Mullin Updates

Welcome to our world! Enjoy the pictures and please feel free to email us at mull0113@frontier.com. Runa, John, Noah (5), Anisha (2 1/2) and Max (the dog, 7)

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Birthday Photos

I've added links to Noah and Anisha's Birthdays this year.

We celebrated Noah's birthday at our house with his cousins. Anisha's birthday was spent at my sister's house. Most of her photos are of her stealing frosting from her first Barbie cake. When I asked her what her new doll's name was, she replied with, "Barbie." Duh, mom!

My mom is finally home, thank goodness! Noah was so thrilled at her homecoming. I wish I could say the same for Anisha. She gave her the cold shoulder for a couple days, but now they are best buds.

We had a brutal last half of the winter. We were all sick basically from January until the beginning of April. Not fun. But we are enjoying the warmer weather now and spending lots of time outdoors. Noah's favorite game is stop/go. He will randomly yell stop! and everyone has to stop what they are doing until he says go. It's hard to make dinner while playing that. Anisha enjoys antagonizing her older brother and telling on him when he says "potty" words. We have already had to implement the, just stay away from each other rule. Isn't it a little early for that? In all seriousness though, they really get along well and adore one another.

Life is moving right along. John is still enjoying his job and working really hard. He has also been working out regularly and eating more healthfully. He has lost 25 pounds and looks great! I am trying follow suit, however, I don't enjoy working out at all, but hoping that the nicer weather will help motivate me. As a family we eat much better than before and it feels pretty good. My Mary Kay business is booming and I am officially on target for earning my car and a director in qualification! I am having so much fun with it!

Wishing everybody well and can't wait to see many of you in a few weeks!!!!
XOXO

Friday, February 20, 2009

Where does the time go?

Clearly, I am not very good at keeping this updated. Especially since it's been over a year and it feels like only a couple of months. So many things have happened I don't even know where to begin.

So I will give you the abridged version of Mullin happenings over the last year or so, by family member. And then hopefully I can keep you more up to date regularly. Though, I wouldn't hold your breath if I were you.

Let's begin with Noah. He just turned 4 this January and seems to be exiting his terrible two's. He is extremely artistic and very inquisitive. The question asking and talking never stops. The noise level in the house has increased tremendously in the last year. There is never a moment where he is not moving and it's exhausting just watching him. He is still attending the Montessori school and doing very well there. They have really seen him blossom and he loves being there. My favorite phrase of Noah's from this last year is "Mrs. cuse me." He thinks that when he needs to interrupt someone, excuse me, is a formal name he has to say.

Moving on to Miss Anisha. Well this little girl is definitely in the midst of her terrible two's. Nobody ever believes me, but she really is quite opinionated and sassy. Her hair is out of control and I have no idea what to do with it, but it tends look ok most of the time. She will be 2 years old on March 7. Her language skills for a 2 year are quite amazing. I don't have to change the conversation between her and Noah. She understands everything I say and can communicate clearly to me what she needs. She also just started attending the same school Noah is at and doing quite well. We learned this winter that she hates wearing boots, she is learning to play the drama queen role quite well (Oscar worthy, if you ask me) and she can't make the "K" sound. So if you were to ask her why, she will answer with "behause." And that is a cute "hitty hat." (Kitty cat). I love it! She is also very polite and will always say please and thank you, without any prompting.

Now we come to John. He had a tough year in 2008 with a myriad of health issues. It started with chronic heartburn caused by a hiatal hernia. Then 2 bulging discs that landed him in the hospital for several days. And lastly, he had to have knee surgery for torn cartilage (from playing paintball!) He is doing much better now, but still suffers from some back pain now and again. He has moved to a new company, Great Batch, and is a sales rep there for the Medtronic account. It's been about 6 months and so far so good. He continues to enjoy the medical device industry and it seems to be a good fit for his talents.

Lastly, we come to me. Well, I've just been surviving this last year. The biggest news is that we decided to close down my Young Rembrandts business. It was an agonizing decision because I built it from the ground up and I believe in the program and what it does for kids. But with John's traveling and the time required to grow the business where I wanted it, well, it was compromising my family. So we officially closed on January 31, 2009. It was such a great learning experience because I am such a hands on learner. I am an entrepreneur at heart and am always looking for the next opportunity. But right now, it's all about my kids and my Mary Kay business. A lot less time and way more money!! Gets me out of the house and keeps me sane...you can't ask for anything better. I've also been exploring my faith a lot more and Hinduism is quite interesting. We've also been attending church on Sunday mornings and I have say, it's like going to school for me. I don't know a lot about Christianity, so I'm learning along with my kids. Religion, in general, plays such an important part of society, and I never realized until I began studying.

Oh and I shouldn't forget about Max. He is pretty sad about the long, cold winter. He adores the kids and loves to play with them. His allergies have developed allergies which is really annoying. Let me tell you, trying to get pills down a pit bull's throat is not the easiest task in the world. It's pretty gross actually. Other than that he is healthy and looking forward to a fun spring and summer!

