At Home in the Mountains

HEALTHY BABY! and most likely a girl. We had our 20 week sonogram today. We were both quite nervous as this was the time last pregnancy that we were hit with the crushing news that Maddy was not developing normally. We couldn't help but have some flashbacks to that day going into this sonogram. My OB sent us to a fetal maternal specialist for the 20 week sonogram. The tech did a great job putting us at ease and showing us everything on the sonogram. She could not determine gender for sure but thought because of the hip measurements that it might be a boy. She left the room convinced it was a boy. Then the doctor came in and did some more looking and she declared baby Fletcher to be a girl. So we are going with girl for now, but don't go crazy on the pink just yet. Baby Fletcher was not being cooperative so the doctor really did not get a definitive enough look to be 100% sure of gender. She just said that she did not see anything to indicate it was boy so she declared the gende...

 Summer flew by too fast. Monday is back to school seems excited about her new school this year. Hopefully she can keep that "school is fun and exciting feeling" and not get the "back to prison" feeling that I get this time of year. Here are some picks of the highlights of our summer. We went to Colorado over 4th of July weekend and stayed two weeks. We celebrated the 4th in Colorado Springs. Maddy had fun playing with her cousins and making s'mores. We got the girls glo stick since we couldn't have any type of fireworks. They had a lot of fun with those, including using them to sword fight.  Concert on the lawn by Granna. Looks like it was good.  We went to the Garden of the Gods trading post for lunch with my parents. That's always a very relaxing and enjoyable activity. Grandad bought Maddy a bucket of rocks to put through the sluice they have there.  We did lots of hiking. We got rained on one day and ended up looking like drowne...

So I never thought I'd go to the giant Spa Castle just down the road from our house. Apparently this is the largest Asian spa outside of New York. However, my bro-in-law, Brad, decided that Cindy and I needed some relaxation and a break from scrapping children so he set up a spa day for us and sent us off yesterday morning to enjoy ourselves. Going to the spa isn't an activity I'd ever choose for myself and probably would not have enjoyed if I'd gone alone. But it was interesting to see inside this monstrosity and we did enjoy ourselves. The behemoth We got there about an hour before our massage appointments so we could hang out in the pool and look around. We had to leave our shoes in a locker and then go pick up a "uniform" that we were supposed to wear everywhere except the pool The pools were all very nice and it was fairly deserted on a Tuesday morning so we didn't have to worry too much about looking like the awkward people who had no i...

Wow! I have so much posting to catch up on. We had a great vacation in Colorado, visiting family, a fun day exploring Capulin National Monument on our way home, and we've had a great, though tiring, week of VBS this week. Today I'm just writing a quick post because I wanted to remember some of the cute, funny ways that Maddy has been expressing her understanding about concepts I've been trying to teach her about Jesus and about prayer. Lately we've been talking a lot with Maddy about how Jesus is the one who helps us be kind and unselfish to other people. People who don't have Jesus in their heart (like the "mean king" (pharaoh) or the witch in "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe") are selfish because they don't have Jesus to help them so they only think about what they want and not what other people want. Anyhow, we've had lots of talks about this idea on car rides, etc. Well, the other morning, Maddy wanted to listen to her Frog ...

Aaron will send out an AFletcher update soon.

 We finally bought another fish tank. We'd promised Maddy she could have the money from selling the old fish tank. that got sort of wreck in the fire. to buy a new fish tank. We finally got around to doing it this past weekend. Maddy picked out all the decorations and the fish (a purplish pinkish looking beta). She got a little over enthusiastic about taking care of him. While we were getting the tank set up she decided to pour the water in his plastic bowl out into the tank and then dump an entire bottle of beta food on top of him. In my haste to get the fish into some water, I didn't notice the beta food until it was too late. Thus the brown, cloudy water in the brand new tank. We changed it once and it's looking better but I thin we'll have to change it again. Lately, Maddy has been into telling stories. Her story from yesterday: "One time when I was a baby we were outside in the snow. A snow monster came. I was holding a puppy that was Abbey and we ran i...

 I told Maddy that Bethany was coming to visit her about a week before the Halls were coming. I knew I would hear about it non-stop, but part of the fun of someone coming to see you is the anticipation. Maddy immediately started making all kinds of plans for Bethany's visit. She got a piece of paper and had me write out her list. One day I had to trim the oregano because it was trying to seed out. Maddy decided that we should save it and make oregano ice cream when Bethany came. Not one of her best ideas. They didn't get everything done that was on Maddy's list, but they accomplished an amazing amount of activity in a very short time.  One of the things on Maddy's list to do with Bethany was "make". This is what she calls cooking.  Maddy really liked spending time with baby Jude. She mostly wanted to cover him up with a blanket. Not sure he was a fan.  One day the girls got to play in the water. They had fun but I think Bethany was a little cold. ...