fulling

The half way point!

2012-01-10T20:29:00.001-08:00

I know it has been a long time since I blogged.

...we have been just a little bit busy.

When I last left you, I had just finished writing about our exciting homeschooling adventure that was coming up. I think I even may have told you to check back because I was planning on having regular updates about how our year was going.

Well, this is your first (and probably only) update. We are officially half-way through our first year of homeschooling and are loving it! We have felt so blessed to be able to spend this time with our kids, and watch them grow academically and spiritually. What a task the Lord has given us! But I am amazed daily at how much I have learned about my sweet children, and especially about myself....both good and bad.

Now, that being said, I am not going to lie to you and paint a rosy picture of me with three kids under the age of 7, sitting quietly around a table, working diligently and quoting Shakespeare, and treating each other with nothing but kindness and respect, while I teach lessons, shower, put on something trendy and cute, quickly prepare a Beef Wellington for dinner, clean the house from top to bottom, and maintain a rosy composure with oodles of patience all day long. I have read (and been envious of) SO many homeschooling blogs who seem to have nothing but well-behaved, angelic children with moms who are seemingly able to mold little Einsteins, maintain a spotless house, keep up with blogging on a regular basis, AND do it all with a smile!

Here is our reality:

I sometimes remember to shower...and put on deodorant (it's usually either/or)
My poor husband is lucky if I slap on some make up when he gets home
the carpets get vacuumed...before we have company over
the bathroom mirrors get cleaned when I can no longer see my reflection...don't ask about our toilets
I don't even know what Beef Wellington is, or how to prepare it
who is Shakespeare??
the only time my three kids are sitting at the table quietly and ALL together is when they have food in their mouths, AND Aaron is strapped into his booster chair to reduce the risk of escape
my kids bicker, hopefully I'm not the only one who experiences this
and there are times *sigh* that I lose my patience...there, I said it

Homeschooling is HARD. It has brought so many of my faults into the spotlight for me to examine with a fine tooth comb. At times it is overwhelming to think of the responsibility I feel to educate my kids successfully. I wonder what I could be doing better, how I could be more fun for my kids, am I using the right curriculum, is "so and so" getting enough attention, will "so and so" ever be able to do this on their own, am I being too pushy, am I not pushing hard enough, blah, blah, blah, blah!

And then that small voice pushes it's way through all of the "noise" and finally makes itself heard,

...be still.

Do you ever notice that it is so much easier to remember the negative things that happen instead of the positive things that go on all the time? When I listen to the Lord and become "still", I find it easier to recall more of the positive, and less of the negative. I am able to look for the blessings that God intended for me to see, instead of looking at all the junk that my own mind adds to the mix.

These past five months, whenever I have had a less than spectacular day, and have begun to wonder if this was the right decision, I am telling you amazing things have happened.

The Lord just shows right up.

He makes Himself known in the random phone call from a friend just checking in to see how our day is going. I've seen His hand in a letter from my 4 year old saying that she loves me and hoping that I have a good day. I've met AMAZING homeschooling moms who the Lord has placed in my life at JUST the right moment with JUST the right words for what is going on at the time. He has, on several occasions, surrounded me with moms who seem to be struggling with the same issues. I have been blessed with a husband who listens to me moan and groan at times, and reassures me that I can do it. I can't tell you how many times I have been in a public place, and have struck up a conversation with a stranger who says, "Oh, we homeschool, too!"

I have been inundated with His reassurance and His presence...I just have to remember to SEE it.

I don't want you to think that this has been a horrible experience every day. FAR from it! We have so many more AWESOME, FUN, AMAZING days than not. Like I said, though, sometimes we remember the negative more than the positive.

So here is why homeschooling has been SO worth it:

Our kids know and love Jesus, and they know that He loves them
We get to talk and learn about Him every day
Both Emily and Addison BEG to read a Bible story every night
Emily LOVES to read (this was not so last year)
Addison is reading now, too, and doing a fantastic job!
We have made Egyptian collars and built pyramids
It is so much fun to see them "get" something for the first time
Both Emily and Addison can identify 30 different countries around the world on a map with NO words
We built Mount Vesuvius and the city of Pompeii and DESTROYED it with a baking soda and vinegar volcano!
We get to learn about forgiveness every day
We have constructed a Viking longhouse
We can go to the library WHENEVER we want, and we usually come home with a basket full of books
We visited Sea World for a special homeschool day
We have created cave paintings with berries, rocks and twigs
we are currently growing a tadpole into a frog for a science presentation (hopefully this one survives!)
we play outside ALOT
We get to visit a nursing home twice a month and play games with the residents
we get to play games when we take breaks
we read LOTS and LOTS of books
we have been to Houston to visit the zoo, the museum of Natural History, and the Johnson Space Center, and didn't miss a single day of school
we are usually done with school by 1pm or so, and usually don't start until 9 (and that's with breaks and lunch)
we get to do spelling, math, and whatever else we feel like lying on our tummies on the floor
we get to cuddle up on the couch, with a friendly soft puppy dog named Allie (one of our class pets), and read our books

So overall, we have been very pleased with how the year has gone. We still are taking this a year at a time, but even if we decided tomorrow to stop homeschooling, I will always cherish this time that I have had to grow with my kids. Even though I feel constantly busy because of what we are doing, I haven't seen the "busy"-ness, and the tiredness that was associated with elementary school that Emily had last year...and I don't miss it one bit. I like the days that we can take it slow, spread out our work, finish some up in the evening if we need to, not worry about getting to bed RIGHT at 7:30pm to avoid early morning melt-downs.

I thank the Lord for this opportunity, and my prayer is that He continues to bless it!

I am going to leave you with some highlights of our first semester of homeschooling. Beware, there are TONS of pictures, this isn't even all of them, so get ready!

Big changes!!

2011-08-02T20:49:00.000-07:00

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

2011-02-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-28T20:30:00.000-08:00

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.

Disney World 2010!!!!

2010-12-05T21:35:00.001-08:00

In a word, Disney World was...magical. I didn't believe that when people would tell me how great it was, but now that we have gone...and seen the priceless looks of joy on our kiddos faces while we were there, I believe!

Here is a slideshow of some of the fun!

Mickey, see you in a few more years when poor Aaron can enjoy it all!

Blessing #4: Aaron

2010-11-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

My Aaron, baby boy, little bubster, bubby boy, little brother. What a sweet and precious blessing he has been to all of our lives! He is a true mama's boy, and LOVES his sisters so much, and loves to watch his daddy all the time. Such a good baby, so very laid back and go with the flow, right from the beginning...which I hear is not a good sign for the future!

He loves to get into EVERYTHING. His favorite playtoy at the moment is not simply a car or truck, but the smelly garbage can in our kitchen. I have found everything from his sippy cup to my shoes in the trash on any given day. He loves opening and closing any doors, trash cans, lids on toys, the laundry machine, the dishwasher...I'm thinking we may have a mechanical engineer in our future.

He loves to read the book "Doggies", loves his little blue and soft "lovey" and sucks his thumb whenever lovey is in his hands. His favorite toys are a set of different size bouncy balls, and they keep him entertained for the longest time! He has quite the pitching arm and launches them across the room, fetches them himself, and launches them again! His bright and intensely blue eyes and beautiful smile melt my heart every time I look at him.

Now that he has started walking, things are becoming even more interesting. His world has just exploded and you can see how proud he is of himself! He is growing up so quickly, I want nothing more than to just stop time and keep him right where he is forever...

My prayer for Aaron is that he doesn't try to grow up so quickly just because he has two older sisters, and that his heart remains as sweet and tender as it is now! Stay my baby boy forever!!

Blessing #2: plastic combs

2010-10-26T19:59:00.000-07:00

So a few days ago, this past Sunday to be exact, Emily had been in our bathroom for an unusual amount of time...which is a bad sign.

While we were making breakfast, she finally wanders out and asks Brian for some "help".

Now, normally, asking for help with something like, oh, buttoning up pants...or tying shoes...is not much of a problem. However, we discovered that the "help" Emily needed at this particular time was going to require a skill set that neither of us possessed.

I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it.

Emily had decided to "comb" her hair with one of my small plastic combs with the really tiny teeth, but instead of combing it, she had twirled it into a very impressive and massive rat's nest right on the top of her head...and the comb was literally... stuck to her head.

After getting over the initial shock, we sat Emily down at the kitchen table and we tried everything we could think of...slowly pulling tiny strands of thin blond hair out of the comb, rubbing conditioner all over the mass to loosen it. Anything to try and figure out the intricately tangled puzzle of hair that sat on top of Emily's head.

There was crying and screaming from the pain, we felt SO terrible! And across the table from Emily sat Addison, eyes wide, mouth open... quiet for the longest time that I've ever seen her be quiet.

After what seemed like forever, I was getting ready to tell Emily that we were going to have to cut it out of her hair, because this sucker was going nowhere. THEN...I had a moment of brilliance.

...it doesn't happen very often, so I have to brag about it now.

Cut one end of the comb off, close to the massive tangle, and then slowly push the ends of the hair off of the broken end. Makes sense, right? Brian said it would never work :)

Thank God for plastic combs, because it broke in half quite easily, and I was able to save (just about) every last hair without having to send her to school the next day looking a mini member of Flock of Seagulls.

Lesson here: rid your house of combs made of anything but PLASTIC!!

Blessing #3: Addison...I should add that these blessings are in no particular order!!!

2010-10-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

Addison, my sweet baby girl, my absolute "girlie-girl", my cuddle bug, the Middle one. She loves anything frilly, glittery, fancy and pink. On a daily basis, she insists on wearing "fancy" dresses or skirts only...my little lady. She is fiercely loyal to Tiger, who she claims to be her "best friend".

She is strong and stubborn...yet can be so very sensitive and fragile at the same time. Sometimes she melts down like a pat of butter if I even look at her the wrong way. I love her sweet little heart, especially when she looks at me and for no particular reason says, "Mommy? I love you." She tells me her heart is made of "glittery sparkles"...I absolutely have to agree.

She is 3 years old, hoping to go on to 20 as quickly as possible, and just wants to be a big girl SO badly! She loves her preschool teachers and friends, and her precious little heart shines so brightly to everyone she meets. Her face is so expressive, it is hard for her to hide anything that she is feeling.

She loves playing with make-up, playing dress up, putting together puzzles (difficult ones, too!), reading books with mommy and daddy, cuddling, talking about "happy things" at bedtime, making up stories, listening to Mary Poppins, The Biscuit Brothers, and her VBS songs.

My prayer for her is that she remembers that God and mommy and daddy love her just the way she is, with or without the fancy dresses, because her heart is the fanciest and most wonderful part of her!

Blessings

2010-10-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

Hello. My name is Anne...and I am a control freak.

...(I think this is where you all say: Hello, Anne)

Ok. There, I have said it. For those of you who know me...even if only for a short while, I'm sure this comes as a complete shock. If I could give you some insight into my crazy mental world for just a few minutes:

1. I spent several hours trying to decide whether or not to create my most recent blog background using my own digital scrapbooking software, or to scrap my pride and choose one from some of the very talented blog sites online. Obviously, the online people won...(but only because it was after midnight and I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to hit the Photoshop icon)...but I did do my own header :)

2. I get my panties in a bunch and fret like a mother hen over just about anything that requires me to give up control in a given situation...how do you like that mental image?

3. It has taken me almost 45 minutes just to START typing this blog entry because it HAS TO BE ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!!!! :)

4. Please, don't help me...I promise I can do it ALL myself.

...tell me, am I the only one who is like this?

But I am desperately trying to learn to let go...it's going VERY slow...I have been this way for an extremely long time, after all.

It's funny, because I pray for the ability to give up control to The One who controls it all, and have the faith to know that His plan is in place. Unfortunately what I've learned is that God does not send faith down from heaven in a lightning bolt to our brains...I know because I've prayed for this too.

Instead, He gives us "opportunities" to have faith..."opportunities" to throw our hands up in the air and say, Ok, Lord, this one is all yours! And recently, God has been giving me LOTS and LOTS of "opportunities". Or rather, beating me over the head in the hopes that I will take advantage of these "opportunities".

Clearly, it has taken me a while to figure this out....like I said, I'm learning!

I thank the Lord everyday for a husband who helps to keep me grounded in the reality that I cannot be in charge all the time, and that I was never REALLY the one in charge in the first place. I also have three sweet and precious little kiddos that remind me of the very same thing with their crazy antics, tantrums, silliness, and wonderment, EVERYDAY.

So, instead of worrying about all the things I could worry about, I am stealing an idea from a bloggy friend of mine (thank you K!), and will be listing all the amazing, wonderful blessings that God has given to me....one blog post at a time.

Blessing #1: Emily

Emily, my monkey moo, the big sister, lover of frogs, centipedes, roly-poly's, lizards, and just about anything else that crawls around in the grass. She loves singing, swimming, gymnastics, eating crab legs (yes, it's true), playing outside, and anything that might involve ice cream.

She is very independent and self-confident, which I LOVE about her, and is such a champion for God at the ripe old age of five it is awe-inspiring. She is absolutely not afraid to tell you exactly what she believes in. She is hilarious, cracks me up with the brutally honest things that tend to come out of her mouth. Her heart is so sweet and loving, she wants nothing more than for us to be proud of her...which we are more than she will ever know!

She has just embarked on that new and scary journey (for mom and dad as well!) called school, and is doing so great. Kindergarten has been a blast for her so far, and although she comes home everyday and claims to have had amnesia for the entire 7 hours she was there...I know better.

My prayer is that she always remembers who she is and what she believes in, and what a blessing she is in our lives. We love you so much, baby girl!!

Great Grandma!!!!

2010-03-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

What an exciting week we had! Rock a bye Nana and Great Grandma both here at the same time! The girls were just bursting with anticipation before they got here, and we had such a great time getting to visit with them.

