Utah Fun

Ok, so we've been back from Utah for almost 2 weeks now and it's been full throttle since then. With school starting, me working a ton and so on, I've had time to breathe and that's about it. So, here are a ton of pictures from our trip and just from those you can see how much fun we had! Thanks to the Wells Family for letting us crash at their house for a solid week! The girls did NOT want to leave and are wondering when Lexi and Ty will come to visit our house... your turn Katey :) Although, I'll let you wait and visit us in a new state.

We made it to Utah!! The girls were so excited to see Lexi and Ty and of course b/c of Miss Katey's creativity, we had an awesome welcoming party :)

We headed out on Saturday am to watch Lexi in a parade and dance performance. It was chilly! But the weather was AWESOME the entire time we were in Utah!

Seriously, who does that kid belong to? I just blame it on the inability to read considering the sign said "Feet First", but then again, since when do my children follow the rules? They had a blast on this bouncy slide. And yes, Emily rolled ALL the way down. She loved it.

This is how the girls walked out of the parade after Lexi's performance. So cute. They all got along great the entire week!

We made sure while we were there since Eric was TDY there that we got an adults night out and we headed to the dueling piano bar in Salt Lake City. It was a good time. It's my favorite place to go in Salt Lake City.

Our wonderful friends/host/hostess Jim and Katey didn't mind taking a picture with us. Well, at least they said they didn't :)

This would be our own makeshift water park! Katey and Jim celebrated a wedding anniversary while we were visiting so I gave them the afternoon off and sent them to Park City while I took care of all the girls. We painted nails, ate lots of junk food and played out back.

We had rest time with the girls so we could have some rest time too. Katey stole my idea when I started on the girls quilts, so they all have matching quilts. They loved it!

To go with their matching quilts, Katey had found them all matching outfits. See, you thought I was bad:) We tried to get them to do a mini photo shoot, but they would barely stop bouncing long enough to get a handful of pictures. And then there was Emily's attitude thrown in there a few minutes later. Katey saw that Emily wasn't just this cute, sweet and innocent 18 month old that left Utah a few years ago.

We got a good laugh out of this game the girls would play on the trampoline called "Dead Man". Or something like that. Basically the girls would chant some little bit and bounce until the person that was laying down and was "it" would get up and chase someone to tag them and they would be the next person to be "it". Well, every time Nichole was "it", Lexi would yell, "don't get me, I'm your best friend, get your sister". We couldn't help but laugh.

This was taken from my phone, but it's still a cute pic. This defined them for most of the week.

And of course, Katey and I had to take a picture of ourselves sitting on this way comfortable and relaxing swing underneath their porch.

The girls also performed a show for us. Gotta love Emily's pose here. What a group of girly girls! :)

My little sister, Aunt Carrie heard we'd be in town, so she made the few hour drive down with her fiancee Eric. She was entertained by the girls as well. Must say, I LOVE the background in this picture and the only thing that would make it better was to see white on those big hills;) Thanks for making the drive Carrie!

Katey would let me sleep in and this is how she kept the kids quiet every morning. Ok, not EVERY morning since I tried laying poptarts out but they just weren't into those after having donuts! :)

About mid way through the week Emily and Ty became the best of friends. Ty is just under a year younger than Emily and Emily had fun being the "oldest" and even got Ty to play ponies and house with her. Haha! Cracks me up! And nothing beats jumping on the trampoline in your pajamas either!

This is one fun group of kiddos who were all pretty well behaved for the week!

Ty and Emily playing "house" at the top of the stairs.

I have a feeling we're in trouble with these girls when they get older!

The last night we were in town, Eric had to do something with his squadron so I got together with our old squadron commander's wife from Hill. They have since retired there so it was nice to get to visit with her. Just stinks Mayo couldn't have come out with us!

So that's the wrap. Thanks again to the Wells Family for hosting us. We had a great time and made many memories. I'm sure once the topic of moving comes up again, Nichole will ask about our blue house. But once we find out our next base, I'm expecting to get an email with flight itineraries from Katey ;)

Goodbyes...

