Sunday, December 25, 2011

I'm one lucky wife and mama....

We are on our way to our wonderful neighbors house for Christmas dinner, but I have a spare moment to relay just HOW special and wonderful today has been. I, currently, am the proud and lucky girl to own a dishwasher!

YIPEEEEEEE!!!!
Those that know us also know that our house has not had a dishwasher. And I have wanted one for quite some time. Well today my mother in law bestowed one upon this crazy household for Christmas! I was not expecting it, but it is wonderful as it gives us more time to be together as a family in my mind, and less time for myself and my hubby to scrub dirty dishes, bottles, sippy cups, etc. Time is really truly the most valuable thing in the world right now, time spent RESTING, spending time with your loved ones, and yes, working at times.

Additionally, my hubby gave me....drum roll please....

Laundry baskets!!!! 5 of them!!!

And before you can roll your eyes and say "Aleeeeexxxx"....STOP...because, the entire gift was the fact that he is going to take over the kids and my laundry detail.
Yes...you heard right! Or at least I think I heard right....;-)   (right honey?)
And the 5 laundry baskets was his idea of "organizing" the situation.
Wow, I am one lucky girl I tell you.
 Truly the best two gifts I could have asked for.

PS Alex and the kiddos had a wonderful day as well, which will be shared later :-)

Merry Christmas to All....

Wishing everyone a great Christmas and 2012! We value and treasure all of the wonderful people and relationships this blog brings, weather it is strictly web based, (love all you mama friends out there!) or family and friends who check in to see how we are doing. We hope you all have a WONDERFUL holiday and new year!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas is coming....

And we have been living it up...sort of. Between crazy work and kid schedules we are participating in the festive Christmas spirit in a more limited way. The weekend seems to come around and all I want to do is hole up at home and participate in my own holiday cheer with our little kiddies. So what follows is a summary of our little bit of pre-Christmas cheer!
cookie making extravaganza!
Winter walks

cutie on the beach!
Santa visits Forrest's daycare!


Talin loving the Christmas tree :-)

Saturday, December 3, 2011

The Brothers...