We had some great adventures while they were here...one of them being our doomed trip to the Hummingbird lavender farm outside of Fredericksburg. We left the house one cold, rainy morning and began our trek into the Hill Country to visit this lavender farm. I had Aaron in the van, and Rock-a-bye Nana and Great Grandma had the girls in their car. We rolled along through the hill country, through tiny towns, out in the middle of nowhere for what seemed like an eternity...or at least it feels like that when a 9 month old begins screaming in protest in the back seat :)

Finally, we learn that we are within a few miles, and begin looking to the right for the entrance to the lavender farm. At this point, I can't wait to remove myself from the vicinity of the screeching hyena in the back seat, and am also looking forward to stretching my legs, and perhaps having a nice lunch.

And suddenly, there it is!! We made it!!! The Hummingbird Lavender Farm!!! A shining beacon in the distance... our destination that we have driven so far to see!!!

....as we pass the entrance to the Hummingbird Lavender Farm...WHICH IS CLOSED...I couldn't help but think of Clark W. Griswold, and how he must have felt when he pulled into Wally World after his road trip fraught with disaster.

Unfortunately, there was no moose to punch in the nose at the Lavender farm.

Truly, it was more amusing than anything else, and we trudged along to Fredericksburg, where we had an awesome lunch and even more awesome ice cream for dessert!

The visit ended much too soon, but we were so thankful to get to spend time together! Thank you for coming Rock a bye Nana and Great Grandma!!! We love you!!!

All four generations together!!

Silly faces

Aaron's baptism

2010-03-02T19:56:00.000-08:00

So, he may already be 8 months old...and we JUST got him baptized, but better late than never, right? We've had good intentions of doing this earlier...or at least, we talked about it frequently, just kept forgetting to schedule it! Truly, I feel like my mind is so fragmented and disjointed that I might put my head down somewhere and forget where I placed it.

Case in point: after a particularly dismal visit to the grocery store with all three kiddos (yes, I do this often, and no, I don't need medication...not yet, anyway)...and by dismal, I mean by the time we left, Aaron was crying because he needed a nap, Emily and Addison were fighting over whether or not Mr. Incredible can fly...which by the way, he cannot, he just jumps really high... and I was halfway through a very large bottle of red wine that I had just purchased in the store.

...just kidding about that last part, but I really wanted it to be true :)

ANYWAY, we get the three musketeers home, after enduring yet another fight over who's turn it was to pick out the music on the way home, (I'll give you one guess as to which two were doing the fighting), which then turned into Mommy's turn to pick music, which then erupted into a major meltdown in the backseat between the two females...that included real tears, high pitched wailing, kicking of little legs, and I can't be sure, but at one point I swear that the howling from the backseat resembled that of some sort of alien from another planet.

And when the meltdowns commenced, poor little Aaron was so terribly out-volumed (is that a word?) by the rantings of the girls, he stopped screaming and simply had a bewildered look on his face as he watched his big sisters rival the sound of a jet engine blasting down the runway.

SO, we get home and finally get everyone and everything in the house. Aaron went down for a nap, the girls collapsed on the floor, exhausted from all the screaming and crying, and I had a quiet minute to put all the groceries away. A few hours went by and I happened to go outside to get the mail.

...only then did I notice that I left ALL the doors on the van open, my purse sitting in the front seat, and the keys sitting on the floor...

So clearly, I cannot be counted on to remember scheduling a baptism.

But the day was wonderful, Aaron was adorable and so good, he didn't cry at all. The only bummer was that Emily had to miss the baptism because she was home with RSV. Oh yeah, did I mention that ALL THREE OF THEM HAD RSV AT THE SAME TIME??????

That was a treat, let me tell you. A story better saved for another time.

Here are some pics of the great event!

My cute little man!

WWAAAAYYY TOO LONG!

2010-01-06T20:55:00.000-08:00

Quickly, I'll tell you why I have been out of commission since, um, August:

1. Had a third child
2. Already had two very busy girls
3. Had a third child
4. Went on vacation to Illinois
5. Traveled to Houston a few times
6. Sold our house and bought another one on the SAME day
7. Had...a...third...child.
8. Moved into a new house
9. Unpacked all of our boxes...oh, wait a minute, we're still doing that
10. Successfully crate trained (in about 4 weeks, thank you very much!) a deeply disturbed and anxiety-ridden dog after moving, who got thrown in the Boerne Animal Shelter for an evening after running away...but that's another story
11. HAD A THIRD CHILD
12. Threw a VERY belated birthday party for the girls at the YMCA
13. Celebrated Thanksgiving at our new house
14. Celebrated Christmas at our new house
15. Ate with Elmo and friends at SeaWorld
16. Took Emily to see the Lion King at the Majestic Theatre
17. DID I MENTION WE HAD A THIRD CHILD???

Ok, so maybe this doesn't excuse the disgraceful amount of time that I have been off of the "blogosphere", but does it at least give me a little bit of slack??

Perhaps the slide show of pics since August will make up for it :)

Big boy!!!

2009-08-11T18:46:00.000-07:00

Aaron had his 2 month check up today, and he tipped the scales (in terms of OUR babies!) at 12 lb 14 ounces (50th percentile), and 24 inches (75th percentile). Poor little guy had to get 3 shots...and was NOT a happy kid afterwards

....so mommy had a frosty to make it all better :)

Other than getting poked, Aaron is doing great, and is giving his tired mom a whopping SIX hours of sleep at night, WOO HOO!!!! It's so funny with the third child, the first night he slept for 6 hours, I didn't even flinch. If it had been Emily...or even Addison at that age, I probably would have been in their room with a mirror under their noses to see if they were still alive.

...ok, so maybe I DID do that once...or twice.

But enough about my OCD issues, the kids are great. What an amazing and blessed summer we have had! Emily and Addison still LOVE little brother and are not ready to give him away yet. We spent a week at Rock a bye Nana's house (my mom) while Brian went out of town to Boston, returned last Saturday, and the girls started their new preschool this week!

Emily barely gave me a wave goodbye on the first day...Addison, on the other hand, had a bit more to say about it. I got to be one of those parents whose kid screamed so loud that you would have thought she was being drawn and quartered instead of just going to preschool!

Check out some of the recent highlights!

We've been busy, obviously, this summer.

At Rock a bye Nana's house, mesmerized by a butterfly

First day of preschool, new lunch bags in hand

sister love

I promise, it wasn't me

At the McKenna Children's Museum with Peyton and Abby

You just don't know how hard it is to be me

me and the girls

Playing with Oobleck

Sweet mealtime prayer

2009-08-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

From Addison at lunch last week...

"Dear Desus, da doo for Emmy, mama, daddy, sita, ewin, n toes...AAAAmen"

Translation: Dear Jesus, thank you for Emily, mama, daddy, sister, Aaron, and toes (yes...the ones on your feet)...AAAAmen.

I love those days...:)

Quick posting of pics!

2009-08-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post some recent pics real quick. Yes...we have been a little busy, I'm not as good as some of our friends about keeping up lately with stories! Trying.to.sleep. :) Aaron is growing like a weed, literally. He weighed in at 11 lb, 9 oz last week at 6 weeks old!...well, that's HUGE for our kids! He is a fussy boy in the evenings, LOVES to bounce on the exercise ball with anyone who will hold him, and is an EATING MACHINE!!! He'll usually sleep around 4-5 hours at night, but goes right back to sleep after a middle of the night feeding...good boy!! He loves his sisters, smiles and coos at them...and occasionally us. Brian thought I was nutso and didn't believe me when I told him he was making cooing noises, but luckily Aaron stepped up and proved me right! I'll post more when I have time...in 20 years.

The big sis

The other big sis...partners in crime for sure

A fleeting "fight free" moment!

LOVE this pic

Look at those cheeks!!!

Smiling!

I love momma

Totally vegged out

OMG! We have three kids!

2009-06-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to...finally...announce the arrival of Aaron Curtis Fulling!!! After what seemed like endless waiting...you know, the kind of waiting that makes you want to pluck your eyelashes out... he was born on Wednesday, June 17th at 9:38am. He was 8 lb 15 oz, and 20 1/2 inches long. Brian and I were laughing when they told us that they were going to have to check his blood sugars because he was...get ready for it...LARGE for gestational age!!! We don't tend to have large children! As soon as he was born, my OB doc piped up and said,

"Congratulations, you just gave birth to a toddler" HAHAHAHA

I officially made it to 40 weeks and 2 days, which for those of you who know how my pregnancies go, is astounding. My guess is IF we have another kid (don't worry, just kidding) because each of my pregnancies have lasted significantly longer than the previous ones , I will probably be looking at a length of gestation equivalent to that of an elephant. Approximately 22 months.

That doesn't sound fun to me, either.

So we have been enjoying becoming a family of five. The girls are thrilled to have Aaron around, and want to help as much as possible. I'm sure the novelty of it all will wear off at some point, and they will begin to understand that no, mommy cannot take this back to exchange it for a guinea pig, rabbit, lizard or what have you.

We want to thank EVERYONE who has kept this precious child in their prayers, we have been so very blessed to have had an entirely uneventful last pregnancy. I will leave you with some pics of Aaron and we'll keep you updated on the new addition!

Aaron, tipping the scales. No we did not photoshop a purple head on his body

Excited to meet baby brother!!

All together

Sweet baby boy!!

Daddy's boy

Full moon myth....BUSTED!

2009-06-08T18:46:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm still pregnant. Full moon was last evening...not even a contraction or a twinge of discomfort. 39 weeks...

...and counting.

To break up the monotony of my pregnancy saga, here is a funny story about Emily:

At church yesterday, we are sitting in the pew while our Pastor is giving the sermon. Emily looks up at me and spreads out her fingers, showing me that the middle one of her left hand has an "owie" on it...a hangnail to be exact. Like any mother in the middle of the church sermon, I gave it a quiet kiss and whispered that we would put medicine on it when we got home, and then turned my attention back to the sermon.

A few seconds later, I hear snickering in the row behind us. I look over at Emily, who is standing on the pew. She is turned completely around, facing the sweet family behind us, with a very somber looking face, showing THEM her owie.

However, instead of spreading out all of her fingers to show them, she was holding all of her fingers down with her other hand...

...except the middle one.

Yes, it was hilarious. Only I was about 10 shades of red, partly from embarrassment, partly because I was trying not to laugh out loud in the middle of the sermon. I quickly grabbed Emily's "hand of profanity" and pulled her into my lap, all the while she is saying "why are you laughing, mommy?"

Waiting...waiting...

2009-06-05T18:26:00.001-07:00

Well, another week gone by, and I am...amazingly...still pregnant! As of today, I am 38 weeks and 5 days, an unprecedented length of pregnancy for me. I feel like I should win some sort of prize for "longest gestation by a formerly preterm labor mama". But I'm sure that is not going to happen.

SOOOO, we sit....and we wait...and we sit some more...and we wait. I keep thinking that any minute now, my water will break, or I'll start having contractions, or SOMETHING, but Aaron seems perfectly content to quietly simmer...while I quickly outgrow the last of my maternity clothes.

That is no joke, I probably fit into 4 tops right now. I have to try and be very strategic about choosing which ones to wear and when. My criteria for choosing includes:

Will I be seeing anyone familiar that I saw a few days ago who might notice that I'm wearing the SAME thing?
How wrinkled is the said top?
Does the top still cover the elastic waist band of my tightening pants?

If you think about it, what really is the point of going out and buying more clothes, this can't go on forever. However, going out and buying new clothes is probably a guarantee that I'll go into labor before ever being able to wear them....hmmmmm.

Yes, this is my life. And my pants, you ask? Oh, yes. I've been wearing the same ones for weeks now...don't worry, I wash them every other day or so...but I'm pretty sure that when all of this is over, they will be able to walk around by themselves. I might have to have them framed, they have lasted through all three pregnancies without a stain or a tear!

But all kidding aside, each extra day is a blessing and we'll take it for sure. Last week I was 2cm, and this week, my OB wasn't able to give us any measurements because Aaron's head is pressing so hard on my cervix that he said the front of the cervix was bulging. Sorry, probably sounds kind of gross. So I could still be 2cm, or I could be more, who knows!

The interesting thing to me...and you are all witnesses to this...is that Sunday night is a full moon. Now, the theory is that a full moon can cause some women to go into labor. I don't think I would normally believe this, however, when I worked in the MICU on night shifts, full moons have a strange way of making things absolutely nuts in a hospital. So, I will be letting you know if we end up making a trip on Sunday night!

Oh, I had to share these adorable pics that Nana Fulling took of Addison dressing up and playing outside. Who knew she was such a girlie girl!!

Finally, a smile in front of the camera!!

Almost there?

2009-05-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

Well, another check up at the OB office today revealed that my uterus is defying all odds...at least as far as my pregnancies go...and refusing to let this little guy out. I'm 37 1/2 weeks, and was 2 cm dilated, not effaced at all, and my contractions...YOU know, the ones that rear their ugly heads at me around 20 weeks, have all but stopped!

Ironic, isn't it?

However, I'm certainly NOT complaining about making it this far, in truth we have been SO thankful that I not only have made it almost to 38 weeks, but that I didn't have to visit the L&D unit for an emergency ONE TIME during this pregnancy! That is a definite first for us. So, we continue to anxiously await the arrival of Aaron, I mean, I certainly can't stay pregnant FOREVER...can I?

Here are more pics of the girls!

My little Texan

Snow White...defying gravity

Hmmm...which one of us is really pregnant?

Addison LOVES to pick flowers and put them behind her ear

Her favorite hat...in the summertime too!

Pretty little princess!!

Mom, I just want to be a big girl!!!

Still here!

2009-05-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know it has been FOR-EV-ER since I last posted (I believe it was in March), but I have finally updated the blog (and gave it a little make over!!) What can I say, I've been busy cooking a baby and thankfully I am still pregnant!!! I am almost 37 weeks (on Sunday), and have been on a "partial" bedrest since about 30 weeks. Basically, what that really means is that I have been...over the last 7 weeks or so, somewhat of a beached whale who gets to sit on the couch whenever possible. If I was wearing black and white...you might not be able to distinguish me from Shamu!

...let's just not go there.

Along with an update on us, there are several random pics from the last few months of the girls, us, etc. Sorry if it seems scattered, but I have an excuse, I'm pregnant and am quickly losing valuable brain cells. The layout seems totally normal to me...scary.

