haPpy bIrTHdaY

On Sunday, SETH turned 4!!

Poor kid spent most of his 4th birthday in the car. We made sure to keep making a big deal about it being his birthday and then that night after we'd arrived and bought our groceries, Aunt Joy had some pizza and cake ready to celebrate!

He was so excited about each gift. It was too precious.
As he opened each he kept saying in a very anticipatory tone:

"uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh!"

This gift from Aunt Joy was perhaps the year's favorite!

Even Leah got a gift from Great-Grandma Lundberg!

He is crackin' me up! We had a celebration with the Fullerton Clan before we left, then a celebration with the Barley Clan and later a celebration with the Daniels Clan. He kept asking "How old am I now?" Still 4. "No I'm 5!" No, still 4.... Then, this week we received Grandma Flair's birthday card... "How old am I now?"

lundberg family reunion

Saturday we traveled from Memphis to Knoxville. That is a very long drive for these littles, but we always break the trip up and take LOOONG breaks every few hours. We also used my OLD laptop to play DVDs (thanks Papa) throughout the trip.

Our normal routine is to pack a cooler and eat our meals at rest stops along the way and then stay to play! I'm really starting to like this little tradition. On the way home, we stopped at this same rest stop but didn't eat. I was a little sad! However, we were able to save a baby bird. My husband is so awesome. He saw it in distress and helped it... with the help of another kind man.

fullerton summer - friday

For Friday's festivities, we just

"took it easy"
and stayed around the house for the day.

There was much socializing, advising,

BuBblEs

AND
TwIstE.R.

fullerton summer - thursday

Thursday was INCREDIBLE PIZZA Day!!

Oh my my!! How much fun! Nana and Papa also used this day to help celebrate Seth's birthday since we will be out of town on his 4TH BIRTHDAY!!

We got all sorts of cool toys from the prize room!!
When Seth saw Sponge Bob, he had to have him! But you see, he has never seen the show, nor does he know who Sponge Bob is. He actually told Nathan that it was cheese! And to top it all off, he doesn't like cheese.
But, best of all...

We had a blast on the Go-Carts!!

This was a first for both Seth and Leah!

It was super cool when our cousins, and aunts and uncles all raced us!!

VROOM!!

Can you tell that I got passed a lot!?!?

fullerton summer - wednesday

Tami decided that we all needed to venture out to the

Brooks Museum

for their free day. As usual, Tami and I were there before the rest of the fam, so we took our littles to see the HORRIFIC versions of "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Three Billy Goats Gruff." Everyone else arrived, and we headed for the craft room. While the ladies crammed into a crammed room to make a crown for the older littles (apparently the theme was "Fairy Tales"... these were fairy tales in the Brothers Grimm version!) the men took the babies and gear to tour the exhibits. Seth and Leah loved their crowns, even though Leah had a rough start in the craft room (10-11 is her melt down time). In fact, they will be featured in several posts to come!!

After the Brooks, we all headed to CiCi's for lunch because we were going to need all our strength to tour

The Memphis Zoo

It was a great day!

We watched the Sea Lion Show!


We played in the geyser.... well some of us!

The triplet cousins and Nana and the camera man stayed in the Lodge while the rest of us were in the geyser. Also while at the Teton Trek, we watched the most AMAZING display at the grizzlies! First, because of the grizzly sniff spot, we were all safely 5 feet from a grizzlies snout and claws! QUITE INTIMIDATING! Then, one of them got frisky and for at least 15 minutes, we watched them running, chasing, leaping, diving and wrestling!

AWESOME
view of
God's Creation!

fullerton summer - tuesday

On Tuesday, we decided that it was time to venture out of the comfort of Nana and Papa's, so we headed out for an awesome day at the...

SpRinKlEr PArK

Levi, Seth and Hannah collecting water for their big aTTacK!


Emma running from certain defeat! (there was lots and lots of running!!)

The "grown-ups" enjoyed lots of catching up and laughing...

