Catch up time!!

Well it's been way to long since I last posed...of course!  I finally feel like we are somewhat getting on a routine around here these days though so I am now going to try get back into the swing of things with the blog world. 
Tre will be 4 months old in just a few days and is one chunky monkey!  We love his round little squishy body and I seriously can't get enough of him.  He for sure is the easiest most laid back baby I've ever had...so you can imagine the joy in my heart on the fifth that I got a good natured little man..or maybe by now I just get how to get a newborn on a schedule, who knows, but it's going great!  Of course we have our crazy "I have no idea what we did today, the house is destroyed, and we're having cereal for dinner" kind of days. But that's to be expected right?
So, doing a little catchup since he was born and I last posted. A few days before Christmas Austin became SUPER SICK.  I took into instacare, got a negative strep test, so of course was told it was a virus and was sent home.  I let it go on for a few more days and he just kept getting worse and worse.  By Sunday night he had a fever of 105, was as white as a ghost, and was screaming in pain over his stomach...so back to instacare we went.  They sent us straight to the ER because his white blood cell count was off the charts and they were afraid they had appendicitis.  As soon as we got there they hooked him up to IVs because he was apparently dehydrated, gave him some morphine, and also some fever reducer which helped. The kid was higher then a kite and was hilarious :) He made some of the funniest comments and just kept telling me how much he loved the hospital.  One of the nurses feel head over hills for him and brought him the cutest stuffed animal puppy..he's slept with it every night since :) We did ultra sounds, drew more blood, CAT scan..then come to find out he really did have strep.  But when it gets that bad you can have a false negative strep test.  So they kept him for a little longer for observation and then sent us home...at 3 am, made for a long night that's for sure.  Of course he couldn't be the ONLY one to get sick, so after that Dru, Talon came down with bronchitis, and Tre came down with RSV...needless to say with a 5 week old baby and 5 kids...I was a mess.  I was literally up all hours of the night going from room to room filling up humidifiers, rubbing oils, giving meds, and cuddling sickies.  We had to take TRE in to get suctioned out a couple of times, but lucky enough he didn't get to bad so we never had to admit him.  Thanks heavens!  Longest two weeks of my Liiiiiife!
Christmas was great! This was the first year we decided to actually stay home and do it at our house instead of traveling to grandparents. (of course they didn't love it. :)  but with a new baby, it was super nice to just be in the comfort of our own home.  The kids were spoiled and we had a  absolute blast.  Ben took the boys to a new movie, I took Brooklyn ice skating, we made yummy Christmas cookies, lots of treats and great food!
New Years was great also.  We had a few couples come over, played games, watched the ball drop, and again ate way to much! :)
Last Saturday was a pretty big day around here.  Brooklyn was baptized and Tre was blessed..talk about an emotional mommy day.  Pretty crazy to have that happening to your oldest and your youngest on the same day. It was awesome, and tons of family and friends came so it was a pretty great day filled with lots of love and support.  I'm so proud of Brooklyn.  She is growing up way to fast, I just want to freeze time some days!  She's reading like a champ and constantly wanting to talk about all of the good books she's reading.  She has a great group of little friends around here and is so excited to get outside the past few days and start riding bikes with all of them.  Mom is too!! I can't wait for warmer weather!
No for the mom of the year story...i have cried to many of you over this already so you know what is coming. :) SOOO, after we had Tre and I was called to be primary president in our ward...life was a little overwhelming.  It was getting cold outside, and as much as I loved our lab Bella, I felt like she was getting neglected all of the time outside.  Ben had said from the beginning that he would NEVER have an indoor dog...I was lucky to get an outdoor dog to tell you the truth.  He just isn't a fan, something I've just learned to accept :) I grew up with dogs and love them, so I was ecstatic when we got Bella.  But she was in a Kennel in the back and never got attention unless I was out there with her..so I decided it wasn't the right time for our family to have a pet so I found her another home.  A great one actually where I know she will be loved and well taken care of, so It was better for everyone. But boy was Brooklyn mad at me...screamed and cried when they came to get her (even though beforehand we prepared her and she agreed.  In the moment...not so much) she was crying, I was crying, she was yelling at me and trying to pull Bella out of the lady's car,...very very dramatic.  Well, after a few months after that...all Brooklyn talked about was wanting another puppy.  So I came up with the genius idea of finding a small indoor dog that was already house trained and good with kids. Perfect right? Oh boy ...story 2: I begged Ben for WEEKS, found the perfect one, and went and  bought our perfect little mini labradoodle Oakley.  Cute as can be, 3 months old, didn't shed, already house trained...the ideal dog for our family.  I found her online on Feb. 9th..yes, Ben's birthday. haha, so you can imagine the joy in his heart when the one thing he didn't want, I bought on his birthday lol!! Things were great, I was supermom and Brooklyn was in puppy heaven....that all lasted a good 2 whole days. :) let me just tell you, that puppy became PSYCHO.  Running FULL speed everywhere, hiding all of the time so we couldn't find her, started having accidents in the house, chewed on EVERYTHING, was the worst little nipping puppy I have every seen, like CONSTANTLY nipping at my boys all day so they were terrified of her! She barked like crazy and the kids and full on stated getting aggressive with them.  I would be trying to put Tre to sleep and she would sit there and bark and whine the whole time and kept waking Tre up.  I had NO IDEA a small indoor dog was SO MUCH WORK.  I grew up with big outdoor dogs like Bella was, so I had no clue.  After one week I was a mess with five kids, one which was a newborn, and a puppy.  So, once again, we found Oakley another home. :( Brooklyn was sad of course, but then came to realize this little pup was not the sweet cuddly thing she thought she was so wasn't as devastated as I thought she would be.  But oh boy did I feel horrible. Cried for days over getting her another puppy and then just turning around and selling her. WHO DOES THAT?!?!  I definitely reached my limit though and made the choice when I realized that this puppy was taking time away from my baby, taking time away from kids, and THAT was when I decided my kids come over a dog any days...so she went.  Maybe another time or another day we will have the kind life where a pup fits in...but not right now!
So as you can see, life has been great! But have to admit, sine we had Tre I feel like I our life has been a whirlwind! Actually before that.  Moving here, having Tre, becoming primary president, thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, (Austin, Ben, Brooklyn, and Valentines day within 2 weeks of each other) Baptisms, birthdays, puppy, etc..it goes on and on!  It's been nice to just take a little bit of a breather and relax during January.  I started running again and just signed up for my first half  so I'm nervous but really excited for that again! It's a whole new ball game knowing that I have had my last baby and can officially get back in shape FOREVER!!
One thing I have really come to realize is how blessed I have been with the family and friends I have been given. We had tons of support and love throughout all of the business and I cannot believe how many people have reached out to us, brought us dinners, baby gifts, called to check on us when we were sick, helped with my other kids, all those that traveled long distances, and of course my girl nights outs :) We love you all and hope this new year brings you just as much happiness as we are knowing it's going to bring us!
Here is a long strip of updated pics from the past few months! One of these days I will rearange my otuline on the blog...for now, this will have to do :)

