Merry CHRISTmas to all and to all a good night...

CHRISTmas was much more memorable this year than the past. The tribe really enjoyed themselves! We have been reading them the story of Jesus's birth. They really love Jesus. They even sing Happy Birthday! TOO cute! The other person they love talking about is Santa. They do not really like him they just know that he might bring them presents especially if they are good! Now that they are almost three they knew exactly what to do & did it VERY well!No sleeping in at our house! We were awoken VERY early to children on scooters/bicycles trying to enter our room, all at the same time mind you! LOL! They apparently stopped by the tree & found what Santa brought them, SCOOTERS! One glitch to the master plan was that Santa could not get all the scooters together due to a missing part. I guess that's what happens when "he" puts things together last minute! haha! Aave must have thought she was not good enough to deserve on because she said no scooter for me. Ahhh... We told her how Santa left us a note saying he could not find an important part on one of them. He wanted to make sure it was safe so since he could not do that he left us a special certificate to bring to the store to get it fixed & get a safe one! She liked that & went on to the next toy. Oh to see the joy on their faces from opening presents, presents & more presents. They really got the ripping open presents down to a science. This year it was NOT all about the box! hahah!Last month during one of my MOPS get togethers one of the women told us how they do Christmas in their house. Her husband happens to be one of the pastors from our church and way back when their kids were little & she attended MOPS a woman passed this along to her so she in turn passed it along to us. Giving your children three gifts just like Jesus received. You know the gifts the three wise men brought, Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh. I LOVED that idea! I wish she would have told us this in like April, when I started shopping! {Buying for 5 I have to start EARLY!} Trying to keep CHRIST in Christmas has been hard to do since everywhere you look there is Santa & not enough Jesus! We need more nativity sets around town too! That is why we now have a nativity set in front of our house this year. Keeping Christ in Christmas! Do not get me wrong Santa definitely visits the Fulton home. I think in the end they each received 5, hopefully next year we will be able to accomplish that feat. At the end of this busy & chaotic day we can say...

Merry CHRISTmas to all and to all a good night...

Disney World!...

You know the ad where the team just wins the Super Bowl, they run up to the MVP & ask him "You just won the Super Bowl, What are you going to do next?", and they reply "Go to Disney World!". Well that is how I felt yesterday! I got to take the tribe for their very FIRST visit to Disney World on of all days MY birthday! I just want to give a shout out to whomever thought up the get in free to Disney on your birthday sales promo! What a great idea! I do not think I could ever get my hubby to take us ALL to Disney World any other way. I was psyched! We invited our niece to tag along so our tribe of seven expanded to eight! Once we got to the hotel, Disneys Pop Century, and I saw the decade signs out front I knew I needed to get a picture! Being that I was born in 1970 it was perfect! Look really close & you will see me in the bottom zero! There was just one glitch to our last minute plan, the weather! We had a cold front come through & the temp's were frigid! This Florida girl is not used to COLD weather & Mother Nature sure did provide us COLD weather! Once in Orlando we awoke to FOURTY NINE degree weather, YIKES! It was a bit nippy & even with all the preparations we could not keep the tribe or ourselves warm! It was BAD! We ended up returning to our hotel just to warm up! CRAZY! I know, there is a blizzard going on up North but remember this is Florida people!We are used to WARM weather! Once we warmed our tushes up we headed out to the Magic Kingdom. All the tribe kept talking about was seeing Mickey Mouse. I knew this would be short lived because like most children they usually talk a good game until thee moment & then they bawl. I was preparing myself for that exact thing! Oh to be in Disney World with my family on MY birthday! It was such a fun day even if my hubby was "Grumpy" himself. He does not do well in the patience dept. and when you have 5 kids plus one to get ready & out the door by a certain time he just could not do it! Patience is NOT his virtue! LOL! Lucky for us we had reenforcements already at the park! Our good friends Andy, Laurie, Travis, Carol, Norman & their families were there to help us wrangle our brood. THANK YOU GUYS! They are pros at all things Disney so we followed them. The BIG boys went to do BIG boy stuff while we ladies PLUS Daddy went to see little people stuff. We decided to hit "Toon Town" first to nip the whole Mickey & Minnie experience in the bud.After waiting about 45 minutes in a line that seemed to go on FOREVER we finally met the Mr & Mrs of all Disney! Brendan of course freaked out & wanted out of there! I think his seeing Mickey was fine if he was about 50 feet away but once he got up next to him he wanted NO part of him. Lindsey felt the same way but not as extreme as Mr B. Avery was okay with both of them. Not overly excited but not scared either. Camryn on the other hand LOVED Minnie! She did not want to leave & kept hugging her & giving her kisses. "Aunt Larry" said waiting in that 45 minute line was worth every minute after seeing her reaction! awhh... After that experience I realized just how difficult it was going to be to take our family of 7 anywhere! Some of them are going to be "easy" and some are going to be "difficult". I am just going to have to figure out how to meet them halfway. Trying to get pictures was even harder! I ended up doing Disney's photo pass. What a great idea! Even if it will cost us an arm & a leg to get copies made at least we can say we went to...

