"Go Blog about it!"

That's what Robert said to me yesterday when I called telling him I was feeling sick to my stomach. I think that's the 2010 version of

"here's a quarter call someone who cares"

What do you think?

Usually he's a little more sympathetic, but he was at work, where he is the

big boss man and it can't get out that he has a sensitive side.

So I forgave him,

But I won't forget.

About 14 years ago he made a snide comment about me becoming one dimensional, a comment that has bit him in the hind quarters more than once.

Robert forgets that I have a near perfect Instant Recall of all things said to me or heard by me.

I'm sure he'll regret ever saying, "go Blog about it."

Other than that the month has been great.

I started to teach seminary on the first day of February.

What is Seminary you ask?

Here is the official word from seminary.lds.org

Seminary provides weekday religious training for youth in public or private high schools and homeschools.

Each year we focus on one of the scriptures. This year we are studying the Book of Mormon, and while I admit, I was apprehensive at first at how I could manage the five am wake up call, teach high school age kids and get my kids to school on time, I'm happy to say I've been blessed.

With the blessing of teaching Seminary from 6:00-6:45 am each day I've been able to accomplish the following.

1. Keep my house cleaner than it has ever been, including (but not limited to) dishes being done the NIGHT before.

2.Get up early and not hate it- seriously, I wasn't a morning person. Even though some days REQUIRE a nap, I've not been unhappy with the early morning.

3. The kids only missed the bus once- miracle in itself.

4. The Kids have been very helpful in getting up with smiles and getting themselves into the shower.

5. I've really enjoyed the daily study and application.

So that's all I have to "blog about" today.

Jesus Wants Joely for a Sunbeam

In our church when you turn three you start going to primary. Primary is what other churches call Junior Sunday School, childrens church etc. The first year you are there you are called a sunbeam, and Joely well she's our little sunbeam.

She loves to sing the songs, and the above video is a medly of her favorite ones. She has been singing the sunbeam song nearly non stop since she started primary. She also loves Popcorn Popping, Do as I'm doing and Head Shoulders Knees and toes, (knees and toes). Another favorite is the Hello Song, but she just learned it last week and isnt' ready to perform it.

Joely's teacher is Sister Duncan and the other little one in her class is Keegan, you may remember him from previous posts.

Another favorite thing for her are marshmallows, as you can see in the video, she interchanged marshmallow and sunbeam.
She's a cutie patootie

Valentines Fun Fun Fun

Valentines Day began on the 12th with a party hosted by

Joely and her BFF Keegan.

It was a fun party. The kids decorated lunch bags with hearts and glue.

They colored some valentine pages and made "love visors"

They decorated cupcakes and played Bingo.

And there was candy and chips.

Before they left they handed out Valentines to each other.

It was adorable.
The moms had fun too, we had a yummy lunch of Chicken Salad and Broccoli Cheese Soup.

There wer 6 little party revelers.

On Friday David came home early (no parties for 5th grade) and watched Joley so I could go to Quentin's party. I had my cameras with me, but was swamped with workin' the party that I forgot to take pictures. Next time I'll have Quentin take pictures and film.

His teacher (Mrs. Brightwell) was wonderful. She had root beer floats and sundaes for the kids. What I liked best is she had me scooping ice cream, and another mom doing toppings and she gave each student individual attention when they came to make their choices. You can tell she really cares about her students and she has a great deal of patience.

I am so glad Quentin is in her class, her partner (the english teacher- Ms. Hammond) is great too. Quentin always comes home with great stories and her games for spelling and vocab. He really enjoys school and does well.

For Valentines Day they made "simple machines" to collect their valentines. Quentin made the "reel love machine" with a fishing reel, pully system and hinges, also an inclined plane, his simple machine turned out a little complex. All the projects were adorable. I was impressed with the creativity and talent.

On Saturday we had our annual Blue and Gold Banquet and this year we celebrated 100 years of scouting. It was a great dinner, my friend John Catered the event and it was awesome BBQ. We also were entertained by skits and jokes.
Good Times.

Sunday I was greeted with roses and chocolates- who could ask for more?

I took the kids to see the Lightening Thief last night. I'm not sure which book this was based on, because it wasn't based much on the 5 Percy Jackson books I read. I hope Rick Riordan is so disgusted he won't let them make anymore. Some of my favorite characters were absent and they added junk that did not need to be added. In addition to that - we were able to see the Gods in their true form and we all know as mortals we would be obliterated if that was true.

