Our year - 2012

December 2012 hit and I was too tired to think of anything to write in a Christmas letter.  We broke tradition and skipped it.  Heck, we ran out of cards and didn't even finish sending them out.  Something tells me we need to try sending New Year's cards.  Or Valentines.   Anyway, now that I've had a few days to sleep in and lounge around I realized that if I don't write down many of the special things about 2012 they will be lost, my memory being what it is.  Our days together are precious.  I need to treat them that way.

Winter of 2012 brought us a lot of pride in our (nearest) city:  Indy hosted the Superbowl, baby!  It was so cool to wander around the Superbowl Village!  On a sad note, our city lost Peyton Manning this year.  I still can't get used to seeing him in a Broncos uniform.  Amy and Dan had the chance to meet him at a fundraiser for the Indianapolis children's hospital that bears his name (Dan takes call there).  That was incredibly cool!

Emma turned 14 this year and started high school!  She loves after-school clubs (Book Club, Art Club, Anime Manga Club...) and art classes.  She volunteers in the nursery at church.  She also participated in the Rite of Confirmation at church this year, which was a beautiful day.  She donated blood this year- twice- for her own use.  She had scoliosis surgery the day after school ended and healed more quickly than we could have imagined!    She also donated a whole lot of hair to Locks of Love.  She had the chance to be a junior bridesmaid in her Aunt Jodi's wedding.  She loves books, drawing and Pokemon.  She also really likes corn dogs.

Daniel had his 12th birthday in March.  He plays percussion at school and recently started playing at church a few times a month, too.  He also serves as an acolyte (altar boy).  He plays football and earned his second degree (youth) black belt.  He loves to play video games, build Lego sets and, surprisingly, read!  He also had a fantasy football team with Daddy and religiously checked the NFL stats all season.  He is always asking us to take him to Taco Bell.

Noah, age 10, was excited to have his braces removed this year!   He still wears a retainer, which has been crunched a few times.  He wears glasses that his siblings also frequently help bend and break.  He played baseball this year.  He enjoys video games of all types.  He loves to play with Legos, play checkers and to read, especially The City of Ember series.  He is grateful for opportunities to have some quiet..which you can imagine are few and far between.  He is a 4th grader at Eagle Elementary school...his last year before junior high (*sniff*).  His favorite food is pizza paired with Sprite.

Daniel, Luke, Noah and a bunch of Legos

Noah with his invention...The Twin Toothbrush!

Luke is 5 now!  He attends Pre-K at our church preschool.  He loves to draw and can often  be found with a fistful of markers.  He loved playing T-ball this spring and was really excited when his big brother Daniel volunteered to help with the team.  He took swimming lessons and learned to swim this summer!  He loves everything the big boys love:  video games, Legos, and OH how he loves Star Wars.  He is so lucky to have Daddy's, Daniel's AND Noah's previously-loved Star Wars toys - some of which are still in one piece.   His favorite food is a chicken nuggets Happy Meal from McDonald's.  He also waits for Mommy to get on the phone so he can sneak candy.

Luke, ring bearer at Aunt Jodi's wedding in November

Leah is a very big girl at three.  Our baby girl is ALL girl.  We have been amazed to watch her morph into a creature that insists on pink...everything.  She loves Barbies, Dora the Explorer, horses and a Nick Jr. show called Peppa Pig. She will work on puzzles for ages.  She also has a love of finding anything in the house that she likes and sneaking it into her room.  Missing something?  Check under Leah's bed.  She says her favorite food is nuggets and fries from McDonald's but the girl asks for soup night and day so I'm not so sure that McMeals are really it.

Amy and Dan had a milestone birthday AND a milestone anniversary to celebrate this year !   Dan traveled to Kenya on a medical mission trip, something he's always wanted to do.  He ran the Indy 500 mini-marathon again this year.  He also had a GREAT time watching Notre Dame football!  I have continued to work on giving our home a big makeover.  I spend wayyyy too much time scraping wallpaper and pondering paint chips, but I kind of love it.  There's something very satisfying about a nice "before and after,"  when so much of a mother's work is so short-lived.  We are so blessed.

The last of Amy and Dan's grandparents moved on to Heaven.  We are sure that Grandpa Krou has found Heaven's best fishing spot.  We miss him.

We hope that you are all enjoying this Christmas season as we celebrate the birth of our Savior.  Happy 2013!

Watch for Dan, Daniel and Noah at the BCS Championship Bowl Game...they'll be there, rooting for the Irish!

God Bless You,

The Fulkersons

long time

It's been a long time since Team Fulkerson posted on this blog! We blame moving. Please, no comments when we're still blaming all of our shortcomings on the move in two years' time. We'll probably still be unpacking.

