Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Amy, Brenda, Darbi, Steph, Me, Kelli, Tina, Janet

What better way to start my new Blog than on my Birthday! I had such a GREAT day! It all started with a 1 hour walk/run at 5 am with Brenda, then back home to find cards and pictures from Pancho and the kids taped all over the front door! After taking the kids to school, I met Steph for coffee and then we visited her friend Stephanie who got me started on this whole BLOG thing! She blogs about her family every day and then has her blogs made into books at the end of each year! I am hooked already! I couldn't wait to get home and get started.


I also met a group of friends at Ambrosia for lunch. We had so much fun! Wine, good food, lots of laughs . . . these are a few of my favorite things. We even got to talking about our favorite "Reality TV Shows" .The girls were telling me about a particularly addicting one called "The Real Housewives of the O.C." So we decided that we are "The Real Housewives of the L.C. (Lane County-that is)". The "LC Girls" already have another get together planned for Brendas Birthday in 2 weeks! There was talk of a limo and a night on the town, I'll keep you posted!

My Nephew Tony

Jen, Sam & Tony

Lucy looking adoringly at Tony . . . who isn't so sure Hmmmm.

My Nephew Tony came to visit us from California. We are so proud of him. He will be entering the United States Air Force in about 3 weeks. He came up for one last visit before boot camp and he brought along his girlfriend Jennifer to introduce her to us. She is so adorable and sweet. We really had a lot of fun with them! Lucy is absolutely enamored with Tony. She followed him around like a puppy dog while he was here and she cried when he left. The boys love Tony, of course too, because he chases, plays hide-and-go-seek, and basically is just as much of a kid as they are at times. We can't wait for them to come back and visit us again. They said that they are making plans to come back when Tony gets out of boot camp in 6 months. Like I said, we are so proud of him AND proud to have a member of our family in the military

Fulton Boys Playing Basketball

Both of my boys are playing Basketball right now. Sam is playing second grade Y-Ball on his school team the Wolverines with Cameron, his new friend from across the street. Sam loves Basketball and you can often find him shooting at our hoop out in the driveway. His team is really good and they have won most of their games. Sam even scored a basket in his last game.

Max is playing on his school team the Blazers. He also loves Basketball. It is so fun to watch him improve each year. This year he has come out as a defensive superstar. The look on his face when he is defending someone is priceless (almost scary)! He is definitely "in it to win it". He is being coached by "Coach Franssen and Coach Franssen" That would be Brian and Kurt, and he is really learning a lot!

Ski School at Willamette Pass

Liz, Donnie, Christy and Me

Donnie - The 80's called and they want their jacket back!

I swear that he wore that same jacket skiing when we were in college . . .

Ellie, Me and Sam skiing on Duck Soup II - I bet you didn't know there was a Duck Soup II


Christy and I have taken the kids up to Willamette Pass and put them in Ski school for about 3 years now. This year Liz came along and put Ellie in ski school as well. We were also lucky to have Donnie come along, because any extra hands that you can get are good when you take kids skiing. Pancho stayed home with Lucy (she has no interest in skiing - and neither does he for that matter) Liz stayed in the lodge with Jack 5 and Ethan 4. Christy, Donnie and I got the kids all set up in ski school and then we hit the slopes for a few hours. At 2:00 we picked the kids up from ski school. Christy and Donnie took Max, Natalie & Ben and they all headed up the big lifts for 2 more hours. I took Sam and Ellie (the beginners) up the small lift and we tore up the mountain! We probably went up that lift 19 or 20 times - REALLY! They both did so good and they were just loving that run so we kept going and going . . .

HaPpy NeW YeAR 2o09!

Sam and Ethan. . .great buddies!

Sam, Max and Ben celebrating. . .

not sure what the duct tape is all about, but its not a bad idea, maybe we should let the kids play with it more often!

Lulu and Daddy sharing a "cheers" at midnight!

Natalie, Sam, Max and Ben partying it up. . .



OK, So Christy, Donnie, Pancho and I were invited to an adult party on New years, but we also wanted to celebrate it with the kids. So we decided to watch the ball go down at midnight live on the East Coast. It was only 9:00 our time, but my kids actually fell for it. They really believed it was midnight! So we celebrated with them, put all the kids down on Christy and Donnie's floor in sleeping bags and left them with a babysitter, then we headed off to the Fitzpatricks house to ring in the New Year with some "real drinks"!