These two boys sure are growing up fast. They are changing daily, and part of us wishes we could freeze them in this innocent time for them....but just part of us, and some days a very small part! It is no joke, raising two boys. Alex and I are getting worked for lack of a better word. Between the awesome fishing adventures, walks, family back rubs, and laughs we do have our fair share of tears, agression, blow outs, screams, etc. I guess it comes with the territory! One thing I didn't realize about parenting was the extreme highs and lows little kiddies have, and the corresponding affects on the parental figures. Holy moly most days we're just trying to tread water over here, and then we'll have a super sweet moment with one of both of them and it makes it ALL worth it, and then some!
So, for an update on each of the little rugrats....
 Talin is growing like a little weed and coming out of his mellow baby shell a bit. He is now 6 months 3 weeks old and I believe he weighs about 17 lbs. He is sitting like a champ, sometimes trying to lunge forward, and rolling a bit, but for the most part is not yet mobile, (I think our Christmas tree is safe this year!) He eats solids like a champ...when he likes what is being offered. He is a bit picky, and will only take his formula or breast milk seperate...no mixing for this baby for some reason! He is getting probably 5 formula bottles a week, and is on breast milk the rest of the time as well as carrots, winter squash, potatoes, beets (when his mood is right!), and of course all the good sweet fruit. Rice cereal goes well with breast milk and a bit of fruit for him, and his little digestive system can sometimes still get the best of him as he transitions from pure mama milk to a variety of things. He is waking up still in the night to eat, but we are slowly getting on a 12 a.m. feed, and then a 6 am feed which is excellent for this mama. He is a bit of a gassy baby, still needing to be burped to be completely happy.
He loves his brother, but doesn't love his brothers agression and will go from laughing to crying in .2 seconds flat when Forrest gets to be too much for him. For the most part though he laughs and LAUGHS when Mr. F gives him attention. We are just approaching the whole sharing thing as Talin is getting more and more grabby, wanting toys, etc. And, yes, the phase where EVERYTHING goes straight to the mouth is here. So toys smaller than his fist are put away...I hope!
He is a great traveler, (besides his carsickness, which is a real problem. I feel so bad that he has acquired my soft stomach! I hear that once I can turn his car seat around this will improve... though that is awhile off. I am going to invest in a "barf bib"...the name says it all. Hopefully this will help with the clean up, poor guy!) and in general  is in a great mood. He is a blankie and pacifier baby for sleeping, and usually goes down well. He has a habit of cat napping during the day, so we are working towards a solid 2 nap schedule to get him down longer than 30 minute stretches, (as I type, he's been down for over an hour, so far so good!)
I'm just soaking up my little Talin baby. He is truly wonderful and makes me smile with his good natured open mouth kisses and love!
Forrest is marching closer and closer to the big 3 years old! At almost 2 years and 9 mos he is steadily, though slowly, finding his language. We are actually looking into helping him out on this with an evaluation with a speech therapist as although is comprehension is normal, and even beyond normal for his age, his speech is a bit behind. He jabbers on and on, though has some troubles pronouncing certain sounds that he perhaps should have by now. People tell us that kids make huge leaps between 2 1/2 and 3 with their speech, but we would rather be proactive at this point.
He is still a VERY agile and active guy. He can cast 100 feet across the river and reel in like a champ. He seems to have the coordination of a kid far older than 2, but is still in a 2 1/2 year old body. I think this coupled with his lack of language, and who knows what leads to a bit of agression that we are dealing with. It is our biggest struggle with Forrest, just learning what makes him tick and what sets him off. One minute he's cool as a cucumber, and the next, well, watch out! We are lucky to have daycare/preschool providers that are very tolerant with him, (their 4 year old child had similar issues,) though to not see much improvement in the last few months does get to us. We try reward systems, timeouts, explanations, etc and hope this is just a "phase" but it does make for a tough time when he is in one of his bad spells.
Despite the above, we are continually impressed with Forrest and how caring he can be! We have determined he has "healing hands" as he loves giving his Dad back rubs with lotion and is very gentle with this. He gives out hugs and kisses whenever leaving his daycare, or when I have to leave for work. He still loves his trains and this makes for some good bargaining for us parents. He also still loves anything mechanical or anything that involves building things. Legos, mega blocks, etc are made for him and can really entertain him for awhile. Movies are a treat. He loves them and we try to limit them somewhat, though it is nice to have an ace in the hole when you absolutely NEED that break. His recent favorties are the BBC series Human Planet that we have purchased, Finding Nemo, anything having to do with Thomas the Tank Engine and Diesel, and Mary Poppins. As far as weight, I think he's around 33 lbs. He's a good eater and loves salmon, apples, pasta, carrots, and of course his special treats he gets on occasion, ("Dee doos" aka cookies....:-)
Overall we are surviving quite well over here. I realize these days do really go so fast and despite the fact both Alex and I are stretched pretty thin at the moment with our kiddos needs, we really do work well as a team in this whole child rearing deal. I could not have a better father for our kids than Alex. He gives it his all and despite the crazy, hair loosing, head banging experiences that two kids can have on a single parent, (when one of us is working), it really is so awesome to see what cool people our boys are turning into. And to see what awesome brothers they will be for each other!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Appreciating the experience can pay off.....

Our days of fishing as a family have been few and far between lately due to, well, life I guess. But, we all managed to sneak out today at a "secret" fishing spot just upriver from our place. It's a bit of a cliffhanger, but Forrest, aka "mountain goat" was as sure footed as ever.
I was just looking forward to spending some time by our beautiful river on a warmish day with both of my kiddies and Alex, I was also hoping to get some good family shots for a possible holiday card. Fish or no fish I was happy!
And wouldn't you know if Alex hooked two. The first, a small half pounder or "baby steelhead" Forrest got to reel in, probably his 3rd or 4th fish ever. But the second hook up was an adult! And a somewhat bright adult that Forrest man, (or toddler?) handled as well as you can hope a 2 year and 8 month old to do.



It was a fun and beautiful day, not without toddler meltdowns as you will see........:-) But all in all we are so very thankful for the great opportunity to life in the gorgeous place we do and have the property we have, (and let me tell you sometimes we need every inch we have with these two boys!!!)










A behind the scene shot ;-) Watch out Forrest...Santa's elves are watching!!!!!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

First baby girl....

The two Terri's....(Terry, and Teri) the best mom's around!

