Mullenaux Family

Updated Kid Pics

2012-01-04T11:08:00.005-07:00

Not sure anyone even looks at this thing since I have moved updates to Facebook, but just in case.....

First is Tillman. He just turned 5.

Next is Lucy. She just turned 3.

The most recent Mullenaux is Lilly. She is 7 months.

New Baby Girl, Lilly Jewel

2011-06-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

Most of you know Cyndi went into pre-term labor at week 34 and was admitted to the hospital and put on medication to keep her contractions under control along with strict bed rest.

She held on for 2 1/2 weeks until her water broke at 10:30pm Sunday the 29th. They immediately prepared her for a C-Section and 2 hours later Lilly was born. 5lbs 13ozs, 18.5 inches long. Mom and baby were released to come home 5 days later and are doing very well. We are very glad to have them home and are grateful that everything went as well as it did.

Here's a picture of Lilly in my hands a few days after she was born.

Tillman Power Slide

2010-06-21T13:59:00.003-07:00

Family Bike Ride

2010-03-22T12:04:00.003-07:00

Santa brought a few bikes to our house for Christmas so we could cruise the neighborhood. Tillman wanted to wear his motorcycle helmet. LOL.

PS. Cyndi asked me to put both kid accessories on her bike so she could go on rides when I was at work. Besides, it free's me up to function as the camera man. :)

Jeep ride

2010-03-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

Tillman taking Lucy for a jeep ride in the backyard.

New Nephew

2010-02-19T12:05:00.003-07:00

Cody and Emily have a new edition to their family. Jackson Lon Mullenaux showed up on scene about 2 weeks ago. He's 8 weeks old, cute, healthy, good natured and perfect, and is a huge blessing. We are grateful for this miracle and the events that made it possible. Cody is just BEAMING!

Family Super Bowl pic.

Father-Son nap time. Not many things in life are better.

Barrett Jackson

2010-02-18T17:05:00.005-07:00

Went to the Barrett Jackson auto auction for the first time this year. Every year I kick myself for not going to a world class auto event in my back yard so I made a point to go this year. I went with my BnL Garrett. He picked up the bill for valet parking. First time I've done that. Was awesome, especially since it was raining. Thx Garrett!

Funny that I take a picture of a BBQ truck when I had all these cool cars to take photos of, but this sucker was huge, and cool. The whole trailer was a BBQ grill. I want one.

I liked this old Chevy truck with the LS3 corvette motor transplant. Good for about 425HP.

The Bondurant school of high performance driving was there giving demo rides in Corvettes. Looked pretty fun.

Someone had a little extra time with this lawn mower.

I dig the new Camaro's and they had a bunch of them all decked out.

One of my favorite Camaro's there. Needs the 610HP supercharger kit from Hennessey.

Dunes Again

2010-02-18T16:01:00.007-07:00

Tillman and I went on a "guy's trip" to the dunes over President's Day weekend for 4 days. We had a great time. Here are some vids/pics of our trip.

Our camp. Got there Thursday morning and the place was virtually empty. The sand was wet and smooth and the riding was awesome. Only wish it would've stayed that way!

Tillman and his friend Keegan in a hole I dug for them to play in.

Tillman riding his 50 around camp. We made a big track for the kiddo's but they spent most of the time trying to get a little air on this berm. The other two kid's are Scott Curtis's. Little Andrew and his daughter Ashley.

Took Tillman out of camp into the dunes on Saturday morning. I'll admit, I was a little nervous. He's still pretty dang little, but he did great.

Tillman jumping off the TERYX at the Sand Drags.

My friend Cory's sand car. It's ridiculous. 440ci Vette engine with a 4.0 Whipple supercharger at 950HP. Definitely makes you smile (between gear shifting head snaps). :)

Horsepower Wars. Unofficial drag races at an undisclosed location to see who has the baddest and fastest rail. Andrew "Buckshot" was smoking fast in his black Monster Energy Buckshot car. It was awesome!

Lucy and Her Walker

2010-02-18T15:59:00.000-07:00

Lucy taking some of her first steps with her walker.

Tillman's 50

2010-02-18T15:55:00.001-07:00

Tillman graduated from his electric quad and got a real one just before his 3rd birthday. Here he is taking it for a spin with his PJ top and his dads old street bike helmet on.

Update

2010-02-18T15:03:00.004-07:00

We went to the sand dunes as a family for 5 days over New Years. Had a great time. Tillman is sporting his Christmas beenie and some goggles he used to ride in the Rhino.

We were looking to mix up how we enforced "time out" when I recalled spending a LOT of time as a kid in the corner. Here we are introducing Tillman to time out old school-style.

More Pics

2009-12-05T16:37:00.002-07:00

Tillman and Lucy

2009-11-26T23:22:00.001-07:00

Taken yesterday.

Halloween in the QC

2009-11-26T09:02:00.003-07:00

Who knew the Force was so strong in Queen Creek? I didn't.

Yeah, I know this post is a month late but I thought it was pretty funny.