Very dissapointed Hollywood.

And as it is written, so shall it be done....

I can't get Charlton Heston out of my head, so I used his words as my title. My BFF Allie wrote and asked me to update, and as she writes I do her bidding- I have posted several posts tonight, scroll down and read them all for your enjoyment and my validation.

I can't get another quote from

the Old Testament-(the movie - not the book) out of my head.

"Your eyes are as beautiful as they keen"

This is what Jacob Allegedly said to Rachel, when they met. Before he was tricked into marrying her sister and then had to wait 14 years to marry her.

I really like Hollywood's version, the script is much more fun to listen to than Genesis.

But I digress.

I am writing tonight about a beauty we have in our house, Miss Alice Anne.

On thursday night she informed me of the sweetheart dance in gym class. She wanted a new dress, it needed to be beautiful and black and twirl and fabulous.

Since we don't indulge her nearly enought, we stopped at palais royal, which is in town, but I hardly ever go there, it's so expensive, but when they have sales or clearance, it's a good place.

So we went, naturally the first dress she saw was sixty bucks.

I explained how there was no way in a manger we would pay that.

Then we found a gorgous one on clearance that fit the bill.

I beleive she looked amazing-

What do you think?

You'll notice her foot cocked a little and a look of indifference, you can't teach that- it's a natural talent. And please notice the locket, it "helps me to feel warm inside"

She's so filled with confidence, I just love that she's aware of all her talents and intelligence.

I am so glad we have Alice Anne in our family!

Enjoying the balmy 40 degree weather

So we had a bright idea on the 31st of January, let's go for a day trip to the Brazos Bend State Park.

Typically it's not freezing weather, but it sure was cold in January.

Earlier in the week though it was nice and warm, like Spring for SE Texas, and Summer for like Blackfoot, Idaho.

We made our plans, we had our family meeting, we were ready to go.

Like any trip, I planned the meals.

We had watched a show on Diners Drive Ins and Dives about "Bob's Tacos and Snowballs" and it's just outside of Richmond, which is "on the way" if you detour about 15 miles or so to get to Brazos Bend state Park. And my mouth was still watering, so off we went.

I figured, It's a hole in the wall, how busy can it be....

Well Apparently everyone who watched the episode thought the same thing.

Here we are waiting outside to get in, to wait inside to be seated. We waited about an hour to get seated and then another 30 minutes or so for the food.

Normally I would have given up, but then where is the story in that.

Just look at the love Robert has in his eyes, he LOVES me to take random shots that will go on the blog. He's soooo supportive.

This is a cute girl who took our names and gave us menus. She wasn't shown on the episode, but she said it's made things sooo crazy. Normally the resteraunt closes at two, but they've been staying open passed four just to get people in the doors.

The food was good, but here is my complaint, when you think "Dive" you think cheap food, well here is a picture of the bill, for 5 people, because Joely just ate from everyone, and they included gratuity, which just bugs me.

Ok I'm getting a little bit irritated, I can't move my pictures around like I like to, and I don't know why- So if for some strange reason you are still reading this, here is a collage, press play and it will be a slide show.

Why you may ask are there pictures of feet? Surely she clicked the camera on accident. No, there was an incident with feet kicking between Quentin and Alice, each blamed the other, I took some shots to prove who it was. Not to be outdone, Joely and her "sparkle" shoes needed a picture.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

What next? Oh Yeah Family Fun Day

Ok so what do you get when you smart off to dad?

A family "fun" day.

Complete with menial tasks like cleaning out the gutters.

Pictured Below Quentin and David with happy hearts.

Joely always gets in on the action, she's the quintessential "me too"

Everyone joined in the waxing and cleaning of the Saturn (bless it's little 13 year old heart) and the Oddyssey, only three more payments...

And the taskmaster himself, Mr. Wonderful.

Actually it was a real fun day before we were hit with yet another Arctic Blast.

To quote my favorite NFL player Chad Ochocinco,
"Child Please" about the global warming. I'm just not "feeling" it. It's time to Kiss the Baby on that one.

If you are not a fan of Chad Ochocinco, you should be. His type is what keeps the NFL a game and not some political machine.

