New Years Eve Bags

Every year that we are home on New Years Eve, we have clock bags that we open on the hour. Sometimes we start in the afternoon and go til midnight and others we start early in the day and end at normal bedtime so those that want to go to bed early can and not miss any fun!

There is sometimes a riddle or just an activity in each bag and the kids open them on the hour. This years theme is Disney! The first bag will open at 9AM and go until 9 PM! This year I gave myself a budget of $50 and I am happy to say I went under budget! ( I am red boxing the game and dvd this year since the kids got SO much for Christmas!)
Here are all our bags ready to begin Saturday morning!

Bag #1

9 AM bag Good Morning Friends! Rise and Shine, its the last day of the year. Lets Celebrate Disney Style! Enjoy your pancakes in the shape of everyone favorite Mouse and think of some New “Ears” Resolutions.

We will eat Mickey shaped pancakes and I made a printable for everyone to list 3 "New Ears" Resolutions.

Bag #2

10AM bag Hidden Mickeys are fun to find ! There are Hidden Mickeys outside waiting for you. Try to find as Many as you can. There is something extra special inside!

We will hide 20 Easter eggs with Mickey Ears on them and quarters inside and send the kids out to find them. I think I am going to make a rule everyone can only find 5 since there are 20. Sweet Esther will let everyone take her eggs if I don't!

Bag #3

11AM Bag New Games are always fun especially when we don't know What Character you might be. Lets play and see who is the best guesser!

We bought the game Head Banz to play!

Bag #4

12PM Bag Soon its time to eat your lunch but first you have to work for it. Get ready get set to snap some pictures and turn on your imagination and creativeness

Here is our lunch for the day. Disney Noodle soup! And we have a cool scavenger photo game. We will split up boys and girls and two cell phones with cameras and it is not the one who finishes first but the most creative photos.

Here is the Scavenger Hunt List:

Disney New Year’s Eve Scavenger Hunt

Find something the color of Marlin’s forgetful friend

Pocahontas grandmother was one of these

Where would you put Rust-eze medicated ointment

If you were a pooh bear show where you would hide your hunny

Russell tried to get his explorer badge the whole movie in UP. Do something adventurous to get your explorer badge.

Wall-e would be sad because of the trash we find outside.. Find some trash and throw it away

Jesse the yodeling cowgirl was sad because her owner forgot about her. Find a forgotten toy and give it lots of love.

Be like Goofy and do the hot dog dance

When Donald tried to be the conductor in Fantasia the instruments came to life and took over. Find an instrument and play it.

Find something that looks like Mickey ears and take a picture of it

Bag#5

1PM Bag A good time running around and enjoying lunch, now let chill with a new Movie!

We are going to red box a disney movie

Bag #6

2PM Bag How bout a sweet treat while we finish our movie?

Phineas and Ferb Fruit snacks

Bag #7

3PM Bag Time to feed the rumbly in our tumblys. Lets make some mousey cookies

We are making Mickey Shaped sugar cookies with M&M's

Bag # 8

4PM Bag We couldn't go a whole day without some video game fun, could we?

We are also redboxing Disney Universe for the wii ( I Really wanted to buy this, but like I said I gave myself a budget and this would totally put me over.

Bag #9

5PM Bag Time for dinner. Its gonna be great make your own mickey pizza will be whats on your plate!

We will make our own pizza's in the shape of Mickey ( Of course!) I also bought Mickey Mouse plates to eat off of.

Bag #9

6PM Bag We are still counting down to the end of the year! Lets burn off some energy with a silly string fight!

Silly String. A can for everyone! :)

Bag #10

7PM Bag You are chosen by the Claw just like to Aliens in Toy Story . Make some Alien Punch and brighten up the night.

We are making punch using green Koolaid, ginger ale and green sherbet. Who doesn't like punch , right?

Bag #11

8PM Bag We cant have a Disney Day without our favorite game to fight at. Lets play Scene it Disney type!

Scene it! Disney Style

Bag #12

9PM Bag For 12 hours we counted down and now its time for bed. Cookies, milk and a story. Then its See ya Next Year!

New Mickey Mouse cups, cookies and a Disney good night book

I'll post some action shots on New Years Day!

Family Christmas

We opened gifts from our Florida Family on Christmas eve. Here we are skyping with Pawpaw, Grandma, Mammy and Aunt Kimmy
Sarah Faith got a phone and new computer from them!
Abby's big gift was an iPhone! She was pretty excited!
Esther got an American girl doll, and a bunch of accessories
The boys got 3DS's. Think they were excited!

My sister flew in from Denver on December 26th, so we had our Christmas with her and my parents on that night. It was pretty cool to spread it all our celebrations
.Everyone opening gifts! Sarah and AbbyI was able ( with help from a friend) to get my Bff Amy and my Sister Jodi Daughtry CD's signed by Chris. They were pretty excited!

My boys
Gramps and Essie
Nana
Jodi with he M&Ms' All the way from CO!

2011 was a great Christmas and to be honest, I am kinda sad to see it over!

Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful first Christmas as a family of 7! Micah and Sarah are such added blessings to our already so blessed family! Micah just jumped right in and had the best time with the others. Sarah Faith is still a bit young to know what on earth is going on, but she enjoyed her new toys!Here are my middle three putting out the cookies and milk for Santa. Greg told them if they woke him up before 5:30, they would have to wait until after church to open their gifts. Guess what time they woke us up? 5:31. :)Nate with his Zelda game

Micah and his Beyblade Arena
Abby helping Sarah with her gifts
Esther was still feeling a bit under the weather, but improving by this morning. She was happy to get a horse for her American Girls

Our whole family at Church. Merry Christmas from the Mullis 7!