Cake Tradition

2009-11-25T12:03:00.001-07:00

Tradition around the Mullenaux Casa says that when you turn one you get to dig into your own cake, literally. Some do it better than others. Lucy just tries a little frosting. :)

Tillman and Lucy "trying" to blow out their birthday candles

2009-11-25T11:20:00.002-07:00

Tillman turned 3 and Lucy turned 1 a few weeks apart so we combined their birthdays. Tillman is trying to blow out his candle. You would think with as loud as he can yell that he wouldn't have any problem blowing that candle out.

Lucy

2009-11-25T10:03:00.001-07:00

Smiling at her first birthday party

Posing for Pics

2009-11-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

Tillman and Lucy posing for pics at their birthday party.

Four Stroke Wars

2009-11-25T08:52:00.003-07:00

Went to Glamis on Sat to watch the Four Stroke Wars (4-stroke ATV drag races up Oldsmobile hill). Was pretty cool. Lots of really fast bikes. Was fun to get to the dunes again. Has been a while....

Landscaping

2009-11-05T16:17:00.002-07:00

CC Tractor Works offers professional commercial and residential landscaping services in the Phoenix metro and surrounding areas. Large or small. You dream it, we build it!

Please visit the following links for details:

Landscaping Arizona
Landscaping Phoenix
Landscaping Phoenix Arizona

Pumpkin Carving

2009-10-27T19:28:00.003-07:00

We carved a pumpkin for FHE last night. I thought Tillman would be excited to get his hands dirty and pull out all the pumpkin guts, but he didn't want anything to do with the slimy stuff. All he wanted to do was play with the carving knives.....

Cyndi roasted the pumpkin seeds for us and we've been munching on them all day. :)

CC Tractor Works, Inc. Celebrates Over a Decade of Arizona Construction Support Services

2009-10-23T21:15:00.002-07:00

CC Tractor Works, Inc. Celebrates Over a Decade of Arizona Construction Support Services

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Phoenix, Arizona, USA - CC Tractor Works Inc., a leading Arizona construction and support service company, celebrates 11 years of providing Phoenix (Maricopa, Pinal Counties) and adjacent cities with certified dust control, street sweeping, grading, site cleanup and soil preparation services. Recent projects include street sweeping for Palo Verde Nuclear power plant, dust control for the Cleveland Indians Spring training complex, professional site grading for AutoZone, landscaping for the Gila Indian community police and fire stations, as well as field preparation for the Gene Autry Sports complex in Mesa.

Other commercial contracts include clients such as: Pulte Homes, Shea Homes, American Richmond Homes, Core and Adolphson Peterson construction, Valley Crest landscape companies and ISS Grounds Control..

"Our company began with two hard working, highly skilled professionals that were passionate about quality and customer service. Now, over 10 years later, our client list includes some of the biggest names in Arizona, yet we’ve never forgot where we started, and our commitment to the needs of our customers remains stronger than ever" explains CC Tractor Works’ vice president Chad Shotton.

CC Tractor Works, Inc. maintains its office in Queen Creek, Arizona and is on the internet at www.cctractorworks.com. They are tactically positioned to provide professional contract services that obtain exceptional results for commercial construction and contracting organizations in Maricopa and Pinal Counties.

Contact Information: Cory Prescott; President; CC Tractor Works Inc; 602-722-2094; cory@cctractorworks.com

Related Links: Dust Control Phoenix
: Dust Control Arizona
: Grading and Site Cleanup Phoenix, Arizona

The Races

2009-10-18T09:34:00.002-07:00

Tillman and I spent the day yesterday at the races watching the "race trucks". We also ate all kinds of junk food, hot dogs, popcorn, candy, etc. Tillman really liked the Geico gecko and always wanted to know where the lizard was so we grabbed a pic. He was really good and we had a great time together!

Heber + 15

2009-10-16T21:30:00.003-07:00

Our friends Sean and Amy invited us to spend the weekend with their family at their cabin (on 60 acres) 15 miles East of Heber in the White Mountains. We had a great time at a great place.

This was dinner grilled outside. Sean cooks a mean steak. Probably one of the best I've ever had, no lie. The chicken was awesome and the veggies (in the tin foil) turned out perfect. For desert we had Dutch oven Apple dumplings made by Sean's brother Rush. Delish!

It was pretty windy and cold the next morning so Lucy is bundled up while hanging out in a baby backpack.

There was a pretty sweet zip line that Tillman and I spend some time on. One of my favorite parts of the trip was looking at the stars. The sky was brilliant. Love it!

www.cctractorworks.com

2009-10-09T14:16:00.006-07:00

I just finished building a website for my neighbor's construction company. If you know anyone that needs street sweeping, dust control or site grading in Phoenix, Arizona or the surrounding areas, let me know. They are very good.

Check it:

Dust Control Arizona
Dust Control Phoenix
Street Sweeping Arizona
Street Sweeping Phoenix
Site Grading Arizona
Site Grading Phoenix

Typical Evening

2009-10-09T14:06:00.004-07:00

Here's a look into a typical evening with me and the kids when Mom is gone. Not too exciting. Just hanging out. Tillman playing games and Lucy acting like she's sky diving on the floor. I took this on my phone the middle of August so fast forward to now and it'd be virtually the same except Lucy would be crawling around. Anyone want to join the fam? :)

Lucy's 1st Crawl

2009-09-17T23:20:00.003-07:00

Lucy's first crawl (at the end of the short vid). OK, so it's really her 2nd time. After the 1st we got the camera to record her.

