Yeah, I finally did it. I have been trying to get a picture of Caden smiling for days. After bathtime is the most smily time for him. (I wish he was the same during bathtime)

His colic is so much better. It did get worse before it got better though. There were days that he would cry for like 5 or 6 hours. I just felt helpless, I couldn't figure out whether he was hurting or if he was hungry because there was no apparent reason. The doctor put him on nutramigen which is a hypoallergenic formula. (I so should have breastfed, I wonder if it could have prevented some of this) After that it just got worse, our poor babysitter I couldn't imagine having 3 one year olds and a crying baby.

She was a trooper though. It hasn't completely gone away but the doctor prescribed him some zantac and he is so much happier now! We have also learned that if we keep him calm he does good, once he gets restless he has a hard time calming down. So.................him and I do a ton of talking, it seems to keep him calm.

Today is good though, I get to spend most of the day with the kids, I work at night tonight. I work 5pm to about 1am but its worth it because on a normal work day I would see the kids for like 2 hours. (We get home around 5:30 or 6 and the kids are in bed at 8)

Anyway, we haven't posted in a while. Just thought I would touch base with whoever wants to read this.

We can't wait to meet Sophie!!!!!!!

The Future of Nascar

I remember when Micha was about 6 months old we somewhat puched Dora on her and right around her first birthday I remember telling Christine, " You can make a child like something based on how much (one) presents it to them." I am not sure that Micha loves Dora beasue Dora is cool and she likes her or that I made her love Dora. As for Bob the Builder she found him on her own so I know that I had nothing to do with her love for Bob the Builder. I think that passion is based on time. Another story she can realise that it is Sunday and I only know this becasue Bob the Builder is ONLY on Sunday morning. Every Sunday after she wakes up she askes to watch Bob the Builder without even telling her that it is on or that it is Sunday. This should not surprise me though.... When I was younger I can remember Sandy (our family dog) getting really excited when Dad came home on Wednesday night (more than normal) and it was because Dad took him on a walk on Wednesday night.

So my thoughts are tonight if I push Nascar on Logan right now could he be the next big star? Or will he despise me for making him race when he was a child (not stockcars but gocarts) and not want to race at all when he is older. This is not at all about NASCAR in fact I am totally fine with whatever he wants to do and Christine and I do not want to push him into anything that he does nto want to do, or we are nto trying to raise a child star to carry us through retirement either. We are very happy making just enough money to pay the bills and sleep at night. My real thoughts are just about how great will I raise my kids. In 20 years where will they be? I would love if they still lived with me assuming that they were not still waking up at 2:00 AM crying about a bad dream or they were hungry.

What will Micha be?
What will Logan be?
What will Caden be?

You tell me?

Babies, Babies, Babies!!!!

Ohh My.... if Logan's face was not dirty and if Caden was smiling this would have been the best picture EVER. However we live in the real world and I cannot belive that all kids could be clean or that all kids could smile at the same time.

Tonight Christine went back to working nights. It has been a long time since she worked a night at McDonalds so I would like to say that I am looking foward to seeing her come home tonight, but since we close the store at 12:00 am I am thinking that I will be fast asleep by that time.

The kids and I had a great night however, Micha was such a help with getting all the laundry done as well as she plaied a huge part in taking care of Logan while they were playing outside. So for that I thank you Miss Micha.

I am sorry that we have not posed lately but with Grandpa funeral and all the company here it was a little hetic here this weekend. I will do better this next weekend.

I am planning on going to see Grandma this weekend so I will try to send a pic of her as well on the blog.

Happy 4th Of July!!!

So Christine and I decided that we were not going to the BIG 4th of July celebration at the park in Joplin this year since we had to work the next day and we wanted the kids to be able to go to bed but as new(er) parents we did not realise some things that I think I will try to remember....

Starting last night (because we did our own fireworks on Saturday and Sunday) we realised that it really does not matter if we do not do the fireworks becasue every neighbor around us will be doing them so the kids will be up with booms, ohhs, and aww ha ha's until at least 10:30. Last night Logan was up until well after 11:00 PM watching the fireworks out the bedroom window and loving them. Then tonight we were not going to the city fireworks since we did not want to keep the kids up too late, but after last night we realised that the kids could not actually go to sleep when all the booms and bangs were going on. We still did not goto the city fireworks but we did let the kids watch the neighbors out of the back yard. It is so much fun to see the smiles and excitement in their faces and this only comes one time a year. SO my realization was that next year the 4th will fall on another work day but I think that I want to plan on taking the kids to see it becasue obviousally they are not going to sleep anyway so we might as well have fun.

I hope that you all had a great 4th of July, it was a great four day celebration here. I think that some how or another The Fletcher Five took advantage of each day in some way as a holiday. We had a great time as a family and we are excited for more family to join us in the upcoming holiday months!!

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COUSINS

Gage Abby

Here are some pics of the cookout we had tonight. Every year we all gather at my mom's for fireworks and stuff. The kids had a ton of fun playing with cousins. Between us, my 2 sisters and my brother there are 9 kids. One 7 year old, two 3 year olds,
three 1 year olds, and three babies.
I am pretty sure all but 2 kids were scared of fireworks. Micha spent a lot of time watching from in the house. Logan was okay with them but he didn't really know what to think.
We had a great evening.