Some things never change

Sunday morning Chris was wanting to go do something for the day we had discussed going to the river or just a park here in town and were not totally sure what we would be doing today. Soon after that our friend Stephanie called and wanted to do something today. This was a perfect opportunity for me to bring that river idea up again and soon after we all started to pack up for a picnic at Roaring River. Stephanie and her kids had never been before, and I am always up for going there.
The only thing that Chris really did not want to do is go on the Deer Leap that I always like to take the kids on but that was okay with me. It is pretty understandable that she would not want to hike all that way uphill since she is only two weeks away from her due date. We could hike up there to the top then after the long hike we will all be hot and ready to go down to the swimming area for a little dip in the water. That water there is always so cold that I was sure this would feel great.

Logan loved the river he sat down in a rather shallow part and picked up rocks and threw them. He did this for like 40 min until I realized that he was still having fun but his bottom lip was shivering because he was so cold. It was a hot day but any of you that have been there realize that no matter how hot a day it is the water is always very cold. Micha went snail catching with Josiah after they got done they counted them all and I know that there were more than 100 of them in their cup. The snail it a great creature for Micha to catch because there is no threat of it hurting.

The thing that I enjoy most about living in Joplin still even after all these years is that I am able to share those things with my children that I grew up with. We can take the same trips and go to the same places. Then I get to see what it is like to enjoy these events from a different perspective.

M...I...C...H...A

I was so proud of Miss. Micha and I wanted to share it with you all. Micha made this on the fridge this morning all by herself. I heard her singing M I C H A (to the tune of M O U S E from Mickey Mouse club) over and over but did not realise what she was doing at the time. Pretty cool hu?

The last few weeks.......

We went to the doctor yesterday, fingers crossed that I may be almost ready. But, For some reason my body likes to keep my babies. I really want to know what its like to go into labor. But, maybe its better that I don't know. So, we'll let the doctors do their magic again.
Actually, I still have 2 weeks so really anything could happen. The doc says my stomach is 2 weeks smaller than it should be. He showed no concern about this, I asked him if that meant that I could go longer and he said not necessarily.
He Said "We'll wait one more week and if yoiur still not ready we'll do another sonogram" Another sonogram kind've makes me nervous because I want to know what we are having soooooooo bad! I have waited too long to find out 1 week before. I so hope I have the patience to tell him we didn' want to know the sex.
Anyway, just an update on our new arrival. The last few weeks are soooo long!!

Well actually..........

We really only need a middle name that goes with the name Caden. I had thought we could name the baby Caden wether it was a boy or girl, Cady or Cade for short.
But, we originally thought of Olivia and it has stuck with us, so Olivia it is. If its a boy his name will be Caden, we just can't think of a good middle name for it.

Any thoughts?????????
(I don't think I was supposed to tell the names?? Hey, In my defense the sex will still be a surprise)


-Chris

So you wanna be a rock superstar

For those of you that do not listen to Cypress Hill that is the title of a song, but for this conversation it could also be called....."What is in a name?" So it is time to name this child that you all will call your neice/nephew so I am looking for your opinion. Christine and I (well at least this part of we [refer to mom's comments on earlier Blogs]) are totally set on a girls name and the boys name is set as well but the name is never set until the day of birth (Logan was going to be Tanner until an email that I sent to the family one night) so I am wanting to know what you all think about a name. The rock superstar refrence was for Trace becasue she is (I think) as much of a beliver in names as I am as the the success of a person in life.

What if Jon Bon Jovi would have been named Philbert Ratcliff would I be listening to 'Ratcliff' right now? One can only sing so great and there are a lot of others that can sing just as great that do not make it? So help me make my child a huge success with his/her name. Who knows we might use one of them.

Days like this should never end

As Christine and I sat on the couch this evening I was reminded of how great our life is right now. The kids were playing outside and every once in a while one of us would have to get up and find out why *fill in the blank* was crying now, or one of the kids would run inside laughing.

This is when I realized how blessed that we are. Both of our kids are great kids, perfectly healthy as well as love their family and friends a lot. We get to eat dinner as a family nightly, and even more than that we get to eat dinner nightly. We have so much materialistic and we still have each other. It has been a lot of fun watching Micha and Logan grow as brother and sister and have the realationship that they are developing.

As the sun started to set the fun had to end but we will have a lot more fun in all the days to come, and more people (the new addition) to have fun with. It is hard to believe that it will get better than this but I know that it will, and that is why I am not sad when "days like this" actually come to an end.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!

I know that at least 80% of the people that visit this Blog are Mothers (Chris, Trace, Jae, and last but not least Mom!) so I wanted to take just a second to wish you a Happy Mothers Day Micha style.


The Fletcher Five wish all of you a Happy Mother's Day

So what is up with the ET Pic?

I would like to have some great story as to why this has a great significance with "The Fletcher Five" but that story I do not have, I only have this story so here goes. The skin serves 2 fold....