2009-09-14T20:46:00.002-07:00

I was working outside today and turned around to watch Tillman get into the "prone" position, using one of my clamps as a rifle and pretending to shoot squirrels. Guess he's seen his dad in that position with the pellet gun too many times keeping our yard from being overtaken by ground squirrels. Made me laugh.

Yesterday his mom asked him to pick up his toys and he said "no thanks, I'm watching football". Guess he learned that from me too. LOL.

Golfball

2009-09-11T11:29:00.002-07:00

Tillman calls the sport of golf, "golfball". He says "Daddy, you playing golfball?" We stopped by the sporting goods store to hit a few into the net. Guess I'll need to pick him up some clubs that are a little more his size.

Banana Time

2009-09-11T11:10:00.002-07:00

No groundbreaking comedy here. Just a little status vid on Lucy at meal time. She's doing great. Healthy and happy and cute as a bugs ear.

Tillman Vid

2009-06-30T15:35:00.001-07:00

Just trying out the video on my cell phone. We were on our way to meet Tillman's cousins (Cody and Trace) at Peter Piper Pizza. :)

Lake Roosevelt

2009-06-25T14:14:00.003-07:00

Met my parents, my sister and her kids at Lake Roosevelt on Tuesday morning. My nephew Chase was staying with us so he came along as well. Here's Tillman and Chase riding in the back. The boat ran great and the weather was nice. Almost makes me want to get my own boat.... :)

Tillman at the front of the boat while cruising. He loved it.

Tillman guarding the inner tube.

Tired Lucy

2009-06-09T22:25:00.002-07:00

Just took a quick pick of Lucy taking a snoozer in her car seat. :)

Baby Blessing

2009-06-09T22:18:00.004-07:00

This Sunday was Lucy's baby blessing at church. We had family over (about 75 people) for breakfast at our house after the blessing. It was a wonderful day. Many thanks for all the support and those that helped out so much over the weekend. :)

Here's us with Cyndi's parents

Cyndi and Lucy

Us with my parents

Grass in the backyard, FINALLY!

2009-06-09T22:03:00.008-07:00

So after almost 4 years we finally decided to do something with our back yard. Tillman is old enough that he needs some grass to play on and Cyndi needs a "contained" place to send him to burn some calories, so that was a big motivator.

Here it is after putting in all the irrigation pipe post trenching.

Another shot with Tillman running his electric 4 wheeler around.

Here we're facing East. My dad is pressing the sod seams down with the riding lawn mower post sod install.

This shot is Northeast. The curbing went in last Thursday and we laid the sod on Friday. My two brothers-in-law, my neighbor, my dad and a few workers I picked up from Circle K laid the whole lawn in a few hours. 4700 square feet of grass so we had our work cut out for us. LOL.

I couldn't have done it without Garrett Blackwell's help. He's my BnL and slaved away with me all week long from planning, to trenching, to irrigation/curbing/sod install and then sticking around and coming back a few times to help me tweak the watering configuration. Now that is some family love. It was a LOT of work. THANKS GARRETT!!!

Facing North

Facing Northwest. Now on to the pool and detached garage.... :)

I wanna be a Cowboy

2009-06-09T21:57:00.002-07:00

My wife just found this photo we took of the little cowboy over a year ago. Never posted it. Kind of fun. Goes with the theme in his room. :)

L-L-L-L-Lucy

2009-05-13T14:31:00.002-07:00

She's lost all of her baby hair and is working on a new "do".

Dirty Tillman

2009-05-03T20:58:00.002-07:00

Our neighbor is putting in his landscapping and had a big pile of dirt out front that was very tempting for Tillman, so we let him satisfy his appetite in just his diaper. Drool and dirt make a great little goatee. :)

Here's father and son. I couldn't be more proud. LOL.

Playful Lucy

2009-04-28T19:44:00.003-07:00

Lucy being playful on the floor. She's at the age where we are starting to get some reaction from her. Smiles, coo's, etc. Lots of fun!

2009-04-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

Lucy in Thatcher over Conference weekend. Was a great weekend.

Pics and stuff

2009-03-27T10:18:00.002-07:00

Picture of Lucy the other day. She's 10lbs 11oz. 7 weeks old (gestational), 18 weeks from birth. Doing great!

Tillman after bath and ready for bed! He's sooo fun!

Sorry updates are slow. I tend to update my Facebook page and Twitter account on a more regular basis. Trying to get Cyndi on FB at least. You can find me on Facebook by name and my Twitter feed is under StevenMullenaux. :)

Lucy Sleeping

2009-03-06T16:15:00.002-07:00

I caught Lucy sleeping on her bean bag with her arm straight out in the air. She was out like a light in that position. How do you do that? LOL.

Lucy Again

2009-03-03T17:23:00.002-07:00

Another picture. BTW, she's about 9lbs now... :)

Lucy Bumbo

2009-03-01T12:02:00.003-07:00

So Lucy likes to "sit up" on our laps, so we broke out the Bumbo yesterday before dinner and gave it a try. She did really well in it so it looks like we'll get to use it a little sooner than we thought.

