FamilyMullen BLOG

Here’s a slideshow of some of the photos taken during our recent camping trip to Cunningham Falls State Park, in Maryland.  We spent the weekend camping with Jennifer’s brother Scott, and his wife and two boys.  A good time was had by all!

These photos are also available on Flickr.  If you click on the slideshow, you can view them there.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Yes … it appears I’ve forgotten about this little blog. Someone actually reminded me about it the other day, saying they visit every so often to look for updates. Obviously they’ve been disappointed. I’m going to try to do a little better if I can. I manage two blogs of my own and two more for clients, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for personal blogging.

So, while I get my act together, here are a couple of pics for you to enjoy:

Hannah’s ballet class got studio-ish pictures done.
Hannah and friend at Hannah’s 6th birthday party
Jackson got to be a fireman for his preschool spring program
The best we could do for a Mother’s Day picture

You may or may not know, but I’ve become a podcaster. I host two shows now — Fighting Back and Startup BizCast. I was fiddling with my recording equipment last week when two little stars-in-waiting wandered into my office. I decided to turn on the mic and record a little. Here are the results…

Hannah wasn’t the least bit shy on the mic:

Jackson loves his sister:

Are they cute or what?

-Daddy

Jennifer and I are still digging out from this year’s round of birthdays. Hannah’s is in the middle of May. Jackson’s is almost exactly a month later. So … you finish with the first round and then immediately have to start planning for the next! Throw Mother’s Day and Father’s Day into the mix in those two months (and Father’s Day was the same as Jack’s birthday this year) and it makes for a busy time in our house. But … we had a great time and I think the kids did too. Here are some links to a few pictures:

Hannah’s Birthday
She was big into “My Little Pony” this year.
Hannah was so sweet. She let her brother help her open all of her gifts!
Blowing out the candles at her “kid” party with all of her friends.

Jackson’s Birthday
Jack returned the favor, accepting gift opening help.
His favorite gift by far was his new tool bench from Gagi!
Blow out the candles!

…and a good time was had by all!

-Daddy

On Monday, April 30, 2007, the blogosphere will observe a day of silence to remember the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. Please join us in observing this day.

http://www.onedayblogsilence.com

No pictures for this update … just a rant. We can’t seem to get or stay healthy around here. Someone in our house has been sick for going on three weeks now! It started with Hannah, who had a low grade fever, and then a cough for a week and a half. While she had her cough, Jackson started running a fever .. which lasted three days. The boy is apparently prone to fevers. According to our ear thermometer, he spiked to 103 degrees at one point. Once those fevers started going away, Hannah got sick AGAIN (or is it that she was still sick .. dunno). This time, she was throwing up every night for three days. One of those nights she was heaving about every half hour. Needless to say, Jackson was the only one who slept that night. By this time, Jackson was developing HIS cough .. and lost his voice. This was quite amusing, I hate to say. Sadly, at the same time this was going on, Jen and I were both sick with a cough and flu symptoms. This was last weekend.

So, this week everyone started feeling better and we thought we were finally through it. Then, on Thursday, Jackson’s fever came back. According to the thermometer, this time it was running around 102 degrees. He had no other symptoms, but the fever at that level is concerning. We kept a close eye on him, and it went away by Saturday.

THEN … we thought we were through. Nope. This afternoon Hannah took a nap. She only naps when she’s not feeling well. She woke up, and sure enough … she said she has a sore throat.

AAAAAGH!

(As always, click the links in the blog post to view pictures of the kids!)

Happy spring, everyone! I figured it was time for an update on what the kids have been up to…

Jackson is about 90% potty trained! Whereas Hannah did it in her usual fits and starts before finally giving in and doing it perfectly, Jackson took the slow and steady approach. From the time we started working with him it probably took three weeks. These days he wears big boy underpants all day except during naptime and bedtime, and he is very good about telling us when he has to go. If he has an accident, it’s a dot smaller than a penny, and he immediately runs into the bathroom to get the rest out. He even stands up when he has to go pee, just like Daddy. We’re all proud of the boy, even Hannah, who likes to tell him so!

We don’t have a lot of exciting pictures to share right now. However, we did go to Maymont (it’s a large park with animals, for you out of towners) recently and had a very nice time. Mommy and Jackson enjoyed looking at the baby goats, and later Daddy and Jackson took a rest on some rocks. Hannah, meanwhile, really liked playing on the rocks. It’s nice that for the most part, brother and sister get along as well or better than could possibly be expected.

More later!

-Daddy

I just had to post this. Last night Jennifer and I were downstairs watching TV, when we heard Jackson over the monitor making upset noises. He wasn’t crying, but he was sounding irritated as if he couldn’t get comfortable.

