My baby is ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amara Christine Fulton was born on Friday May 30th at 7:28Am
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Happy First Birthday Amara- We Love You!!!!!!

Mara makes her TV debut!!!

Amara was on TV today on Channel Three New's WONDERFUL ONES segment. Here she is watching herself on TV
The picture on the internet is at the following link

http://illinoishomepage.net/mymedia/view.php?id=13501

Going to Great Gram's

We hadn't seen the Coal City family in awhile so on Wednesday afternoon we headed to Great Gram's house. We had a wonderful dinner and played the family's favorite card game, Liverpool Rummy, until late with Gram, Aunt Mary and Uncle George, and Uncle Tom.

Thursday morning we had a nice breakfast and Gram and the kids watched birds out the window.
Then we went on a tour around town and to Brian's grandpa ( Sam) and brother's (Mark) grave. I hadn't even been there and Brian hadn't been since his grandpa died. It seemed fitting after Memorial Day. I got a family history lesson.

After lunch, Amara had her first birthday party! We weren't sure how she's do.....

So sweet, she wanted to share her food with Gram!

She did just fine!

She didn't like getting changed however ( look at her face)

Alaric wasn't feeling well ( poopy issues) so Gram held him and Amara wanted to be part of the action. That's the look of a happy Great Grandma!

Right before we left, Alaric realized he needed to show his Great, Great Uncle George ( 91 yrs old) his car from "Cars" that he named George! Uncle George was honored.

Kirstin Nelson Graduated!!!!!

Brian's cousin, Kirstin , was graduating from Oelwein HS in Oelwein , IA ( 6 hrs from Monticello). Since Bri had to work all weekend, I decided to take the kids myself and be with the family in IA.



Well- it was an adventure, that's for sure.



First of all, I took our Camry so I could rach the kids easier. We put Amara in the big carseat because I thought she would be really mad at me if she was rear facing for 6 hours. It made no difference. She was mad at me the whole time. For the entire 6 hours up, I handed her a toy, shew played with it for 2-3 minutes, then threw it on the floor and started screaming. I then grabbed another toy and handed it to her. When all 50 toys were gone, we pulled over on the side of the road, gathered the toys and started over.



Alaric travels really well. He was perfect. I hope she just needs more practice- being in tehc ar and being in her carseat.She's so little she kinda slides down. Her preferred position was with her legs in the air.

I put the kids in the car at 5:45Am on Saturday morning. They were both in their jammies. When we pulled over to a rest stop and discovered they had a playground, we played there for awhile- in our jammies!

Mara was all smiles when we got to IA and we could eat lunch!

Kirstin and her proud parents!!!!She's so pretty!

Well, here's an indication of my kids attitudes while we were gone. Alaric wanted to explore and Amara wanted to scream- even in my arms!

HEre's what she looked like much of Sunday!

The kids napped while the real graduation party went on. Here's Kirstin after the graduation- she wore basketball shorts and a t-shirt under her gown.

She's going to Minnesota State University to play basketball next year! So proud of her!

The party started at 4PM with a taco bar, cupcakes, tons of pictures, lots of drinks, bags, and Mexican horseshoes-so fun!

Alaric started peeing outside a week ago. He was so excited to see a small dirt pile in the Nelson's yard perfect for peeing!

Bob and Jeff were the official bartenders for the night. Log and Dan were the "color commentators" They provided any additional support, comments, and just plain entertainment.
There were hundreds of people that came throughout the night. Around 11:30PM, the games began. We played silly games with all the highschoolers and friends. I went to bed at 12:30AM but the kids were up until 3AM!!!!!!! A successful party!

The kids were up at 5:30Am and Alaric was the entertainment for the morning when the Highschoolers got up- he just talked, asked questions, and made people laugh!

The 6 hour car ride home was long. I used the DVD player some which helped but Amara screamed bloody murder the last hour home. hmmm....not sure if I'll take such a long road trip again by myself!

Monticello FUN

The wonderfully hot weather has allowed us lots of outside time! Our baby pool is a hit in the neigborhood.

Even though you have to pry Amara out of the bathtub, the pool is not her thing, yet.

Today we went to the car show in Downtown Monticello. I surprised Alaric! He was so excited to see all the "fancy" cars. Unfortunately, you can't touch these.

Alaric wanted to take a picture of this truck because this is the truck he wants to buy Daddy ( Alaric, with some help from Daddy have been trying to convince me a pickup truck would be the perfect gift for Daddy)

Then we went to our favorite park, NICK'S PARK to swing...

and play on the amazing play structure! What a fun morning!

ALaric's last day of school

Alaric's last day of school was today! He's such a big boy!

Here he was on the first day of school- you can see how young he looks and a bit timid!

Today he is so grown up. He hated waiting for me to take a picture. He just wanted to go inside and play!

Just like on the first day of school, we went to McDonalds for icecream!

Still that same sweet smile- Daddy surprised Al and joined us! What fun!

Mara has a shiner!!!

Well, it's hard to see but Amara has a black eye. She fell in the tub yesterday and kncked her face on the side of the tub.

You can see here it's swollen too. Makes for good conversation. Poor girl!

WORK, WORK, WORK

Bri had three days off and we worked, worked, worked! Or rather he did! He put quarter round in our kithce, mowed our lawn and that of our friends who have moved away and have their house on the market, cleaned gutters, built a cover for our egress window, tore off the old porch stairs, built new stairs, AND buried a downspout and covered with mulch!

Here Bri and his helper are tearing off the stairs.

Mara just sat in the yard and observed.

Here's the new cover for the egress. We built our own because the only ones we could find were $685. It has a hinge and can be pushed from the inside.