Building a Forever Family

Fullmer Family Christmas letter 2011

2011-12-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

Time again for the annual Fullmer family Christmas letter! Every year when I sit down to write this letter I cannot believe that it’s already time...where did the year go?! We thought we would send just a quick update as to what is going on in our busy lives and share with each of you what each person in our little family is up to!

Ben- Ben is amazing, I still don’t know how he does everything he does. He is still working at Im-Flash Technologies as a Purchasing Manager and enjoys his job. He works some long hours and crazy days, but enjoys the people he works with and likes what he does. Ben and I were able to go to Lake Powell this summer with some friends as a “couple’s getaway” and I’m pretty sure if it was up to my cliff diving husband...we would live there year round. He managed to get in a little bit of golf this summer (not as much as he wanted of course!) but some, and is now starting up the basketball season enjoying that. About this time last year he was called to be the 2^nd counselor in the bishopric, so that keeps him super busy with all of the meetings, ward activities, and youth things. On top of all of that, he is the world’s best husband, dad, and friend to all of us and everyone around him!

Aubrey- Of course mom feels like her head is spinning sometimes with everything she has going on! Four kids under the age of 6 is not an easy task...but I do enjoy it and wouldn’t trade it for any other job in the world. Somehow in the midst of being a full time mom I managed to train for my first full marathon! It was amazingly hard and very time consuming but it was a goal I set for myself and was super happy it was accomplished! Besides running, the hobbies as of late have been making bows, crafts here and there, scrapbooking, and of course my favorite night of the week…date night! Others include the daily tasks of being a taxi driver for all of the kidos, helping in the kids’ classrooms, keeping up with the house and everything around here…I feel oh so blessed to be the mom and wife of these amazing people in my life!

Brooklyn- I still can’t believe my oldest is almost 7 yrs. old!! Brooklyn is the light of our little family and makes us smile each and every day. She is quite the big sister of her 3 little brothers and is also a wonderful helper to mom throughout the day. She is involved in dance this year at jazz n place and we are so excited for her Christmas recital. This year we experienced T-ball for the first time with Brooklyn, and even though she is quite the little athlete…we have come to learn that T-ball is not for her and only made it through half of the season haha. She was the only girl on her team and she did NOT love that so it was a short and sweet T-ball season! Brooklyn had some huge accomplishments this year, one of which was learning to ride a two wheeler! Dad took her to the church parking lot and after a few hard landings here and there...she got the hang of it! She spent the entire summer on that bike and already is asking when it will be warm enough for her to start riding again. Brooklyn is in the 1^st grade this year and LOVES it! She is doing amazing in reading, math, and making lots of little girlfriends! Like I said earlier, she is the best little helper and although mom has to remind her sometimes that “she is not the mom” haha… she loves her brothers and mom and dad sure are proud of her!

Austin- What a sweet little 4 yr. old we have on our hands here. Austin is the best kid and we are so grateful he is our first born boy to pave the way for his other little brothers! Austin is in preschool this year and I cannot tell you how much he loves his teacher Ms. Kelly and how great he is doing. My 4 yr. old is already reading here and there and every day comes home from school so excited to tell us about what he learned that day. Austin is the best big brother ever and is sooo good with little kids. He chases his brothers around all day and plays so good with them. I love watching my boys grow up together and see them get along so well. Austin also loves riding his bike, is obsessed with the Wii right now and if it was up to him he would be play Mario Brothers ALL DAY LONG! He is currently in swimming lessons and becoming quite the little fish! Austin also did T-ball this year, but he actually really liked it. Anything sports Austin Loves…hmmm wonder who he gets that from? We are so proud of our little Austie and hope he knows how much we love him!

Talon- Oh Talon…my crazy little 3 years old ha ha…where to start? As of late, Talon has been quite the big boy around here! Talon has definitely grown up a lot this past year and keeps mom wondering how a three year old can be so busy and have so much attitude! A little bit about Talon, he loves anything that has to do with super heroes! Batman, spider man, green lantern, buzz light year, ninja turtles….you name it, he loves it! He LOVES to dress up in all the super hero costumes and wears them all day long! He loves his older brother Austin and is constantly trying to keep up with him and be just as big. I have to say though that out of all of the kids, Talon is a huge mommy’s boy and I LOVE it. He is constantly telling me he loves me, wanting to sit on my lap, be right by me, hold my hand, etc. Love it! He is a great big brother to Dru, and loves that Dru is getting old enough to start wrestling and playing with him. We love Talon to pieces and are so grateful he has added so much fun to our little family!

Dru- My baby is 18 months old!! I say that without trying to cry…I still can’t believe how big he is getting! Dru is so much fun…sooooo busy, but so much fun! I swear I am chasing him all day long and he is constantly into EVERYTHING. We call him “Dru the destroyer” because I kid you not, you turn your head for 2 seconds and he has either pulled something out, broken something, or is doing something he should not be doing! (example: we went to visit ben at work yesterday and as soon as I set him down he ran through the security breach thing that nobody can go through, set off the alarms in the whole place, and I couldn’t go after him so had to watch 2 security guards run after him…as he was giggling super loud by the way! (A moment that was hopefully not a glance into his future!) We have so many funny stories like that I could go on and on! He keeps us on our toes that’s for sure! Ben’s favorite part about this little one is that he is a Daddy’s boy ALL THE WAY! If Ben is in the room…he wants nothing to do with you! The hard part is during sacrament on Sunday when mom is sitting there with all 4 kids by herself with daddy on the stand. If Dru realizes at all “Oh Dad’s up there!” …it’s over. The whole rest of that hour is spent pinning him down and bribing him with treats to stop trying to get away from mom! We are having so much fun with this little boy and want him to stop growing up so fast!

Well, there you have it…there’s our little family in a nutshell! I cannot express in words how much you all mean to us and how grateful we are to you for your kind and loving examples. We hope during this Christmas season we all stop and take a moment to remember our Savoir, his birth, and all he has blessed our lives with. To teach our little ones and share with them the importance and true meaning this Christmas season brings. We love you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Love- The Fullmer Family

(Ben, Aubrey, Brooklyn, Austin, Talon, and Dru)

Family Pics!

2011-11-21T13:47:00.000-08:00

So we finally were able to get our family pictures done a few months ago and I LOVE them!! I look at them and still can't believe how blessed I am to have these four amazing beautiful children and such an amazing husband. I love how real these pictures are and how their cute little personalities come out in them. I am so grateful for my little family and honestly feel so privileged to be their mom and his wife. Seriously.. I'm a lucky girl.

My little princess! Brooklyn has been the best little girl I could have ever imagined. I can't believe she is almost 7 YEARS OLD!!! She is the sweetest daughter, sister, and friend. She's doing amazing in school and has gotten 100% on every spelling test she's had this year! She's definitely developing a little "attitude" as the months go by haha..but to be honest it's pretty mild and she has so many good qualities that when the attitude comes out all we can do is laugh about because it's so not like her. She's the best big sister and even though she still asks for a sister...I think she kind of likes being the only girl and getting to do all of the fun girl things with mom!

I LOVE this picture..that missing front tooth and that smile, I can almost hear her giggling in this picture..Aww I love it!

Austin James, how I love you!! Look at how handsome this little man is..I might be bias but I'm pretty sure he's a studly 5 year old! Not only that, but he has the kindest little heart of any 4 year old I know. I get alot from people, "He's kind of sensitive huh?" (which drives me crazy) and yes he does cry here and there (what kid doesn't by the way?) but also is ALLLL BOY. He's obsessed with the Wii right now (mario), LOVES every action figure possible, and is constantly wresting and fighting with his brothers all day long! His teacher is always commenting on how awesome he's doing in school..already reading!! And out of all of my kids, he's the best with Dru. He LOVES little toddlers and chases Dru around all day and plays with him constantly...he's the best big brother ever!

My boys..Love this picture!

Oh Talon..what to say about you. Well, you're 3 years old....that should pretty much explain everything!! No, really he's a good kid, but alot to handle these days! I don't care what anyone says about "terrible twos," three is way harder!! When they are two they are still to little to really know what they are doing, but when they are three they know..so it's just naughty! Talon is a fun kid though, and even though he has definitely been the one to give us a run for our money.. we love him to pieces and love the spunk he adds to our little family. The thing I LOVE LOVE LOVE about Talon is that he is a HUGE mommies boy. All of my kids love me but out of all of them Talon wants me all of the time..never dad, never brothers, etc.. if mom is around, he's on my lap, laying on my arm and asking to be my "cuddle bug." He's definitely all boy, and right no LOVES Green Lantern, the Hulk, and Ninja Turtles like you wouldn't believe. I love it and love his imagination. He's so much fun!

Oh Dru B. (what we like to call you around here these days.) look at those eyes...they're going to be trouble some day so please us them wisely. I am always hearing from everyone that you have your own look and don't look like the others. Honestly I think you look like mom and the older you get the more "Austin" I see you (which is all McSpadden) so we shall see! You have been so much fun little man. I have been trying to engrave in my mind and heart that you are my last little baby, so I'm enjoying every little stage of your life and find myself staring at you wanting to stop all time. You're growing up way to fast and I'm not ready for this stage of my life to be done so please slow down! Dru is 17 months old and is EVERYWHERE! He's into everything and I can't even begin to .

Me and my girl

Me and my boys

Mommy and my kids

(I laugh at this picture because I tell Ben all of the time that I feel like a single mom because of ho busy he is with church and work so when we saw this picture we called it my "single mom picture." Really Ben hadn't showed up yet for the photo shoot and the photographer was just taking some random pictures and I liked this one!

And of course we can't forget Bella!! This is Brooklyn's best friend of course, so we brought her along for a few pictures!

Daddy and his boy! Out of our kids, Dru loves Daddy like none of them ever have...or ever have shown it at this age I should say. This kid follows Dad EVERYWHERE! If it's between Dad and Mom..it's Dad. If mom is holding him and dad walks in the room, he wants dad. It breaks my heart!!! He even pushes my hands away when I reach for him if Ben is holding him and shakes his head No. The one good thing about it is when he's crying...dad gets to take care of it!! haha!

Me and my hubby! I still can't believe we are going on 7 years tomorrow! Wow, crazy crazy. Feels like yesterday sometimes I was set up on blind date with the most handsome man ever and my life has never been the same! Love you babe!

My little family...need I say more??

This was as close as a kids picture of them all together that we were able to get...they did pretty good but once we got around to their pics they were SOO done!

Red Rock Relay

2011-10-25T13:55:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to post a few pics from the very eventful red rock relay but haven't really gotten around to it. For those who have never ran a team realy before...it's crazy insane. Why we runners like to do things like this to ourselves...we will never know. Living in a van for 2 days with 6 other girls, 12 total (six in another van that you switch off with), no sleep, living in grosse running clothes, eating ppj everything, lucky if you get a shower during the whole event, and running crazy hard legs (3 to be exact) during crazy hours of the night...the list goes on and on!! The girls I did it with were so much fun and I had an awesome time. I swear everytime I do one of these that I will never do it again..but low and behold, for some reason I give in everytime!

This year has been a fun running year for me. After I had Dru I needed something to get my rear in gear so did the unthinkable and signed up for a full marathon. Before my full came about, I did the St. George half, then my marathon, the red rock relay (which my legs totaled about 23 miles), and then I just signed up for a fun Haloween Half marathon I'm getting ready to do this weekend. Needless to say...I am burned out! Im excited for this half to be over and not have to feel like I HAVE to run 10 miles this next Saturday. It will be nice just running for fun again and maybe getting into a new hobby..who knows! Anyway, thank you for all of you fun girls who made the RRR so much fun, LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Don't worry mom, not a reat tat..our team name was "Moms on the run"..on the run like "out of jail on the run"..so we had some fun tattoos on our arms, ankels, cars windows were decorated like jail bars, etc..kinda fun

The gang

Dinner the night before the race

And we're off!

Some fun pics

2011-09-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

There are just some cute fun pics that my little sister Kyli took with her camera so I thought I would share! She just got a camer a few months ago and is getting pretty good at it! These pics are from a family reunion we had this summer...kinda fun!

My little one year old trying to escape..his favorite game as of late

I know it's probably time to get rid of the binkie...but mom's not ready

Grandpa and Dru

Mommy waching her babies in the distance...

The girls! (Kyli mom and me.. we missed you Taucia!!) Our uncle took us out on his boat for the family reunion and decided to put us out on the tube...and boy did he ever. I pretty much couldn't MOVE my neck for 2 days after that because we got whipped around so much!! SO SO fun though!

Just had to put a few cute pics of the adoralbe little photographer. She's such an amazing girl..love her to death

Seriously should be a model!

Me and my little sis...

Newest Addition!!

2011-09-14T14:44:00.000-07:00

We would like to introduce the newest addition to our family...Bella, our new little white lab puppy!!! Yep, that's right, daddy finally gave in after lots of begging (and mommy finding exactly what she wanted so didn't really give him a choice and just told him we were getting puppy lol!) Brooklyn has been BEGGING for a dog...for FOREVER. Ben is not a huge dog fan but the past few months has given in a little here and there and admitted it would be good for our kids..he was just concerned because we don't have a fence. After I heard that, I took it as a go and started my research. From what I found out and read, labs are great dogs. Hyper as puppies, yes, but what puppy isn't? And mommy needs a running buddy at 5 am this winter, so I'm planning on running all of the hyper out of her! We purchased her from a guy in Orem who was so super nice and gave us a great deal. Ben and I left the kids at home and thought we would just go "look" at the puppies...but as soon as I got out of the car and saw Bella, I FELL IN LOVE!! Oh my heck she was so dang cute and so cuddly. The guy saw how much I wanted her, saw how leery Ben was.(especially about the price...full bread white female labs can be pricey by the way!) So gave us a great deal, knowing we were going to give her a great home. So it was a done deal!! As we drove a way I looked at Ben and this was his exact comment, " I literally feel sick. I'm more scared to bring a puppy home then a baby...I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO TAKE CARE OF A PUPPY!!!" So, off to Pet Smart we went. Got all of the advice, necessities, and treats you can imagine...and then home to give the kids the biggest surprise of their little lives. After I took the babysitter home I held Bella and walked to the front where the kids and Ben were just hanging out...oh my gosh, the look on Brooklyn's face was PRICELESS!! I will never forget that reaction for as long as I live. That puppy has gotten more love and attention then you can imagine!! She gets carted around EVERYWHERE, played with if we are home AT ALL, and is loving the attention. As of right now we are working on the following so if you have any advice pls feel free to help: not nipping at the kids. (I grab her snout and say NO! but she thinks we are just playing more and more when we do that and doesn't quite get it. Going potty in the same area of the yard...not working so great ( I went and bought some bark because someone told me if I start taking her on the bark bed that she will do that..not working, she likes the grass to much) and just the simple little tricks. She's got sit down, fetch, stay (kinda), etc..

Ben is totally against letting her in the house...but we've managed to sneak her in here and there (she stays on her pillow the whole time so it's not a problem and we love to love on her) she is kennel trained already and doesn't make a peep at night..what a good girl. She's definitely a smart little thing and we LOVE having another girl in the family ha ha! To all of those dog lovers, this is our first so we kinda have no idea what we are doing, if there is are any hidden tricks..pls pls share!! I will also have you know that I can't Ben ALL OF THE TIME checking on Bella, petting her, and when I can't find him in the house guess where he is???playing in the back with Bella!! LOL! He loves her..he just won't admit it! I think he came to terms that this is usually the time when we start thinking about having another baby and since that's not happening...a puppy was the next best thing to make the wife happy! haha Thanks babe, we love you!!!

Just a couple hours after getting her home

Sleepy little thing she is...she's growing out of that now. Crazy how fast they grow. She was 6 weeks when we got her and is 8 now. I kid you not she's so much bigger already.

My boys are still a little nervous around her but are getting way better. They have learned to just stand up to her and to stop running if they don't want he to chase them. That was hard to teach...um, of course you run away from the running dot mom! They didn't get that you need to stop or they will chase you! They love her now!

3 years old!

2011-08-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

WHOOO look at me go! 3 new blog posts in one week...that's big for me! So..My little Talon just turned 3 this last week so we wanted to share a few pics of the fun day and thank my friend Jill for letting me steal her camera for the eventful day. At my last family reunion I took some family pics for my Grandma and as we were leaving my cousin came up to give me a hug goodbye so I set my camera on top of the hodd of my car to hug him and right as I let go it rolled off and crashed onto the cement..completely destroying it. Yes, my big Nikon photography camera that cost an arm and a leg..which is going to cost the other arm and leg to repair. Many tears and frustrated words over that one...hopefully I get it fixed soon but it's going to be quite the process. So annoying!
ANYWAYS..we had a great day for Talon's 3rd birthday! He had a blast and we loved watching how excited he was to play and enjoy it. He woke up at 6:45 a.m. of course super excited and wanting to open ASAP. I know we are mean parents because we never let our kids open their gifts until that night because Ben wants to be apart it. A tradition I do with my kids every birthday morning is get up, get ready, and go to Costco to pick out a cake and a new movie. It is seriously their favorite part! Luckily my neighbor called and took Brooklyn and Austin for me to have a play day with her kids so I only had Talon and Dru. We met daddy for lunch at McDonald's and then headed to Costco and picked out a green Dinosaur cake and a new Ninja Turtle movie. After that we went home, had quiet time with our new movie on, and then got ready for Monkey Island! Monkey Island is a place where they have those huge blow up slides and jumpy things in this huge building that they just run around and play in. The kids go crazy! We brought pizza and cake and had some of our friends come and enjoy the party! After that we headed home and opened a few gifts from mom and dad and then off to bed!
Talon has been so much fun at this age. He is for sure my hardest 3 year old when it comes to talking back, throwing fits, being wild, and not listening..but, in the same breath he is the sweetest most loving boy and has been so much fun. He is constantly saying the funniest things. I love how 3 yr olds have their own language, it is so funny. For example, last night he wouldn't finish his dinner and I told him he couldn't go outside with Dad until he finished. He literally sat there for an hour crying and when it was to late and Dad came back in the house I said, "See buddy, now you can't go outside because you didn't eat your dinner fast enough." His response in full on tears, "MOM! YOU BROKE MY FEELINGS!!!" I couldn't help but laugh so he cried harder of course. He is for sure the biggest Ma-Ma's boy our of all our kids..that I LOVE. He constantly wants me, wants to hold my hand, wants to sit on my lap. If he's taking a bath, playing outside, etc..he wants mom. LOVE IT, it melts my heart every time. Here are a few fun things about our little bug at this age!

