There's an Elephant in my Room!

A few Sundays ago Kevin and I were all snuggled in our bed sound asleep, when Isabelle comes running in scared to death and jumps on our bed. She climbs in right next to me and says, "There's an elephant in my room!" Groggily I said, "A what?" "There's an elephant in my room!" Then I said, "Is it a big one?" to which she replied, "No a baby." After a few more snuggles I went into her room to see the elephant. I assured her there was no elephant then I went to get in the shower.



Kevin and her went elephant hunting in her room, because if there is any excuse to hunt Kevin will be there. Also he doesn't really get to play "hunting" with the girls all that much so here was a prime opportunity. As they went in and turned on the lights she saw that her shopping cart was turned over and that that was her elephant. She comes running in and says, "It was my shopping cart! There wasn't an elephant!" So dang cute.

Christmas Part 1

Christmas is in two parts - this is part 1. Keep reading to see how the rest of Christmas turned out...After our bowling excursion in the morning, we headed down to Bountiful to celebrate Christmas Eve with my family. On the way we stopped by to see Rick and Tara and new baby Davis. He is super cute!

Baby Violet was at my parents house. The girls adore and love Violet. I think they are going to have a great time with they all get bigger.

My brothers Steven and Michael are checking out the presents with the girls.

Did I mention Isabelle adores Violet. She blesses her in all her prayers. Even in Sacrament meeting, after they say the Sacrament prayer, Isabelle says, "They didn't bless baby Violet!"

My parents gave Lillian a CD player. This is the biggest hit with her. She is always playing some kind of music in her room. The CD player also came with two CD's which are getting plenty of use. Supercalisfrasilistic is the fave song right now.

Isabelle got an instrument set with a microphone. They both got very fun and noisy toys.

Grandma wearing her present decorations.

Lillian loves her Grandpa.

It is tradition to spend Christmas Eve at my grandparents house. So we headed over there for a delicious dinner and a beautiful Christmas program.

It is also tradition to act out the Nativity story. We are all grown up now but we still do it for the kids. Isabelle got to be Mary this year. Here she is holding baby Jesus.

Growing up I used to be the angel, now Lillian has taken over that role for me.

It took some major convincing this year to get my cousins to dress up but being the good sports that they are they did. Once you do it, it is always fun. Plus the girls loved it.

Santa dropped gifts off at Grandma's back door. The girls got princess chap stick. It got the girls so excited for Santa to come.

The girls opened their Christmas pj's at Grandma's before we made the trek back to Logan, in the hopes that they would fall asleep on the way home.

On the way out the door the girls saw a red blinking light that was traveling across the sky. They started running around and yelling, "It's Santa! It's Santa! We saw Santa!" Well they were ready to go home and go to bed after that because they were so afraid that Santa would miss them.

Even though it was far to go I am so happy we made the trip down to Bountiful to celebrate Christmas Eve. It just isn't the same if we don't. There is just a special spirit at Grandma's house for Christmas Eve.

Christmas Part 2

The girls slept in on Christmas morning until about 7:45. They couldn't contain their excitement as you can imagine! When asked what her favorite part of Christmas, Lillian said it was the bubble gum in her stocking. Wow. Next Christmas will be a breeze.

Santa put their biggest present under a blanket. Lillian thought it was a boat.

No boat, but it was a table with two chairs. It was and is a big hit with them.

Kevin is buying his dad's truck after his dad gets his new truck, so that was his Christmas present. But Santa threw in a few surprises like this Dremel tool.

Lillian loves creating jewelry so a jewelry making set was under the tree for her. She didn't waste any time in making us all some jewelry.

All Isabelle wanted was a baby. Baby Alive moves and coos and cries and pees. What else could a girl want from a doll?

Mrs. Claus also sent these two cute shirts for the girls. How nice of her.

They also got barbies. Lillian a Sea World Barbie and Isabelle a barbie with a dog. The dog is not like any dog. This dog eats and then poops, and then eats his poop and then poops again; I mean seriously. It is a huge hit with the boys who come over and play.

