flashbacks of 2010...

Well in just under 30 minutes it will be 2011! WOW, it's hard to believe 2010 is about to end. SO many things happened this year & since we did not do a CHRISTmas card I decided to do a brief montage of what life in the Fulton house was like over 2010. So enjoy our...

Opening presents CHRISTmas 2009

Bren & Lindsey



Their COOL tee pee!

Visiting Grandpa!

 


flashbacks of 2010...

I'll be right back...

Oh how much fun CHRISTmas was this year! There was MANY a present unwrapped WAY before it's time! This Mama got quite the refresher course in ift wrapping this season! LOL! We had our good friend "Ollie the Elf" visiting us daily & not even his prescence curbed their mischievous ways! I begged, pleaded & even tried bribing them to behave. They just do NOT listen! One day I had all 4 of them help me load ALL the presents from under our tree to give to some more deserving children! Unfortunately they did NOT care! There they were, helping me load each & every package from under the tree into the back of our 'burb. This time they actually listened to me! Now if they would just behave I would be one HAPPY mama!

The week of CHRISTmas we had a Santa encounter. He actually took time out of his schedule to stop by our house for a visit. At first the tribe did not know what to do, when he walked inside they just stood & stared. The good thing was that they did NOT cry! Santa sat down & starting asking them if they had been listening to their Mama. {We all know that was not happening! LOL!} He reached into his bag & handed the first present to Camryn. As she opened her present which happened to be a Barbie purse with a cell phone, camera & sunglasses, Santa asked her if this is what she wanted.

Leave it to Camryn to speak her mind. She shook her head & replied, "No, I wanted a Dora Doll!". Well that right there shows you how my week was was going! hahah! Needless to say Santa brought 2 more of those purses for her sisters so no one would fight. Luckily Avery LOVED her purse! In fact I think they grew on each of them! He brought Brendan a Buzz Lightyear hand held toy. It is suppose to be educational but I think in the end it's just going to be another thing that makes NOISE! =]

This year I was actually wondering how we were going to "do" CHRISTmas. I know it is about the birth of Christ and not about giving or getting gifts but our tribe is young & they do not know any different. They definitely do not get a lot through out the year & especially not for CHRISTmas but this year was much harder. Finances have been rough. The economy is terrible & just like eveyone else we have been struggling. The tribe attends school which is really strapping us, actually it is putting us further in debt than we need to be. But that discussion will be for another day. Just last week I received the most wonderful call from my Aunt. She had been given MANY hand-me-downs from a mutual friend & wanted us to have them in time for CHRISTmas. Let me tell you how grateful I was for that! I have to say that 3/4th's of what the girls asked for was in those bags! She really made our CHRISTmas! So again I need to say "Thank you" to everyone that has helped our family survive! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Now let's fast forward to CHRISTmas morning. Avery came & crawled into bed with me like she normally does. She was partially awake but awake just enough to remember that she saw a baby stroller by the CHRISTmas tree. I turned to her & said "Santa brought you a stroller?!?". She looked at me with WIDE eyes & said...

I'll be right back...

NO school Monday's...

Today was one of those days where more than one was not feeling good so they ALL stayed home SICK! You see last night out of the blue while at a CHRISTmas performance Lindsey threw up multiple times. Right there at the end of the pew in front of a packed church! It was bad! Luckily my 20 year old cousin came to our rescue & cleaned it all up. What else that I found amazing was that not one other person got up once she did it. They all just went along watching the performance! WOW! I really don't know why she threw up or where it came from but she did so there would be no school for her today. Well it seems that Avery did not want to be outdone by her sister because she too threw up on the ride home. Sigh... I just hope it ends with her! I could tell it was going to be a LONG night!

I prepared them like my mom always did us by placing a "puke bucket" by their heads & lined the edge of the bed with towels. If they were going to threw up again I was ready! I have to admit that before they actually fell asleep Linz threw up one last time on of all things her "Patty"! I think she was SO tired from throwing up that she didn't even care that she had to fall asleep without her! I checked on them a few times before I went to bed & they were all fast asleep! YAY! Apparently over night Avery threw up one last time, a small bit, but none the less I had to wash ALL the bed linens! She was clingy & not herself all day! I guess the silver lining in all of this was that none of them had any fevers! I decided to keep to the BRAT {Bananas, Rice, Apples & Toast} diet just in case they were not really over this illness. All things bland were my friend today. The one EXTRA thing I let them assist me in doing was making cut out sugar cookies. Boy was that a mistake! The darn cookie dough stuck to EVERYTHING!

