopping! We had to grab her before any big waves got her every time! She was one happy, squeal-y girl!

Shawn and Austin were all about playing in the waves! They probably would have stayed out there for hours if we let them!

Shawn and Austin

Blake helping himself to some of Holland's snacks.

Adorable Natalie!

Blake and I on the ferry.

We saw a lot of dolphins in the water! The kids loved spotting them and pointing them out. Jade was content to just snuggle Snowball.

Jade was a little sleepy. She was cracking me up!

I'm already thinking about when we can head back up to Tyler for another visit! It's so fun having this awesome family just a few hours away! I kinda like them. :)