Max's team wins the Big Game!

My life has been so busy lately that I havent Blogged for about 2 weeks!!!  My 5th graders had HUGE reports due right before Thanksgiving Break, so work has been busy AND any Mom who has ever had to get ready for Thanksgiving and the arrival of company knows what the word "Busy" really means.  Whew!  This is literally the first time in 2 weeks that I have sat down with a tiny bit of peace and quiet.

OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just went to upload some pictures of Max's Big Win at Autzen Stadium and I realized that the Memory Stick with those pictures on it was left at work.  Our class is also doing a Global Awareness project where we are teaming up with a school in India.  We are going to talk to them on Skype and I had my class make a DVD of a "day in the life" for a 5th grader at O'Hara.  We sent it over to India with one of my students who was traveling over there. Hence, I needed the bigger memory stick for that, and I have a smaller one in my camera right now.

(Isn't 5th grade fun? Seriously, I am having a Blast with all of the cool projects and things they we can do together!)

So as you can see, my life is beyond busy right now, which is why I give myself a break when I cant keep track of the small stuff, like memory sticks.  I will do a better post, including pictures, of Max's Big Game soon!

Skiing at Willamette Pass . . .

My Brothers, Sean and Kevin, along with Pancho, are taking the boys up to the mountain for a day of skiing today.

The boys were so excited to have a "guys day" together.

My boys LOVE skiing and Will was pretty excited to go with his Big Cousins!

Sam and Max all ready to go.

We only have one camera and I wasn't sure that I trusted them to keep track of it at the mountain all day, so I took these pictures before they left.

Max (10)

Sam (9)

Pancho and Sean

I guess this leaves all of us girls to have a "girls day" together.  I think that it is going to include shopping, naps, reading books and possibly a tea party!  All I know is that it is REALLY quiet right now, and I am loving it.  I will keep you posted on the "girls adventures" today.

Black Friday!!!!!

Oh Yes!  I am one of those crazy people who gets to Wal-Mart by 4:50 am on the day after Thanksgiving to go SHOPPING!!!!!  I LOVE it!  My sister-in-law Kate and I got up at 4:00am so we had time to go to Starbucks and make it to Wal-Mart by 5:00am.

Here we are at the beginning of out shoppping adventure!

Kate looks pretty happy for 5:00am!  Who wouldn't be?  We had a whole day of shopping ahead of us!

We started at Wal-Mart, then went to Target, then Kate had to go home (baby Finn is only 5 months old).  I, on the other hand, was very motivated to get as much Christmas shopping finished as possible.  I went on to go to Toys R Us, Valley River and Kohls!!!

I got about 90% of my shopping finished.  It feels so good to have much of it done, because I know that with my job, both boys in Basketball, Christmas Programs, homework, etc. etc. the next few weeks are going to fly by!

Murray Family Thanksgiving!

Another fun Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad's House!  I helped Mom set up this gorgeous table for 32 people.  Our family always has so much fun together at Thanksgiving.  It is always a house full of kids, football, good food, laughter and fun!

Pancho and I went over to my parents house last Sunday and spent about 4 hours getting it all ready for the Big Day!  I am so mad at myself for not taking the greatest pictures this year (I was having too much fun!).  I didn't get a picture of the kids room!  Pancho and my Dad always turn my parents car port into a tarped in room with astro turf on the floor.  Then they fill it up with balls, balloons, a movie corner, basketball hoop, games, a karaoke machine and more!  It is a kids dream!  My parents like it because the kids aren't running through the house the whole time, and the kids like it for a lot of reasons!  Speaking of my parents, I also didnt get a good picture of them this year and they deserve all of the credit for this fun day!

My Dad and Mom are at the head of the table.  Every year, my family has a tradition . . . my Dad hands out a question to each person at the table.  Most of them are questions like "What was the best thing that happened to you this year?" or "What are you thankful for?"  He always gives Pancho a really funny one!  It is a great tradition, because with a table this big, you don't even get to talk to the people at the other end of the table!  It forces us to all take time to hear from eachother and let everyone share something.  The kids even answer a question too!  They usually have the best answers.

The kids table!

We spend a lot of time watching football and eating appetizers!

We even watched the Oregon/Arizona game AND the Oregon/USC game over again!

My poor sister-in-laws put up with a lot of our Oregon Duck fanaticism!

Speaking of Sister in laws, this is a picture of me and my sister in law Francine . . .

Speaking of Oregon Duck fanatics . . . we even had the Oregon Duck at Thanksgiving with us!

That poor Duck went through a LOT!

The kids LOVED him!

My aunt works for the Uof O and she brought him to Thanksgiving with her.

He is actually a maniquin inside an old costume.  She said that we could put the costume on, but no one was brave enough!

Annie and Lucy jumping on Grammy's couches!

. . . another Christmas card contender. 

What is it with our family and posing with costumed creatures this year. 

First Chucky and now the Duck!

No that is not Pancho inside the Duck.

I was having a little too much fun at this point!

