We went to a cookout last night and Fischer had a blast! Here are some pics of him swimming with his friends.

It's hard to see, but above is a picture of someone who could not afford a boat!

Ok, so my aunt Sheree convinced us to go out to this crazy neighborhood and watch fireworks! I know I said this last year, but these people in Nebraska are crazy about their fireworks! I didn't want to go because last year I was so scared, however Franklin really enjoys it and so I went. I was a nervous wreck the entire time...watching 6 teenage boys with brains that haven't fully developed(sorry but it's a fact) light fireworks was more than I could handle. I am not looking forward to the day when Fischer wants to light fireworks! Anyway, here are a few pics from the evening.

Ok, so I am just really curious who visits my site from Reston, Virginia. Reveal yourself! When I check to see who has looked I can pretty much figure out who everyone is..except you!

Root Canals are painful! Floss your teeth!

I have given Fischer several home grown haircuts, but he finally got his first "real" haircut. I can't believe how much older it makes him look!

I started my new job this week and I love it! For those of you who don't know, I am teaching low impact and water fitness on Monday and Tuesday nights to adults and teens who have disabilities. This job is so fun it doesn't even feel like work. Working with people who have disabilities has always been a passion of mine and I am thrilled to be doing it again. They are such sweet people that can teach us such great lessons about life and happiness. As I was assisting an older gentleman out of the pool tonight I said, "You have a great week." He replied by saying, "You have a great week as well, all 10,080 minutes of it." I was curious when I got home if there were actually this many minutes in a week, so I calculated it. He was right! They are such great examples to us about enjoying the small pleasures in life.
I am thankful to God that He has led me to this job!

Here is a picture of Fischer with his 5th cousins!!!

Here's a picture of my grandpa and the cousins

This is the Sewell family tree. It got destroyed in a tornado. In the background is the Oak Grove Church of Christ and the cemetary where all of the relatives are buried.

Fischer fell asleep on the way home from a playdate so I put him in bed when we got home. He's not real great about staying asleep after a short nap in the car. So, after about an hour of listening to him say, "No" and "Mine"(Definitely re-living moments at the playdate) I went in to find him like this:

I don't know why he does this but he loves to be in the dark! He will just sit under a blanket, hide in the dark closet and go into the dark bathroom and shut the door!

Fischer is petrified of snakes! Of course he does have good reason, considering he witnessed his grandpa hesitantly catching a snake in our backyard(It was quite a sight)! We have a slight snake problem in our neighborhood. They are just harmless snakes, however they are black and ugly and seem to be getting bigger and bigger. Last night Fischer was playing in his sandbox when he said to me, "Mama...SSSSSSSS.....SSSSSSSS.....Mama.....SSSSSSSS....SSSSSSSSS." Of course I knew that he was trying to tell me there was a snake in his sandbox. So, I went over and investigated and this is what I found:

A small piece of grass that was curled up like a snake!I have tried hard to teach him the difference between real and pretend, but I just don't think he gets it yet. If I even draw a snake on a piece of paper he will cry and run the other way!

Then Franklin went outside this morning and a BIG snake came out from underneath the deck! He called the neighbor boy over and he caught it. We tell him to take them to the field, but I think they are finding there way back here.

So, if anyone needs a pet snake please come over and get one out of our backyard!!!

Here's a few pictures of Fischer at the farm yesterday with the wee-school class!

WHAT A DAREDEVIL!!!!!!!!

Fischer was EXTREMELY happy to be eating this fudgesicle!

New pics of Fischer

It's amazing how fast Fischer is growing up! He can eat corn on the cob, he can count to six and he can swing a baseball bat like a pro! We are looking forward to the summer...I am training to do a triathalon in July(a mini triathalon), and we will spend many weeks visiting family and friends! Nebraska is so pretty in the spring and summer and it makes the long, cold winter worth it! Fischer has made friends with the neighbor kids and they are always ringing the doorbell to see if he can play! I thought we had at least another year before that happened!

What a nice family pic(minus the bunny ears)..FRED!!

Here are some recent pics from our trip to Florida

I've been tagged by Carrie.

The tag instructions...
1) Grab the book closest to you
2) Open to page 123, go down to the fourth sentence
3) Post the text of the following 3 sentences
4) Name the author and book title
5) Tag three people to do the same

Franklin had to explain what tagging was to me. So, this is what the book says,

"In reading the Gospels of the Bible, I discovered that the personality of Christ was such that people who were pagans, cultists, money-mongers, broken, and diseased felt comfortable in His presence. All this goes back to the idea of the lifeboat and how Jesus, outside that system, wouldn't believe one person was any better than another. Apparently this counterintuitive belief system was obvious in the character of Christ.