                            My handsome six yr old                                      

 

 Austin made this for me at school for Christmas :) favorite xmas gift ever

A happy mommy moment, Brooklyn reading to Dru

Cookie dough is a Sunday must treat in the Fullmer household :)

 

 

 This was my sick baby at the instacare when he was super sick..see, i wasn't kidding, he was sooooo sick. Still makes me so sad it had to get this bad before someone did something!

Him on drugs :) Feeling a little better now!

My adorable bald baby...look at those cheeks!

LOVES bath time!!

Brooklyn's new best friend.  Please meet Furby. Xmas gift...most annoying toy EVER ps :)

Smiles with mom!!

Piggy Backs :)

Dressing up 2-3 times a day in ten different super heroes costumes before noon around here these days

Visits from Grandpa and Grandma McSpadden!

These are the smiles I get EVERY TIME I look at this little chunky monkey.  Oh I love him!

Big hugs!

Aunt Kelli gave us this adorable little outfit so I had to take a pic :)

Happy sixth birthday buddy!

Seventeen 6 year old little boys for two hours...enough said :)

Cheese!!

 

Yes, he's my last so I will capture every second of his day with my camera :)

Ok, had to take a picture of our pup Oakley...even though she's not our pup anymore.  She was super cute that's for sure..only when she was calm and being held may I add :)

Happy Birthday to my BEAUTIFUL eight year old! Wow, how did that happen?

18 eight year old girls for her birthday party...yep, I'm crazy

 

Every Valentines day I plaster Ben's mirror with tons of hearts.  On each heart is written something I love about him...I easily could have written 100 more!

 

We are all a little tired these days!

This year on Valentines I woke up with a poster Valogram from the hubby :) It was the best gift ever.  I'm a super sentimental person and things like this melt me :) Later that day Ben said, "One of these days I'll be able to get you diamonds instead of poster boards." Honestly, I totally want the poster boards over diamonds ANY day.  Luckily for him I'm not high maintenance AT ALL

 

Tre gets this big wide eyed look every time he sees my phone lately :)

Playing in the snow :)