You Decide

I was given some pictures a few weeks ago that came from my grandma's basement. It was pretty cool to look through pictures of me when I was about Tyler's age and my mom. We were passing the pictures around wondering if any of my children looked like me. So I thought I would post a picture of me when I was 3 and then a picture of Rachel and Tyler at 3 and I will let you make the decision. You may be asking what about Allison, well we all know that Allison looks just like her daddy. She got those McMullens genes big time.

So what do you think?

Happy 7th Birthday Allison

Dear Allison,

I absolutely cannot believe that you are 7 today and that I am the mother of a 7 year old. I cannot believe my little girl who was born at 5 lbs 6 oz is now 7. The years have absolutely flown by with you. It just seemed like yesterday that you were learning to walk and now you are in 1st grade.

This year you are in 1st grade at Mary Frank School with Mrs. Roberts. You seem to love Mrs. Roberts and are enjoying 1st grade. You do not have your best friend, Abby Callender, in your class this year but you seem okay with that and spend every recess together. Your accomplishments in the last year have been amazing. Since your last Birthday you have learned to ride a two wheel bike, you have learned to read ( I am amazed at how well you are reading right now), you are swimming like a fish (with no life jackets, etc.), you learned to ice skate and right now you are playing soccer. You have not played soccer since you were 4. You decided that you wanted to actually play the game, so we signed you up for Upwards soccer and you are doing great. You scored a goal in your first game, I think you have a natural talent for it, though I am probably a little biased. One thing that has not happened to you yet is that you haven't lost your first baby tooth. You have a couple right now that are loose and you are waiting for the day that the first one comes out.

Another thing you did this year was let your hair grow out for locks of love. You had 10 inches cut off in June of this year. You looked totally different, but I was so proud of you. You are such a sweet little girl Allison. You love other people. You are the first one there when someone is hurt or upset to make sure they are okay. You have such a sweet spirit and when you give your heart to someone you give it all. This is something I absolutely love about you and see some of myself in you, but I also worry that someday someone will take advantage of that. I never have to worry that you are misbehaving or not doing what you are supposed to be doing, you know the rules and you follow them. You very easily get your feelings hurt and it doesn't take much and the tears start flowing.

As I think back on what I was like as a little girl I think of you. You are not super extroverted, you tend to stick with those you know. You are also fine to play by yourself or to sit on the bus by yourself. Rachel at times gets mad at you, because you will not play Barbies with her. You would rather be by yourself or playing with mom and dad. You love to play cards with us right now. You are the calm in this family. Everyone can be going crazy around you, yet you remain the same. You are into High School Musical right now and you still love to sing. Though you may not say this, I think you still have a "thing" for Jacob Callender, you 2 are pretty cute together and when you are together you are pretty much inseparable.

Allison, never forget that God has a plan for your life. He has put your here for a reason and my prayer for you is that He will make the call on your life clear to you. Right now you love to hear about Jesus, and I pray that this never changes. I pray that you will let God lead you and that you will follow wherever He takes you. I know you will do great things for the Kingdom. Always know that your dad and I are here for you. We love you with every fiber of our being and there is nothing you can ever do that will make us love you less. I am so proud of you Allison Lynn. You are an amazing, sweet, tenderhearted, loving, adorable little girl.

I love you with all my heart,

Mom

Happy 3rd Birthday Tyler

Okay so I had this all typed up and ready to go on Thursday night so that I could post it on Friday, which was Ty's B-day, and I forgot about it. So here is his letter from his mom!
Tyler-

Happy Birthday buddy! 3 years old today, I almost cannot believe it. Where have these last 3 years gone? Everyday I have to remind myself to hold on to today, because the days and weeks go by so fast and I am watching you grow into a little boy way too fast. You told me today that you were not my baby, that you were "big". This is so true! You are such a little boy Ty. Your dad and I have already said that we will be in the ER with you at some point while you are growing up. You are constantly running around the house which in turns means you are constantly getting hurt. Just this week, you were in your bed (you are still in a crib) jumping and somehow you fell out and landed on her head. You came to be crying with a big rub burn on her head. One thing about you when you get hurt, you recover very quickly. You cry for a few minutes and then you are off.