Christmas Eve EVE in Virginia

We went to Virginia on the 23rd and spent the night. Mom and Dad had some friends over for dinner and we had so much fun. We pulled out mine and my sisters old toys and took a trip down memory lane ( Strawberry Shortcake, Glow bugs and He-mans anyone?) Nana and GrampsGramps and the boys

Abby and Nana
Me, Amy and Carrie with our Strawberry ShortcakeNick and Carrie with He man and Battle Cat :)

Me and Amy, my BFF (Love her)
With her boyfriend, ScottAunt Amy and all the kiddos. She gave them a bag of fun for Christmas! Uno Roboto, The Smurfs Movie, The biggest bag of M&M's I have ever seen and a ton of popcorn and movie candy. They thought it was awesome.

Esther Hope

Those of you that are on Facebook have probably seen my posts about Esther. She started feeling bad the first weekend in December. We had our Cantata at church that Sunday night and I had nursery and she begged to stay home alone and not have to go. She felt that bad. So since we live right beside the church, we let her. The following Wednesday, she still felt bad but not really worse and we had play practice at church , so we went, but she almost passed out on the stage she was so weak and had begun to spike a fever at night. So I called the next day and the nurse said to wait it out until Monday to see if it was a virus. She was no better so on Monday we went to the doctor and he tested her for strep, it was positive and he put her on antibiotics. We expected her to feel better in a few days.By the following Friday, she started complaining about her throat hurting ( 5 days being on antibiotic) So I checked the inside of her throat and it was so swollen and COVERED in white blisters. AND she began spiking a fever again. Soooo the following Monday we went back to the doctor again, This time, he checked her for Mono. Positive. Strep AND Mono! My poor sweet baby girl!( Waiting for her mono test)

He gave her steroids to help with the swelling and blisters in her throat because she was in so much pain she couldn't hardly eat anything. Three days later she went off them because her throat was much improved. She was tired but feeling better.
Then on Friday ( yesterday) she woke up with her entire body covered in a rash. And her little face is swollen. She says it doesn't hurt or itch and that is good, but she just looks so pitiful. I honestly don't know (even though we did call her doctor Friday morning and he seems to think it is from the mono and/or the steroids.) what it is.... I am afraid it may be Scarlet Fever on top of everything else. We go Tuesday for him to check her out if she doesn't get any worse between now and then.It has been a long hard month for her to not feel well. Even today she opened her gift from Grandma and Pawapaw and it was the American Girl doll Kaya. She has looked at that catalog a million times this fall and she was happy, but not the Esther over the top excited happy I am used to. Even in this picture her eyes and face are swollen.

Please pray with me that my Essie girl can start feeling better and get some strength about her soon.. I hate seeing any of my babies sick, but Esther hardly ever complains and I know it is bad when she does. :(

Goodwill Baptist Christmas Program

We had our Children's Program last week at church. I wrote the play that the kids put on back in July and it was so neat to watch the kids finally perform it. They were all candy in the Goodwill Goody Shoppe and did not like Christmas because of how everyone always acted so cranky and stressed. They learned the real meaning of Christmas during the program. They did such a great job with their lines and I loved how the costumes turned out!
My 4 sang as one of the specials before the program. Nathan played the guitar and they all sang Angels we have heard on High. Micah sang the second verse in Amharic which was really cool!.
Poor Essie felt so bad the whole time (We didn't know it last Sunday, but she has Mono) she was such a trooper to sing and do her part even though her throat was swollen and blistered,. :(

Happy 14 months~

This has been a milestone week. It was my birthday, the kids marked 6 months being home from Ethiopia and Sarah Faith had her 14th birthday. She has now been with us longer than anywhere else in her short little life. Love that thought....

Christmas Cookie Making Time

We made Christmas Cookies tonight. Oh MY! My Kitchen may never look the same, but the kids had a BLAST! They were VERY creative with them too.. Abby made a Mac the dog cookie out of a stocking. They also had swamp people and ax murderer gingerbread men ( I guess that is what you get when your kiddos get older!) Here are Micah Moo with his favorite ones he decorated. He was the first to finish so he could eat them!
Sweet Essie and her Christmas tree
Abby with her Mac the dog stocking cookie
Nate was into yellow this year...I think all of his cookies were yellow
Sarah Faith sharing with Mac
Oh My! The icing has KICKED IN!
We had so much fun and hopefully they all made memories that will last forever.

Our weekend

Our weekend was kinda busy, as most weekends in December are. I always have the deacons and elders of our church (and their wives) over for dinner in December. This Saturday was the night.The dining room table all readyMy little elves helped me clean house Saturday morning and then they watched Sarah so I could cook Saturday afternoon,Rolls raising....Abby wrapping gifts...It didn't hurt that I made a rule no video games until my chore list was all marked off....as you can see, they made short work of the list so they could play a little Mario Cart.

I had to add a Sunday morning picture of Miss Sarah. All dressed up in her 1 of 5 Christmas dresses!

Hope you guys had a great weekend too. I love Christmas time. The excitement and business of it! Our engagements are almost completed for this year. The last few weeks before Christmas we will spend a little time baking cookies, watching Christmas movies and finishing up a few school projects before the much anticipated 2 week school break. :)

Our social worker comes Wednesday for our 6 month post placement visit. I cannot believe the kids have been home half a year! Time has flown by for sure.