Being in the military, goodbyes are always the thing you know will eventually happen so it's not a matter of if, but when it will happen. I think we need to just vow to stop making friends. Ok, so not really, but seriously, this is part of the AF life that is so stinking tough and now that there are kiddos involved, I cry more thinking about them losing their friends and saying goodbye than over my own goodbye. It breaks my heart for my babies to lose friends and at an age when so much is going on for them. Yea, Nichole may only be 5, almost 6, but she is one smart cookie and totally gets what's happening. Well, not really, she doesn't GET it, but she gets that quite a few of her friends have had to up and leave now. Maybe in our next life we'll live in the same place and have kids that grow up with friends for more than 3 years.

This past Wednesday, I thought it would be a good idea with Scott moving to get him out of the house for a bit while the packers were there and surprise Nichole at her school for lunch. She knew I was coming, but she didn't know Scott was coming and she was excited when she realized he was there with me. Unfortunately, Scott wasn't as excited since he was a tad bit overwhelmed by the size of the school and all that was going on. I'm sure Nichole will remember it for a while either way.

Finally last night came the final goodbye. We went to our other friend's house for the afternoon where all the kiddos got to play together. Then after dinner, Eric came and got the girls so they could get home and in bed for school today. Again, seeing the girls have to say goodbye was harder than saying my own goodbye since I can joke my way through the goodbye to avoid the waterworks. Nichole didn't cry but she did wake up this morning immediately asking about Scott and if he had left already. I told her he was still at his house but that he was leaving today. So she said, well I want to go see him before he leaves. Sorry kid but not sure that's a good enough excuse for missing school. It was certainly a tough goodbye for all of us, but in the military we've learned, it's never "Goodbye", it's always "We'll see you later". So Mullin Fam, we'll see you later!

All the Mommies. All I have to say is "Bridge Run 2010!"

We wanted to get one last pose of the 3 of us. Figures we wouldn't be able to get it right :) Like Shari, what's the deal with your hands, they are supposed to be together and who in the world is Ryndee looking at? Ok to her defense, there was another camera trying to get a picture.

We were told to have a "serious" or "we're tough" look. Not sure we'd do so well as a real Charlie's angel :) I love these girls!

Unexpected

Matthew 8:23-27

Jesus Calms the Storm

²³Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. ²⁴Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. ²⁵The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"

²⁶He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

²⁷The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"

This was the basis of the sermon at church yesterday and it couldn't have been a better one for me to hear right now. Before the sermon during worship time they sang, "Praise you in this Storm" by Casting Crowns and "Bring the Rain" by Mercy Me, two VERY pertinent songs to the message. (And the songs are playing on the blog currently). Pastor Clay talked about how Jesus went through storms and he still came through it. He wanted his disciples to also have faith and courage as he did. That's what Jesus also wants for us; to have great faith and great courage no matter what is going on in our lives.

"I was sure by now,God, that You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it's still raining
as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you"" - lyrics from "Praise you in this Storm by Casting Crowns

I have talked with one of my best friends how tough this whole thing with my dad is for me to understand and how very difficult it is for me to "keep the faith". I see a man who has always been very strong in his faith, and still is, even though he has been beaten down and is ready to lose hope. Satan has tried many times to get the better of him through various aspects of his life and yet he continues to trust in the Lord and knows God has a plan for him. He hasn't blamed God for bringing this disease on him when he hasn't done anything wrong to his lungs. I find myself upset with God though for putting my dad through this and wondering why he isn't helping people find a cure or why none of these studies he's gone through have come up with an answer. Wondering how could he put someone who does so much for so many people through this and make him suffer all day, every day. It's not a fun feeling to know you are questioning God and his plan, but I still find myself doing it b/c of how much my dad means to me and how much it hurts me to see him suffering. However, because of who my dad is and because of how he brought me up, I know he would want me only to spend that much more time with God even though I may not find the answers I am seeking. So my goal from here on out (even though I know it will be a daily struggle) is to remember that even in this "storm", God really is with me, to remember I'm not alone and to seek him out, not to be upset with him, but to continue to praise him in this storm.