Cousin Amy is having the first girl in this next generation of kiddos. She timed her shower to be the day after the big wedding so myself, as well as other family members, could make the wonderful event. Amy's sister Sara was in charge of the big event and the grand master planner could not have put on a better shower. Yummy food, great drinks, fun games, and wonderful little girly gifts, (that I have so much fun giving given my two boys....;-) filled the afternoon.....






yummy treats, iced tea, sangria, and this was only a fraction of it!

Baby Talin, again the life of the party....besides of course the guest of honor Amy!

Little baby Kalea is one lucky and loved girl!

mama and 3 sisters....:-)

The cutest little tutu for baby Kalea!

Baby Talin giving Great Grandma Sheila smooches!

Loving being with his Aunt Megan

And, when the shower was over...some one on one time with Great Grandpa!

weddings and babies!!!!!!

I've got a lot to catch up on here in the Fulton Clan, but figured I would try to stay current in at least ONE event this year and post about cousin Kyle's wedding and cousin Amy's baby shower that Talin and I had the pleasure of attending this weekend.
That's right....just Talin and me, solo mama and solo baby. I'm loving it, getting one on one time with my little happy charming Talin. He was a champ on the plane and other than some car sickness issues, (my poor little guy has my soft stomach....) he's been a happy little guy.
Of couse we started with Talin getting all gussied up for the occasion....


Jen and Kyle, the lovebirds!

Best cousin friend Sara!

smooches abound.....:-)

The sisters, back together again :-)


tearing it up on the dance floor with Uncle Jesse!


Baby Talin was the fav dance partner!


The best date ever....(besides my #1 Alex of course...miss ya hubby!)

The parentals, tearing it up

And this picture, well.....the party was just getting started with cousin Ryan!
And next post....Amy's baby shower! Stay tuned :-)

Friday, November 4, 2011

A 4th little foodie is now in our house!!!

MMMMMM, avocado with Grandpa.....

As of yesterday, officially 1 week before my baby boy's 6 month milestone, we have let him try his first delectable bites of food! He had his well child exam on Monday and we got the go ahead to do it....his official stats you ask? Well, at nearly 6 months little Talin baby is just shy of 16 lbs, (25 percentile), and is in the 45 percentile for height, though the actual measurement has left me at the moment. His head however remains huge at the 99th percentile....that's my kid! Matching Forrest pretty well when he was this age.
None the less, we got the go ahead to start solids. Talin has had nothing but good ol' mama milk up until yesterday. I'm very proud of this fact, but it is getting very tough to keep up with my growing boy's appetite. I therefore am more than happy to start feeding him some yummy delectables from our garden and perhaps...just perhaps...get some more shut-eye at night and calm the voracious appetitie my little boy has?????
One would hope...;-)
But, for him, a whole new world of flavors has opened up....
And he is more than ready for it, at times lunging at the food, and trying to grab at the spoon. Pretty funny to watch!
"Wow Mom, these carrots are so good, I'm gonna leave some on my nose for a snack for later!"

We love our little foodie and even though he'll be mostly on breast milk, (I hope!) for awhile longer, this food stuff is pretty fun...:-)

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Pumpkin patch extravaganza...

Pardon the tardiness of this post as life has just been plain nuts lately in our household, sleep has been minimal, and the kiddies have been amazingly sweet and just plain crazy lately (actually forget the plain crazy, how bout CRAZY crazy!), all at the same time it seems.
But, on to the cute boys now! 2 weeks ago my sister and her amazing friend DD graced us with her presence for 6 wonderful days. It was awesome as always to have her and she and DD helped with kiddie care, gave Alex and I our first night out in over half a year, (uggh, WAY too long!), and helped me on an adventure to the pumpkin patch and farmer's market. We threw in a brewery or two in there and BAM, what a fun weekend!
DD and Baby T cuddling up a storm

Aunt Megan the great!!!

The cutest baby dragon around...

Enjoying the hay ride!

this patch had a baby dragon to go with it!

the pumpkin patch/hay ride crew! (After a Guinness or two for us big kids....)

Soaking this Little Talin baby up!

I think we need our own hay bale maze at home...

...Seriously... :-) Mr. F had SO much fun in this thing!

Thanks a million for family and friends who help us out in these crazy but amazingly fun baby days. Couldn't have done it without you!!!(Really truly, would never try to attempt it....;-)
And this mama needs some sleep, I think I'll dream about how to build a hay bale maze and somehow keep it dry this winter...hmmmm...