A Thankful Heart.

 Our thanksgiving was a blast. We spent this year with the Fuller side. The day was full of yummy food, football and family. Chandler and Creed had a blast at Aunt Cindy's house riding bikes and trikes and playing with Weston, Kyle, and Logan and all the adult kids!!! We kind of have it nice because no matter who's turn it is to have us on the holidays, I always spend it with one of my sisters. Having my twin sister married to Cody's cousin has so many perks. Not just for me but for the kids because they always have Weston and soon Parker to play with.

We have so many things that we are thankful for this year.......
     First and foremost we are thankful for the Love of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that he made for us by dying on the cross for us. Because Christ loved us so much we have an eternity to live with him. We are thankful for this earthly life that he gave us, but more-so the life eternal that he gave to us. I praise and thank him for all our many blessings.
     Secondly, we are so thankful for our family. I am so fortunate to have 2 beautiful, healthy children that shine with God's love. Also, I am thankful for my husband who so humbly guides this family as a devoted and passionate man of Christ. We also have the best parents and extended family. It is so awesome to be surrounded by such a big and loving family. It is so comforting that we have so many people around us that not only care about us, but mentor and guide us. We feel so blessed that our kids have so many aunts and uncles that love them like their own children. Thanks Lance, Morgan, Claire, Clint, Clay, Missy, Hootie!!!!!
     Third, we have awesome friends. We are so thankful for the friends that are like family. We love each and every one of you. We thank you for your friendship and your hand and guidance in our lives.

Mommy in Training.

Last night when I went to go tuck Chandler into bed this is what I found.......

She is such a little mommy. She loves her babies and they love her. Many nights before she goes to bed she has to nurse her baby and change its diaper so that they can go to sleep well. She makes sure that she does all the things that she has seen me do so that the baby will hopefully sleep through the night for her. The baby that she is sleeping with was my baby when I was a little girl. Until last week it was a girl baby and had painted finger nail and all. But after finding out about Coen, we got all of Creed's preemie clothes down and now it is a boy baby. Can you believe that Creed was smaller than the size of this doll?

Before I left her room last night she told me that she had decided that Coen did not need his own room because he could have her room and she would take care of him for me. She wanted to make sure that I knew that she was going to stay up late with me and help me take care of him. 

She loves being able to take care of everyone...she is definitely a giver.I keep thinking to myself what a blessing it is that she has a brother and one on the way because her life would not be completely fulfilled unless she had the opportunity to nurture and care for her brothers. She is not the typical older sibling that does not like to share their things. Rather, she makes sure the Creed has an opportunity to play with everything that she does. 

This morning when I was getting her ready for BSF I stuck a sucker in her pocket and told her that she could eat it when she got in the car with Mimi. Well Creedster saw that sucker and he wanted one too. I told Chandler just to wait until she got into the car because her brother could not have one and he would get upset watching her suck on it. She said, "Mommy it's ok, I don't mind sharing with him. I am just going to open it up and give him some licks so that he does not cry." At that moment all selfishness that you would normally expect from a 3 year old with candy was gone and she was reflecting such a Christ like attitude. I know that to some of you this does not seem like big deal, but to a mother, it is. She has such a selfless attitude that I often just stop and praise God for. What a blessing it is to have such a sweet older sister.

When you sit back and just watch your kids, they just make you smile. I often think to myself that the very best thing that a child can have is a sibling. It teaches them so many important life lessons that can only come from having to have split attention yet knowing that they are loved more than anything in the world.

B is for BABY!!!!

So after much debate and endless discussion, we decided that we were going to find out the sex of this baby. With our two previous pregnancy's we waited until D-day, so in order for this to happen we had to do something fun and have all the family over for the big reveal. So this is how it went. I secretly went to the doctor yesterday and had him write down the sex of the baby and seal it in an envelope. After I had the secret in my hands, I took the envelope to my good friend Jennifer who owns a cupcakery. At this point she had the world in her hands because she was the only person that knew what the newest member of the Fuller's was going to be. So I guess you can say I trust her with my life. She proceeded to make chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with frosting in the middle that was the color of the baby. From the outside they looked like normal cupcakes but the inside held the utmost important secret.

