Catching Up!

I'll admit it, I've been a bad blogger lately.... I blame it on the holidays, cleaning, tons o' family gatherings and my incessant need to watch Heroes, Season One on NetFlix... But, I'll have you know, I have been documenting all of our activities with photos and have every intention of

posting each event!

I'll start here....

A few weeks back, December 16th (I think) I headed over to see our niece Holly's first ever dance recital. Poor thing still had her cast on from breaking her elbow so her costume changes were a bit challenging for she and Kristen. She was placed on the end of the first act, so I got some great shots of her dancing/standing there being cute :) Her "BIG" recital is in the Spring, I'll have to drag Kev along to that one :) Enjoy the pictures!!

Waiting for her cue...

Opening "move"

She did great despite her clunky cast!

Just being cute :)

Wardrobe change! With family friend Danielle

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone has a wonderful day celebrating with family and friends! My mom was supposed to come out to visit and spend the holidays with us, but unfortunately was stuck in Seattle with all the snow they've gotten, so we were really bummed. Mama, stay warm - we're missing you today!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!!

Love,

Stacie, Kevin, Peanut and Tucker

Happy Birthday!

To our little niece Holly who turned 4 and to my stepdad Bryan who turned "older" today :) Holly got her cast off of her elbow today which was a great bday present! She cracked her elbow a few weeks back but thankfully was able to perform in her first dance recital last Monday! (pictures to come....)

Bry, I was so happy we got to chat this afternoon, I miss you and love you very much! I hope you had a wonderful day! XO

Winter Wonderland!

So it's snowed non-stop since Friday afternoon and there seems to be no real end in sight. The meterologists are now saying an add'l 4-6 inches today before MAYBE turning to rain. Either way, we're enjoying the fact that winter has officially arrived! (Today is the first day of winter) Seattle is getting wallopped too, my poor freezing friends and family, they're not used to this!

Here are some pictures from today, I have posts in the works from this week; I've been a bad blogger lately with Christmas fast approaching! This is also my 100th post, go me! :)

**UPDATE: The snow has stopped, finally!! :)

Tucker
Our snowy cherry blossom Peanut

Happy Birthday!

To my wonderful friend Lindsay (Avery) ! I hope you had a fabulous 29th! XOXO

** an oldie but goodie AKA back when we were both "blondes!" **

Fa La La La La...

I was really excited to decorate for the holidays for some reason this year. Could be because we're in the midst of remodeling/decorating our house and I'm liking it SO much better than before or just that it's finally cold enough to feel like winter and the holidays! Either way, I couldn't wait! Last year, Kev, J&J and I got our trees at a cute little family owned place aout 15 minutes from home. They had a great selection, and although they were a bit pricier - they shook the excess needless off of it by putting it in a handy dandy machine-a-ma-bob. They also put it in a net so when you drag it into your house the branches and needles don't go everywhere. Worth the extra $$ in my book!!

Anyway, Julie and I decided to make it a tradition and this year we threw brunch into the mix!Kev and I headed over to their house Sunday morning and us gals cooked up a feast of egg and veggie scramble, sausage and pancakes. It had started to snow so it was absolutely gorgeous out! We finished up, got Eliza in her fleece snowsuit and headed to get our tree. It was less than warm out, so we picked fairly quickly. I believe we got a Frasier Fir, she's a beaut!! We got it on the car and were on our way. We had a great time, but I think next year - we'll make the boys cook while we sip spiked eggnog and gab :)

Enjoy the pictures and Happy Holidays!

A very curious Tucker :)
Ornaments
My new centerpiece -bright green pears and candles with silver mirrored balls

Sorry, she was just too cute! :)

Recipe Swap 2008

Shelby has asked us all to contribute to her "Recipe Swap 2008" as she and her hubby and sis-in-law are brave enough to take on cooking for their entire family this holiday season. Hopefully these two recipes make the cut, they're sure to not disappoint!

This first recipe was one of my grandma's and they're SO easy and delicious. I made them last year and my mother-in-law must've eaten half the batch :) Every time I saw her she had one in her hand and powdered sugar all over her face.

The quiche is a recipe my mom makes, it's awesome! Best part, you can serve it for breakfast, lunch OR dinner. I'll consider this her RS '08 contribution.

Enjoy!

