Lake Toxaway adventure 2011...

We are SO lucky to have such WONDERFUL relatives that allowed us to invade their home over the summer. Invading is just what a tribe like ours does! My cousin Lori has a second home in Lake Toxaway, a beautiful place in the NC mountains. It's on a lake, so beautiful & most of all PEACEFUL! That is when the tribe behaved & didn't argue! LOL! I'm SO very blessed to get to spend any time with Lori away from our "normal" lives. It just meant a lot to get to visit in the first place! It truly was just what the Doctor ordered, away from the "rat race" & some peace & quiet! With all the drama that we have been dealing with back in FL this was pure Heaven! She took us out tubing on the lake, hiking in the woods & even took in a little shopping in downtown Brevard. LOVE LOVE LOVE that town! The tribe thoroughly enjoyed themselves as did our "helper" Caitlynn. This was her first time in NC. Her first time tubing on a lake, first time hiking to see a waterfall, heck it was just a week full of "firsts" for her! SO happy to be able to be there for that!

 

and that was our...

Lake Toxaway adventure 2011...

Yes Avery there really is a Santa Claus...

I know that not everyone "believes" in Santa Claus but here at the Fulton house we do! CHRISTmas, Jesus, Santa & even his elves. This is the first year that they really are into the whole CHRISTmas experience! The fact that they know they better behave or else is PRICELESS! They LOVE singing CHRISTmas carols and they learn new ones daily since that's about all we listen to in the car. I LOVE 24 hour 7 days a week CHRISTmas carols on the radio! YAY! Last year was our first year with the "Elf on the Shelf" in our home and this year it seems to be the only way to get them to behave! You see they will walk over to where "Ollie" is, that's our elf, and they rat each other out.

 Yes we have a bunch of tattletales here! They will stand in front of Ollie & tell him about who did what, mostly bad but sometimes good. You see Ollie goes "home" to the North Pole every night & tells Santa about their behavior so he knows exactly which list they should be on come CHRISTmas Eve. Now before you all get your panties in a wad it's not ALL about Santa, they do know the real meaning of CHRISTmas, that it is the birth day of Jesus. In fact their Uncle Rick bought them a really cool book all about the meaning of CHRISTmas! They have the Little People Nativity set to go with it. Boy do they LOVE baby Jesus!

Just the other day while shopping at Walmart it was not Jesus that sparked Avery's interest, unfortunately it was the BIG guy himself, Santa. This was her first one on one experience of her seeing Santa outside the normal realm of the mall. We were walking out of Walmart after making a quick shopping trip & who do we almost run into? Santa! He must have been making a last minute run to the mother of all discount stores for a last minute item. He was not dressed as flashy as he is in the local mall, this time he had on a polo shirt, pair of shorts & sneakers. I have to say that it was his fluffy white beard & red hat that TOTALLY gave him away! We knew it was him! As fast as he entered he was out in a flash. {See I told you it was a last minute item!} Avery searched all over for his sleigh & reindeer but this time it was NOT a sleigh that he rode in but a gray Jeep Laredo. Yes we staked out the door to see where he went! Now some people would probably say it was NOT Santa but Avery & I know better. The look on her face that day said it all! All I said was...

Yes Avery there really is a Santa Claus...

smells like dinner...

The supermarket of choice for our family is Publix, they are just down the road & their slogan is "Where Shopping is a Pleasure". Who wouldn't want shopping to be a pleasure?! LOL! Let me tell you some days it really is pleasurable to shop there! PLUS they do a TON in regards to "Customer Service". When I have to go shopping with the ENTIRE tribe Publix will have an employee push one of the shopping carts as I push the other one. LOVE that! Not to mention their "Cookie Club". Each & EVERY time we go there the tribe has to get their FREE cookie & once their card gets filled with hole punches they can be entered to win a Cookie Cake! YUM! See I can find MANY pleasurable things at Publix! =]

Now I feel like I should fill you in on some things before I can share this recent memory. You see Publix has this area set up near the front of their store where they have this "kitchen" to cook some of the recipe's from their "Apron Collection". It's a great set of recipe's that are EXTRA yummy! ALL kinds of family food & again it's YUMMY for the tummy! Depending on the time of day you could actually get a meal while doing your shopping. This particular day I only had Lindsey with me because she had a Doctor's appointment. She LOVES having that "Mommy & Me" time, heck I do too! There she was in a shopping cart meant for SINGLETON'S when we leave one aisle & turn the corner which placed us near their "kitchen". The Apron's lady was sauting something with onions & the aroma was something out of this world! I guess Linz noticed it too because she proceeds to say Mommy it...

smells like dinner...

adventures in cardboard box land...