"No matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm".


**Sorry this wasn't the "normal" post about the girls and such, but I just wanted to make sure I passed along the convicting message I heard in church this weekend. Was too good not to share. If it becomes available online, I'll be sure to post the link. And eventually I will get around to blogging about the rest of our Utah trip and the girls first day of school. This one just laid heavy on my heart.

Upside down

A few things are going to change up our lives in the next few days/weeks and hopefully we'll find the energy to get through it all. I'll blog this quick just to get some things down and then I'll come back to blog later about our trip here to Utah. It's been a fun filled week for sure and we're sad that our time is coming to a close. I have heard the girls ask if we could move back to our blue house, can Lexi move in next door to us in South Carolina and simply, can we move back. The kiddos have gotten along great and as I said it's been a fun week. It will be a tough goodbye for all of us as I have a great friend in Katey and the girls have a great friend in Lexi and well, Emily and Ty have become quite the buddies. The girls have been looking forward to this trip since I dropped the bomb and told them about it and are not going to be happy campers Saturday am. Maybe they'll be so tired at 7 am when we have to leave that they won't remember?!? Right, wishful thinking. Anyway, we'll get through this tough goodbye, again, since this will be what, the third time saying goodbye to this fun crowd? The first was pretty tough but it hasn't gotten much easier. Darn you Katey for being so much fun :)

Once we get home, we head right into the start of school on Wednesday! Monday will be orientation and open house for both Nichole at her elementary school (ok, so I admit, I'm starting to get anxious about it) and for Emily at her preschool (and ok, I'll admit that I'm ready for her to GO! ;)) "Fine, I will stomp all the way over here" is not something I enjoy dealing with from my 3 year old! Both are super excited to start school and I have a feeling the first few days will be like a dream to me, but then reality will kick in and the 3 hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday will fly by when Emily is gone. Tuesday will be filled with dentist appointments and hair appointments to be all bright and shiny on Wednesday am. We're sad Daddy won't be able to share in the day with us, but he made the "sacrifice" to miss the first day of kindergarten to be able to go TDY here to Hill in Utah so we could join him. I think Nichole will remember her trip to UT much more than her first day of kindergarten, but then again, who knows.

So we make it past the first day of school and then move on to another sad goodbye. Nichole has had a few best friends in the past few years and has had to say goodbye to 3 of them already, to include Lexi here in UT.

Lexi was the beginning of the list when we left Utah, then we moved to SC and Nichole became friends with a little boy named Caden in her class during her first year in preschool. Caden left last summer and she has missed him and whenever we pass his neighborhood she always mentions him.

Then Kaity Mac was in her class for the 4 year olds as was Scott and we are in the same squadron as Scott's family, so we always saw a lot of them. Kaity moved a few months ago and Nichole was quite upset at this lifestyle we live and wanted to know why all her friends had to move. She quickly piped up again when our neighbors moved recently.

So that leads us to now where she doesn't know yet, but Scott will be leaving in about 10 days. They wouldn't have gone to the same school anyway, but trust me, knowing them and Scott's mom and I, we'd have made plans at least three times a week to get together even with Nichole in all day kindergarten. I haven't told Nichole that Scott is moving yet b/c we just found out in the past few days and I didn't want to ruin her time here in Utah although it has laid heavy on my heart. I know she will suffer a huge loss in her friendship category considering all her best friends she has made since she was 2 are now "gone". I know she'll make new friends in school and such, but it just won't be the same for her, for me or for Emily for that matter since Scott's little sister and her are best friends.
Luckily, Emily will still have one of her best friends, Kylynn going to preschool with her, but the 3 of those girls together would always just crack us up and especially when you threw Scott and Nichole into the mix.

They are a great group of kids that have their moments, but 90% of the time play awesome together. I will lose a great friend also (only to distance, I know), but it's tough to say goodbye to certain people. Hopefully we can come up with some good distractions over the next few weeks to get us through all this.