I'm just sayin'

Mom's visit

Last month mom came to stay with us for a few days. As you can see Joely was in Heaven. It was all about her and "my grandma"

All of us love the visits, but I really think, right now, Joely is getting the most out of them.

After all she's there all day.

And the kids do have things in the evenings, and then they have to go to bed early

to get to school the next day, but not Joely.

For instance one night David had some friends over before going to Cub Scouts. I was busy getting them their dinner ready so they could eat first and we could go.

I casually mentioned to Robert, "I'm getting these plates ready for the boys."

And Joely pops up from grandma's lap and says,
"What about me and my grandma?"

She made sure grandma got fed and took her shots and pills.

She made sure grandma read her books.
She also made sure grandma knew the family's pecking order

1. Joely

2. Everyone else

The funniest thing about mom's visits is that I become invisible.

Usually Joely wants to be where I am at or go wherever I go, but with Grandma she quickly says, "Bye mama" or just completly ignores me.

Grandma sleeps on the Day bed, which is where Joely is supposed to sleep, but she has called it Grandma's bed, and when she decides she'll sleep there it's never "my bed" it's always the Grandma's bed.

Pictured Below is mom sitting in the back seat of the van. Of course she'll sit there with Joely instead of riding shotgun with me. (refer to the pecking order if you are confused)

It's time for Grandma to come visit again.

The plan was to go visit her house this passed weekend, but cub scouts had their blue and gold dinner and Uncle Brian got real sick too, so now I'm not sure what weekend we can get away because Alice starts Softball practice this week, and they have practices on Saturdays.

We'll have to get Grandma again for Joely to play with.
Good Times!

Getting away in the Big Easy

Last weekend Robert and I took an early anniversary trip to New Orleans-

One of my High School BFF's was having a 40th birthday Bash.
The theme was Solid Gold Dance Party.

We took off on our road trip on Friday and had a blast. It's about 350 miles to New Orleans and we got there in about 5 hours- which is amazing.

I drive with 4 kids 200 miles to my parents house and it takes almost 5 hours- GO FIGURE-

On Friday Night we ate at Bubba Gumps and had Shrimp and we stayed in the Sheraton on Canal Street. It was sooo relaxing.
The Girls spent the weekend shopping with Rob's parents and the boys stayed with their friends.

Danielle and I have been friends since 9th grade, she's sooo much fun and we laugh and carry on like teenagers when we get together.

She met us for Brunch at the Court of Two Sisters on Saturday Morning

I know there are more things to do in New Orleans than just eat- but that's how I vacation.

The Court of two sister is a fun place to eat and listen to jazz music. I read it about in a Hemingway novel and a Faulkner novel once. Then before Robert and I went to New Orleans nine years ago for Danielle's wedding, I was reading a novel and in the novel the writer was interviewing Hemingway at the Court of Two Sisters. So we had to go then and since it was fabulous we had to return. Also I am a big fan of William Faulkner and he wrote his first novel around the corner from there and so well you just have to go.

After we left there we went to the Faulkner Book store- where he lived and I bought a Flannery O'Connor Novel. That girl was NUTS- her writing is very scary and I'm amazed that she published in the 40s and 50s. She's timeless though.

At Danielle's party she had Karaoke. Danielle, unlike most people, can actually sing. I wanted to join in the festivities and you can see our internet sensation here on you tube. For some reason they turned down my mike...hmmm must not have wanted to overshadow the birthday girl- lol

We had a great time and were just thrilled to spend some time alone, you have to do that every now and again, it's the secret of a long and happy marriage.

Speaking of which on the 27th we'll have been married for 13 years. It seems like only yesterday we went on that fate filled blind date. He still has those gorgeous green eyes and he still makes my heart skip a beat. It's been a fun 13 years and I look forward to about 40 more!

Here is another video I shot of Joely and her friend Corey at the zoo on the 31st. Alice isn't in the videos because she spent the day at a zoo camp. Click here to watch it, but I warn you it's about 6 minutes long.

Ode to some cookbooks

It's not that I never learned to cook, I just never learned to cook southern, I was raised Mormon and ate a lot of WONDERFUL food that was easy to cook.

Mom taught me how to cook and she supplied me with plenty of my favorite recipes. One of my favorite dishes is actually something my dad always makes, Meatloaf. He always cooked Lima Beans as a side dish to go with the Meatloaf and it's dreamy. Sadly nobody else cooks them the same, and I have yet to master the art of the Lima Bean.