I won't even attempt to catch you up, other than to say that it's been a busy summer dominated by home improvement. Please pardon our dust.*

And by dust we mean giant piles of cr*p.

An example of the previous homeowners' idea of "patching a hole." I wish I was kidding.

Moving on....

We were lucky enough to take a vacation to Keystone, Colorado this summer. It is unspeakably beautiful there! Here is a shot of the ski runs. I didn't really know what they'd look like (never been skiing before), or that the trees would be so close to the runs. Incredible!

We had the pleasure of visiting with dear friends from our Misawa, Japan days. Hold onto your hats, fellow Misawa-ans...pictured L to R: Noah, Nate Lovewell (who has the distinction of being the last baby Dan ever delivered!), Emma, Miranda Peasley, Luke, Daniel, Aaron Peasley, and Tim Lovewell. The last time these kids were together they were preschoolers! It was surreal - they are nearly all taller than I am ! Great kids, one and all!

Leah reading to Baby. This photo shows off the mullet she managed to grow this summer! Yay, hair! :)

Kids enjoying the pool

You may have noticed in the shots of Luke that he doesn't have any front teeth. Again. His front four teeth didn't form correctly and for the last three years we've had all sorts of adventures with cosmetic dentistry. We're about to have (another) partial denture put in on Monday. He's planning to spend his Labor Day weekend eating gummy bears and chewing gum!

Emma's latest cat drawing

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Amy's brother Eric and his wife Tia gave birth to their precious baby Jude. Our adorable nephew count is now up to three! Here is Emma cuddling with him on the day of his Baby Dedication.

Our crowd at Jude's baby dedication

We hope you've had a great 2011 so far! Stay tuned....

leah rocks

We have to keep an eye on the ipods around here. Leah thinks they are all hers.

January

Team Fulkerson has had a busy couple of months trying to orchestrate a move. Seven people, eight years-plus of accumulated stuff -- readying to move about five minutes up the road. We still have a few weeks to go before the big day, but when we look back at January 2011 we'll definitely remember purging, cleaning, the beginnings of packing...and seeing this in the front of what will be our new home. It was taken during a *brief* pocket of time around New Year's Day when we didn't have any snow. ;)

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Some people are just more resiliant than others. More creative. More adaptable.

Take away Luke's markers...and he finds a pen.

Luke has loved the pre-move chaos so far. First, mom's distracted. That always works well for him. There are boxes everywhere. There are stepstools- normally reserved for painting- unfolded and at the ready. He's decided this beauty is his new dining seat. Lovely. I guess it does make our other furniture look better by comparison.

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Dan and Leah have a nightly ritual. He likes to read for a few minutes before he goes to sleep.

Leah... helps.

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January also marked the beginning of an era: Team Fulkerson now has a teenager. :) Emma's birthday photos didn't come out very well, unfortunately. We'll try to take more very soon. I didn't want to make this post without mentioning that big event.

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Team Fulkerson hopes you all stay warm and safe during this winter storm!

image of the day

Happy New Year

from

Team Fulkerson!

there's a baby on the table

I can't believe how happy Luke looks in this picture, considering his sister's location.

Leah is a climber.

She's not our first climber - we remember Daniel climbing on the kitchen table a handful of times- but Leah has practically taken up residence there.

She dumps drinks. She sticks her hands in cereal bowls while her siblings try to eat. She spills entire boxes of crackers. Nothing is safe.

In related news, Leah's popularity with her siblings has taken a bit of a nosedive this Christmas vacation. ;)

Leah is also our first toddler (that we can recall...maybe we just have selective memory?) that likes to play in the toilet.

Team Fulkerson, buckle up! This may be a bumpy ride. :)

Christmas 2010

Leah and her "Beeebeee"

Amy's Grandpa Krou with five Fulkersons and a Dillow (Team Fulkerson's nephew/cousin).

Can you tell that our children love their cousin baby Max? The poor kid gets no peace!

Noah and Max

Leah insists on being thisclose to him all the time. :) Thankfully he's very mellow.

Yes, our tree looks exactly like you'd expect...lopsided angel, lower third completely empty, ornaments on the floor, and obviously decorated by the children.

I go to other people's homes to see pretty trees...we refer to this as our happy tree.

Noah, dressed as Joseph in the Sunday School Christmas program

Daniel and Leah, just because.

We have more thank-you notes to write and a whole lot of cleaning up to do...but it was a Christmas full of blessings. Team Fulkerson hopes you are enjoying the Christmas season as much as we are!