Chocolate anyone?

YIKES. Did I really just eat all of those???

Night at the farm

We took a little time out on Monday night to go to Hee Haw Farms.

YEE-HAAAW!

Emmie was thrilled to be there, as you can see. Just try and find a picture of her without her grinning, scrunched up little face. Go ahead and try.....

(try baby, try! ha ha)A storm was rolling in so we ran around trying to do as much as we could before the storm hit....Chris and Parker braved the giant slide....

And Emmie braved the giant pumpkins!Feed my sheep....NO --REALLY! And hurry! FAST!
These were the most forward, aggressive sheep I've ever seen! They were trying to get the food from Parker before he had even gotten it out of the machine. They had Parker a little freaked out but it was really so funny and Emmie and I and Chris were cracking up from the sidelines.
Emmie loooooved seeing all the farm dogs. Er, so she called them.
In Emmie-Land every animal is a "dog. dog. dog.". (Said with a pat on her thigh) Parker had fun on his rooster ride, which was followed by a good old hay ride. What would a trip to the farm be without a hayride? And a mighty rickety hayride, might I add! Oh wait, it gets better! Hiding in the cornstalks throwing candy at us were "spooky" (?) friends like the one above. Needless to say, with Parker being the ever-welcoming recipient of anything sweet,
our night at the farm was a big hit! Even Emmie had her taste of chocolate, as she unbeknownst to myself must have caught a line-drive tootsie roll and had it half eaten before we discovered she had it...the little sneak.

The storm decided to really make it's presence known right as we were going to pick out our pumpkins, so we ditched the pumpkin patch and ran for the car
....pumpkinless!
Oh well, at least we got in some fun things to make our $5 per person worth the hour we spent there!

Now I wish we could just press PAUSE and freeze the seasons for the next six months and by-pass winter! I'm not ready for hibernation yet but I know it's looming right around the corner...

As a Utahn and knowing what we are in for, that prospect is a little depressing!

But FALL? I could easily do six more months of Fall.

It's definitely my favorite time of year! :)

A long post about not alot...

I have been a little unmotivated in blogging lately.... I have no great explanation except maybe for the fact that my most recent discovery of any interest is that diapers (unused) make for great accomplices when trying to clean up gobs and gobs of vomit.... other than at least one person being sick at all times in our home ever since we got back from Disneyland --- we have been pretty boring around here! And germy! Read on if you really care for a few other uninteresting items on our recent agenda....

My mom came up last week for couple of days (from St. George) and it was fun to see her for a minute. We visited my brother at the cemetery... it was the second year anniversary of his death on October 6th. I can't believe it's already been two years! I miss him so much. It was a gorgeous Fall day and the cemetery he is laid to rest in in Holladay is so beautiful. I told Chris that I hope we can be buried in such a pretty place as that, and his response was that it didn't matter where we were buried. I told him "good", and that if he doesn't care, then we can be put where I want, since I do have an opinion about it! :) Back to Michael... What would have been his 32nd birthday in August was hard for me, and even harder were my kid's birthdays in July and August. Knowing how much he would adore them and knowing that he is missing out on their lives and their darling little personalities was really difficult for me this year. At the same time I feel him around us and I am so grateful for the knowledge and comfort in knowing that we will get to see him again someday. I can't imagine having gone through such a tragedy without that surety and faith. I am so grateful for the gospel! It doesn't make sad things just"go away" but it helps lift the burden and offers great peace and comfort and assurance that we can get through the hard times, even though they still really, really stink. I want to be better because of this experience in my life. I need to be better. I need to live more because he doesn't get to. My maiden name is Fuller, (my brother was often called this by his friends) and I've come to the conclusion that I need to live a "FULLER" life. We truly don't know how much time we will be allotted in this earth life, but I've resolved that it needs to be FULL and meaningFUL!

As you can tell by this picture, he was definitely an example of being full of life! :)

May we all live a little FULLER!

The next night, my Mom, myself, Chris and the kids met up with my Dad and my other brother and his wife Kylie at the Spaghetti Factory for dinner. It is kind of a sentimental restaurant to our family and so we had a dinner in honor of Michael. It was nice to get together.

Another thing going on around here is that we are in the midst of finishing our basement! I am so excited to be getting this done! We are drowning in toys over here and my sanity is slowly slipping away, so I am soooooooo looking forward to kicking 95% of the toys downstairs once this is through! The drywall was just finished today and Chris is hoping to get started painting on Saturday. We've been running around trying to find a good sectional couch so that I can base the wall color and carpet off of our furniture choice. Which is kind of funny, because we can't even really afford a couch right now, so those choices will be based off a couch that we HOPE to buy, in the coming months. Chris will tell you in the coming years. Whatev.

I forgot to post Emmie's one year stats, and Parker had his three year check really late....but the results are in, so better late than never right?

Here are their latest Statistics:

EMMIE'S 1 YEAR:

Weight: 19.2 lbs, 20.33 %ile

Length: 29 inches, 48.21%ile

Head: 17.75 inches, 51.6%ile

PARKER'S 3 YEAR:

Weight: 31.31 lbs, 39.59%ile

Length: 37.5 inches, 40.03%ile

BMI: 15.65, 39.66%ile

Other than that, Parker is enjoying Joy School (we all are!) and Emmie is loving her newest mode of transportation -- walking!

Well I am impressed if you made it through that post. But if you didn't, that's A-okay. Don't blame ya. All that journaling is for my own sake anyways! :)

One is too fun

When Emmie disappears, I often find her HERE: Sitting on the stairs, swinging her legs, with a teasing, proud grin on her face.

(Don't mind the nap-head hair :))

Lately, I also find her HERE: On top of the picnic table (brought inside last week for Joy School)....once again - with a triumphant grin on her face. She thinks she's pretty hot stuff to stand up on the bench or crawl up onto the table.

She was taking 4 or 5 steps by her birthday in August, but it hasn't been until this last couple of weeks that she's really taken off!

She also just sprouted one more tooth on the bottom. That explains the constant runny nose lately and the unusual sad face. This is tooth #7 - four on top and three on bottom.

She LOVES to be chased up the stairs - especially by her brother! Parker shrieks in delight when he sees her start up the steps. He takes off after her, tickles her under the chin, and informs her in a giggly squeal that she's a "Stinky Little Bug!". So funny!

That is a moment in my day that never fails to bring a smile to my face.

Going up the stairs is still kind of a no-no for her because she still hasn't mastered the art of going down the stairs yet.... we're working on it.

Seriously, how can you resist that cute little face?! So --- I might be a little biased. But really, she is just the sweetest thing!

Even her center-of-attention-seeking big brother is starting to think that our little Emmie is pretty darn cool.

And I will second that.

She is pretty darn cool!!! :)