But then I met Robert.

Robert, who is basically perfect, except for his palate.

He didnt' grow up on casseroles, and he disdains anything with "cream of..." soup in it.

We had dated a few times when I thought awww I should cook for him.

This "aww" moment came after visiting his apartment. His fridge had some sodas in it and some steak umm in the freezer.

Clearly he needed my culinary expertise.

So he picked me up from work and we went to Central Market in Austin.

Back then we didn't grocery shop like we do now.
Back then it was all magical, holding hands gazing into each other's eyes.

Grocery shopping for one meal could take HOURS.

Now we divide an conquer-

"You take the meats, I'll get produce, we'll meet in Breads

GO! GO! GO!"

But back then it was all rainbows and unicorns.

So I go first to the amazing cheese selection, because I was going to make my specialty, stuffed shells and then Robert said something I'll never forget.

"Don't get any cheese for me, I don't eat cheese except on Pizza."
What the What????

How could I cook on the fly with that info? Shouldn't he have given me that information, say the night before?

At that moment, everything I knew involved cheese.

All of my favorite dishes that I had learned from the tutelage of mom.

Broccoli and Cheese Chicken, Manicotti, Sheperds Pie, Lasagna, Most casseroles.

You know add cheese and Broil? Cheese makes it all better.

I was frusterated to say the least.

So after him hawing around I admitted I had no clue how to cook without cheese.
Sure I could have made Meatloaf, Chicken Supreme (an awesome dish that involves chicken, bacon, something else, but also cream of mushroom soup, my spidey senses told me to stay away from that) Chili, rice pilaf etc. But all of these items required a recipe, I didn't have recipes on me.

So we spent about $40.00 on kick butt salad ingredients and then picked up pizza on the way back.

After that he did the cooking, and he's good at it.

After we got married, In the Christmas of 2000, Sue, his mom started a tradition of giving me a new cookbook each year for Christmas. The above picture shows the cookbooks, minus this years cookbook.

I love the cookbooks! I've made at least one thing from each cookbook.
The first cookbook, is my third favorite cookbook ever. It is a collection of recipes from Central Baptist Church, where Robert grewup. Robert's Aunt Susan put a lot of recipes in there, I cherish it. Plus nothing beats a good Church cookbook.

The Second one was after 9/11 and Sue had been to New York that summer, it was real neat to have a cookbook from New York. I made a bread recipe and a soup recipe from there.

In 2002 she gave me the Lady and Two Sons dessert and candy cookbook. It was two days before I would no longer be the Lady with just two sons, because we were having Alice on the 27th. It has come to mean a lot to me because it was published before the Lady, Paula Deen, became famous thanks to the food network.

I love all of my cookbooks and I'm proud to say I've mastered making buttermilk biscuits, this took 12 years of practice and thanks to this years cookbook

I've mastered the art of making gravy. The formula is simple. Use two Tablespoons of pan drippings and then add two Tablespoons of thickening agent and mix quickly with a whisk. Add two cups milk and bring to a boil, stirring the whole time. If you need more or less gravy, just remember this whatever amount of grease you use in Tablespoons, add the same number of Tablespoons of thickening agent and then the same number of CUPS of liquid. Perfect everytime.

My Second favorite Cookbook is an old Exxon cookbook,that was Robert's great grandmas. IT has her name and address written in the cover and her coke a cola cake recipe in it. It also has her notes in it. Also it calls for Oleo instead of shortening, so you know the recipes will be tasty.

My favorite cookbook is last, but not least, the cookbook my friends and I put together in the Memorial Park Ward in Houston. When I say put together, I mean it quite literally. I typed the recipes, Heather formatted them and did the graphics and got everythign printed. Then Jenni, heather, Adrienne and I collated them and got them bound. It was hard work, but it has all my favorite recipes in one place. My aunt's recipes, my mom's recipes and then my friends stuff too.

So now I have in my personal arsenal instructions on how to cook almost anything. Robert is bound to like something and sometimes when he's not looking I'll add some cream of something soup, just to remind me of home.

Wondering about David?

You can see his reflection here in the game he's been playing seemingly non stop since christmas.

David has just been simulating life.

He's a huge fan of Sims.

He had Sims 3, but wanted Sims 2 plus Sims 2 nightlife so he could become a vampire.