Addison playing in the sprinkler outside

At about 30 weeks, I did have to start progesterone injections for increased contractions...basically the same kind of stuff that put me on complete bedrest with Addison. The contractions are better, but if I'm up and around for too long, sitting in the car for too long, sitting at the COMPUTER for too long, or basically doing anything that requires bending over and lifting, I start getting those pesky contractions. The good thing, of course, is that we are out of the danger zone, so if and when I go into labor, there aren't necessarily any "premature labor" worries. As of today after my OB appointment, I am 1cm dilated, but not effaced. Translation: I could be like this for a few days and then go into labor, or I could be like this for 3 more weeks. Thank you to ALL for the thoughts, prayers, phone calls, etc!!! And ESPECIALLY thank you to Nana and Papa Fulling who have been here to help take care of the girls!!!! We love you!

Emily recently sporting Mommy's sunglasses and some cool wheels

Easter Egg hunt at church!!!

We have decided to name this little guy Aaron Curtis Fulling, so we can finally stop calling him baby brother, baby boy, etc. Emily is very excited about this since she has been calling him "Baby Aaron" for weeks now. He is doing great, and recently has discovered how much fun it is to use mommy's ribcage as his own personal jungle gym. He also enjoys long naps, hiccups, and bouncing up and down on mommy's bladder...a bit like a trampoline. He is a bit of a rascal, he will move ALL over the place when NO ONE is looking, but I'm not kidding, as soon as I get Brian or Emily or Addison to try and see/feel him, he stops. I'm sure he is laughing at this the whole time!

Brian and I (I'm the one with the gut-about 31 weeks)

The girls painting daddy a "welcome home" sign after a business trip!

The girls are fine, keeping everyone busy as always! Both have birthdays coming up in June (Addison will be 2, Emily will be 4...where does the time go???). They had their adorable end of the year preschool program last week and I have to mention a funny Emily story from that day...

Nothin' better than finger painting!

All the kids are up on stage with their teachers sitting below to help them remember words to songs, hand motions, etc. Emily is saluting proudly and belting out "Proud to be an American" quite loudly (I mean truly, I could hear her voice sitting about 7 rows back!). She gets to the part "where at least I know I'm free". As I'm watching, Emily has the one hand up in a salute...just like all the other kids...and then she sings "where at least I know I'm three", and holds up three fingers with her other hand.

Too cute...

Posing for the camera

Addison + blue fruit roll up = interesting diaper colors

Sweet sisters reading a story together

Always fun cooking with Nana!!

Playing dress up!!

Other than everyday stuff, not much else to report. I'll keep you all posted on the status of my expanding belly...I REALLY don't know how much bigger I can get, it's a little scary...and will let you know when Aaron Curtis arrives!

Emily and Miss Kelly!

Addison and Miss Laura!

Emily-ism

2009-03-16T12:14:00.001-07:00

I had to share this even though it happened last week. Emily was on the phone with a certain grandmother who will remain nameless (that makes it pretty hard to narrow down, huh? :), and said in motherly fashion:

"Nana, you really need to go to the dentist because, you're pretty old."

Needless to say, Brian and I were rolling on the floor while at the same time trying to explain to our 3 1/2 year old why she might not want to say that to people. Luckily, Nana has a sense of humor as well.

How to stop a runny nose

2009-03-15T12:50:00.001-07:00

I don't think there is much more to say here...

My amazing family!!!

2009-03-10T14:10:00.001-07:00

I am so blessed by my family. I have an awesome husband, two wonderful little girls, a great dog (I can't forget about her!), and will soon have a sweet little boy as well. I am 26 1/2 weeks right now, and, as most soon to be mothers will tell you, am feeling LESS than attractive at this point. This is why you will see NO pictures of me from here on out unless they are professionally done, airbrushed and polished!

Yesterday was just...one of those days. It is Spring Break week here for our kids, and the girls do not have preschool this week, so when they were fussing and yelling, not sharing, AND having meltdowns at 9am on a Monday, I was beginning to wonder how I was going to get through this week! We had TONS of errands to get done that morning, and add to that my physical state, which, in the last month or so, has begun to quickly deteriorate.

...by deteriorate I simply mean that this little boy I've got inside me is doing what I see as irreparable damage to my rear end! I've been so blessed by a non-eventful pregnancy so far, you'd think I'd be ever so grateful for my expanding backside! Oh, well, that's the way it goes. I wouldn't trade any of these precious kiddos for all the liposuction and tummy tucks in the world!

SOOOO, on this particular Monday, Brian happened to call in the midst of all the chaos to see how the day was going. I burst into tears...did I mention that I'm a little emotional as well? Poor guy, I sobbed with long strings of snot hanging from my nose and managed to tell him between crying and laughing at my sad state that the day was...not going so well.

The next thing I know, he is on his way home to save the day. I have the most amazing husband. I didn't ask him to do this, I would NEVER ask him to do this, he is just the most considerate, understanding person I know, and I'm so blessed to call him my husband. AND, he walks in the door a half hour later with a bouquet of flowers for his pathetic wife!

The flowers!! Thank you hon!!

I forgot to mention my adorable kids. When they saw me crying on the phone, Emily came over immediately with a very concerned look on her face and asked, "what's wrong, mommy?"
This, of course, just started the floodgates flowing all over again. She walked up to me, said I needed a hug, and just wrapped her little arms around me and patted my back. What an angel. THEN, Addison, comes over and wraps her arms around Emily AND me, so we just sat there for a while and hugged. It was one of those moments as a parent that you feel like everything is just perfect and the way it should be. They are so precious.

...and then, right after the hug, Addison hit Emily in the face by accident, but Emily dramatically fell backwards onto the floor and began screeching and holding her face, which made Addison start screeching...you get the picture. I had to laugh at the irony of it all!

Anyway, to my sweet kids and wonderful husband, thank you so much for the love you shower on me everyday, I love you more than you'll ever know!

Joe!!

2009-02-28T13:23:00.000-08:00

Today was an exciting day for Emily! Joe McDermott, a children's singer based in Austin, Texas, was here in San Antonio today for a performance at a local bookstore. He is absolutely hilarious, has the greatest children's songs, and Emily ADORES him. If this gives you an idea of the "groupie" we have on our hands, I was told by Emily's preschool teacher this year that on any given day, she can often be found on the playground performing Joe McDermott songs for her fellow teachers and friends.

She has been looking forward to this morning ALL week long, and Joe did not disappoint. Here is a cute video of one of his songs below:

Emily is the one down in the front left hand side of the video with a pink jacket on. She had a blast! Addison did not venture out to see Joe too much, there were just so many books to pull off the shelves, screaming to be done, and people to hug.

When we left, Emily insisted that when we get home, we needed to write Joe a letter to tell him what a good job he did today. Too cute! And for the grand finale, a picture of Emily and Joe after the performance:

Baby brother!!!

2009-02-22T12:25:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've been REALLY bad about posting anything at all about this latest pregnancy, much less anything about the fact that we're having a BOY!!! I know those of you that read this blog are well aware of this, however, since this blog is supposed to be an account for me (when I become old and senile and can't remember anything...oh wait, it's already happening) to remember the special things that our kids do, I'm already FAR behind in the life of this little one!

Well, everyone, meet baby brother. I can already tell he's going to be trouble. As you can see, instead of waving a polite "hello" to the ultrasound tech, he has chosen to unabashedly moon us all, AND give us a very close up view of his "business".

Not that I'm too surprised by his behavior. Both of his big sisters can frequently be found around the house in "not so lady-like" positions. Daddy is appalled by this at times, I most of the time think it's not a big deal...I have no idea where they get this from...

Wow, I just read what I wrote above. He is going to have TWO big sisters. That means when all of this is said and done, we will have not one...not TWO, but THREE KIDS!!!! Does that sound a little crazy to anyone else? I usually try not to think about it too much because I start to get a little dizzy, break out into a cold sweat, and crave a margarita...virgin, of course :)

You may be wondering how this pregnancy is going, considering that my body loves to get pregnant, but once the kids are inside, they can't WAIT to get out! Things are actually going great right now. I'm 24 weeks today (baby due June 14th), and usually by this time am RAGING with Braxton Hicks contractions (which is what put me on bedrest for 8 weeks with Addison). So far, I have only a handful of contractions a day, which for me is very manageable, and not troublesome at this point. Overall, I have felt really good, and have been able to keep up some light swimming a couple of times a week. I had an OB appointment last week...

...I digress for a minute, Emily came with me to the appointment, it was too cute, she got to hear baby brother's heartbeat and her eyes just got HUGE, she thought it was the coolest thing...
...also, in the waiting room, Emily insisted on telling everyone she saw that Barack Obama was our president, and that Joe Biden was our vice president. I don't think anyone was too impressed, they probably were already aware of this fact...

....or maybe they just didn't want to be reminded ;)

ANYWAY, at the appointment, my OB and I came up with a plan for tackling those pesky contractions: if and when I start to have rhythmic contractions, we will start progesterone injections right away to hopefully ease them up. So please pray for a healthy pregnancy, healthy baby and healthy delivery (on time!!!)

The girls are excited about having a brother, at least Emily is very excited. Addison simply understands that when she points to my tummy, she says "baby". Baby brother frequently gets sweet kisses from Emily and she likes to cover my tummy with a blanket because he gets cold. Too cute. I think Emily will be fine with having another sibling. She is a natural nurterer, and loves playing mommy to anyone and anything. Addison I wonder about sometimes...she is very cuddly, a bit more temperamental, a total mama's girl, and I can see her having a bit more trouble with this one. It's going to be fun to see how they react to him!

Ah, yes, why do we keep calling him baby brother? Well, we have some names that have made the final cut list, but we have not chosen anything for certain yet. So until I have further details, the best I can do for you is baby brother!

We'll keep you posted on any new developments!

The ULTIMATE babysitter

2009-01-23T12:02:00.001-08:00

Some of you may not be dog lovers out there, but if you had a dog like ours, you MIGHT change your mind. She is just the sweetest pooch... a little on the neurotic side, but would never hurt a fly. I truly have never seen her bear her teeth at anything.

Now, normally, Allie is not allowed on our couch (unless daddy is out of town..or even out of the room for a few minutes :)

However, this morning, I couldn't resist allowing her to stay on the couch for a few extra minutes because these pictures of our "three" girls are too precious. I let Emily and Addison watch some Sesame Street while I got breakfast ready. Emily quickly hopped up onto the couch, followed by Addison...and then Allie.

Allie arranged herself so that she was lying next to Emily, and when Addison saw her on the couch, she quickly went and laid her head on Allie's soft belly. And this is how I found them when I came in to get them for breakfast...

I mean, really, how can you not LOVE that?

2009-01-23T11:52:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday morning Emily got up as usual, and after lying on the couch for a few minutes, announced that she needed to go potty. Addison was also up at this point, so she and I were playing in the living room, since Emily rarely needs help in the bathroom anymore.

After a few minutes, however, things just seemed a little too quiet...

I walk into the bathroom to see what might be going on, and I see my 31/2 year old daughter, standing in front of the toilet, COMPLETELY naked. She is not just standing in front of the toilet, she is actually facing the toilet, trying to move forward enough so that she is standing OVER the toilet.

I ask, "uh, honey, what are you trying to do?"

She looks at me innocently and replies, "I want to do it the way daddy does it!"

If only I had a picture...

Where do I even begin????

2009-01-10T13:34:00.000-08:00

****WARNING: THIS IS A VERY LONG STORY, GET SOME COFFEE OR A COKE BEFORE READING, DO NOT OPERATE ANY HEAVY MACHINERY AFTERWARDS, IN FACT, A NAP WOULD BE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Before I begin describing the harrowing adventures of our holidays, I want to say that in spite of everything that happened, we had a great time visiting family and friends at Christmas in both Houston and Indiana. We are so incredibly blessed to have the loving families that we have to share the holidays with. We love you all! However, that being said, Brian and I are pretty sure that it will be a VERY LONG time before we brave traveling with little kids during the winter holidays...whether that be on airplanes, in airports, in long car rides... in ER's... in urgent care clinics, or any other place OTHER than home!

Ah, though, where to start? I feel like I HAVE to document this somewhere along the way, or I'm going to forget...and honestly, some of it I'm not sure I really want to remember!

Now that I have piqued your interest, you must be wondering, what in God's name happened to them while they were gone? I really think the better question is: what in God's name DIDN'T happen to us while we were gone? Well, simply stated, we did not sever any limbs, we did not die in an airplane or car crash, we were not arrested for any reason, and we actually made it home in one piece...although that last statement may be debatable.

It all started a few days before we left San Antonio, around December 21-22. Addison woke up one morning with a runny nose. No biggie, been there, done that. We're pretty sure that she has allergies, so we just made sure we planned to bring along all the necessary medications that go along with that.

On December 23rd, we pack up the van (and believe me, this van was PACKED) full of kids, the dog, us, the oodles of presents for the girls and family, and our luggage to travel up to Indiana on the 27th. We safely make the 4 hour trip to Houston to spend Christmas with my family with no major problems. Really, looking back, I guess the next day or so in Houston was without any major drama. However, the evening of the 25th began our adventures with Addison's runny nose taking a downward turn. She ended up coughing most of the night, which didn't really keep HER awake, but for the rest of the people in the house, that was another story.

After a sleepless night with Addison, the day of the 26th was mostly quiet as we prepared for our long trip the next day up to have Christmas with Brian's family in French Lick, Indiana. Emily is doing fine at this point, and Addison's cough is sounding more and more productive, but no fever, so we weren't too concerned.

Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with French Lick, it's because it's IN THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely place in a gorgeous part of Indiana, but not very easily accessible! The plan for the next day was to drive an hour to the airport, fly out of Houston at 9:30am, layover in St. Louis for 1 hour, arrive in Louisville, KY around 2:30 pm, drive 2 hours to French Lick, and have the whole travel day done with by 4:30 or 5pm.

...sounds great in theory, doesn't it?

The night of the 26th was full of fun coughing from Addison, fussiness from Addison, and waking up occasionally from Addison. Poor kid, she clearly wasn't feeling well, but again, we have dealt with runny noses and coughing from her before, we just prepared ourselves for a not so fun travel day...clearly we had NO idea what we were in for.