Pecan Puffs

Ingredients

1 stick of butter
2 T sugar
1 t vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees
Cream butter and sugar together
Stir in nuts, flour and vanilla
Roll into small balls and place on cookie sheet lined with wax paper or foil
Bake in 300 oven for 15 minutes
Remove and roll in confectioners sugar while warm and again when cool

Yields: 1-2 dozen, depending on size of dough balls


Above the Clouds Quiche

Ingredients

Prebaked pastry shell for 9" pie
1 pound leanest bacon (cooked to crumble stage without burning
1/2 pound Swiss cheese
2 cups heavy cream
4 whole eggs
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1/2 t white pepper
1/2 t paprika
1 t salt
1/4 cup finely chopped onion

Directions

Preheat oven to 400
Mix eggs and spices together well (but do not beat);
Add cream and mix again
Spread crumbled bacon evenly in pastry shell, layer cheese over bacon and press down
Pour liquid mix over cheese to fill shell
Bake for 15 min. at 400, then reduce temp. to 325 and continue baking for 20-25 min. until golden or a knife inserted comes out clean or with just the cheese clinging

Everything can be prepared a day or two before and refrigerated, then assembled at the last minute just before cooking.

*Tip: Mom sautees the onions first

Yields: 6 servings

Happy Birthday!!!

To one of my best friends in the whole world, Lynnie! I hope you have a great day and get everything you want today and always! I love you soooooo much and am very thankful to have you in my life!! XO

Thanksgiving Recap....

We had a great day celebrating Thanskgiving with Kev's side of the family. After our football game, my team lost! :( we headed to Kev's aunts for dinner. There was SO much food and of course tons of laughs. My cheesecake was a hit, thanks goodness. I had never baked anything using a spring form pan before so I was a little nervous about how it would turn out. It looked good, but couldn't tell how it tasted!! After dinner we looked at the pics from the football game, there were some hilarious ones! We also played a form of pool called "Kelley Pool" which was a lot of fun and got pretty competitive! We stayed for a while hanging out and by the time we got home, we were exhausted! I think I was in bed before 9! Here are some pics from the day!

Kevin and me

Jules, me and Linds

Aunt Joanie and Uncle Leo

Leo, Kev, Jason and Austin

Eliza, Jules and Patty

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day enjoying their friends and family and remembering how much we all have to be thankful for! I know I'll take a moment to sit back and realize how truly blessed Kevin and I are.

This morning after watching some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, a bunch of us played in our 4th annual Thanksgiving football game. It was fun and the weather was gorgeous so the layers were quickly stripped off once our un-atheltic bodies got movin'! We are headed to Kev's aunt's house for dinner and games at 1pm; we're really looking forward to a great day! I made a pumpkin cheesecake that I'm dying to taste, I'll report back on whether it was a hit or the dessert that no one touches. :)

Happy Birthday....

....to my jet-setting friend Jaime! She and her husband are currently in Thailand on their 4 month Pacific Rim adventure! Here are a few pictures of them, how cute is that elephant?! You can see more of their amazing trip here. Happy Birthday Jaimers! Love you lots and I hope you and Morgan have a fabulous Thanksgiving! XO

Riding elephants in Pai, Thailand

At Sunset on a beach in Railay, Thailand - amazing!!

Butch T. Cougar says it best.....

Today is Apple Cup. The meeting of the ultimate rivals, Washington State University and University of Washington. I have sooo many incredible memories from AC during college, it was a day that showed true pride and love for WSU. This day is no different, except both teams are shall we say, "sub-par" this year. Either way, it will be a fun game and I so wish I could enjoy it with my best friends ! Instead, I'm happy watching it with my "Adopt-a-Coug" husband.

GO COUGS!!!!!

Happy Anniversary!

To Kev's parents and my in-laws, Bernie and Patty Mullin. They were married 37 years ago today! They celebrated with a two-week trip to Florida, how nice huh?! Happy Anniversary, you truly are an inspiration to us! XOXO

* Picture taken at our wedding on 9/1/07

Oh Baby!

Two sets of good friends welcomed their little boys into the world these past 2 weeks! Coincidentally, they were due the same day! First, John and Stacy Brinegar had Kyle Parker on November 9th at 9:11am, weighing 7lbs and 7oz, 19.5 inches long. The Brinegars are already learning a lot of do's and dont's of parenting!! Kyle keeps them on their toes! Then on November 18th, Steph and Matt Burrell welcomed Jacob Henry! He was born at 1:08 AM weighing in at a 6lbs 8 oz and 20.5 inches long. According to his dad, he's been eating and partying all night long!

Congrats to you all! Can't wait to meet the little guys!!! How cute are they????

Kyle Parker

Jacob Henry

Congratulations!!

To our dear friends Kristen and Lou who told us this weekend that they are expecting their first little one next June! Kristen is feeling so good that she ran a freaking marathon at 7 weeks, what a great story to tell the baby!! We are so so excited for you guys, congrats again! XOXOXOXO

Our Weekend...

