December 2007

December has been a long month at the Fletcher house, between basketball games, school, 2 birthday parties, 2 family funerals, and 5 Christmas celebrations, we have had little time to share our lives and we apologize. We hope things will slow down a little and we can catch everyone up on the goings on at the Fletcher house. Here is a little taste of our lives:

A special thank you to Aunt Dot for the drum set, which Abram will play all day long and also for the small piano which Katie greatly enjoys.

Too Cool for Words

Abram and Katie love listening to Christmas music. They will dance and sometimes even sing along. It is so much fun to watch. Abram also enjoys getting into costume to sing and Katie thinks this is one of the funniest things she has ever seen.

Goodbye

Sad news today. Grandpa Roy died. It is where I took Abram's middle name. Love you, miss you. Continue to watch over us.

It's late November/early December must be time for basketball

Yep, the high school basketball season is back. Which means long nights in the gym for me and not a lot of quality time with Abram and Katie. Mandi is good about getting to the games when she can, if for nothing else than the small time I have between my JV game and the varsity game. It's a fun 10-15 minutes of chasing the kids around an empty gym.

I swear I'm not changing a diaper on the basketball court, it was a untied shoe.


I seem to have a new assistant coach.


Katie helps me draw up some new plays

Big Excitement

Yes, that's right folks...Abram used the potty 2 times today. We know there are miles to go, but it's a start.

Happy Thanksgiving

We enjoyed two wonderful meals with our families during the Thanksgiving holiday. Everyone ate too much and enjoyed spending time with cousins, running off the extra energy.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Beach Trip 2

Here is the next happenings on the beach trip. While all the people with kids stayed together in a house at the beach. The families without kids stayed at a hotel with a heated pool. One night, we decided the kids needed to take a dip. We also wanted to make sure they slept really good.

Beach Trip 1

Part of the Fletcher family took their first trip to the coast. We went to celebrate Great-Grandma Morgan's 80th birthday. While we were there we took a few minutes to enjoy the surroundings. Enjoy these few pictures, while we work to overcome technical difficulties.

Halloween

Here are the pictures from our many Halloween adventures. We started a few days early with the Morgan side and continued on Halloween with the Fletcher side. Abram really enjoyed the trick-or-treating part of the night. Actually, he figured out he got candy by walking in the door and really enjoyed that. Now every time he goes to a different house, he expects to get candy. Katie just took it all in. She studied everything that went on to get herself ready for next year. Enjoy the pictures.

Quick Halloween Note

Happy Halloween Everyone!
Just a quick note for those of you who check often. We are still here and survived Halloween. All of the Fletchers are/have been sick and are therefore requiring much more cuddle time, therefore we have lots of pictures but none of them are loaded on the computer. We promise they will be up soon. Until then you can build your own mental picture of the kids' Halloween outfits. Katie was a very cute white bunny and Abram was Super Abram. Enjoy the thoughts until pictures come up.

Tent Time

Mommy and Daddy built Abram and Katie an extra play area in the middle of the living room. We threw and old blanket over the Jumperoo and add the small Discovery tent to the front of it. This made for some great times crawling in and out. Abram and Katie had a great time playing Peek-A-Boo through the holes. It was even more fun, when Daddy decided to join in!

Abram and Daddy in the tent.
Katie wants in the tent also, she uses Daddy's nose as a doorbell.

Everybody in that is going in!!!

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

With Halloween almost here, the Fletcher's took a trip to a local pumpkin patch where they let you pick your own pumpkin right off the vine. Mandi's cousins Mark and Maria Rich came for the trip too, bringing their daughter Ashley. It was a fun trip strolling up and down the lanes searching for just the right pumpkin to bring home. Enjoy the (long) show.

Bagels

Katie has discovered the joys of a good bagel. She will sit in the middle of the floor and chew away until there is nothing left but crumbs. As you can see in this first picture.
As soon as Abram sees this pile of crumbs, he decides it is time to clean it up. He squats down to study his task and then runs off for the broom. Doing the best he can with a broom twice as big as he is, he pushes the crumbs all over the floor. He is such a good helper and great big brother.

