Surgery

Today was surgery day for Gabe. 5:00 am came way to early especially for a mama that probably wasn't looking forward to this even more so than her child. This child amazes me more and everyday. Here he is watching a movie all ready for the doctor to come in for the last check before they take him back. They had just came in and given him some medicine that would make it so that he wouldn't remember anything that was going on. As you can see this makes you very, very silly. He would just start laughing. At one point he looked at his grandma and said "Hey Grandma there are two of you!". This medicine is not only good for the child but it also makes it much easier on the parents so that you don't have to watch a screaming kid being taken away from you.Here is is all loaded up in the wagon that would take him to the operating room. Daddy asked him if he could "Pound it" which is what they are doing. Gabe thought this was very funny.I must say that when they start to pull your child away from you down hallway, it is the hardest thing EVER! I did very well while I was with him as I didn't want to cry and make him upset but once they pulled him away and then I had to go out in that waiting room to just wait. FORGET IT, all I could do was cry. We had a great pager that would update us with each step of his process but it still was so very hard. We also had a friend of the family that is a nurse and she was in the operating room with him today. She was so very kind and came out to let us know as soon as things were done that everything had went great and that the doctor would be out soon to talk to us. This is my baby in the recovery room. He was such a trooper and I must say that the Power of Prayer is the most amazing and wonderful thing. I believe with all of my heart that everything that Gabe has gone through and done would not have had the same out come with out all of our prayers and the prayers of all of our wonderful family and friends. You each bless us so much everyday and we love you all very much. Gabe is now home and recovering as if he never has had surgery at all. I expected him to be sore and lazy and all that he has wanted to do is PLAY Mama, Play!

Friends Are Great

Our family has been blessed with good great friends. Today's blog goes out to our friends Ron & Becky Glenn. Ron is a volunteer Fire Fighter and loves little kids. As we are approaching Gabe's surgery we didn't want him to go to Daycare and Becky being the great friend that she is said that she would watch Gabe for us on Monday. Becky decided that since her husband is a Fire Fighter it would be fun to take Gabe and another friend to the Fire Station for a visit. Not only did Gabe and Cooper get to visit the Station but they also got to go for a ride. The pictures below only show a glimpse of excitement that these boy had during there morning out. Thank you so much Ron and Becky for not only being friends to John and I but for also loving our son. Boys and their toys!
Becky also is a wonderful photographer and when a mom can't be there for a moment like this it means the world to her to be able to be a part of it by the wonderful way she captured the moment.

I'm thinking that it doesn't get any better than this for a four year old. He could not wait for me to get home from work to tell me all about it. I love the complete joy that is on his face in this picture. Without friends this world would be a very sad place and we are so thankful for ALL of our friends and the way that each one of them bless our lives.

Trunk or Treat

Last night was Trunk or Treat at our Church. This is the first Halloween that my child hasn't been an animal and I must admit it was a little hard. But he has a great imagination and this year he decided that he was going to be a Pastor.This is Pastor Gabriel Fuller getting ready to head to the Church.Pastor Dave with Pastor Gabe just before Trunk or Treat was getting started. Nothing better than a good friend! This was our car all decorated. We got 2nd place for the best carved pumpkin. Thanks Papa!
Gabe with his Ms. Kelly.

Halloween Cookies

Because of Gabe's surgery next Wednesday he is going to miss the fun Halloween stuff at school. So Wednesday night Gabe and I made cookies for him to take to school on Thursday. He loves to do this and I always think it's a good idea before we start!! We do have fun but I will say making cookies with a four year old can sometimes be a challenge. Here is is cutting out some little pumpkin, to which he thought looked more like apples.Our cookies getting ready to go into the oven.Ah the fun part! NO Gabe you can't lick the knife, NO Gabe you can't lick your fingers and then touch another cookie. Now go wash your hands. Yep I think I did those two things about 10 times before it was finally bed time! But oh how he loves to decorate. He is really focused on what needs to be done. If you notice in this picture he is wearing the shoes from his Halloween costume last year!

