Our First Full Day in Maui

Max found a gecko at our pool. Sam named it Barack Obama. Then Sam found a mouse and named it "Mouse McCain" . . . random , I know!

Pancho teaching Max how to Boogie Board

Lulu LOVED running from the waves!!!


The kids played "chase the waves" for about an hour. How do kids have that much energy?

Max and Kyla built a sandcastle, our condo is right on the beach.

All of the cousins outside of our condo

Kyla, Lulu, Annie, Max, Kasey, Sam, and Will

Papa has been teaching Lulu how to swim!

Our pool right outside the door of our condo, notice the beach in the background! We have been watching whales from our window.

Traveling to Hawaii

Here we are leaving our hotel in Portland. All excited to head to the airport for our flight.

Lucy and I on the airplane. . .this was Lucy's first time on an airplane. She was so excited. She asked if we were flying yet when we were still on the tarmac and she kept telling me that she could see fish in the water as we were flying over the ocean.

The Boys LOVED the flight. It had been a few years since they had been on an airplane as well. They watched a bunch of movies and played their DS's. It is so mucheasier to fly witht em now that they are older.

Our rental car in Hawaii. . .

Sam, Lucy and Max in their new hats and sunglasses. This was their first picture in Hawaii, taken at the airport in Maui.

First Step Toward Maui

We flew out of Portland to get to Maui. Our flight was going to leave on February 14th at 10:00am so we decidedto head up to Portland the night before and spend the night at the Sheraton near PDX. We stopped at my favorite restaurant Chevy's on out way up there. It was so much fun to spend the night in a hotel, the kids loved going swimming and jumping on the beds. We are all so excited for our vacation! Tomorrow will be Lucy's first time on an airplane.

Satin Love Orchestra

Steph and Gary invited to an auction to raise money for North Eugene High School's Graduation Party. When we heard that the Satin Love Orchestra was going to be playing at it, we couldn't wait to go. Satin Love is a local band that has been playing around Eugene for about 15 years. They are so great, they play songs from the 70's and they dress up in these really funky 70's costumes. We had so much fun! We were out there dancing the night away. The guys loved it too. I didn't get any pictures of it, but they were out there cutting a rug with us! We bid on a few things at the auction, but didn't end up going home with anything (thats OK we don't want to be Marist traitors anyway). It was such a fun night though and fun to hang out with good friends.

Steph, Me, and Tina (a self portrait)

The Satin Love Orchestra playing songs like, Celebration, Play That Funky Music, The Hustle, and my favorite The Love Boat Theme . . .

We got our picture taken with a crazy guy from the band

Our "Hot Men" were trying to turn us on . . .

(trying is the key word here)

. . . and everybody was Kung Fu Fighting !!!

SuPeR BoWL 2o09

Superbowl XLIII (whatever that means) was a lot of fun. We went over to the annual party at the Hakalas. They have had a Superbowl party for most of the last 14 years and we have made it to every one. It's a tradition!

Lucy got to wear some 3-D glasses . . .Shh don't tell her they are on backwards

Ethan and Sam thought they looked like twins!

Lucia and Natalie looked so cute!

Lucia had on an adorable outfit (complete with legwarmers)

and Natalie was showing us the new PJs she bought with her birthday $$$

Max and Ben couldn't get enough of the brownies

Pancho got a bunch of 3-D glasses at Albertsons, so we all took turns wearing them to watch the special 3-D half time commercial. We had to rewind it about 4 times to let everyone see it! Thank God for TiVo!

Me, Teesh, Sheri (holding Teesh's baby) & Christy

spent most of the time talking and taking turns holding the baby. We did tune in for the commercials though!

. . . speaking of the baby! This the newest addition to our group. Chad and Leticia had Geneveive Anne on Dec. 18th, so she is about 6 weeks old now. How cute is she????

Josh set up a Big Gambling Grid for all of us to join in! Of course the parents put in all of the money and the kids ended up winning the $$$! Isn't that always how it is?

Ethan won the pot for the first quarter. He was so excited to have a fistfull of $$$ !

Cade, Max & Ben played "HOOPS" outside even though it was about 30 degrees out there.

The biggest children of all were the dad's who started a HUGE nerf gun fight . . . yes pretty much everyone in the room got hit!

What a fun day! We can't wait for next year!

Dog Sitting ?!?!

Nikki, our new doggie friend

No seriously . . . us? The Fultons are dogsitting? OK, I have to admit that I have pretty much run out of love for Babs (our dog that is 14 years old), but my kids are obsessed with dogs right now. They have been begging us for a puppy. When my friend Brenda got this puppy named Nikki, I thought it was so cute (to visit once in a while). Then when I heard that she was going out of town for the weekend, and needed a place for her dog to go, I thought it might be fun to let the kids hang out with Nikki and

practice what it would be like to be puppy parents. I wondered what Babs would think about a puppy in the house? Would the kids still be excited after a day or so? How much help would I get taking care of this new dog?

Our dog Babs, in her usual spot

Unfortunately, the kids LOVE this little doggie. They are having so much fun chasing her and playing with her. They are also being very helpful with feeding her and taking her for walks (its only been a day and a half). She really is very adorable and it would be hard not to love her, but I am still not convinced that I am ready to take on a puppy full time. So for now the Fultons will stick to "dog-sitting" and watching our old dog Babs sleep on the floor. We will have fun playing with Nikki for the weekend and then hand her back to her family. We'll see what my kids think of that . . .

Nikki dont take my ball!!!


How cute am I?

Julie's Birthday - Part Two

Don, Chad, Kevin, Leticia, Kelli, Amy, Me, Liz, Christy, Dan & Pancho

The Girls - Teesh, Kelli, Amy, Me Liz & Christy

Because I haven't celebrated my birthday quite enough yet, I invited all of my "homies" (friends that I have had since Marist High School) and some adopted "homies" (the Mc Carthys and the Bells) for a night out on the town in honor of me!!!! We all met at El Torito at 5:30 in hopes of going to the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" at 7:45. But alas it was not meant to be . . . we ended up getting to the movie too late and it was already sold out. So after some deliberation, (and time to get over my disappointment), we decided to go have have dessert instead. Hence the HUGE ice cream sundaes Chad and Pancho are enjoying above!

This picture just epitomizes Chad and Panch to me - ha ha!

Good times with good friends that share a lifetime of memories. . .

Saturday was a busy day, because after cutting every ones hair and going to Sam's Basketball game, we headed for the Hult Center to watch a production of the play "ANNIE" with my parents. I have to admit that when I was 10 or 11 Annie was my favorite play in the whole world. My parents took us to London on a family vacation when I was that age and I got to see Annie 3 times while I was there. I have LOVED it ever since. So I was so excited to take the kids. Lucy was was just as excited as me or maybe even more so. She has watched the movie about 25 times, so she couldn't wait to see the play. The boys weren't so sure at first, but they ended up loving it too!

Mom, Max, Sam , Lucy & Dad at ANNIE

Did you know that I am the hairstylist for every member of my family (except myself - Thank God) OK, may be you have already guessed that from the wonderful hairstyles that my children and husband so proudly sport, but in case you hadn't made that connection, yes it is true - "cutting hair" is one of my many hidden talents. So I started off Saturday morning by cutting Sam, Max, Lucy and then Pancho's hair. Always so much fun!

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!