This year has been a big year for you. You learned how to ride a bike, you were potty trained (which I have to say was way easier than I thought it would be), you were brave enough to go down some pretty big water slides at the water park this year, you learned all of your colors, know how to count to ten and sing along to the ABC song.You also started going to Fun-n-Fitness this year. You started out in a mommy and me class and very quickly moved to going on your own. You love to go and jump on the huge trampoline. The past few months have been huge for you. You started preschool in August and to my surprise you seem to be loving it. You are going to Clay 2 days a week for 4 hours and then you are also going to the preschool at Mary Frank 2 days a week for 2 1/2 hours. I was really worried about how you would handle all the change in your life when this started, but you adapted and are doing great.

Carter Ruth is at Clay with you. You get to eat lunch there, go outside and play and spend the days with one of your friends. At this point you seem to like Mary Frank preschool better. The way you talk about that school, is by telling me "my teacher get me out of my car". You ask to go there everyday and I have been told that you have a crush on one of your teachers and pretty much stick by her side. It has been amazing to me to watch you grow and watch your personality change in the last few months since you started school.

Up until this point, I would definitely say that you were still a mommy's boy. You pretty much preferred me to anyone else most of the time, but I have seen some changes in that since you started school. You were also a little on the shy and unsure side, but again I have seen huge changes in this area of your life in the last few months. You are becoming this little guy who does not rely on mommy quite as much anymore. You still absolutely love to be with your sisters and all your friends and you spend most of your day asking me where your daddy is. Though I have seen huge changes in you in the past few months we are still working with you on your speech. You are making great gains, but you are hard to understand at times. Miss Carol, from First Steps, has been working with you for the past year and it has made a huge difference. You still have some things to perfect, but you are talking up a storm right now.

One of the things you do that makes me laugh out loud, besides you just breaking into a dance , is you will be playing with one of your sisters and I will hear them start crying and then I will hear just a bit louder you saying "sorry Rachel" or "sorry Ally" whichever is most appropriate at the time. You will literally follow them around the house telling them you are sorry until we can talk about it. You tattle on yourself right off the bat. It makes your dad and I smile, which of course means you probably get away with more then you should. Once you know you have gotten someone laughing you will keep doing the same thing over and over again. You have also recently started singing songs, thanks to preschool, and it is just so cute. Some of your favorites are wheels on the bus, and 10 little monkeys.

Tyler you are such a sweet and gentle little boy. You already such a huge heart, you are one of the first ones to offer a kiss when someone is hurt or crying. You are a boy through and through but you have a huge heart. I cannot wait to see what God does in your life. Always know that there will be easy times and hard times in life and that most important thing is that you never take your eyes off of Jesus. It is so easy at times son to get caught up in how bad things are for us, but if we keep our eyes on Jesus he will bring us out on the other side better and stronger then before. Love Jesus with everything in you Ty and do not ever compromise that. Some people will not understand you or will try to derail you from what you know is right, I pray that you stay strong in those time always knowing that Jesus is right there with you. Know that your dad and I love you will all that we have in us and we will do anything for you. No matter what we will be here for you!

I love you Tyler Ryan McMullen!

Allison, the Soccer player

Allison is playing upward soccer this fall and is loving every minute of it. I heard about it from a friend and Allison has been on me to play soccer so I thought it would be a great time to try it. Little did I know that she would love it so much! She was a little disappointed when her best friend Abby was not on her team and believe it or not they played each other in the first game of the season. It was fun to watch them play against each other, I think at moments they forget that they were not playing together.

Allison scored her first goal in that game and she was so excited. Her Papa had asked her the night before to score a goal for him and she did and Papa, Uncle Ryan, Grandma, The Callenders and the Ruths were there to see it. I was so excited for her. She is having so much fun playing and considering that she has only played soccer once in her life before this, she seems to know what needs to be done and is all about getting to the ball. I will say she does not seem to like to be on defense, she wants to chase the ball wherever it goes. I guess one could say like father like daughter, I have heard her father is the same way when it comes to hockey...

Taking it down the field.

Kicking it in and scoring a goal!

Whoohoo!

BFF!