Let's go Cards!

2009-02-01T12:00:00.002-07:00

Tillman sporting his Cardinals gear, getting ready to tailgate at the Mullenaux household.

Lucy Update

2009-01-28T21:04:00.002-07:00

10 weeks old. Almost to her original due date (Feb 1st). 6lbs 8oz and doing great!

Sea of Red

2009-01-18T22:41:00.003-07:00

What an amazing year. Who would've thought they'd rise from a less-than-mediocre 2nd half of the season and jack-stomp 3 tough teams on the way to the Super Bowl. What a ride it's been.....

Ferrari, Lamborghini & Audi

2009-01-04T20:05:00.003-07:00

Here's the other 3 cars Scott and I got to drive....

The Lambo was our favorite. We thought we'd both like the Ferrari the best, but the exhaust note of the Lambo was like the pied Piper. Magical. Have never enjoyed driving a car more than this one. Was simply amazing! When I got home I started looking on autotrader.com to see what used ones were going for (like I could afford one). LOL.

The Audi R8 was great. The most underpowered of the 5 we drove at 400HP, which translated into a very "tame" ride compared to the rest. Was refined, balanced and handled like a Porsche. Could see someone with $125k to burn commuting in this as a daily driver. It's a real head turner.

Ferrari F430 Sucderia. A true race car you can drive on the road. Easy as pie to drive yet so nimble and quick. Looked and sounded incredible. Felt like Michael Schumacher when I drove it. Truly an engineering marvel.

Overall, the experience was phenomenal. One of the most fun days I ever had. Want to do it again, soon!

Christmas

2008-12-25T16:26:00.003-07:00

Cyndi and I spent Christmas Eve with Lucy in the hospital. She's now up to a whopping 4lbs 4oz!

I had to work today (Christmas day) so Tillman and Cyndi joined me in the Intel cafe for lunch. :)

Turkey, Ham, mashed potatos, stuffing, pie with homemade whipping cream. Not the best holiday setting, but at least the meal was good. LOL. Besides, it's who you're with, not where you are and what you are doing, so it that sense, we had a great Christmas!!!

Nissan GTR

2008-12-20T22:05:00.005-07:00

On the same day we drove the Callaway C16 we also were able to drive the Nissan GT-R. It's Japan's first attempt to compete in the Supercar realm and they've proven worthy with this car (at least on paper).

0-60 is achieved in a face melting 3.3 seconds and it runs a blistering 11.6 second 1/4 mile at nearly 121mph using it's 3.6 liter twin-turbo charged V-6 (rated at 473hp and 434 pound feet of torque).

This pic shows Scott just before we got going again.

This car just became available and has a pretty mild sticker price for the performance numbers it spits out (~$75k). The electronics in this car were awesome. It had a trick, multi-function display that let you see/set customized performance screens.

We were both VERY excited to drive the car, especially due to all the hype it's been getting in the press and among enthusiasts the past year leading up to its release. It didn't disappoint. The acceleration was crazy, the all-wheel drive was cool and it was easy to drive.

The only thing that we didn't like about it was that it felt floaty/skippy at high speeds in the corners, which proved to be a little unnerving at times. It may have been the suspension settings we were using. We only had a few minutes of prep before we drove it for a half hour so we didn't get a chance to try other settings. I'm guessing it would've felt more stable in track mode, but in the configuration we drove it in, it definitely didn't inspire near the confidence the C16 did.

If you want an attention grabbing ride with Supercar specs that you can drive to work OR take to the track then this is your car. And you can have it all for the price of a well appointed Escalade....

Four Peaks on the Rhino

2008-12-09T16:40:00.003-07:00

Today Tillman and I set out for a half day of running around the trails out at Four Peaks so we could get out of mom's hair and let her "de-stress" a little. The weather was great, the ride was fun and we even stopped for a picnic and threw rocks into a big water puddle. Good times!

Daddy and his buddy

My friend Judson and his daughter Riley

Two for Tillman

2008-12-09T00:02:00.003-07:00

We took Tillman to the park to play and eat Pizza on his birthday. He ran straight for the truck toy.

Mommy made him some cupcakes for his b-day and here he's about ready to attack his first one. Look at that concentration! No shirt equals no stains to have to wash out. :)

Mission accomplished. Terrible two's, here we come!!!

Tillman Haircut

2008-12-08T23:48:00.005-07:00

Well, after almost 2 years we decided to whack Tillman's hair. We'd given him 5-6 "trims" but nothing substantial until now. Here he is with his shirt off at Aunt Cari's just before the dreaded deed. He doesn't know what's about to hit him.

I took him to the doctor for his flu shot right before this and he didn't even make a peep when they gave him his shot and I thought to myself, "what a tough boy I have". I spoke too soon. LOL. Aunt Cari started cutting his hair and he cried and screamed like he'd been poked with a thousand needles. It took an hour to cut it because we had to take several breaks to let him regain his composure. Give him a shot, no problem. Cut his hair and you have Sampson screaming bloody murder....

Here's a shot of the back of his hair

Here he is the next day zonked out with his new hairdo. Probably resting up from all the energy he expelled during the traumatic cut.

