New Pictures and Random Thoughts

I can't believe it's already the middle of July! The summer has gone by so quickly it seems. Robbie and I have enjoyed being home and getting into a routine. After our families came to visit in late May/early June we took a break from home improvement and relaxed into more "normal" days. Robbie is the flying stage of his training (which keeps getting drawn out longer and longer) and is hoping to finish up in the next month. He'll soon find out what squadron he'll be assigned to for his time at Tinker as well as dates for his deployment. We're a little anxious to find out that information since he will be overseas for a 4 month time span.
Zaylee and I have been having lazy summer days, eating free lunch with friends, going to the Y, playing in our baby pool in the backyard, and taking walks with our dog. She has definitely begun to settle more since my last entry when it comes to playing and diaper changing. She's more interested now to have a book read to her, to interact with us while she's playing, and to be more patient while mommy's changing her diaper. She's really a pretty fun girl to be around most days. ^_^
Except when she doesn't get her naptime...Ok, so I need to vent. This morning Zaylee was not so willing to go down for a nap. So when she finally fell asleep I was thrilled. I settled in to start work on the computer, Peyton was napping, and everything was quiet. About 30 minutes into her nap (she usually takes a nap for about an hour), my doorbell rings. Peyton, snapped out of his deep sleep, flips out and starts bounding for the door, barking as loud as he can. I hate that he does this every time the doorbell rings. But, he is a dog, and dogs are protective, and dogs are not the smartest creatures on the planet. Needless to say, Zaylee was awake. I open the door and an older lady whom I don't recognize is standing there looking confused. Trying to hold Peyton back, I step outside and ask what I can do for her. She says, "Oh, I must have the wrong house!"
Uugh. I'm sorry, but can people not read street addresses anymore? The rest of my morning was spent with a cranky baby who wouldn't go back to sleep but also didn't really want to be awake. Not fun.
But anywho...Here's another random thought. I'm so sad about Jon and Kate Gosselin spliting up. They were like my model TV family. I read Kate's first book and watched all their shows on TLC and just thought the world of them and their kids. I always thought that Kate and I had a lot in common, that if we were to just randomly meet we would be instant friends. So my heart really goes out to her. Robbie complains that I take her side too much, but I don't care. I feel bad for the whole family, Jon and the kids included. Hollywood is so stupid. And so is divorce. I wish people could just get along.
Hmmm, what else is on my mind? Oh yeah - I'm getting ready to go to Spring Mill Bible Camp and I'm so excited!! This year, I'll be taking Zaylee and helping in the nurse's cabin. This will be the first time I been a "nurse" for a week at camp and I'm pretty excited. I know it will be a hard job, but it will be fun to work with my aunt Bev. I'm also teaching a high school Bible class, which I'm looking forward to. Zaylee and I are flying out of OKC on Thursday of next week. I can't believe it's almost here!
Okay, I better wrap this up. Here are some fun pictures from the 4th of July and beyond. Enjoy!