That's about it for now. More posts to come...at some point. We are all eagerly awaiting my mom's return from India on the 24th. (She's been gone since December 2) My dad has turned into babysitter extraordinaire in her absence, diapers and everything. I'm sure he won't want me to mention that when she gets back though.

I hope all is well with everyone!!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Happy Birthday Noah!

Noah turned 3 years old on the 18th of January. We had a small celebration that evening with my parents. He cut a piece of cake with his proud little sister cheering him on.

I know the candle says "1", but I couldn't find any other candles at the time.

We had his party on Saturday and the general rule of thumb is that you invite one friend for every year of their age. So I did that....however I still ended up with like 25 people in my tiny little house. His best buds are Jack, Jacob and Nico. But all three of them have younger siblings (all girls) and of course their parents. But we couldn't have a party without all the cousins, so Natalie, Nicholas, Kylie, Ryan and Jesse were all here as well. It made for a really fun time though and all the kids had a blast. I made a taco bar since taco's are Noah's favorite food and of course he wanted nothing to do with it. His dinner consisted of the insane 4-layer chocolate cake that John made from scratch with chocolate/coffee buttercream frosting. It was so pretty until I tried to write on it. My cake decorating skills are not up to par.

I cannot believe my little guy is 3 years old already! It bizarre to actually have a conversation with him. His favorite song is the Beatle's song "Two of Us" and we have to listen to it over and over and over, and over again in the car. He is starting to pick up the words and I catch him singing it when he is playing. His favorite phrase and response to anything you ask him to do is "You wanna do it." So the conversation will go something like this: 'Noah, can you go and get some socks to wear?' 'You wanna do it.' You would think that I would learn my lesson and stop asking and start directing. This is a concept that I train my teachers to do with the elementary age group and works wonders. When I do remember to be directive, it definitely works. I have to say that it works well with husbands too!

You can check out the pictures from the link on the left. Enjoy!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

2007 comes to a close

So this brings us into December. Another crazy month but we all managed to survive. John traveled to Germany for a week. We were fortunate to go to Berlin last year around the same time and it absolutely beautiful there. I was jealous that he got to go again although it was for work and not leisure.

Noah's school put on a Christmas program that was fun to watch. He of course, didn't participate at all. He spent the first 10 minutes howling because he did not want to go on stage and spent the rest of the time watching his friends perform from the audience and was perfectly content with that. I was amazed however that the director of the school was able to get the kids organized enough to perform songs with memorized lyrics considering that the age range is 2 1/2 to 6 years old. I have a hard time teaching that age group to draw in a classroom setting let alone perform on stage. I can't say enough good things about the school.

Noah's language has just exploded this last month and I can't believe the vocabulary on that kid! He is definitely at the age where we have to spell things and really watch what we say. You only have to say something once and he has it down. He has also decided that it is fun to bug his sister, particularly since she is mobile now and into everything, including his toys. It is impossible to get anything done and keep an eye on them both simultaneously. If you turn your head for a second, someone usually ends up crying. But Noah is not to blame completely, Anisha is learning the art of manipulation and it's to the point now where if Noah walks by her, she screams bloody murder.

Anisha got her top 2 teeth this month and let me tell how fun that was! Not so much. She also caught a stomach bug a few days before John was to leave for his trip. She got so dehydrated because she couldn't keep anything down, that we ended up in the ER and that was the most awful experience ever. Once she got some fluids in her though she was slowly able to eat and keep it down and was back to her old, mischievous self in a week. Of course, Noah then caught it and so did I, although not quite as bad, so I felt like I was doing laundry all the time. I don't ever want go through that again. But I do finally understand why my parents get so concerned when we get sick. It's just an inherent part of being a parent to worry and feel so helpless. I'm not sure that is ever going to go away.

Moving on to fun and exciting things...Christmas Eve was pretty mellow with the four of us and my dad, but we sure had a lot of fun. Noah really understood the concept of a gift this year and had a blast opening presents from us. Our family has typically always opened gifts on Christmas Eve. John's usually did presents from Santa on Christmas, so our kids get the best of both worlds. Spoiled rotten, I know. Anisha had a really good time playing with all the packaging, so I'm not sure why we even bothered to get any gifts. John's mom came over Christmas morning and then we spent Christmas day at the Mullin's house in Hugo. John's dad side of the family is rather large so it's always a lot of fun to visit them. John's brother, Dan and his wife Paige, and their 3 kids, Kylie, Ryan and Jesse, were also there, so Noah ran around like a crazy person. He slept pretty good that night.

The best part of the month was the 28th, because my mom finally returned from her trip to India (she was there since mid-October). I felt such relief when she got home, I can't even describe it. Noah was pretty excited to see his Dida. Anisha didn't quite remember her and was a little cautious around her.