It took Cyndi and I days to even recognize him because he looked soooooo different to us. We both wanted to cry. LOL. But it's grown on us (oxymoron pun intended). We now know we like it a little longer. Maybe something in between the two extremes. :)

Here he is at his cousin Kennedy's birthday party. He had a handful of tokens to spend and he wanted them all put into the ride-on car over and over and over again.

Lucy Update

2008-12-08T23:33:00.004-07:00

Lucy had another graduation this last week! She moved from the intermediate care to her final stop in the NICU. They call it the "feed and grow" unit where the baby's are healthy and just need to eat and get bigger. It's a new wing of the NICU and is very, very nice. She has her own room and accommodations now instead of being in a big room with all the other babies and parents (which is mainly nice for us). She'll be 3 weeks old tomorrow, weighed 3 pounds 3 ounces last night and is slowly starting to take some tugs from a bottle (at least when they can coax her to stay awake). She has another brain ultrasound scheduled for next week, but in the mean time her full time job is to eat and gain weight. Lucy's great-grandmother stopped to see her and I snapped the attached photo when she was holding Lucy's hand. It's the most alert I've seen her. Enjoy. :)

Full body shot. LOL.

Corvette ZR-1

2008-12-01T14:48:00.008-07:00

A few weeks ago my friend Scott Curtis and I had the opportunity to drive the Callaway C16 for 30 mins on the open road. WOW! What a car!!! It's basically the ZR-1 with upgraded suspension, racing components (racing seats, etc) and some cool add-ons. Cost is $175,000. It has 650hp and does 0-60 in 3.5 seconds.

Here's Scott and I right before takeoff. The car was soooo easy to drive. Formula 1 style paddle shifters. Smooth, fast and gobs of asphalt shredding torque.

My cheesy grin of excitement. The car had a HUD (heads up display) that allowed you to see the gauges of the car as they were projected on the windshield so you never had to look "down" into the cabin to see what was going on. While it's a pretty standard option on most vettes now, I'd never driven a car with one. It was very, very cool!

Probably the best part of driving the car was hearing the whine of the supercharger as the V-8 growled. Magical....

The cars top speed is just over 200mph. I'd tell you how fast I went if I could. LOL :)

Even the wheels were expensive. The rims were made out of carbon fiber. The tires were like driving with huge gumballs attached to the wheels instead of tires. The traction was amazing. Some say you could do 45mph mountain corners at 95mph without the least bit of worry. That's just what I heard. I wouldn't know....

Life as we know it (and the swing)

2008-11-24T22:16:00.010-07:00

Grandma pushing Tillman on the swing. He LOVES the swing!

Swinging part duex. Grandma has her dad's old camo jacket on and Tillman has his camo sweater to match... :)

Video of Tillman swinging later in the day. He's laughing pretty good the last 10 seconds of the vid. You may not want to watch too close if you get motion sickness easy.... :)

Tillman out "helping" Grandpa and Grandma in Grandpa's garden this morning.

Making a wish. Probably that his little sister Lucy will keep doing so good (or that he can spend the rest of his life playing all day long). :)

Daddy showing Tillman his little sister for the first time

Cyndi in her home away from home, i.e. hosptial room. She spent almost a full month there...

Lucy

2008-11-20T21:53:00.004-07:00

Lucy continues to do quite well all things considering. Here you can see mom holding her for the first time yesterday. She "graduated" from being intabated via a breathing tube down her mouth to a "CPAP", which she has on in this picture. It's basically a huge nasal cannula that makes her look like a mini storm trooper. :) Cyndi gets to hold her for about a half hour each day. Cyndi holds her under her shirt to keep the baby warm and to initiate skin to skin contact which keeps her calm and assured.

Lucy graduated again and went from the CPAP to a high-flow nasal cannula. She also has jaundice, which we were told all premmies get, so now she will be under the "tanning bed" for a few days. She has to wear an eye mask while under the blue light to protect her eyes. She has an IV in her right arm and a splint attached to the arm to keep her from bending it. Right before I left the hospital tonight though, she bent the splint and pulled part of her IV out. She's a FEISTY one! The wires attached to her chest and lower abdomen are to monitor her heart rate and respitory rate. She has a pulse-ox monitor attached to one of her feet as well.

Check out how long her fingers are! LOL.

This picture shows you Lucy's full head of hair. I took this picture around 5pm today when Cyndi got to hold her for the second time. :) We also fed her for the first time while Cyndi was holding her. She got 1/5th of a teaspoon of formula for her first meal. :)

PS. She's a whopping 2 pounds 4 ounces....

Lucy's Here!

2008-11-19T09:59:00.002-07:00

Little Lucy straight from Heaven. This is her ride from the operating room to the NICU. She has her breathing tube in and her little hospital beanie covering her dark hair. :)

Popsicle Paradise

2008-11-19T09:19:00.002-07:00

Grandma Whipple took this picture of Tillman working over a popsicle at her place a while back. Love the look. One of my favorite pictures! :)

Flagstaff

2008-11-11T15:53:00.003-07:00

Tillman went to Flagstaff to spend a few days with my oldest sister Stacie. Much to everyone's surprise (he's not 2 yet) he jumped on their scooter and started riding it around. LOL!