So he's been dedicated to making his Sim world perfect.

I'm happy to say he was able to become a Sim Vampire.

This is also David on a rare turning away from the computer.

"must not go outside, my eyes they burn"

Christmas at the Claus House

This is the front of my parents house.

They beleive in Christmas and they do a great job.

Joely couldn't beleive her eyes, Everything was a "Christmas Miracle"

at her Grandparents house.

The kids and I went for a visit last week for a couple of days.

It was too short, but we'll be back soon!

Here are some pictures of the house.

Mom takes down her regular home decor and puts it away during Christmas.
The result is nothing short of perfect
Or as Miss Joely says, "A Christmas Miracle" well she doesn't really say it as much as sing it.

Alice is Seven!!

Instead of taking pictures on her birthday I filmed her on the Flip camera- now to make some videos of that - when I do they'll be on you tube-

Anyhoo- here she is at my mom's house on the day after her birthday.

Her birthday is on the 27th, so before church she opened her presents. She got a bunch of new clothes from us and a cool art kit from my parents. As of today she hasn't visited her other grandparents for her gifts.

You may be thinking, clothes how lame? But don't worry. In lieu of a birthday party she accepted to fabulous events. The first was on Thursday, she went to to the Houston Zoo for a Day camp at Camp Zoofari. This was an all day event with other 6 and 7 year olds. She learned about Arctic animals. Ask her about blubber, she'll tell you all of its benefits. Alice wants to be a zookeeper when she grows up and possibly an orka trainer. To quote her, "Mom, when I learn something about animals it just sticks to me." It's true, thanks to Alice and her love of the Animal Planet and the Zoo, we've learned all kinds of great facts, like Koala babies eat their mom's poo. Sounds wierd huh? Well click here and scroll down to breeding.

The other fun thing she's going to do is spend the night at the zoo in March with her Dad. Technically it falls on his birthday, but it's really her big present.

Here are some fun things about Alice

1. She's an excellent reader.

2. Although she thinks she's "not any good at math" she has consistantly earned 100's on her math tests.

3. She takes art lessons once a week and her skills are improving.

4. She isn't fancy, she only wants her hair combed down straight, no clips, barrettes, or headbands.

5. She can't be near scizzors and not create something. Usually its a napkin or a paper plate, whatever is handy.

6. Her dad is her favorite person.

7. She can talk to animals and they listen to her. I need to get that on video, it's rather uncanny.

8. She'd rather watch anything on Animal planet than a cartoon.

9. She loves to visit her grandparents.

10. She loves school.

We are so glad we have our "baby" Alice.

We got a Flip Video Recorder

Here is an attempt to "share" our Christmas Morning fun. Christmas Eve is for opening presents and visiting with Rober't side of the family. The kids open their presents from Grandma and Grandpa Barnes and us on Christmas Mroning- long after they see what Santa brought. This morning this video is from opening mom and dad's presents, since they coudn't be here. The first video I made can be found on you tube, just search Robert Mullens Eats Pudding. I tell you it's a classic.

I am having a heck of a time u ploading it to blogger- so click on the link below and you'll be redirected to you tube - I like being on you tube- so far we've had 6 hits- LOL

Mullens Family Christmas Morning

We've had a wonderful time with Robert home and we look forward to another wonderful year. Next week the kids and I are going to my mom's for a couple of days. It will be a great way to end the holiday season. Mom and Dad rival Santa Clause when it comes to home decor and lights. The kids will love it.

Dad takes a few days off

When Robert transferred to this division of Siemens, one of the "bonuses" was that they close the shop a couple of days before Christmas until after the New Year. YEAH SIEMENS- however this year is different and the shop stays open- BOO- so when that became apparent, Robert started to take a few Friday's off since he no longer needed to save any vacation days for the end of the year. The first was in November.

On that day we decided to take our precious littlest Mullens to the Houston Zoo.

I should have posted the pictures and narration 6 weeks ago, but I was on facebook, so I'm making two posts in one- because today he took our future zookeeper/exotic animal vet Alice to the zoo as well.
I suppose anyone could have gone, but only Alice was awake and she's been hounding him for more "Daddy-Daughter time" and when she says daughter, she's not including the last born.

Here are some cute pictures of the girls with their favorite guy.