Don't you hate it when you go to your local wholesale club like Costco, buy a TON of stuff & cannot find a box to fit everything? This happens to me a lot! I find that I am always looking for that "perfect" box. Then you have to have the box fit in our vehicle! sigh... When you are feeding a tribe like ours you tend to shop BIG so Costco is our place! LOL! On our latest trip to Costco I got SO excited because the clerk gave us the BEST box ever! {LOVE it when that happens!} It was the perfect size to house ALL of our purchases. Not only was it the right size for the milk, eggs, cheese & various non perishables BUT it was the PERFECT size PLUS sturdy enough for the tribe to play in once it was empty! Yes to most a box is just a means to get items from one place to another. To me it becomes a new "toy" for the tribe! hahah! The minute that empty box hit the floor they all jumped in it! To watch them explore made me feel good!It amazes me how they have more fun with this plain ol' box than any toy in our house! I guess it is very true that give a kid a box & it will entertain them for hours! We've gotten more out of this box in the last 24 hours than I can say! I have caught myself sitting back trying to imagine what they think the box becomes each & every time they climb into it!I am sure it is something SPECTACULAR! (= I just wish I could tell by looking into those cute little faces of theirs what exactly it is at that precise moment! Does the box transform into a race car? Maybe a roller coaster? Could it be a train? Better yet a spaceship? Oh to be two years old, have an AWESOME imagination & be able to have...

adventures in cardboard box land...

pee pee in your diaper...

I just HAD to share this since it was definitely a first & I am sure not be the last time this will happen! As many of you know I have been trying like the dickens to get these kids potty trained. There are days that they do REALLY REALLY good & then there are days where I feel like a complete failure! I know, they will eventually get the concept & I will look back at this stage like it was nothing! But each time I run out of diapers I secretly wish I will not have to buy any more. Oh the secret wishes we keep, LOL! Well the other day we; Grandma, the tribe & I, went shopping. We went to one of the COOL malls near Grandma's house. Ok the only thing cool about it is the types of stores we get to window shop at! There I was pushing their BIG, monstrosity of a stroller when Cam looks up at me & says "Pee pee on the potty". I can honestly tell you that in that moment I did NOT want to hear those words! She said this like she pee's on the potty ALL the time & that is NOT the case whatsoever! Like couldn't she tell me she had to pee when we were at home & not out in a public place! I was a BAD mommy & uttered the following, "No you don't" & then proceeded to say...

pee pee in your diaper...

a place like no other...

For years I have told people about my "list", the list of places I want to go & people I want to see before I died. These days they call it a "bucket list". I consulted & attained MANY items off this list BQ, before quads. I was a world traveler. Ask my nieces, they would get post cards from my many travels. Well those days are OVER! I am lucky if I can take a trip to the bathroom by myself let alone a trip to a far off place. LOL! Now that the tribe is getting older & I am getting feistier I have started making plans to take THEM places. When their "list" & mine cross paths I get excited! Since Camryn's godmother Marisa, one of my dearest friends, lives in MN, near the Mall of the America's I knew we would both get items checked off our lists! The Mall of the America's has been on my list FOREVER! It is one of those places that you just HAVE to see in person! It has four floors of shops, shops & more shops! PLUS it has a roller coaster & a buttload of rides like a carnival has. It is AMAZING! I am a shopper, I hate to admit it but I am. I just love to shop! Ok let me clarify myself, I can spend the day shopping even if I never buy a thing! I like to dream of the day when we win the Lotto & the lack of money is out of the equation FOREVER! Don't get me wrong, I can be frugal but I also like nice things, always have, always will. I would much rather save my $ for a NICE item then waste it on something crappy! SO when my dearest friend Marisa moved to MN I knew I would get to check off shopping at the Mall of the America's! WOO HOO! This trip took many failed attempts until the planets aligned just right & we actually boarded the plane & put our feet down on the Minnesota soil. Trust me when Marisa said we'd be spending the afternoon at the Mall of the America's I was psyched! The mall is HUGE! The section with all of the rides in it is done up with a Nickleodeon theme. There was Dora & even Sponge Bob coasters! I am NOT a roller coaster enthusiast at all! But being that this was a once in a lifetime trip I sat my butt down on the first roller coaster I saw. There I was flying through the sky on Sponge Bob! See the things you'll do when on vacation! LOL! One cool thing Marisa planned for us was lunch at the American Girl Bistro. You can actually eat with your doll sitting in a high chair at your table. WILD! If you have a daughter under the age of 10 then you know all about the American Girl & their ability to suck you in hook, line & sinker! We had such a fun time & the food was actually VERY yummy! Years ago I told myself when I had a daughter I would not fall for those gimmicks but there I was! After our yummy lunch I was searching the store for an "Itty Bitty" baby doll that looked just like Camryn. Yep I am one of "those" mom's now! ha! First off, they don't have a sandy blonde "Itty Bitty" with brown eyes! What is up with that!? They have the more expensive American Girl doll in practically any combo just not the "Itty Bitty" babies! When you are buying for four children you go the least expensive route. Instead of just getting a doll for Cam I decided getting a set of "Itty Bitty Twins" was the better deal. Getting two dolls means eventually I will have to get two more, YES, Brendan gets a doll too! I cannot leave him out! He likes dolls just about as much as his sisters. SO there I was being suckered in to buying "Itty Bitty Twins", a brown hair, brown eyed girl for Cam & a blonde haired, blue eyed boy for Bren. I have to admit they are pretty darn cute even if their clothes leave less to be desired. See once they get you to buy the dolls then there's the clothes & all the EXTRAS! CRAZY I tell ya! Needless to say Daddy was NOT a happy camper when he saw that receipt! LOL! This shopping adventure took place in...