Disney World!...

Don't call Pete!...

I have the good fortune of being able to work outside the home at a place that I have worked at for YEARS! 20 years to be exact! I started working as a dispatcher at a VERY young age and because of these children I kept working part time after their birth! I knew that I would need a break from this chaotic life I lead. It also brings home the bacon if you know what I mean. Life is good. In working there I have met quite a few people, fellow dispatchers, firefighters & most importantly policemen. These connections have come in handy with the tribe! I never thought about how the tribe would react to running into one of my friends from work until that day at Costco. I think that is when I first realized how depending on the persons uniform they can get quite upset. Apparently they do not like Police uniforms. LOL! Avery is the worst, she freaks! She is the one that has stranger anxiety. She will flip out if you come too close & she is unsure of you! She has done this a few times to her Uncle & it was quite the sight. She wailed & held on tight till she was safe in my arms. CRAZY but true! Well on this particular day we were at Costco, one of our favorite places, when we ran into my friend Pete. Pete is a sheriffs deputy & he happened to be there on a premise check so he came over to say hi. She took one look at him & she freaked! I tried to explain that he was Mommy's friend but she just cried while keeping her distance. He continued to say his "hello's" and off he went. As soon as he left Avery was fine! We ventured out into the store because it is SO tempting. We made a few purchases & decided it was time to leave. The tribe was in one of those moods and was not listening. There I was trying to get them all into the "burb, strapped in & the groceries put away so the person waiting for our spot would not get ticked that I took too long when Pete showed up! I must have looked frazzled because the next thing I knew there was Pete telling them to get in their seats! I never saw them move so quickly! They were scared & did exactly what he said! I was SO happy! Not that I want them to be afraid of policemen but I know have a new tactic to get them to behave, Pete! From that day forward all I have had to say is that I am going to call Pete & they say, Sorry Mommy...

Don't call Pete!...

scared of Santa pic...

This has been one FUN holiday season! All the houses decked out with lights, beautifully decorated Christmas trees & especially all the talk about Santa! I have been talking him up quite a bit with the tribe. Telling him how he knows if they are bad or good, etc... He is one person they are quite intrigued about these days. When they are bad I throw out "Santa is watching!" and they will usually apologize for something! haha I figured they are another year older so MAYBE they could handle a picture with the big guy. Last year was HYSTERICAL with them all about jumping off Santa's couch in fear! LOL! This year we actually made a "date" with our multiples group to get our pictures taken. We would all meet up at the mall & get them taken. We did stop to see him at another mall BEFORE Thanksgiving. Can you believe they had Santa out BEFORE Thanksgiving?! CRAZY!Anyhow, there I was in line with the tribe. I did not spot any of the other multiples from our group until we were halfway through the line & then they appeared. They were WAY ahead of us & had just finished. SO we stayed where we were & waited for our turn. The tribe did VERY well for being two years old & having to wait for about 15 minutes. Little did they know who would be waiting for them at the end of that line! LOL! I think everyone thought I was crazy to bring them there by myself but this is the way I get everything done, by myself! I was split 50/50 on how I wanted the pictures to turn out. Yes it would be nice to get a shot of them smiling while sitting on Santa's lap but on the other hand a shot of them screaming would be quite funny! {BAD Mommy!} It's the dealing with them screaming that's not so much fun but the end result is priceless! I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment because I endured the latter. Here is our 2009...

scared of Santa pic...