...and despite appearances, most of us did get in the water at some point. I mean come on, the heat index was over 100!

LOVE HER, LOVE HER, LOVE HER!

More aTTacK planning with the wise older cousin Chase!!

The triplet cousins look like the fear impending aTTacKs!

And, needless to say, we were all EXHAUSTED by the end of it and retreated to Nana and Papa's house for a good-ole American meal of

Hot Dogs and Hamburgers!

fullerton summer - monday

Monday was a nice relaxing day. We just stayed around Mom and Dad's house all day having quality time together.

It was very hard to get a picture of the triplet cousins together!! None of them liked having Mommy 3 feet away trying to get them to all smile.... at the same time!

v.b.s.

Seth participated in his first V.B.S. this summer! He was so excited. They've recently started having a class for him each Sunday and Wednesday night at church, and he loves it! So, he was elated as he began to realize that he got to go to church/"class" every night this week. "We get to go again?!"

Well, Seth is a morning person and our V.B.S. was a night time V.B.S. We had talked on Thursday about how if he cried when he didn't get called on, didn't obey his teachers and didn't listen to the lessons, he wouldn't get "Best Behaved" and the chance to race the cars. (the crying has been our issue recently) So for the sake of a happy blog I will not elaborate.... Suffice it to say that on Friday night when he received "Student of the Night" from Pastor Grant and "Best Behaved" from his teacher I was SHOCKED! He had been wanting to race the cars and get that sword ALL WEEK and he was so proud!

NOW! I must share our Jesus story.

One night, as we hurried out the door to V.B.S., I scooped up the dinner left-overs and stuck them in the refrigerator. When we FINALLY returned home, Seth walked to his seat and said, "Jesus ate my pizza." Very matter of fact. Well, I thought that was a funny story so the next morning I was re-telling it to Nathan as Seth walked into the room. Since he was there and I was curious, I asked Seth, "Why Jesus and not Freedom?" To which he replied, "MOM!!!" (as though I was just TOO silly) "Freedom doesn't eat pizza.... she doesn't have hands!" So! Jesus it was!

our daddy is amazing...

The thought of typing up this post is a little intimidating, because there's so much to say. So, I'll keep it short! My 3 babies have an amazing father.

Nathan, there is no way to express to you how blessed they are. They will have no idea for a very long time, but when that time comes, they will thank God for allowing them to have such a kind, loving, protecting, strong and fun Daddy!

I will always treasure memories of you with our babies. Listening to you read them books as I work in the kitchen. Watching you chase them around the back yard with an inflatable dolphin as they run squealing. Snowball fights in the driveway, followed by all of you crying about you hands ;) They are so many, many more and many more to come!

I love you and thank you for the HUGE sacrifice that you have made in order for our family to do it right! Now go get some much needed sleep!

Daddy won some tickets from Fed Ex for a Redbirds game the night before Father's Day! Pretty great timing if you ask me!

There were fireworks that night too, and Kyle was LOVING it!!

mommy in training - part 4

Things to make note of:
The baby is wearing Kyle's bib.
The baby is using Kyle's burp cloth as a blanket.
The baby is eating Kyle's food.

One thing that I find interesting is that Leah doesn't give her baby dolls names. She plays with them all the time, but when I ask her their names, she just says baby. What age do they start naming them? I don't think I ever named mine.

kyle's first eats

At about 5 1/2 months, Kyle tried out his first rice cereal. AND, he can do it himself!!!

My eternally happy boy.....

just wasn't sure what he thought!!

He does this wince and cringe with every new food that's introduced!

the teton trek

We LOVE our zoo, and we have a new place we have to go EVERY time!! The Teton Trek is the newest exhibit at the zoo. The kids love playing in the geysers, and when the heat index is well over 100, Mommy doesn't mind getting a little wet either.

We just happened to have a little window this day to have it all to ourselves.... A glimpse into the personalities of my children: Seth was disappointed, but Leah enjoyed it more.