a place like no other...

kicked OUT of the house!...

Today I took the tribe on an afternoon adventure. It was really just running errands but I always bill it as something "SPECTACULAR" to them so they will get excited! We were sort of kicked out of the house due to Daddy being sick. He has the flu or something close to it, feels yucky & was in a foul mood! He could not take their abundant energy or whines any longer! When he is sick you better stay clear of him or else! hehee. I needed to get the tribe out of dodge before they really ticked their Daddy off! He ROARED & we fled! LOL! We needed to drop off his RX at the local pharmacy so that was stop #1. To go anywhere you have to drive like 20 miles so they spot cars as I drive. This has become one of their favorite activities! It seems that EVERYWHERE we go they are always on the hunt for certain cars. Like Grandma's car, Mommy's car, I never get that one because we are always IN it! LOL! Then there's Vinny's car (My mom's neighbors son) & Daddy's car, they both drive a truck. I guess it's better that they don't yell out their version of "truck" so we just say car. It is SO cute how they can spot their car's a mile away. They only do this with these four types of vehicles. Weird huh? We, I mean I, decided to do a little shopping. If we needed to waste some time why not at a store? LOL! We needed to waste some time & stay FAR away from home. SO there we were at Home Goods. This is one COOL store! First off I have to plead with the company to get some bigger shopping carts! Not accomodating for multiples in the least! I had all 4 of them crammed into the SMALLEST cart ever! I whipped out my stash of chocolate & they soon forgot how crammed they really were! hah! I do think seeing 4 kids in a tiny shopping cart was even more of a spectacle than our BIG blue quad stroller! We got a few stares & MANY comments! (= I really LOVE Home Goods! They have SO many neat home decorating things & best of all they are cheap! I even found us a 5th Anniversary gift, funny because we just celebrated our 6th Anniversary! LOL! We had wanted a BIG wooden bowl since wood is the gift for the fifth anniversary. I scored a HUGE one at a GREAT deal! Now on to Iron which is the gift for your sixth! hmm... At this particular store they are attached to a Marshall's. So I had housewares on one side & my next favorite thing, clothes & purses on the other! Needless to say I got some of my Christmas shopping taken care of today! We stayed later than expected & started to venture into the nap hour. These kids of ours need their nap! When they need sleep they get CRANKY! I think I pushed my shopping excursion to the limit & we needed to head home. The tribe has this new game they like to play regarding where they sit. The "twins" will rush the door & grab the two front seats, Camryn & Brendans normal seats, and then start buckling themselves in. YAY for helping mommy BUT this is when the fight begins about their seating assignments. Again I turn into a referee. Brendan starts whining about how he wants HIS seat and after TOO many bad experiences with one of the twins harassing or harming him I agree. No "twin" sits next to Mr B! SO to stop the crying & commotion I tell Cam that I need her to sit next to him because she will "love" on him. I could tell that she really wanted Avery's seat in the back but she obliged me. Everyone gets buckled into their proper seats & we're off! We get about a block down the road when what does Cam do but try to grab her brothers arm. She is SO smart. I think she figured if she also treats him bad she won't be made to sit next to him in the future. She has another thing coming because I am on to her! LOL! Despite Daddy being sick it was fun running errands with the tribe even if we were...

kicked OUT of the house!...

at the mall with our quads...