Home

Daryl has been out of town since Wednesday and all I can say is I am ready for him to come home. I don't mind him being gone every now and then. It gives me a chance to watch some movies he would rather not watch and to get caught up on my shows on TIVO. But all I can say is after about day 2 I am ready for him to come home. The kids are so excited to see him again, anytime the door opens today they think it is him. T minus 3 hours and daddy is home......yeah!

Different

I was having dinner last night with my dad and he said to me, "did you ever think when you were growing up that your life would be like this" Of course he asked this while I was trying to keep 3 kids reigned in at Chick fila. We continued to talk about how lucky I was and what a great family we have.

The whole conversation though got me thinking about how my life is different now. I remember growing up always knowing that I would be married and have kids. I also knew growing up that I would probably never move away from this area. The last thing I thought growing up is that my mom would be by my side as I had kids, as my kids grew up and as they got married. Unfortuantely, that did not happen and the only way I can explain my life and feelings now is "different".

Right after my mom passed away I remember thinking I would never get past it, there were literally days when I thought I would not make it through the day. The feelings of loss were so intense. My feelings moved from intense all the time to intense now and then and now I would just say that life is just different. Do I still have days where my feelings of loss are intense, absolutely, but more then anything it just feels different.

I used to see my mom almost daily and if I did not see her I talked to her, we had lunch together at least once a week and she was amazing with my kids. Now neither me nor my kids have those things anymore and when someone is such a huge part of your life and then is gone everything just feels different.

It is different to hear friends talk about their moms and know that I don't have mine anymore. It is different to go out to lunch to some of the places my mom and I used to go and she is not there anymore. It is different to go see my dad at his house or at the lake and not have mom there. It is different to move into a new house and not have her there through the whole process. It is different to watch my kids grow up and not have my mom to watch right along with me. It is different that my kids will never know what it is like to have a grandma who have taken them school shopping and would be cheering them on at all their events. Life is different and basically it just sucks!

High School Musical 2

Well...you know it had to be done. Our girls really love High School Musical - so when Disney Channel announced that there was a sequel coming out - the girls started counting down the days.

Special thanks to the Callenders' for hosting the party. From the pictures above you can see how enthralled the girls were throughout the majority of the movie. Allison already resonates with the romantic stuff (were there tears in your eyes?) and Rachel loved it though she got a bit distracted at times.

The kids dressed up like their favorite HSM2 stars, we had pizza and lots of treats.

I can almost hear them asking, "When does High School Musical 3 come out?"

Am I Old Enough For This?

(Photo by Jason Powell)

Earlier this summer we spent the day with other GCC staff for the yearly picnic. Tyler told us he wanted to do the zip line (probably after watching Diego do it a hundred times) but when he got up there I think the heights bug hit him. His face tells the whole story:

What did my mom just let me do?!

Needless to say he made it to the bottom fine. He did slide off the seat but the harness was there to catch him. People quickly scooped him up and unhooked him so I think the trauma was minimal...

You go boy!

Rachel's First Time on the School Bus

Since Rachel was only in school for an hour the first day she did not get to ride the bus, so on Thursday Rachel boarded the school bus for the first time. Of course she had her big sister by her side, which Rachel was very happy about. They were able to sit in the same seat together which I thought was so cute. I am going to encourage it as much as possible right now, because I am sure some day they won't even speak to each other on the bus. I am really not looking forward to that day.

Allison and Rachel heading out to the bus.

Rachel on the bus for the first time.

Allison and Rachel on the bus together for the first time.

Rachel's First Day of Kindergarten

Believe it or not my little girl is going to Kindergarten. I can hardly believe I have 2 kids in school now. Where has the time gone? Rachel was so excited to go to school. The first day she only went for an hour while the parents were in a orientation. She knew a couple of kids in her class which she was excited about. She is going 3 days a week full day and then 2 days a week till 10:20am. Since school did not start this week till Wed. she was only gone till 10:20 on Thurs. and Friday. Next week will be very strange when she does not come home till 2:45pm.

She seems to be having a good time in Kindergarten. She told me on Friday that she was being as quite as a mouse, we will see how long that lasts :)

Rachel in front of her school