Adam's Birthday

Who needs words for this one other than Awe?

We went up to Cloudcroft in the morning. We ate breakfast and went for a short hike with Gwen. It was a paved pathway, but extremely invigorating and pleasant. I think Gwen likes the outdoors. She's mesmerized with the trees moving in the breeze now. She's not afraid to be high on Adam's shoulders. From what she's shown us so far, it seems as if she won't be very timid regarding that kind of thing.


There's a humming bird hidden in this picture. You might have to enlarge the picture to find it. Just double click on the picture. The bird is in the center.


Gwen has an Elmer Fudd air about her here.


This is the view of Alamogordo and White Sands National Monument below. Cloudcroft is the town we were in. It's 16 miles east of Alamogordo and around 10 degrees cooler in temperature. I loved that! I think we should come up more often.


Sitting on the fence by the flower garden. I had fun dressing Gwen today. She hasn't had the chance to wear many pants yet, since it's so hot now.

I love this one. I'm holding her hands to keep her seated straight, but she doesn't need much assistance anymore. She's growing up so quickly.




She had enough at this point and was ready to take a nap. I think she looks cute when she's crying too though, so here you go. I was going to put her on the railing for the photo, but it didn't get that far.

So, after the mountain excursion we came back to Alamogordo and played with Gwen and such and opened his gifts. We then went on the golf course on base (all three of us) and golfed 9 holes. After all, what else would Adam rather be doing on his b-day. Gwen and I stayed in the cart much of the time to shield her from the sun, but we also were Adam's caddies. Sorry there aren't any pictures.

Then I made a new dish for dinner. Adam loves sushi, but the closest I dared was tangerine peel beef. It had a citrus flare with some soy sauce, sugar, garlic, red chiles, dry sherry, onion and orange flavor in the sauce. Then the beef the recipe called for was flank steak which was wonderful. The noodles were purchased from an oriental store in town.

The ice cream cake was from Baskin Robbins. We had never had "cake" from there before. I personally think Dairy Queen's is better. Adam liked it though, and that's what mattered. The joke we have running is that he's going to stay 23 years old....at heart, so I put "Happy 24th" on the cake. It got a good laugh.

Wedding Hair Styles

This is "Bridal Star Hairstyles" magazine. Morgan and Jason's friend, Leslie Snyder, had worked on the hairstyles and makeup of the women in our wedding. Now it's almost 3 years since we were wed, and my front and back (below the front picture) photos are in this magazine. Some have already seen this and are aware of it, but if not I thought I'd share this fun.

Yesterday morning Gwen was wiggling in Adam's arms while we had some coffee and pancakes. He let her stand on the floor, and it turned out all she wanted was the plate. She is very interested in what we are eating and drinking. We think she is gearing up to eat solids. They say to wait until they can sit up unassisted. She isn't quite there yet. She can sit up if we hold onto her hands though.
This one was great in my opinion! She was watching ESPN with Adam and HAD to put her mouth (and of course slobber) on Adam's coffee mug. We laughed when we thought she was spitting in it. Ick!
She's talking to Mike & Mike in the morning on ESPN. We try not to sit her in front of the TV too much, but when she does she often talks to the people on the screen.

This is from today. It's her Middle Eastern "look". ha ha There's a slight grin on that cute face. ;)

How We Spent This Last Week

Gwen is always happy to fly through the air on my legs. No matter what kind of mood she's in she loves it.


This shot shows you her hair in back. She's rubbed a lot of it off in bed and in the car seat.


Kaden is five months older than Gwen. He and his Mom, Anne Marie went shopping with us in Las Cruces last Tuesday. We went all kinds of places: Target, Barnes & Noble, Sears Portrait Studio, Jiffy Lube (car maintenance), Chik-Fil-A for lunch and Bed Bath & Beyond. We were there all day once we slipped in the time it takes to feed, change and play with the kiddos too. It was nice to get out of town with a friend while Adam was in L.A.


Also, one of the Mothers in the play group visited our house for an hour. Chance is only one week older than Gwen.....quite a bit of size difference. It was so nice of her to come over. I was working on some presentation boards for Ricca Newmark Design this last week, so I was pretty busy with that. I could only afford an hour break to give Gwen a chance to play with another baby that day.
Friday Adam came home, and we went to the driving range on base. I like to title this picture "Gwen's first golf lesson from Daddy". He has a new club for his birthday he wanted to try out before he went golfing the next day in Las Cruces at New Mexico State University. I guess the course is pretty nice. It rained though, so they were given a rain-check for nine holes. That was nice.

So, yes, the presentation boards were a blessing to work on. I enjoy it, and it occupied 20 hours from Wednesday to today(Sunday). It is so nice to leisurely work in between taking care of Gwen and eating meals and such. Once Gwen went to sleep I put most of the time in. Otherwise, it's 10 minutes here....a half hour there.

I had an old classmate at CSU get in touch regarding a designer position opening where she works. She didn't know I was in NM, and emailed me. It was nice to know she remembered my dedication and hard work in school and was searching me out. Anyway, it was for another hospitality firm in Denver....downtown Denver. They work on club houses and hotels. It was nice to catch up and see who she's keeping in touch with from school. Networking....you never know when it will pop up.

Well, Adam's not having to leave again until the end of August, so we'll have some good time together. It will be really nice for Gwen and him to have some bonding time. We might all be going up to Colorado again that last week in August, because a friend is getting married in Silverthorn, CO....up in the mountains. We'll see. We haven't figured it out yet.