We then told all of our family that we wanted to have them over for dinner since we had not done a big family get together in a while. Cody and I had decided that if we were going to find out the sex, the only way to do it was with all of our family there with us. The kicker is that none of them knew, other than my sister Claire who had to help me plan the surprise.  So right before we were going to eat dinner, Cody blessed our food and said that we were so excited that all of our family could be with us to find out what the little blessing inside my belly was.

After a quick Amen, everyone realized what he had just said and burst out in screams. Now if you know how much they have all been begging us to find out what this baby was, then you could image the noise decibel in the room. So with much excitement everyone scarfed down their chicken enchiladas so that they could hurry up and move onto the cupcake part.

So we took a vote on what everyone thought we were having and it was Girl 6--Boy 4!!!!! Well much to everyone's surprise.......we bit into the cupcakes and the middle was blue.

We are proud to announce that baby #3 is a BOY!!!!! We can't wait to welcome Coen David Fuller sometime late in February.

The Secret is hiding behind all that yummy cupcake!!!

At first Chandler was a little sad because she and I were both certain that this baby was going to be a little girl just by comparing pregnancy's...But we told her that she was going to continue to be the only little princess and she decided that it would be ok. The she was told that Mimi was going to take the princess shopping-no more tears then!! Later on that night she was talking to Cody and she said, "Daddy, Mommy said that yall would keep on having baby's until I had a sister....but I think that I want 3 sisters." I think Cody is going to be busy for the next couple of years.....

Getting Crafty!!

So I decided that I needed to start getting creative since I have so many weekends that are spent by myself...hunting season has officially started.
Therefore, I thought what do I love to put my little girl in, but can not necessarily afford.....TUTU DRESSES!!! So that is what I have been making, and let me tell you my little princess is so excited. In our MOPS program we have an opportunity to sell things so I thought it would also be a great way to make a little extra money. So since I do not know what this baby in the belly is, I am making one for Chandler and one for the unborn child....just in case.

The Big Reveal!

So the question of the hour has been what are we going to name this unborn child, and at first we were not going to tell anyone but I guess not finding out the sex is enough torture. If you follow our naming trend you can narrow it down to the letter "C"! But it has been decided......

If this is a GIRL......Cailyn Lorraine Fuller 
         ~Lorraine is after my Memaw and my twin sister Claire!
         ~Cailyn means "pure beauty"

If this is a BOY.....Coen David Fuller
         ~David is after my Dad!
         ~Coen means "brave" or "advisor." Coen is a biblical name. In biblical times "Coen" was a descendant                 of Aaron and any man with the last name Coen was a high priest.

Ok so there you have it. Now before you start hating, just remember that one of these will be our child's name so embrace it. We love original names if you can't tell. So cast your vote....BOY or GIRL! Are we going to have a Chandler, Creed, and Cailyn or Chandler, Creed, and Coen.

My guess is officially GIRL!

A Spook-tacular time!

We all dress up and had a blast. Chandler was Cinderella of course, being the princess that she is. Creed was a cowboy....this was a last minute costume save by Aunt Claire, since mommy could not find a prince charming costume anywhere. Cody was the captain and I was his shipmate!

Here is the whole crew. Out in Bulverde there is only one way to trick-or-treat....on a hay ride of course. Since most people live on at least 1-2 acre lots we ride on the trailer and when we see a house with the lights on, all the kids jump ship and run to go get candy. This year everyone, even the adults had to be in costume to participate.

My mom and dad followed instructions and dressed up, but the question is.....What are they? I guess dad decided to be a football player (what else) and mom was a hooker, I mean a groupie or maybe, just a blond. We are still a little unsure of what to think!

No time for cooking.