BBBBRRRRRIIINNNGGG!!!! The alarm clock woke Brian and I up at 5:30am, although I'm pretty sure both of us were not actually asleep....I'm sure it was the exciting anticipation of getting to travel with two toddlers ALL DAY! When I woke up Addison and picked her up out of the crib, she was burning up. Awesome. I told Brian about the discovery of our own little portable mini oven, and when we took her temperature, it was 100.5 under her arm. And with snotty nose goop all over me, I quickly gave her Tylenol, changed her diaper and got her dressed, all the while thinking, we should just get in the van RIGHT NOW and drive home. But then we REALLY would have missed all the fun!

After getting everyone ready and out the door, we pile into the van with my mom (she drove us to the airport), Brian, myself, Emily, Addison, and Allie----wait a minute, Allie? Yes, our faithful pooch came running out of the house when she saw us getting all packed up, clearly distraught that we were leaving her. She jumped in the van and it was as if she suddenly grew velcro on the bottom of her paws. I'm pretty sure that if she could talk, she would have been saying "Turn back, this is a BAD idea, let's GO HOME!!!" Trying to pull her from the floor of the backseat was quite a spectacle. But we were finally able to get her back inside the house, velcro and all, and we left for the airport.

Oh, I almost forgot. At this point, I am about 17 weeks pregnant, and have been feeling fine, aside from the occasional dizziness, feeling kind of sick if my stomach isn't full, etc. Well, this morning was a delightful one for the pregnant mommy! I not only felt kind of sick to my stomach, but every time I would stand up, I started feeling dizzy. It was a great start to the day for all of us.

When we arrive at the airport, we unload everyone and head for the curbside baggage check. As I watched my mom drive away, I remember turning to Brian during a wave of nausea and dizziness and saying something like, "maybe we should just go home right now, this seems like a really bad idea". He agreed with me, and for a few moments, we TRULY almost called my mom to come back and get us. But in the end, like I said, had we gone home right then and there, we would have missed out on all the excitement that was yet to come!!!

Waiting in Houston for our flight was fairly uneventful, Addison had perked up even though she was starting to feel feverish again. Emily was doing great and was so excited about getting on the airplane. I had started to feel better after having a little bit more to eat at the airport (ham sandwich, we'll get to that later), and Brian was doing fine as well. We were just TIRED. As I watched my poor little 18 month old wandering happily around the terminal with a green snotty nose, nasty sounding cough, and FEVER, I all of the sudden felt like "those" parents. You know, the ones you see in public with obviously sick kids, wondering why the hell they are out and about, instead of at home taking care of their kiddos. Well, that was us. Again, our intuition was telling us one thing, and we COMPLETELY ignored it. Guess that's what we get, huh? I will never know how many people we infected with our germiness that day, I'm not sure I WANT to know! I literally followed Addison around with tissues in one hand, and hand sanitizer in the other...you can imagine how funny that must have looked.

As soon as we took off for St. Louis, the pilot comes on and informs us that oh, by the way, there is some really terrible weather (like severe thunderstorms and tornadoes) in the St. Louis area, and depending on how things look when we get up there, we might be diverted to another airport. Great. For those of you who know me well, you know that I DESPISE flying in good weather, so this statement, coupled with everything else, JUST about sent my flying over the edge...no pun intended. I was ok during the flight, trying not to think about things, and the girls did great. Addison fell asleep for the last 10 minutes of the flight, while I held her in a sweaty death grip as we swayed back and forth while coming in for our landing. I was a complete mess, crying, sniffling...pretty much convinced that our lives were soon to be over. BUT, we did land, there were no fire trucks or emergency vehicles waiting for us, and only about 20 minutes ahead of the horrible weather. Bonus!!

We gather our kiddos, get off the plane, and get ready to rush through the airport to our next flight (remember, we have a one hour layover). When we get to our gate, we discover that our flight has been delayed for another hour. No big deal, we welcomed the delay and decided to get some lunch for ourselves and rest for a bit....

FIVE AND A HALF HOURS LATER, we are finally boarded for our next flight. Seriously. We spent the better part of our day chasing around a sick toddler, who probably coughed and sneezed on half the population of St. Louis, trying to keep our 3 1/2 year old entertained, and trying not to go completely stir crazy ourselves. Needless to say, by the time we boarded our flight to Louisville, Brian and I were DONE.

After arriving in Louisville, Kentucky at 8:30pm (again...5 1/2 hours AFTER we were supposed to!) we met up with Nana and Papa Fulling, and Uncle Greg, Aunt Joy, and cousin Noah. It was so good to see familiar faces!! We got our luggage, loaded up yet another van, and headed through the hills and valleys of Indiana to French Lick. The ride was probably another hour and a half, and by the end, we were all feeling sick because of the ups and downs! In French Lick, the plan was for each family (this is each of the Fulling families, meaning Brian's parents, us, and Brian's three older brothers and their wives and kids) to have their own condo to stay in. This was the greatest blessing of all, because we each had a private place to go where we could keep as much of the germiness to ourselves as possible!!

So we are about a minute away from our condo when the heavens opened up. And it started pouring down rain. I don't just mean for a few minutes, this was not going to stop any time soon. I like to think that God was simply sympathizing with our day and crying His eyes out. At this point, at almost 10pm, we just started laughing. It was already 45 or 50 degrees outside, so it was a COLD rain as well. And the parking lot was not right in front of the condo. You had to walk down a hillside sidewalk, and then down some stairs. So we make a few trips back and forth from the van to the condo, delivering wet kids and luggage in the cold rain.

After drying off, getting warm, and getting the girls down to bed, Brian and I threw ourselves down on the couches in the living room, exhausted, trying to figure out if the day had really happened, or if it was just a dream. After decompressing a bit, we went to bed. I guess it was, oh, about 2:30 am when I woke up feeling like something just wasn't quite right in the intestinal department. In the fogginess of half sleep, I vaguely remembered Brian warning me not to buy that ham sandwich from the airport refrigerator earlier in the day, but did I listen??? NO! I will spare you the smelly details here, just know that I had quite a "situation" (as my sister in law Joy would call it) in the bathroom for about an hour. Brian later told me it was reminiscent of a particularly ugly scene from the movie "Dumb and Dumber".

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

The next day was Sunday, and we decided to see if we could take Addison to some sort of Urgent Care Clinic because she was still very feverish, and her cough had not been getting any better. With French Lick being such a small town, we weren't sure there would be anything available. But thankfully, we happened upon a small community care clinic that was open on Sunday afternoons!!! Addison was seen, antibiotics were prescribed, and we were sent on our way.

For the next few days, we didn't have too much drama. It was so much fun getting to see the cousins all together, even though we brought a cesspool of germs with us. Even though it was so good to see everyone, we will forever be sorry about exposing the ENTIRE family to our mess, and to this day feel like we should have stayed home. Emily had a blast getting to play with everyone. Addison, however, walked around with what looked like a permanent scowl on her face. She was miserable from not feeling well, AND we discovered not one...not two...but THREE teeth that poked through all at the same time! Nothing we did made that kid happy! Thank God Nana was around! Addison wanted nothing more than to be held by Nana for the better part of 3 days!

So fast forward to Thursday morning. Prior to leaving for Christmas vacation, part of our plan was to meet up with three of Brian's best friends and their wives from Illinois to hang out for the day. We decided to divide up the trip, and each drive 2 hours to Indianapolis and meet at the Children's Museum there, let the kids play, and visit for a while. Because Addison was still recovering, we chose to leave her with Nana and Papa, and take Emily, who had been doing fine all week long.

We arrive at the Children's Museum and had SUCH a good time visiting with some great friends, catching up on life, and watching Emily and Lennox play at the museum. After a bit, we all sat down in the back of the museum cafeteria to visit more and get the kids some ice cream. It was about 3pm, and Emily was EXHAUSTED, so she laid her head down in my lap. After a little while, she sat up, eyes dreary, and looked around at everyone. In a moment of TRUE foreshadowing, our friend Craig looked at her and said,

"when Sam gets that look on his face, it usually means he's about to throw up"

No, I'm not lying. As if on cue, Emily opens up and splatters Red Raspberry Sorbet all down her front and on the floor. The poor baby is crying because she doesn't feel good now, and when I felt her head, I'm pretty sure I could have cooked an egg on it. At this point, Brian and I are no longer shocked by a whole lot, so we unfortunately had to say our goodbyes and head back to French Lick. It was amazing how fast Emily went from feeling fine to looking and feeling TOTALLY miserable! Along with the nausea and fever, she developed this runny nose that literally was leaking like a faucet all the way back to French Lick, and a fairly deep and nasty sounding cough. At one point, I looked back at her in the van, and she is asleep. Her head is leaning to one side...and when I looked closer, I saw an inch and a half long string of green snot hanging by a thread from her nose. It was priceless.

Upon our arrival back to French Lick, we didn't even stop in to say hi to everyone. We just thought it would be best to collect our recovering toddler from Nana and Papa, put her in the van with her newly germ infested sister, and go back to our condo to enjoy the illness-fest that would surely be happening that evening!

After yet another sleepless night, this time with poor Emily who was feverish and coughed all night long (thankfully no more vomiting!!!), we woke up Friday morning exhausted. And then...the miracle phone call. Brian's dad (God love him!!) had called the airlines and found the ONLY three seats left on a flight leaving the following morning at 9:30am. Our flight was originally supposed to leave Louisville on Saturday at 4 or 5 PM, putting us in Houston around 8 or 9pm, and that's if there were no delays. HA! This flight would put us in Houston at 12:30pm, giving us plenty of time to load the girls back up into our van, and DRIVE BACK HOME ALL IN ONE DAY!!!!!

We were very excited at this prospect, and spent the day letting the girls rest, getting packed up, and saying our goodbyes to family. It was going to be another early morning, with us getting up at 5:30am in order to be out the door at 6am for the 2 hour drive back to Louisville for our 9:30am flight. BUT, totally worth it to be able to be back in San Antonio on Saturday. Our plan was to get the girls down to bed early, get ourselves down to bed early, and PRAY for just ONE good night's sleep from everyone!!! It just was not meant to be.

Brian and I kept Emily in our room because she had been coughing, so we didn't want her to keep Addison awake. Of course, by doing that, WE stayed awake...again...most of the night. At one point, probably around 1am or so, Addison woke up anyway, screaming and inconsolable, so I went in to pick her up, and held her for a little while on the couch in the living room. During this time, I heard Emily sit up in bed and say, "daddy, I feel sick". After that, I heard the quick footsteps of daddy carrying our poor girl to the bathroom and then..."BLAHHHHH". After a few more of those lovely noises, more footsteps of Emily going back into the bedroom and laying back down in bed with daddy. Poor little sweetheart, I was already wondering how we were going to get through the day if this was going to be happening!

I held Addison for about 45 minutes, and then laid her back down in her crib, and got back into bed with Emily and Brian. Like clockwork, at about 2:30am or so, I awoke...AGAIN...with that not so good feeling in my lower intestines. I remember looking up at the ceiling, trying to see God and thinking, you cannot be serious! Well, He was. Again, without going into any detail, just think another 45 minute episode of "Dumb and Dumber". At one point, Brian came into the bathroom, looking at me with eyes as wide as saucers and just shaking his head in disbelief.

5:30am rolled around quickly, and we got everyone loaded up in the van, said goodbye to French Lick, and actually slept fairly peacefully for the 2 hour ride to Louisville (Brian's dad drove, THANK YOU!!!). At the airport, we got through baggage, security, etc, and got to our gate. The girls were doing pretty well, Emily still had a cough and fever, but by this time, it had just become plain old routine! We board our flight, get our seats.....and sit. And sit, and sit, and sit. The pilot comes on and informs us that there was some "bad weather" in our connecting city, and that air traffic control wanted us to sit tight in Louisville until further notice. Wonderful. After sitting on the airplane for about an hour, the pilot unloaded all of us and said he would let us know when we could leave. If nothing else, our girls really got to know the layouts of both the St. Louis and Louisville airports on our vacation!

3 HOURS LATER...we board our flight, and have thankfully uneventful flights back to Alabama, and then to Houston. This is a good thing, because with everything that happened to us so far, I was a little worried that a good ol' airplane crash might have been in our future. My mom picked us up (by now it was 3 or 4pm)...and since we didn't sleep the night before, AND our flight was so late, we opted to spend the night at my parent's house and leave EARLY Sunday morning for home.

OH, how we JUST wanted to get home!!!!

We had a nice afternoon visit with Rockabye nana and Buppa (my parents), and after dinner, gave the girls nice warm baths, loaded them up with medication, took nice warm showers ourselves, and headed off to bed.

Around 11:30pm, Emily wakes up coughing SO violently that she cannot catch her breath. This is new and had not been happening. Not only was the coughing so severe, it was also making her gag and throw up as well. She also feels hotter than I have ever felt her before. She was terrified, as were we, and we picked her up and went out to the living room floor. I held her upright to try and get the drainage to go down, and Brian did his best to keep her calm. But she was scared and crying (and I don't blame her!) which was making the whole thing worse. It was REALLY scary. After about 15 minutes of this, we made the decision to go to the ER. My parents stayed with Addison, and Brian, Emily and I get into the van and head to the ER. Emily had a few more scary episodes in the van of severe coughing, crying, gagging, but thankfully the ER was only about 10 minutes away.

We arrive in the ER at 12 midnight, and are happy to see that there really were not many people waiting. After the nurse triaged Emily (whose temperature was 103!!!!), he gave her Ibuprofen and had us wait to get called back. By this time, Emily's coughing had improved, so we just held her up in our arms...and waited. An hour later, the triage nurse checked her temp again, 99.3, and Emily was SO much happier. So, we waited some more. And then we waited a little longer. Oh, and THEN we waited a bit more! At one point, probably around 2am, a radiology tech took Emily back to get a chest x-ray....and then we waited some more.

By 4am (I'm not kidding), Emily was asleep in a waiting room chair, and Brian and I were trying to hold ourselves up in the waiting room chairs. At this point, we are one of maybe 3 other people waiting in the room. My butt was asleep, my head hurt, and we thought about just leaving, but since we had the chest x ray done, we figured our insurance wouldn't pay for it if we left "against medical advice" without officially seeing a doctor.