Aahhh, Nap Time in the Mullinax Home

Today I was just sitting doing some work on the computer, enjoying the quiet while Zaylee's asleep, when it occurred to me that I should write a little for you all. I have to admit, there has been nothing extraordinary to write about lately, just sort of settling into a daily routine. It does get a little mundane at times - I feel like I should be more creative with all the time I have to spend with Zaylee at home. Perhaps some of you experienced moms could offer some advice about how to fill our summer days. If you know me, you know that I am not one to just sit and "relax." I think sitting doing nothing is terribly boring and stressful. I relax by being productive - in a fun way. I like to paint, sew, work out, clean, read, etc. But a lot of the things I like to do in my free time are things that Zaylee isn't particularly interested in. She hasn't taken much to books yet, she doesn't like to be held very much, and she seems to grow tired of her toys very quickly. I'm wondering, "What does a 9-month-old really like to do?" She wants me to pay attention to her and interact with her (and so do I!), but I feel like I haven't quite found how she wants me to do that yet. Sometimes I feel like instead of encouraging her play time, I'm just annoying and in the way. So yes, I need some advice.
Another thing that has really been difficult lately is getting this little lady to let me dress and change her! She is SO strong-willed and HATES having to lay down for even a couple minutes in order for me to put a new diaper on her. I've tried putting toys on her changing table, but she acts like she knows I'm trying to distract her and won't allow me to fool her. She doesn't want me to sing songs, or dangle things over her head, or anything. It seems like all the "textbook" ideas aren't working. I need something more creative to get her to relax and stay still. Same thing goes at naptime - as soon as I lay her down in her bed, instead of just relaxing like she did a few months ago, she flips over and stands up as fast as she can, and screams as soon as a walk out of the room and close the door. And these are times when I know she needs to nap. I've tried to make sure she's good and tired because otherwise she'll cry for up 45 minutes before settling down. Any suggestions?
Well, enough on my frustrations. Otherwise, everything has been going well in the Mullinax home. Robbie and I haven't had much time together this week since his training has kept him very busy (and tired). I'm looking forward to the weekend so that we can spend some time together as a family. We're hoping and praying that his work will allow him to have the last week of July off, so that we can come down and help at Spring Mill Bible Camp. We might even try to get a couple weeks away so that we can really spend some quality time with our families. It's been 7 months (Christmas) since Robbie's been home, and I know he's starting to really get homesick. I was able to come visit in February, but that was still a while ago - Zaylee was barely learning to sit up on her own at that point! So, all of you reading this, please pray HARD that Robbie can get off - it's a matter of God opening a door for us at this point.
Speaking of doors opening, Zaylee just woke up. On with the day! Hope to hear from some of you soon!

Construction Complete!

I feel like I'm finally getting closer to a normal routine now. We've have been working our tails off on our new house! I absolutely love it, and it's a lot of fun to have a place of our own, but I think we initially bit off more than we could chew. We had SO many different projects going on at once, it was all I could do to not pull my hair out some days. But thankfully, mom and dad (and Brian) came to the rescue last week and helped us finish up. It feels so good to just be here sitting on my new couch after Zaylee's been put to sleep blogging, knowing that there's nothing else that needs to get done right away.

Let's see, where do I start? Well, since the time that we moved into our house in April, we have painted the kitchen red, Zaylee's room light purple, and our room light blue. We weeded our yard, trimmed all the hedges, planted a vegetable garden and a separate pumpkin patch, planted a tree, stained the fence and playset in our backyard, bought a baby swing, and replaced the tarp over the top of the playset. We ripped up all the carpet in the house ourselves, installed new wood floors in the living room and hallway, tile in the hall bathroom, and had new carpet installed in the three bedrooms. We sold a majority of our hand-me-down furniture in a big garage sale, went to IKEA in Dallas and bought a new couch, coffee table, bookshelf, mirrors, bedding, and everything else we could before we ran out of money. I've childproofed all the cabinets in the kitchen and all the outlets throughout the house. I planted flowers in two places in the front yard. We've unpacked all but three boxes that are still in the garage, hung up all the pictures and wall decor throughout the house, made curtains for the kitchen and living room, and made pillows for the new couch. Whew!!

So yes, we have been busy! But all the hard work has really paid off. Our house is now a home, and we all love it. I am now officially ready to see Zaylee grow up in this house and make lots of wonderful memories as a family. She has grown so fast, I can't even believe it. Between 4 and 9 months, it just seems like time goes by in an instant. In one minute you're jumping up and down because your little one just learned to turn over, and then all of a sudden they're pulling up on the coffee table and walking around it while they hold on! She's eating "big girl food" now - anything that can be cut in small pieces and easy to chew. She only has one tooth barely starting to appear, but that doesn't seem to stop her from eating everything from Cheerios to pickles. She's starting to communicate a lot more - she definitely lets you know what she wants! She's starting to say "dog" and "cat," along with the usual "momma" and "dadda." I'm taking her to her 9 month checkup next week, so then I'll get to see what she weighs. And, oh my goodness, this girl never stops moving!! She is just go, go, GO all day long (except when I force her to go down for a nap). Thankfully, she wears herself out most days and sleeps very soundly at night.

