It's going to be a better year...

Belated Merry Christmas and early Happy New Year. Just a quick recap of our holidays. We spent Christmas Eve with Sarah's family, opening presents over there. Christmas day was spent as simple as could be at home with our little family, with Tony's parents and most of my family coming over to watch the kids open the rest of their presents in the morning, and the rest of the day all to ourselves. Payton loved all his gifts (except the clothes...), Savannah insists on taking all her babies, new and old, everywhere she goes, and Ben....well, Ben loves to play with everyones toys. Tony surprised me big time with a Tiffany's bracelet. I didn't notice till the next night while I was at work that the charm had pink (my favorite!) writing on it. Not only was it from Tiffany & Co., but he put more thought into it looking for one with pink on it! In other news, I got a new job (second one....the hospital is so slow this winter, and bound to be worse in the summer) at a long term care facility for mentally retarded/ physically callenged peds. Lots and lots of trachs! But, they seem to really care about the patients there rather than just going through the motions day after day like at the hospital. I start there January 12. I'm excited.

One happy Payton Christmas morning

Ben playing with his little car thing...he loves steering wheels!

Coming down the stairs to see what Santa brought

Presents! How cool!

Christmas was a pretty special one for The Fisher family. It was the first time in maybe 4 years that we have all been home. 7 grandkids and 12 adults make for a lot of noise at Fudruckers, celebrating Matt's birthday.

Jonny also surprised most of the family (Danny/Julie, and Tony and I knew) with a trip home. His army people weren't going to let anyone go on leave for the holidays, but he somehow managed to get them to let him.

Surprised mom! How sweet!

A little bit Kosta, a little bit Fisher

We've had a fun weekend spending time with both Tony and I's family. Saturday we spent time at the playground with Tony's family. The kids had lots of fun playing together, and of course, everything the big kids did, Ben wanted to do too. Like, the monkey bars, the little rock climbing thing, and climbing the fence.

Sunday we went over to my sister's house for dinner. My brother and sister in law are in town for Christmas, so they got to meet Ben, plus my other sister's new baby, and i think maybe even the one before her. It was good to see them again, even if it reminds what a retard my brother Danny is. =p Love ya bro.

Nick names

My sister in law posted nicknames for their kids and wanted to know everyone else's, so here's ours....


Payton: Bubba, Buddy.....and Little Dude. That's about it for him.

Savannah: Princess, Savannah Banana, Savannah Pants, Nana, Pumpkin...I can't think of anything else we call her...to her face. lol.


Benjamin: Ben, BenBen, Benny Boo, Boo, Booboo, Sweet Boy, Dum dum (Savannah's version of BenBen...it's funny) Handsome/Boy. There might be a few others that occasionally come out, bu these are the ones we always call him.


What are your kids nicknames??

Christmas Cheer

Mrs.Claus come to Fiesta Mall every night now till Christmas and reads a quick story to the kids, and then it "snows". They dance around and have fun. Soooo, since Mrs.Claus is the wife of one of my co workers, we decided to go this year. The kids had fun. It was maybe 20 minutes or something like that, so not a huge time commitment. It's something fun, festive, and best of all free, to do for the night. Starts at 7, take your little ones!

Yet another trip to the "park", which this one is really the school playground. It's totally fenced in so Anke can just run around and play with the kids without having to worry about her running into the street at the wrong time. Someday we will take our other puppy too. =] They're both about 8 months old now, feels like it's taking forever for them to grow up!

Well, it's been a rough last half of the year. We've gotten a real tree every year for the past 5 or 6 years, and this year we really just can't afford one, and certainly can't afford a decent fake tree either. So, here we were, trying to figure out what we were going to do for a tree, when Tony's parents show up...with a tree...their tree! After the initial shock of what they've done (sacrified their own tree so we could have one) and feeling bad that they now don't have a tree, I am so grateful that I have such an awesome family, by blood and marriage. I don't know how we'll ever make up for it, but we'll find a way =] So Grandma and Grandpa Kosta helped us put it together and decorate it with the kids.

We love parks

For as much as I hate the desert (and most of this state), I must admit, I do love staring at the mountains every time I drive home. Sure beats skyskrapers and smog!

Savannah, Ben, Anke the dog, and I went to the park today. Shhhh, don't tell Payton! For being such a wild beast at home, Anke is rather well behaved out in public. For the most part she can be allowed to run around with the kids, off the leash. To my surprise, Red Rock Park (by Red Mountain Ranch) is gated in now! How great! Anke LOVES playing on the slides with the kids, it's hilarious. She really needs to be in some sort of agility thing. Anyway, we had a fun afternoon. Nothing more to report at the moment, we're boring.

yummy pie recipes

So I've been practicing my pie making for the holiday's (I'm dumb, I know) and found a couple EXCELLENT fruit pies that everyone at my work loved. Especially the cherry. Just a note, instead of a regular pie crust I use a sugar cookie crust. I'll put the recipe up as well. Very good.

SUGAR COOKIE CRUST-makes a single crust. Also I double the egg and always end up adding some water. FYI.

1/2 egg
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 9 inch pie pan.
In a small bowl, mix egg and sugar together. In a separate bowl, combine salt and flour. Cut in butter. Stir in egg mixture, then knead dough into a smooth ball. Keep refrigerated for 15 minutes.
Roll dough to 1/8 of an inch thickness and place it in pie pan; prick edges with a fork.
Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Use with favorite pie recipe





APPLE PIE- for a little extra pazzaz, add some cinnamon, to the apples, not the sauce. Good without it though!


1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work of crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.



CHERRY PIE- I used canned tart and pitted cherried in water. Supposedly Albertson's has cherries so if they do, I am going to try it with FRESH cherries. Good with the canned though.