This past weekend Mike was in town for a visit. He got a great job within a government organization and will be away from Boston training for the better part of next year. Hopefully he'll be able to sneak away for a long weekend around the holidays or next Spring. Anyway, he came to Waltham to see all the friends and family (Mullin's) after spending time with his own family down near the Cape. Below are some pics of Mikey and friends; congrats on your new job - we couldn't be more proud of you! You deserve it!

Paul, Mike, Lou and Kev at The Stockyard


Me, Erica and Kristen at The Stockyard

I love this picture! Eliza and Mike

Holly, Mike, Eliza and Brady :)

Auntie Sheri and Eliza

Randy, Leo, Kev, Mike and Jason

LOL!

Just because....

"You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'My God, you're right! I never would've thought of that!'" ~ Dave Barry

Kristi's Visit to Boston

Last weekend one of my best friends Kristi was here visiting. I've been quite spoiled with all of the friends visiiting! We had a great weekend celebrating her birthday and just hanging out. Friday I picked her up from the airport and we had lunch at Florentine's, a cute restuarant in Boston's North End (our Little Italy.) It was a gorgeous day so we walked the dogs with Julie, Jason and Eliza over at the loop where I take Tucker a lot. We came home, changed and headed over to see the kids get ready to go Trick or Treating. We had fun walking around the neighborhoods. Agterwards, We headed to J&J's for pizza and pumpkin beers before calling it a night.

Saturday we got sort of a late start but headed in town to catch a Duck Tour, the easiest way to see the city and all of it's history. It was cooler than we expected so of course we had to go shopping to find a coat or warmer sweater! :) We made our way to Newbury Street, deadly for a shopper like myself! H&M was busy but had some great stuff and we both walked out with a bag of loot! We walked through the public gardens before heading to Beacon Hill for lunch. We decided that since it was so late, to just head to the store and have taco night at home. Instead of going out, we were nerds and stayed in and played board games. The night ended with Kristi and I trying to remember all of our old cheer dances until we were out of breath and realized we are just too old! LOL! Unforunately, Kev was taping our pathetic attempts and it was NOT pretty. Those won't be surfacing on YouTube anytime soon thank goodness!

Sunday we decided to do something different than the local Boston toursity stuff and head somewhere very historic that I've never even been to. Salem! Yes, the home of the Salem Witch Trials from the late 1600's. Not only was it full of history, but it's the cutest little town nestled on the North Shore with beautiful views of the ocean. We visited the House of the Seven Gables, known mainly as the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's book. We took a tour of the house and the grounds which was pretty cool. It inspired Kristi and I to re-read that book as well as The Scarlet Letter, his most famous read. We had stopped off at Witch House, but it was just a house where one of the judges in the trial had lived (not that exciting.) We headed to the With Museum that had a great informative tour of what exactly happened during the Salem Witch Trials and the history of the city in that time. It was a great day, perfectly sunny with a touch of chill in the air!!

It was a great weekend and I'm sooo happy Kristi was able to come out to spend the weekend and her birthday with us! Love you Krist! XO

I was mildly obsessed with this red fire station door in Salem!
Kristi and me on Halloween...we went as ourselves :)At Boston's Public Gardens

Turkey Day is around the corner....

And I thought my blog needed a little "seasonal" facelift... You may be seeing Santa, mistle toe and candy canes next month! I hope everyone enjoys November; it was 65 degrees in Boston today...what?!?

Eliza the Pumpkin

This cute little pumpkin costume has sure made its way around the Mullin family. I believe it was originally Brady's and now it's been passed on to Eliza. She's getting soooo big, she can roll over from her tummy to her back and from her back to her tummy now. She's very sweet and looooooves to smile! :)

Halloween Pictures!

Here are some pictures from Halloween night! Kristi, Kevin and I stopped over to see the kids get their costumes on and get ready to go trick or treating. While transforming themselves into a princess angel, football player (Tom Brady), a sweet pea and a dinosaur, Holly's halo went missing. Kind of ironic, huh? LOL! Anyway, none of the five replacement ones would do but we lucked out as it was located! Ryan was having a fit and was a touch under the weather at first...Later he was running the streets, climbing stairs and doing chinese fire drills around parked cars as the other two rang the doorbells. Mad man!!! Brady got tons of candy and got lots of "Hey Tom, how's the knee doing?!" It was super cute! Eliza was a good sport posing for pictures in her adorable, adorable costume! Julie sent a few pix of her in her pumpkin outfit from earlier that day that I'll post as well. All in all it was a super fun Halloween and birthday for Kristi! (Post on our weekend coming soon!)

Ryan pushing the carriage around the neighborhood...

Holly, the angel princess
Jason, Julie and their sweet pea, Eliza :)

Eliza

The full length shot, how adorable is she???

The climbing dinosaur!

Tom Brady and Holly trick or treating

Our attempt at capturing the four of them

Tom Brady!! :)