7 Months Old and Ready to Take On the World

Katie decided that this past month, she was ready to be a big girl. In the past month she has cut a tooth, learned to crawl, learned to pull up on anything, figured out that her brother can do much more than she can, and tried to do everything her brother can do. She is growing by leaps and bounds and eating everything in sight. It is hard to believe that just 7 months ago she was entering the world.

Common Sight

Scenes like this have become very common around the house. Wherever Abram is, Katie must be also. She enjoys getting into whatever Abram is doing, which is ok until Abram decides she is in the way and then he clears her out of the way.

Go ahead, try and date my daughter...

Say what you will, but I have a very distinct feeling I'm going to be one of those dads. The ones that stare down potential suitors as they drive up. The ones that are watching out the upstairs window as they drop them off. I'm roughly 6'4" and 245 lbs, so I won't have to say much I think. In the meantime, I think I'll just keep her close to me, even when we are napping.

Blankets

Abram has discovered the joy of a warm fuzzy blanket. He likes to find a corner, or bucket in this case, and curl up under the blanket. This works great until Katie finds the blanket and decides she wants under it also.

Up She Goes

Katie has decided that crawling isn't good enough anymore. She is moving onto the standing area. She especially likes to do that after naps in her crib.

Guess I asked for it...

This started out as a simple video showing Katie crawling around (one of her newly acquired and rapidly developing skills) and turned into a possible submission for America's Funniest Home Videos. Also the constant babble, yep she's a girl.

Side note, this marks our 100th posting!

We are Big Kids Now

Abram's hair had gotten a little bit too long and we no longer felt comfortable cutting it ourselves. So we made an appointment with Mrs. Doris for Abram to get a big boy haircut. Here he is with the new do:Katie decided she was ready to be a big girl all of a sudden. In the past week, she has started to really crawl, hold her own cup, feed herself small finger food, and just today Grammy found her standing in her crib after a nap. She is going to be walking way too soon.

The girl can eat.

Katie can hold her own when it comes to food. If you notice the green everywhere is avocado, which she enjoys!

I think I'll just go straight to walking

The other day brother Marc came by to hang out and play with the kids. Abram enjoyed this thoroughly. But Katie got some good playtime in also. She has been making the early signs of crawling, even taking several crawl steps at a time. The best way I've been able to put it is that when you put her down and walk out of the room, she won't be in the same place when you come back (this also means she doesn't get put down by herself much anymore). This has all come about in the last week and a half. But even more interesting is what she has decided to do in the last 3-4 days, pull up and try to stand. Here is Marc helping her take a couple of steps. Sorry for poor lighting. And you listen real closely, you might even make out an upset Abram in the background.

Fair Time

The North Carolina Mountain State Fair came to town this week. We took the opportunity to visit all the animals and collect some free stuff. It was a good outing. Abram go to see some of the animals up close and Katie had a blast watching all the people.

Katie and Papaw's First Dance

Our good friend Amy got married last weekend. Papaw and Katie got to hang out while Mommy directed the wedding and Daddy chased Abram. Papaw and Katie got to do a little dancing and so did Landon.

Fletcher Family Fun

Almost bedtime at the Fletcher's. Everyone piles on the bed to hang out and have a little fun before the bedtime routine begins. Daddy decided to pull out the camera this night to catch a shot of the fun.

Six Months Old and Ready to Go

Katie turned 6 months old and it seems as if she can't be held back anymore. She is sitting up like a champ and just this weekend decided it was time to crawl...so she has been up on her hands and knees trying to get the coordination going to make herself move. She does a pretty good job until something doesn't move right and she falls on her face. Mommy and Daddy are just waiting until they have two active toddlers on their hands. They are afraid it will be much sooner than later.

Breakfast in a Box

Just a swingin'....

One of the local parks has a great swing set we took advantage of the other day.

Such a big girl

Katie has figured out how to sit up. She is doing a really good job with it until she gets tired and then falls to one side or the other.