Brace Face

Before Braces

During the Process

After Braces, still a very handsome boy!

Houston had the pleasure last week of starting Phase One Orthodontic treatment. He inherited my small mouth that will not accommodate all of the permanent teeth trying to make there way through. As a result he has a space maintainer on the bottom to hold open spaces for the teeth and now braces on the top teeth to open up spaces for permanent teeth. He will likely have them on for 6-9 months depending how things move. He will have to have another phase of orthodontic work around age 13 or 14 to straighten all of his teeth. He was an excellent patient, sat very still and was patient while they worked. He ended up going to the dentist on Monday for a cleaning that also involved adjusting his bottom space maintainer so his teeth and gums were pretty sore on Monday. On Wednesday morning he had to have a filling done on an upper tooth, it needed to be done before they put the braces on. On Wednesday afternoon he had his braces put on. His mouth was pretty sore for several days but he is doing great now. If we can stay on top of keeping his teeth clean that would be awesome.

22 Weeks and Counting

This week marks week number 22, more than halfway to the finish line. I thought I owe it to my family and friends out of state to post a more current picture of my ever expanding belly. The first few pictures were taken on March 1st, obviously a lot of growth has happened since that date. I am feeling pretty good but must admit as the temperatures increase here in Austin it makes dread the upcoming summer months. Today it was 92 degrees and my swollen ankles are proof of that temperature. We made our first trip to Babies R' Us last Friday to purchase a pregnancy pillow and a baby gift for a friend. I dragged Chad along with me to break him into what lies ahead. A few of his comments were as follows: As we walked throught the front door I heard my dear husband say these proufound words, "I thought I would never have to come here again," on more than one occasion as we looked for a gift I heard"You do realize we are the oldest couple in this store." As we looked around a bit he kept saying "We have our basinet still, right?" my answer "no", followed by "We have our monitor still, right?" my answer "no" and again "We have our port-a-crib, right?" my answer "no". With that conversation Chad came to the realization that other than our crib and changing table we would be starting over. While it will be a lot of work it will be fun and exciting at the same time. Houston is adjusting little by little to the news of the baby being a girl, hopefully he will love her when he holds her for the first time and his instinct to be her protector will kick in. The girls have been excited from day one and continue to look forward to the day when they can meet their baby sister. Chad is anxious, nervous and overwhelmed but excited at the same time, one might think he was becoming a dad for the first time. Thank you for indulging me and reading my Blog.

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Many of you may be wondering why I have not updated my Blog in quite sometime. Needless to say things have been very busy around the Fuller household. For those of you that may be reading this and have not heard the news we are expecting a baby girl on August 23, 2009. We are very excited and feel truly blessed to have another beautiful daughter to add to our family, at the same time we are overwhelmed with the thought of starting over and realizing as the due date draws closer how much we have to do to prepare for this event in our lives. The girls are thrilled to have a new baby in the family, Houston is not as excited and was even less excited when he found out what he hoped to be a baby brother was actually a baby sister. We hope that he will adjust to the idea over time and be happy to meet her when she arrives. Many of you may read this Blog and think "are they crazy", the answer is probably but why not enjoy all the blessings life has to offer. I will do my best to keep you posted on the progress, and do a better job of updating our Blog.

Fuller Family Reunited

Christmas season is upon us, we are so grateful to have our family reunited for the holiday. Jessica returned home from Utah on Thursday evening, it has been very busy since she arrived home but we are so happy to have her with us. We spent the afternoon today trying to get a good picture for our Christmas letter which has yet to be mailed, we needed to wait until Jessica arrived to take a picture with the whole family. We look forward to spending a lot of time together as a family, having fun. We recognize with gratitude and appreciation all of the blessings in our lives not the least of which is our family. We are so fortunate to have three amazing kids and wonderful extended family in Utah, we will miss celebrating the holiday with our families in Utah this year but are so grateful to be together in Austin. May each of you be blessed this holiday season with the true spirit of Christmas.

Catching Up

I have been behind on posting things from the past few months but I have a very good excuse. My wonderful husband decided to take pictures of the Bronco he is restoring with the digital camera, once he downloaded the pictures on his computer he deleted them from the camera. The only problem is I needed the pictures to post on my blog which meant I had to wait for Chad to get the pictures from his laptop to mine. That along with the fact that I have not yet mastered posting pictures to the blog and it takes me twice as long as it does others. Jessica keeps asking why I have not updated the Blog with pictures from Homecoming Spirit week, Halloween, Thanksgiving and other fun activities. So here is an update for last several weeks, I hope you enjoy.

First is Homecoming Spirit week, Hannah and her friend Allie dressed up every day that week. Each day had a theme, pajama, cowboy/cowgirl day, mismatch day and career day (Hannah and her friend Madison dressed up like the Best Buy Geek Squad unfortunately I do not have pictures of that).