Grandma & Grandpa Mullenaux came to town

2008-11-11T14:58:00.003-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Mullenaux came into town last week to help out while Cyndi was in the hospital. They brought their dog Casey and for some reason, Tillman likes to get in his cage.

Grandma noticed most of Tillman's PJs were getting small, so she bought him something a little bigger and more comfy. Thx Grandma!

Tillman took his Jeep out for a spin and had his first passenger ever.... :)

Cyndi

2008-10-30T18:21:00.004-07:00

Well, Cyndi is now bed-bound in the hospital until our baby is born due to a ruptured amniotic sac, so we are looking at having our own little 2.2 pound premme. :) Thoughts are prayers will be appreciated as our life just took a big turn. Notice the calendar on the right of the screen. We need that number to get down to 12 weeks left before she delivers to give the baby its best chance for a healthy life, so the doctors are doing all they can to hold her off (she's currently 26.4 weeks). Let me know if you'd like to receive my daily email update on her progress....

Tillman

2008-10-30T18:17:00.003-07:00

Tillman at Aunt Cari's house having storytime before bed with his cousins Shane and Nikki

Tillman in his car seat. Taking a picture to show Cyndi who hadn't seen him in a few days.

Tillman got suprised by the sprinklers at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He was playing in the yard when they came on and scared the death out of him. I took his shoes off and let him play for a while. Sprinklers and kids = good fun.

More Tillman Studio Pics

2008-10-26T17:48:00.001-07:00

Early Halloween

2008-10-26T17:28:00.003-07:00

My neighbor runs a funeral home/cemetery and had this casket custom made into a BBQ grill. I thought it was really cool and original.

Yesterday was an early Halloween party for the kids at the Painter's house. They always go all-out and this party was no exception. Lots of fun and games for the kids. All the kids were cute and everyone had a great time!

Cyndi decided to dress Tillman up as a zebra this year and this picture shows you how much he liked that idea. That was one unhappy little animal. LOL. I fought the idea but lost. Fortunately there's a week still to go before Halloween so I can find him another costume. :)

The Painter's made headstones for all the kids and put them in the front yard. Tillman's headstone is referencing his new-found ability to get out of his pack-and-go he sleeps in when we travel. He just goes over head first, lands on his pumpkin, rolls through a summersalt and gets up and goes. I snuck in and watched him and it scared me half to death. I'm suprised he didn't break his neck or cry after landing on his head from 2 feet up. Guess he's got a hard head like his dad... :)

Up North

2008-10-26T17:09:00.004-07:00

We spent a few days in Linden outside of Show Low last weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Whipple's summer place. The weather was awesome! It was soooo nice to feel the cool weather again. Every year a few more trees on their lot die off from the lingering effects of the Rodeo-Chediski forest fire, so we spent some time cutting a few of them down. Hopefully they'll quit dying... :) We had a great time and celebrated Cyndi's birthday while we were up there.

Grandpa and Grandma hauling off some oak branches from one of the trees we cut down

Grandma showing off her mad Prowler driving skills!

Tillman "helping" grandpa take a nap

Tillman wanted to spend half his time up there sitting in the Prowler. The kid is addicted to anything with wheels. LOL

Green Chili Heaven

2008-10-19T20:23:00.005-07:00

It's green chili season again! My brother Cody has been teaming up with his Bishop to bottle green chilies for the past few years. It's become an annual Fall ritual and I got in on the act full-time this year, so the week before last I spent 3 full days roasting, peeling and bottling green chilies.

It's great, honestly. Nothing like sitting around on lawn chairs drinking sodas, eating chilies and BS'ing all day with family and friends. Bishop always smokes a different kind of meat each day and we eat meat burritos piled with fresh chilies all day long while we peel and roast. Good stuff!

Here's how it works. Bishop Holyoak drives to Virden, New Mexico and picks up a truck load of chilies. This year he brought back 25 gunny sacks full.

We load a bag into the roaster his dad built from scratch many moons ago and roast them with a 4-burner propane torch until they turn black. Below you can see that the green is starting to turn black.

Bishop is in the background and Cody is doing the roasting here. The chilies are almost done since they are black and starting to curl.

This picture is our peeling setup. We put the roasted chilies in a plastic bag and then straight into an ice chest to cook for an additional 20-30 minutes and then pour them into the big pot of ice water and start peeling. By the end of the day, your hands and forearms are on fire from soaking in the seeds and skins all day. They literally burn for a few hours after you quit, but it makes you feel like you did something cool.

Cody with a huge bowl of freshly peeled chilies taking them into the kitchen for bottling.

Here's the chili factory and Sister Holyoak who spends 3-5 days straight each year standing on her feet all day long bottling those suckers. She's a trooper! This year we set a record and finished up in only 3 days.

Another bowl of chilies getting ready for a second, more thorough washing.

After the second wash, they go into a simmering brine of vinegar and water for about 20 minutes and then are put into bottles with salt and lemon juice to preserve them, and then onto the steamer to initiate the sealing process.

Then off to the table to cool and finally back into their boxes ready to go. We bottled somewhere on the order of 325 quarts of hot, medium and mild chilies this year. Whew.... But man is all the work worth it. They are so GOOD!