Ok, here Joely is all "I can do it myself"So the minute Robert puts his hand down, she freaks and decides it safer to sit on the "sleigh" Robert looks a little uncomfortable.

Both look much happier in the sleigh

Just to clarify, they aren't really standing in the ocean, it's a statue in front of a kick butt mural.

This is one of the favorite spots, watching the California Sea Lions.

"Uh Dad, I can't See"- Even when Cleary she could, she convinced Robert to pick her up.

She had so much fun she had to take a nap.

Since I was here at this event, I had planned where lunch would be, long before the Zoo day was set in stone. Pictured here at Lupe Tortillas on Kirby and 59. It is by far the best place to eat fajitas. While technically I love Chuy's better, I do not like fajitas at Chuys. Lupe Tortillas makes these awesome flour tortillas that are literally bigger than your plate. You have to "share" the condiments (cheese, guacamole, lettuce,sour cream, beans and rice) with your "partner" and this is where Robert is and always will be number one, he only wants the rice. We leave Lupe Tortillas with condiments in the cool dish. Another time I went there and shared with my good friend Galadriel and it was not nearly enough to "share."

But I digress.

Here is his day with Miss Thang. She took a lot of videos and she LOVED the day with her dad. Robert said the best part was the drive there and back while she sang and danced to the Christmas Music on 99.1- she's a performer at heart.

This is in the Cool Children's Part of the Zoo. Apparently Alice raised her hand to answer questions and was so cute, she was asked to assist the zookeeper. She was able to pet a "jungle" bird that looked like a chicken and felt a turtle exoskeleton in a box (aka the shell- it can only be taken off after the death of the turtle as it it's skeleton - just like you can't live without your skeleton)

One of the lesser known Animals, The Okapi, the giraffe of the forest. It has been one of Alice's favorite animals for years. It's tongue can reach its ears. We would catch Alice walking on all fours with her tongue out and towards her ear, she was pretending to be an Okapi. Today she got to listen to the Okapi keeper and it was "awesome"

She's actually taller than she apperas, she's not standing straight.

"stand up straight little missy!"

Alice is not mad, she's in character.

We have tons of pictures of each child in this nest, but none of Joely, she refuses to a mindless part of the herd.

Alice chose Chikfila for lunch, no picutres were taken.

as Promised

So our littlest Mullens turned three on the thirteenth.
What a fun day she had.

She just kept singing

"Happy Birthday -- MMMEEEE"

all day, it was too cute.

She LOVED her Themed Cake and her awesome Yo Gabba Toys.

She loved that her BFF Keegan was there-

and another older BFF Dana was there. (stupid me I forgot to take her picture)

Joely loves to talk to and about Dana, however whenever Dana is close by she is usually quiet.

On her "cell" I hear her talking to Dana all day long.
In fact she reminds me that I need to call my friend Dana. In reality Dana is my friend, along with her husband Dayle, Dana and Dayle have a boy, Travis who is a BFF of David and Quentin and also Alice adores him, we call Travis our brother from another mother. But I digress.

Grandma and Grandpa Mullens came to her party too, and she loves her grandparents.

She was concerned because Lacie, wasnt't there, but she told me

"Grandpa will bring her dinner"

Which is true, Grandpa makes sure to bring home some of his food to feed Lacie.

So Basically we are enamored of Joely.

Here are a few of her favorite things

1. Going to see Keegan

(which is awesome for me, because I love to go see Keegan's mom)

2. Going to church- today she couldnt' go because she has strep and had not been on her penecillin long enough, she was in her room searching for a dress to wear all the time crying that she was going to church- ADORABLE

3. Her grandparents. She loves when my mom comes to visit. I become invisible, the only thing she is concerned about is what grandma is doing, where she is, who she's talking to etc. She loves to visit Rob's parents and when we go over there, she takes out her car seat and tells me goodbye before I even get to the door. She assumes and she feels entitles to an overnight visit whenever we stop in.

4. Yo Gabba Gabba- None of us understand this, but none of us are three.

5. The puppies. She loves her dogs.

6. The babies. She plays with her baby doll, so sweet and she uses a cute voice. Typically the baby needs to go to sleep, but she's always patient with her. She also loves Baby Colton and pulls faces at him and talks baby talk to him, (the aforementioned mom of Keegan babysits Baby Colton)

7. Doing things independently. Her most common phrase is "I do it MYSELF"

It's nice on the one hand, and completly lame on the other but she can and will do most things by herself.