In the end I was better off making our designs by hand! I made each of their letter's, the B & the A were "interesting"! Heck I even made a snowman without even trying! LOL! They were SO excited! From mixing the batter to cutting out the first cookie to seeing them bake in the oven it was quite an experience! There's nothing like...

NO school Monday's...

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...

I better watch what I promise them!...

This story begins on a day I had Avery home sick from school, for those of you that have children you know that kids while do just about anything to stay home with Mommy. I had scheduled their "well check-up" the day before Thanksgiving but rescheduled for this day and here Avery goes & gets sick! UGH! She had a fever so there would be NO SCHOOL for her! When the others heard she would be staying home they tried faking some symptoms to get to stay home too. It was quite funny seeing Camryn & Lindsey say that their bellies hurt & then Brendan tagging along saying he was sick too! They were not sick, they just wanted to stay home with me! In the end Daddy took Camryn to school, she had her "well check-up" over the summer in preparation for speech school. There I was taking the rest of them to the doctor. Three "well check-up's" turned into two! Thank the Lord for our Pediatrician Dr Mahoney, she is AWESOME! They asked me all sorts of questions about what was going to happen while being there. The most important question was if they were going to get a shot. I said No, this was a well check-up not a sick visit. I guess they have been to the doctor sick WAY more than being well because they could not understand what a "well check-up" was! LOL! The doctor was pleased with all of them in fact Mr B gained a pound from his last visit! WOO HOO! This is a BIG deal! We have to plump him up for his heart surgery in March! Lindsey is the tallest & is like in the 44th percentile for height. This is an accomplishment since all 4 of them are scrawny & weigh like 30lbs! hehee! Oh & Avery's illness is just that, an illness. She was negative for strep so it's most likely viral & will stay the course. So just like we thought she would be staying home sick from school. Brendan & Lindsey did not really like hearing that! haha! Our day get's even better, the "well check-up day" turned into "Flu shot day". Yes, the three of them all got shots! UGH! All that preparing I did telling them no shots because it was a "well check-up" went right out the window! There I was consoling them after they each burst into tears! Oh did I feel bad! Luckily after the flu shot Dr Mahoney took each one of them over to the special treat box for a prize. I am now the proud owner of two planes you put together & a bottle of Santa bubbles! =] I think in the future...

I better watch what I promise them!...

no more cribs...

The tribe is now WAY over three & a half years old and we I just decided to finally take down their cribs at our house. They have been sleeping on a bunk bed at Grandma's house for a few months but still slept in cribs at our house. Weird I know but you work with what you have. It took me about half the day to tackle this but in the end I was SO happy that I finally did it. I was not able to get the room all put back together completely by the time the tribe arrived home from school. Brendan was the first one to notice the BIG changes in their room. He looked around the room & said there's no more cribs! He then asked me where was he going to sleep? Awhh.. I told him he was a BIG boy now & he would be sleeping on a BIG BOY mattress. He thought that was EXTRA special! Little did he know that the mattress was the one from his crib! LOL! One day soon we will get them a REAL BIG KID bed. But for now at least it's...
 

The room is almost ready!

Their first night out of the cribs!

My BIG boy!

Can you tell how happy Aave was?!

Linz & her "Patty", all is right in the world!

no more cribs...

EVERY vote counts!...

If you are a friend of mine on Face Book you would have seen me acting like a CRAZY person for the past month trying to get everyone to vote for  the tribe in a Chick-fil-A Fall Festival Costume Contest. Sorry for being a pain & posting every day about it but I really wanted to win! It started out as a FUN Fall family event & turned into this crazy competition. We went to our local Chick-fil-A for a Fall Festival one night last month. They had this costume contest for the kids which I thought would be fun. As most people know we LOVE Chick-fil-A & always attend "Family Night" at the one near my Mom's. Well, this was our first "Family Night" at the Chick-fil-A near us. The promotion sounded like fun so we were there. Camryn dressed as a "Damsel in Distress", Brendan a "Knight in shining Armor", Avery was a "Bride" & Lindsey was of course a "Mermaid"! {She said she wanted to be a mermaid & never wavered!}. It was a mad rush to get there & then get them all dressed to then have their picture taken. Everyone smiled EXCEPT Camryn. She was acting her part as the damsel in distress for sure! LOL! 