-LOVES Buzz Lightyear
-LOVES Ninja Turtles
-LOVES Lightening McQueen and Franchesco on the new Cars movie
-LOVES fighting with his brother Austin and wresting ALL OF THE TIME
-LOVES the color green, and if there isn't green, beware!
-We all over how he calls Brooklyn "Grooklyn" and Austin "Austie"
- Loves riding his Buzz bike
- Loves taking baths and it's a fight to get him out every time
- Loves animals but only to look, never to touch unless someone is there helping
- Favorite movie is Buzz Lighyear, Ninja Turtles, and Cars
- Favorite food is chicken nuggets by far..and anything with ketchup
- Is super tall for his age and is just a big kid. Him and Austin and wear the same size clothes, shoes, everything.
-Loves mommy and daddy and we love him!
* Thank you for being such a good boy Talon bug and for bringing our family so much joy every day. It's always an adventure to see what you're going to say or do! We hope you and Austin are always best friends as you are now and you remember how much your family loves you. LOVE YOU, LOVE YOU!!!

Famous Costco cakes! If you haven't had him they are so yummy!! Of course I ordered a green dino one, and Talon was so excited when he saw it he literally didn't take his eyes off of it until we checked out. It cracked me up!

Mommy cutting the cake at Monkey Island

Our daddy

I'm not where the blond hair comes from...but I LOVE IT! He's my dark skin blond boy and is super handsome...I'm in trouble with these little boys I think

A family tradition we have around here is for every birthday, the night before I blow up a whole bunch of balloons, wrap gifts, and hang up a birthday banner. Of course we had to get a Buzz Lightyear one..he was shaking he was so excited when he woke up and saw it, it was hilarious!

Mommy and her 3 year old

Daddy and his little Buzz

Cheese!

This is one of the gifts Talon received which he wears all of the time! This is actually Austin wearing it though and I had to put this here because this is the first thing I saw at 7am the next morning when I rolled over and opened my eyes. Austin staring back at me...scared me to death.

Mom Look!!

1st grader!!

2011-08-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's right! My baby is a first grader!! For those of you that understand the importance of that...HUGE! First grade means ALL DAY. She catches the bus at 8:50a.m. and doesn't get home until 3:45pm. The first week of school was a little rough but we made it through it! Brooklyn LOVES school and whenever it's summertime or even the weekend she's asking when she gets to go back to school, so I knew she was really excited about it. The first little hiccup was the bus driver...oh boy the bus driver. Last year Brooklyn's bus driver was one of her favorite parts about Kindergarten. He was a little old man who told jokes, made them laugh, and was just plain sweet. This year, NOT THE CASE. The first day of school he was super late because he made them have assigned seats (which Brooklyn didn't get to sit by one of her best friends so they both got off of the bus in tears over that) on the way home from school the first day I witnessed the bus driver SCREAMING (like in your face, shaking. spit everywhere kind of screaming. I counted 4 little kids crying off of the bus. He didn't yell at Brooklyn ever but it scared her so bad that during the next 3 prayers that was all her and her brothers prayed about "Pls help Brooklyn's bus driver to be nice.") which I DID NOT LIKE. So as soon as I got home I called the transportation dept. and complained. They called me back the next morning and come to find out 12 moms had been into their office THAT MORNING complaining about the same thing. To make a long story short, the head of the transportation department called me and apologized over and over. They had cameras on the bus so saw his behavior and reassured me he would no longer be the bus driver. Yep, when the Ma-Ma bear claws come out..! Brooklyn got the teacher I was hoping for so I was super happy about that, BUT, 2 days before school she had her baby! So Brooklyn has a sub (which she was nervous about as well) but then on top of that, the school decided that there were to many 1st graders in each classroom so were randomly going to select a few students from each class and make another 1st grade class with them. Brooklyn was terrified she was going to get switched into the other class but we made it through and she gets to stay with her sub/teacher so she's a happy camper! Her teacher is only out for a few weeks so I'm super excited she got this teacher and can't wait to watch my little girl learn to her heart's desire! So, now that all of that is over and we are a little more settled, this next weeks should be a lot better. She's having a little bit of a hard time adjusting to how long 1st grade is and comes home exhausted...and STARVING. But besides that she loves it and can't seem to talk enough about it.

The week before school started I started thinking about how crazy it is that I have a 6 year old already. I can't believe my only daughter is officially in full on school now! I know how nervous she was to start school so to surprise her I went and bought her a beautiful silver Tinkerbell necklace. The morning before she left I gave it to her and explained how proud of her I was and how much mommy and daddy love her. That this necklace was to be a reminder for her during the day of how much she is loved, and if she ever gets nervous just to hold on to the Tinkerbell charm and it will make her nerves go away. She of course LOVED it, and I kid you not that girl wheres it everywhere. She now believes there is magic power in it that helps her feel better, so she won't take it off! ha ha

Brooklyn is the best sister ever and such a big helper to me! I miss her like crazy during the day, and sometimes get a little tired of the wrestling, ninja turtle, action hero conversations during my days now instead of our daily dance parties and talk about hair , barbies, baby dolls and all of the important girls stuff!! But I do lover hearing about how much fun she had at school and all of the fun friends she is making at recess. She loves eating lunch at school and loves sharing all of what she learned that day when she gets home. It's an amazing thing to watch your kids grow up right before your eyes. It's funny being parents because sometimes I can't wait for my little ones to get a little older so they aren't so much work, but then they start to get older and I want to freeze time so they will stop growing up! Thank you to all of the friends and family out there who are are an influence in my kids' lives and help them along the way...it definitely takes a village. Thank you Brooklyn for being such such a good girl, a peacemaker, an example to your brothers and friends, for having such a positive attitude and for your tender little heart that melts mine every day. Your daddy and I hope that you have a love for school and realize how important school and your education is even at this age. We want the best for you and hope you always choose the right and see the good in everyone. WE LOVE YOU, thank you for being our everything! Here are a fun few facts about my little princess that at this age:

-Loves the color blue

-Loves dance but also loves soccer, riding her bike, and swims like a fish

-Is always the tallest in everything she does gradwise because of her legs that go on for days

-Has the most beautiful hair in the world and every person that sees it or trims it for me comments on how thick it is. Something you will probably hate while you're younger but love as you're older.

-Wants a dog and asks daily for one. (which we are hoping to accomplish after this winter)
-You get along with pretty much everyone you play with, but as of right now the two you play with the most are Marissa and Bailey.
-You are such a beautiful girl and love getting all dressed up, going to dance class, but at the same time you are SUPER athletic and love playing sports
-Favorite Princess..you like them all, but you love Tinkerbell and her little blue friend Silv
-Favorite Movies: You like alot but as of right now it is Rio and Nomeo and Juliet.
- You can be super timid and shy but at the same time went to Lagoon with us yesterday and went on the White Rollar Coaster, The Colassus, and Wicked...the 3 scariest rides in the park. We had so much fun with you!
-You have a very tender heart and it breaks pretty easy if mom looses her temper with you or if another adult or child gets upset or says anything mean to you.

-You love animals and want to keep everything as a pet. This summer that has included our friendly Toad we found in your windowell (Loala the toad that mom fried to death by leaving it out on our table in the back yard) every grasshoper known to man, and I'm pretty sure every rollie pollie in our backyard has been put in a jar somehow.

- You love being the only girl but still beg mom on a daily basis to have another baby in hopes that it's a girl...good luck convincing your Dad on that one my dear!

-Favorite food: Ham and cheese sandwhich with Miracle whip. You want it everyday for lunch and if I put Mayo on it you gag and can tell on the first bite!

-Love your mom and dad and the famous two phrases around here, "Love you to the moon and back." and "Best Friends Forever."

*Love you baby!

Waiting for the Bus!

Cheese!

Brooklyn and one of her best friends Bailey. These two were inseperable the first week of school. I have never seen to little girls hold hands so tight in my life. Thanks to Bailey for helping Brooklyn get around and helping witht he nerves!

Getting on the bus!

Mom taking random class pictures on the first day after having driven down to the school and watched her get off of the bus, walk to her classroom and get settled in. Trying to make myself leave was the harderst part!

Weddings, Family Reunions, etc..

2011-08-25T16:21:00.000-07:00

Well the summer has come to an end! Bitter sweet I know, but we did have a great summer and here is a quick highlight of what we were up to! Ben's Brother Jake got married in Arizona in July so Ben and i drove up without kiddos and went to the wedding. It was so much fun to just get away with just the hubby and to go to Arizona. It was 114 degrees and miserable outside!! Although, it was definitely a beautiful place, I loved the palm trees..they're my fav! Jake and Summer were married at 12:30pm so we were taking pictures right after during the hottest part of the day!! You couldn't even breathe normal because the air was just so so hot, my lungs were not used that! Of course while we were all dying of heat and not loving the sun beating down on us my husband makes the comment, " I don't know what you guys are talking about, it's not even hot." (He LOVES the heat and would move to Phoenix in a heartbeat!) The reception was so fun and event though the 12 hour drive killed my back, it was fun being able to go on a road trip not having to worry about what snacks were being spilled all over the place or who needed to stop every 2 min to go potty. 2 weekends after that was the Fullmer reception so it was in Rexburg, Idaho. We drove down for that too, kids in tact this time, and they loved it. Summer's colors were so pretty and they held in in a neighbors backyard...it turned out BEAUTIFUL. Dru of course was OUT OF CONTROL, tipping over every flower pot he could find, or pulling ever table cloth he could get hands on off, crying every 5 min over falling down or crying because he wanted every person's cupcake he saw them eating. I lasted 2 hours and then off to Grandmas for bed we went. It was a super fun weekend having the whole fullmer clan home (6 kids in the family, all married, and 3 have kids so it was quite the event having everyone home all together. So much fun and whenever I go to Ben's it makes me want to have another baby! I love the big families! All of his siblings get along so well and it's a riot when we all get together, I love it! Then I come back to reality when I'm back home, paying for school clothes, dance, T-ball, doc appts, groceries...and I don't know how people do it with that many kids!

The other family event we just got home from was the McSpadden family reunion! Every year during the first weekend of August my dad's family gets together and we have so much fun. This year we went to Park City. My uncle rented this AWESOME cabin that slept 25 people that was in the heart of the Mountains and was beautiful! It was close to a lake, which we played in all day that Friday. Between all of the uncles there were 3 boats, so we had a blast. My uncle of course suggested me, my mom, and my sister Kyli tubed in this huge couch like tub he had, so we did. The water was SOOO choppy that day and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I kid you not, we were thrown around like rag dolls! Finally after a good 15 min. run we hit a wave that was larger then Niagara Falls, flew a good 10 ft in the air and that was the end of it. I couldn't MOVE my neck for a good week after that experience! The next day the guys golfed, the girls shopped...pure bliss. From there I headed to Boise with my fam for the week. My sister Taucia who wouldn't make it to the family reunion met us there too and we had a great time. I love that my kids are getting to the ages where they can sleep pretty much wherever and for the most part all sleep through the night..a stage I am thoroughly enjoying! The week consisted of my mom doing all of our hair of course, a few good runs with my little sister Kyli along with some bike rides around the hood where my mechanical skills came in place quite a few times as her bike chain fell off multiple times. (it was hilarious actually and I was laughing so hard I was crying) my kids playing with my parents dogs which have lead to to mom and kids wanting a puppy (which there has been allot of talk of getting a Fullmer puppy sometime after Christmas which the kids are thrilled about). The highlight of the Boise trip was Roaring Springs water park for sure. We played for hours and hours there and my kids could NOT get enough. Brooklyn even went on some of the big slides and had a blast!

As you can see it's been a great summer! I love summertime but was definitely ready for the school year to start and am even a little excited for fall...it's getting to hot for my liking. Thanks to all of the family members who helped with my kids during the trips all of the attention they received...they were spoiled rotten! I am so lucky to have such wonderful family/extended family and miss you al already!

xoxo

My handsome Talon bug in his sweet little wedding tux..love this boy

Heart breaker anyone? Yes, he is a stud, I have to say so myself.

My handsome baby boy. Still cannot believe he is already one and all over the place..officially out of the baby stage..not sure how I feel about that!

My sweet Brooklyn girl..she just started 1st grade believe it or not and I miss her so much all day!! This is the first year she is gone ALL DAY and she is loving it ...mom misses her little helper though and is now stuck at home with all of these boys!! She's at such a fun age though and I'm loving her grow up and all of her fun little stages.

So..we were at the Mesa temple and Ben thought these cactus' were pretty sweet so wanted some pictures by them. He was cracking me up because he's never super admiment about things but this was one thing he wanted for sure, a picture my the cactus. So funny

The happy couple! They are so adorable and so in love, it was fun watching them start their new life!

While we were there we went to visit one of my BEST friends Shellee! They have been living in Phoenix for a long time now and she has been wanting me to come visit forever...so we finally did! This girl is quite the trooper lately, she just brought home her adorable baby Brock from the hospital 2 weeks ago, but in this pic he was still in the hospital diagnosed with spina bifida. It has been quite the roller coaster ride for this little family with baby boy not home yet, mom having MULTIPLE MAJOR surgeries over and over and Grandma taking over. (Thank goodness for them!) It was so much fun just vising with her though in her BEAUTIFUL home and having some much need high school friend time! Miss you Shell, thanks so much for making some time for us!

Uncle Jake and Aunt Summer!! We LOVE Summer! (and Jake of course! haha!) She is the PERFECT fit for the family and I couldn't be happier with my new sis in law!

Here is my one year old trying to figure out what this feeling of mud between his toes is. He was hilarious that weekend, I loved watching him and all of his reactions to all the new things he was experiencing. Such a good boy he is!

My amazing little sister Kyli! I'm still trying to figure out how this once "little girl who I used to have to babysit ever Friday night when I was younger and chased me around the house all of the time" is now a super hot athletic babe who I adore more then anything! She is truly an amazing girl and even though there were a few cat fights with all 3 of us sister home that next week..we made it through it and we still love each other! Ha ha...oh that's another blog story for another day! haha, love you sister!!

Love her!

The McSpadden clan! Growing every year!

Can you tell these 2 are brothers...I think so!

Talon loving his life jacket and not wanting to get out of the water...ever!

Hey mom, watch me dance...for the 100th time today! This little girl is quite the ballerina and can't wait to start her combo class next week!...mom can't wait either!

Best friends..lucky for me they love each other and have been good kids this summer. I still can't believe how fast time is going by and how big my kids are getting!

Um dirty much? Look at the adorable face...can't help but love those cheekies!

There we go, all cleaned up! These huge white things were balloons they hung from the trees, but not before my little Dru B. got his hands on them and popped a good 3 or 4 first!

Daddy time! Dad has been quite the busy guy lately and seems to pass by more then we'd like..but when he is home, it's playtime at it's best! We love him and am so grateful or all he does for our family and for they amazing dad/husband that he is!

My baby is one!!

