Hello Winter 2011!

 According to the powers that be, the official first day of winter falls on December 22, 2011.
I'm not quite sure who or how or when this all first came about but I skimmed over the topic here and it has something to do with the distance of the earth from the sun and Julius Caesar and tropical year and the pope and the Council of Nicea...
basically a lot of information I just do not have the room for in my brain right now...

...Caleb is officially a toddler you see...and I still have a full time job...and a full time marriage...so astronomy really doesn't fit in the top of my priority list right now.

...so I've decided that in my universe the first day of winter shall be December 1st...because that fits with my 12 months / 4 seasons = 3 months per season:
So as I see it December, January and February are winter
March, April, May are spring
June, July and August are summer
and September, October and November are fall.
This is how things have always been in my mind...I don't know when this winter solstice = first day of winter business began but I'll tell you right now it is false. 
Says me.

That being said, we'll proceed with this post.
You may have noticed that there has not been much to notice here on this blog...that's because this little fishbowl of ours has been jumpin' this fall.

We've had holidays:

pumpkin carving

picking out the perfect pumpkin

family photo op at the pumpkin patch

With Grandma having our pre-Thanksgiving

hunting for pecans at Grandma's

We've had sporting events:

"Hey!  I need more cowbell!"

visiting Mamma and Dadda 's alma mater

checking out Bully

"So there really ARE other bulldog fans.!  I was beginning to wonder if everybody but me yelled Roll Tide or War Eagle."

"Woo Pig Sooie!!!"  

We've hunted wild game:

Delta boy at heart!

Walks among the fall foliage:

Plus, we've had birthdays:

Our best buddy Bryce turned 1 year old!

Great-Grandma Fisher's big birthday get together

Uncle Mark was pretty funny!

In fact, the biggest event in our little fall was Caleb's first birthday!!!
He had a blast with all of our wonderful friends and family!

And now that the BEST SEASON of the YEAR (autumn) has come to a close it is time to buckle down and get ready for some serious winter festivities!  We have quite a winter planned and can't wait to begin!

And since December 1st is officially the first day of winter in the fishbowl a certain special little fellow made his debut:

Meet Nerwin Twizzlebottom,
the Fisher family elf:

Poor fellow must have been pretty chilly waiting all morning out on the front porch to be let in!




See ya next year Autumn, and Hello Winter!

back from vacation(s)!

So  I've been away from the blog lately...like over a month and a half lately...
I doubt that many noticed but just in case you did here is a brief summary of what has been going on in the fishbowl as we wrapped up our summer...


...work..work and more work...
eating...with our hands!!!

enjoying a minibreak-birthday weekend in our own town's resort...

and eating with our utensils...(sorta)...
crawling very quickly,

then pulling up...then cruising along the furniture

...in other words..getting into EVERYTHING!

road trip with Granddaddy Bull to Wisconsin

(14+ hours)...argh...

finally got there!  Days straight of playing with cousins Rae and Justin!

First trip to the zoo!!!
loving the jellyfish...
kinda a tough decision...who is cooler Aunt Wee-sa or jellyfish...

...definitely Aunt Wee-sa!
then sadly driving home from Wisconsin...
another 14+ hours...argh...

work two days then another road trip with Grandaddy Bull to Arkansas for the holiday weekend!

worked a week...and out on the boat...finally agreed to wear the life vest sans tears...

Off to Nashville Gaylord Opryland Resort for a veterinary conference...

remember my one night stint at our local ER veterinary hospital???  well picture me in 40+ hours of lecture about nothing but emergency and critical care! 
(I was sweating bullets at the hypothetical situations I could potentially end up in some day!  eeek!)
Lucky enough to visit with classmates from vet school...
watched our bulldogs get beat by a bunch of corndogs at the resort sports bar...sad.

Met the Hubbs and Caleb that weekend in Tennessee at his Uncle Mark, Aunt Amy and cousin Amanda's house for dinner...

ehem ahem...
somebody took his FIRST STEPS right there in their living room (about 3 steps to be exact)!!!
spent the next morning at brunch then in the beautiful walkways in the resort on Sunday

first escalator ride...not too sure about it...

 Caleb was living it up Nashville style!

then once again headed home...smarter, fuller and tired!!!
first ice cream cone...

Whew...its been a busy month and a half!

Good to be home!!!

The most beautiful cake in the world!

Today is my birthday!

We won't discuss which birthday exactly.

Although it has been said:
"You either get older or you don't."
and I don't prefer the don't!


To celebrate, the Hubbs made me a cake!
From scratch!

He searched and searched for a recipe with berries...
you see I love cakes with berries...
strawberries,
blackberries,
raspberries,
blueberries...
you get the picture.

He found a recipe that sounded fantastic!
(from here)

Blueberry Buttercream Cake with Blueberry Filling

He slaved away...
scoured my extremely unorganized and crowded pantry for all sorts of exotic ingredients...
such as baking powder,
baking soda,
cornstarch,
cake flour,
vanilla extract...
you get the picture.

He made the cake from scratch...
he made the blueberry glaze filling from scratch...
he made the blueberry-buttercream icing from scratch...
and I'll tell you what,
that cake tastes fantastic!

However, making buttercream icing is a little tough if you've never had the experience before...
and when your wife decides to put the whisk attachment to the mixer in the dishwasher just before you begin to make the buttercream icing...
and when your wife doesn't really know the exact reason that the paddle attachment won't work quite as well as the whisk attachment so she lets you proceed with making buttercream icing with a paddle rather than a whisk...

...so the blueberry-buttercream icing was a bit more of a blueberry-buttercream glaze?


but it's the thought and the taste that count in the end!

AND THEY WERE BOTH FABULOUS!!!!

Thanks Hubbs!!!

It was WAY better than Sugarbakers (and that's pretty impressive)!

The Incident part 2: Hannibal the Cannibal, Jr.

This past week Caleb came home from day care with another note...

The Crime:

this time however, 

he was not the victim.

We were pretty sad to hear that our child is now the class "biter".

Luckily, no wounds were left on his friends from the incident...

although he tries to pretend as if he is completely innocent whenever the subject is brought up

"What?  Me?"

it turns out he decided to bite his teacher the very next day!
along with Momma's knee later that evening!!!

I'm afraid he is beginning to develop a preference for arms and legs over bananas and puffs...
These three are beginning to look a little similar.

Hopefully this phase will pass!
We'll say our prayers,
and cross our fingers...while we still have them!