Meet the Kiddos...

Coco...

In her brand new pot...

Shibumi...

...and Le Cagot...

(And if you ever want to read a good book, try Shibumi.)

Spring Break

Mark and I toyed with several ideas as to what to do for Spring Break - we ultimately decided to visit his sister Sarah and her family since we don't get to spend much time with them. We had such a FUN time! They made a welcome sign, the boys took our bags in, and Miss Margaret gave us a tour of the house. (THANK YOU to the boys for letting us crash in their room!) They also had a talent show ready all ready for us! Margaret (Meg) read a scripture, Andrew recited the poem "Alligator Pie", and Tanner played a song on the piano.

We spent lots of time playing with the kids and were able to help Charlie (the dog) out by starting on his dog fence so he can run and play around in the backyard. We also went to the kid's school fair and watched Andrew win his penguin and Margaret get her puppy. Tanner's classroom became a 'Jail"...and both Andrew and I ended up there thanks to Uncle Mark. (Don't worry he bailed us out too!)

These are the thank you notes we received from them after our visit...aren't they cute?!

From left to right: Andrew's, Margaret's, and Tanner's

The Burke Kiddos: Andrew, Margaret, and Tanner

We then headed down to Cape and visited the rest of the McMullin clan for the first half of the week. We were hoping that Baby Harper might make an appearance before we left, but alas, she decided to stay in her Mom's Belly...which is a good thing too. :) One of those nights, we went over to Emily and Abe's house and played Wii...check out their blog for a GREAT picture! Markii has the moves!

We came home for the last half of the week, which was quite peaceful and relaxing, except for the incident involving an overly friendly wasp. We had left our balcony door open to let in some cool air and in flew in a wasp. We tried shooing it out, but instead it ended up under our couch. My imagination went haywire and I could just see us getting stung through the couch. So how do you get a wasp out from under a couch? We tried a fly swatter, a water bottle, a rolled up sock...all to no avail. The only thing that worked was an airsoft BB gun. It flew out from under the couch, but sadly, not out the door.

So onto plan B - we attacked it with vinegar water and a fly swatter. The vinegar water made it so it couldn't fly anymore. I then whacked it to the floor and a few more times to make sure it'd be dead. It took all of 45 minutes, but we got what we wanted! No wasp in our couch!

(PS-the lights are off so that the wasp would find its way out into the balcony)

What we've been up to...Part 2

February brought quite a few surprises...

Before moving to Missouri, I asked Mark about the winters here and he said that when it snows, it rarely accumulates beyond 3 inches....Huh.....As far as I know, 3 inches does not look like this....





























...Or this...

2 storms with snow accumulation over 12+ inches...yep. It seems I will not be escaping the snow just yet. Mizzou cancelled classes for 3 days because of the 2nd storm so Mark and I made sure we had a pantry-full of food and lots of candles. Lucky for us our stockpiling was never needed since the power stayed on and the roads cleared out within a few days. We suffered nothing more serious than a cracked windshield (my car). We started reading Atlas Shrugged. (We still have not finished, but so far it has been an AWESOME book!)

On another one of our evenings that month, I talked Mark into trying out waffles and ice cream...He loves waffles! But he'd never heard of waffles and ice cream (to be honest, I have no idea where or from whom I heard it, but I know I had heard it somewhere...), so here's the result:

Yay for Lactose Free Ice Cream :)

Waffles and ice cream and peaches (the peaches are for me - I love them). I really liked it because I'm a sucker for breakfast foods but Mark not so much, either way - it was great to finally try it. Now if I could just remember who told me about it in the first place!

Another surprise in February came in the form of a package...that had this in it...

"Trust me, I'm a Doctor"...Thanks Ash!!

My friend Ashley and I have been in love with Dr. Pepper for MANY years...it was an integral part of our times together. Once upon a time, on one of our many Walmart runs, we stumbled upon a Dr. Pepper T-shirt. Sadly they didn't have our sizes or it was more than we were willing to pay for it (I can't remember), so we didn't purchase them, but we thought they were the coolest things ever (because let's be honest, they are!). We've always looked back on that with a little regret. So a few weeks ago, Ash was on a Walmart run and lo and behold...a Dr. Pepper shirt! She didn't waste this chance and got one for herself and for me. How sweet is that! She had told me that it would be coming, but when I got the package, it was still such a surprise! Love you Ash!!