2011-07-11T22:51:00.001-07:00

Wow where has this year gone?!?! I still feel like it was yesterday when I found out that I was
pregnant with Dru, now my youngest baby just turned one years old!! Dru has been the biggest blessing (as are all of my children) in my life and I honestly can't imagine my life without him. He has always been such a happy boy and has added so much joy and happinesss into our family. I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane so here it goes!
All 3 of my pregnancys before Dru have been different. I went a week over mydue date with Brooklyn before they started me, Austin came SUPER fast the day before I was scheduled to be induced, they induced me a week early with Talon, and Dru came 2 weeks early. Ben found out a few months before I had Dru that he was going to have to go to California for 1 week 2 days after my due date, come home for 1 day and then leave for Singapore for 3 weeks. I was super nervous I wasn't going to have Dru by then so 2 weeks before my duedate, explained our dilema, so the doc decided to strip my membranes and see if that would do anything. Everyone I talked to said it didn't do much for them and it was super painful so at first I wasn't going to do it but then decided it wasn't going to hurt anything to try so we did it! (it wasn't really that painful by the way) I don't think Ben has called me more in his life during that time. "Are you ok?" "Any change?" "How are you feeling?" But nothing had changed by the next day so we were a little discouraged. The second day after having had them stripped I woke up in the night having lots of contractions but they kept going away so I kind of ignored them. Ben had a metting that night that he really didn't want to go to so called me around noon that day and said he was coming home and we were going into the doc just to see what the doc said and it would give him an excuse to get out of his meeting..ha ha! ON THE WAY TO THE HOSPITAL, I started having pretty hard contractions. Once I got into the doc I was at a 4 and the nurse admitted me in...good thing Ben jusd "decided" that we were going in or it could have been another "Austin Birth." They gave me my epidural and after they did that everything kind of stopped. I went HOURS of having no contractions and being so done with the whole waiting game. I know that is SOO normal for most girls having their babies, but the longest birth I have ever had was Brooklyn and it was only 4 hours..and this was my FOURTH!! By 8pm that night they decided to break my water and see what happened...sure enough right after they did that it was go time!! Something I have never had happen happened though and I had the WORST labor shakes ever. I guess it's when your body is in shock and i just started shaking like a leaf! They put blankets on me to see if the warmth would help but nothing worked. My teether were chattering, my hands, legs, whole body was shaking like crazy..so weird. I don't know if it was because I had never had that happened or what but I got super nervous/scared and wanted my mom!!! haha! My parents were out of town during this time (which they were super upset about) but Ben parents were on their way from Idaho so I told them to come on up and I wanted them there!! I'm really close to Ben's family, and even though some thought it was weird, Ben's mom was the best comfort during that time (besides my husband of course!!) and having a mom there with me was so nice! Right as they got there i started pushing and here he came!! The doc made me super nervous because I guess the cord was wrapped around his little neck and his heart rate started going up like crazy, so snip snip and out came my baby boy...BRIGHT BLUE!! Oh my goodnes it scared me to death when I first saw him. I kid you not my first reaction was pure panic, I had NEVER seen a baby look like that and he wasn't making any noises. After a few rub downs and patting and flipping over a few times I finally heard the best sound in the world...my little man's first cry! I only got to hold him for a few short seconds and then they rushed him off to get him some oxygen. Of course that worried me and I made Ben go with them so he wasn't alone and would know what was going on. About a half an hour later they brought him back good as new..I was the happiest mommy in the world. He was perfect. TONS of black curly hair!! None of my babies had hair so this was new for me and I was so excited!! 6lbs 14 ounces 19 in. long, so my smallest baby as well! He was adorable and I cannot put into words the joy of holding the newest member of your family and how much happiness I had with just me, Ben and our new little Dru during that moment. This is FOR SURE something I will soooo miss about having babies. The hospital experience is my fav for sure. The other kids of course loved him and LOVED having a new brother in the fam.
You would think after having 4 kids I would have the whole "baby thing" down pat...wrong. I kid you not, it is like starting over all over again with every single one. Up all nights trying to figure out why they don't sleep, trying every bottle in the box along with 5 different binkies, nights and days mixed up, pure panic going out in public for the first few months, a few panic attachks here and there etc...I don't know if it's because I knew this could possibly be our last baby, but I did have a lot more patience and was able to get through the rough nights/days alot better this go around. I actually even enjoyed that time most nights to be honest. After a few months he started to get the hang of it and we worked it out!! And NOW..he's ONE!!
For Dru's birthday we just did the simple cake and ice cream, a few gifts and called it a night! It was pretty funny actually because I was trying to get him to rip the presents open and instead all he wanted to do was crawl away and attack my bows I had just made for Brooklyn. He's walking all over the place now, getting into EVERYTHING, and is quite the little destoryer. BUT, he takes 2 AWESOME naps a day, hardly ever wakes up at night, laughs and smiles constantly, and loves his food so he has been tons of fun.
Thank you for being such a good boy Dru, mommy and daddy love you more then you can EVER imagine. You make my mornings the brightest with that huge smile and jumping up and down in the crib as soon as you see me. You make daddy's night every night when he comes in that back door from work and you speed crawl while laughing hysterically until you get to him because you are SO excited to see him. And you make Brooklyn's day EVERY DAY when you let her cart you around like her little doll and chase your brothers around grabbing at their heels while they laugh cosntatnly. You have made our family complete and we love you so so much!!!

Me and ma-ma Fullmer with Talon

Here he is!

Look at those little feet...not so little anymore!

A few newborn pics

First day home from the hospital TRYING to wake up

Talon, "Mom, when is this baby going back to
the hosptial?"..we did deal with a little sibling

jelousy with Talon but he did pretty good.

Brooklyn helping Dru open a present

Dru's first haircut!! Grandma McSpadden dida great job!

Mom was sad to see his curly locks

go, but he looks like such a big boy now!

Ben and Dru..daddy loves this kid, and LOVES

that he's a daddy boy...for now!

Mommy helping me after having demolished my

birthday cake!

Dru LOVES my cell phone. Every chance he gets

he holds it up to his ear and just yells at the top

of his lungs, it's pretty cute.

Yum!!! So I mad this cake for Dru that was

just one of those cheap box cakes because

our family isn't a huge cake fan and I knew it

would just go to waste. Well while I wasn't looking,

after I gave him a piece on his tray, he grabbed

the WHOLE pan and started going to town. I

took it away from him because I thought he

was going to make himself sick. Oh boy...

screams and tears like you have never heard

or seen before!!!

Did I mention he gets into EVERYTHING. In

this pic he managed to pull out the broom, dump

out a whole sack of Swedish fish, eat some, and

look cute doing it.

My little sister the state champ!!!!!!

2011-07-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

So I know this is old news to alot of you, but I never was able to post on my blog about it so wanted to make sure I did real fast!
Yes, that is right, my amazing little sister is officially a state champ!!! Kyli May McSpadden placed first in THREE events during state track this year! The 100, the 4x1 relay, and the 4x4 relay. Not to mention she placed 2nd in the 200m!! She's seriously amazing and it blows my mind how athletic this girl is!! I think my biggest dilemma this year was having to miss state and was not able to watch these races live. I had previously signed up for a marathon that was the SAME weekend as state track this year. If I hadn't been training all year long then I would have just dropped it and went to state instead. I even had plans to still go to state because it was Thursday/Friday and my race wasn't until Saturday. The problem was getting back in time to check in for the race Friday night, not getting into Utah until around 1 or 2 am and having to wake up at 4am to catch the shuttle for my race up the canyon. I actually was going to do that and then came the back problems. 3 weeks before my race I was in the midst of switching out winter/summer clothes for my kids and pulling bins out of the garage. While my kids were watching a movie I went out in the garage to get some bins, bent over to lift one and had the SHARPEST pain radiate through my entire back like I have never felt before. I couldn't stand up, I couldn't sit down, I couldn't move!! Brooklyn walked up right after it happened and went and grabbed the phone for me. I called Ben and just started bawling that I was seriously hurt, and I don't know if was so much the pain or knowing I had a marathon in 3 weeks and had been training forever for it and now might not be able to run it that made me so emotional. He called my friend Jilll and told her to run over until he could get home, and during that time my other neighbor called to ask me a question and all I could do was cry so she ran over. Along with my neighbor across the street seeing all of this happen she ran over as well, so I had 3 wonderful women helping me until Ben got home. ( i know, I have the best friends/neighbors in the world!) I just sat on the end of my couch and could not believe how bad I hurt. During this time Jill decided to call one of our paramedic friends for advice who lived just a few houses down and he ran over to check it out. I WAS SO LUCKY HE WAS THERE!!! He showed up just a few minutes before Ben and was describing what it could be and what he suggested I should do. Right as he was doing that Ben walked in and knew I was in bad shape. As soon as he walked up to me I started feeling super light headed and dizzy, said so, and the next thing I knew I was waking up to Ryan and Ben leaning over me in my living room trying to wake me up. I started panicking and hyperventilating, couldn't breathe, started shaking like crazy, and my hands started doing this weird thing where i had no control over them and they were cramping up. (guess that's what happens when you're body isn't getting enough oxygen.) I then heard Ryan yelling to Jill to call 911 and before I knew it I was being injected with Morphine, and being carried out onto a stretcher. The guy in the ambulance was super nice, gave me some oxygen and calmed me down to where I was somewhat coherent. He started talking to me about my kids, Ben, my life out in Saratoga...but after a few minutes I started thinking about my marathon, who had my kids while this was all going on, what if this happened or that happened, etc...and I started hyperventilating again. The ambulance guy gave me some more oxygen, calmed me down and all was good again. So weird.
So off to the hospital we went. I was hooked up and given all sorts of weird drugs which I HATE! The feeling of not having control over my own body is the worst to me and to tell you the honest truth, the only thing I really remember about the hospital was the nurse asking me if I could be pregnant, me freaking out and saying, "I better not be!" Crying to my Dad about what was going on with him trying to calm me down on the phone, and Ben and Jill visiting with me until I passed out from all of the drugs. The next few days were a blurr. My mom came and stayed with me but I can't remember most of it. I was brought dinner every night by some wonderful friends, but still wouldn't be able to tell you who brought what or when then came, etc..I guess I pretty much just slept and stared at people with a blanke look for 3 days, ha ha.
Anyways, I ended up going to a spinal doctor who said I have something super common which is called degenerative disc disease? I guess a ton of people have it that don't even know they have it and it doesn't even affect most. It's when the spaces between your vertebra's are to spaced out so it causes back pain and some back spasms. He told me I probably wasn't going to be able to run and of course I cried like a baby the whole way home.
The next morning I went to the physical therapist and he was my saving grace. He had me lay down on my back and put both of my legs out to where my toes meet...wow, my right leg was like 5 inches longer then my left. He had me do a few stretches, pushed and pulled on me here and there and before I know it I heard the LOUDEST pop I have ever heard in my life. Yes it killed, but it was like INSTANT relief all of the sudden. Come to find out I had a SI joint come out and along with the disc disease, the joint that popped out had caused me to have a hard core back spasm. He told me to come in every day that week and we would see if he could get me running by the end of the week. The thing I liked about this guy is he is a huge marathon runner so he totally knew where I was coming from so said, "I'm not going to tell you not to run anymore, that would be like telling you not to be happy anymore." I knew right then and there he understood and I had hope. By the end of the week it was like night and day difference and I attempted running. Funny thing, but it actually helped my back to loosen up and it felt great! I got alot of bad looks and some not very nice comments from people seeing me attempt to still do this after having been taken out on a stretcher..especially my family. My Dad made it very clear that if he got another phone call like that again he was going to be super upset, haha. But I survived and did it anyways!! If you're not a runner and didn't train for something for a year then you won't get it! I did it and was very happy I did it, I would have so regretted it if I didn't.

Anyways, back to my little sister, wow sorry for that tangent! Because of the whole back issue, I was nervous what my body would do on such little sleep with this now back problem I have to deal with so I made up my mind not to go. Let me tell you, I love my sisters more then anything in this world and knew before state even occurred that Kyli would probably win it all, so this was a big big deal that I wasn't able to go watch. Kyli has all of my old high school coaches and everything and I was so sad I wasn't going to make it. You can ask my parents, that phone call telling them I wasn't going to make it was pretty dramatic. I'm a pretty calm person until I hear either my dad's or Ben's voice...then it's all over if I'm upset about something. I couldn't even talk I was crying so hard. Kyli totally understood of course, but i was heartbroken!
The nice thing is i was still able to watch her run live online through idahosports.com, so I still got to see her kick everyones trash!! I don't think I have ever been so neverous for any races in my entire life, counting all of my high school and college races!! She did so awesome and I was the proudest sister in the world. Good thing she still has a year in high school so I can come watch her take home 4 golds next year!! She already has college scouts all over her and I love even more that they are all right now from Utah so I can come watch!
So So proud of you little sister, you truly are amazing!!

Here is Klyi recieveing her first gold metal and getting her picture taken by the Idaho Sportsman. They even had a reporter come and interview her after and posted a pretty sweet artcile in the paper about her. I could on and on about this girl!!

26.2 BABY!!

2011-06-16T19:17:00.001-07:00

Yea I finally get to post about my FIRST EVER FULL MARATHON!! I First have to tell you that I have the most amazing husband that during all of this was so supportive and I could not have trained for this if it wasn't for his love and support. For those of you that don't know, training for a full marathon is SUPER time consuming. Towards the end of the training, Saturday runs took almost 4 hours. I tried to run as early as I could so I wouldn't take up all of our day but sometimes with this years crazy weather, kids' sports activities and husband's meetings and stuff, it was hard so I'm very grateful for all of that.
Ok, now one more thank you! To the amazing girl that talked me into running this that stuck by me this whole year while training! Without Jill Riley, I would have not have been running at 5 am in the freezing cold winter storms, rain or shine, sometimes so foggy we couldn't even see each other! Through IT band issues, back spasms that were so bad that even one time an ambulance had to come to my house and rush me away...crazy stuff. I have learned that I LOVED accomplishing such a big goal for myself and proving to myself that I was able to finish such something I thought was completely out of my reach. BUT, I also learned that training for a marathon is SUPER SUPER time consuming like I said earlier, so I think I'm going to stick to the half marathons...for now anyways! It's alot of wear and tear on your body running any farther then that and I definitely felt the results of that every weekend on our long runs. I would be so sore sometimes it would take me FOREVER to walk down my stairs. And come Sundays all I wanted to do was sleep the day away because I was physically so so drained!
Now for race day. Kind of frustrating because after all of that training, it actually wasn't my best race day. I didn't feel good from the start thanks to mother nature deciding to visit me a few minutes before, felt like I had no energy from the get go, and pulled a hamstring with about 5 miles still to go which is STILL affecting me. That's the thing about running though, you can train for something forever, but you never know what race day is going to bring..kind of annoying. Jill and I saw Ben and John and right before mile 7 where we were walking for a few to drink some water and take our first energy block. As we walked up to them my sweet husband says, "You're already walking? Are you going to make it?" He seriously thought we were supposed to run the ENTIRE thing and not walk. Seriously?!?! It just cracked me up because sometimes I feel like he doesn't even know me!! I have ran my whole life, but for those of you that don't know Ben, he HATES running!! Not once since we have been together has he ever gone running with me, and this was the FIRST race he has ever come to, so he couldn't understand why we were walking and drinking water..I still laugh when I think about it. And then to top it all off, my sweet Austin says to me, "Um mom...you're not winning." with the most confused look on his face. (p.s. there were over 2,000 runners JUST doing the marathon, let alone a half, a 10k and a 5k. So A TON OF PEOPLE!) Well thank you to the men in my life for having these huge expectations of me not stopping for 26.2 miles and winning the whole marathon....but not happening!! ha ha!
Anyways, as we ran though the Ogden Canyon it was GORGEOUS! It was actually a really beautiful run and I enjoyed that part a ton! By the last few miles Jill and I were both spent and pretty much talking each other through the rest of the race. And I have a few choice words for those who cheer people on during races. For those of you that don't know, during a race, when the runners have already ran 23 miles and you yell,"You're almost there! You only have a 5k left!"...worst thing you could ever say!! If I could have mustered together some energy during that part to talk during that time...I would have yelled at you all to stop saying that! 3 more miles is A LOT MORE when you have already gone that far! So as we turned down main street in Ogden, we were able to see the finish line which was a pretty sweet feeling. But, looking at my watch I knew it was still a whole mile away. LONGEST MILE OF MY LIFE!!! Thanks to Chanudi (who rocked this marathon by the way and even qualified for the Boston in it!) and her husband Scott, they were waiting at the mile marker to cheer me on. I was so thankful for that extra boost and was able finish strong. I was greeted at the finish with my sweet daughter running with me and my family at the end. I can't even tell you how much I love my in-laws by the way. My sister in-law Brittney and her little family live in Ogden so they came to watch, along with my mother in-law, and my brother in-law Jake with his fiance (now wife!! yea!) Summer. They were all so sweet congratulating me and making a big deal out of it. I love them all so much and was so grateful they were able to be there for me.
Sooo, that's it! Since then I have ran here and there, trying not to loose my mileage but at the same time I am a little burnt out running and still trying to stay motivated for my Red Rock Relay race I'm doing in September! Anyways, way happy I did it but way happy it's over!! 26.2!!!!

Thanks husband for all of the love and support!

Me and my side kick! She was seriously the best
person to have ran this with and we became such
good friends through the whole process. Thank
you so much Jill, I could not have done this
without you!

mile 7 looking for my extra energy blocks

Yea we did it!...and you can by the way I look

in these pics!!

Am I done yet??

The supportive fam

Here we come!

Me and Britt...thanks again so much!!

I heart you!!

Update!

2011-06-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

So here are just a few random pics from forever ago that I have meaning to put on here. Austin played spring soccer for the first time and absolutely loved it! If any of you know Austin, you know he's full of fire! So soccer was a perfect sport of him to go run around and burn off some of that energy. He actually was pretty good at it and scored at least once, sometimes 3 or 4 times during each game. He of course had to yell across the field every time, "Hey mom!! Did you see me score that goal?" and do a little dance after each one, but I thought it was pretty cute! I feel like we didn't really get a spring this year so it was freezing, but he loved it so that's all that matters. NEXT, T BALL! Brooklyn and Austin are both signed up so that means a fun filled Saturday for the Fullmers going to T-Ball games this summer...better get used to it guess, this is probably only the beginning of what yet is to come!

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Austin and Talon. These 2 are 19 months apart, but sometimes if you didn't know, you would think Talon was older. HE IS HUGE! Just a big boned boy! Him and Austin can now wear the same size shoes, shirts, pants, etc..it's kind of nice! Anyways, these boys have become bestest friends and it warms my heart to see my boys get along so well, best feeling in the world. I hope they always look out for each other as the years go by.

So just like his Dad, Austin is OBSESSED with Sports. Basketball is his absolute favorite and already tells everyone he wants to be just like Kobe someday...WOW! Ya, perfect role model you're probably thinking right? haha, Well his Dad will defend Kobe on any subject, any game, any day...it's quite the Lake fetish in this household and it has for sure rubbed off on my boys already. Anyways, Austin used to have a basketball hoop to play with awhile ago but it broke, so a few weeks ago mom felt so bad watching Austin "pretend" to shoot and dunk the ball everywhere he would go all day, she decided to make him a homemade one out of poster board. Don't laugh...he thought I was the coolest Mom EVER for doing that! That night dad pushed mom right out the cool zone when he brought him home a brand new basketball hoop...oh well, loved it while it lasted!

I meant to put this little pic on the post below but forgot so here ya go! This is Brooklyn on her graduation day from Kindergarten. She got to stand on this little stool while everyone clapped and while mom cried and got a few pics. She was super embarrassed but was a cute sport about it and loved all eyes on her haha

Me and my soon to be 1st grader..wow I'm getting old!

This is pretty much what you can find Brooklyn doing ALL DAY LONG. Carting Dru around like a little doll. He loves it so I guess it's ok, but poor kid will never walk because she LOVES carrying him around. I sometimes complain about only having one girl, but I am glad I had my girl first for this reason, she is quite the little mommy and helper around here whenever I need it...which is ALOT these days!