2 cups pitted sour cherries
1 1/4 cups white sugar
10 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon almond extract



Place the cherries, sugar, and cornstarch in a medium size non-aluminum saucepan. Allow the mixture to stand for 10 minutes, or until the cherries are moistened with the sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Lower the heat; simmer for 1 minute, or until the juices thicken and become translucent. Remove pan from heat, and stir in butter and almond extract. Pour the filling into the pie shell. Cover with top crust.
Bake in a preheated 375 degree F (190 degree C) oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.



and last but not least, PEANUT BUTTER PIE---I used a regular chocoalte graham cracker crust last time, but I personally think the oreo crust would be great with it.

1 1/4 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup heavy whipping cream


Combine 1 1/4 cup cookie crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/4 cup butter or margarine; press into a 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 10 minutes. Cool.
In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar, butter, and vanilla until smooth. Whip the cream, and fold into the peanut butter mixture.
Gently spoon filing into crust. Garnish pie with chocolate or cookie crumbs if desired. Refrigerate

How long?

So call me crazy....go ahead, just say it. I know. I want another macaw. I want a greenwing (Beautiful I tell ya!) and so very gentle and cuddly. We even found the perfect one. Unfortunately it'll be weaned and ready to go before we can come up with all the money, and I'm sure someone else will come fall in love with it. Oh well, I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. While we were there Payton made some new friends. These people breed all kinds of parrots, and they're all very sweet (major reason I rather pay a little more money and get from a breeder like that than a nippy not well socialized bird from a store....) Anyway, they had some little mini macaws, and a yellow collared macaw. The ones in the picture are the mini's. So cute. Just a little too small for me, hahaha! Payton absolutely loved the yellow collar apparently. I wouldn't know as I was stuck outside trying to entertain Ben so he would stop crying. So maybe when he turns 8 we'll get him his very own. Maybe sooner...haha. Anyway, we took the kids to the Railroad Park in Scottsdale after that, and they had fun watching the toy train and the big one that they can ride around the park. Ben's fvorite activity was walking in opposite direction that he was supposed to, and throwing sand all over himself.

Are you kidding me?

Ok first of all, let me just express my deep sadness over the results of yesterdays election. Not that it was a surprise, but still a great disappointment that the majority of American citizens choose such evil to run our country. All I can say is make sure you work on food storage and do everything we're supposed to do. Anywho, that was my little tangent. In other news, Payton cut all of Savannah's hair off this morning, during one of my half hour naps in between work shifts. I don't know where he found scissors in our room, but he did, and I guess he wanted to practice cutting, like he learned in school...only his sisters hair instead of ohhhh I don't know, paper? I'm debating getting her ears peirced so people know she's a girl, but I don't know. Soooo anyway, moral of the story, make sure there's no scissors around when you're trying to get sleep and have kids.

Halloween and everything in between

HAlloween has come and gone. Wow how the year is going by!! The kids had fun. Ben just wanted to walk walk walk....into the street, but whatever. Savannah loved the trick or treating! She is a pro now, complete with saying "thanks, happy halloween"! We didn't have a ton of people come by, which was weird. We did run out of candy thanks to my generousity in the middle of it. Whoops. Anyway, they all had fun. We had a little shindig at my parents house on Sunday, for my mom's birthday. Kids had fun running around playing with their cousins. Ben stole Savannah's cake right off her plate, which did not make her very happy. She got a new peice of cake. Then he tried to steal his cousins cake, and got caught. He thought he was soooo funny, and gave us the funny look that I posted. He cracks me up. I also put in a picture of our macaw, JAckson, and Ben. That bird just loves him! When Ben was a baby we'd pput him in his swing or bouncer, and Jackson would climb down and just sit under it. He would even chase me away when I went near. It was pretty funny, I must admit. He lets Ben do whatever he wants to him it's crazy! Tomorrow is election day! Although I've never been one to care or to vote, I will be voting this time! I still don't think it really makes a difference, but that's how much I DO NOT LIKE Obama! Seriously, we as a country are doomed if he is voted in! Well, maybe not....maybe he'll get assasinated. Horrible I know, but come on now, we all know it's a great possibility.... So go vote!

Pumpkins pumpkins and more pumpkins

Yesterday my dad and I took the kids to a pumpkin patch/farm thing here in Mesa. They had fun, which is what matters. I on the other hand, thought it was lame. Perhaps it was the cost (they charged me full price for Ben....like he's going to decorate a pumpkin or go in the bounce house, but whatever) or just the wonderful 95 degree temperature that we enjoyed. Sarcasm, people. It was hot! For the end of October, I was not enjoying it. Someday I will go out to Schnepp Farm or whatever and see what the big hooey is all about out there. Depending on the weather on Friday, I may just take the kids to the zoo before Payton has to go to preschool. If anyone wants to go, let me know!

Popcorn balls, puppets, and music

Last night was an enjoyable evening. We (well, I) made popcorn balls for the kids. Tony did help with the shaping of the "stems" but that's it. We threw in some food coloring so it looked like pumpkin balls! I burned my hands in the process too (the mixture was flippin hot!) Now if that's not love I don't know what is. =] We also made little Halloween puppets. Then Tony got out his viola for some unknown reason, and attempted to play some songs for the kids. For not playing often at all, he did do fairly well I must admit. I pulled out my clarinet and played a few notes. Anyone who plays or played wood instruments understands about the whole reed issue. It was way too hard. I might just go get some new ones, number 1 or 2's. =/ Anyway, the kids had fun doing all our activities. Oh, we also decorated sugar cookies last week, which is what th other pictures are.