Finally, at 4:30am, we get called back to an ER room. Now, when we go back there, I'm fully expecting to see the hallways and rooms FILLED with moaning and groaning patients to explain why there was such a ridiculous wait to get back there.... NO ONE, not one patient. I don't even think I saw another nurse or doctor in the hallway besides the one who took us to our room. No evidence of the bustling activity that I've seen in busy ER's (and we had been told by the triage nurse that the ER had been "slammed" that evening). Part of me didn't even care, because when we get to the room, there is a BED!!!!! Well, a stretcher, but it was a far cry better than the chairs in the waiting room. We lay Emily down on the stretcher to sleep some more, and the nurse says as she is leaving, "the doctor will be in soon". Famous last words, right?

I end up falling asleep with Emily on the stretcher, Brian has gone out to the van to TRY and sleep a little. When I woke up at 6:15am, we STILL had not been seen by anyone. Ok, now I'm physically and emotionally exhausted, I'm PREGNANT, and no longer capable of being polite. Remember, I'm a nurse, so I tried really hard the entire time we were there to understand why it had taken almost 7 HOURS to be seen by a doctor in an ER that clearly did not seem busy at all. So I walk out to the nurse's station and lost my temper a little with the medical assistant (sorry, I know it's not her fault...I was sleep deprived, hungry, and just plain DONE). Ironically, very shortly after that, we saw a doctor. He informed us that Emily's chest x ray was clear, did a quick exam on her, and said she had a virus, good luck and see ya' later.

All that for a stinkin' virus that we can do nothing about.

So, bleary eyed and exhausted, we pile back into the van and go back to my mom's house. When we arrive at 7:30am, Addison is awake, playing with my mom, and the three of us (Brian, me, Emily) get back into bed and sleep peacefully for about 4 hours. We finally get everything packed up in the van and are out of the door at about noon. On our drive back to San Antonio, I think both of us were waiting to get rear ended, get stopped by the cops, or SOMETHING. But praise the Lord, we made it home safely, and I have to say, I don't think I have ever been happier to see our front door!

On Monday, we took Emily back to our pediatrician because she had more violent coughing spells, and he determined that she probably contracted RSV which turned into a secondary lower lung infection. So now she is also on antibiotics and is recovering fine. Our kitchen counter top resembles a pharmacy right now, but we have had no nightly coughing from either kid for about a week now!

So that about does it for our story. I look back on all this, and although it's funny now, I really can't believe it all happened in a week and a half. I'm sure some of you have worse stories, but for us, this was the pinnacle of Murphy's Law. You might be saying, wow, it's a good thing Anne and Brian didn't get sick as well. I just left that part out. We, too, were sick the whole time with runny noses, a little coughing and sinus headaches, but it just was nothing compared to our poor girls!

Thanks for listening, sorry this was so long, I mostly put it down so that I can remember everything that happened! We find out tomorrow whether this baby is a boy or a girl (Wednesday January 14th), and we're excited!

See ya!

Christmas Eve in Houston at church

Merry Christmas!!!

Emily, Ella, Lauren and Jessica in French Lick

I just want my Nana!!!

Bomber hat...cool!

A night out with brothers and sister-in-laws!

All the Fulling cousins together

Snow in San Antonio....WHAT???

2008-12-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

Well, the next to impossible has happened. We actually got snow here in San Antonio on Tuesday night! When we woke up on Wednesday morning, we had a nice blanket of white stuff all over the yards, roofs, cars, porches, etc!

Emily got up and looked out the window and was SO excited. She immediately wanted to go play in it. As you can see in the pictures, it didn't take long for our 1/2 inch of snow to start melting, there wasn't even enough for a snow man! It was just as well, because after about 2 minutes of being outside in the arctic temperatures of 35-40 degrees (hey, give us a break, we're from Texas), the girls had had their fill of cold and wet!

OOOOOH, Mom, it's cold!!!

The blizzard

Emily in the snow

When we went inside, Emily stated,

"Mommy, I think I'll go back outside and play in the the snow when the snow gets warmer"

Very well put, honey.

And THEN, later that day, we went to visit Santa Clause!!! Emily has been eagerly anticipating this for the last week. All the build up of "what are you going to ask for from Santa for Christmas?" was just about too much for Emily. She had it all planned out. Whenever we would ask her, she always would clearly and articulately say something about princess stuff and princess stickers, or bath paints.

So we get to Santa, and Emily and Addison are sitting on his lap. Santa asks Emily the million dollar question,

"So, Emily, what would you like for Christmas?"

And her mind went blank...she stared at him for a few seconds (I felt like we were in the movie A Christmas Story), and then mumbled something to him incoherently.

...It is also possible that I could not hear her answer over the mad, raging, blood curdling scream that was coming out of my OTHER daughter's mouth. Addison was not as pleased to see Santa as her big sister was. You would have thought we had just chopped off both of her arms.

This is not a picture of a happy 18 month old!!!

But we had lots of fun...as long as Addison kept her distance from Santa...and at the end of it all, Emily stood in front of Santa and serenaded him with about 5 of her favorite Christmas songs. It was really cute. Merry Christmas!

I'm SOOOOO pregnant

2008-12-05T11:31:00.001-08:00

Well, I have my first official "pregnancy brain" story to tell. I had several of them with both Emily and Addison, and this pregnancy will clearly not escape the continued loss of precious brain cells from my head.

In case you are wondering, "pregnancy brain" is a term that describes the total absent-mindedness, absolute brain deadness that occurs when you are pregnant. Forgetting to close car doors after going inside for HOURS (done that), eternally misplaced keys and cell phones, etc. Now these things can happen to anyone at any time, but I've noticed that MY symptoms are worsened 100 percent when I'm pregnant.

For example, a few nights ago, I curled up on the couch and enjoyed a large bowl of Orange Sherbet ice cream...a pregnancy favorite for me. After my lovely dessert, I cleaned up the kitchen, put my bowl in the sink, and Brian and I went to bed. The next morning, when I opened up the refrigerator to get out milk for the girls' breakfast, I saw out of the corner of my eye an item that clearly did not belong in the refrigerator. It did not take me long to realize that in my state of "pregnancy brain", I had put my beloved orange sherbet ice cream in the refrigerator INSTEAD of the freezer the night before.

Needless to say, my favorite ice cream was nothing but a pile of orange mush.

I mostly think that these incidences are amusing, but there is always that little fear in the back of my mind that I will NEVER recover from this...or that I might leave my children sitting in the shopping cart while I mindlessly drive away...OR that I will inadvertently pour the dog a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal and try to feed my girls dog food.

These things don't REALLY happen...right??

All I want for Christmas...

2008-12-04T10:13:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, Emily and I went to Chic-Fil-A for lunch. We were in the bathroom when a mother and her young son came in, and his mouth was a little bloody. I started talking to the mom, who told me that he had lost a couple of teeth during lunch, and she was just helping to clean him up a bit.

Emily is listening to this whole exchange, and watching the little boy with a bloody mouth with WIDE eyes. She looks up at me and asks,

"Mommy, what happened to him?"

I replied, "Well, when you get to be a little bit older, your teeth will start coming out and you will have new teeth that come in. You get to have BRAND NEW teeth!"

A few seconds go by, and I can tell that Emily is not convinced by my explanation. So she asks,

"Mommy, is he falling apart?"

Happy belated Halloween!!!

2008-11-06T10:54:00.001-08:00

Our Halloween this year was all kinds of fun. Brian and I went to a Halloween party, and as you can plainly see below, I was dressed as...can you guess it? White Trash! (please note the tell tale "white" walmart bags taped all over me...oh, and the box of Mac and Cheese)

The girls had a blast this Halloween. I would have to say that this is the first year that Emily sort of "got" the whole Halloween, begging for candy, dressing up thing.

At first, she was determined to be a ballerina, and told EVERYONE she saw that she was going to be one. However, after a much anticipated package from Nana, Emily got a glimpse of the beautiful purple butterfly costume that you see below. After that...the ballerina was HISTORY.

Addison doesn't much care for any kind of costume that I try to put her in, so I was delighted when she allowed me to dress her up in the adorable "Ladybug fairy" costume...also sent by Nana (thanks, Nana!!!). Of course, no ladybug fairy costume is complete without Jelly Tiger (seen here being clutched desperately by Addison).

Emily was dressed to impress when it was time for Trick or Treating, and we got home in time to pass out candy to the other kiddos in the neighborhood.

Emily, Daddy, and Addison at our church's annual Fall Festival. Addison was a ballerina here. Daddy was a doctor. I dressed as a pregnant woman with morning sickness (no costume needed). Incidentally, the ballerina costume seen on Addison was the one that Emily was going to wear before the butterfly costume arrived...disturbing isn't it, that Addison and Emily, who are TWO YEARS APART, can fit into some of the same clothes!!!

Emily at the fall festival, with face paint...compliments of mommy. We had a blast putting it on, however, don't believe it when you read the words "comes off as easily as it goes on!". Their lying to you.

Hope your Halloween was as fun as ours!!!

Our new president

2008-11-06T10:49:00.000-08:00

Last week, Brian and I were talking with Emily at the kitchen table about the upcoming presidential election. She learned to recognize pictures of John McCain, Barack Obama, and a few of our older presidents, FDR and Herbert Hoover. When asked who she thought we should vote for this week, Emily very matter-of-factly replied, "Mary Poppins".

...of course. Actually, I'm pretty sure she would do the best job of all of them...she certainly wouldn't put up with any nonsense.

What the heck happened to us???

2008-10-22T18:56:00.001-07:00

Hey folks, I know it's been a while since we last updated you all on our lives, but it's been busy around here! With preschool starting up, errands to run (finally without kids!!), and just life in general, it feels like we have been going non-stop!

So this is gonna be a long one...sit back, grab a bag of popcorn, candy, or whatever you like to snack on, and enjoy the show. I will try not to bore with too many details...unless they are completely necessary. AND, I'll save the best part for last, so that you have to read the whole thing. Unless you want to be a butt head and just skip to the end, but then you'll miss all the fun pictures!

Here is a glimpse of what we have been up to over the last month :)

This is Emily and Addison on their first day of preschool this year!! Emily was so excited, I barely got a goodbye, and Addison shed a few tears. But now, she just trots right on in to Miss Laura's room with barely a glance at mom! (I hear they give away alot more animal crackers than we do at home)

Can you guess where this is?? I'll give a few hints: very historical city for our country, lots of lobster and clam chowder, east coast, gorgeous skyline, you might hear someone say, "pahk the cah", and WAY too many vote for Obama signs around.

Have you guessed it? BOSTON!!! Brian had a business trip up there in the middle of September, and I met him up there about halfway through the week. We had a really good time tooling around the city, seeing the sights, and enjoying the immense amount of history that this city holds.

Momma posing at the Charles River (behind me is the "salt and pepper bridge")

Brian with the catch of the day.

What has Addison been up to lately?

Addison is 16 months now...hard to believe...and is doing great. She LOVES Emily, and being anywhere that Emily is, and they are starting to play together, which is adorable. Aside from her occasional temper tantrums...which I will get to in a minute, she is a little sweetie. She is definitely showing that she is going to be the more mischievious one of the two of them. Brian and I can already picture a future conversation when she and Emily are teenagers. It will probably go something like this:

Addison: Ok, Em, mom and dad are asleep, let's sneak out for a few hours.

Emily: I don't know, Addison, I really don't think we should do this!

Addison: Don't worry about it, they'll never find out, I promise!!

Emily: (with a very concerned look on her face) I really think we shouldn't do this, we're going to get in trouble!

Yes, Addison is the one who will grab something she is not supposed to, look right at you, smile and scrunch up her nose, and run the opposite direction, screeching and howling in delight.

This is Addison with her favorites lovies: Jelly Tiger 1 and 2

We also have a new nick name for her: Angry White Girl

She can throw a fit like no other kid I've seen. A couple of weeks ago, Brian either wouldn't give her something, or took something away from her (can't remember which), and Addison proceeded to throw her little body on the floor, kick her legs in the air, and let out ear piercing screams. Apparently she didn't agree with dad's decision. She was inconsolable.

We decided not to give her the attention she wanted and both went into the kitchen.

As soon as she noticed that her fit was no longer being witnessed, she stopped, got up off of the floor, toddled into the kitchen where we were, made sure we were BOTH looking at her....and threw herself on the floor, kicking and screaming.

Yeah, and the kid is only 16 months old :)

Momma and Addison being goofy

Emily and Addison, snuggling at Rock a bye Nana's house (my mom)

What has Emily been up to???

Emily has been up to all sorts of things lately! Our most recent adventure has been 7 weeks of ballet lessons at Lifetime Fitness.

Now, I have to admit, being somewhat of a tom-boy when it comes to sports, I could not for the life of me understand why any daughter of mine would want to put on a pink leotard...with a sheer skirt thing...and dance. This being said, I was totally unprepared for how utterly adorable Emily looked as she was learning some of the basic "positions" in ballet....did you know that there are "positions"? I didn't.

Anyway, she and her little class had so much fun in their class, and I enjoyed watching her excitement at learning how to hop like a frog, hop on one foot, skip (which we are still in the process of figuring out), and do these basic dance steps.

Emily came out one evening with this ensemble after going potty and being asked to put her pull up on for bedtime. Luckily, the pull up was dry...

Emily is constantly surprising us with the things she says. She has picked up an immense vocabulary, and loves trying to figure out what every word starts with. It is one of our favorite games. Unfortunately, daddy has already been banned from helping her learn how to spell...anything :)

Well, October has come upon us very quickly, and every year the First United Methodist Church in Boerne puts on a "Pumpkin Patch" for the whole month, where you can pick up your pumpkins, take pictures, etc. Here are a few from our visit this year:

Emily: I love you Addison!!!

Addison: Get off of me!!!

Addison among the pumpkins

Emily has picked hers out!

Daddy and Emily at our annual pumpkin decorating night!! I guess this would be considered the first annual pumpkin decorating night.