Always a mess...no joke, ALWAYS!! We are in the stage of eating weird things and kind of baby food but not really anymore? So he just plays with food pretty much and sees how much he can destroy whatever outfit was on for that hour!

Here's Austin in his first soccer game!

This is the, "And that's how you do it my friends," after he scored his first goal

Daddy and Dru! All of my kids have been HUGE mommy's boys and Dru FOR SURE loves me to pieces. But nothing beats playing with Daddy. If Ben is around, Dru wants Dad and wants to play. It's so funny, he will just start batting at his face and pulling on his hair immediately. Big cheesy smiles and laughs that just make me never want this stage to end...agh, that's a whole different story in itself! So sad my baby is almost one!!

Daddy and his Princess...she adores her Daddy as well. I'm pretty sure she has him wrapped around her little finger and being the ony girl, is going to get whatever she wants whenever she wants it through him!

Baby blues you do have my litle one! Mommy loves you and wants to cry almost every day right now because you're getting so so big. Trying to walk, copying the noises we make, sleeping and eating all on your own. Daddy wants me to cut those long locks but I think the shag look is adorable on you and we're running with it! You have been the biggest blessing in our little family and we love you to pieces Dru B!

So funny how little boys are born with the knowledge and love for sports. Dru's favorite thing in the world is any ball you will give him, ALL THE TIME!

Hey mom! Here's my super soccer pose for you!

My Little Graduates!

2011-06-13T15:14:00.000-07:00

That's right! Two of my beautiful babies have graduated from school this year!! Brooklyn from Kindergarten and Austin from 3 year old preschool. I can't even tell you how much Brooklyn LOVED Kindergarten. Oh my gosh it has been the highlight of her little life. She has made some wonderful friends, loved her teacher, has learned so so so much and has become quite the little smarty pants around here. Kindergarten is a great way to start out "real" school because it kind of eases them into it. They are separated from the rest of the school kids so they have their own little gated area with a playground that they go into and their classroom doors are right inside of their so it makes it way easy for them. And on top of that it's only a half of a day so from 12:10 from 3:30pm..which is nice but kind of a pain because it's right in the middle of the day and gives me no time to go run errands in the morning or afternoon. That was a little tricky to figure it out but we worked it out. Anyways, 1st grade here we come! All day long, big kid entrance, and bus rides with the big kids. I'm a little nervous about it but at the same time I have such good friends around here that have kids a little older then Brooklyn that already look out for her so much so that makes me feel so much better. She's super excited and already asks every day when school starts.
My little Austin man LOVED pre-school. If any of you know him, you know he's full of fire and one busy boy so this was perfect for him. I had just had Dru before school started so it was SO SO good for him to have something just for him and him only. To get praised for things that he did and someone focusing just on him. We have the BEST pre school teacher in the world and Austin LOVES her. Ms. Kelly has been a good friend for a long time so that helped, but honestly she is such a good teacher and I am so grateful for all she did for my little boy this past year. We had been in the same ward for a long time, when I was doing daycare, it was her cute kids that I watched. Austin became bestest buddies with her little boy and it was kind of funny because they were the ONLY little boys in the whole 3 yr. old class and loved it! Austin is a smart kido and knows all of this letters, sounds, colors, numbers and is already noticing words that are short and have just a few letters. He learned LOTS of new songs, one of which we sing every night before bed. " Hannah had the Hiccups." Preschool has been awesome for him and we can't wait for 4 yr. old preschool to start next fall!
Being a teacher is A TON of work and I am so super grateful to all of those hard working teachers who put so much time into their job to help my kids learn and enjoy their education process. I have come to learn while my kids are getting older how much I want them to excel in school and learn as much as they possibly can, and it's because of those awesome teachers they have done so well so far. Watching your kindergartner read a book to you for the first time is an amazing thing..amazing.
My babies are growing up! I can't believe I have a kid in grade school...wow! Keep it up kidos, Mom and Dad are so proud of you!!

Brooklyn's class had the cutest little graduation
program where they sang these adorable songs
and at the end threw their hats in the air just like
we did in high school, it was so cute.

Austin and Ms. Kelly. LOVE HER!

The 3 and 4 yr. old class singing "Hanna

had the Hiccups."

Family Time!!!

2011-04-18T19:56:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks have been full of some fun family time so I thought we would share! The pics aren't really in the order of the events but oh well!
Ben's brother Tregan and his cute high school sweetheart Allison were married in the Rexburg Temple last Friday. Of course Ben and I were there with the kids and spent some Fullmer family fun at his parents new house playing with cousins, game nights with brothers and sisters, and of course the yearly Easter egg hunt Ben's mom sends us on all around town which happened to be at the BYU-I center (which is AMAZING now by the way!! Wow, it doesn't even look like the same college anymore, it's HUGE!) So that was fun to go tour that and spend some time with family. Of course wedding weekends are always crazy buys with pics, lunch ins, receptions, etc.. but I have to say that is was once classy wedding and it was so much fun. I loved hearing all of the speakers at their lunch in and the cute stories of Treagan and Allison and how head over hills in love with each other they are. Those two have been through alot to get to where they are today and we are so happy for them. Allison was of course the most beautiful bride ever and Treag was one handsome groom! Ben's mom worked so hard on the ADORABLE skirts and bow ties she made for the nieces and nephews, and I have to say my husband wears a tux very well! Their reception was beautiful and the food was to die for! The yummiest desserts that my kids helped themselves to ALL NIGHT LONG, and if you know the Fullmers....THE LINE WENT ON AND ON AND ON AND ON..We all know that whenever you marry any of the Fullmers just plan on the reception going at least an hour over because of all of the people that come through. Holly Cow!!
From there Ben had to fly to Singapore for work for a bit so I decided that I would head to Boise for the week and spend some time with my family since it happened to be there spring break anyways! My family was actually in Rexburg that same weekend as us because my little sister Taucia and her husband Ryan blessed their little boy Heath that Sunday. (it was a beautiful baby blessing by the way!) so it worked out great because this time I didn't have to go there alone this time! My little sister Kyli hopped in the car with me and we followed my Dad all the way home. I have to tell you, having Kyli in the car made a WORLD of difference. Maybe because I do that trip so much by myself anyways that I don't know the difference, but we just talked and talked and talked and it FLEW BY!
Being home was so nice. Alot of the time when I go there it can be a little overwhelming with 4 kids and just me, even as much as my family helps! For some reason they get to Grandma and Grandpa's house and are on a constant "let's be out of control mode!" Maybe it's because of the dang candy dish my mom fills up about 20 times while we are there, or maybe it's because of the late schedule they are on even though I HAVE THEM IN BED on time but Grandpa decides it's playtime instead and he usually wins! This time that all happened of course, but things were just alot more layed back and I was able to REALLY spend time with my family instead of just chasing my kids around all weekend. Kyli had 2 track meets, Friday and Saturday; the Bandanna meet which qualifies you for State and is really big. So i was super excited to go watch her. I haven't been able to all year so it was so fun. Kind of funny but Kyli has the same track coaches as I did in high school so a couple of the days that week I just went and hung out in the bleachers and watched her run and visited with them off and on. Jossis (the head coach) asked me to help do times Friday night which was so fun but FREEZING, and then Saturday was in the high 60s and was almost hot! Kyli did AMAZING in her races of course! She got 2nd in the 100m but have to say, the first place girl got 12.78 and Kyli got 12.79 haha! Oh and she has beat the first place girl numerous times so we aren't worried about it, LOL. She got 1st in the 200m by A LONG SHOT, she was WAY ahead! She then runs 2 relays which they both won as well. Her 4x1 team set a new high school record, and her 4x4 team took first by aways too. SO SO SO fun to watch. Like I said, I ran track in high school as well and went onto college to run for a while so track is a passion we both share together and something we LOVE. I have to say that I get WAY MORE nervous for her races then I think I EVER did for my own LOL! Right now she is placed 1st for state as a junior in a 5A school for all of her races...WOW, she's seriously amazing.
Anyways, I could go on and on and on about how much i love this girl. I always tell Ben I might just move to Boise just during basketball and track season just so I can watch her..I then realized that would be all year long and probably isn't very reasonable for my family life. HAHA! It's not just sports that I could talk about this girl that she's amazing in. She's seriously such a good girl. I love just sitting back and watching her in her life right now. Maybe it's because I still feel like it was yesterday when I was in her shoes and love watching her mature and handle all of the fun things life throws your way at that age. Being a teenager is not easy, and right now she's the only child at home which I think would also be kind of hard. It was so fun being able to just spend some time with her, talk about her and her cute boyfriend whom I love haha!, watch her dominate in all of her races, going so far as to even taking an ice bath with her!!, and then the last night there going prom dress shopping with her and my other sister. (she's one gorgeous girl by the way and found the most BEAUTIFUL dress, yea!!) Anyways, it was so much fun and having to leave was so much harder this time for some reason. I love my family and have been super homesick lately so it was so fun being there, laughing til I cried with them, and then crying because I didn't want to leave. My kids had a blast! They swam in the hot tub which my Dad cooled down for them, jumped on the tramp pretty much all day, played with the dogs ; running them around on the leashes as much as they could, and loved watching Kyli win her races. They are STILL asking when we get to back to Grandma's.
My friends Steve and Kami were nice enough to keep me company Thursday while my mom was doing hair (thanks again guys, it was so fun getting caught up and coming and seeing you and your cute kids..oh and kitchen, LOVED it!) I did the unthinkable and ran my dreaded 20 mile run on my lonesome Friday morning. For those that don't know I'm training for a marathon in a few weeks so my mom was nice enough to help me out with my kids that day while I started the run from their house, all the way down to the mall, then turned around and came back. WOW, but I did it and it actually wasn't that bad!
Anyways, LOVE LOVE LOVE you family and can't wait to see in a few weeks for state track even though it will just be me this time and no kiddos. ( I'm seriously not going to even know what to do with myself without kids for 2 whole days!) Thank you Fullmer Family for being so loving and taking such good care of me and the kids. The wedding was beautiful and we are so excited to have another sweet girl into the family. Love you all and thanks again!

The girls team actually took 1st place at the meet
as a whole so this was their team pic at the end of
the meet. My cute little sis is the hot blonde one
one kneeling on the bottom row next to the girl
kneeling sideways.

Victory Lap!!

Smile kids!!

Getting ready to run the 4x4, she was the

first leg...no pressure

The 100m..I know I was trying to scream for her

and take pictures so they are pretty far away. If

you can't tell though...she's the one in front

winning haha!

Picture time handsome boy!!

Love you and your hot tux!

Grandma Konda playing with Dru B!

This is Summer, the last girl to be added to

the Fullmer Family in July!! Jake and her just

got engaged a few weeks ago and we couldn't

be happier! We LOVE LOVE LOVE her!! She

got stuck watching the kids alot that weekend

since it was in the temple..so sorry Summer!

But we love you and it was much appreciated!

Grandpa Fullmer and Dru

The Bride and me!! (yes horrible posture i

know LOL)

Ben and Treag!

Ben and Jake!

My sweet girl! Look at those

ADORABLE skirts Konda made!

She is one talented lady!

Me and my baby!

The husband and I

Daddy's boy

Hey cutie..you're a handful but mommy loves

you!

Brooklyn and her favorite cousin Hallie.

These two played and played all weekend,

they had a blast!

Bride and Groom with all of the nieces and

nephews.

6 years old!!..

2011-03-01T13:40:00.000-08:00

I still cannot believe that my baby turned 6 years old. Holy cow, I'm not quite sure how that happened. It seriously feels like it was a few months ago when I had this little princess. This ALSO means that I'm getting seriously old and that this phase of my life is passing by way to fast! So, as you can see, we have alot of birthdays around here during January and February and we are all birthdayed out by the time Brooklyn's comes around. BUT, of course she is the one who can't wait the most so of course we always make a big deal out of it. I thought we would take a trip down memory lane and tell her quick little story of how she came into this world.

Brooklyn Konda (named after Ben's mom) was born February 15th 2005, and little did I know how much my life was about to change!! Little did I know how much love that little girls was going to add to my life and how much love I was able to have for this tiny little person. So, to go back, during this time Ben and I were living in Rexburg Idaho in his parents basement apartment they were renting out to us. We were both students at BYU-Idaho and still adjusting to the life of newlyweds. I had always known from when i was SUPER young that I wanted kids and wanted to be a young mom so didn't want to waste much time after I got married. I wanted to start my family and start soon! Ben actually loved this about me and was on board 100 percent. SO, a few months after we got married, off the birth control I went and I got pregnant. Sad to say, about 10 weeks into I miscarried and devastation was an understatement. I think I cried for a month straight after that and was ready to try again asap. So we did and were were both so excited once we got past that 12 week mark and knew that we really were going to have a baby. By the time I was 6 months prego we ended up having to move to Boise, Idaho for the summer because Ben decided to an internship there, and luckily that's where I am from so we had a free place to stay, the parentals!! It was only going to be for a couple of months so it worked out great and the help was actually SO SO SO much appreciated! Because it was my first baby, the doc made me go a week OVER my due date (um, ya torture if you ask me!) so I was scheduled to be induced February 15th. ALSO MEAN, the day after Valentines? So I say it that way because if you can imagine, here I am 19 20 yrs old, getting ready to do the unexpected supposedly the most painful thing you will ever do in your entire life, and I have ALL DAY on VALENTINES DAY to think about it how it's going to happen the next morning. Ben was so cute and tired to plan a super sweet romantic valentines night. Didn't help, I just cried all day! Ha Ha, poor guy!
Anyways, that next morning Brooklyn Konda Fullmer was born! Weighing in at a whopping 8 lbs 21 in. long..and the most amazing thing I have ever held in my arms. Her labor was actually super fast for my first (imagine that....they come faster and faster with each one!) and we were both so happy to have her part of our little family!
Looking back now, I had NO IDEA how to be a mom. How much work it really was, how little sleep you get, how teething lasts forever, how important nap time and schedules were, how protective I would feel when she would come to me crying about some other little girl/boy being mean to her, or how proud of her I would be when she would befriend another little girl at school. How emotional I would get when she started kindergarten and rode the bus for the first time, or how happy I would get watching her twirl in her dance class or score 5 of the goals in her soccer game! There are so so many emotions that come with being a parent and I seriously had no idea when Ben asked me if i wanted to have a baby and i just shrugged and said, "sure!" WOW haha!
Brooklyn is the most kind little girl you have ever met, and I'm not just saying that because I'm her mom. For example, she started kindergarten this year and on her first day of school I walked to her to where she was supposed to go and all of the kids in her class were lined up against the wall outside getting ready to go in. I was standing aways back just watching her and I noticed she was watching another little girl who was scared and crying. This little girl didn't want her mom to leave and kept saying she didn't know anyone so was scared. What happened next brought me to tears. Brooklyn walked up to this little girl and said, "Hi, my name is Brooklyn, what is your name?" The little girl answered her. Brooklyn then took her by the hand and said, "come on, let's be friends!" with the biggest smile on her face. The other little girl smiled and off they went into the classroom as she waved goodbye to me. This little girls mom came up to me afterwards and told me how grateful she was that Brooklyn did that. I have never been so proud of my daughter. To some of you that might sound like no big deal, but to me that's huge. If there is one thing I want my kids to know is that being nice to other people and reaching out to those who need a friend is super important to me. Brooklyn does things like this all of the time and it seriously melts my heart. She is the BEST big sister and her brothers love her to do death. Even though she is our only girls, she knows how to wrestle with the best of them and can beat any of them in a soccer game or a mean match of sword fighting. She loves dance, but she loves soccer. Tinkerbell could possibly be her idol and she pretty much owns every coloring book of her out there and any dress up attire you can imagine, BUT, if you want to play baby dolls..no thanks that's boring for her. She absolutely LOVES kindergarten and is a smart little whip! I love hearing her spell out of her words she is learning and love when she learns something new that she has to share with all of us. Her favorite thing right now is the Wii..and wold play it ALL DAY if I let her. She loves playing with her friends and can't wait for summer to start swimming. (she LOVES the water)
Brooklyn and I are the only girls in our family. At first I was sad about that because Ben (and most days me..haha!) have decided that we are done having kidos which meant that I wasn't go have a sister for Brookly. I grew up with a family of girls (2 other sisters) and I LOVE that sisterly love, nothing like it. BUT, as time has gone on and I love having my family of 4kids, I'm more and more content with knowing that Brooklyn and I get to do all of the fun girl things together and we get to be bestest friends. I actually really like that idea and we are already planning lots of fun things together and for the future!
Thank you my sweet girl for being the love of my life. Thank you for teaching me so much about life and all of the lessons that go with it. Thank you for being such a good example to your brothers and pls always be one, because they watch you so closely. Enjoy this year, being 6 is awesome and I want you to love every second of it! Happy birthday sweetheart, we love you!!

February 15th 2005: 4pm; 8lbs 21 in.

Hey there little one, I'm your mama!!

This was her favoirte postition when she was
little..I liked it too

Prettiest little girl..

Cheese!

Our little family! This pic makes me laugh so
hard. We were SOO young haha

First day of preschool!

Best sister ever

Dance baby dance

She loves her daddy but mom and her are
best friends that's for sure

My little fish

I would like you to meet the newest member of
our family...LU LU. SO, Brooklyn has been asking
for a pet FOREVER. Ben says no to a dog because
we don't have a fence yet, and I say no to a cat
because I'm allergic. So she asked for this toy cat
for her birthday that seriously acts real. Ben tried
to change her mind forever and DID NOT want
to get it because it was kind of expensive. But as
soon as he told her this and she just said, "Ok Dad
I understand," with a sad frown on her face.
He then changed his mind and said, "But i think
we can work it out if you 're a good girl." The next
day he bought it for her..haha, she has him wrapped
around his finger!!

She had a wonderful birthday and had a blast!

Happy 30th babe!!!