Next are pictures from Halloween, a few from our Wards Trunk or Treat and a few from Halloween night. Houston was Obi-Wan Kenobi a charachter from Star Wars Clone Wars. Hannah and her friend Madison were Ninja's and their friend Allie was a beautiful Cleopatra, as usual they were fully into the character of their costume. We love Halloween, we always have homamade Chili (my Mom's yummy recipe) before the kids go out to trick or treat. We hope y'all had a Happy Halloween.

Houston went to Toys R Us to compete in a Bakugan tournament, any of you with boys or maybe even girls ages 8-12 will likely know what that is. He won the first round but lost in the second round and of course came home very unhappy that he did not win the tournament. Lesson learned you can't win them all.

Last but not least what November would be complete without a soccer tournament thrown in the mix. The week before Thanksgiving we went to Dallas for the Dallas Texans Shootout, Hannah's team did pretty well, it was cold and windy but a fun weekend get a way none the less. I will do a post of our wonderful Thanksgiving soon.

Have You Ever?

Have you ever done anything on this list? My friend Kelly had this on her blog, and I have seen it on a few other blogs as well. It looked like something fun to do so I decided to post it on my blog. If you feel like it, join the fun and highlight the things that you've done on your own list and copy and paste it to your blog. I'll make the highlighted things I have done in red in honor of the undefeated University of Utah Utes.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill (Once or twice when I was much younger)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Ran a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (Church softball when I was maybe 12, it was a fluke)
32. Been on a cruise (Want to go again)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (An artificial rock walll, does that still count?)
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (Passed out at work from food poisoning)
47. Had your portrait painted (Does a cartoon drawing count)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving (no, thank you)
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (Ragedy Ann and Andy Dolls)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (When I was 14, busgirl at restauraunt because of boys flirting)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (More than I should)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (Scott Baio, Neil McCoy, Diamond Dallas Paige, Karl Malone and other Utah Jazz players, SheDaisy, one of the Baldwin Brothers, a few others I can't remember)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

A Few Pictures from Fall Break

We took a few pictures when Jessica was home for Fall Break that I thought I would go ahead and post. We neglected to take pictures as often as we should have, and you will notice that most of the pictures are of Jessica and Seth. I wish we had taken pictures of the entire week, I hope you will enjoy the few we have

I Wish Every Week Could Be Fall Break...

Last week Jessica was able to come home for the week, it was Fall Break at the University of Utah, I have decided I love fall break and wish that it could be every week of the year. It was wonderful having Jessica home and being able to spend time together as a family again. We were able to do a lot of great things together when she was in town, we went to her boyfriend Seth's football game twice, hosted Hannah's belated 14th b-day party that included a trip to Cheesecake Factory and providing transportation to and from the stake dance, we went shopping (of course), Hannah and Jessica and I watched a few chick flicks (one of which I fell asleep during, sorry..), ate at Chuy's, Mimi's, and La Madeline to name a few. On Saturday Seth joined us to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua and was very patient going shoe shopping and to Ulta to stock up on some much needed beauty products, what a great boyfriend. We watched TV, laughed together and enjoyed each others company. We loved having Jessica home even if it was for such a short time, we are counting the days until Christmas break when she can come for a visit again. We love and miss her so much and are so proud of her. I was surprised how hard it was to take her to the airport and leave without her. Keep up the good work Jessica, stay focused on doing well in school and keep your goals in sight, you can do anything you set your mind to.

Do I Look Like a Celebrity?

My friend Shana had this on her blog, it looked like a lot of fun so I thought I would give it a try. Enjoy.

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs

First Day of School Came to Soon

I'm not sure about everyone else but for me this summer went by far to quickly. I could have used another month off unfortunately that was not the case.

This August Jessica started college at the University of Utah. The first few weeks were pretty easy which surprised her but as the weeks go on it is getting harder and harder. She is doing very well, she is independent and very responsible. We miss her so much but are so proud of all that she has and will accomplish. She is making friends and having so many new experiences. She is excited to see General Conference in person this year rather than on TV. As I prepared this post I realized for the first time ever I do not have a picture of Jessica's first day of school. I do have a picture of her on her way to visit friends at BYU of course wearing her University of Utah shirt, so I figure that will have to work.

Hannah started High School this year at Cedar Park High School, she was excited and nervous even though she wouldn't admit it. She did great and realized she had nothing to be nervous about. She also started early morning Seminary this year which is every weekday at 7:00am, she loves Seminary but could do without getting up so early. She comes home from school every day and sleeps for almost two hours, most of which is due to a growth spurt which is clearly evident when she stands next to you. It is hard to believe that she is in high school, what an exciting time of life. Hannah continues to be a good example to her family and friends, we are so proud of her.

 

 

 

Houston started 3rd grade at Deer Creek Elementary, he loves his teacher Miss Snyder and he loves learning new things every day. He misses Jessica a lot and asks me all the time when she will be coming home, he is still at the age when two weeks to him seems like an eternity. He is getting so big, it is possible he will be taller than Jessica and Hannah very soon. It is fun to see him grow and be so curious about things, for now he is not too big to give me big hugs and kisses which I am so grateful for. He is such a joy in our family, he is so funny and can make you smile no matter your mood