Julie's Team Wins the Big Game too! Ha Ha

On the day before Thanksgiving, our school has a long standing tradition.  We always celebrate a beautiful Thaksgiving Mass together (we have Mass as a school together about once or twice a month and they are really amazing , I love hearing all of those adorable voices singing together).

 Then we have a baskeball game!!!  Teachers against the 8th graders!  It is always so much fun, the kids REALLY get into it.  They make signs to root for either the 8th graders or the teachers and they LOVE to cheer on their team!  Anyone who knows me well knows that I have absolutely NO athletic ability, but somehow I got talked into being on the "teacher team".  My students were soooo excited that I was playing.  My whole goal was to try and NOT embarrass my own children and my students.

Believe it or not, I scored 3 baskets!!!  Whooo Hooo!  It was so much fun!

Some of my fellow teachers and staff waiting to go into the game.

I work with the most awesome and fun people EVER!

What?  You are rooting for the wrong team!!!!

I am giving you both "F's"

The crowd!

Some of my students rooting for the "right" team!

Their sign says "Go Teachers" and I thing they also wrote "Go Fultonator" on there, which is what they call me sometimes.

The teachers were the "Home Team"

No mercy for those 8th graders!

What a fun school and super fun job I have!  I feel very blessed!

Happy 9th Birthday Sammy!

Do all moms say this on every one of their kids birthdays? 

"Where has the time gone?"

I still can't believe that my "Sam Sam" is 9 years old today!

My baby has grown up to be such a fun, funny, bright light in our family.  Life is NEVER boring when Sammy is around.  This Birthday was all about Bionicles and Lego Space Police!  He only wanted to have his party at Chuck E. Cheese Who Hoo! So off we all went to Chuck E. Cheese at 10:00am this morning! . . .Good Times!

Sam and Lucy waking up this morning

to the annual "birthday decorated bedroom" and present!

at Chucky's with his hat and Medal on!

Lucy, Sam and Max

Sam surrounded by his Best Buddies!

Chucky came out and did a little show for us,

We all got really into it!  I was crying laughing at one point watching all of our awesome friends screaming and cheering for Chucky right along with Sam. . . so funny!

Lucy and Papa

Once again, Grammy and Papa came to the rescue with Grammy's homemade (from scratch) cupcakes.  Thank You Grammy and Papa!

The whole gang with Chucky!!!!

I got a picture of all of us crazy adults totally getting into the Chucky show!  We were screaming and chanting like he was a rock star!  Chucky was eating it up!

Christmas Card Picture?

. . . with Chucky?

Mmmmmmm . . . .

The best part about havng a party at Chuck E Cheese at 10:00am on a Sunday morning is that you get the whole place to yourself!  You may be asking yourself why we chose 10:00am?  Well, Lucy got invited to another birthday party at 1:00 and Max's playoff football game got scheduled for 1:00 too!  Our family schedule is so busy, we have trouble finding a time to have a birthday party!

It actually ended up being a really fun and easy party!  Thank you so much to all of our friends who made it out to celebrate Sam's Birthday with us!

PS Max's football team, who have won all of thier games this whole season, got beat handily in their first playoff game today.  It was such a bummer to see them lose.  The good news is that they still get to play at Autzen Stadium next Saturday, its just not for the State Championship now.  Max seems Ok with this and I am just happy that there is an end to football in sight!

Halloween Tailgater!

Those of us hardcore Duck Fans with children who are trick-or-treating age had a tough decision to make this weekend.  Duck game or Trick-or-treat with your children.  Our solution?  Bring the kids to the Duck game and let them trick-or-treat there!  Thank goodness the Franssens had a fabulous Tailgate/Halloween Party . . .

What a fun way to celebrate Halloween together!

Kelli, Brenda and Me

My friend Kelli came dressed as a witch! 

Everyone was asking me where the "Statue of Liberty" costume was!

All of the kids as they were heading out to trick-or-treat

The Oregon Cheerleaders and Basketball players were there giving out HUGE Duck bags full of candy.  Two of my students were showing me their loot and asking if they could bring it to school on Monday! . . .Uhhh NO!

My adorable Kitty!

Michael and I (5th grade teachers) drinking our "Diet Pepsi"

. . .we both had many students and parents watching our every move! Ha ha!

Pancho and Sam

Pancho took the kids trick-or-treating,

then he and Max went to the game together. 

Sam stabbing the USC Trojan!

Oh No!  What would our Fulton Relatives think of this!

Uncle Phil, Pancho, Bernie and Dad

After Panch and Max went into the game . . .

I took Sam and Lucy over to the McCarthy's to trick-or-treat with Brendan and Colin. Kevin, Amy and I watched the game on TV together. The Ducks, Beavs and Fighting Irish all won, so we were all HAPPY!

Sam, Colin, Lucy and Brendan

Even though it rained on us pretty much the whole time we were tick-or-treating, the kids had a Blast!  Here they are doing the big candy trade when we got back home.