2011-02-28T13:40:00.000-08:00

Happy 30th birthday to my wonderful husband!! That's right, I'm officially married to an old man..ha!. February 9th was Ben's birthday birthday and sad to say he was actually out of town during his birthday so we celebrated when he got home. He was in Boise for work actually so he went to my little sisters basketball game and out to dinner with my parents for his birthday..he was missed very much but I'm grateful for a family that loves him and treated him so well. Thanks mom and dad!
If any of you know my husband, he's one of the most cautious people I know with spending money. (nice way of saying he's super cheap..sorry babe but you know yourself it's true!) so he begged me to not do anything or get him anything for his birthday. He needed some new clothes so just said when he got back in town we would go shopping for him. I said ok, but didn't exactly stick to that plan. For months Ben has been talking about wanting to get an Sirius XM radio for his truck but of course never buys anything for himself so has never gotten one. The day after he left I drove down to the airport and searched for his truck (if you can imagine driving through the salt lake city airport SEARCHING for a white truck...it took me almost an hour of weaving in and out of lanes looking for his truck. I didn't want to ask him where it was because it would give it away so I searched!) After giving myself a massive headache and making myself car sick..I FOUND IT! I switched cars, took his truck to best buy, dropped the truck off and had them install the XM that I had purchased the night before, had a friend pick me up and then take me and my kids home. THEN later that night had another friend take me back to best buy to get the truck, then me and my 4 kids drove it BACK to the airport, put a big bow and card on it, then drove all of the way home..WOW what a day. Of course he was surprised and loved it! (after the fact we talked about how much and all of the financial stuff of course...haha, love you husband) The next night we went out do dinner with some friends and had a wonderful night!
Happy birthday babe, thank you for being the most amazing husband and daddy ever, WE LOVE YOU!!

Best daddy ever

Done this a few times together

Love my family man

Best hubby ever

4 years old!!

2011-02-16T13:46:00.001-08:00

So my sweet little Austin man turned 4 years old last week! Wow, where does the time go? I seriously can't believe he's 4 already!! So I thought we would take a trip down memory lane and share Austin's story. ...

Austin was my first little boy that was born into this family! I wanted a little boy soooo bad so you can imagine how excited I was to hear the doc say those magic words," Up, yep, right there..and he's not shy about it!!" Ha Ha! It brought me to tears and to this day love this little guy as much as the moment they put him in my arms. Austin was born January 31st 2007, and oh boy did he make an entrance into this world! I know some of you have already heard this story but because of everything I went through to bring him into this world, I believe I have the right to share this story every year!!
I was scheduled to be induced on August 1st (yes..the NEXT day..but I guess he couldn't wait!) The morning of the 31st I was having some braxton hicks contractions but I had been having them since I was 5 months prego so didn't really worry about it. I decided since I was going in the next morning to have him I better run to the store and get some groceries for my family and some last minute supplies. I was getting some pics developed at the hour kidos and remember thinking, "hmm, these are getting alot more frequent. Maybe I should start timing them." I got in my car went home, layed Brooklyn down for a nap and decided to call the doc because they were off and on, nothing consistent but every 5 min, then every 1o, then every 2, etc.. the nurse told me to NOT come in until they were consistently 5 min apart, so I said ok and hung up the phone. I called Ben and he said he was headed into a meeting so wouldn't be able to leave his meeting for another hour so he would be home after that. I said ok and hung up the phone again! I kid you not, 2 min after I hung up the phone with Ben, I was in EXCRUCIATING PAIN!! I called my neighbor and she rushed over to help. I was hurting so bad I was on the floor in the fetal position and literally thought I was going to die!! My friend tried calling Ben a couple of times and couldn't get ahold of him, so was getting ready to rush me to the hospital when low and behold Ben walked in the door! He told me he had a bad feeling(which we all know what that bad feeling was!) after he talked to me and decided to leave his meeting. He literally had to carry me out the car, rushed to the hospital, (and when I say RUSHED, I mean going 40 down the dumb one lane redwood road at the time during school bus hours so we were following the slowest buses EVER ) as i was SCREAMING in the car. I remember looking up at Ben when we at a stop light and he was SMILING!!! I asked him why he was smiling and his response, "Because we're gonna have a baby babe."..aww, so sweet now..NOT SO SWEET THEN!! I then screamed at him to drive faster! We pulled up to the hospital and they brought me a wheelchair and rushed me up to the triage room. The nurse checked me and sure enough, I was at a 9+, my doc couldn't make it so the doctor on call would have to deliver, it was to late for an epidural and there wasn't even time to get me to a real hospital room. I was having that baby NOW so push!! I of course broke down, kept saying I did not think I could do this and even brought tears to my non emotional never-crys husband. After a major prep talk from him, and clinging to his hands for dear life, I DID IT! From the moment I was wheel chaired into that room, it was a total of 16 minutes!! It felt like 16 hours, but I did and was SOOO happy to have my healthy 6.4 pound baby boy in my arms. From the day Austin was born I have always said that he has been my hardest. The birth, with sleeping, eating, attitude when he was 2 and 3, etc.. but I have come to realize now that Talon is 3 that it's just a BOY thing! haha.
Austin is BEST friends with his sister Brooklyn, plays with boy toys all day with Talon, and is the best out of all of the kids with Dru. He talks to that baby all day and before Austin even walks up to Dru, Dru is kicking his little legs just cause he sees him coming. Austin LOVES his leapster video games that mom has to pry out of his hands every day. He loves transformers, playing swords, riding bikes, playing outside, Thomas the train, and every other little boy toy that comes his way! He is truly a joy in our family and we love him so so so so so much. He is my biggest cuddlier out of all of the boys, tells me ten times a day how pretty I am, and how much he loves me at least every day! He will randomly walk up to little girls in the store, take them by the hand, bring them to me and say, "Hey mom, look at this girl, isn't she so pretty!" Oh boy..I am in BIG trouble with him. Those baby blues will be used to his advantage some day I'm sure, but for right now the only heart he is melting is his mama's. Happy fourth birthday big boy. We love you to the moon and back (grandma's saying that we say allot around here) and would please appreciate it you could stay this age forever pls. Now, we are both sitting here on the couch on opposite ends with the worst flu bug ever so cuddle with me..Love you baby

January 31st 2007

He's here!

Brooklyn was so excited to have a brother in
her life

Kisses from mommy that I still get every day

Austin has love Brooklyn from the day he was
born. They truly are best friends

Ya, I'm pretty sure he's a stud haha

Look at those blues...big trouble I'm telling

you!

This is the way the two of them really

are so I love this pic

Austin is so good with his brothers

and I love that they love him

so much. Always be a god example

k buddy because they will be watching

very close!

Telling Santa what he wants

4 years old!!

We took Austin to Monkey Island for his birthday

this year and he had a BLAST!

Austin's new love..our fish Zippity

Valetines day party! He's my biggest snacker

for sure and could eat sugar all day long!!

7 months old!

2011-02-02T09:39:00.000-08:00

These are the smiles I get all day long, and
they never get old. Every time I see him his
expression is like the first time he's ever seen
me haha, I love it.

Yes, I'm adorable

This is SUPER excited face he gets when he sees

my camera..he loves it for some reason and even

starts shaking..it's so funny

Loves him so Brooklyn..most of the time, when she's

not carting him around or putting girl dress up

skirts on him

My baby is no longer a newborn!! Dru is getting so big and I thought I better start doing updates on here or before I know it he's going to be 4 years old and I won't have recorded anything! Dru Benjamin Fullmer has been such a little blessing in our life and I can't even begin to tell you happy this little man makes me and how quickly he melts my heart. He just turned 7 months old and I seriously cannot believe how fast the time has gone. I know everyone says that but I'm not even joking when i say it feels like last week I just had him. I keep putting off making him "cry it out" or rocking him to sleep so much because I still have in my mind set that he's still so little...BUT HE'S NOT! His second little tooth just popped through, he's rolling all over the place from room to room, and is doing great with sitting up and playing with toys. (still in the fall over stage of sitting so we love the boppy pillow for support but most times he doesn't even need it.) He's the most smiley little boy ever and laughs more then any of my other kids did. It will be 3 in the A.M. sometimes and I will all of the sudden awake to his little giggles. I go in to put the binkie back in and he's just ALL SMILES and kicking his little legs as fast as they can go while laughing...mom, not so much!! He still has some issues with drinking his bottle and while the doctor thinks he might have a little inflammation in his esophagus I'm pretty sure it's just acid reflex so who knows. Good think he LOVES his baby food and is of course growing like a weed. You would never know he's not the best of eater by looking at him, at 7 months old he weights a whopping 18 pounds and is one solid little guy! Everyone is always amazed with how much "darker" he is then my other kids. He has the most dark hair, darker eyes, and his skin just seems a little more bronze. He's a little stud that's for sure and I'm sure will break a few hearts along the way.

As of late, our obstacle is figuring out how to get him to not be such an early riser! Any suggestions would be MUCH appreciated! He goes to bed at 8pm (I try to keep him up a little later but by 8 he is fighting to stay awake like you wouldn't believe.) He sleeps through the whole night until 6:30am and then is WIDE AWAKE. I used to feed him around 5-6 and he would sleep til 8am but the past month or so he doesn't even want to eat...he's just wants up! He then takes a nap around 10am for an 1.5-2 hours, and then an afternoon one around 1:30pm-4pm ish. Anyways, he's been a little tougher to figure out sleeping wise then my others for sure. And since I'm waking up at 5am to run/work out, getting back around 6:30 I'm ready to go back to bed for an hour or so til my other kids wake up..but Dru's not about to let that happen!!

Dru LOVES his siblings and is all smiles the whole time they are around him or talking to him. He loves his saucer and his bumbo still and is probably one of the loudest screamers you have ever heard. haha! He LOVES his Mama (which mom loves of course). Except for the times when I walk out of the room and I hear that PIERCING scream that seriously hurts your ears, it is SOO loud.

We feel so lucky to have Dru in our family and can't imagine our little family without him. It's so funny how everything happens for a reason. Honestly before Dru came I was super scared about having 4 kids this close together, this young, with Ben's work schedule and now that he's in the bishopric I had some major anxiety for a while about trying to figure our how to deal with all of this. For those who are close to me, know that I'm not the best with change. Never have been, so you can imagine the thoughts that were coming when you're about to have four kids 5 yrs and younger. But I can honestly say Dru has blessed our lives and brought so much happiness into our family that it's hard to remember what it was like before him. He is a TRUE joy to have and it makes me so sad he's getting so big so fast! Thank you for being the perfect baby Dru and for making your mommy so happy. Stop growing and just let me love you on for a few more months before you're running all over the place pls!!! Love you, Love you, Love you, baby boy..xoxox

Oh the holidays!!!

2011-01-12T13:03:00.000-08:00

It's been quite awhile since we we last posted...but as you can imagine and probably know all to well, the holidays around here are a crazy buys times and the days fly by! Let's start with November! So the 22nd was Ben and I's 7th anniversary (yea for us!), the 24th was my birthday and the 25th was Thanksgiving! For our anniversary this year we just went out to dinner to a VERY nice place and spent the evening together. It started with Roses from the hubby and ended with a sleigh ride around Salt Lake City, so fun! Thank you to Dee and Hailey for taking the kidos so we could have a fun night out! My birthday...27, wow I'm getting old! Ben's family was here because they came to our house this year for Thanksgiving so it was a fun filled night! We had cake, opened presents, and went shopping that night for Thanksgiving stuff. The night before my birthday Ben wanted to give me one of my gifts that he was really excited about before all of the family and the chaos began. All that week he had been working on putting together a BEAUTIFUL picture frame for me with some of my favorite pics...it brought tears to my eyes and I LOVED it! Thanks babe! Thanksgiving was so fun. Bens mom and dad, brothers and sister and her hubby came along with Ben's aunt and her 3 kids. We were lucky to fit everyone in my house. I have never hosted such a big event at my place before, so it was alot of work but so worth it! That night, me and some crazy friends went to Walmart at midnight for the after thanksgiving sales, shopped there for a couple of hours and then decided to just keep going instead of going home and then going back out. We hit Old Navy, Target, the Mall, etc..came home around 5am and WAS EXHAUSTED!!! A few hours later I went back to the mall with my mother in law, but didn't make it long before I started feeling seriously sick and had to go home and sleep. Every year I say I'm not going to do that, and then the phone rings from my crazy friends, they SOMEHOW talk me into and before I know it..I'M THE ONE DRIVING!! Anyways, so fun and I love that I have such fun family and friends to do these things with.
We were going to just stay at our little house with our little family this year for Christmas but last minute got the phone call from Grandpa and Grandma McSpadden begging us to come home "one last year" (which was 2 years ago!!) and we decided to go. Partially because Ben's family was coming the day after Christmas and that's when were originally going go to mine, so this way we could spend time with my fam and be back for his.
Christmas was a blast! Thursday night I invited Kelli and Courtney (some bestest friends from High School) and their hubbies over for Pizza and visiting. Courts husband had to stay home with the flu, so she visited for a little while and Kelli and Jeremy stayed and ate, played cards, and had so much fun! I am so grateful for such good friends and feel so lucky to have held onto such wonderful people throughout my life. We had a great Christmas Eve with family and 2 of the families that always come over and we spend it with. We had yummy soup bowels, desert, and put on a fun Christmas program. That night I was up til 3am putting together toys, wrapping last minute gifts, and organizing Santa's gifts...my fav part about Christmas. I swear every year I am more excited then my own kids! Well, Santa definitely came.....and boy were my kids spoiled rotten! Holly cow I have never seen so many gifts in my life mainly because of my parents who SPOILED them crazy! All Christmas day we just played our new toys, ate to much food, and played fun games together. Thanks to Mom and Dad for such a great time and for taking such good care of us, we love you more then you know!
We came back to good ol' Utah the next day and were so happy to be back in our own beds and made it happy and healthy! The next day we spent some time at Ben's Grandma's with his family and were even able to see his sister Carly and their kids so my kids had a blast playing with cousins and catching up on some much needed Fullmer time! That night when we came home we pulled into the neighborhood and it was PITCH DARK. I guess the power had gone out a few hours before so it looked kind of creepy! And for any of you that don't know me...I HATE THE DARK!! I'm a scardy cat and HATE HATE HATE when the power goes out at night, it's like a scary movie for me. It's the worst! of course our house was freezing so the kids got to spend the night in our room because the basement was WAY to cold for them and we were up ALL NIGHT changing batteries and consoling scared kids (and wives haha!) SOO, the next few days we spent and PJS and doing NOTHING because we were so burnt out from traveling and being up all night for nights on end! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the holidays, but sometimes after them I feel like I need another vacation!
SO, sense then, we have gotten back into normal life. Started kindergarten again, pre school again, normal nap times and bedtimes again, back to work again, and training for my wonderful marathon again. New years was spent with friends, eating MORE food, counting down the dropping ball, kissing while holding a overly tired baby, and making New Years Resolutions...which are: finish my half marathon (which is in two weeks by the way!) (finish my full marathon...can't even think about that yet!) spend more individual time with my kids, daily scripture study more often, serving someone else AT LEAST once a week, begin sewing and finish my scrapbooks, be a better wife, sister and daughter. (Oh the list could go on but those are just a few!)
I look back on the past few years of my life and I cannot complain, they have been wonderful! I have been extremely blessed and have really come to learn more about myself and who I am truly as person, a mom, a wife, etc.. but I want to be better. I want to be my best self and accomplish some things this year that I have wanted to do for a long time. I feel like with Dru being 6 months old now, finally getting back on track with a normal schedule and back to real life again with NO PLANS of getting prego in the near future..that I'm going to start focusing on the now and bettering my life along with my families life. I love you all and cannot begin to tell all of my friends and family how much we love and appreciate you all. Thank you for being so wonderful! We hope you all enjoyed your holidays and are looking forward to a new year!

Cheese for the Christmas card!!

Long lonst friends getting together again

Decorating Christams cookies at Austin's pre

school party that mom helped at.

Austin has the BEST pre school teacher, we

love Ms. Kelly! This is her readding a

Christmas story to the class.

Reading a letter from Santa thanking the kids

for writing him letters

Austin's pre school friend Graham...they are the

only boys in the class so think they are pretty

cool! haha

Mom and her baby boy

Brooklyn and Ellie playing in the snow...they

had a blast if you can't tell by the huge grins!

Brooklyn LOVES the snow, she would play in

it ALL day if I let her

Uncle Treagan and Allison came to visit for a

weekend and this is what Tregan ended up doing

after shoveling my drivway. haha My kids

ADORE this boy

This is Kelli's little girl Lyla and my little Dru

(not so little) ...match made in heaven!

There is house in my parent's neighborhood that

every year has Santa come and the kids get to

sit on his lap and tell them what they want for

Chritsmas. My kids JUMPED at the chance and

LOVED seeing him. I thought Talon would be

scared but he was on his lap before I knew it!

Brooklyn and Santa

Austin was little shy so said he wanted his new

Transformer toy..and off he went hah

Me and my little sis...I love this girl and already

miss her. Thanks for running the dreaded loop

with me andspending some much needed sister

time..love you sister

And what does Kyli want from Santa this year?

This house is decorated in all the disney's stuff

you can imagine! Talon was in heaven with Buzz

and Woddy.

Bestest friends

Cheese!

Brooklyn and Grandma!

This is wear you could find Talon most of the

time at my parent's house...

My little Mary

Austin LOVED his new Criss Cross Crash

car set...still plays it all day!

My 6 month old sucking on his present

And yes, Brooklyn got her much wanted

Leapster with a Tinkerbell game

Christmas morning...don't judge pls! Going on

two hours of sleep and pretty much delirious!

Look at those cheekies!!

Dru LOVES Grandma..I'm pretty sure she likes

him a little too

Talon with is Buzz bike that he wanted all year

The beatuful picture frame ben put together for me.