So that is about it. Except that I guess I should let you know about the best part that I was saving for the end of this post, since you were all so nice to read through the WHOLE thing, right? Well, we just found out that I am pregnant! As of this week, I'm probably just five weeks along, so it is very early. Please keep this baby in your prayers, that he or she is healthy, and that we have a healthy pregnancy and delivery!! Emily is so excited that mommy "has a baby in her tummy". She keeps flip-flopping when we ask her whether she wants a brother or sister, the answer is usually different every time!

Take care!

Telemarketers...beware

2008-09-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

I have to share a funny Emily story that happened recently...

I'm pretty sure 100% of you out there have experienced the familiar yet ever annoying evening phone calls from different marketing groups who try unapologetically to entice you into buying this or that, or go on a "fabulous getaway for two", blah, blah, blah.

Well, our most recent encounter was with Marriot, who called about three weeks ago and wanted to talk to Brian. I vaguely remember the mentioning of some new fabulous resort, we just HAD to try it out for a discount, because, of course, we are their most favorite customers in the whole wide world. I was in an hurry that evening, Brian wasn't home, so I mistakenly asked them to try back some other time. Staying true to form and being ever so persistent, they asked if the evening time was the best time to call. I must have been having a brain fart at the time, because I answered, "yes, that would be fine, thanks."

Big mistake.

Now, for literally the last THREE WEEKS, at least two or three times each evening, we have received phone calls from Marriot on our caller id, no doubt trying to tell us about the amazing, wonderful, can't-pass-it-up deal they have in store for us for the mere price of airfare, food, car rental, etc... We have just been ignoring the calls, hoping they would GIVE UP, but that didn't happen.

Although we had to admire their persistence, we were getting tired of the constant harrassment. So one evening this week, we were sitting at the dinner table, heard the phone ring, and lo and behold, it was Marriot...again. So we did what any normal, sane, fed up to their ears people would do in this situation,

we gave the phone to our three year old daughter.

Now before I tell you the conversation that followed, let me tell you a little bit about our Emily. She may stand only 37 inches and weigh a mere 24 pounds, but trust me, she has no fear of talking to anyone or anything. She also enjoys singing, loudly, on the phone, and has been known to break into her own renditions of timeless children classics.

So, enter Emily Fulling, on the phone, battling the Marriott telemarketer. First, Emily says, "hello?", then smiles sweetly, looks at me, and nods her head "yes" to a question from the phone.
After some more imperceptible nodding of the head "yes" and "no", she fires back with,

"May I have a sno-cone, please?"

At this point, Brian and I have just about wet ourselves. I'm laughing so hard I'm almost crying and rolling on the floor.

I look up at Emily, who is again, nodding her head quietly to whatever question is coming through the phone, when all of the sudden she begins belting out "Jesus Loves Me", the WHOLE song...loud and clear.

This went on for at least a couple of minutes.

It was really a highlight of the day... probably not the most polite thing to do to someone on the phone, but I'm hoping that Marriott will think twice before they call us again for another fabulous vacation that we would ultimately end up paying for!

Crack kills

2008-09-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

Future member of the American Plumbers Association

Bag ladies

2008-09-04T11:49:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure which is more disturbing...

That we put our children in carry on bags for fun,

or that Emily fits into the same one as Addison...

Labor Day in Kerrville!!

2008-09-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

We spent Labor Day at a riverside park in Kerrville, Texas this past weekend. Emily had a great time running around and getting dirty, Addison had fun trying to eat random pieces of grass and flowers, and Allie (yes we brought the dog) was constantly on the alert for pesty squirrels...it's a good thing we have her to protect us :)

We also found The Berenstein Bears treehouse home, Addison and Emily just had to get their pictures taken in it!

Here are some of the highlights!

What I've learned

2008-08-03T18:54:00.000-07:00

*NOTE* This post has taken me FOR-EVER, I started this blog on August 8th, it's only taken me about 3 weeks to complete. Anyway, enjoy!

Hello everyone...yes, I know, it's been a while, but we have been out of town recently, so now I get to update you all on our adventures!!

Last week (July 25th), we traveled to New York State, to the sweet little towns of Lakewood, Frewsburg, Jamestown, and Randolph to go to my family reunion (on my mom's side). If you have never been up there, it is just the most beautiful, picturesque setting. With green rolling hills that seem to go on forever, tall trees, farms, and that "small town" feel, you can't help but fall in love with the area. I am a little biased because I went up there every summer as a kid to visit my grandparents...and I always remember the smell of the grass, and the smell of my grandparent's house...nothing has changed. It is just so nostalgic of my childhood and I cherish the times that I get to visit.

It was extra special this year because my mom was also up there with Buppa! So Emily and Addison got to see grandma AND great grandma all in one trip! Emily talked constantly about getting to see Rockabye Nana (aka my mom), and just couldn't wait to get up there!

We had the best time up there, however, there are a few things that Brian and I learned along the way when traveling with 2 toddlers (yes, Addison is walking now):

1. When your 3 year old tells you...in the middle of the Detroit airport...that her tummy hurts and she's going to have diarrrhea...believe her.

2. If you can avoid carrying around a car seat through the airport...DO SO AT ALL COSTS!!!

3. If you're trying to save a buck and put your 12 month old child on your lap for a flight...and you know deep down in your heart that she is anything BUT a lap child, listen to your intuition and pony up the dough for another seat. It will save you the embarrassment of being labeled that "family with the kid who wouldn't stop screaming".

3. When you finally arrive at your destination, and you decide that vacation would be a brilliant time to see how your two children do at sleeping in the same room together for the first time...seriously reconsider.

4. When your daughter is afflicted with "unfiltered toddler mouth" (see previous post), avoid any close contact with women who have very short haircuts. This will help prevent the inevitable question that I heard on several occasions..."mommy, is that a boy?"

...in her defense, there was truly one VERY questionable person we saw

5. When you are on your way home from the airport after almost 12 hours of travel, and you ask your husband how he thought the vacation went...and your children start SCREAMING and SHRIEKING in the back because they are so tired, it's best to just laugh... and table the conversation for another time!

All in all, we had an awesome time. I wanted to post the slideshow of pics that I put together, but I can't figure out how to post an entire slide show on the blogging part of this. Any help would be greatly appreciated from you computer nerds out there who I KNOW can do this!!!

Sincerely, the woman most likely to throw her computer out the window out of frustration :)

Happy 4th of July

2008-07-14T14:10:00.001-07:00

Just a cute hat pic of Emily

Ok, so it's what, the 14th of July today? I may be a little bit late on this one, but wanted to share some cute pics of the girls on the 4th. We had a fun day out at a friend's house...they live in the Hill Country and have the most INCREDIBLE views!! Afterwards, we drove down to Fiesta Texas and battled the traffic to witness an awesome display of fireworks. The girls were mesmerized, and we had amazing seats! Happy Birthday, America!!

Emily-ism

2008-07-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

I have to share this so I don't forget it. I've already told the story to several people, but since these days I forget to simply put underwear on in the morning (this is an exaggeration...I promise), I thought I better share it on the blog, it's a priceless and probably very common toddler story.

We..meaning Emily, Addison, and myself...were recently in a public restroom with several stalls. You probably know where I'm going with this one...

Anyway, the bathroom was crowded, all the stalls were being used, and we had to wait in line for a short time. When we finally got into our stall, Emily was sitting on the potty, and proceeds to inform me very matter of factly AND loudly that "this bathroom is stinky, mommy!"

After deciding that this statement could have definitely been worse, I quietly replied with, "well, honey, it's a bathroom, sometimes that happens". I'm now trying to hurry things along, because there are still ALOT of people in the bathroom, both on either side of us, and more still waiting in line. Actually, I was hurrying things along because I had the sinking feeling that our conversation about the odor in the bathroom was not over by any means...I was right.

Get ready for it...

"Mommy, I think someone is going poo poo."

...there are just no words...

The 3rd birthday party

2008-07-05T12:56:00.001-07:00

When Emily turned one, I had myself convinced that we were going to do nothing more than just have some family over for cake and cookies. Nothing big, you know, just simple, sweet and to the point.

We ended up with at least 7 of Emily's "closest" friends...who were also around the one year old age...at the house with food, fun and MESS! Actually, it really was fun, just more work that I wanted to deal with for a one year old birthday. But that's what you do when it's your first child!

So when Emily turned two, I convinced myself...again...that there would only be TWO other kids invited (because that's what ALL the books tell you to do, invite only the same number of kids as the age of the birthday girl...by the way, does that mean when I turn 99, that I get to invite 99 people to my party???). But I digress...anyway, her two year old party turned out to be another busy day, with around 8 more TWO year olds, parents, friends, neighbors, etc...you get the picture. Still a fun day, just busy!

SO, when preparing for Emily's 3rd birthday, Brian and I debated back and forth about what to do. Keep it simple? Host it at a place like McDonalds or Chuck E. Cheese? Have it at the park? Again, we wanted something EASY, and we had convinced ourselves at one point that having it at the house would NOT accomplish that. So what did we do?

We had it at our house.

But we had a blast, and so did Emily and her friends. It was a sprinkler party, complete with big blow up pools, Elmo sprinklers, a bouncy castle (courtesy of Nana and Papa :), balloons, cake, bubbles, and PRESENTS!!! Emily woke up every morning for about 2 weeks before the party and would ask, "is it my happy birthday party yet?" It was priceless to see how excited she was about her special day, and she was SUCH a good girl! I had in my mind the terribly embarrassing scenario where MY kid is the one crying and throwing fits and not sharing at her own party. We seemed to escape that this year...I'll let you know what happens next year!!

The birthday girl!!

Toddler heaven

Watering the dead lawn

SUGAR!!!

A fun day for everyone

To Emily on your 3rd birthday!!

2008-06-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Emily,

I can hardly believe that we just celebrated your 3rd birthday this past weekend! You are growing up so fast...it's just amazing. I'm sorry that this is the first official letter I've written to you. You will find out that Addison got one at 1 year old, but I was a little late on getting to yours the last two years! It doesn't mean that I love you ANY less!

It has been such an amazing three years with you, Emily. I have had more fun being your mommy than ANY other job or hobby I can imagine. You are such a precious blessing to us, a gift that can only come from God. You are truly an angel. It's so hard to write a letter like this because the fun things happen everyday that I want to share with you here, but my mind so quickly forgets all the little details! I'm afraid that if I try to write down all the wonderful memories with you for the last 3 years, the computer will become overloaded and will shut down all together.

Emily at 2 years old (June 2007)

When I think about you, these are the things that come to mind:

Precious little voice:

You have the MOST precious little sweet voice in the whole world. Nana Fulling says that you sound just like your daddy did when he was little. And not just when you are talking. That is adorable. But you also have an amazing ear for music. I remember at around 15-16 months old, you would play a note on your play piano, and then try to hum and mimic that same sound! You LOVE to sing, and your voice is the sweetest music to my ears. Some of your favorite songs right now are any songs from Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music, the Caterpillar song, Happy Birthday (to anyone), This Little Light of Mine, and Jesus Loves Me (sometimes you sing this at the top of your lungs when you're going to sleep).

July 2007

August 2007

Independence:

Emily, you are becoming a very independent little girl. I'm so proud of you because you, for the most part, want to try and do everything yourself. Whether it's getting dressed, going potty, riding your bicycle, or taking your plates over to the sink, you are showing your independent personality (and sometimes your stubborness, but I have NO idea where that might have come from!).

September 2007

October 2007

Thoughtfulness:

Honey, you are so thoughtful and sweet to others. Even at 3 years old, you do such a great job of sharing and caring for other people. I've seen you give flowers that you picked to little girls that you don't even know...give a small boy a hug who was crying. God has given you such a nurturing spirit, especially with your sister. It is so clear that you absolutely adore her. If she is upset and crying, you do whatever you can to try and comfort her...whether it's giving her a toy that you have been playing with, giving her hugs and kisses, or just saying a kind word to her. I love to watch the two of you together, and I hope that you will always foster this caring attitude toward her. She loves you so much.

November 2007

December 2007

Big blue eyes!:

Everyone talks about your "big blue eyes". Honey, you got those great eyes from daddy, I had NOTHING to do with it! They are amazing, such a crystal clear blue. I am constantly trying to take pictures that bring those eyes out!

January 2008

February 2008

Inquisitive:

I love this about you! You want to know "why" everything happens. It's great. It's so much fun to see you exploring the world around you and experiencing all the amazing things that God has placed before you. My prayer for you is that this part of your personality only grows stronger, and that you are NEVER afraid to ask why!

March 2008

April 2008

You and Jesus:

As a parent, this is the most important relationship that we are trying to foster in you. One of my favorite parts of the day is when we are laying down to say our prayers at night, and I ask you to tell me who you thank God for. I can't wait to hear what comes out of your mouth. Every night is something different and wonderful and sweet. Just tonight, you said, "dear Jesus, thank you for mommy, in Jesus' name, amen". Truly, there is just nothing better than that. You aren't afraid to talk to Jesus, pray to Jesus, and thank Jesus for everything. What a special girl He gave us!

May 2008

Funny:

You, my dear, keep us in stitches pretty much 24/7. The things that come out of that 3 year old mouth are hilarious! Whether it's your strange "doo doo da" that you started saying one day, or telling mommy that she is "gassy", or telling us that you need your "pivacy" on the potty, your funny phrases crack us up. And it's not just the things you say. You are SILLY, and that's so much fun! I love being silly with you. You are our Silly Hillbilly!

June 2008

Emily, thank you for being such an incredible, wonderful, amazing, sweet, sometimes dramatic little girl. I love you for always, even if you were none of those things. God has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams with you. He has placed in you a soft, nurturing spirit that I learn from everyday. I pray that this spirit grows within you, because I know that God has such special plans for you, honey. I love you so much...

Love, mommy

YOU decide!

2008-06-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

So I've had tons of people tell me that Addison is the spitting image of Emily at this age. I have walked both sides of the line...sometimes I think she looks just like Emily when she was one, other times I think she looks completely different. So here are two pictures of the girls at one year. The top one is Addison, the bottom one is Emily. What do YOU think?