To finish it out, we are busy putting together our list for where we'd "like" the AF to take us next. Our list is supposed to be turned in by Sept 9 and while that seems a long way away still, I'm sure it will creep up on us and then we sit and wait to see what our fate is. We have talked through many different scenarios and added to our conversations the many different factors that come into play with options we have. Please pray that we make the best decision we can for what is best for our family. Obviously, us turning in a list doesn't mean we get what's on there. It's just a "dream sheet". But with some different things happening over the next year or so, I'm just trying to keep my faith and know that God is ultimately in control, even if the AF is deciding where we go next, it's really God making that decision and he knows what is best for us.

Summertime Fun!!

We've been hanging out doing lots of fun things with friends to enjoy the summer and get out of the heat some days! Part of me is sad to see summer come to end knowing there still could be so much fun to be had with these friends we won't be around next summer, but yet, we're ready (or so we think) for this next adventure in life with Nichole starting kindergarten and Emily beginning preschool. Let the fun begin...

Nichole with one of her best friends, Scott. Check out that crazy hair!

Emily with two of her best friends, Sydney and Kylynn! And no, we did NOT plan their outfits with all this pink!!

I have more pics but have to get them off the camera later. For now, it's time to go paint 3 little girls nails!

Mission accomplished!

I have been working for months on these quilts for the girls. I saw the fabric first and then found the pattern with the exact fabric I had bought so I immediately fell in love and couldn't wait to see the finished product. The girls were happy to finally have them after months of waiting as well. I couldn't have made them without the help of friends and I love how they turned out. We are in Utah currently and my friend made her daughter one as well, so we'll post a pic of the 3 kiddos with them at some point.

They weren't supposed to be used as quilts for their beds, but they wanted to take their other quilts off and use these as their blankets and they fit perfectly for what the girls were wanting.

I let them each pick their own backing and of course Nichole chose pink.

I personally like Emily's more just b/c I'm not as into the pink as Nichole is, but both are super cute!

Living with girls!

And so life with girls begins... on the way to the mall Friday, Nichole told me how for her birthday she has decided she wants make-up and jewelry. Right kid, fat chance, you must not know who your mom (or parents) are. I think what brought this on is that we had just been at a "princess and pirate" birthday party where they did the shimmery glitter and such on their eyes and who knows what else since I was on the other side of the room. In any case, no I'm not giving my 6 year old make up for her birthday, lip gloss and some costume or play jewelry, okay maybe. Anyway, so we continued our trip to the mall and she began talking about getting her ears pierced. This has been topic of conversation off and on for quite a while but we have always managed to deter her by telling her it would hurt to get them done. Apparently this time it didn't matter. So I had to say, well we really need to talk to Daddy first. To which she replied, "Well I know how we can talk to him, we can call him". Right. Daddy would love that. I continued on in trying to say "Well we really need to have Daddy with us when we do this". "Well Mom, we can just show him". HA, I did NOT want to hear that! That scares me for the teenage years. So we briefly had a conversation about how Daddy needed to be involved in this decision and we don't just "show him" things after they are done. We'll see if that sticks over the next few years. We finally ventured into the mall got our other things done and we stopped by Claire's so I could price things out and see what options we had. We of course left without having our ears pierced which Nichole was not too happy about but I told her it was her job to bring it up to Daddy. I, of course, later that day when talking to Eric, told him about all this so he'd be prepared and he could think about his response to her. Saturday morning when Eric got home, Nichole once again was bringing it up and I told her to go talk to Daddy. Daddy told her she could get them done! She was super excited and Emily of course this entire time wanted what Nichole had so she played like she wanted them as well. So, off we went to the mall. On our way to the mall this time, we had said that Nichole would go first and Emily would watch. Then it would be Emily's turn. We were secretly hoping that Nichole would have a reaction and Emily would see that it hurt and wouldn't want to get it done. Ha, right. That backfired on us. Nichole had no reaction and even said it didn't hurt, so Emily hopped up into the chair after Nichole had her 14K October birthstone earrings in her ears. So, a nice pretty penny later, we now have two little girls with earrings! Just one more step in the growing up process since it was supposed to be a while until this happened. Yesterday afternoon, Emily was having a bit of "buyer's remorse" I think and wanted to take them out, but ha, not for the price we paid girl, sorry :) They immediately headed over to look at all the possibilities for future earring purchases once they had gone through with it.