A lot seems to happen when you go shopping with quadruplets. We get a lot of looks, I should say stares & quite a few comments. These children of ours are little attention getter's. I must say that we definitely meet people that we probably would not have met if it was just Michael & myself shopping. Last night we decided to take the babies to the mall to get some last minute items we still neededed for their Halloween costumes. We needed 3 pairs of PINK stockings!! Why can you never find what you need when you need it? We ended up having to settle for 3 pairs of white stockings. They will just have to do! We decided to hit The Children's Place & our sales lady was SO nice. I started out looking for the stocking BUT I got side tracked, this happens a lot, by their Christmas display. Yes they have Christmas stuff out already! It is not even November yet!! I went from the stockings to the Holiday dresses. Finding 3 dresses that are different but go well together can be a challenge. I have decided to not dress the twins alike for reasons I will explain in a later post. Once she found out why I needed 3 different dresses in the same size she had to see them in person! SO out to the front of the store she went to see them. AGAIN, we get this a lot! I would just love it if they would turn to me & say "Hey, I have a GREAT multiples discount for you!". This is my dream! LOL! Buying 4 of anything can get quite EXPENSIVE! Now that we found what we needed we now needed to find them food! It was dinner time & they were hungry!! I was not looking forward to finding a seat in the food court for all of us! ugh! Good thing this was a Wed night & the mall was not crowded, YAY! Luckily they will eat about anything so the food part will be a cinch, Chick-fil-a! YUM! We brought my niece Lauren with us so she entertained them while we ordered. They seem to LOVE Chick-fil-a just about as much as me! They love their fresh squeezed lemonade too! They ate pretty good. Nothing compares to being in your own home where you have everything you need, HIGH CHAIRS! hahah! Now we were off to Burdines, oops I meant Macy's, old habits die hard. hehee! After seeing the holiday dresses at the Children's Place I now wanted to check them out everywhere. It is better to be prepared! See how side tracked I can get!! On the way up to their children's dept. we were stopped by a very nice woman who offered me something WONDERFUL, a makeover!! YAY! I SO need this! After having these little miracles I have sort of let myself go. I raely wear makeup, NEVER get my hair cut let alone done up. I am in need of a change & Ni'Flame is going to give it to me! YAY! Now just to find the free time in my schedule to do this PLUS find a babysitter. We finally went up to check out their kids dept & their holiday dresses were nothing to write home about. I will just keep the one's that I found at Costco & Sam's. Yes, they sell holiday dresses!They seem to have the cutest girl's holiday dresses this year. Now I start my search for the perfect outfit for my little man. It seems that I will alway's be on a "mission". Thinking back gives me a smile that we survived aanother night out...


at the mall with our quads...

a day at Costco....

Today Grandma & I took the babies to Costco, Grandma's home away from home. If we ever show up to her house & she is not home she is usually at Costco. The employee's there are like family to us now that we have had the babies. Especially Maria in the photo lab. She has watched them grow by seeing the pictures we take in for processing. I have even run into her at my local Costco. (She lives near us!) It really is a small world! It is amazing how much of a stir we cause when we show up to go shopping. In the beginning we would bring "BIG BLUE" aka our monster of a stroller. We decided that we could take them in their shopping carts since they are built for two. Thank you Costco for that! No other store accomodate multiples like they do. So we entered the store, I had the "twins" and Grandma had Cam Cam & Brendan. I really want to get a spy cam to attach to us just to capture peoples faces when they see us coming. The babies are used to it. They sometimes even wave. We went all over the store & had people following us at every turn. Things we heard were "Are they all from the same pregnancy", "Are they all the same age?", "Are they quintuplet's?"(NO there are FOUR not five of them here!LOL!), "Are they identical?", "How old are they?", I even heard a "You are a blessed woman". I LOVED that one because THAT I am!! We eventually made our way over to the food court to feed them some lunch. Those carts are even good to feed them in! One of the Costco employees came over & said I notice you did not bring their stroller. Even the employees notice our kids! I FINALLY took a picture of them there so Maria & the photo lab can display it. For now the babies just LOVE when they have...

a day at Costco....