Monkeys, elephants, and Katie's birthday?!

So this year for my birthday we decided to go to the zoo in Portland. It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to get there. The zoo was nice and we got to see a year old baby elephant that weighted 275 at birth and was about 1400 pounds yesterday!? could you imagine giving birth to a 275 pound baby? thats crazy! at least adey was only 9 pounds. She did so great at the zoo. we were there for about 6 to 7 hours and she honestly did not cry once! She rode in the baby carrier the whole time and took maybe 2 naps that were not more then 30 minutes each. the downside to that is she was cranky in the car on the way home because she was so overly tired and couldn't fall asleep! Before we headed back to Olympia, Josh took me to a nice Thai dinner in Portland. He had some kind of fish that came out looking like a sailboat. I had wonderful fried rice with chicken. Once we got home we took oskar for a long walk around our neighborhood since he had been in the kennel for 12 hours. I had a wonderful day yesterday with my family whom I love very much!

Today we stayed home from church and in our pajama's. Josh let me sleep in and cleaned up the house a little and made me breakfast (biscuits, eggs, gravy, grape juice, and hot chocolate). For my birthday he got me a nice hair straightener, a necklace, a coupon for a pair of shoes of my choice, a few scrapbook stickers, pink nail polish, ritter sports chocolate, and a beautiful card! I would say I am quite spoiled! for my birthday dinner he is going to make me my favorite: home made alfredo sauce with cheese tortellini. yum! not sure what we are doing for dessert. We are going to watch some movies later and go for a nice long walk as today is supposed to be one of our last warmer sunny days. You can tell the winter time is coming around here. Our leaves are changing fast and the temperature is dropping! This is one of the things I don't care for around here in washington...the rainy season!

enjoy the pics from our new camera from the zoo and the past few days...

Happy 2 months Adelynn

Adelynn had her 2 month check up today...where seriously has the time gone?! She now weights 12.7 pounds and is 24 inches long. She has pretty good head control and makes beautiful smiles. We love her laughs. The only time she really cries is if she is overly tired, has a wet diaper, or that is pretty much it. We are very grateful for our wonderful bundle of joy!

Without the pics...

So on Saturday we went to Westport beach here in Washington. Oskar had a great time playing in the water and running up and down the beach with out a leash. Josh did a great job wearing him out! He wrote "I love Katie" in the sand. We made our foot prints and it was cute! Adey stayed awake for the most part and then fell asleep. She is such a great baby! We love her so much! Well I had taken great pictures to come to find out that I set the camera on top of the car and 30 minutes later I realized it was gone... it was a sad day. So now we have to buy a new camera but it was time. That one was almost 5 years old. So no pictures but the memory we have!

Count your many blessings...

So today has been wonderful. I was given a raise earlier this week around the day when my old boss quit so we have a temp. boss from the other learning center...I was making 12.65 and was being bumped up to 12.90. Well our financial person came to me and had me sign a paper saying I was going to be making 13.40 but I kept questioning her and saying that was too much as she would assure me it was correct. So instead of not believing I just went with it. While I was playing with the kids in my room I just felt guilty and that it was incorrect. So then I went to my boss and with the financial person and they told me they felt with my education, my performance, and my honesty that I should be considered a lead so they changed my title and my pay and I will be making 13.40 now. See where doing the right thing leads you to? During the ECEAP hours of the week, which are btwn 10 and 25, I will get paid 14.40 because it is state funded and they pay an extra dollar more only during those hours. I remember back before Adey was born and Josh was denied this awesome summer internship what were we going to do financially and it made me nervous. Well, Josh ended up getting an awesome scholarship for his academic performance and all his hours back at work for the fall, I got a 75 cent raise, we were awarded wonderful grants so we haven't paid a dime yet for Josh's school and with the help of his parents, and the state has helped us out on a few accounts! See where having faith lead us to also?!

Where has the time gone...

So I am going to try at this again...

Josh is about to start his last fall semester at SPSCC. We just found out today that on top of Josh's $3000 scholarship we have been awarded an extra $2400 grant for the fall and $1533 for the winter. He has already completed 2 of his 3 certificates and only a couple classes away from his associates. On the brighter side though, he will transfer to Evergreen State with enough credits to consider him almost a senior so after next spring it should only take Josh a year to finish his bachelors. On top of school, Josh will be working again at the computer lab for our friend Chester. He is still quite involved with the anthropology club as the vice president. This summer he had a lot of fun being the supervisor for field school. They found some basketry down at the wet site which was quite exciting for them. I was actually able to make it down and see the site this summer. I went to a few BBQ's they had and got to learn more about what Josh's passion is. It is a lot more hard work then I imagined and I admire Josh for all he has been putting into it so when he is done with school he has enough qualifications/experiences to provide for us and let me stay home with Adey and Oskar and whatever else will bring us our way...

For me, I have been back to work for 3 weeks now. If I had to work and be a mom, honestly this would be the only route I would take right now. I still want to pursue my dream and get my masters in teaching when our last child is in kindergarten but I have a while until that dream will be considered filling. But for the mean time until Josh is done with his bachelors and I get to stay home, I will work with my snotty nose, fun loving, goofy preschool babes. Adey goes to work with me and is only down the hall. I can check up on her whenever and as often as I need to. I get to spend my breaks and lunches with her so nursing still works great for us! When I am not taking care of Adey, or Josh as he has been sick lately, I spend a little time on the computer, clean the house, make lists :) , upload precious pictures and remembering how old or when they were taken, and trying to find time to scrapbook or make hair bows. Being a working mom and wife is challenging, but one I know I can overcome. This was sent to me at this time for a reason and I have learned a great deal of how to manage my time and keeping patient. I love my life and would not change it for anything!

As for Adey, she is starting to smile and grab things and I love it. The downfall, this means she is growing up and way too fast! She rarely ever cries...just when she is tired and we missed the cue or she needs her diaper changed. She really doesn't like to have her diaper changed all the times...sometimes she is fine while other she just needs to cry. At first we thought she was going to be colicky...but it turned out that she was/still has bad gas so we live with gas drops. Our doctor told us that there is no known research that says they actually work but for some odd reason they help Adey...hm. doc?! Josh and I spend all of our free time with her as a family going for walks, picnics while the weather is nice, giving her baths, out to eat (when we can afford it), shopping, laying around and just being goofy, take pictures, Latin's Cider Mill, and church activities which we have had quite a few lately. Tomorrow Adey and I actually have a girls pajama movie night for the Relief Society in our ward. We are very much looking forward to it!

Oskar is still trying to adapt to Adelynn. He loves to give her kisses...we just have to remind him to not kiss her face. Today he took a pillow that we had given him for his kennel and ripped it up and pulled all the fluff out. He ended up inside the pillow case...Josh took a video of it on his phone while I was at work. It was quite funny.

But in a nut shell...this is what I can think of to write as an update for the Fullmer's. I am going to try and log on often to make a short update. Enjoy the pics I have included...