We had a wonderful Christmas. We had a lot of things before Christmas to do and get ready for, but Christmas day was quiet and relaxing. We opened presents, had breakfast, played with the presents, and then Kevin and I had a nap. That in itself was a great Christmas present. Later that day we went over to Melissa and Lynn's for a delicious dinner. Melissa made ribs that were so good, I'm still thinking about them.

I am just so thankful for all that I have. I know it sounds so clique but I really I am. To have my family around me, to celebrate the birth of our Savior, I am so blessed.

Mullen Family Christmas Party

We had the Mullen Family Christmas party at our house 2 days before Christmas. We've started to do the Amazing Race at the Christmas party. It always proves to be very exciting. This year Kevin planned it around his parents lives. He sent them to Sky View, where Jim taught school for 30 years, to complete tasks there. Then they headed out to Newton, where Kevin grew up. Next to Hyde Park where Jim and Mary had their first house, and to Cedar Ridge, where Mary was the secretary.

Kevin and I just planned the race so we didn't run it, but it seemed like it was a lot of fun. I think it was really fun for everyone to race down memory lane. Jim and Kris' family were the winners and got to take home the traveling trophy.

Dad Jim made his family Chili Verde for dinner and we had a Mexican feast; it was so good. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! For dessert we had raspberry rolls and pumpkin caramel cinnamon rolls with a hot cocoa bar. Yum!
We have very few toys at our house for boys, as you can imagine, so the cousins found other ways to entertain themselves...

Present time is quite the affair at the Mullen party. Isabelle was super excited about all the Dora toys she got.

The girls were thrilled with a cash register with all the accessories.

The next morning, on Christmas Eve, we went bowling. Bowling on Christmas Eve is a Mullen Family tradition. It is like the only time we ever go bowling and this year we realized we need to go bowling more often; we stink!

The girls had fun and did well with the help of the bumpers and this contraption to help them bowl straight.

Jim and Kris went home the night before so we were a little short in the cousins picture. It was lots of fun!

Curls, Curls, and More Curls

Lillian has been asking me to put sponge curlers in her hair for ages. Finally I remebered to buy them and we tried them out. The girls both have hair as straight as straw. Whenever I try to curl their hair, the curl falls out after a few hours. So I put the curlers in with gel and we left them in all night and half the day hoping their hair would stay curly.

I was surprised Isabelle left the curlers in her hair all night. She was less excited than Lillian about them.

We took the curlers out and wow! Their hair was sooo curly. Way curlier than we imagined. It was really cute after we tamed it a little. Don't they look adorable in their Christmas dresses?

Utah State Basketball

Being the dedicated Aggies that we are, we have seen it as our duty to pass down the Aggie pride to our children. They already know the Aggie fight song and Lillian is learning the Scotsman. We bought Jr. Aggie tickets for Lillian to go to some of the basketball games, and we got in free because Kevin was still a registered student until January. So we took advantage and went to some games.

If you haven't been to a game in the Spectrum you need to, you'll be in for a treat. The students are raucous and crazy! It is a great atmosphere.

We love going with our good friends Matt and Kristin. We've been going with them since we were first married. Here is Jack trying to smile I think.

Lillian's Dance Recital

Lillian started at a new dance studio this year and we love it. She is in a group with some older girls but she does really well for only being 4. We were so happy to go and watch her in her Christmas recital.

Their first dance they danced to the theme song from "Charlotte's Web," by Sarah McLachlan. Which is why she is holding a pig.

The second song she danced to was a Hannah Montana song, which was a huge hit with Lillian. We heard about the Hannah Montana dance pretty frequently. I love how she says Hannah Montana, it is Hannah Muntana.

My parents came up to see her show off her dances. It was great to have them there. Thanks for coming!

Kevin's Graduation

Kevin graduated from Utah State University with his MBA; his third degree from the University. We should get like a frequent member card or something. We are so proud of all his hard work. It has finally all paid off and it was great to see him get his degree.

We had great seats at the graduation. We had a direct view of Kevin. Even still, the girls got a little bored with the event.
Kevin made some great friends in his MBA program. He and TJ Davis got through all of it together.

Kevin and his friend Jeremy Miller went through the program at the same time, but at separate campus'.