Tillman spent one of the days with me. Here I'm introducing him to his first chicken. I'm not sure who cared less about the other one, the chicken or Tillman. I couldn't get the chicken to do anything and Tillman didn't seem to care about them either, so I guess chicken farming probably isn't in his future...

Sibling Date

2008-10-19T20:14:00.003-07:00

A few weeks back me, my brother, all of my sisters (sans Aubrey and Eric who live in Texas) and our spouses got together for a little Saturday night out. We don't get out without all of the kids very often, so it was a lot of fun and we made some good memories. We ate Mexican food of course! :)

Benz vs. Jeep

2008-10-19T20:04:00.004-07:00

Chris, one of my good friends, let us drive his Mercedes S550 for a couple of days. It was a lot of fun and EASY to get used to, but definitely out of our league. LOL.

One of Cyndi's good friends Amy Smith gave us their old Jeep for Tillman to use since her family had outgrown it. I modified it with a new aftermarket battery and cut Tillman loose. The first day I was pretty disappointed because he wasn't getting the hang of it, but the next day, WATCH OUT! He figured it out and was on the move. Now I can't get him out of it. Tillman says thanks Amy and Sean!!!

Tillman

2008-10-16T22:56:00.004-07:00

I didn't even know we had this picture until tonight. It's now one of my favorites! It was taken about a year ago by my brother-in-law Marc.

San Diego Part 2

2008-10-12T19:48:00.003-07:00

Mommy and Tillman running from the waves

Daddy giving Tillman a ride in his dump truck

Mother's Son

2008-10-12T18:20:00.002-07:00

Tillman loves playing with our cell phones

Different shades

2008-10-12T17:53:00.004-07:00

Wearing daddy's hat

Walking around in mommy's workout shoes

Sporting the summer crazy shades

San Diego

2008-10-05T21:45:00.004-07:00

To jump start my sabbatical, we made a trip to San Diego with the Johnson's and stayed at a condo on Mission Beach for a few days.

After a few hours of being trapped in the car, Tillman started getting a little restless, so Cyndi let him watch Baby Einstein movies on her iPhone. He digs Baby Einstein....

After a calzone at Fat Boyz Pizza, we went across the street to Belmont Park where Tillman got his first carousel ride. Who knew riding around in circles on a fake horse would be so much fun?

Tillman and Daddy riding the boats. He never let go of the steering wheel long enough to look up for a picture. LOL

Mommy and Tillman in one of mommy's favorite stores. :) At $10 a pound, she decided she could wait and get candy another time

My friend Nate Johnson pointed out this sweet orange van with a lift on the way back from the farmer's market yesterday morning. He was cracking up and I wondered why the ghetto van was so funny until I saw the bumper sticker. It says "Jesus is coming. LOOK BUSY". LOL! We thought that was pretty dang funny. Anyway, Cyndi was kind enough to pose for pic.

Family Pictures

2008-10-01T20:22:00.004-07:00

Today was family pictures. I'll post them over the course of the next few weeks. Here's one of Tillman's solo shots. Click on it to see a big one....

Tillman is King

2008-10-01T16:22:00.003-07:00

Blackwell Construction

2008-09-23T21:47:00.005-07:00

My brother-in-law Garrett is a contractor and this is one of the custom homes he built. He does both commercial and residential, so if anyone needs a very reasonably priced contractor that does great work, I know where to find one. :)

Random Stuff

2008-09-23T21:38:00.003-07:00

I found a bunch of pictures my sister took, so I thought I'd post a few.

Here's my brother Cody wakeboarding behind Cari and Garrett's boat

Here's a shot of Garrett catching some air

Here's my nephew Bailey playing football this last Saturday. He's Cari and Garrett's oldest boy and loves playing football. My brother-in-law Mark took the shot and worked his magic to create this cool photo.

Me and Tillman almost a year ago at Cari and Garrett's house. Us, Cari, Cody and our families get together monthly for family Sunday dinner.

Ultrasound Results Are In And....

2008-09-16T21:52:00.005-07:00

Cyndi and I are very excited! We are both still in shock because we just assumed we were going to have another boy. It does feel nice to have the pressure off though since we'll have one of each (boy and girl). :) I'm guessing there's going to be a lot of "pink" in our future, so I thought I'd change the background of our blog to start getting used to the idea. :)

Corvette Run

2008-09-13T17:06:00.007-07:00

It's a slow news week for the Mullenaux Fam and I haven't taken any new pics lately, so I'm reaching back in time for this one. This pic is of myself and 3 buddies of mine I work with at Intel. We took our vettes and went on a "corvette run" up to Prescott and back on one of our days off.

The trip was really fun. Lots of fast driving on winding roads, all within the speed limit of course :) On the way home I opened the vette up a little and hit 165mph down a very long, back road straightaway. I'm guessing the car probably had another 20 mph in her, but 165-ish was fast enough for me. A little white knuckle for sure, but fun to test the limits a little...

This is a picture of Watson Lake by Prescott. I had no idea it even existed. It was pretty scenic and the weather was beautiful as well, which makes any decent place in AZ feel like heaven.