Brooklyn lost her FIRST tooth on my birthday!

The toothfairy definitly came..I've never seen

her so happy!

Happy birthday momy! My husband spoiled me

with some money to get some new clothes and

a gift card to my favorite running store so I could

get some warm sutff since we're insane and I run

with a friend at 5am in the freezing cold weather

to train for this thing.

This is all of us getting ready to blow the candles

out!

The tooth fairy has arrived!

2010-12-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

That's right! My baby girl lost her first tooth! She actually pulled it out November 24th (my birthday!) and was so so excited! The tooth fairy came that night and brought her a whole dollar! We had family in town since it was the day before Thanksgiving so Brooklyn and Austin slept in mom and dad's room. She checked under her pillow about ten times before midnight and finally feel asleep. That morning she woke up bright and early with the biggest smile on her face I have ever seen to find that tooth fairy has come!
I can't believe my baby is almost 6 yrs old, has started school, is loosing teeth, etc..it seriously seems like yesterday I was heading to the hospital to have her. To my Brooklyn, my only little girl: I love you sweetheart. You are mommies everything and my best friend! Thank you for being such a joy to our family and for being such a great example to your little brothers. Keep being a good girl and know that your mommy and daddy love you to the moon and back!

7 Years!!

2010-11-22T12:56:00.000-08:00

This past November Ben and I celebrated 7 years of marriage together!! I just wanted to take a few minutes to tell my wonderful hubby how much I deeply love and adore him and share our story with all our our loved ones.

Ben and I met in the summer of 03 and I head feel head over hills from the firs date! To back up a little bit...out of high school I decided to move to Utah and run track for Utah Valley State College. I ran for a year and as much as i loved Utah and being part of a collegiate sport, it never really felt like home, I always felt like I was missing something in my life and towards the end of the year i decided to change it up a little and move away for the summer. I debated for awhile on going home and living in Boise, but after talking to some friends in Rexburg, they convinced me to take the summer off and come live with them and have some girl time and play there. Two weeks after moving there, my good friend Leslie Goldthorpe set me up on a blind date with a guy who served his mission with her older brother...the rest is history! He swept me off my feet from the moment I met him! Tall, dark, and handsome! Along with being super sweet, kind, so service oriented,amazingly smart, athletic, comes from an amazing family...I could go on and on. Two months after that on September 18th Ben took me out on the date of my life! He picked me from a baby shower I was at in a gorgeous black corvette and drove me to his friends house where in his driveway was sitting a helicopter..ready to take us on a ride! We flew around Rexburg looking at it from a whole different kind of view, it was amazing! After a little while we flew over this HUGE field, the pilot tell me to look out my window and read what I saw in the field. Plowed in this huge field I read, "WILL YOU MARRY ME?" Oh my gosh I melted, I could not believe he did that. And yes, he did that on his own with some help from some buddies, tractors and all! Later that night we went to dinner and when i walked into the restaurant there was my whole family! Two months later on November 22nd Ben and i were married in the Boise, Idaho temple for time and all eternity. THAT was the best day of my life and I still can't believe he chose me.
It's been 7 years since and I don't always get to tell that fun proposal story, so bare with me! In 7 years Ben and I have been through alot. We have moved about 8 times, have had 4 kids in 5 years, been through 2 miscarriages together, jobs, family events, loosing loved ones, enjoying the first day of school for our kiddos, soccer games, dance recitals, and all the ups and downs that life brings. Through all of this Ben has been my rock. We were super young (me 19 and him 21) when we got married, but to this day I will say that if I could go back and change anything...I wouldn't change a thing. He has made me the happiest girl in this world and I can not imagine my life an other way.
Anyone that knows Ben knows what I'm talking about. He truly has a way with people by making them feel like even though you might have just met him you could be best friends! He is the best dad ever and our kids absolutely ADORE him.Life has definitely happened to us and sometimes it can get kind of crazy. As of late Ben has been called to be the 2nd counselor in the bishopric so I'm pretty sure it's about to get alot crazier. But as soon as he got that calling, the first thing he did was come home and reassured me and the kids that even though he might be really busy and not home every night, we were number one and that would never change. I love this man to pieces and feel so lucky to be by his side. Thanks for the 7 years babe, and an eternity to come!...Here are a few things I love about u!
-The way you make us and the kids feel like we're the only thing that matters when you're around
-The way you make me laugh. I can honestly say Ben is the funniest person I have ever met. That is one of things that made me fall in love with him. He has made me laugh every day from the day I met him. Even if I'm mad about something or at him...he ha a way of making me laugh.
-Love that after 7 yeas of marriage I just found out you don't like Ketchup haha
-Even though I say I don't love it, I think it's hilarious that when we go to bed you can fall asleep mid sentence...and I know you can't help it. haha
-Love what a hard worker you are
-Love the way you love your Lakers and Kobe when everyone else hates them
-Love that you make sure I get my girls days in and get a break every once in while
-Love when you speak Italian to me
-Love that you love to read
-Love the way you drive even though it makes me carsick because you're in and out of the lanes like a crazy person! haha
-Love that you never raise your voice and I can count the number of times I've actually seen you mad about something.
-Love that you have given me 4 amazing beautiful kids who you adore more then anything
-Love that no matter where we go, out of town, out of state, out of country...you ALWAYS run into someone you know.
-Love how taking family pictures could be the worst day of your life every year
-Love how I got pulled over this morning and was let go with a warning, got the biggest guilt trip EVER from you..then you got pulled over tonight, got a ticket and we both just laughed about it.
-Love how every year you get so stressed about what do to for my birthday and or anniversary knowing I would be happy just chilling an home with you.
-Love how bugged you get when i start playing Christmas music in November
-Love that you love my family
-Love that you love your family
-Love how when we are riding in the car, every few minutes you put your arm over to me and rub my head or brush my hair away just to let me know you care.
-Love how hard you work for our family
-Even sometimes I say i hate it, I do love how athletic you are and how you are good at EVERY sport you do. Basketball, Tennis, Baseball, Golf, etc...I can go on and on
-Love how I can have the most stressful day ever and can keep it together all day long, as soon as you ask if I'm ok or from the moment I hear your voice I loose it!
- Love your heart and how kind it is
-Love how much you care about others
-Love how you're my best friend
*Ok I could go on and on...I love everything about you! Here are a few pics of the past few years!

My best friend

Favorite place on Earth, Lake Powell!

Last year Ben took me on a hike that was so much fun and so beautiful!

Happy Halloween!

We've done this a few times together...

On our way to Vegas!!

And many more to come....

Four Months Old!!

2010-11-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

Here's my adorable chubby four month old,
yes he had a double chin! haha

Rice cereal for the first time! You actually
liked it and talked through the whole feeding!

Aunt Brittany and you on Halloween!

My boys. Here are your big bros, they LOVE
LOVE LOVE you!

To my dear sweet four month old! That's right, another milestone, FOUR MONTHS!! I cannot believe how fast these past four months have flown by! Granted I'm crazy super busy since I have three other little ones running around you and still a little (ok alot as of lately) sleep deprived so maybe that's why it all just seems to be a blur lately...but still, four months is big time !! I just want you to know how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE your chubby little body and how much you brighten my day. I love how every time I we make eye contact your whole little body shakes and I get the biggest smile ever! I love how you're talking your own little language right now and how you tell me stories all day. Boy do you love your bouncer, I'm pretty sure besides my arms that's your favorite place to be and one of these days you're going to bounce yourself right out of there. I love how you love your siblings and as long as you can see one of them, you're golden.
We're still working on sleeping through the night, mainly because you love that dang binky so so much but can't quite figure out how to keep it in at night so mom's been to the rescue a little to much lately in the middle of the night to put it back in. (Dad made sure the pediatrician told mom that you should be sleeping through the night by now and swears tonight is the night we're making you cry it out...we will see if my heart can handle that little scream of yours though!) So sorry about the mauling that occurs with your big sister. She loves holding you, smothering you with kisses and as of late playing dress up with all of your cute new winter hats that I have pulled out of the bin. We started rice cereal a couple of days ago for the first time and you actually liked it! I don't care what anyone says though, rice cereal does NOT help babies sleep any better and the doc also confirmed with me that that's just a myth and it's not necessary for you to be on it (considering you weighed in at 16.5lbs and 28 in!! long and are in 9 month clothes!!...haha, I love the rolls!) but we can try it here and there if we want so we will see!
So, another thing dad is stating and has been since I was prego with you...you are my last baby. I have always wondered how I would KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that I am done having babies. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the small peanut cuddling stage and maybe that's why you and your siblings are so close because after a year I get super baby hungry!! Because four kids is ALOT and you are most likely my last, I have been trying to enjoy EVERY SINGLE MOMENT I have during this stage of your little life. Sometimes I'll be in bed, mind racing and not being able to sleep, so I sneak into your little bedroom, scoop you up and we cuddle for a few short minutes just staring at you. Wondering what you're going to look like, what your personality is going to be like etc.. actually I catch myself doing this alot these days with you and your siblings.
You're such a fun baby and definitely meant to be part of our family. Words cannot describe how much your mommy loves you. How privileged I feel to be able to have that as my responsibility. Thank you for being such a joy to our family, love you baby boy.

Oh how we love fall

2010-10-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I LOVE LOVE LOVE fall. Something about watching all of the trees change colors, being able to play outside at the park without cooking to death, all the yummy pumpkin spice smells, the fun of dressing up for Halloween and watching my kids get all hyped on sugar that that makes my heart smile. So, our church put on a ward Halloween party last night where the kids (and some crazy adults! haha I loved it) got all dressed up, had some great deserts, and then all the parents lined up around the church and the kids went around from room to room and all around the building trick or treating getting gobs and gobs of candy! Talon was not sure what to think about just being able to say "trick or treat" and random people would just hand him a piece of candy. He kept looking up at me with this crazed look that said, "Seriously mom, I get to keep ALL of this? This is really ok?" Trying to pry away that Halloween bucket from his little paws that night was nearly impossible! He was so cute, i love this age! Brooklyn and Austin had a blast as well and loved being able to see all of their friends and getting all dressed up.

It was pretty funny because the day before I had asked Ben to pick up some candy at Costco for Halloween, so last night before we were getting ready to leave he was putting the candy in the bucket and of course...he bought the cheapest candy of all. Yes, we were the family handing out the gross red and green mint candies. I said, "Babe, seriously? You seriously bought mints for the candy for tonight?" He replies,"what's wrong with mints?" After explaining that most little kids don't like mints and making him pull out another bag of candy to add to the grose mints, he disagreed and said, "We'll see." After I took the kids around the building I went over to help him pass out the candy. NO JOKE, 3 kids in a row picked up the mints, looked at Ben and said, " I don't like these." Ben just looked at the kid, then looked at me and shook his head. Probably every other kid that came through our line said they didn't like mints and took the tootsie rolls. I was seriously laughing out loud and Ben just sat there with the funniest smile on his face. Oh how I love this man. He hates to admit when he's wrong, but when he does he has a way of doing it that makes me laugh. So yes, now I have a whole bucket full of gross mints for anyone that is interested.

A few days before this, Austin's pre-school class had a fun Halloween party that we got to go to with him. It had a fun corn maze, (that we finally gave up on after a half hour and turned around, found the entrance and continued on.) Fun animals, a fun pumpkin patch, and a huge playground the kids had a blast on. Austin loved having us there. I've been trying really hard with him lately because I feel like he gets looked over a lot these days. With four little kids, Brooklyn being the oldest and getting lots of attention for being the oldest, Talon and Dru being the youngest and just plain requiring a lot of Attention, Austin just kind of goes off and does his own thing. Don't get me wrong, he's SUPER loud, runs around and plays all day long, but when it comes to things like being involved in his school activities, getting loved on, and having one on one time, he acts like he'd be good without all of that...mom knows best though! Sometimes that happens a lot with the middle child so we're working on it!

It's seriously crazy that it's already fall again and Halloween is just in a few short days! I feel like last Halloween was just yesterday! I also can't believe that my baby Dru is almost 4 months old...wow how time flys. He's doing really good, just growing like a little weed! He's now in 6-9 month clothes, sleeping a little better ( we're in the stage now of not eating every other hour but having to go in and put the Binky back in every hour...which is not the funnest event in my life when I'm already getting up at 5 am to run in the mornings. So, we are hopefully going to break this habit as soon as mom gets the nerve to let the little guy cry it out.

I did the unthinkable the other day..signed myself up for a full marathon! After getting begged by a friend to do it with her, and knowing I needed something to start training for I decided to do it. Yes it took me twenty minutes starting at the registration form on the computer telling myself to push the "register" button to complete it..and then I thought, "what the heck did I just do!" It's not til May, so that gives me time, but still...any advice from you crazy runners out there would be great!Anyways, we hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween with your loved ones, eat lots of candy, and enjoy yourselves!

Buzz, Power Ranger, and my Butterfly Princess

Daddy and Brooklyn passing out candy

Brooklyn and her cute little friend Callie

What! All this candy is MINE?!

Mom!! I'm tired, will you carry me?

Pretty girl

K this was my favoirte part of the night..haha!
These are our friends Matt and Aubrey and their
cute little girl Andie. Funny thing is...this was
Matt's idea!! Haha, you would never know
it if you knew they type of guy he is. I
still laugh out loud looking at this pic.

Pretty dang cute bumblee bee
if you ask me!

We woke up yesterday morning to snow...sad
i know! The kids were so excited and i knew it would
be melted by the time afternoon came around,
so out they went, PJ's and all!

My little artist

Austie and mom

Austin and his pre school class. Out of this whole
class Austin and the little boy Graham sitting next
to him are the only little boys..lucky boys!

Cheese!

My little pumpkin..kind of a scary looking
pumpkin in this pic..haha

Boo!

This little guy just chilled in his carseat and was
a dream the whole time...love you baby Dru!

Road Trip Home!!

2010-10-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

So last week I decided to head home and visit my family in Boise, Idaho! I haven't been back since I was about 6 months pregnant with Dru so it's been quite awhile. It was really fun and so good to visit with family and friends. We had decided before I came that I was going to throw my little sister Taucia a baby shower, so that was way fun! She's having a little boy (due January 30th) hence all of the blue decor.
Ben had a ton going on that week with work, youth conference camping with the young men, etc.. and I didn't want to hang out all weekend on my own, so it was a great opportunity to spend some family time. Ya, fun, but a little crazy!!!! All four kids and me, in the car, four 6 hours...wow! Luckily, on the way there they did awesome! Watched a few movies, read books, played with toys, etc...the way home..a little more stressful, but we just took our sweet time getting home and eventually made it back home to daddy. This was the first time I have made the trip ON MY OWN with all four kids. WOW...will probably not be doing that again by myself! When we get to Grandma's, the word "NO" doesn't exist, bedtime is out the window, sugar is pretty much thrown at them, quite voices are no longer available, and grouchiness and temper tantrums are expressed at a whole new level!! On top of this, Dru came down with a little cold so was literally up ALL NIGHT EVERY NIGHT!!
Don't get me wrong I had a great time, visited with some friends, (Thank you again for lunch and entertaining us for an afternoon Steve and Kami!!) and spent some much needed time with my little sister who is the only child at home right now and had so much fun throwing Taucia a baby shower...but realized on this trip how much of a help Ben is and how much I rely on him! Yes four kids under the age of 5 is crazy busy, but without a husband is INSANELY CRAZY! It was so nice to come home and get back to real life with my best friend!
Taucia received some very nice things and we are so grateful for all of those that came and supported her. We are so excited to have little baby Heath Cherry running around with my little boys! Thanks to the fam for the hospitality and for putting up with the craziness for a few days. We LOVE YOU!!!

Party Party!!

Mom and Taucia

So So cute...go Broncos!

And of course the men couldn't keep their hands
off of my food!!

Me and my little sis..I love her

Thanks for hanging with me for a few days, come
see me soon sister!

Dru loves Kyli and gives her the biggest smiles
everytime he's with her.

Can't help but kiss those cheekies!!

Dru talking with Aunt Tresa, he was going on

and on, it wa so cute!

Mommy to be opening her gifts!

The famous creme cheese Costco cake..

wow!

Baby Shower!

yummy chicken salad crouissants

Cheese!

What mom!

I love these big smiles!!

"How old are you Talon?" "I'm two mom!"

My 3 year old man

Watch out, supergirl is here

My little Buzz Lightyear, he would wear

this everyday if I let him!

Love of my life

This little man is 3 months old, almost four and

is in 6-9 months clothings...he's a chunk

and I LOVE IT!!

2010-09-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

Ben's litle sister Tiara got married a few weeks back and I've been meaning to post some pics from the wedding..so here they are!! Tiara was a BEAUTIFUL bride and everything turned out amazing! It was so fun being able to spend some time with Fullmer family and play with all of the cousins and friends. We are so happy for Blake and Tiara and can't tell them enough how proud we are of them. We love you guys!!

The oldest sibling with the youngest..Ben loves
his little sister, she's a pretty amazing girl.

Me and my hubby

Baby Dru with aunt TT

I'm sorry, but isn't he just so dang cute!! haha

Smile baby!

And could she be more beautiful?!?!?

Brooklyn loved her princess dress that she
got to wear for aunt TT's wedding. My little
princess for sure

Hey little man, you're only 8 weeks in this picture
and look 5 months old..I love the rolls..so fun

My boy and I

Dru is such a smilely little boy, everytime you look
at him he gets all shy and smiles the biggest grin ever..
I LOVE HIM!!

Uncle Chad and Aunt Brittany. They are expecting
baby Brynn in a few months and we can't wait
to have another fun girl cousing to play with!

My whole world..

Daddy with his boy

Tiara with her brothers

Smile Austie man!

Carrying the bride

All the girls! Sorry, the picture is kind of far..