Our finished product. We had, Pumpkins, Apples & Leaves. He colored some of the apples brown so they were caramel apples. Seriously I don't know where he comes up with this stuff!

Dreams

On November 15, 2002 a girlfriend of mine set me up on a blind date. Little did I know that I would be meeting the man that I would be spending the rest of my life with. During our dating time John asked me what were somethings that I've always wanted? Wants, dreams, wishes. Now keeping in mind that we hadn't been dating for very long I thought "well let's see what this guys has" as I had been asked these questions before by other people and let me tell you they can make people run real fast especially the first to.
This was part of the list I have give him:
1. I wanted to get married on Mackinac Island (more than anything I wanted to be a wife & a mother)
2. I wanted to have children
3. I dream of going to Hawaii someday
4. I dreamed of going on a cruise

Now this is only a few things on the list but little did I know that this man had every intention of making those wants and dreams come true. You see....On August 15, 2003 we were married ON Mackinac IslandI instantly became a step-mother to four great kids.On April 3, 2005 I also became a Mommy to a wonderful little boy who I can't imagine life without and who makes me laugh, smile, think, be in awe and yes can make me angry all in the same day. But he is mine. We found out about this great deal for a cruise that some good friends are going on. My friend kept saying are you sure there isn't anyway that you guys could come with us. What could we do to raise some money so that you can go?? As soon as I heard about it I told John "I would do just about anything to go on that cruise. I promptly went home and started cleaning out old craft stuff that I hadn't used in years and started selling it. We started cleaning out the basement to have a garage sale and we made almost $200.00 in one weekend. I think that was the point when John knew I was serious about wanting to go on this cruise. Now of course that wasn't enough to pay for it and I was trying to not get my hopes up. But on October 17, 2009 my husband informed me that he had already booked our spots on the cruise and we will be going on a 6 night 7 day cruise in March 2010 with our friends!!!!

I don't know about you but to me having 3 out of 4 major things on a Dream/Wish list knocked off by one person is not only amazing but it's a complete and true Blessing that I could have only gotten for God when he gave me John. Hawaii was in the plans for 3 years from now but now that will be moved down the list of priority as we have decided that we have something else that we would rather do in about three years instead of going to Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary. More on that to come later!

Dad Fuller's Birthday Gift

Today is my father-in-law's 60th birthday. For his birthday he didn't want to have a party so my mother-in-law got him a ride in a Hot Air Balloon. If you know anything about ballooning you know that you go when the weather allows it. This past Sunday he was able to use his birthday gift. He asked that his kids and grand kids come to watch and we did. Gabe thought this was so cool. They got to watch the whole process right from getting it out of the bag to putting it back into the bag when the ride was all over. Oh yeah we also got to be part of the chase team! The balloon is almost ready for dad to climb aboard. Here he is with Gabe & Karis. Tony and Jordon also came to see Grandpa take off. Shenira and Dustin were both sick and were not able to make it. But the flight took Grandpa close enough to their house that they were able to see the balloon which was very nice.
Up, Up and Away!

He loved every minute of being up there.

They landed in the back yard of a man that Dad use to work with. But didn't know that until everything was almost all put away. Small world. The owners of the house took the above picture and was kind enough to send it to me as we didn't get to see him land as we were still getting to where they were.

After the flight someone asked dad "how was it?" and his reply was "Everyone should do this at least once in their lifetime." I pretty sure that was one of the best birthday gifts that he has ever gotten. Today he has taken the day off of work, which he has never done. He plans to spend the day going to the new casino in Battle Creek/Marhsall, going to see his parents and they they might take a trip to the Church where they go married. Happy Birthday Dad hope you have a great day.

1st Field Trip

Yesterday Gabe's preschool class went to Gull Meadow Farms. This was Gabe's first field trip and I was so excited to be able to take the morning off of work so that I could go with him. His class is a pretty good size class so the parents that were going were told that we would have to drive due to lack of space. But when we got there that day there was extra room on the bus so I was able to ride with him. This was so much fun. This is us on the bus ride there.We started off the morning with a wagon ride that took us out to pick our own apples. This was a first even for me. I've never picked apples before. We had lots of fun filling our basket. The apples were big and YUMMY!

