Gearing up for GUSTAV

The Mullins kids are ready for come what may. Probably not much in the Woodlands. Good thing since we are out of gas, food and batteries (I am sure we could find at least 50 - in the little tyke toys). All the necessities for hurricane season!

Cinnamon

We have some very happy kids today. After school we brought home Cinnamon, Ella's class pet. She is a lovely guinea pig and really friendly. The kids just watch her and love to feed her. She eats a lot! I had to put her in my bathroom to give the poor thing a much needed break from Jack and Sam. Good thing she doesn't have a hamster wheel or John and I would be going nuts... So its interesting how life goes full circle. I remember bringing home my class pet. However I welcome cinnamon a little bit more than Ruthie did the hamster. HA!

She is one happy kid.
We finally came to a decision on the beds. John and I got a King - YEAH its so awesome, and Ella got our queen which she thinks is fantastic. She got all new bedding from Pottery Barn Kids so she loves it and I love it and John hasn't seen the bill... So he loves it too...
The boys are in twin beds with car sheets and look so grown up. I haven't painted - thats this weekends job. Labor day - the name fits! All this moving furniture made me think oh we need a bigger house - the rooms look so small with a queen bed and 2 twins. But instead we have decided to edit our house. Anything that isn't necessary GOES! Jennifer has already put dibs on what she wants. I told John tonight, it will be so fun when we get new carpet and have to move all these beds again, but wait hopefully moving furniture is included in the carpet bill.

First day of school Take 2

Trucks and Babies

The many faces of Christopher. He plays doll house and baby dolls with Ella and Jack and the next minute he is hoarding trains and crashing cars. It really makes it cute when he's all dressed in a tutu and purple heels.

Since we don't have Grandpa Hoy to take them for tractor rides this is as good as it gets for the Mullins boys. Jack asks everyday for a choo choo ride when I say no he moves on to Tractor ride. So to lowes we go!!!

Meet and Greet

It has been the craziest of weeks. Its been really busy and I have no idea where the time went. I do have something to show for one night though. I painted the kids bathroom. Four years went pretty fast. I think I am nesting since today I bought a new ceiling fan... A fun workful weekend to follow.

Today we had "Meet and Greet" the teachers at Good Shepherd today. We also took Katrina with us since she will be in class with the boys. I was expecting Jack and Katrina to be the most clingy but I was wrong. All FOUR of them won Gold in the clingy event. So we first went into Ella's class. The teachers are so sweet and they came over and as soon as Miss Donna said, Hi Ella - she started crying, I want to go home. So we decided to go to the 2 year old room and Christopher spotted some cars and trains and was off. I thought that would be the case. Jack stayed pretty close but warmed up better than expected. Ella mothered Katrina so all in all they had a great time. Things perked up for all of us when we had cookies and juice. Yeah - I had 2...

This is Jack and Christopher SCREAMING cheese!!! Of course the director is about 5 feet away and thinking OH NO what have we have we got ourselves into. The teacher told me she was so glad to see they weren't identical. It was making her nervous to tell them apart. No need to worry here.

The boys class. Michael is also in their class so lots of fun and friends. Hopefully it will be more successful than Ella's 2nd year.

The highlight of the day was seeing a small turtle on the sidewalk... The kids are huge animal lovers so this made their day. It was also exciting for them to find out that I volunteered to take home Cinnamon the class guinea pig. There was a sign up sheet and no one had signed up for Aug 29 so I thought oh, I will just get it done with. I go home and write it on the calendar and soon realized why no one volunteered. ITS LABOR DAY! This means we have him Thurs - Tues... instead of friday to monday. NICE.

The boys tackling Dylan.

Enjoying a view of the fish Christopher style. Always needing a little bit of a better vantage point.

Some cute kids. I take credit for 3.

Boys in bed. We like it when they stay in bed. Jack is working out some issues right now, but Christopher is a big boy bed champ!

DADDY and the KIDS.

Phone

This week has been so crazy busy. I was out four nights in a row. We had birthday parties, girls night out, going away celebrations and baby showers. The days were as nuts with plenty of fun play dates, lots of swimming and lets not forget LAUNDRY. The boys have transitioned nice out of cribs and seem happier for it. Tonight sweet Jack wanted me to lay with him. He kept putting his hand down beside him and saying "Mommy seeep Jack..." I wanted to, he was so stinkin cute and I wanted to snuggle him and enjoy and those yummy cuddles but alas, I have learned my lesson with my other sweet one Ella. Do it once and you'll pay for that wonderful 15 minutes for YEARS. Well that may be exaggerated but it can seem that way at times... So I sat outside his door for a minute and he was OK with that. They are getting so big so fast and we are trying to decide on beds. Toddler car beds, big boy beds, switch rooms with Ella and give her a queen bed so it doubles as a guest room till we move one day. AHHHH the options and it would be no big deal really for most but John and I are terrible decision makers so it appears to be work for us.

Something funny Ella said to her friend Sophia this week. "My daddy doesn't wear underwear" I keep listening wondering where this conversation is going. They talk about body parts briefly and then she continues on to say, "My daddy wears shorts. He wears shorts under his shorts, hes very silly my daddy" Funny how 4 year old girls notice everything!

Today Grandma Ruth called and all 3 kiddos wanted to chat so even though you can't really see it, Christopher is holding a phone too. We have some talkative kids. They take after John!!!

She's so pretty....

MONKEYS

This summer Jack and Christopher thought it was fun to climb out of their pack n plays... Here is Jack sleeping on my parents floor instead of the bed. He has always slept like this and I think its cute with his feet crossed and his bottom up in the air. Well I thought for sure when we got home the climbing in and out of bed novelty would wear off but, alas we have some MONKEYS in our house. My friend Tammy asked me if I was raising apes the way the 3 of them climb things.

This is my monkey - so cute.

Ella and Christopher having a little snuggle - notice that no one is in BED.

SOOOO here is the Mullins family song...

2 little monkeys climbing out of bed

they climbed out and onto each others head...

Mommy called Daddy

and big Daddy said -

take those monkeys out of their bed.

So now 2 little monkeys sleep on the floor

Its quiet here now

All we hear is Sam snore!!!

MONKEY BARS

Ella loves the monkey bars and we are both so excited she can do them by herself now. She is proud of her new accomplishment and I am excited since I don't have to hold her up above my head anymore.... A win win situation for both of us!

Ellas new favorite song

So we made it home safe and sound...more to come on the trip. While we were in Charlotte John's parents and sisters church had a new cd that we got and listened to on the trip to Canada and back. Song #12 is a hit with Ella called "We have overcome" which she loves singing and Christopher loves to join in for the last few words on each chorus.

Auntie Barb took a video of the kids singing the song and sent it to one of the pastors. Wade, one of the worship leaders at church loved it so much he put it on his blog. http://www.wadejoye.typepad.com/

Thought everyone would enjoy.