Cousin Bathtime

The Armstrongs came over for dinner last night and we had such a fun bathtime with these three cuties:

Abigail Lee (6 months)

Abigail & Mommy

Time for Kisses!

Look who can sit up all by herself!

Happiest baby

Jenna (3) & Carter (20 Months)

Throwing bubbles on each other

This is fun!

Clean babies

We love being able to walk between each other's houses and schedule last minute dinners.  Thanks for coming over, Armstrongs!

Happy Birthday, Tay Tay!

Yesterday was Taylor's 23rd birthday and we had so much fun celebrating with her!  After I picked Carter up from MDO, we went over to the Johnson's to help Tay Tay cook.  Yes, she was making her own birthday dinner...because she is so amazing in the kitchen and because she was the one home to do it!  It was a fun day cooking with Tay, playing with Grams, Papa & Nana and eating one of the best "birthday dinners" EVER!  Below was our menu:

Steamed Artichokes with Lemon Butter
Shannon's Cole Slaw
Mashed Potatoes with Cream Gravy
Cream Cheese Corn
Oven Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Parmesan
Chicken Piccatta
Kim's Rustic Bread
Birthday Cupcakes & Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

Carter was extra thoughtful and picked up a bouquet of balloons & a rose for his aunt at HEB

Messy Nutella Face

Birthday Girl

Ready for dinner

Thankful for these people!

We love you, Taylor!

Carter & Aunt Tay Tay

Love the way they are looking at each other here... 

Kisses

Throwing the football with Daddy

This was maybe the most fun he had all day!

Happy Birthday, Tay!  We love you and are thankful for your life!

Go, Go, Go!

One of Carter's favorite things to do these days is to watch a sporting event, especially football games.  We took him to his first Temple Wildcat game a few weeks ago and I was happily surprised with how well he did.  I thought we might be able to stay for a little while before he decided that he did not want to sit any longer, but he was TOTALLY MESMERIZED and loved it!  He clapped for the players, yelled "Go, Go, Go" - which is what he yells anytime he sees a football game on TV - and cheered with the rest of the fans like a pro.  We were able to stay through halftime and we all had a great time!  Since he did so well, we decided to go back yesterday for the big Homecoming game against the Belton Tigers.  Sally, Lee, Jenna & our friends the Fryars (Mark, Makenzie, Harper (4) & Harrison (19 months)) joined us too!  You will never believe this, but we stayed the ENTIRE game and Temple won 50-44 at the very end.  It was an exciting game and a fun evening with some great friends!

Dads & Kids walking to the car

Carter on Uncle Lee's shoulders

The Fryars

The Johnsons & Armstrongs (minus sweet Abigail, who was home with G'ma)

We are so blessed to have great friends and to be able to do fun things like cheering on our Alma Mater together!

September 2012

Here is a quick summary of our September in pictures.  It has been a busy month and I have not been very good about using my camera.  I will try to be better next month!

Carter's 1st Day of Fall MDO at First United Methodist Church

His teacher is Ms. Kari and she is SO SWEET!

Showing off his train conductor hat after going to the Model Train Show at the Expo Center after church with Jenna

Our little train conductor picking out his books for bedtime

Playing in the Rain! (see separate post)

Carter loves to help Tyler mow and he often asks to do it, even if it is raining...

He also enjoys seeing his reflection in the oven glass

Dancing to the music on TV

Dancing with Daddy

Where is Carter???

Bathtime

Sweet baby face (19 months)

Tamara & John's Wedding in San Diego, CA on September 22, 2012:

Moon Daddy's 60th Birthday (see separate post)

Moon Daddy's 60th Birthday

Dad turned the big 6-0 on Saturday and we had a lot of fun celebrating him!  We started off with a family breakfast at Lissy & Moon Daddy's new house.  It was a little chaotic with the three kiddos, but still enjoyable :)  Their new den/playroom is awesome and makes their house so much more functional for the grandkids.  We ate breakfast tacos, fruit & cupcakes & mimosas and Moon Daddy got to open his presents from everyone!

Jenna, Lee & Carter watching Finding Nemo in the Den

Happy Birthday, Moon Daddy!

View from their new back patio

All three kids made MD a stepping stone for his new backyard

Jenna showing off her handprint in her leaf-shaped stepping stone

So thankful for these two!

Sweet Abigail playing & watching Moon open presents

Mom, Sally & I have been working for a while on a special project for today.  We came up with the idea to do "60 Years of Memories" for Dad after Sally found a similar idea online.  About a month ago we sent the below letter to Dad's closest friends & family:

September 1, 2012

Dear friends and family of PATRICK BERNNIE MULLINS,

Our wonderful husband and dad will only be 59 for a few more weeks.  On September 29, 2012, we will celebrate his 60th birthday by presenting him with a special bundle of envelopes.  Our goal is to fill them with your favorite "Pat moments or stories" from days gone by.  We will create "Sixty Years of Memories" by filling 60 envelopes with memories his friends and family have of him.

We cannot do this without your help, so please write down your favorite memory or story about "Moon Daddy" (his grandfather name) and mail it to us.  It does not need to be written on anything special, as it is WHAT you write not what you write it on that will mean the most to him.  Please mention anything you like, the more nostalgic the better!  We expect to see him (and ourselves) laugh out loud and shed a few tears.

Thank you so much for participating, as we know everyone is busy with their own lives.  Pat will get such a kick out of reading the memories that you have of him and so will we!  Please keep it a surprise until after he has opened them at a family gathering on SEPTEMBER 29^th.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Melissa, Mary Helen & Sally 

We had a great turnout and ended up with well over 60 letters.  We could hardly wait to finally present Dad with these letters...

Mom had the great idea to put them in one of Wowo's old hat boxes

Reading the letter we mailed out to everyone

Dad & his girls

 Looking through the letters.  He did not finish reading them until the next day!

Reading a letter from Dr. Ted Hughes

Abigail eating some yummy oatmeal

Carter made Moon Daddy a special card for his birthday!

 Carter's face cracks me up here!

Dad's birthday tradition of giving everyone else a gift for HIS birthday continued this year.  Can you believe that he does this?!?!  It is one of the sweetest, most generous things!  We were all honored with a nice donation to the McLane Children's Hospital at Scott & White - for cooking equipment and a jumbo grill so that they can actually cook healthy food for the patients & their families - and were given other gifts as well.  The kids all got a fun toy to keep at Lissy & Moon Daddy's house:

Carter on his new tricycle

And Jenna on her new bicycle!

Abigail got a Radio Flyer red wagon to ride around the neighborhood in, but she was asleep during the gift presentation, so I did not get a picture.  It turned out that Carter was sick (he had woken up with a 102.2 fever the night before), but we did not know it yet.  We just got home and he has his 3rd ear infection :(

Happy Birthday, Dad/Pat/Moon Daddy!  We are so incredibly thankful for the man that you are and for the 60 years that the Lord has given you on this Earth.  Here's to many more wonderful years of memories!  We love you!!!