John and I ended up trading both of our cars in for new ones. His truck was costing basically a car payment in gas a month because of his commute to work everyday. So he ended up getting a sedan. My issue was a space issue. My SUV was awesome, but once you put the stroller in the back, that was it. No room for anything else. So I bit the bullet and decided being a mini-van mom isn't going to be so bad. Both of them have so many bells and whistles, it's ridiculous. That's the only way to describe it. They make these things so that you can live in them.

So we bring 2007 to a close and I can't believe how blessed we are. I am grateful for so many things, my family, friends, kids and all the opportunities presented to us that makes our lives richer (and I don't mean with money). Thanks to everyone for all your love and support, we wish you a Happy New Year!

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Highlights from November

Noah is obsessed with trains. He has many train sets around the house and trains to drive on the tracks. Thomas is his favorite and he enjoys watching the movies as well. I'm not really sure if I like the Thomas stories or not. The trains are always fighting and teasing each other. Sometimes they make up in the end, but I'm not really clear as to what message the children are supposed to learn. They all seem kind of bratty to me. Anyhow, I never knew that we had so much railway history here in the Twin Cities. A couple of Noah's favorite places in the model train museum in Bandana Square in St. Paul. http://www.tcmrm.org/ It has a huge model train set up and running that duplicates what the railroads were like in the Twin Cities during the 30's, 40's and 50's. Noah could watch those trains go by for hours and it's funny because Anisha actually enjoys watching it as well.

The other place that we found is the Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul. It has actual train cars that kids can play in, train sets that the kids can play with and a little gift shop with, of course, Thomas and Friends toys. The best part of this museum is the caboose ride. Noah was pretty excited about riding in a real train car, but he wasn't so fond of the noise.


John is still at Boston Scientific in a management position and I'm sure you have heard about all the layoffs. His job is safe for now but it requires a lot more of his time and he has been traveling quite extensively lately. While this has been a little rough for the family, he has been fortunate enough to see some exciting places. He spent a week in Japan during the month of November which turned out to be perfect timing because Noah's school has been studying Japan this month as well. There was lots of material for show and tell. I'm jealous of all the fabulous sushi he got to eat. There is link to his photos on the left.

This was Anisha's first Thanksgiving and we were spent it at the Mitra's house, close friends of the family. Noah had a blast playing with his cousins, Natalie and Nicholas. Anisha had fun too, but she is at the age where strangers and large crowds are a bit overwhelming, so she stuck close by me most of the night.



A couple of days later, we went to the Mustaphi's house to celebrate the engagement of Rai and Scott (finally!). We had a lot of fun catching up with everyone and we are looking forward to another exciting wedding-reunion! Although we will have to wait until 2009...

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Highlights from October

October turned out to be an exciting month for us. Noah went on his first field trip with his school. They visited a local apple orchard and I was fortunate to be a chaperone. The day ended up being pretty cold and rainy so we didn't actually get to go and pick apples from trees. But we did make apple juice and all the kids picked some apples from the boxes in the giant cooler. This was also Noah's very first ride on a school bus. I thought he was going to explode with excitement.







Anisha had a big month developmentally. She cut her first teeth on the 20th and started crawling shortly after. She doesn't do the typical crawl though, it's more of an army crawl and man, can she move!

It was also Anisha's first Halloween and true to form, I waited until the last possible moment to buy both costumes. Anisha was a peapod and Noah was Thomas the Tank. He was a little confused about walking up to the neighbor's houses and ringing the door bell, but once he saw what they were giving he had a good time. The turnout was pretty low this year in our neighborhood and so we had a lot of leftover candy. Noah's a big fan.








I was excited to get some girl time and visit my friend Monisha in Chicago over a weekend. Rai came in from D.C. and the three of us had a fabulous time eating, shopping and relaxing. We are already looking forward to next year and making this an annual event.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Highlights from September

So it's literally been almost 3 months since I posted anything and I can't even believe that much time has gone by. So I am going to take it one month at a time to catch up here. September started off with Anisha's Annaprasan on Labor Day weekend. Everything went off without a hitch and was a ton of fun, but I felt so rushed that it seemed like it was only 15 minutes long. Anisha was a complete angel and really enjoyed all the food. She ended up picking the gold bracelet which I think means wealth...but so does the money, so I'm not really sure. All I know is that since then, she has shown an interest in any type of jewelry so I'm sure the teenage years will be a blast. There are pictures from the Annaprasan in link to the left.

Noah started Montessori school in September and this was a really huge adjustment for the both of us. He still attends 3 full days a week like he did at daycare, but the school is 20 minutes away (instead of 2 minutes) and the school day begins at 8:30am. Those of you who know me well, know I am a huge night owl and 8:30am is early. Especially since we need to wake up at 7:30am to get there on time (kind of). The first 2 weeks there, they really focused on manners, like standing in a single file line with hands behind their backs. And when they sit on the floor during group time, they have to sit with legs crossed (which they call criss-cross applesauce) with hands in their laps. Noah immediately caught on to this and liked it so much that we have to sit like that at home. He really connected with all the teachers and enjoys the structure of his day, which is something I couldn't give him at home. My schedule changes so much from day to day that I was thankful he adapted so quickly.