Pretty aren't they? Despite the snow storms we've experienced, Spring has started to make itself known. Schnucks (a local grocery store for those who've never heard of it) had them on sale and since it was sunny out I had to celebrate. It made me smile every time I looked at them...and it's true - I'm SO ready for Spring, Summer, and sunshine to get here!

What we've been up to...Part 1

So here comes the long catch up email...the McMullin adventures for the past 3 months.

In January, after the wedding celebrations ended, Mark and I enjoyed the sites around Missouri.

First was Fulton, MO and this guy... Winston Churchill gave his famous "Sinews of Peace" talk where he refers to the "iron curtain" that had descended upon the European continent. Very cool person and a very nice museum. Westminster College is a beautiful campus (even in the wintertime) and the museum is housed in the Church of St. Mary originally built in London during the 12th century and then relocated to Fulton in the 1960's.

What did I learn? Winston was a big traveler and reader and had a way with words. He wrote articles of his traveled and earned his celebrity in that way before he ever became a politician. What impressed me about him was that he never gave up. He suffered lots of setbacks during his life and he always picked himself up again and again. He had a purpose/direction and he wasn't going to stop until he achieved it - even if other things got in the way.

Mark and I with Winston C.

Second was Kansas City and Independence/Liberty, MO. Mark will be living in Kansas City this summer for his internship and we visited the city to look at an apartment for him. We also took this chance to check out some church history sites. We stayed with the Shulls-friends of Mark's family and we had an INCREDIBLE TIME!! They were so friendly and welcoming, we credit them for making the entire weekend such a wonderful experience!

In Kansas City, we visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum...totally by accident. We were following a line of cars and they were all going into this building, so we decided to see what was going on. It turns out the museum was having their Chinese New Year celebration. (Happy Year of the Rabbit!!) It was a thrilling find! This is a serious museum - the kind built with personality and meant to last forever. Mark and I had a great time going through the exhibits and I hope that I get to explore it some more during this summer.

Happy Chinese New Year from KC!!!

Some of the many things to see...Again, I'm excited to be able to see more of the museum this Summer!

Mark and I at the Nelson-Atkins Museum

Saturday we went to Independence for the Community of Christ Temple, the LDS visitors center, and the Harry S. Truman Library. I've heard about the Community of Christ temple before (the conch shell), and my first impression of it was that it was more of a softserve ice cream cone than a shell....that's just me though. Inside the building was very architecturally interesting and the guides were very sweet.

At the visitor's center (no pictures here, sorry), we spent some time talking to a sister missionary-Sister Bowman. She knew who my brother was and we were able to get a note to him thanks to her.

Then we stopped at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library. Harry grew up as a farmer and the S. is just an initial - it doesn't stand for anything (I didn't know that). He had 3 interests - music, reading, and history. He fell in love with Bess Wallace and she turned him down when he proposed. So he went off to make his fortune so he could propose to her again. She said yes to him this time (8 years later). He became a county judge, senator, vice-president, and then president when FDR passed away. One of the great things about the library was that President Truman recorded a lot of the narratives, so you actually get to hear his voice as he tells you about what he had to do as president, diplomat, etc. He sounded like such a nice gentleman!

Mark and I with Harry S. T.

Isn't he handsome? I don't mean the one in bronze...

Finally, we went to Liberty Jail - which is just something you have to see to gain an appreciation as to what the Prophet and the early leaders of the church had to go through. It was SO small (the building is built around the jail) and SO cold (even though it is indoors now)!

To be continued...

January 6th: The Wedding Day

THE DAY...the day we waited patiently for, planned for, and counted down to for 152 days. The event for which families and friends had braved roads and skies for hours (and for some, many, MANY more hours than was originally planned) to share this moment with us. We are SO grateful to all of you who were there!! WE CAN'T SAY 'THANK YOU' ENOUGH!! WE LOVE YOU!