 Besides the Costume Contest they had face painting, pumpkin decorating & a characture artist. Well the costume contest portion of their Fall Festival turned into a Face Book only competition. We had to get people to vote on the best dressed child! Oh did I try to promote the contest. I think I posted something about it every day & pleaded with people to vote for them. It ended up that Brendan was getting more votes than his sisters. SO what started out as getting people to vote for the tribe turned into voting for Brendan. Nothing like splitting the vote! Ha! In the end on the last day of voting it came down to one vote. Crazy but true, & Brendan lost by ONE vote! Sadly I think I may have cost him the contest! You see every person could vote for each child once & I not only voted for each of my children but I voted for other kids too! I voted for the winner! If anything I'm glad he won because he was adorable! Oh by the way the winning prize which was 20 FREE MEALS! Yes, I think I was more excited about getting FREE food than him actually being able to claim victory! So the next time you are asked to vote for something remember...

EVERY vote counts!...

HaLlOwEeNiE events part 2...

I know I am SO late in posting these pictures! Sorry! Life overtook me & postponed my plans! I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL October & most especially a SAFE Halloween! I really cannot believe how October has come & gone already! YIKES! I have SO many pictures to post!! Well here goes our...

The gang decorating pumpkins!

Uncle Andy & Mr B

Grandma, can you believe she is 80?!

Two of my men...

I think this pic says it all! Love them!

Avery flashing us that smile!

The boys...

Brendan, Anthony & Linz became FAST friends!

The girls...

The fab four!

Halloweenie events Part 2...

Dear Santa...

I know, I know, it is not even Halloween & I am writing about Santa Claus! Well, here in the Fulton home the talk is ALL about Santa! I have to blame retail stores because Christmas has already arrived in many a store! It is October people!! Now each time we enter the mall they want to know if they will get to visit Santa. UGH! Now come late November if they will actually sit on his lap will be another story! Each year our picture with Santa is interesting to say the least! ha!

This year, I think, will be the year, the year of them being inquisitive & most importantly the year we can bribe them to behave for fear Santa will not come! LOL! I know Christmas is NOT about Santa Claus but when you are over run with three year old's you do what you have to do just to get by! =] Just the other day we received a package in the mail FULL of DVD's for the tribe. Oh was that such a treat! {Thank you Melissa!} One of the movies was "The Polar Express". I told them it was about Christmas & Santa Claus. That was all they needed to hear because they all agreed that was the one they wanted to watch. It was a little hard in the beginning to get them to sit still but about 20 minutes in they were content & ALL eyes were on the screen. We ended up explaining things through out the movie for them to understand. SO if you are one of those people who don't like talking throughout a movie you would not have enjoyed being in our house that night! LOL! I really think they enjoyed the movie especially at the end when they got to see Santa! Their eyes were BIG & mouths dropped! You see it's all about the BIG guy! Oh is this time of the year is going to be fun! Now on to the question of the day...

I made the mistake of asking them what they would like to receive from Santa, that is IF they were good. {Because we all know that Santa knows when they are bad or good! =]}Oh were their minds working hard. They each came up with such interesting items to add to their "list". Avery & Lindsey knew right away what they wanted. They each spoke for one another & told me they wanted a baby doll{I vote for water babies}, a diaper bag, a toy baby for each doll, a baby bottle & sippy cup, diapers, cell phone & a set of keys. WHEW! That was a mouth full! If you did not know this by now, Avery is all about technology! She really does think that "her" phone can call people & "her" keys can unlock car doors! If we unlock the door before she does she gets quite upset! hahah! Aave & Linz then said Camryn wanted all of that too! Camryn however told me she wanted Dora puzzles. She LOVES Dora & is ALL about doing puzzles these days. Brendan is such a mixture of them all. He can play with just about anything so if Santa brought him a baby doll he would be A OK! Now we all know he is NOT going to do that to the poor boy but if he did he'd be ok. Brendan later told us that he would like some trains & race cars!! The boy in him is coming through!! YAY! {** Addendum ** The best part about all of this is that since this "list" was made we received a TON of hand me downs & almost every item on their "list" was in those boxes! We are SO very blessed!} I cannot wait for them to be old enough to actually write their own...

Dear Santa...

guilty as charged!...

We were all at Grandma's house & it finally happened, we ran out of tooth paste! I hate it when that happens! I  We had used up all of our Cinnamon Rush Crest tooth paste! LOVE me some Cinnamon! =] I am such a creature of habit & did NOT want to use another kind let alone flavor but today I did just that! Come on, I know I am not the only parent out there that has been caught using their kid's tooth paste! Call me...

guilty as charged!...