Searching for God Knows What
by Donald Miller

I tag: Libby, Emily and John

Well, we just got home from snowy Colorado. I prayed for God to surround our car with angels on Friday morning as we drove through a blizzard for 4 long hours. Praise God that we arrived home safely to see our little guy. I posted some pics of our view from the hotel.

Fischer and his dad went sledding today. We got about 4 inches of snow yesterday. We had to go to Wal-Mart and get a shovel and a sled. Tomorrow we leave for Colorado...I am sad to leave Fischer but I know that we will have a good time when we get there.

Look at those baby blues!!!!!!!!
Obviously Franklin is jealous that I have glasses so he had to get a pair. J/K

Prayer Request

Please pray for my cousin Stacie. She has MS and has discovered that her antibodies are off the charts. This means that the medicine that she has been taking to lessen her MS symptoms is not working. Her doctor from the Mayo Clinic advised her to stop taking the medicine she is currently on. She is only left with three choices: Chemotherapy(which would make her really sick and only mask her symptoms), not taking any medicine(and living with a lot of MS symptoms), or a medicine called Tysabri that is notorious for killing people(it was taken off the market and is now back on). She is young and has a young daughter. Please pray for her, as this is not an easy situation to be in.

Here's a funny story about Stacie. When she was a teenager she decided to wrap a present at Christmas time. She found this really cool paper with Santa on it. So, she cut it up and wrapped the present. When her mom went looking for her Vintage Santa poster, she knew she had accidently wrapped the present with it. I guess it wasn't to funny at the time, but it's REALLY funny now. I know you appreciate me telling a lot of people this story! I could actually start a blog called: Funny things that Stacie did when she was little! We love you and we are praying for you!

O Holy Night

You MUST watch this video!

Here's an oldie but a goodie, taken by Uncle John

Well Fischer was supposed to have tubes put in his ears tomorrow morning but our wonderful insurance has decided that it was a pre-existing condition, and so he will have to wait until next August to have the surgery. Apparently there is a one year waiting period for pre-existing conditions. Insurance companies are so ridiculous. What does it matter if he has the surgery now or in 9 months? Either way they will pay for it...and in the mean time they will be paying for all of the ear infections and other issues that arise from his little problematic ears. I just hope that it does not delay his hearing. I feel like he is hearing OK but the doc won't give him a hearing test. He says its not necessary because he probably only has trouble hearing when there is a lot of background noise. He said a hearing test would not be accurate. I just hope that it is not too late in 9 months...I hope it does not delay his speech. I have to admit however that I am somewhat relieved...I wasn't looking forward to seeing his face as they took him away from me.

Tonight we had our Girls Night In at our house. We had a blast! We made care packages for the seniors that went off to college this past fall! I wish I was in college so I could get a care package like this one! The girls came through with LOTS of stuff to put in the packages. As you can see from the pics we had a fun time! Just thought I'd show a few pics from the night!

OK, so am I the only one who is totally disgusted with the way people are acting to get a PlayStation 3?? I am watching the news and they are telling all these stories of people being SHOT and robbed while standing in line to wait for one. ITS A VIDEO GAME SYSTEM PEOPLE!! Why do the companies make it so only a few people can obtain these? I think they secretly enjoy watching people act like complete idiots. This leads me to believe that most of these people waiting in line are getting a present for their child for Christmas. I recently heard a little presentation on how this lady "simplified Christmas." It was neat to hear how she made Christmas in her house more about Jesus and less about stuff! She decided that if three gifts were good enough for Jesus then it was definitely good enough for her children! She also started decorating with fresh evergreen and fruit to remind her family members of how God provides! I just thought she had really great ideas and I am sad that most people in the world are SO greedy and selfish at Christmas time. Dear Lord, please NEVER allow me to become so greedy that I would stand in line for hours or even days to obtain a worthless item that you promised would rust!

Here is a picture of Fischer in his Chicken Little Costume. I have more that will be coming later. I also attached some pics from Vala's Pumpkin Patch. Notice the very responsible adult sponsor that we had on our trip! She's going to kill me for putting this picture on here but I couldn't resist! This weekend is our big youth rally! We are gearing up for about 190 kids! Alex and Phil are also coming up from Oklahoma so that will be fun!