Addison's birthday

2008-06-24T12:27:00.000-07:00

Even though Addison's birthday was Friday the 20th, we did our family "celebration" on Sunday afternoon. I had been asking Emily all week what she wanted to get Addison for her birthday, and the answer was always the same, "cupcakes". So we went to Wal-mart and Emily picked out the pink cupcake mix with pink cupcake frosting (not my personal favorite). We sang Happy Birthday to Addison in her high chair and let her go with her very own, Emily crafted, pink birthday cupcake. Here are a few highlights of the day:

Happy Birthday Addison!!!!

A visit from friends

2008-06-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

Good friends Jason, Julie and Lennox came to visit the Lone Star State again for TWO weekends in a row!!! I'm pretty sure they are wanting to move down here as soon as possible, as they LOVED the 100 degree plus weather we were sporting for them... they just couldn't get enough of it. :)

We had a great time, the kids loved each other to pieces, and Julie and Anne were world dominators in the game of Rook. We braved Sea World for 6 hours and were planning to shut the place down except for a freak of nature thunderstorm that blew through! Thanks for the great time!!!

The whole group together at the disastrous Berges Fest

"Em-my" and "Nox" palling about

The three kiddos

To Addison, on your first birthday

2008-06-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

Well, honey, today is your FIRST birthday, June 20th, 2008. I can hardly believe it's already been a year, the time just keeps on flying past us! I wanted to start writing you and Emily letters each year so that you would know...when you get older...what was going on, what you were doing, what you were saying, what we were doing, what you liked, didn't like, you get the picture. I'm sad to say that I had great intentions of starting this when Emily was born, but it just didn't happen! So you are the first one to get a letter at one year old, Emily will get her first one next week when she turns three.

Addison at 1 day old

Let me start out by saying that from the first moment we saw you, and I know I can speak for daddy with this one, we were 100%, totally, completely, head over heels in love! It was hard to believe that we could fall in love with someone we hardly knew so quickly. When you were handed to me in the delivery room and I got to look at you for the first time, WOW...there are just no words to describe the feeling except simply amazing.

1 month old

Emily was SO excited to become a big sister, and has been loving on you from day one. She just adores you and is always around to lend a helping hand. And it is so clear that you adore her also. If you are unhappy, screaming and crying and just generally miserable, all Emily has to do is walk into the room, and the tears stop almost immediately! You love to watch Emily's every move, and right now, one of your favorite things to do is to tackle her when she's lying on the floor. You crawl over to her, lift yourself up on your knees, raise your arms up with this cheesy grin on your face, squeal, and then throw yourself down dramatically over Emily. It's hysterical. I know it won't always be like this...I'm sure you two will have your fair share of hair pulling fights. But right now, it is so precious to see that your foundation as sisters is so special to both of you!

Addison 2 months old

Addison 3 months old

Here are some of the cute things, not so cute things, highlights (and some low lights) of your first year:

Addison 4 months old

Being able to actually LEAVE the hospital with you after you were born!

This was big for us. It was so very hard to have to leave Emily in the NICU when she was born...heartbreaking...so to be able to leave the hospital with you in our arms, and arrive home with you in our arms, was a major highlight!

Addison 5 months old

Your first hospital visit

Addison 6 months old

God has a quirky sense of humor, truly. We were so happy that we escaped you having to stay in the NICU after you were born. Well... 1o days AFTER you were born, you spiked a fever of 102...and in newborn babies, that warrants an immediate visit to the ER. Oh, yeah, AND we got to stay in the hospital with you for three days while they poked you, prodded you, gave you IV fluids, measured your wet diapers, took rectal temperatures, and pumped you full of antibiotics. It turns out you had a virus, boy was it a nasty one! And to top it off, I got it too...while we were in the ER waiting for the doctor to see you. Poor daddy had to stay with you the first night in the hospital by himself, and you had a REALLY rough night that first night. I would have to say that was probably one of the scariest times of our lives. We did a lot of crying and praying for those three days. I think we can easily call this one...a low light of the year.

Addison 7 months old

When daddy comes home

This is a highlight of my day. When daddy comes home, you get SO excited. You crawl over to him as fast as your little body will take you, making your funny squealing noises along the way, and cling to his legs until he picks you up. And then...you don't let him put you down. If that happens, look out! I'm pretty sure they can hear you all the way over in China when you start crying...it's very dramatic.

Addison 8 months old

Your fingers

My dear, you seem to have a "thing" for the 3rd and 4th fingers of your right hand. This started around 4-5 months old. It's so cute. When you're tired, cranky or hungry, or when you have a lovey in your hands (anything soft and fuzzy), these fingers go in your mouth. Your 2nd finger and pinkey finger go up on either side of your nose, making it look like the Texas Longhorn symbol. However...you have recently figured out that you can suck on those 3rd and 4th fingers, while at the same time picking your nose with the 2nd finger...this is called multitasking...you're very talented for such a young age.

Addison 9 months old

Eating habits

Daddy is convinced that you are not really his daughter (despite the fact that you're the spitting image of him). You LOVE eating vegetables. And I don't mean the standard sweet potatoes and carrots that most babies seem to tolerate. You like those...but you LOVE green beans, the mixed vegetables, and the garden vegetables (which I personally think smell like the grass in our backyard). In fact, you prefer eating vegetables over any baby food fruit flavors that I've tried. I think it's great, daddy thinks you're a little strange.

Your mouth

You CANNOT keep anything out of your mouth. Daddy seems to think that Emily was the same way, but I do not have that same memory...or else I've chosen to block it out! I have never seen a baby down carpet fibers the way that you do. But your palette is not just limited to carpet fibers. Oh, no. You are willing to try just about anything. From dog food, dog hair, dog water, bits of food from the kitchen floor, leaves, grass, rocks, dust bunnies, other people's hair...you name it, you've probably tried it! I could vaccuum the floors of our house 3 times a day, and you would still find things on the floor to put in your mouth! It's amazing, really.

Addison 10 months old

Your sweet and contagious smile

Oh, honey, you have the sweetest little smile in all of Texas. One can't help but to get caught up in your happiness and smile right along with you. Of course, I'm never able to catch these grins on camera, you clam up immediately when I pull it out. But I can't tell you how many people comment on your adorable little smile and they say to me, "what a happy baby!". Right now, one of the cute things your doing is smiling so big that your eyes are all squinched up (is that a word?), and breathing rapidly in and out of your nose. Priceless.

Addison 11 months old

Your fussy time

Let's just say that for about a month or so, when you were just 2-3 months old, you were in a really foul mood from about 4pm to 10pm. And "fussy" really doesn't describe the array of sounds that came out of your mouth. I would characterize it more like...high pitched shrieking and screaming that the best earplugs in the world wouldn't help. NOTHING made you happy except someone holding you, facing you outward, and either walking around or bouncing on my exercise ball. We couldn't sit down, we couldn't put you down. Was it colic? Who knows. But just about the time that we were ready to trade you in (by the way, I'm kidding, we would never do that :), you stopped! I must say, though, mommy and daddy's nerves were fringed right to the nub! I guess we should be thankful that you didn't do this in the middle of the night instead!

Happy Birthday!!!

So there it is, a snapshot of your first year! We love you so much, Addison, and thank God for the blessing that you are every day. Love, mommy and daddy

Happy Father's Day!!

2008-06-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

Well, this may be the day AFTER Father's Day that I'm actually posting this, but what can you do? Just want to give a shout out to all the daddies out there who do so much for us! I can't really leave it at that, though, without telling you a little bit about the reasons why I think my husband is really the BEST daddy of them all.

I know this may sound a little crazy to some of you, but when I first met Brian and got to know him a little bit, I just felt in my heart that whenever he finally had children, he was going to be one of those absolutely AMAZING fathers (of course, I was hoping that I would be the one having kids with him :) Well, I was right...he is an amazing father, AND I got to be the one to have his kids!

I have several reasons why I think he is such an awesome daddy.

He is the most patient person I've EVER met...

Truly, you have never encountered patience until you have met Brian. And for those of you who know him, you know that it takes alot to really get to him. Even when he's rattled by something, he still appears calm and collected. That is going to be so KEY when our girls are teenagers! I LOVE this about him and often pray for the ability to be as patient as he is.

He loves God...

I love that he loves God. To know that he and I are on the same page when it comes to teaching our children about the Lord is something that I cherish so much.

He loves us so much...

I'm pretty sure I can bet my life of the fact that when Brian wakes up in the morning, WE...the girls and I...are the first and foremost thing on his mind...I'm not sure Allie is included in this. And when he goes to bed at night, WE are the last thing he thinks about before he drifts off to sleep (the only exception may be when he's watching "The Deadliest Catch" or "Cash and Treasures" :) . He is always putting our concerns first with every decision he makes...sometimes to a fault. He rarely finds time for himself because he wants to spend it with the girls, or with me, or helping me with the girls when he gets home. AMAZING, I'm telling you.

I can't think of a more devoted, loving, fun, thoughtful and hilarious person that I would want to spend my days with, or have my children with. I love you so much, hon, thanks for all you do!!!

Love, A

Here are the pics the girls and I gave him for Father's Day

Any takers??

2008-06-11T18:22:00.001-07:00

As many of you probably are aware, we recently decided to put our house up on the market. It is a bittersweet decision for us...this is the first house Brian and I bought after we got married almost 8 years ago! It is such a wonderful house, very cozy, warm, and it feels like "home" to me. Our neighbors are UNBELIEVABLE and if our house sells, we will miss them so very much. We keep joking around that we just simply need to transplant the neighborhood with us wherever we go.

Why moving, you ask? Well, there are a few reasons, one of them being that we are starting to feel like sardines packed into a tiny can. It's not that our house is super tiny, we could live here for a long time...but if we are going to be adding any more kiddos to the compound (ha ha), we will really start to feel the crunch of tiny spaces. So we thought we would put the house up and see what happens. To provide incentive for prospective buyers, we added this to our MLS listing:

Do you think it will work?

When all is quiet in the kitchen....

2008-05-21T12:55:00.001-07:00

Let me preface this by saying yes, I know this was probably a bad idea in the first place, and yes, I do normally watch my daughter much more closely when she is playing with paints...however, sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures!

Addison has been sick since yesterday afternoon. A trip to the doctor with 103 fever confirmed a left ear infection and viral pharyngitis. So needless to say, she has been absolutely MISERABLE with a sore throat, fever, ear ache, you get the picture. So today, I knew I would be having to spend most of my time with Addison, who didn't want me to put her down most of the morning.

You know how it is when you're sick...you just want mom to hold you for a while!

Anyway, I decided to give Emily some lee-way (my first mistake) and let her play with finger paints at the kitchen table with very little supervision so that I could focus on making Addison comfortable. We had fun cutting out shapes from kitchen sponges to use in the paints. I very carefully placed newspaper down and then cut open a paper bag so that Emily could use the paints on that. I decided to take off Emily's shirt...a very smart decision on my part...JUST IN CASE she accidentally :) got any on herself. After ensuring that she understood the ground rules:

1. do not eat the paint

2. the paint does not belong on the table

3. the paint does not belong in our hair

4. the paint does not belong on our bodies

5. the paint does not belong ANYWHERE else but the paper

I went into another room to put Addison down for a nap.

Apparently, I should have explained rules 1 through 5 more clearly.

"Caught in the act"

"What was rule number 3 again?"

"Look at me mom!!"

Needless to say, it was hilarious, she looks like a very miniature version of The Incredible Hulk, or Hulkette in this case. And oh yes, this was ALL in her hair as well. Luckily, mom was smart enough to choose the finger paints, which are easily washable, instead of any other kind (God bless you Crayola!!)

True story!

2008-05-16T18:41:00.000-07:00

This cracks me up. Today, Emily took a nap for what seemed like HOURS. Normally, I wouldn't wake a sleeping child, but I just wanted to go in and check on her, because seriously, she slept from 1:30pm until almost 5pm this afternoon! So I go in, and this is what I find:

Yes, my friends, those are her socks...on her hands. Not sure when this happened during the nap, but rest assured, she had nice and toasty fingers to keep her warm!!! :)

Happy Mother's Day...2 days late!

2008-05-12T18:44:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to wish all the amazing mothers out there a Happy Mother's Day!!! Really, any woman who has voluntarily changed a diaper, dried a teary eye, fed a hungry baby, held a sick child or played with a toddler for HOURS on end counts in my book as a mother. What a special day to lift up those women around us who do so much for us!

My mother is one of the most amazing people I know. She is so strong and courageous, and has been such a role model of strength to me with all that she has been through in her life. She is a proud survivor of breast cancer (going on 6 years!!) and has amazed me with how she took it all in stride...I know I wouldn't have handled it the way she did. When I was in high school, our family was dealt some hefty blows that ended in my parent's divorce, some serious financial troubles, and us having to move out of my childhood home. My mom, after staying at home with my brother and I for about 14 years, picked herself up, dusted herself off, and started her own business. It was a struggle for a LONG time for her, I'm sure there are things that she has yet to tell me about those years...but the entire time, she never stopped letting us be kids and do the things that kids need to do. She never gave up, although I'm sure there were plenty of times that she wanted to, and she was ALWAYS there to love and support us, through the good and the bad times.

I'm happy to say that she has been incredibly blessed beyond belief after those years of struggle and hardship. She is now married to an awesome man who I'm proud to call my step-father, and has 4 grandchildren to keep her busy. She is just an amazing woman, mother, friend, grandmother..and I am SO proud of her!! I love you, mom! Happy Mother's Day!!! Anne

My mom...

More toddler fun

2008-05-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

We have hit another milestone, folks. Yes, in just the last few days, there is a simple, familiar, two word phrase that has found its way into our household via Emily. That little phrase that all toddlers start to use at one point or another...that phrase that at times is charming, and at other times, makes you want to rip your hair out at the roots.

It is...

"Why, mommy?"

Sometimes there is no "mommy" at the end of the "why". Sometimes it is just "Why" over and over and over and over and over and over and ov...ok, you get the point.

It is the true beginning of verbal curiosity in a toddler's world. When they really start wanting to know what is going on around them. Ok, truthfully, there are times that I think Emily just likes to hear herself say it over and over again, but that is beside the point. I'm afraid I have created a monster here in my attempts to be the kind of mom who wants her kids to ask ANY question they want to, and to question EVERYTHING. After hearing her start to ask "why", I told her I was so proud of her for asking "why", and that she should wonder "why", because that is how we learn. She apparently agreed with me.

