Christmas Day

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

Rather, the stockings were lined on the couch with gifts.

And, gifts were stacked under and around the tree.

Our family tradition includes LeRoy making breakfast before we open gifts and we usually have to wake the kids up. At 9:46 a.m. Daymia expressed with impatience, "It's daylight and the presents aren't opened yet!"

Of the candy filling the stockings Hyrum inquired of me, "You bought all that not healthy food?" I just looked at him without responding and he knowingly answered his own question. "I didn't think so. Dad is a candy machine."

The morning also began with a tearful Nathan. He had been asking since November if he could be the one to hand out gifts on Christmas Day. However, he was starting to show signs of a cold. He cuddled up to me as everyone was gathering and muttered, "I better not hand out presents this year because I'll get everyone sick". I gave him a hug, a vitamin C, and had him wash his hands and let his gift giving dreams come true. He was the gift finder this year . . . until about five gifts in and then he was tired of searching under the tree and just wanted to watch.

We began with stocking stufers and the kids yearly favorite, gifts from Grandpa and Grandma Fullmer.  The younger boys loved their new books and the older kids were giddy about their origami money. The funny thing about the money is that the kids seldom spend the origami shapes that Grandma worked so hard to create.

It was fun to surprise LeRoy with a dart board for the game room. He and Levi spent most of the afternoon setting it up, figuring out the rules and trying to outdo each other.

Daymia secretly got the kids together and took new pictures of them as a gift to me. I had a hard time seeing the pictures through my tears; they were wonderful!

P.S. Derek and Vivien were unavailable in nearby Logan and faraway Slovakia so until then, their old pictures complete the set on the wall.

We were all excited for Daymia to open her gift from Levi. He had been told that it wouldn't be here until after Christmas and Daymia knew that so we all waited in anticipation for her reaction. She tried to hide her few tears and couldn't quit looking at it.

Justin couldn't wait to give Bret the Batman version of Starry Night. I don't know that Erika will let it hang next to her Van Gogh print of Starry Night but Bret was excited about the canvas. Erika seemed quite happy with her new stroller from her Daddy and a fluffy soft quilt and massage gift card with Rilda from me.

Derek has been collecting watches for several years now and his new watch case was the perfect display to show off most of his collection.

It wouldn't be Christmas without some kind of musical instrument or sheet music. Once Justin opened his new guitar his day was complete and he was in his own musical world. He strummed gentle tunes while the rest of us continued.

Nathan's Christmas wishlist was fulfilled with his Flash costume, a few books to read and his very own helicopter. He was even more excited when Levi received the same helicopter and they could learn how to use them together. I'm not convinced that he deserves his pilot's license yet but at least he's not knocking things off shelves or running into people anymore.

Though Hyrum was happy with his new circuit set, he was even happier that Derek could set up circuits with him and teach him how it all worked. He too was thrilled with books as well as a new heavy duty Nerf gun.

Charlie was content to watch the gift opening and occasionally snagged a box of his own to tear up.

Christmas Eve

 Our little reindeer brought giggles and holiday cheer as Christmas Day drew near.

For one of our giving days we ventured out to our local stores where the boys left dollar bills with gift tags. They loved playing spy as they  left the bills in secret and then covertly hid to watch who the lucky receiver would be. Hyrum left a gift bill on the bench near the pharmacy at Walmart while I was picking up a prescription, and from behind me I heard a young man say, "This is so cool". I looked back to see a teenage boy showing it to his dad. I could tell they had spotted Hyrum spying on them, and I witnessed the grin between the two of them. We didn't make a monetary difference in anyone's holiday shopping, but seeing the boys excitement at the sharing and watching the smiles it brought to others was well worth it.

The giving continued through kind acts of service at home including thoughtful notes that each of us received from Hyrum.

Though all the bustling of the season, Hyrum disappeared one evening and we found him snuggled sound asleep with a book in his lap in "the gift corner" of my office.

The Eve traditions began with LeRoy in the kitchen making his traditional snacks and a humbling game of foosball as he lost a set of three games to Derek, which is also becoming tradition.

LeRoy ordered a set of owl stockings for some scouts that he works with (who are considered Owls in the scouting program), and I had given him a bad time for giving them away knowing that I like owls but I also adore Michelle's handy work. The owls slowly disappeared, but on Christmas Eve there was suddenly a full set hanging in our entryway. LeRoy didn't say anything; he just hung them and waited for me to notice. I think I walked past them a couple of times, but when I did notice I probably giggled because they were so fitting in my house and having Michelle become part of our holiday decorating for years to come brought a smile to my face.

