Early Winter Weather

Dear Baby Bird,

Winter has come early! We woke up to snow on the ground this morning. You were really excited and proclaimed "I Love Snow!" It was a good excuse to pull out all of our winter gear and make sure everything fits.

  We went outside to play, and mostly ran around the yard with footballs and tennis balls.

Unfortunately, the snow came before we had a chance to pull our shovels and sleds and snow blower into the garage. That didn't stop you from finding a toy to push.  You didn't think it was as fun to mow the snow off the driveway, though; you much preferred pushing it off the lawn onto the sidewalk. Luckily, there's still time for you to figure out the whole concept of shoveling.

Best of all was coming back inside for cocoa and movies and enjoying a lazy weekend day.
Love,
Mom

Favorite things

Dear Baby Bird,

You have many things you love to do, here are just a few of them:

Puzzles. Spending time with Grandpa

Requesting "Firetruck" and singing along

Love,
Mom

Norwegian Sons

Dear Baby Bird,

We have been learning about our Norwegian heritage recently.  To learn more, we had dinner at the Sons of Norway in October.  The food was yummy fish, meatballs, cranberry sauce, and cake.

The idea of visiting Sons of Norway came from Grandpère.  He had researched this group in Illinois, and it was Grandpère who inspired us to have dinner there.

Love,
Daddy

Fischer History

Dear Baby Bird,

While in Des Moines and Manchester, I had a chance to research the Fischer family.  I learned about the current Arden & Dena Fischer Farm, which was previously the Harry John & Elsie Marie Fischer Farm.  Here is a map of the Farm in the 1970's.  Arden's Grandfather John Daniel Fischer was the first Fischer to farm in Manchester, Iowa (over 100 years ago).

This Farm map existed all the way back to the first John Fischer Farm in Center Township, Dubuque County, Iowa in the 1800's.  The map shows that 3 of your ancestors were neighbors:  John Fischer, Fred Sundermeyer, and John Loslein.  John Loslein's daughter Margaret married John Fischer.  They then had John Daniel Fischer who married Fred Sundermeyer's daughter Emma.  John Daniel and Emma then had Harry & Dorothy Fischer, which is why Grandma and Arden are cousins.

Harry & Dorothy also had a sister "Millie" Fischer!  We visited your Great-Aunt Millie in Manchester, and enjoyed lunch with her, her family, and her Great-Granddaughter, your 3rd cousin!  We gave Millie a copy of the Fischer Family tree for her 95th birthday!

On the return trip from Manchester to home, we stopped in Rickardsville, Iowa to visit your Great-Great-Great-Grandfather John Fischer (who married Margaret Loslein) and your Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather Johannes Fischer (who married Susanna Laubscher).  We took this photo of their two headstones.  Johannes first came to America from Germany in 1834, 180 years ago!

Congratulations to baby "Charlie" Fischer, grandson to Arden & Dena Fischer... born just last week!  We now have 9 generations of Fischers on the family tree.

Love,
Daddy