One of my favorite movies of all time was ET and there is not a real good reason for that. Maybe it was becasue I remember watching it in the movie theater with Che or maybe it was becasue I have memories of watching it at the drive-in in that light blue Zepher station wagon that we used to cruise around in. Maybe it is beacue I thought that the movie was cooler than it actually was.

I remember one year for Christmas writing a note to Santa Clause on Christmas Eve that I wanted a toy that looked just like the silouet in the picture (an Elliot with ET in the basket) and Trace told me...."You can not ask Santa for something when he is here becasue he already had his bag packed" I was sure that she had no idea what she was talking about because Santa was magic. Sure enough the next morning there was not that toy in my stocking and as excited as I was for Christmas, this Christmas was not complete. For some reason I am thinking that this was the year that I also found out (On Christmas Day) that there was no Santa. I am sure that my Big sister told me something to the effect of........."See I told you that you would not get it in fact there is no such thing as Santa anyway it is just Dad and Mom." (It is no wonder why I am so concerned with emotionally scaring MY children now). Now I am not sure if any of that happened or not but I like to remember it that way so that I can now hold it over Tracy's head. Now the Disclaimer to Ken: I know that the movie is sub standard but for some reason I have an emotional attachment to that movie. (Blame Trace and her "big-sister-taunting" for me liking the movie)

The second reason for the skin of ET is that:
Christine started the Blog, she was trying to get me to post on it and I would not. I told her that this was her thing and that she did not want me to help. Every night that she would go to it I would look at the format and look at the skin and think...Geesh I would put this pic here or I would not use that color... It took everything that I had to not change it around. Last Monday she wanted me to post the Zoo pictures and so when she came home I smiled and told her that I did not want to take over her blog but I did and I picked a new skin that had emotional attachment as well as started to post thing on it and then what was hers became mine.

See this is what I did not want to do is take over her space but I guess that last sentence sums up marriage....."and then what was hers became mine" So many times though what is Hers is mine and what is mine is mine. That is what is not fair and I wanted her to have something that was hers........But not on the computer I could not stand it.

I know that this is our place and our story as the Fletcher Five and I am lucky to have her a part of that.

Best shirt that I saw (but I was not at the mission)

I actually saw this shirt on a web site today and I liked it so much that I think that I might order it. Then I saw the shirt that Trace had on her blog so I thought that I might share my cool shirt that I am going to order as well.

PICTURES OF THE BABY!!!!!!!!!

Well since Ken and Lynette posted a picture of their little one on their Blog then I had to keep up with the neighbors. So since I did not have a picture of the baby itself I just took a picture of Christine's belly, I promise that there is a baby in there somewhere.
It is almost time for the newest addition to the Fletcher family so that we can be officially the Fletcher Five here in Joplin. The days leading up to is will be eventful as there is still a lot to get ready and just about 4 weeks to get it done in. Can you believe it that there are only 4 weeks left?




I guess that with the other two kids we never had to go through the real surprise of delivery. Both of them were induced so we could plan our whole weekend around going to the hospital which was nice, but in turn I guess that I just expect this one to be that way as well. Maybe we should get a little ready and get a bag packed or something, I guess in the same thought...We live in Joplin and I could get home and back with the things that she would need in like 15 min at the most.


Micha is pretty excited about the baby right now but I am pretty sure that Logan is going to have a big problem with not having all the attention of being the baby and he is still so young that he will not be able to understand as well as Micha was able to when Logan was born. The great thing about it all is that he is only a year old so the thing that we do to ruin his life right now he will not carry a memory of it through his life so now is the time to emotionally scar him with another sibling.

Just a side note........Did you know that the word "blog" is not in the spell check for use with the blog? Kind of think they would have included that word into their dictionary.

Today we took a trip.........

Today we took a little trip to Springfield.
Once Mike told Micha we were going on a trip she went into her room and filled 3 wal-mart bags with stuff she wanted to bring. Mike talked her down to 1 bag by the time we left.
Once we arrived to Exotic Animal Paradise, Micha realized we were going to actually touch big animals. She was not impressed. We really thought she would love it. It is a drive thru zoo that is about 5 miles long. Nothing special just a bunch of lamas and ostriches running around pecking at your car. Logan got in the front with daddy and fed the animals while Micha refused to move out of her seat or roll her window down. She kept saying, we should pick another trip.
Although she was scared she was so brave the whole time, she laughed just as hard as we did when the animals tried to eat everything in our car!
Actually, I would say Mike and I had more fun than both of the kids. We haven't laughed that hard in a long time.
On the way home we were stopped for an hour and a half because of a wreck so the wal-mart bag did come in handy. It was very interesting to see the people out of their cars wandering up and down I-44, some walking their dogs, some relieving themselves on the side of the road. Micha actaully spotted the guy relieving himself, she was so embarrassed. ( some people amaze me)
We had such a good time together today, we were reminded of how different our kids are and how much we love everything about the both of them, and each other.
We are so busy all of the time that we don't often do these silly little things, though we realize now how important those silly little things are!

Random Pics

I was just about to send Jae some pics tonight and noticed that Ken and Lynette have a blog now.

So we thought, hey lets do one too!