The boys opened their new jammies and slippers before heading to bed.

Hyrum has been sneaking off with my slippers for most of December, so he was thrilled to get his very own slippers and even more excited that they were sharks. Nathan was so excited to get two sets of pajamas since all of his others hit him mid-calf.


All the gifts were under the tree, and I was heading to bed. At 11:58pm I was brushing my teeth with a text on my phone ready to send at midnight wishing all my phone carrying kids a Merry Christmas. As I was getting ready to hit send Justin came into my bathroom and said, "Derek has cut his finger and needs your help". This is a common occurrence with Derek so I took the Neosporin and band aids and headed to the kitchen to play nurse. When I got to the kitchen, LeRoy was sitting at the table on his computer and Justin was washing a dish in the sink. Justin saw what I was carrying and with a very pale face said, "he's going to need more than that".  I understood what he meant when I saw Derek's hand wrapped in paper towels with blood oozing through and dripping into the vegetable sink.

Upon inspection, I could tell it was deep enough that he would need stitches and I was going to be the only help Derek would get. LeRoy was near passing out from his only glimpse at the blood, and Justin was trying to be tough but was a bit queasy as well. So, Christmas morning began at Madison Memorial Hospital.

Freshly sewn stitches and 8 days later when Derek took them out himself. Perhaps a day or two early but it healed rather quickly with a butterfly bandage and he didn't have to deal with the itching stitches snagging on everything

Everyone there was very kind, and as Derek had his stitches we could tell we were in the midst of a teaching moment. The doctor did the first stitch, explaining each step in detail, and then handed the equipment to who we later found out was a student from BYU-I. The student did the stitches slowly and precisely. The doctor left and while the student cleaned up Derek asked if he had ever done stitches before. The response, "On pig skin". Derek then responded, "Well then, Merry Christmas. My gift to you is your first time stitching human skin."  I was impressed with my boy keeping a good sense of humor when he was actually light headed from working all day and forgetting to eat, traveling from Logan only hours before, losing blood, and the throbbing pain.

We made it home around 1:30a.m. to find not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Christmas Crafts

Daymia, Erika and I pulled out canvas, paint and paper for some holiday creativity. Though our projects were each so different they brought a little more cheer to our holiday.

In the spirit of having a family picture for the holidays, I made a family tree. It is getting harder each year to have a picture with all of us together and I still have a hard time having a "family" picture without Vivien here. This was the easiest solution.

Erika went for a more holy theme. Though she stressed a little over the lettering her freehand turned out perfect and that little picture stable that she drew really does speak a thousand words.

Daymia's was so perfect for her home. Levi is the word play master in our family so this fits them very well. She too free handed everything while Erika and I stood in awe of that perfect font and snowman.


The Littles and I had fun doing crafts during the holiday break from school. We searched around on Pinterest with the rule that we had to have all the supplies. With a full closet of craft supplies growing over the last 8-10 years that left us pretty open to most projects.

We started with candles. It was a new recipe using shortening instead of needing to buy wax (which I love because I do not handle waxy smell well) and we already had some essential oils and the wick string. They made yuck faces while scooping shortening into the jars but they liked mixing in the coloring and oils. Then they became more serious when it was time to measure, weigh down, and set the wick. An evening of fun for a month of holiday scent heaven covered the dirty sock smell in their room quite well.

Deep down inside they were just looking forward to playing with fire.

Since fire was included in the night we pulled out the mini-dogs and they roasted their own dinner.


Our next project included lunch sacks and glue sticks.

They didn't believe that something so simple would turn into the beauty I was promising because I didn't show them a picture. It turned into a great learning conversation which ended up in their stories that they spent hours (literally!) writing. They were also inspired by Derek's 4th grade story "The Christmas I Got Mugged by Santa Clause" because it was so fun to read something from when he was their age.

The next morning we cut out paper snowflakes.  It was the first year that Hyrum had enough grip strength to cut his own. The stars and snowflakes were hung in the windows and doorway and our Christmas decorations were complete.

Hyrum went the extra mile to decorate his window using the large paper star he made at school and all of his own snowflakes that he had cut out. He even labeled it so that no one would get his window mixed up with Nathan's.

Aunt Robin dared us to make something creative out of duct tape and we took the challenge.

By fan folding a long strip of duct tape and folding it into a circle we formed an ornament to add our Edwards Grandparents to our picture Christmas tree. You know you're a redneck if . . .