Blessing Day

2010-09-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday September 5th we had the privilege of blessing our handsome little Dru. It was a beautiful day and Ben did an amazing job blessing him. Something about seeing all of those men up there with my baby and hearing all of the wonderful things he will be blessed with brought tears to me eyes and feelings that were indescribable. We feel so blessed to have had so much support through our family and friends on that very special day and want you all to know how much we love and appreciate you. Thank you for being so amazing and such wonderful examples in ours and our children's lives.

Handsome as can be

My cute little sisters!!

Grandma and Grandpa McSpadden with Dru

Grandpa and Grandma Fullmer with Dru

This pic doesn't do justice but this was just a glimse

of how much help we had after the blessing at the

lunch-in. Cutting food, helping with kids, etc..

Thank you thank you!

My Kidos

2010-09-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

So my wonderful husband finally was able to fix our laptop so I can now download all my pics I've been taking for the past two months!!...picture overload here we come! We have had a very busy couple of months since our little Dru was born. Talon turned two, swimming lessons for Austin and Brooklyn, soccer started for Brooklyn, Austin started preschool and Brooklyn started kindergarten...whew!! They are doing great and loving life! Preschool had been a dream for Austin, he loves having something for himself and loves being able to get out of the house and be involved in something. Brooklyn is a great little kindergartner!! Of course on the first day she had no problem at all, she even reached out to a little girl who was crying and asked if they could be friends. Off the two went hand in hand and are great friends now. I was so proud of her and love that she has such a kind heart. Mom shed a few tears of course. I can't believe how old she is getting. She is so much fun and seriously makes me laugh every day with her dramatic expressions and the way she describes stuff to me. The past week has been a little rough actually getting on the bus for school, the newness has officially worn off and she keeps asking if she can stay home and just play with me and the boys. I have reassured her there is no party going on at home while she is at school because I'm pretty sure that's what she's thinking! We had an emotional cry fest at the bus stop yesterday which ended in her missing the bus, a super mad mom who had to run her to ANOTHER bus stop and MAKE her get on that one so she wouldn't expect me to take her to school everyday. She did better today, but we will see!!! Austin of course doesn't even look back when it's time for school and LOVES it. Talon is keeping me busy as ever. As I said before, he turned two on August 22nd...and oh boy did her turn two. We have officially begun the temper tantrums, the talking back, and crying over everything now. At the same time though, his little sentences he tries to say crack me up and he is still a huge cuddlier so i do love that. Dru is doing great! He's still a newborn of course so has his good days and bad days, but he's tons of fun and we are loving him. He's a big boy and I'm excited for his doc appt. this week to see how much he weights.
I feel so lucky to be the mommy of these little kidos. Being a stay at home mom is for sure the hardest job on the face of this earth, but so so worth it.

First day of kindergarten!!

First day of preschool!

She was so excited that she didn't even pause

infront of the bus for me to get a picture...so this

will have to do I guess!!

This is Brooklyn's friend Bailey. Everyday they walk

off of the bus together holding hands. I am so gratful

having so many little friends aroud here

who watch out for Brooklyn!

This is us playing on our slip and slide!! WHOO!!

My baby turned two!! This is Talon with his Buzz Lightyear

cake mommy made him.

Daddy and the birthday boy

Austin thought the box Buzz came in made a better

helmet of course.

Me and my baby

Brooklyn started soccer a few weeks ago and LOVES it!

She is definitly an athletic girl and scored 5 goals last

Saturday!!

My little soccer player

This Brooklyn and Austin in swimming lessons

together. Sincer they are only 23 months apart

they got to be in the same classs...which they loved!

They both passed their level and loved it...mom

was glad they got to go but was gratful the 20min

drive there and back everyday for 2 weeks was

over!!

My baby turned two!!

2010-08-26T17:42:00.000-07:00

That's right, my sweet little Talon is officially a toddler now! I can't believe he is already two years old! Wow how that went by fast! Talon is such a joy to have in our family and i wanted to do a little re-cap of the past two years, so here's some photos just to remind me how fast they really do grow up and share with all of you the cute little personality this little two year old has!

By far, Talon is my busiest kid yet! From day one he has been a dream, the type of baby that all you had to do was look at him and he would smile so big you couldn't help but want to love on him. He has always been a Ma Ma's boy for sure and I have loved every minute of it. He used to be a little shy and would always bury his head into my shoulder when someone would talk to him, he still does this here and there and bats those big blues like you wouldn't believe. Talon was my biggest chub for sure. He was such a rollie pollie as a baby and it was so dang cute. He still is way big for his age, 95% for height of course..just like the others! He's catching up to his big brother lately and they can even wear the same clothes. The wrestling matches at our house are getting to be in Talon's favor, and I'm even having to remind Austin that Talon is the little brother as he runs away screaming as Talon is chasing him around the house. He wasn't sure what he thought of our new addition Dru, but as of late he has come to decide that he loves helping mom feed him a bottle, throwing diapers away, and sometimes even thinks he's big enough to drag him either out of his swing or off of the couch as mom gets there just in time, and has to remind him that Dru is to little to pick up by himself . He definitely has a little attitude and tells his brothers and sister to go to time out at least three times a day and I'm pretty sure his favorite word is, "NO!" BUT, at the same time loves to cuddle with mom and dad, is the first to say,"I'm sorry,"if someone gets hurt, even if it wasn't him, and wants so bad to play and keep up with the big kids.
Our little man has an absolute obsession with Buzz Lightyear and all of the Toy Story movies. We took him to Toy Story 3 a few weeks ago and he sat on my lap the WHOLE TIME (which is very rare for this busy little boy) with his eyes glued to the screen for 2.5 hours. Our favorite quote around here these days is " To ininity and eeyond!!! (To infinity and beyond!) as he runs full speed around the house waving his arms out like wings. For his birthday we got him the big buzz toy and he was literally shaking when he realized what it was when he was opening it. Our little boy loves to swim, play outside, ride his big wheels bike, color (even though most of the coloring is on my floor and walls) loves Dino chicken nuggets from Costco, and strawberries are his favorite! He would drink milk all day long if I let him, carry his plush star blanket everywhere, and believe it or not he actually likes nap time!
This little boy is our everything and we feel so lucky to have him as part of our family.Happy Birthday to you baby...we love love love you!!

A LOOK DOWN MEMORY LANE....

Talon Rex Fullmer. August 22nd 2008. 7lbs 4 ounces

Loves his mommy and daddy..hope it
is always like that

This is the smile that I get so very often,
love love love it!!

We've always given Talon a cute little
mowhawk, he's definitly my little stud muffin

And here he is just being his handsome self with his
big brother and sister. Love you big boy!!

Newborn pics!!!

2010-08-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

Yea I'm finally getting around to showing off my cute little man and his fun little newborn pics! They are do dang cute!

So...along with that, I have to announce that yes...I survived the 6 week mark!!! Dru was officially 6 weeks old on Friday and I just have to brag about what a good baby he is. The newborn stage is always hard for me for some reason. If I could keep them this little forever, I would, I LOVE the littleness, the cuddling, etc.. but the no sleep, hormones out of whack, nursing all day and night thing stresses me out...but oh boy did the definition of "craziness" top the charts with this baby!! So, some of you know the story of what my life has been like the past month..total craziness. Four days after Dru was born, my wonderful husband's boss decided that he needs to go to California for a week for some work conference thing..so he goes. Yes I had a four day old baby, but my mom was there all week, so that was ok because I had tons of help. He gets home from Cali, and then low and behold, four days later he gets to leave again to SINGAPORE! (we actually knew about this trip before I even had Dru, but I put it out of my mind because i was so so bugged it was even going to happen with a newborn!!) oh and that's not the worst part...HE LEFT FOR 3 WEEKS!!! So yes, he was around 4 days the entire month of Dru's life!! (not bashing on hubby, it really wasn't his fault and he hated it too, but that didn't make it any easier for sure.) Anyways, summertime is hard with everyone traveling, family reunions, etc..so I was on my lonesome for 3 weeks. (except for 2 days Ben's sister came and helped out so a big shout out to B!!) Along with this 3 week adventure, Singapore has a 14 hour time change, so even talking on the phone got a little tricky. Usually it was at 8 or 9pm here when he was on his way to work there, and was usually only a quick "hello, are you surviving, i love you, goodbye" phone call because he had to get to work.

Two weeks into this wonderful experience of being up ALL NIGHT with Dru, working through hours on end of non stop crying, three other kids who were completely acting out because they needed attention like crazy, a 3 year old who went back to peeing his pants every hour, a 2 year old hitting everyone and throwing every object in a 2ft. radiace, a VERY emotional 5 year old who missed her daddy and cried over every single occurrence like it was the end of the world.....I was walking down my stairs one afternoon holding my FINALLY sound asleep newborn, had on some slippers that had absolutely NO traction on them, and slipped down my stairs,watching as one leg stayed on the first stair, twisting completely out and around as the rest of my body slid down to the last, hearing a huge pop and watching it swell up the size of a balloon. Oh boy, I lost it! I'm chalking that up as my first emotional break down with this one...and boy was it ever. I had a friend take my kids while I ran down to the insta care clinic. The doc said the xrays looked ok but he was pretty sure I tore my MCL or meniscus so needed to come back in 2 weeks to meet with the sports med doc, put me in a fatty brace after convincing him crutches were out of the question with a husband less newborn house full of stairs, and sent me home.

Needless to say Ben had no idea this had even happened because it was 3 am there when it did happen, so when he finally got around to calling that night, all it took was hearing his voice and there goes emotion breakdown #2. He felt horrible and could tell that yes, I was stressed about the kids, but he knows how much running means to me and how I was only 2 weeks away from being able to do that again so reassured me over and over that everything would be ok and we would get the best doctor in town and get it taken care of asap. I could barely walk around the next few days but had to considering I still had four kids to take care of on my own. I can't even tell my friends and neighbors thank you enough for all of the meals and help that I received during this time. One friend finds out I'm doing all of this on my own with an injured leg, tells another, and before I know it, I have meals coming to my house every night for two weeks, people coming and taking my kids so I can get some rest, the nicest man ever who mows my lawn every Monday all summer long, and people just calling to make sure I'm ok or just to see if I need anything. Oh happy day when Ben got home, not only for his help with the kiddos but just to have someone around to talk to and have adult conversations with.

So, yes we survived the dreadful month of July!!! The first month is hard anyways, so along with all of this going on, I am very happy to report that I have four healthy happy children who are currently doing swimming lessons, soccer and sleeping through the night!! Yes, even my sweet 6 week old Dru has been doing so awesome this past week. Goes to bed at 11pm, sleeps til 5am, eats, and goes right back to bed til 9am!! Thank you baby wise and advice from all you girls from my post awhile ago. Ever since then he has been a dream baby. Napping so good, smiling and making the cutest cooing noises. Hallelujah we are starting to get the hang of this and get back to normal life!! Oh and good news, my MRI came back and no torn ligaments here!! Just a major sprain and something they call an "internal bone bruise" which is close to a fracture I guess but not quite. Definitely will take some healing time but in a couple of weeks I should be good as new.

Anyways, now that I have written about how hard and great my life has been at the same time, I would like to say how grateful I feel to have such an amazing little family. I love knowing that these little people are mine and that I get to be with them forever. I love tucking them in at night after baths and story time, saying prayers and thanking my Father in Heaven for giving me the amazing opportunity to be their mommy. Like I said, Dru is 6 weeks already and I catch myself looking at him and the others not believing how big they are getting and wanting to just stop time with all four of them right now because I love the ages they all are at. I love being a mom, even though some days I could pull my hair out, loose my voice from yelling at them all day, along with time out being a normal every day occurrence at our house. They make me laugh nobody can, make me smile over the simplest things, and melt my heart multiple times a day. Love you husband, love you babies, thank you for being my everything.

Summer days

2010-08-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

So I just wanted to put some cute pics of my darling kidos on here. I've put a ton of Dru lately but not my other cuties. We've been trying to think of lots of fun things do around the house lately since we are pretty much home bound these days, that's included lots of ice cream cones and running around in the back yard. For most of you that know me, I'm definitely a person who likes to get out of the house and go do things, so this has been a definite change of pace for us around here these days! It's still fun, and I always forget how fast the day goes by with a newborn because of how much there is to do and how long it takes to do anything! I am extremely blessed with creative fun outgoing children though that have the cutest imaginations so they make sure to have a fun day no matter what is going on. We are sad that summer is ending soon, kind of crazy that it's already August and school is starting soon! Brooklyn starts Kindergarten in a few weeks and Austin is off to preschool...so weird I will have two in school! They are very excited for this though, and it will be good for them to have something to look forward to. Dru is doing good, a little better from my last post!! haha I forget how nice getting a full nights sleep is and always do with every baby, so being up every two hours is always a challenge. He's finally moving on to every four hours though so that's been nice, it's hit and miss still though so when i get that, I'm the happiest mommy ever! Dru is four weeks old tomorrow, I can't believe how fast a whole month has gone by!! Anyways, life around here is pure chaos some days and other days are better then others, but I feel super super blessed to have four of the most amazing loving kids in the whole world! i hope you all enjoy the next couple months of summer and live it up. Love you all!!

My blode blue eyed Talon...pretty sure this one is going to be a heartbreaker!!

Laugh Attacks

3 weeks old and sound asleep...for now!

My little princess

Austin will pull a funny face in every picture I take of him, never will he just look at the camera and smile...drives me CRAZY!! I'm glad he has such a funny sense of humor though lol

Ha Ha, I love them

Calling All Mommies!!

2010-07-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

Ok mommies, advice time!! As most of you know, my little Dru is almost four weeks old and even though this is my fourth baby you would think I have this newborn thing down...um, wrong!! This little boy has thrown me for a loop and I am in need of some mommy advice. SOO, here's the problem, as much as I love this little man and would cuddle him all day long...HE WANTS TO BE HELD ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT LONG!!!! He's such a cuddlier and definitely loves his mama, which I can't get enough of, but that's nearly impossible with three other little ones. He falls asleep in my arms, I put him down, he wakes up two seconds later screaming, I pick him back up, he snuggles right into the corner of my arm and falls right back asleep. I was ok with this for awhile, but am getting very sleep deprived and wondering if it's to early to make him cry it out so he starts falling asleep on his own.

The baby wise book says to start letting them do this at two weeks, but that seemed so little to me. The problem is even at four weeks he seems so little and it breaks my heart!! So, is it to early to do this or is it fine to let him cry himself to sleep so he starts learning how to put himself to sleep? I go back and forth !

Besides the sleeping thing he's a great baby! We are loving him to death and are so happy he is finally here with our family. Funny how before they get here you wonder what it will be like with them, and then once they get here you forget what life was like without them. My other kidos are adjusting pretty good, Talon has his occasional fits but that was like that before Dru was here! Hope you are all enjoying your summer and doing well, we love you all!!

Two weeks old

2010-07-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

Life as we know it, as you can imagine with four kids 5 and under...is a little CRAZY!!! Just wanted to give a quick update on how my little man is doing and how we are keeping up with it all!
Dru had his two week appointment yesterday and went from 6.15 to 7.8! He also is 20.5 in long, so has grown a whole inch! So far he's a good baby. I say 'so far' because he's only two weeks old so who knows whats in store for us. The famous question seems to always be "Are you getting any sleep?"...haha, ya right. I don't know why people even ask that question with a newborn! He's a typical newborn, wanting to eat every two-three hours. Hates having a dirty or wet diaper and loves being cuddled of course! Night time comes around and he's either sleeping in mom's arms because both of them are exhausted and fell asleep like that or in the swing because he hates being flat. Just so you know sweet boy, this is ok for a little bit longer, but your mommy is all about getting you little ones on a sleeping schedule so life around here gets back to being somewhat normal again! Don't get me wrong, I love cuddling you and am finding 3 am feedings to actually be one of my favorite times of the day because I just get to hold you in the quiet of my bedroom while you stare at me with those big baby 'who knows what color yet', while we have conversations about the type of young man you're going to be, how you're going to adore your mommy, talks about girls and so on!!...but, come morning time I'm pretty sure your other siblings get the wrath of a tired mommy..so babywise schedule time here we come!! At first I felt bad because as you know it, I never am able to nurse you sweet babies for very long. I had to supplement in the hospital because you were pretty jaundice and needed more fluids and from thereon out you decided you liked the bottle more then me anyways! I told myself I wasn't going to stress about the 'breast feeding' thing this time around, and if it worked it worked, but if not I wasn't going to beat myself up about it. About two days ago I pumped and only got ONE ounce, so you are officially a bottle fed baby and loving it!
Brooklyn, Austin and Talon are LOVING having a baby around. Brooklyn is quite the little mommy, wanting to hold Dru all of the time, and Austin is already asking when he's going to start walking so he can teach him how to play soccer and play transformers. Soon enough my dear! Honestly Talon doesn't know what to think. His favorite quotes as of right now is, "MY mommy baby Dru!!"as he glares at him while Dru is so innocently sleeping in his swing. I've had to for sure give him alot of one on one time but besides that he's doing pretty good.
We have had alot of family come into town to help. As most of you know, Ben has had to travel with work alot, yes even since Dru was born. So I'm very grateful for his family coming the first week and mine coming the next. My mom stayed for 8 days and I loved having her company and help! I have the most amazing friends who have constantly been bringing in meals, gifts, phone calls, mowing my lawn, and helping me with my other kids. This has seriously opened my eyes to the importance of serving other and when I get to the point of wondering how I'm going to do this..someone always shows a helping hand and does something such as those that brings me to tears.
Yes, the hormones are worse for me after I have my babies considering I'm living on two hours of sleep every day on top of that! All someone has to do is ask the simple question," How are you?" and I can feel my throat tighten up and can't talk. My answer for those who are wondering that question...here's my answer. Yes it's crazy with for kids, yes it's hard, yes I'm living on no sleep and have my moments when i break down and can't stop crying, yes I'm feeling super home bound and have my days when i think I'm going to loose my mind, and yes sometimes nap time and bedtime are my favorite part of the day!..BUT at the same time...yes it's wonderful and amazing, yes I feel like the luckiest mommy in the world to be able to have four healthy happy vibrant little kids who love me and i love them, yes I love feeling needed by this little baby and would hold him and cuddle him all day long if I could, and yes being a stay at home mom is the hardest job in the entire world, but i wouldn't trade it for anything and know that's what i was put here to do. I think the scariest part of being a mom is messing up. I know we all have our fears, and one of mine is that I'm doing this mommy thing the wrong way and with all of the bad that is going on this scary big world of ours, I'm somehow going to ruin one of them! I'm just hoping with lost of trust in my Heavenly Father and prayers that they will turn out ok! ha ha
Thank you again to all of those who have been so wonderful and supportive. It's amazing how much even the littlest gesture means during crazy times like these, so thank you thank you. Hope you are all enjoying your summer and living it up! Here are some pics I took of my beautiful tw week old Dr, enjoy!

