Easter at the Mullens

We had a wonderful Easter as we hope you did too! We got a little off schedule and didn't have our Easter Egg hunt until 8:00 at night. We don't think Marielle will let us get away with that one in the future... But the day was wonderful including a visit from Aunt Julia, an excellent Sacrament meeting and an a dinner invitation (less cooking is always nice!) Here are some pictures we took after church.

Star Wars Baby

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Ryan made this video after I commented Marielle looked like a Jedi in this particular picture.  Do you agree??

Hunting for the Pot of Gold

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I had a visitor in my room this morning: a little man dressed in green with red hair appeared in my crib. I tried to grab him like I've been grabbing Mom's hair lately, but he was too quick. Since I can't walk yet, I cried out for my parents to come help me. Mom and Dad quickly showed up and we chased the leprechaun all over the house (and thru walls!) by following his little green footprints. Just as we were getting close, he teleported away - but he left his pot o' gold behind!!

Enjoy the video of my adventures!

Love,
Marielle, the wee Irish lass

BOW TIME!

When my mom came for a visit we saw some cute bows at a boutique and figured we could make our own bows. We had a lot of fun making them and are a great addition to Marielle's natural cuteness. I love these pictures because she just looks shocked in so many of them.

Ain't it great to be Marielle?

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Marielle's Visit to the Houston Temple

We had a great afternoon enjoying the beautiful blooms on the temple grounds. Marielle is becoming so much fun with lots of smiles and giggles. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Marielle

We had a great afternoon enjoying the beautiful blooms on the temple grounds. Marielle is becoming so much fun with lots of smiles and giggles. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Texas Pride

What more is there to say?

Ryan turns 25!

I had an awesome birthday. Mary Karlee surprised me by
beginning the celebrations on Saturday, 13 Jan. She woke me up at 7am
singing Happy Birthday and bringing me breakfast in bed. I then found out
we had to leave immediately, because she had the whole day planned out -
and I wasn't allowed to know anything until it happened. Everything we did,
though, tied into some previous memory of my life. First, we played
volleyball with some BYU friends I graduated with. (At the age of 2, I
jumped on a volleyball, breaking my leg.) Then, we went to lunch at
Chick-fil-A. (Mary Karlee has long felt that Chick-fil-A insults her
intelligence by obviously misspelling its name. To find out where we were
going, I had to win a spelling bee - the final word was "chick fillet.")
Then Marielle gave me a present: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie on
DVD. Apparently, she got it on ebay for 3 bucks. (I hope the reference to
my childhood is obvious.) Fourth, I was given a card that said "Get your
stroke on" and we took Marielle swimming for the first time. That was so
much fun. As I lowered her into the water for the first time, I could feel
her whole body go rigid. Then she began to relax and kick and splash a lot
with her arms. She's gonna be a natural. (Again, obvious connection.) Next,
we went to dinner at CPK (reminiscent of our first date) and then went for
a stroll at nearby Rice University. We had fun there talking about how I
dragged Mary Karlee back to BYU, when she was really ready to try something
different. At each building, we tried to figure out what BYU's equivalent
was.

Heads UP

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Just in case you thought she's always smiling...

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Baby Blessing

Dad and Daughter before church

Marielle's dress overwhelmed her a little -- mom loved all the ruffles, Marielle hated them

Such a little lady!

Sunday was a wonderful day for our family. Marielle was given a name and a beautiful blessing pronounced by her father. About five minutes before her blessing she started crying. Ryan took her out to see if he could calm her down, but it was no use. They announced her blessing and before we could even see Ryan, we could hear Marielle screaming. As he walked up the aisle you could hear a ripple of laughter from the congregation. The two grandpas and dad couldn't settle her down, so the counselor said we could try again after the sacrament. Somehow that flipped a switch in Marielle and she stopped crying immediately. It was so funny. By the time the sacrament was over Marielle was sound asleep. Ryan blessed her with many wonderful promises and gave her the name we agreed upon. :)

Almost 3 months old now...

How Cute Can She BE?

My First Christmas

We spent Christmas this year in El Paso. We had lots of fun with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and of course cousins. Sleeping Beauties

First Smiles

My first Black Pete Day!

Yesterday was Marielle's first Black Pete Day! For those of you in my family unfamiliar with the tradition, Black Pete is Santa's helper who comes to give presents to all the children on Dec. 6th. He leaves the presents in their shoes. We bought little wooden shoes for Marielle this summer while we were in Solvang and were excited to fill them for the first time. We woke up early to open our presents together and celebrate. Ryan loved surprising me by setting out Marielle's wrapped baby board book from Grandma and Grandpa Mullen out so it looked like it was for me. Judging by the size, I assumed it had to be a CD. And since I had mentioned I wanted the music book from Les Mis, I just assumed it was the soundtrack on CD. After I opened "my" present and found it was for Marielle, Ryan whipped out another present and to my delight it really was the sheet music from the show. We all loved our books -- thank you so much!!