Now, Jackeroo is not a quiet sleeper. We’ve learned to ignore a lot of his noises because in the past we’ve checked on him only to find he’s fast asleep. Last night, though, they went on for a long time. I finally went up when I heard a very loud breathing sound .. almost as if he’d gotten out of bed and fallen asleep right under the monitor. When I got up there and saw the position he’d worked himself into, I had to immediately call Jen and get the camera. Jackson had gotten himself turned sideways and, because there was noplace better to put his legs, propped his feet up on his bed railing. The loud breathing was him snoring, probably because his feet were up so high. Our digital camera does pretty well in the dark, so I got this picture. All I could see when I walked in was the white bottom of his footies staring at me. I took this pic to show more of the whole story. Jen and I couldn’t help it. We stood in his room and laughed as quietly as we could. Meanwhile, he just snored away with his legs propped way up high. He never did wake up … even when I turned him around the right way.
The poor boy. It’s actually kind of creepy to be photographed while you’re sleeping, and now I’m showing those photos to the world.

-Daddy

This has been a particularly odd winter. Actually, it didn’t seem like we were going to HAVE a winter until sometime in the middle of January. It was as if we had summer, then fall, then spring, then finally winter. During a typical winter around here we have a couple of 3-4 inch snowstorms, and maybe an ice storm or two. Thus far (and it’s now February) we’ve had two dustings and that’s about it. It was JUST enough for the kids to enjoy a little bit before it all melted an hour or so later.

The kids are growing up so fast. Hannah is in a strange in-between phase. On the one hand, she can be so independent. On the other hand, she still wants to have things done for her. Either way, she’s a beautiful little girl, as you can see from this picture — even though in that particular shot she looks more like Jennifer Lopez’s daughter than mine.

Jackson, meanwhile, is turning out to be all boy. He still loves his cars and, as boys do, loves to crash them into each other. Usually he’s a sweet little guy, though.

We celebrated Gayle’s (Jen’s mother) birthday today at a local restaurant. We had a very nice time. The kids loved it because they got to eat fried ice cream!

More to come later!
-Daddy

Well hello, and welcome to the first real post in the FamilyMullen BLOG. The topic, of course, is Christmas 2006. As usual here in the Mullen family, it was multi-day event. It started with a visit from Grandpa…

(click the links in the text to see pictures of the kids!)

Grandpa’s Visit
Grandpa (Jennifer’s father) always comes down a few days before Christmas. It’s kind of a warm up for the big day. Each of the kids got dress-up stuff. Hannah got a Tinkerbell play set and a Tinkerbell outfit, and Jackson got a car set, a toy helicopter, and a dinosaur outfit. Soon after those presents were opened, the kids apparently forgot who was supposed to be wearing each dress-up outfit!

On Christmas Eve, we all packed up and went to Uncle Adam’s and Uncle Andy’s house…

Uncle Adam’s and Uncle Andy’s House
Sadly, the day didn’t start or end well at all. Jackson started feeling ill earlier in the day. He was pretty lethargic and had a fever. However, we got his temperature down, so we took two cars (in case he and I needed to leave early) and headed over to the see the Uncles. The kids were as patient as they could be, waiting to open their presents. Despite the excitement. it became obvious Jackson was starting to feel worse. He soldiered on, and was happy to receive a GeoTrax setup from Gagi and new cars for the setup from Adam and Andy. Hannah, meanwhile, received a Baby Alive doll from Gagi, which immediately became her favorite toy. As time went on, Jackson started getting worse and worse. Since our doctor’s office wasn’t open, I took him to the emergency room. When we got there, he had a 104 degree fever. Fortunately, he’s resilient little guy and was feeling MUCH better by Christmas morning…

Christmas Morning
After Mommy and I got home, we put the kids to bed with “Twas the Night Before Christmas”. We then played Santa for a bit, setting out the presents until the scene was set. The next morning, we got to watch the wonderful moment of discovery. Is there anything more exciting for a kid than Christmas morning? First, the kids set to work playing with their Santa presents and opening their stockings. The car carrier that Santa left for Jackson immediately gained status as a favorite toy. Once the presents from Mommy and I were opened, Hannah discovered what’s become one of her favorites, a handheld educational video game system called “Leapster“. The kids spent the rest of the day discovering cool things about their new toys. Hannah migrated back to Baby Alive, which she named Melissa. Jackson even found that he liked to help take care of the baby! The boy, meanwhile, finally got to spread out his entire GeoTrax set and play conductor.

Believe it or not, the gift giving in the Mullen family wasn’t finished. A couple of days after Christmas, my brother brought his wife three girls for a visit…

Uncle John’s Visit
Hannah Banana and Jackeroo were excited all day to see their cousins. After a trip that took about twice as long as it should have due to traffic, they arrived. With them came still more princess dressup attire for Hannah. The outfits she received from various gift-givers were such as hit, she shared them with her little brother and her youngest cousin. Jackson received more cars … and was very excited! Traditionally during this visit, we take a Mullen Family Picture. This year we decided to limit it to only the kids. They’re a great looking bunch!

We had one more group of visitors this holiday season. Mommy’s Uncle Joel and Cousin Amy came to visit. They’re always favorites of the kids. They not only bring presents at holiday time, but the kids have a great time playing with them. Editor’s note: Pictures of their visit are coming!

My apologies if this seems like a horrifically long post. It’s my first, and it was such a good holiday season. In the future, most posts will be a paragraph or two, and will be quicker reads. Happy 2007!

-Daddy