Big changes!!

Hello everyone!

It has been WAY too long since I posted anything (I think I begin all my posts like this, don't I?), but we have had a busy summer, and have an even busier fall coming up!

A quick recap since we last visited...we have had:

• Easter visit with cousins in Houston
• kindergarten graduation,
• end of the year preschool show
• trips to the zoo
• trips to Houston
• going to the pool
• being a member of the Boerne Barracuda swim team
• first ever Fulling family MAJOR roadtrip to Branson, Missouri and Rantoul, Illinois
• good friends coming to visit (Makenzie and the Moores!)
• VBS
• swimming lessons for Addison
• THREE BIRTHDAYS IN ONE MONTH
• two birthday parties in two weeks
• more going to the pool
• ice cream cone trips
• trips to the library
• getting to read books to a therapy dog
• playdates with friends
• sno-cone lady trips
• going to "bouncy castle heaven" (this is what the girls call it...it's actually an indoor bouncy castle playland)
• trips to Petland
• going to the movies
• going to the Children's Museum
• bike riding
• AND...preparing for the major change coming up in our lives,

...no I am NOT pregnant. I promise.

After lots of prayer, research, and more prayer, we have decided to homeschool the kiddos.

Ok. Now would be a good time to stop whatever you are doing and PRAY for us. Very loudly! Pray for our sanity (or insanity, as it may be). Pray that this year will be blessed with positive experiences. Pray that any fears we have are put to rest at the feet of the Lord. Pray that Brian does NOT go out and purchase bonnets and matching ankle-length denim skirts for us...not that I'm saying that's a bad thing, necessarily...

Just pray!

And now...for those of you who are shaking your heads in disbelief and wondering WHY in world are we doing this, I will direct you to the lovely tabs that I have at the top of the blog.

Never noticed those before?

WELL, it just so happens that in addition to becoming a homeschooling mom, I will be adding "computer genius" to my job description. I have learned how to add tabs to my blog!!! This is actually a true miracle since I am generally known to be the most computer illiterate person in the world.

I won't go into all the reasons we have chosen to homeschool on this page since they are all tucked away in that nice, neat little tab at the top! Please read them if you would like, and maybe afterward, you won't think we are completely insane.

I will leave you with a slide show of some of the fun we have had since February!!

Anne

Our family, 2010

I need to thank Kelly Simmons of Mustard Seed Photography ( http://www.mustardseed-photography.com/ ), for the AMAZING job she did taking pictures of our rather large family over the Christmas holidays. All of Brian's brothers, wives, and kiddos were here, and in total I think she photographed 22 people!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Kelly!!

Here are some of my favorites of our crew!

Hello again

Well, with the holidays just behind us...or I guess a month behind us, I wanted to quickly send out some new pics of the family and share an amusing Emily story.

I'm pretty sure there are other equally amusing stories about Addison and Aaron, but since this one happened just last weekend, and absolutely nothing funny at all happened this week, it's all I can remember right now.

Unfortunately, the long term memory capacity of my brain only extends to approximately 7-8 days past the event that I am trying to remember.

...in fact, that is on a good day. And I'm finding that as my age increases, the number of days I tend to remember specific events decreases. According to my incredibly precise calculations, for each year that goes by, I lose 1 day of long term memory. So by my estimation, by the time I reach the age of 41, on any given day, I really shouldn't be held responsible for anything that happened the day before...since I won't remember anything about it anyway. :)

What was I talking about again?

Oh, yes. Emily.

So, as most of you may remember, last Monday was Martin Luther King day. The kids had the day off from school, so I thought it would be fun for them to learn a bit about Martin Luther King and listen to some of his famous speech. We did a coloring activity, read a story about his life, and then found some of "I have a dream" on the internet. Emily was fascinated by his speech, and sat transfixed while we watched him speak.

So later on in the day, we all went to Lifetime fitness, where Emily, Addison, and Aaron play in the child center with tons of other kids while I work out. When we arrived, Emily informed me that she was planning on giving a speech about Martin Luther King to the kids in the child center. Since I was unaware that my 5 1/2 year old daughter had planned a speaking engagement at our fitness center, I was naturally curious...and a little nervous... about the content of this "speech".

Oh, but don't worry... when I asked what she was planning on saying, she very confidently reassured me and said,

"Um, I don't know mommy, I'll figure it out"

Wing it. That's my girl.

Now I'm REALLY nervous. And although I was secretly a little proud that Dr. King's speech had apparently made such an impact on her, I had disturbing visions the whole time I was working out. I kept waiting for the child center to announce overhead that Emily had been arrested for organizing an angry toddler uprising in the child center. "We should not be made to stay here while our parents are out having all the fun!!! Join me and REVOLT, tiny tots!!!"

But then I remembered that Martin Luther King's message was one of peace. So then I worried about Emily staging a peaceful hunger strike of some kind in the child center, or a sit in...or handcuffing herself to the playgym! The possibilities were endless...

Luckily, no arrests were made, and when I went to pick the kids up, I was DYING to find out what happened. Emily, Addison, and Aaron trotted happily out of the child center with me. When I asked Emily how her "speech" went, she informed me that "Unfortunately, I had to cancel my speech, mommy".

Why? I asked.

"Well *sigh*, no one wanted to hear about Dr. Martin Luther King, so I had to cancel it".

She seemed really upset by it, as would anyone whose speech had been cancelled due to lack of interest, right?

...I'm thinking we will wait a while before we try to study someone like, say, Che Guevara? What do you think?

Here are a few pics of the kids from Christmas (all taken with the AWESOME camera my husband got me!!!):

Sweet Addison!

The whole gang

Me and my boy!

Emily!

Climbing around

This was taken after a particularly messy evening at the dinner table...nice do....I believe it was a combination of strawberry yogurt, ketchup and fish sticks. Yum.