8. Last but not least she wants to "HELP" and boy does she. She will help with anything just as long as she's first, and well if she's not first she makes it clear that you need to give up your spot.

We are so glad we have our little Joely Rose. What a fun little girl she's been and she's brought us great joy. Let's hear it for unplanned pregnancies!

Yo Joely Joely!

Technically this post should be all about the last child born of loins, but let's be honest shall we?

This blog is all about validating me.

Pictured here is a work of "heart"

I wanted a birthday cake much better than the "bee" fiasco of last year. Last year my attempt at making her a bee cake ended horribly bad. First off, I couldn't get the frosing to turn black enough, so the Bee was yellow and brown. Then it didn't look anything like a bee. Also the homemade frosting tasted spoiled. It turns out this year when I broke out the crisco can, it smelled rancid and had an expiration date of 10/06, before Joely was even born. I'm thinking that last year the shortening had gone rancid.I also thought I was buying yellow and black balloons, but the black was purple, so the party looked like some kind of LSU alumni wedding, it was wretched. Fortunatly only grandparents were invited. Very few photos were taken, and none were taken of the offensive cake or the lame balloons.

At least there was plenty of pizza and you can never go wrong with Blue Bell.

So back to me.

This year I asked Myriam Zambrano of fabulous cakes and more, to help me design the yo gabba juke box. How hard could it be? It's a gray rectangle and with her mad skills of being able to recreate anything with fondant, I knew "I" could do it.

Well basically what I contributed was that I made a delicious cake, and then Myriam did everything else. I feel like I created the cake because it was my idea and I did make the cake (like the little red hen, I poured the box contents into the kitchen aid all by myself, added the eggs, butter and water all by myself and then all by myself I turned the kitchen aid on and then placed the batter into to rectangular pans, but I only greased one)

Also, without me, Myriam would have never made a yo gabba juke box. Now she has that in her repetoire and can go forth and actually make money on them.

While she made sure the frosting was just the right Gray, she had me rolling out fondant, adding food coloring, and cutting out the shapes. This took me literally two hours. When it came time to adhere the fondant to her cake, she didn't like what i did, apparently my rectangles looked more like teletubbies and my circles were egg shaped. It took her five minutes to get the shapes right. The only thing she left was my lettering Yo Joely and really it should have been Joely Joely, but I had lost patience at that point and the kids were going to be getting of the bus to a locked home.

So that's the story of the cake.

I'll blog about the little princess and her wild party later.

Who Dat?

Quentin Mullens #14- Nose Guard

Crosby Cougars

Well Quentin, aka Q-BONE- turned 10 over a month ago and somehow I never blogged about the second child born of my loins in 1999.

So where do I start?

Let's start with the obvious, he's smart, adorable and funny-

He's just like his mom

He's stubborn, opinionated and Too smart for his own good sometimes

He's just like his Dad Seriously, Quentin is a very fun kid and an engaging Brother. He is adorable with is little sister Joely, he is as patient as he can be with Alice and he competes with and loves his Big Brother.

(Quentin pictured giving a thumbs up)

Quentin is the only little brother and big brother we have in our family, he's unique and useful.

He LOVES Crosby Cougar Football.
He loves his teachers

He still loves Mrs. Butler most of all (#1 Kindergarten teacher- EVER)

He has fun doing most anything.

He laughs a lot. Sometimes we dont' always get the joke.

He has to get in the last word (hmmm Barnes or Mullens DNA- not sure)

He has excellent handwriting.

He will make an excellent Police Officer one day because he's already concerned about Law and Order in our home. He wants to make sure everyone else is following the Law and that he can mete out some of the Order.

He loves to watch my detective shows with me. He'll watch Psych and Monk and edited versions of the Mentalist, he'd watch the Law and Orders if they weren't innapropriate.

He loves to eavesdrop and likes repeating and questioning what he hears...
It's not politically correct to say he's a suck up, we prefer "teacher pleaser" best.

His Bus Driver says, "M'aam he's a joy to drive around!"

And he is.

Quentin is a very fun kid.

I'm so glad he fell in love with playing football. I already have my delusions of Grandeur for when he gets his Heisman Trophy. He'll say something like this.