So for about the past well, 23 weeks we have been eating meals that Cody and I prepared one weekend and froze. Cooking has been one thing that this pregnancy has not allowed...until now. Just the site of uncooked food made me want to vomit, so for one full day I loaded up on phenergan (anti-nausea medication) and did my best to prepare meals for the family. None of this would have been possible if it weren't for my sweet husband who took very good instruction and actually handled all the uncooked and cooked meat (Yuck)!

Well all the weird pregnancy food issues have ended since about 2 weeks ago. But needless to say, Chandler and Creed are not use to Mommy having to prepare meals in the evenings anymore. As I tried my hardest to prepare a home cooked meal a couple of days ago, my children were not so keen on the idea. What happened to mommy just letting us play and wreck the house while she managed to get by? Well I feel better now, that is what happened.

An old trick that my mom taught me. Kids love the SINK!

Because of such a long break from not cooking, my children decided that it should not be part of our routine anymore. I had to come up with a way to keep them both from melting down at my feet........so here is the solution!

Fuller Funny.

As I was making coffee this morning Chandler being the helper that she is pulled up a chair to the counter and said. "Mommy will you let me pour the DIRT into the coffee pot?" 

This gives coffee drinking a whole new perspective.....maybe it is time to quit!

Pumpkin Patch in Bulverde!

Give me a kiss Creed.

At the Bulverde Pumpkin Patch. Mimi was out of town so we attempted to go take pictures by ourselves this year. My window of opportunity I knew was going to be short without someone dancing like a chicken behind me while I tried to capture the perfect smile. We were able to catch a few little Fuller grins.

Chandler was being a little Ham Bone. She was loving looking at all the pumpkins and talking about Halloween. I think that she was just getting excited because she knew that if we were picking out pumpkins then she was going to get to go trick-or-treating pretty soon. She was really looking forward to that.

Creed was enjoying being pushed around in the wheelbarrow. But he did not think that picking out pumpkins was that great of an idea.

And this is how Creed really felt about the pumpkin patch. He was not thrilled to be sitting on a bunch of itchy hay with big orange pumpkins surrounding him.

The Haney Wedding.

 Cousin Garrett and Princess Lacy got married so we made a little trip to Coleman, TX since Chandler was the little flower girl and Cody was a groomsman. Chandler did great walking down the isle...she loves having all the attention on her especially when she is all dressed up.

It is so amazing to see how much they love each other, I can't wait to see what adding another member to the family is going to be like. I could not image life without all the love and fun that these two bring. God is good.

Girls time in BOSTON!!!

So we decided since we could not get the whole family together to take a vacation that just the girls would go. We went to Boston for a week to celebrate Missy turning 30!! We had a great time but I have decided that I will never live somewhere that has a subway and train as their primary means of transportation.

I would have to say that Boston does have some pretty cool buildings. Everywhere you look there is high rise after high rise.

Don't let the greenery in the background fool you

, it does not exist

Mimi sitting on the Harvard lawn, trying to get the kids to act like they were a little interested because she was loving it.

I think that the kids favorite thing to do was ride the Merry Go Round. I just watched and took pictures because even the thought of going round and round made me want to hurl. Thankfully only one day was a bad pregnancy day for me and the rest were manageable with a little bit of phenergan on board. I have to say for about 2 weeks now I have been feeling pretty good and it is awesome.

We went to plymouth village and braved the pouring down rain, that is why Creed is naked and we are all soaking wet. But what can I say....we were on vacation and you can do the things that you normally wouldn't when you are on vacation.

The kids were sitting on a real live cannon aboard the USS Constitution.

What can I say....they will not all smile at once.

Giving this a try!!!

Chandler 3 Years

Creed 1 year

Ok, for all of you that have been telling me to get with and start blogging here goes. I hope that by keeping a blog I can document what my children are doing and create a memory book or something for them. Hopefully you can get a little glimpse at "The life of the Fuller's". I will do my best to update as much as possible so that for everyone who cares....you can see what we are up to. I will be doing most, or should I say all of the posting since Cody is still resisting all of the new ways of keeping in touch with the outside world.