Oh the holidays!!!

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!

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!!

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!!

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

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!