I feel like I should have some very profound thoughts to share here, but I have to admit that all I remember thinking is how happy I was to be there with Mark. To finally be there to make it all official. I was a little surprised that this momentous occasion passed by so quickly and calmly. All of a sudden, we were married and we were at the beginning of a brand new life together and I still felt the same way I did an hour before - like there was still something else that needed to happen to make it "real". Now that wasn't meant as a complaint because, at the same time, I feel like that's what it should have been like. This was something that we were both sure of and wanted. We were already so committed to one another that this really was just the "paper proof" of how we already felt and thought of one another...Crossing t's and dotting i's.

Mark and I had a lot of time to talk and take it in together. We arrived at the temple a little early which lead to the chance of sitting in the celestial room for a good 30-45 minutes before the actual sealing. Mark and I really felt blessed to be there - not just at the temple, but at that particular temple. A mere 5 miles away sits a La Quinta parking lot where 18 months earlier, on July 13, 2009, Mark and I had met and started the journey that lead to that moment.

I just remember sitting there and feeling so much peace and quiet happiness. It felt so good to be there with Mark - We were finally done being apart from one another, we could spend our days, hours, minutes, seconds together and no phone or webcam was required.

I still have to remind myself that I'm here for good...It still feels too good to be true.

January 5th: Bridal/Groomals

So Jennifer Gilmore rocks our world...

...SERIOUSLY!

She is the wonderful photographer who took our pictures in California. She's incredibly talented and so great to work with. We were so impressed and grateful for the wonderful job she did, we asked what we could do for her - she said to just let people know how much we liked her. So here you go guys...

WE ** LOVE ** JENNIFER GILMORE!!!

These are just a few samples of the pictures (some of you might have seen these already on FB) - there's a DVD coming to us, but these are just ones she gave us to use for the receptions. If you guys want to look through more of what Jennifer does...here's her blog and her website. She is also GREAT with kids! (And how do we know this, you may ask? She took McMullin family pictures and Cisternas family pictures on the beach as well - and the kids actually paid attention to her and smiled. Yep, she's THAT awesome.)

January 4th: Welcome to California!!

From the moment we landed at the John Wayne Airport, we knew we had made the best decision in the world.... A California wedding in January was the ONLY way to go.

We had just left dreary and cold Missouri for a very cold, foggy, and snowy Utah layover and then we landed in California to this - and pardon the lesser quality, these were all taken with my phone:

UNREAL! It was like another world...from white/gray foggy, cloudy weather to sunshine, blue skies, and palm trees - all in a matter of hours. Mark and I had an immediate change in mood and we just kept commenting over and over again about how great it was to be in California again, how much we loved it there, and how perfect it was to be getting married there. We were ELATED!

People have always asked us why we were getting married in Newport Beach - especially when he's from Missouri and I'm from Utah...and at the sight of the confused brows, I had our list ready to go. It went something like this:

1. Mark and I met there and...
2. He took me there when he proposed.
3. It was always one of Mark's wishes to be married in the Newport Beach temple...
4. Plus the Salt Lake temple would be incredibly busy because of all of the students marrying there during the semester break
5. The weather in Utah during January vs. California in January

Some might think we were stretching the reasons, but who cares? If you only get to do it once, you might as well do it like you want to and we both wanted California. We stopped by the temple that Tuesday afternoon and again, that feeling of excitement took over - who wouldn't want to get married here??? It just felt so PERFECT!

So Mark and I were lucky - our travel to California was pretty ideal. For some of our family though, it didn't go so well and a quick layover in Utah turned into hours!! Everything that could go wrong, did. Thankfully, despite all of the troubles, they made it in (although it was very late at night) and were able to have a good time (or so we hope). We're both so grateful to have wonderful people who trekked by plane and car to come and share this event with us. I know it came at a great sacrifice to them and we are just so SO happy that they were there to share it with us. I also know that a lot of you wished you could have made it and were there with us in your thoughts.

To ALL of you who were there with us and those of you who were there in thought:

THANK YOU!! We love you!! And we feel VERY LOVED!!