Robbie's begun to fly a couple times a week. His flights are 8, sometimes 10, hours long! He has to wake up at 2:15 am, and doesn't get home sometimes until 6 or 7 pm. Those flying days are really long days for him and have been really tough, but I think he's still enjoying everything he's learning and the overall mission of his plane. The days that he doesn't fly are pretty normal 8-hr days, so that's nice.

Today, he had the day off so we decided to head to the park to have a picnic and play some frisbee golf. It was a very hot, sunny day, but we brought plenty of water and sunscreen and had a great time. The park we went to was beautiful! It had a rose garden, a pond, lots of wildlife, playgrounds, a frisbee golf course, and even a pool (which we decided we would have to come visit another day!). We enjoyed lunch by the pond despite being interupted by nosy squirrels and geese, and then played 9 holes of golf. Zaylee loves frisbee golf because she gets to hold onto our frisbees, play in the grass, and get carried all over the park. She's the cutest little caddy you could have! It was a great day to just relax and spend time together.
So now the moment you've been waiting for, PICTURES! This is a grand combobulation of before and after pics of our house along with a lot of fun pics from today's outing...

This is the bathroom before we moved in.
Construction zone! This was taken after the old floor (and toilet) was removed in preparation for beautiful new tile. What a mess!
And our beautiful new completed guest bathroom! (Sorry, you can't really see the floors. But trust me, they look good. ^_~)

Our master bedroom before moving in...
And after our personal touches...
The guest bedroom used to be a little boy's room...
Now it's a patriotic office/extra bedroom!

The third bedroom belonged to the previous owners' teenage girl...
Now it's the perfect little spot for our baby Zaylee!
I'm putting sunscreen on Zaylee's face in preparation for a hot summer day - her face is so funny! "Stop it, Mom!"
Possibly the most dramatic change has been in our kitchen. This is before...
This was mid-construction. We had to move a bunch of living room furniture in the kitchen in order to replace the carpet. Another big mess...
And this is the finished product!

The living room before...

...during construction...

...and after!



The beginning of our day of fun - here's Zaylee feeling for her little tooth at breakfast.
Getting ready to go.

Our picnic lunch by the pond. What a cutie!


Swinging on the playset with daddy.

Having fun in the sun on the frisbee golf course.
Our happy little family. ^_^

Love you all and miss you! Feel free to post comments and let us know what you think!

Settling In

Hey all! Just so you know, we did not fall off the face of the earth when we moved to Oklahoma. I'm sorry it's been very slow going on the blog posts lately. As you can imagine, there are many fun things to do around our new house that are distracting me from writing as faithfully as I should. We LOVE our house! We have progressed from the complete post-moving chaos stage to the organized chaos stage. Though it may seem like a slight improvement, it's an improvement none-the-less. It has been a little difficult committing to a complete moved-in status due to the fact that we have repainted three rooms in the house and are replacing the flooring in the living room, bedrooms, and hall bath. It seemed a little silly to unpack everything only to have to move it all around again to make room for home improvement projects. It has been a test of my patience some days, but it is so exciting to, for the first time, be able to transform a home to fit our tastes. We are really enjoying it, and the house is just great. Great size, great neighbors, great yard. Our whole family is really starting to feel at home.

Robbie and I have spent a lot of time outside on the days we haven't had rain (and there's been a bunch lately!). My vegetable garden is starting to grow - I now have squash, cucumber, and green bean seedlings popping up everywhere. My tomatoes and peppers are also still hanging on...barely. I'm afraid with all the rain we've had I might have to replant some due to overwatering. Robbie took on the difficult task of preparing a pumpkin patch from scratch (and got very sunburned in the process), we've pruned up the existing rose bushes around our house, and I planted some summer bulbs along the front of the fence. Zaylee got a new baby swing for her swing set and LOVES having mommy or daddy push her in the swing or slide her down the slide.