The weather is hot here still. I think we are almost over the hottest part of the year. That will be so nice. The electric bill was $40 more this month due to air cooling. We don't keep it any lower than 74 and now we're going to try 78 during the day and 76 at night. That might help out the steep cost. I know it's hot nation wide mostly, so to that I say stay cool.

Beady Bear and Me

A blog entry by Gwen:

Grandma and Grandpa Fisher have given me a teady bear whose name is Beady Bear. We read together every day. He's my reading buddy always before bed and hopefully during the daytime too. I am getting familiar with him by chewing on him, touching his soft hair, and simply holding onto him. We're about the same size. I'll out grow him soon though. Please look on to see Beady Bear and me enjoying our time together.

"I'm pleased to introduce you to Beady Bear."


"I'm going to tell you a secret, and you can't share it anyone."


"I want to give you a kiss too."

"Alright, let's get down to business and read a book already. This one looks good. It tells us what makes a rainbow. It's from cousin Merrick, and it's one of my favorites."

Calling All Nursing Mothers

Today Gwen and I went to the Alamogordo zoo. It is only $2.20 to enter and it's so nice to expose her to the sounds and sights. We walked around with friends looking at the animals and then we played on the blanket too.

Also, I want to share some breast feeding information. A couple of nursing mothers in town are drinking a tea called "Mothers Milk" to increase their milk production. One of them is doing it because she wants to stock up her freezer for the future use of mixing it with baby cereal. Other women are simply not producing as much as they wish to. I am interested in it too, so I went to the Nature's Pantry store in town. They don't have the tea, but they do have Fenugreek which they recommended.

Before I purchase it, I wanted to research a little more. It works well, but you only use it for 5-7 days. Then, once your body is use to producing an increased amount, you don't have to take it anymore. In fact if you do take it past that point, you may subject your baby to colic, an upset stomach or diarreah. Here's a link that gets into more depth:http://www.breastfeeding.com/reading_room/herbs.html.

I also called the lactation consultant at the hospital where we had Gwen. She confirmed that it is a safe product and gave me the advice to also "power pump" on the side that is not producing much for me. That is using your pump for an hour the same time every day for a while (I suppose until you notice a difference) 10 minutes on and 10 minutes off for an hour. That stimulates it to get you "flowing" like the other side. Well, I thought some mothers that are nursing and read this blog might appreciate the info.

Gwen and I also took some pictures when we were sitting out front of our house......

Play Date and Exersaucer Toy

This last week when Adam was out of town for business we spent quite a bit of time with our friends Anne Marie and Kaden. Kaden is now nine and a half months old, and Gwen is four and a quarter months old. They helped the time go by with conversation and activity. Gwen is getting the chance to use some of Kaden's toys that he has out grown and no longer uses like the exersaucer. It rotates 360 degrees and allows her use her legs, work on balance and hand-eye coordination too. It's great!




This is how Gwen's legs are working in the exersaucer. She can put weight on them and move around. I think it's great!

Four Months Old

Today we went to Gwen's 4th month well baby check up. She is measuring 25-1/2" and 15lbs 7ozs. She had vaccinations today too. She hardly cried. Adam was holding her though after it was done, and that had to comfort her. The doctor told us to start her on solid food now, but we are going to start with rice cereal at six months instead. Needless to say, the doctor didn't really rub us the right way, so we are going to try to get a different one we've seen reassigned to us hopefully. Gwen is doing well. We are getting into the routine of giving her a baby spoon at dinner time when we are eating, so that she's included and gets the idea. She gets pretty excited to see that spoon coming. Here are some pictures of it from tonight. Adam's in Colorado Springs again from today through Saturday night, so Gwen and I are "bacheloretting" it. ha ha

She grabs my hands when I bring the spoon close. I think she'll be ready to eat from it soon.

She was looking at the camera here.

Because of our lack of photo editing programs, this picture is staying like this. Gwen is looking at my face while I have the camera off to the side to catch the moment.


Last week Gwen and I went to the swimming pool together. Here's her in swim diapers looking at the water toy that lights up and plays music. Very popular with her. ;)


I'll try to get pictures up these next two days, so stay tuned.

Playgroup and I Found My Toes

We're back in the swing of things and updating the blog better. he he he

Today we met up with the play group. Matt turned one in June, Lauren on the far right is going to be one in August and Hayden on the top is one day older than Gwen. Hayden was dressed cute as ever in her patriotic out fit. It was a fun morning with them. The one year olds are walking around (kind of) and really active, so it's nice that Gwen can learn from them.




Lauren is sharing her Bumbo chair with Gwen. I wanted to get one for her, but she already seems to be a little big for it. I can't decide now after trying this one out. We hold her often in a way so that she sits up on her own, so that might be enough. It is a nice invention though.

After seeing other toys that kids have, it makes me think I don't buy enough for Gwen. I feel like there's a fine line between getting enough for them to be stimulated and learn and not over doing it. We haven't really purchased much for her, but now I think we may need to start making more of an effort.

I'm a big girl now!

Gwen is as happy as a clam when she wakes up most mornings. When I come to get her, she usually smiles like this when I talk to her. I love hearing her talk while she's playing with the mirrored toy. Now her feet have become entertaining. She grabs them quite often lately.


Here's a shot of Gwen from this morning in her crib. She'll be four months old in a couple of days. Crazy! The CSU Rams mobile is entertaining to her too.

Mmmmm! Feeeeet!


My hands taste good too still!