Tis the season...

This week has been one LONG week! I have noticed lately how much the tribe has grown both physically & mentally! With growth comes curiosity and with curiosity comes BAD behavior! I cannot begin to tell you what all we have dealt with this past week! UGH! Needless to say this momma was NOT happy! We had quite a few incidents where I was caught asking them, "Why do you like making mommy's job even harder than it already is?". {This has been a favorite saying of mine lately!} Here's an example of a recent evening in our house.

I was making them some chicken for dinner. We bought this yummy organic spice from Costco, you know the kind that comes in a HUGE container that does not fit in with all your other spices? I ended up storing it next to the stove since it's SO big. I think up until this point we had only used a 1/4 of the bottle. I had already spiced up the chicken & was quite proud how it was turning out. The aroma was captivating! As I'm preparing the rest of the dinner Linz, our very own private eye, came up to me saying "Avery Buddy". Avery of course being her sister & Buddy being Brendan. That is her special name for him. Usually when she comes up & says someones name it usually means they did something or took something from her. I sort of blew her off. I was cooking & had no time to referee a silly squabble I thought they were having. Looking back I think she actually came up to me three times when finally I had enough time to see what they were up to. The first thing I saw was Avery holding this dirty brown stuffed object. I did not recognize it at first but then I saw what it was, Brendans baseball bear. {It is suppose to be a white bear!} Then I saw what Lindsey was trying to tell me all along, a huge pile of my seasoning all over the living room floor. When I say huge I mean HUGE! Avery & Brendan must have taken my bottle of spices & dumped it EVERYWHERE! The bottle was completely empty & they were now rubbing it into the cushion of our ottoman. I did not know if I should laugh or cry! Trust me I wanted to cry! This was just the tip of the iceberg of my BAD week! If Michael was there he would have been beside himself, he is majorly anal about anything on the floor. Luckily Dustyn was there & he helped me clean up the mess. "D" was so funny, as he swept it up he said to them, "Don't laugh if you were older YOU would be cleaning this up!". I guess I am rubbing off on him! LOL! As we cleaned the floor all I could think about was...

Tis the season...

there was a bra in my toilet!...

I know I have had some WILD nights in the past when I woke up not remembering exactly everything that happened the night before however last night was not one of them! My day started out like most mornings with the tribe jumping into bed with me. I am not a person that will get up to pee during the night so first thing once I wake up I will make the trek to the bathroom. I was on that trek this morning when lo & behold I see something in the toilet. I had to do a doubletake when I finally realized exactly I was seeing, my bra! "Someone" put my bra in of all places the toilet! In my wilder days I could probably take credit for this but today it was one of the fab four that pulled this number! Needless to say after much interrogation no one fessed up! There I was half asleep retrieving my undergarment from it's soggy fate & then hurridly throwing it into the sink so toilet water would not be all over the floor. Ewwwwh... They completely submerged the darn thing! Nothing like reaching your hand into a toilet first thing in the morning! arghh! One of my friends said "At least they did not flush!". YES I have to thank God for that miracle! Especially since they LOVE flushing anything down the toilet! I was indeed lucky! I'm telling you these children really do think they have free reign of the house & all it's contents once they wake up. I SO wish they would not know how to get out of their cribs! It seems like all of these adventures & their curiosity peaked when that started happening! We are doomed! Getting back to the bra, I can just imagine how it went down & who did it! Usually they will rat each other out but this time no one said a thing. I even asked my hubby if he did it since they didn't fess up. I guess I should just be thankful that I did not have to call a plumber to find out...

there was a bra in my toilet!...