Nichole waiting in the chair as the ladies prepped things

It's go time!

She was so proud of herself as were Mommy and Daddy! She's growing up!

Now it's time for baby sister!

I think Emily was a little more apprehensive than Nichole, but she did it!

Still not sure about what just happened.

Two pretty girls after they were all done. I could hardly get them to stop looking at the possibilities of earrings to take this picture.Some rockstar earrings Nichole has picked out. Hmm... not so much kid sorry :)

Friends are friends forever...

"Packing up the dreams God planted

In the fertile soil of you
I can't believe the hopes He's granted
Means a chapter of your life is through

But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways

Will keep the love that keeps us strong"

As I sit and listen to my 5 year old try to explain to me how she's sad/mad that our neighbors are moving (they are a F-15E family heading back to North Carolina) and how she's tired of all her friends moving away, it breaks my heart and I know exactly how she feels. What she hasn't grasped yet is that this is just the beginning. She remembers leaving Utah (must have been the blue house) and remembers her real first best friend Lexi and while Emily doesn't remember as much, she chimes in with the excitement of our upcoming trip to visit Utah and our friends we still have there. I also remember leaving my friends in Utah and I had to be dragged away from that house and those friends. I sat crying for the first few weeks, okay so Eric would say months, we arrived in South Carolina wondering how God would introduce me to more friends that matched up to these other few wives.



Being in the military, we always are moving and meeting new friends and it's hard to leave one place and have faith that God will put other friends in your life at that next base. We go through deployments, numerous TDY's, long hours when they are at home and anything else life throws at us. Here in SC, I'm so thankful for the way the wives work together. In Utah, it was like we never stepped outside our squadron and met the other wives, but here, it's completely opposite. I rarely hang out with anyone from our squadron minus one wife, but the rest are in one of the other two squadrons and no ladies, that's not b/c the other squadrons are better :) I finally allowed myself to move on from Utah and knew that all those friends I made while in Utah, God had me meet them and build a relationship with them for a reason. And boy do I ever miss those gals, but I keep in touch with them and I love them for all they have been to me! Which all brings me to now. I have met some great gals here and again it's just that small handful that have gotten me through a deployment, even LONGER hours (if you can imagine that), more TDYs than I care to count, other life struggles that have come our way and even though they've all had their own lives going on, they've always made time to check in on me, even if it was 11 pm at night. I always knew who was calling if my phone rang after 10 pm and somehow we could talk until midnight and have no clue what we talked about in the end. Kim Mac, somehow we never put aside our crud tourney differences and took pictures together. :) Or maybe I just don't have copies of the pictures?! How is that possible? So, that's my shout out to you girl! I miss you! (Oh and so is the second song on here:)) Wives have come and gone, but I am so thankful for the few that have been best friends to me. Now as I sit with my husband home, well, on alert, (for now thankfully), I have 3 best friends who are missing their hubbies due to either Korea or the desert. I find myself hurting for each and every one of them and wishing I could take their hurt away, since they don't have the every day joys of spending time with their husbands and their children's Daddy, b/c I like them, know what it's like to be a single parent and it is one tough job! I know that eventually we will be in this same boat (Korea I mean) and we will be faced with some of the same trials they are all going through. But I know that even with them all going through these things, I could call one of them up, ask them anything and they would be there for me at the drop of a hat and they know I would do the same for them, b/c that's what friends do. Now, if only I could convince Eric to take on an additional 5 kiddos a few nights a month so the 3 of us could go for some girl time.... HA, right. The one thing I'm thankful for is that we all arrived here around the same time and will move on to our next bases within a few months of each other. So, here's to all my girls past and present (man I feel like I'm doing a Gambler toast)! Thanks for who you are to me, each other and everyone else you come in contact with. I love you all! Oh and Ryndee, Gamblers rock, your van even said so :) See Shari, I do show emotion ;)