Thanksgiving

Our Fullmer Family Thanksgiving was held in Lehi, Utah this year. Most of my siblings were able to make it which was a blast for all our kids to have time to play with their cousins. We stayed in the empty portion of Kellie's house (Boyd family is still in Africa) which provided us with plenty of room and to also be close to Grandma and Grandpa since they are living in the basement apartment.

Boy cousins definitely outnumber the girls in this age group.


While all the moms worked on dinner the kids were entertained with the huge Lego bin upstairs and coloring turkeys downstairs.

When they started to complain of boredom they had to do head/hand stands.

They spent a little time outside but came right back to finish their coloring.

Dinner at Kate's was fabulous. All of us pitching in with our favorites made a smorgasbord of deliciousness. Afterward we had plenty of time digesting napping, visiting, playing games, and renewing relationships.

The crowd included our family of ten, Grandma and Grandpa Fullmer, Joe and family, Josh and family, Kara and family, Cami and family, James and Landon, Jake and family, Kate and family, Autumn and Dustin with baby Reid. Missing were Kellie, John, and Jared.

New Month November

Let's start by cleaning away October. Those molding, sagging jack-o-lanterns need to go.

The kids thought a new month meant I needed a new screen saver on my phone.

It was a fun and silly surprise and made me smile all month long.

A new craving for fajitas lasted nearly all month and green beans were the favored dinner vegetable, especially for Nathan. He kept snitching in them and even asked one night if he could have only green beans for dinner.

Nathan was often caught snitching in the vegetables.

Hyrum continued working on his cookbook with a new original recipe, Fruit Leather Boats.

He typed it up and drew a picture, then made it to test his recipe. He really wanted to share his new creation so took a copy to Sister Peck.  The Peck family showed up the following Monday with family home evening treats that they had made following Hyrum's recipe. It was delicious!

Hyrum was one of the winners of the PTO fall reading contest at school. 

When the boys got home from school, Nathan told me that Hyrum looked like he was trying not to cry when they were taking his picture at the assembly. Hyrum shyly admitted that he was almost ready to cry because he was sad that Nathan didn't win too. He is such a kind, gentle soul.

Charlie's newest trick is to sit at the treat drawer and beg. 

He whimpers, runs his nose along the top of the drawer and tries to get his paws in the handle but has not yet figured out how to get it open. Those eyes get me every time and I end up opening the drawer for him.

November brought a few snow showers but it didn't slow Justin's trampoline tricks any.

This is what is looks like in real time. He makes a triple full look so easy!

Oh yeah, I had a birthday! 

Kara spoiled me with a basket of headache helpers. She's the one person in my life that hears all my headache woes and together we try to tackle them with as many natural methods as we can. This basket is so needed in my life! She also gave me the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel movies which are two of my favorites. The memories of watching them with Kara are also some of my favorites.

Nathan used one of his last Halloween candies and gave me a thoughtful note.

Kate gave me a bench. It is much more than just a bench; it is thoughtfulness, time, and work. 

And, it fits perfectly in my kitchen!

The story of the bench started several months prior at a garage sale in Utah. We both saw the bench and I considered it for my entryway. She considered it for her newly finished game room basement. Since it was raw wood (no finish) and had a missing piece, I passed and she took it. She talked of sanding and staining it to match the newly stained bar that she and Mike built in their theater room. It would be gorgeous. Little did I know that she was planning all along to give it to me. 

Grandparents and the Best Birthday Ever!

On Sunday, August 23, I sat in a bath trying to recover from Primary, a headache and shoulder aches. Erika came knocking on the bathroom door begging to know when I would be out of the tub. It was such a random request that I joked back, "are you four?"  She convinced me that they (the kids) wanted to all watch a family movie together and since I hadn't seen it yet (Inside Out) I agreed to be out in ten minutes.

When I went into the living room ten minutes later I heard a ruckus under the living room window, looked outside and found Erika in the raspberry patch. She told me that she was hoping to find a few last raspberries, which I thought was odd considering the raspberries were done two weeks prior. But, I shrugged it off and we all moved our way downstairs. I did think it was strange that all of the older kids were pushing to start an animated movie immediately and insisting that LeRoy and I stay and watch the whole thing.  Later, Erika confessed to having turned LeRoy's phone off and Levi admitted to holding his breath the whole time worried that I would leave the room to get something like I usually do during the previews.

We all sat down for "the movie" which Justin was playing through his computer. We watched the preview for the new Minion movie and then a really odd preview started with bits from Rexburg tragedies (flood of '76, recent shooting near Walgreens) and then it turned to Batman saving Rexburg. That's when I suspected it was an announcement. I could sense Erika watching us and started to grin and laugh. LeRoy was still clueless and couldn't figure out why I was laughing at this silly home movie that had Bret playing Batman and his soon to be side-kick Erika.