Zaylee is growing in leaps and bounds, and getting cuter every step of the way! Robbie recently submitted her into the annual "Cutest Kid on Tinker" baby contest that is held at the BX on base every spring. She competed in the 0 - 11 month old bracket against about 10 other babies and won first place!! She was adorable when her daddy brought her up on stage. She immediately found mommy in the crowd and gave the whole audience a great big smile. ^_^ She won a bouquet of flowers, a trophy, and a $25 gift card! We were so proud of her, as you can imagine. Here are a few photos from her pageant debut.




She is efficiently crawling everywhere now and loves to create "Zaylee's Fun House" wherever she goes (that's daddy's new term for the mess she loves to make with whatever she can get her hands on). She LOVES paper, unfolded clothes, her kitties, Peyton, musical toys, soft stuffed animals or blankets, and her "paci." Today she also discovered a new love - jumping! A friend from church has a 12 month old son and she let us borrow his jumperoo since he is no longer interested in it. It's a cowboy style "horsey" that neighs and plays music as she jumps. She was going crazy in it, laughing and all! She is always smiling, always talking, and VERY expressive. You can always tell exactly what she's feeling. We love that she has so much energy and personality. You can really tell she's learning quickly these days. I think we might also have a lefty on our hands - she has become quite fond of using her left hand for feeding herself, holding, and grabbing things. We'll just have to see if that habit continues. My dad (who's also left-handed) would joke, "Well, at least she's in her right mind!"

There's so much more I have to tell you all about and pictures I would love to show you, but it's getting late once again so I'll have to do that again another day. Hopefully, this will hold you over for just a little while. ^_^

Me and Zaylee smiling for the camera. She is so smiley now-a-days! I got a hair cut and went blonde!

I guess all of us are getting older. ^_^ This was my cake for my 23rd (eek!) birthday.

Getting ready for a walk on a sunny day. Too cool!

Me and Pey out in the veggie garden.

Our indoor Easter egg hunt with Zaylee. What a sweet little girl!

A Place to Call Home

Yay! We're finally in our new house! Last Saturday was move-in day and the whole move from both the storage unit and our little apartment took about 5 hours (thanks to the great help we had from our new friends!). Of course, although it only took 5 hours to get all our stuff here, it has taken more than a week to get all that stuff arranged in a livable manner. We are still working to organize, downsize, and prioritize all of our packaged belongings. But despite the arduous process, this house is slowly becoming our home sweet home. Since Saturday, we have managed to arrange the kitchen, laundry room, Zaylee's room, and our bedroom. And we've also worked some in the backyard by planting a vegetable garden and a small tree (which we found growing along the side of the house and managed to uproot fully intact). That may seem like a lot, but we still have a ton of work to do! We still need to organize the guest bedroom, garage, hall bathroom, and finish up in the living room. Not to mention painting and decorating - that's a whole nother story! It's a lot of work, but I don't mind it. I find it exciting to see our house come together. And those days when all that needs to get done seems overwhelming, I just remind myself that I should be enjoying the process and thinking of how much fun it will be to finish and have friends and family over to share it with! Hopefully I'll have some pictures to show you as soon as I can find the camera in all this chaos. ^_^

Zaylee Easter Pictures!

Ok everyone, here's the story on Zaylee's pictures:

Go to www.jennywhitephoto.photoreflect.com

click on Zaylee Mullinax

password: mullinax09

Share this information with whomever you want! Let me know that if they want to order anything to just call me or email me. It will look like you can order online but you can't. The number I will need for ordering is underneath the picture when you click on it.
example: picture id #1 Zaylee

Any can be in black and white and any can be in color.

Prices for ordering:

wallets 4 for $3
4x6's - $4
5x7's - $12
8x10's - $20
11x14's - $50
16x20's - $75

Here's Jenny's contact info:
Jenny Connell
Jenny White Photography
918-691-8500
www.jennywhitephotography.blogspot.com

Check out some of Zaylee's Easter Pictures!

http://jennywhitephotography.blogspot.com/2009/04/springeaster-sneak-peeks.html