Yes his mouth is always like this if he's awake! Why do they just assume it's time to eat if they are awake?

He of course has HUGE hands and feet condiering his daddy is 6'4.

Come back Grandma McSpadden!! Are you sure you can't just move in for three more months?

Sometimes I get smiles already!!

Hi mom!!

Mommies attment to take some newborn pics...didn't turn out the way she hoped!! Oh well, we will try again tomorrow!

Everything is way to big on him except his socks..that's been the case with all of my babies.

This is the "please mom, i know you just fed me but I'm still starving look."

Dru Benjamin Fullmer...HE'S HERE!!!

2010-07-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

He's here!! Dru Benjamin Fullmer was has arrived! He was born Friday July 2nd at 11:24 p.m. He weighed 6lbs 15 ounces and was 19.5 in long. We love him so much and are enjoying our new bundle of joy. Here is his story!!

I knew throughout this whole pregnancy that I was going to have this little man early! It had been a pretty rough ride with this pregnancy and the last few weeks I knew he was on his way. I had been having contractions pretty strong a few days prior and when I went into my weekly appointment I was dilated to a three, the doc stripped my membranes and we crossed our fingers. A couple of days went by and nothing seemed to change, just the same contractions and getting more anxious. The night of the first I was up all night with contractions and knew I was close, Ben went into work the next morning and the contractions had stopped so the kids and I loaded up and went to Costco and Walmart and ran some errands. When i got home the contractions were off and on, so Ben called and said he wanted to take me in just to get checked. I told him over and over I didn't want to because I knew they would just send me home because i wasn't having any contractions, but he fought me on it so I gave in and took the kids to a friends and told her I would be back soon!

We went in, the nurse checked me, and I was at a 5! She told me she was going to monitor my contractions and watch me for an hour and then they would decide what we were going to do. Just by her checking me, the contractions started and were consistently 5 min. apart. Within a half hour I went from a 5 to a 6 and they decided to admit me and start the process! By then i was in some pain and decided to get my epidural. IT WAS WONDERFUL! I seriously could have taken a nap, it relaxed me so much! After that the dilation kind of slowed down so we just waited around for our little man to come. The doc came in a little bit later, broke my water, and Dru Benjamin Fullmer was born at 11:24 pm.

We had a little of scare when he first started coming, the cord was wrapped around his neck twice and his little heart rate was dropping drastically. The doc did a MAJOR episiotomy (yea for me! haha) and out he came. They got the cord off of his neck, but he was BRIGHT blue and scared me to death. He didn't cry for a little while, so once he did it was the best sound in the world! They gave him some oxygen and watched him for awhile, but everything looked great and he was one healthy boy! As you can see in some of the pictures though, he is so so blue and completely bruised!

He has been such a good baby even though he is only five days old!! Brooklyn, Austin, and Talon are loving him. Brooklyn of course is quite the little ma-ma and wants him ALL DAY. She doesn't love it when someone else gets him and makes sure to let them know that he is HER brother. Austin is sweet to him and pays some attention to him, and Talon doesn't know what to quite think. He looks at him like he's from another planet and doesn't say much to him, but he is slowly coming around and today he even kissed him on the head so that's improvement!

Life as we know it is kind of crazy, but a fun crazy. Give me a couple of weeks and I'm sure I'll be on here in tears because of lack of sleep and insanity..ha ha. So far we are hanging in there though and feel very blessed to have such an amazing healthy baby boy. We love you all and can't thank you enough for the overwhelming support already. If I'm not on top of the thank you cards or returning phone calls right away, please know that some days we are in survival mode and just trying to get through the moment...but that I love you all and am very grateful for all of your thoughts and prayers!! Keep them coming!!!

Awaiting our baby boy!!

Right after he came!!...see, very blue and swollen, poor guy!

I only got to see him for a little bit and then

they took him away to make sure he was ok

after being without oxygen for awhile..I pretty

much bawled when they made me kiss him

and say bye..as you can see! So happy he was

ok.

My parents went out of town the day before I

had Dru so couldn't make it for the birth. I was

super sad, but thankfully my in-laws jumped

in the care as soon as they heard I was in labor

and made it just in time. Thank you SO SO much

Fullmer family, I love you all!

He has A TON of black hair!! I have never had

a baby with remotely this much hair before. I AM
lOVING IT!!!

Proud Pa-Pa! Ben was amazing, I love him

so much!

Hello there my little man, wow how I love you

so much already

My doctor obviously wasn't in when I went into

labor, so here is Dr. Cloward. She was new to the

staff and was AMAZING! I seriously am so

grateful for her!

Brooklyn meeting her new little brother, she

is head over hills!

Brother and sister meeting Dru for the first time.

First family picture

A couple of ours later, so sweet

Yes he sleeps alot...during the day... haha

Headed home!! Wish us luck!

Yes, we are all a little tired these days!!!

NOT YET

2010-07-01T15:49:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to inform everyone that has been emailing me and sending me messages about it...NO BABY YET! I had my LAST appointment yesterday and I'm at a 3, 80% effaced and actually had the doc strip my membranes. (haha, all you mommies know hat I'm talking about at least!) It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but definitely not the funnest experience. I had contractions all night last night and this morning, I almost went in but then of course they stopped!! I have them off and on but nothing consistent...I hate the waiting game! My induction date is a week from tomorrow though so either way, one more week and Dru will be here! So, until then, I'm walking my bootie off, getting things ready and being super anxious so we will see! We will keep you informed for sure! Love you all!!!

37 Weeks!

2010-06-20T16:49:00.001-07:00

Ok so I'm FINALLY posting a pregnancy pic of me! This is me and my baby boy at 37 weeks, so yes we are getting close! I am scheduled to be induced July 9th but am hoping to go before then..we will see! So far this pregnancy has FLOWN by and hasn't been TO bad. When I say that, I mean there were probably four weeks where I wasn't throwing up at least every day. lol For some reason I get way more sick with my boys..and lucky me...I'm going to have three! Ha! jk, we are very excited to have this little man and be able to finally have him be part of our family. Thanks to all friends and family who have helped me out with this pregnancy and with the love and support we have had through all of you. We will keep you updated and let you know when anything happens if anything does before July 9th! Wish us luck and lots of prayers please please please!!!

My Little Dancer

2010-06-13T17:15:00.000-07:00

So this year we FINALLY signed Brooklyn up for dance. Oh my, I'm pretty sure we found her one true love! She was so excited to be able to finally be a ballerina and show off her moves! I was worried she was going to be to shy do it because she actually is a pretty shy little thing unless you know her pretty good. I thought once the competitions and recitals came around she would be to scared to actually perform in front of people. I was so so wrong! Not only was she NOT shy, but she danced like it was no body's business and wanted to do it over and over and over again! I love having a little girl. I could just sit here and watch her cute facial expressions, want to write down all the funny little attitude things she says to me all day, and watching her dance seriously brings tears to my eyes. AT FIRST when we found out this soon to be baby brother was another boy, we were both a little a little sad it wasn't a girl. BUT... we go go used to the idea and are so happy to be the only girls so we can do the fun girly things together. So, to my sweet Brooklyn, I love you princess. Thank you for being my amazing little girl and my
bestest friend forever and ever. (A saying that is said every day around here.) xoxoxo

I promise she was happy in this pic..lol

Yes, she is the tallest in her class and will forever probably be in the back row for every picture!! I have lots more pics from my camera but our laptop has decided its going to die soon and won't let me download anymore pics...hopefully we get it figured out soon.

ONE OF THESE DAYS I WILL GET AROUND TO IT!!

2010-06-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

Oh boy where to start! I know FOREVER AGO I said I was going to make my blog private so for all of those who wanted to be followers to leave me your address right?!! And trust me, i had EVERY intention of doing so! My life as we know it has been a little crazy as of late! A quick update!...
No baby yet, but four more weeks, if I can make it, and our little Dru Benjamin Fullmer will be here!! My induction date will be July 9th, but I don't think I will make it that long. I don't know if it's just me getting anxious or the 'motherly instinct' I have, but I think he'll probably come in the next few weeks. As some of you know me, I pretty much "nest" the whole time I'm pregnant, and the last few weeks have been kind of crazy! We have been on a few trips here and there, along with finishing pre-school, ending dance classes and recitals and all the fun things that come to an end once summer hits. I painted a couple of bedrooms, showing our house like crazy lately (still up for sale) since it's been getting warmer, and taking care of three kids during all of this! I was planning on making a trip home for my little sister's Kyli's state track meet but the night before me and my sweet little Brooklyn came down with the stomach flu...ugh, so not a pretty thing for a 8 month pregnant women!! But i do want to give a HUGE shout out to my little sis! She's a sophomore in high school for Mountain View High School which is a 5A school, and she got 2ND PLACE IN THE 200 METER DASH AND 2ND PLACE IN THE 100 METER DASH!!!!! I was able to watch it online through the Idaho sports cast, so that was fun with my kids and I all standing around the computer yelling for Aunt Kyli!!! But i do wish I could have been there! Next year when she WINS state you can believe I will be right there at the finish line for sure! The girl who took first in both of those races was a senior from Eagle, so next year will be fun!! Anyways, she's amazing and I could go on and on and on about how proud of her I am!!
Then a week later our little fam headed up to Rexburg, Idaho where we got to welcome home Ben's little brother Treagan from his mission!! We haven't seen him for two years so it was SOOOO fun to be able to see him! Talon wasn't even born when he left so that was fun for him to meet him, and Brooklyn and Austin were way little, so they loved getting to know uncle Treagan all over again. He's such a stud and we are so happy to have him back home with the fam. We went on a Thursday and stayed til the next Tuesday, so it was alot of Fullmer Family Fun time for sure! Playing cards, staying up late, meeting all of Ben's siblings girlfriends/boyfriends lol, oh and things like Tennis and golf tournaments, a very interesting Yellowstone trip where we ended up following buffalo in the middle of the road for two hours because they wouldn't move, and playing with the Dunn cousins who my kids were so excited to see! We were exhausted by the time we got home!
THEN, the fun began! This past weekend Ben and I decided that we needed a weekend getaway with no little ones!! I always like to plan a little husband/wife trip before I have another baby just because life as we all know it with a newborn is a little hectic! Ben has been working crazy hours at work, I have had alot on my plate with three little kids and being this prego trying to get things ready, so it was exactly what we needed! Our wonderful friends Dee and Haily Greenwood decided to come with us and we had so much fun! We shopped, ate out, shopped some more, slept in, ate some more, laughed alot and just relaxed. It was just what we needed, a huge break from every day life! Ben's little sister Tiara came and stayed with our kids and I'm pretty sure they already want her to come back!
So, now the countdown begins...four weeks til baby comes...ready or not. We had a scare couple of weeks ago, out of the blue I started bleeding a little. Of course my doc had me come in because they thought it could be my placenta privia issue. They did an ultra sound, couldn't see exactly what they wanted, so sent me to a specialist and they said everything looks ok. My placenta (sorry for those who don't care or find this disgusting...stop reading!! I'm just writing what most girls don't care to hear if they have done this all before. lol) has moved to the right a little but not fully so they will do one more ultra sound next week. Hopefully it will have moved a little more and depending on how that goes...I will either be having a C-section baby the following week, or waiting and having a normal birth either when he decides to come or induced July 9th. So we will see! I really don't want to have a C-section so pray hard for me pls!! I'm getting to the uncomfortable, out of breath walking up the stairs, can't bend over or sleep good at night stage, so that always seems to drag on FOREVER! But I'm very excited and can't wait to hold and love on my new little man.
Ok, so back to the "going private on the blog" part. I tried doing it a few weeks ago and it didn't work. I will probably try again soon..if I get around to it, but right now it's not the most important thing to me considering I have about ten thousand things I want or need to do along with checklists and taking care of kids going on all day around here! So, if you are new to my blog or haven't given me your address, pls do because i will make it private, could be tomorrow, could be three months from now. That's just kind of how I roll as of late! Pics of the trips, dance recitals, pre school graduating and St. George trip will be posted...one of these days...when i get around to it! Love you all!

Going Private!

2010-04-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, so after much thought, I'm pretty sure I'm going to make our blog private! To many weird things happen out there and my sole purpose as a mommy is to love and protect my babies, so that's the main reason why. I thought I would give it a week or so though for all of my friends and fam who want to send me their email address so I can add you. Either leave it on my blog or email me at aubrey_fullmer@hotmail.com. Thanks!

Private Blog?

2010-04-27T20:57:00.001-07:00

Ok, so after some debating and conversations with the hubby, we have decided in the best interest for our family...we will probably be making our blog private. I have always hated it when people make their blog private because then I can't "blog stalk" and hop from one blog to the next of random people. Haha! But, husband has thought for awhile that we should go private, so I want your advice!! Do it, or don't do it and why? If I decide to, please send me your email address so I can add you!! I want everyone to know the latest with our family and share it with the world, but maybe it's better to keep it inside my worldly "bubble" instead? I don't know, I go back and forth all of the time!

Latest Appointment!

2010-04-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

We had another fun filled doctor appointment yesterday and everything looks great! We once again got to hear his cute little heartbeat which I could listen to all day. He's measuring a week behind, but the doc said that's not uncommon at this point. We still don't know if anything has changed with the whole placenta privia thing, and are waiting to do an ultra sound either at my next appointment in May or two weeks after that when I start my two week appointments. (crazy to think I only have one more monthly appt. and then start going every two weeks already!) Based on how that ultra sound goes, if the placenta has moved and everything looks better, I have scheduled an induction date for July 9th!!! Yea, there is an end in sight!!! BUT, if the placenta has not moved I will have a scheduled C-section around 36-38 weeks...we are praying that is not the case, and more prayers our way will be very much welcomed!
I'm definitely feeling the last trimester these last couple of weeks! I'm pretty sure I'm ready to turn all of mirrors around in my entire house, I'm super tired of all of these stairs in my house, and feel like the first trimester with the tiredness all over again. Definitely my least favorite part of being prego, but it's for sure worth it!
I'm going to start writing to my little boy here on my blog letting him know how excited we are for his arrival so I can have it recorded, so for those of you who want to hear, read on! For those who don't, then don't! We hope all is going well for all of you and this finds you healthy and happy. Thanks for for all you do and your love and support!!

Dear baby boy~
Your dad and I are pretty sure that we are going to name you Dru, but still go back and forth, so until then you will be called baby boy! We just wanted to let you know how much we love you already and how excited we are for you to join our little family. Brooklyn and Austin ask me pretty much every day if today is the day you are going to come out of my tummy so they can play with you. With patience every morning I explain what a couple more months means, but can't help finding myself just as anxious as them. Yesterday our power went out for about 5 hours so while Talon was taking a nap, Bro0klyn, Austin and I played some games and sat around. I was laying on the couch and Austin was laying next to me on the side when I put his hand on my tummy and told him that sometimes you move around in there and if he holds really still, he might be able to feel you. SURE ENOUGH, two seconds after he put his little hand on my tummy, you gave him a HUGE high five, the expression on Austin's face will forever be unforgettable. It was so sweet, almost like you were telling him in your own little way that you can't wait to come play with him. He constantly asks now to feel you kick, he loves you much already.
To tell you the truth,your sister was a little sad at first that you are not a girl! lol! It took a couple of days for it to sink in that she is going to have another little brother to pick on her and chase her around the house....BUT, she is super excited now to be mommies big helper and teach you all of the fun things around here.
You're dad and I talk about you all of the time and are trying to make our home as comfortable as can be for you. That might mean you sleeping in a walk in closet for awhile, but hey, it works! I have decided because your dad is such an amazing man, we are going to name you after him. Dru Benjamin Fullmer is the plan for right now. I hope you know what an amazing dad you are getting little boy. He's the kind of dad that loves like you have never seen before, that plays harder then you can imagine, and is for sure the smartest most kind service oriented person you will ever meet. He loves knowing he gets another little boy to run around and play with and is so excited for you to come. I know it will be hard, but we hope you are able to live up to your name and know it is a huge privilege to you are getting.
As for me, you have had me wrapped around that little finger of yours ever since I saw the two pink lines. Honestly, I was a little nervous at first to think of having baby number four and to think of raising 4 kids 5 and under can be very intimidating. But after awhile, after I was able to see your little heartbeat, see you in our ultra sound, and feel you start moving and kicking around (which you NEVER stop doing by the way!)..I knew that you being part of our family is for sure part of our Father in Heaven's plan and how blessed we are to be able to get you!! I catch myself daydreaming of holding you, cuddling, and doing all of the fun (and tiring, lets be honest...lol) mommy/ son things. Something about mommies and their little boys, nothing can beat that.
I might be a little bias, but I think our family is something pretty special and am pretty sure you are going to love being apart of it. You're not quite done growing and doing all of the things you do in there, so for now, just be patient and let's not make this arrival any earlier then needs be ok! I love you so very much and can't wait to hold you in my arms and have lots of late nighters! Thanks for picking me to be your mommy, love you son.