Seems like just yesterday!

Our little one is ten months now. We spent some time at the park in the Woodlands yesterday as part of my birthday celebration (more pics and details coming later) and we realized the last time we were there Marielle was like three days old. It was our first family outing and Marielle treated us right with her first blow-out-up-the-back-poopy-diaper. If that wasn't enough, while Ryan was trying to change her in the front seat of our car (no changing tables in the bathroom) she peed as soon as the diaper was off and we were scrambling for a new diaper and wipes. Memories! Well here are the pics from then and now just to show you how far we've come!

Then...

Now!
What a difference 10 months makes. (I think the lake looks a little better too!)

Then...
Now all cleaned up and sitting pretty after the "blowout." After the incident Ryan came back from cleaning up himself in the bathroom and I was nursing Marielle. Ryan said, "What? You're fueling that little monster?"

Now
My little baby's not so little! I still love to cuddle her though. :)

Sing It Marielle!

Click to Play

Murder Mystery Party

Last weekend Ryan and I threw a Murder Mystery Party. The Murder was staged back in the Sixties at the Groovy A Go-Go. The costumes were fantastic and we had a great time figuring out "who dun it!" We listened to 60's tunes as we acted out scripts, revealed clues and ate dinner. We even had a "prop quiz" and a So you think you know the 60's game. I wish I would have had the presence of mind to take LOTS more pictures but we have a few to give you the flavor. Who was the murderer??? Trippie Dickie Nickson! The President of the United States!

Rose Pedal "Peace Man!"

Peter Paul and Jalopy Joplin

Roger the Dodger (on his way to Canada to doge the draft) by the sign posted to welcome guests to the joint.

Too bad the guest of honor never made it to the birthday -- Goodbye Ruby Tuesday!

Trippie Dickie and Rose Pedal

Roger the Dodger and Jennifer Juniper (I was a journalism student for the Turn, Turn, Turn Times)

Buzz Bullet and Goldie GO GO (Goldie won best costume that night)

THe Maharishi and Maryjane Cannibiski

Scrabble to the Max!

Our family has kinda a funny quirk. Ok, so we probably have many funny quirks, but here is one I think is pretty humorous. We love to play Scrabble, usually on Sunday afternoons. We decided one time we played to keep score on Excel to avoid wasting good mental power on simple math. Since then our "scoreboard" has spiraled out of control. Every game we play is recorded on it's on tab on the Excel worksheet with a digital picture of the game board. We have graphs, stats of highs, lows, medians, who wins each round, you can see below at the picture posted. We try to make it "not too competitive" so the game is still fun, but it doesn't always happen. I'll be sure to pick a game where I won to post for our example. :)

Movies, the Mullens & You

Avid fans of The Marielle Show will recognize a subtle new addition to the Blog: Movies We Plan to Watch (But not Yet) [on the right, below Recent Reads We Loved]. This list shows the movies on our que at the Harris County Public Library (or those that will soon be on the list). You see, the library will send any video we request, from any branch of the library, to our branch just down the street - for free. This is especially enticing to the Sycamore half of our family. The catch is that we sometimes have to wait ~6 months for new releases, while old releases will get here in a matter of days. Since we can usually only watch a video every other weekend, this calls for some strategic planning on our part to make sure we don't get overloaded with 6 DVDs at once.

So, here's where your part comes in, Mr. & Mrs. Avid Fan, if you see a new movie that you really like, please recommend it to us as soon as possible - so we can see it sometime before we move. Also, if you see a movie on our list that was terrible, comment that to us as well - so we don't waste good weekends on bad movies.

Our Visit to California!

Ryan went on a business trip last week, so Marielle and I went on a trip of our own. We flew out Tuesday morning and got home Saturday night. We had such a fun time, but really missed having Dad around. Marielle was pretty shy at first and always wanted mom in sight, but warmed up after a day or two to her adoring fans and family in Southern California. Here are some of our fun times:

What do you think? Should we have bought the t-shirt for Marielle??

At the Farmer's Market in LA with Uncle Justin. (She's eating Grandma's lipgloss)

Marielle loved corn cobbs. Mom loved cleaning up all the corn!

Playing at the mall. (Look carefully, that grass is fake, and tough on baby knees!)

Marielle liked the water much better....

She liked it so much we couldn't keep her out of it. Goodbye clothes!

Marielle experiences "soft grass"

Out to lunch with my friend Sarah Mathews

Now that's one big swing! She looks bored, but she really did like swinging...:)

Flash Back in Time

My Private Shoebox