6 years old!!..

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!!!

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!!

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!

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!!!

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!