Yeah, way to go mom.

I always wondered what kind of mother I would be when we got to this stage of toddlerhood. Would I be the type to explain as best I could with long answers after the "why" was uttered? Would I be the type who just tried to give short answers in the hope that the "why" would just go away? Or would I be the type who tried to ignore the "why", pretend I didn't hear it, hoping against all hope that if Emily heard herself say the "why" enough, that she would get tired of it.

I can tell you that I've tried all three of these tacts, but the "why" still exists. Below is an actual conversation I had with Emily today on the way to a doctor's appointment:

Emily: "Mommy, are we going to see my doctor?"

Mommy:"No, honey, we are going to see mommy's doctor"

...here it comes...

Emily: "Why?"

Mommy: "Because mommy needs to go see the doctor today"

Emily: "Why?"

Mommy: "Well, the doctor needs to check to make sure that I'm not sick"

Emily: "Why?"

Mommy: "Because that's what doctors do, they make sure we are not sick, and if we are sick, they try to fix us. When we take you to see Dr. Coleman, he is making sure you aren't getting sick. Do you remember when Addison went to see Dr. Coleman? That was to make sure she wasn't getting sick, either"----this was tact number one: try the long winded answer

Emily: "Why?"

At this point, I have run out of good answers for the "why". So I try distraction:

Mommy: "Emily, what do you want to have for lunch after mommy's doctor appointment?"

Emily: "Grilled cheese sandwich"

Mommy: "Don't you want to go to Chick-Fil-A?"

Emily: "Why?"

...I'm getting caught in the trap again...

Mommy: "Because Chick-Fil-A is yummy and I told you if you were a good girl at the doctor's office, we would go there for lunch"

Emily: "Why?"

Ok, do you see now? As happy as I am that she wants the answers to EVERYTHING, there are times when the "why" has over stayed its welcome. Today was just ONE example!

Dolphins and Whales!!!

2008-05-05T20:21:00.000-07:00

Mommy, Emily and Addison in front of the Sea World fountain

Shamu time!!!!

We decided to brave the crowds and join in the fun at Sea World of San Antonio this past Sunday. For any of you who have taken a toddler to an exciting place such as Sea World, an amusement park, or anywhere else that has the potential for ice cream and other tasty treats, you know that telling them about the destination too early in advance is pure torture for them.

Fortunately for us, Emily was the BEST kid ever and did not put up a fight when we told her we were going to church first, THEN coming back home, THEN eating lunch, THEN getting back into the van, and FINALLY, THEN going to Sea World. She even caught a little cat nap on the way (for about 10 minutes), which was shocking considering how excited she was.

Our Sea World is such a great place for families and kids. If you have never been to Sea World and you live here, I highly recommend getting to it soon. The animals are amazing, the shows are outstanding, and it is right here in our back yard!

At one point during our visit, Brian told Emily we were going to go to the Shamu show, and she said in total seriousness, "That is awesome!" It was priceless. Addison probably couldn't have cared less about where we were, but she enjoyed people watching and relaxing in the stroller. By the end of the afternoon, we were happy and EXHAUSTED!
This is the face of a totally satisfied Sea World customer

Allie, our lovable pooch

2008-04-25T05:48:00.000-07:00

After all the blogging I've done so far about our family, I realized this morning that I have been leaving out a very important... albeit furry... member who deserves a little space of her own. This is Allie, our 5 year old mutt that we picked up from the Humane Society before we had kids. She is kind of our "first baby", and seeing as how she survived in spite of ourselves (we can barely keep plants alive), we figured we were probably safe in deciding to have children.

She is a WONDERFUL family dog, Emily and Addison both adore her, and Allie puts up with all the hitting, pulling, tugging, and hugging that a canine should have to put up with, and never lets out a mean growl or bares her teeth! In fact, we are pretty certain that Addison's first official word is her own version of Allie. Over the last week, whenever Allie comes into view, Addison squeals in delight, crawls quickly toward her and says "Ada, Ada" over and over again.

Allie rarely barks, only when someone unexpected comes to the door, and is ALWAYS ready for sitting on your lap...literally. She does have the odd quirk here and there, such as only eating when the mood strikes her, she will sometimes go a few days without touching her food. When she does decide that she will dine, she takes only a few kibbles in her mouth, walks about 3 feet away from her bowl, and then drops them on the floor and eats them ONE AT A TIME.

If you look at the pics, most of them are of her in various sleeping states. Well...you would be tired, too, if you were constantly being harrassed by a toddler. And although he will NEVER admit it, Brian loves this dog (as you can see by the picture of them snuggling and sleeping). I have to say, however, that Allie is truly a momma's dog. She follows me everywhere, has to be in the same room as me NO MATTER WHAT.

Well, I guess that's enough about Allie, we love her, and hope you have enjoyed learning a bit more about a usually forgotten member of the family! Anne

The big "32"

2008-04-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

I always laughed at people who said that after a certain age, you start forgetting how old you actually are....until this year. Yes, I hit the big "32" this past weekend on April 20. It's funny, there have been times when I really did have to sit and THINK about how old I was going to be turning! Oh, well....

We had a great time visiting Rockabye Nana (aka, my mom) in Houston and Emily had a fun filled weekend of feeding turtles, going to the park, playing in the baby pool, and just causing general chaos around Kingwood. Here are the highlights, enjoy!! Anne

Unfiltered Toddler Mouth

2008-04-08T14:04:00.001-07:00

Well, it has officially happened. I have tried to avoid this phenomenon for a while now, and had kind of hoped we would conveniently "skip" over it, but there is no more denying it...

No, I'm not pregnant...

Emily has developed what I like to call "Unfiltered Toddler Mouth". This is a term that can be defined by many things, not the least of which is that adorable, maddening knack that toddlers have to say exactly what is on their mind, no matter the consequences.

You know what I mean, the time in a toddler's life when that "brain filter" is not quite engaged yet. This allows a toddler to say things that other people might only just THINK about saying, but wouldn't dare utter out loud. We could also call this a BAD case of "Open Mouth, Insert Foot". In some ways, it's so refreshing to see Emily's ability to just go right out there and SAY it, without a care in the world.

...On the other hand...it can be rather embarrassing at times.

Case in point: I went to pick Emily up from preschool today, and as usual, she came running over to me and gave me a big hug. When we walked back to a group of teachers to check her out of her class, she looked at one of the teachers (who will remain nameless) and pointed to her tummy.

Almost like a movie in slow motion, I saw the whole scene play out before me like I was dreaming...let me tell you, I wish that I was. Emily continues on and blurts out the most innocent of questions, "Do you have a baby in your tummy?"

Unfortunately, there were no rocks close by for me to crawl under and no trap doors to disappear beneath. I managed a half-hearted smile...which I'm sure did not disguise the horror on my face... and said, "Oh, Emily has been saying that to EVERYONE over the last week".

Now, this is actually true, she has been pointing to me and asking that question, Nana, and every other woman in her life. She even laid out on the couch one afternoon, pooched out her own tummy, and said with dramatic flair, "Mommy, I have a baby in my tummy". However, if you were the poor stranger that she said it to, would you believe me??? I don't think so.

Luckily, the teacher was very kind, and didn't seem to take any offense to it. Still, I can't wait for the day we are in WalMart and Emily narcs out some poor person who burps or farts in line. Can you just see it now? Or maybe you have experienced this already. If so, any tips on how to disappear quickly would be GREATLY appreciated.

Easter 2008

2008-03-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

Easter was lots of fun this year. Emily kicked it off by having her first Easter Egg hunt at a church in Boerne. After much preparation, this fierce competitor ran over to her first egg, calmly sat down, put her Easter basket on the ground, and proceeded to open her egg to see what was inside. Mom, also a fierce competitor, kept trying to tell Emily that the "other kids are getting all the eggs"!!!, but it all fell on deaf ears. The final score of eggs? Emily: 3...the other kids: at least a dozen or so!

There is a lesson here somewhere...I think it goes something like "stop and smell the roses"

On Good Friday, we ventured over to Houston to visit Rockabye Nana, Buppa, Aunt Jamie and Uncle John, and cousins Jacob and Aiden. Emily and Jacob had a blast playing together and on Saturday afternoon, participated in ANOTHER easter egg hunt. The competition was much more easy going, and Emily actually picked eggs and put them in the easter basket before opening them up!

Fun with Emily

2008-03-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

So I decided today that while Addison was peacefully taking her morning nap, that Emily and I would spend some quality time together and decorate Easter Eggs. If any of you haven't ever had the pleasure of decorating Easter Eggs with a 2 1/2 year old, let me fill you in on a little secret...it can get kinda messy.

And incidentally, the Easter Egg dye does not come off little fingers like those awesome "washable" Crayola markers. It also does not come off of faces, hair, clothes, tables, dogs....or ANY other surface that it touches. I imagine the person who invented this Easter Egg dye is laughing his or her butt off at moms like me who have the audacity to believe that THEIR 2 1/2 year old won't wipe the dye on every conceivable surface...just cause they can.

But I digress...we did have a FABULOUS time, and Emily was very proud of her tie dyed eggs. We made one for daddy, mommy, Emily, Addison, and of course, Allie.

Just so she doesn't feel left out, here are also a few pics of the little muffin, already 9 months old and CRAWLING!! Look out world!

Easter Time!!!

2008-03-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

I just had to share this precious pic of Emily and her easter basket yesterday! Her preschool class had their little Easter party, so of course, I had to dress her appropriately. Who knew that she would be the ONLY one dressed in a dress when I dropped her off! Oh well, she didn't mind...and rather enjoyed twirling around before we left to see her dress fly around her legs. What a sweetie!!

Oh, forgot about this

2008-03-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

By the way, I feel like I should definitely let you all know about this one. I must admit, I was a little freaked out when Emily first did this, but now, I'm finding comfort in it. Maybe some of you can relate...

Probably a week ago, Emily and I were snuggling in her bed after she woke up from her afternoon nap...this is a normal routine which I absolutely cherish EVERY MOMENT of! She sits up in bed, nonchalantly points to the corner of her bedroom where a dresser and lamp sit, and states matter of factly:

"Mommy, do you see the angel in the corner of my bedroom?"

Mommy's hair stands up on the back of her neck as she casually says:

"Well, honey, I don't see that, but is that what you see?"

"Yes, mommy, there is an angel in the corner of my room"

"What is the angel's name, honey?"

"Her name is Rumor" (sometimes the name is Cuddly, and sometimes it's a name I don't understand)

On a DAILY basis since then, Emily routinely points to the same corner when we're in her room and asks if I can see the angel. Now I tell her that I do see the angel, not because I REALLY do, but because I believe that there IS a guardian angel there that only she can see, and I don't want to take something that special away...I do believe God reveals Himself in ways that adults just aren't willing to or can't see, and children don't have that "screen" over their eyes that most of the rest of us do.

I think this is really cool now, and I wonder sometimes who this guardian angel might be. Is it my grandma or grandpa Underwood, or my grandpa Johnson? Is it someone from Brian's family? Is it a different one each time?

So, if that didn't make the hairs on your neck stand up (in a good way), maybe this will...

Just tonight, when I was putting Emily to bed, we have another conversation about the angel:

"Mommy, do you see the angel?"

"Yes, honey, I see her" (we have settled on this angel being a "she" most of the time)

"Emily, what is the angel wearing?"

"She's wearing purple"

"Oh...does the angel talk to you?"

"Yes"

"What does she tell you?"

"She's going to watch me fall asleep...I don't have to be scared"

...so, if that's not a guardian angel, I don't know what is. Sweet dreams Emily!!

Better late than never...right???

2008-03-06T18:27:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it's been, what...4-5 months since my last post on this blog? I mean, it's not like we have TONS of friends with MORE kids than we have who are so irritatingly PROMPT with their posts! Anyway, things are great here. The girls are getting so big, Addison just started crawling (Emily calls her "Roly-poly"...too cute), and she waves to everyone, it's absolutely precious. Of course, I can't seem to get her to do it when I have the camera flashing or the video rolling, go figure. Emily TALKS CONSTANTLY, and especially when I'm on the phone! She is ever-so helpful with her sister, makes her laugh, and LOVES to hold her. I know eventually they will get into knock-down, drag-out, hair pulling girlfights...but for right now, I thank God that they like each other! Here are a few pics of the sweeties! Until next time, hopefully not in 5 more months, Anne

Nothin' like doing time with a buddy

2007-11-06T08:50:00.001-08:00

Good friends Jason, Julie and Lennox visited the Lone Star state recently, and we had a great time! As seen in the picture, Lennox and Emily were up to no good and had to be thrown in the slammer... Addison was the tattle tail, and is now safe within the Witness Protection Program.

Happy Halloween!!!

2007-11-06T08:38:00.000-08:00

Yes, the girls were dressed for success this Halloween! Emily was a very appropriate Curious George, and Addison brought the house down with her duckie outfit. Emily had a blast trick or treating, and has asked repeatedly since that night to go out again!

Fun at the park!!

2007-09-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon, believe it or not, was actually a comfortable 89-90 degrees here (in the shade...with a breeze) in Texas, so we braved the heat and went to Emily's favorite park around the corner. No fights on the playground...we were the only ones swinging and sliding!

Addison didn't feel like swinging, so she manned the carseat in the shade.

"I love technology..."

2007-09-19T11:10:00.001-07:00

The title is for all of you Naploeon Dynamite fans...don't be embarrassed...you know who you are. Well, I decided it was time to embrace technology, join the 21st century, and start a blog of the crazy things that go on down here in Texas with two girls, a dog and a husband.

Now please keep in mind that I am COMPLETELY braindead when it comes to computers and the like, so the fact that I even figured out how to do this is nothing less than miraculous. Who knows...maybe you will see me working for the Geek Squad in the future, stranger things have happened!

As I sit here trying to figure out what to write, what not to write, I am clearly thinking too much about this. Bear with me for a bit while I learn how layouts work, etc. For now, here are a few pics of the girls