Lulu lost her first tooth!

Lucy with a missing space where a tooth once stood . . .age 5 years 2 1/2 months

Can it be true? I always think of Lucy as my baby, so I was a little bit shocked when she told me a few days ago that her tooth was loose. Then she made the tragic error of telling her dad. Panch can NOT let a loose tooth stay in any of our children's mouths for long. He LOVES to pull teeth. Kind of sick I know, but he is good at it. (maybe he should have been a dentist). Anyway, he had that tooth out minutes after she told him it was loose. Oh and by the way - Yes that is blood all over her face. What ever happened to just letting a tooth fall out naturally? I thought that Lucy would be so excited about the whole tooth fairy thing. In fact, I have been saving a tooth fairy pillow, that someone gave me for her, at a shower 5 years ago. But of course kids never do what you expect them to, and she didn't seem to care one way or another that there was a handful of change under her pillow the next day. My guess is that either her brothers have already educated her on the likes of tooth fairies, or that a handful of change just isn't that exciting in these current economic times.

Leavenworth

Its so beautiful there!

Max & Sam . . . Oregon fans even on the slopes!

Lucy and I outside of our hotel . . .

Cousins...Will, Sam, Kyla, Max, Casey, Lucy, Hunter, & Annie

The day after Christmas, we packed up the car and drove 5 hours to Seattle. The next day we drove over to Leavenworth. What should have been a 2 hour drive turned into a 4 hour drive after we got stuck on the pass for 2 hours !!! It was all worth it when we got to Leavenworth though. What a beautiful town and we had so much fun with my brothers & their families, my cousins, Aunts & Uncles and of course Grammy and Papa! It was such a fun trip! We went skiing, sledding, shopping, eating . . . we can't wait to go back next year!

More Leavenworth pictures. . .

Francine with Annie on her tiny skiis

Lucy and Will

Casey, Will and Sam loved sledding

The family at an authentic German Dinner

Christmas Day at our House

We had Mom and Dad and Liz and Doug over to hour house for Christmas dinner. Our kids were so excited for Ellie and Jack to come see all of their new toys. It was very nice to just relax and hang out with family and friends on Christmas day!

Merry Christmas

Opening presents at Grammy and Papas House. Sam got some Mario Cart RC Racers, Max got a set of Tanks that really move and fight eachother, and Lucy got a Barbie sing-a-long machine! Thank You Grammy and Papa!

A Snowy Day in December

Our House in the Snow

Snow "angel"? - I'm not so sure!


Snowball fight anyone?

The kids got to stay home from school for a snow day! They were so happy and excited. They ran out to play in the snow for about an hour. Then when they came back in the house we played games (Sorry, spoons, go fish), drank hot chocolate, baked cookies and sat by the fire, then it was back out to the snow only to do it all over again. It was a perfect snow day!

Baking Cookies

Since we had the day off from school due to the snow, we decided to bake sugar cookies. I think there was more "eating" than "baking" but I think baking sugar cookies is a must at Christmastime! We had to do it!

Apparently it is very tiring being a Daddy and a Little Girl. . .

(notice Lucy's pajamas are on inside out, my kids are under the impression that if you wear your pjs inside out it will snow!)

HaPpY BiRtHdAy PaNcHo!

Happy Birthday Pancho! How did I luck out to get such a great guy. He's funny, smart, handsome, a great father, and super husband! We went out to the Roadhouse for his birthday with the Hakalas, Ficeks and McCarthys, but I forgot to get a picture of all of us together (I hate it when I do that). Luckily I snapped this one as the waiters were chanting some kind of Happy Birthday song to him. Yes - that is a coffee filter on his head and a toilet seat cover around his neck!

Trying to get a Christmas Card Picture

We used this picture for our Christmas card this year!

I guess they really do love eachother . . .sometimes.


Aren't they cute? Oh a mothers love. . .

I thought this was actually a pretty good family picture for us. It was taken with a timer.


Letting off a little steam after posing for so many serious pictures.