When LeRoy did finally get it he started sobbing. We all laughed through the end of the video - because it was funny AND because LeRoy was crying so hard. Nathan and Hyrum just looked confused but soon understood as Erika explained and pulled out some shirts that she and Daymia had made for them.

The news of becoming an uncle was big and took a few minutes for Hyrum to grasp. "I've been waiting my whole life to be an uncle! But, I don't have gray hair" was his first puzzled thought. I told him about my little brother Jared who became an uncle at age two when Levi was born. He accepted that but continued to silently let it sink in. "He's going to have two uncles!" he then expressed and that's when we explained further who would be the uncles.

Justin brought cupcakes from his room and that's when Erika explained that when I caught her in the raspberries she had actually just put the cupcakes in Justin's room through the window.

While eating his cupcake Hyrum quizzed Daymia,
"I keep thinking you're the one that's going to have the baby" 

"Why's that?" 
"Aren't you older than Erika?" 
"Yeah, I am." 
"Then how in the world don't you have a baby yet!?"

LeRoy and I also got shirts announcing our new status.

Once LeRoy got his tears under control he called his dad to tell him. As soon as his dad answered he burst into tears again and couldn't talk. That's when he handed the phone to Erika. Erika told Papa that she was going to have a baby and had to repeat it a couple of time because he kept asking, "what?"  Erika said it again to which Papa stated in bold exclamation, "I heard what you said but I don't understand how that's possible. I thought LeRoy had the surgery". Erika burst into laughter and yelled into the phone (because Papa is practically deaf), "Papa, it's Erika Jo. I'm going to have a baby".  He and Cynthia Darlene were both very excited for her . . . and very glad that I wasn't the one who was pregnant.

LeRoy did the most adorable, crazy shuffle dance and in a high pitch voice squeaked, "I'm going to be a grandpa!!!"  Oh, if there was one thing in life I wish we had on camera it is LeRoy's grandpa dance. He hasn't been able to imitate it since but it is safely stored in our long term memories.

His little girl is having a baby!

Bret and Erika make life so much fun!


Erika surprised me for my birthday with an invitation to go to her 20 week ultrasound.

Life seemed to pause as that tiny rhythmic heartbeat announced from the coming of motherhood for my Erika Jo. Though the baby was folded in half the whole time with legs directly over the head, we could see that she was indeed a she.

Baby Girl Hellbusch due March 22, 2016.

I had hidden in my bag a pair of newborn pajamas that Erika wore home from the hospital the day after she was born, just in case she was having a girl. It was worth storing it for 20+ years in my cedar chest to share this moment with her!

Posted on Facebook:  In 9 days it will have been 22 years since I dressed my new baby girl in these teeny tiny pajamas. My heart is bursting with joy as I watch her in full blown motherly anticipation as she prepares for the arrival of her own baby girl! You will be a wonderful mother, Erika Jo!

We (Bret, Erika and I) kept our new secret for 6 whole days! It was very difficult to avoid pronouns and I actually avoided talking to anyone who might ask.  The boys kept trying to trick me and a couple of times they nearly succeeded. Erika also had a hard time keeping it quiet since people at work knew she had found out the gender.

Erika wanted to do a fun reveal party on Sunday with everyone so we put together some games. First, each person chose either a Batman or Cat Woman symbol to represent if they thought Erika would be having a boy or girl.

Pee in the Cup Game

We stuffed balloons in our shirts so that we all had big bellies and put a ping pong ball between our legs (to force us to do the knee clenching "I need to pee" walk) and tried to drop the ball into a cup.

The older boys started us off with athletic skill and competition.

The younger boys couldn't quite get the hang of it. After three unsuccessful tries Justin pulled a plank and Hyrum followed suit. Nathan wouldn't give up and after his fifth try he made it.

The girls hopped their way to the finished line and did their best with split squats. Those prego bellies were adorable!

Erika raced with LeRoy and I and she totally made it first try. Her doctor visit training paid off to win the Pee in the Cup game.

To finally get to the reveal Erika pulled out silly string cans that she had covered in blue and pink. Those who thought she was having a boy took a blue covered can and those who thought she was having a girl took a pink covered can.

The result was a room full of pink silly string.
It's a girl!!!

Erika is rocking this pregnancy business! My admiration for her grows daily as I watch her cheerfully handling the waddling, hip pain, rib aches, and sleepless nights. She is spectacular! I am in awe of her strength and positive attitude.