The lady in blue to the left is from the farm. She told the kids some fun facts about apples and how they keep the deer away from the little apple trees. All of the apples that fall on the ground they leave for the wildlife to eat.

My sweet Gabe on the wagon ride back. It was so cold outside and we were happen to be able to get inside out of the wind.

After the wagon ride we got to have some cider and donuts. Then it was off to play. The kids had a great time on the giant slide and the hay maze.


Gabe wasn't all that interested in having his picture taken here but I now have all of our kids standing in front of this apple!
And last but not least he got to pick out a small pumpkin to take home.

Surgery Bound

Our little Gabriel will be heading into surgery on October 28th to have his adenoids removed. After SEVERAL test and many pokes all test have come back with great results. However, our Gabe continues to get sick very easily. So next step is to remove the adenoids and see if this makes a difference. Thank you to all that have been supporting us in prayer. Your prayers mean the world to us and we would appreciate if you would pray for Gabe on the 28th.

These are a few of the pictures that I've taken of him during all of the test that he has had to have done. He has gotten to the point that even shots aren't bothering him. The last shot he had done when the nurse was finished he looked at her and said "That's it?". She was so surprised by his reaction that all she could do was laugh, which is exactly what his dad did too!

This was the first CT Scan that he had to do. We really weren't sure how this was going to turn out as people kept telling us how they have to put most kids his age to sleep to get a good read. But not this kid...He was AMAZING. I'm not sure if he even blinked. It took less than 5 minutes and we were on our way home.

This was the first step to the Immune Testing that he had to have done in July. He wasn't to sure about this at first but soon was able to just sit back and relax.

After they got his arms all set up he had to sweat. This is Gabe and Daddy watching a movie while we waited. He had to sit in his winter coat and blanket for a half hour.

This is what it looked like when he was done sweating. End results were perfect after the first try no need to have it done again. There was another little girl having this same test done while we were there and she just kept screaming. They finally moved her into another area. But before they did Gabe looked at me and said "I don't understand why she is crying, it doesn't hurt." He tried to talk to the little girl and ease her but it didn't work. He has such a great heart.

And this is the finale CT Scan done on September 21st. They wanted to make sure that they weren't going to have to do anything with his sinus while they were taking out his adenoids. Thank goodness they are looking better and there will be no need for surgery on them. Thank you for following along on our little journey. This four year old has more courage than his mommy any day!

To Think 3 Kids Created ALL This!

A few weeks ago we all got together and with the help from my cousin Kati, family photo's were taken. Now just being able to get 11 kids and 8 adults in the same place at the same time is a feat in itself, but getting great pictures too....Priceless. We enjoyed a nice picnic with each other after the pictures were taken. All in all a great day.This is my Mom and Dad, how started this whole crazy mess that you are about to see!Our cute small family of 5. (from left to right: Jennifer(sister), Alan(dad), Dawn(mom), Jammi(me), Josh(brother). A few years ago all my mom could do was talk about wanting grand kids. Little did she know that not only were grand kids coming but that she would end up with 11 in less than FIVE years! A few were brought in by marriage but to my mom a grand kid is a grand kid no matter where they came from. I love the way that my parents love not only my step children but also my brothers just as much as they love the kids that we have given birth to. This is Nana and Papa with the grand kids! Just the girls...Elizabeth, Brandy, Jennifer, Haley, Mom, Jammi & SheniraJust the boys...Dustin, Mike, Dad, Josh, Jordon, Tony, John, Harrison, Ethan, Gabe, Hayden & Evan. This is my family, Dustin, Jordon, Jammi, Gabe, John, Shenira & Tony.

The Fuller's.This is my sister Jennifer's family.

Haley, Jennifer, Mike, Harrison & Hayden

The Eisenberg's.

My baby brother Josh's family.

Brady, Josh, Elizabeth, Evan & Ethan

The Copas'