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Monday, March 29, 2010

Daddy-Daughter Date Day

This weekend, my father-in-law called to ask his little girl on a Daddy-Daughter date. By default, this also meant that I was going on a Daddy-Daughter date. Naturally, our dates had virtually the same agenda. Let's see if you can guess who did what:

1. Location
a)
b)
2. Dinner
a)

b)3. Main Attraction
a)
b)


3. Topic of Conversation
a)

b)
Answer key in the comments (for those of you that need it).

At the end of the evening, I told Marielle: "Even when you grow up to be a mama, you'll still be my little girl." Marielle's response: "That's silly. I won't be a mama; I'll be a big girl. And I'll stay with you for all the evers."

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The benefit of being born first...



Sorry Abbey, Jenna turns 16 first.

Solvang

After Ryan finished finals, he declared emancipation from school and took a Friday holiday. We celebrated by taking a day trip to Solvang, a small, charming, if not too touristy, little Danish village 40 minutes down the road.

First stop, posed picture by the lovely flower garden.
Next, same planter, new angle. I suggested Ryan re-take the picture since we were missing prettiest flowers. Notice the lovely pavement and blaring oversized load in the background. I thought it was a nice improvement too.
Deja vu! The first shoe picture was taken nearly four years ago in the exact same spot. I was pregnant with Marielle in the first picture. (Look again and you'll notice my chubby pregnant face if nothing else.) Marielle is much cuter out of the womb, don't you think?
The weather was perfect. The company was fabulous and we made it out without any impulse buys. It was a great day for the Mullens.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A Blog About Me

So most of the time I blog about my kids. It's fun, they're cute, and people love them. It works. But today I feel like saying a few things about my life. I recently realized that I will have been home from my mission ten years ago this April. 10 years? Where did the time go? This reflection caused two realizations: first, I'm old; second, in ten years I never made the amazing banana pizza I ate my first day in Rio and vowed to make once I got home. So I decided that before I hit ten years, I would make the pizza. Now my memory was pretty sketchy and the internet didn't help me out any, but I came up with something close to the original. I give you Pizza de Banana.

It was delicious! I know the picture doesn't really help my case, but you get the idea. Think plantain banana with cinnamon sugar and no pizza sauce causing weird contradictory flavors.
After making the pizza, I remembered another mission resolution that never happened. I wanted to make treats for my hometeachers whenever they came since Brazilians almost always made treats for us when we came for discussions. I figured it would ensure a monthly visit at the least. But nearly ten years later, not a single cookie offered. I am happy to say, I'm changing my ways, and my home teachers had cupcakes last Sunday. Hopefully it won't take me another ten years to whip out a batch of brownies for the home teachers, but I'm not making any promises either.
On other topics, today was interesting. I...
  • woke up at 5:30
  • had chocolate before breakfast
  • showered around 11:00
  • ate lunch around 3 at Red Robin with Grandma in Ventura
  • watched Marielle and Jenna play until exhaustion in the mall play place
  • caught Jenna eating chocolate, wrapper and all (well the wrapper was mostly just soggy)
  • cleaned up an accident from my 3 year old who has been potty trained for over a year.
  • chatted on the phone with one brother and on gchat with two others
  • skipped making, eating, and cleaning up dinner
  • answered the phone "yo, yo, yo" when the missionaries called because I thought it was Ryan.
  • kissed my husband hello at 10:02pm
Today was definitely not my typical "day in the life" but I still want to remember it. I really do love my life. And since I really can't post without pictures of my kids...

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Power of Laundry

Today I was folding laundry while watching a documentary called The Power of the Sun. (Riveting, I know. Ryan brought it home for us to watch since he is a grad school nerd, and I try to play the part.) Marielle was hanging out with me while I folded, half watching, half playing. Fifty minutes into the hour long show she sees a 3-D satellite representation yells, "This is about space not laundry!" I'm not sure what kind of things I could learn while watching a documentary about laundry while folding laundry, but I'm sure it would be pretty powerful.