"I'd first like to thank my mama, she inspired me to do my best and she made sure I had water at my practices. I LOVE MY MAMA! I'd also like to thank Coach Spencer for being the best teacher. "

I'm sure he'd mention his dad and grandma's and probably his aunts and uncles. In fact his list would be very long, he has a lot of people that love him.

He has inherited my love of quoting movies. After watching an edited version of waterboy, he was busy spouting off some of the good lines, and there were plenty to choose from.

I'm so glad we have our Quentin, (even if his breathing does bother Alice) I'm really glad he lived through those 2 months of colic from 11/99-1/00.

I'm looking forward to him turning 11 next year.

To Covet is a sin...

From left to right

Austin McCoy

David Mullens

Alice Mullens

Quentin Mullens

Joely Mullens

Note how uncomfortable David looks, as if his sisters hands are covered in acid and it's causing his flesh to burn off his body. Immediately after the picture was taken, Joely kissed Quentin and hit Alice.

LOVE - true Love

So anyway back to coveting.

I know it's not just wrong, it's a SIN

(insert evil devilish laughter)

I mean, it's listed in Exodus as one of the top ten sins.

But still I covet.

Yesterday I was coveting because of the football seats that Allie scored.

She has a friend/business colleague here in Texas and he got them Club suite seats for the game.

She called me from her suite and said they just listened to a band play. You could hear her so clearly, because the sounds of the "riff raff" was muted.

COVETING

This was THE game of the season.

Local boy Vince Young returns to fight the Texans as the QB- the last time he played here was in his rookie year and he scored an awesome touchdown. (thank you ESPN for continuing to show it over and over and then again mentioning it OVER and OVER)

Again Texans front office, why didn't you draft Vince Young back in 2006?

Plus it was the Titans, and Houstonians are still hurting over the Oilers leaving and becoming "titans"

So this game was for the fans.

Sadly, the good guys lost.

Quentin and I were watching it from our recliners and not in the club suite like Allie and Austin,

but the loss was just as devastating.

Quentin even cried.

We both are hoping this is Kris Brown's LAST game.

To quote Quentin, "He's the worst Kicker in the history of the NFL"

Quentin NEVER Exaggerates.

I called Uncle Bo and he was mad, he couldn't believe Vince Young, "Quarter backs don't run like that, they need to take him down at the knees"

Well I guess there is always next year.

We'll get that bad boy, Vince Young...

and his Titans too....

I've seen miles and miles of Texas

Austin and Allie are here on a quick visit from Utah's Dixie, St. George, Utah.

When Allie comes it's time for a road trip across Texas. This visit was no exception.

First off they flew into Dallas Fort Worth airport with Allie's brother Dallas.

He was going to the cowboys (boo hiss) game the next day with a couple of friends.

Since he had time to kill, he drove Allie and Austin to the Crossroad of Texas

Buffalo Texas.

Where we met up at Dickie's BBQ

(pictured David -in green- Austin in requisite BYU hat- and Allie's arm)

Along the way we stopped at the cleanest toilets in the world- Bucees rest stop, where Beavers Rule!

Dallas, Allie's brother, and his friend, were both glad they left their mother's behind and weren't subjected to humiliating photos.

Quentin was too cool to pose with Buccee, but not too cool to eat snacks and get drinks from his rest stop. Seriously, the bathrooms ROCK in there, if you get a chance to drive across texas, make a point to rest in one of the spacioius bathrooms. I wanted to take pictures inside the bathroom, but I thought that might "appear" wierd, so I refrained. Take my word for it!

This is David, the good sport, just outside the bathroom, talking trash to this local outlaw.

That was Saturday. Sunday we took another road trip all the way to Katy, TX to visit with Arcalee and have a great afternoon.

David went to see Dylan and Austin, Quentin, Robert and the girls stayed in Crosby to play HALO ODST for a marathon day.

We had fun, I was supposed to bring dessert, but the recipe didn't turn out so we went to Chili's

For some reason, the pictures I took with Allie and Arcalee, didn't get saved on my camera- WIERD0 but we had a great lunch at Arcalee's house and enjoyed catching up. Arcalee took us on a tour of her master planned community, 7 Meadows .

Today we are meeting Dallas and his friends at Chuys' for lunch and then they are going to the Texans/Titans game. Allie scored club tickets thanks to a colleague here in Texas--

I can't wait for their next visit, when we'll travel to San Antonio!