A pic I took of the vette in front of our house so I could put it up for sale. I sold it to a dude who wanted to use it at the drag strip and used the $ to buy my sand rail. :) I miss the car though and want another one. Cyndi see's things a little different right now though. LOL

Trip to Kansas

2008-09-13T16:45:00.004-07:00

This post is a little overdue. Cyndi went to Kansas a few months back to visit her good friend Sally. They had a great time while I was stuck home babysitting. :) Actually, I took Tillman to Thatcher and we had a good week as well. Anyway, here are a few photos they took at the zoo.

Cyndi and Sally

Cyndi and Sally's kids Madi and Stockton riding the Lion. Ride it.

I thought this picture was actually taken in Africa from the looks of the ghetto bldg in the background. LOL. The giraffe probably requested it so he wouldn't feel homesick.

Little group photo-op. Cyndi said the zoo there was awesome, at least compared to the good ol' PHX zoo so get on over to KS and check it out! LOL

Grandma and Grandpa's

2008-09-07T19:26:00.003-07:00

Tillman loves going to his Grandma and Grandpa Whipples house! Grandpa made a wheelbarrow and took Tillman for a ride around the back yard.

Smiling for Grandma

Play Time

2008-09-04T14:05:00.004-07:00

Cyndi and her friend Becky took the boys to the library yesterday morning for story/singing time. Needless to say, Tillman wasn't real keen on sitting there. All he wants to do is PLAY! So the ladies went to the new San Tan outdoor mall, stripped the boys down and let them run around at the splash pad.

Since the splash pad was spur-of-the-moment, the boys were sporting their normal clothes.

Hanging with the ladies....

Getting a little hot, so the wives went trashy and let them sport the diapers for a few.

Post splash pad, sans their wet shorts. Tillman and his buddy Burkley burning through the wives' loose change.

Dune Season Approaches

2008-08-30T07:55:00.008-07:00

Starting to think about the dunes again. It'll be here before you know it! Here's some pics of me jumping the car at the end of last year....

FR Quattro

2008-08-23T09:36:00.003-07:00

Cody repelling upside down the last 50 or so feet

Show off! LOL....

Reunion Esquire III

2008-08-23T09:31:00.002-07:00

All the Mullenaux Grandkids

Dad and Tillman

Whacking the little piggy pinata

Aunt Stacie giving Tillman and Hallie a bath

Another pic of Cyndi repelling

Reunion Part Duex

2008-08-23T09:27:00.003-07:00

Going up for the dunk

Mom and Tillman swinging

Tillman LOVES the swing

Pops repelling down the waterfall.

Family Reunion

2008-08-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

My sisters and my BnL Mark took lots of pics at our family reunion in July and I've just got around to downloading some of them. Thx for the pics!

Tillman pushing his dump truck. That truck was the best $20 we've spent. Tillman loves it!

Tillman chucking the soccer ball. He LOVES to throw stuff. LOL

Cyndi demonstrating her hoop skillz

Pick of me repelling down the 200ft waterfall. It was a blast!

Tillman "helping" push his cousins in his wagon. :)

Machine Guns are Ultra Cool

2008-08-17T21:29:00.002-07:00

Cody and I went out a few weeks back to shoot his MP5 and M4. I've always wanted to shoot the MP5. It was awesome!!!

Here's a vid of Cody getting his game on....

Here's me and no that's not a natural head twitch when I shoot the M4. LOL. Just need some practice holding that kick... :)

Austin Texas

2008-08-17T10:36:00.017-07:00

We just returned from 2 weeks in Austin. It's a pretty cool place. Kind of like the Flagstaff of Texas (except not cold). Lots of "progressives" live there. I had a business trip with Intel and brought the family along. Cyndi and Tillman spent the day doing activities like the Children's museum, swimming, the park, RaddiJazz (kids play place), shopping, going to the gym, etc and then we'd spend the evening going to dinner and doing more of the same types of activities. It was great to get away and very fun to have the family along!

While we were at a park (huge with a natural springs swimming pool, train ride for the kids, outdoor theatre, etc) Tillman "stole" this dog from a nice family who had 2. He loves little dogs and "taking them for a walk".

Tillman with his new-found appetite for lemons (taking after his Grandma Whipple when she was a little girl).

Another picture at the park. Tillman used to HATE swings, but after some coaching and lots of "tries" from Aunt Cari and Grandma Cindy over the past 6 months he's finally got the hang of it. Now instead of crying when you put him in, he cries when you take him out. LOL.

Here's the train at the park. The conductor used to love in Tucson so he let Tillman sit in the engine. :)

Waiting for the ride to begin

Tillman now "smiles" when you ask him to while taking a picture. Here's what that looks like. LOL

Mom and Tillman with his camera smile.

Since we were on an expense account, we ate well. I gorged myself of course. One of the more unique places we ate was Trudy's Texas Star. It's Tex-Mex. I tried one of their most popular dishes. Deep fried avocado stuffed with chicken and queso (see in picture below). We ate a number of BBQ joints as well since Austin is a big BBQ city. Some of the other places we ate were Buca di Bepo (Italian), Estansia Churroscaria (Brazilian BBQ like Fogo de Chao/Tuscano's), the Salt Lick and County Line (both BBQ), Carrabba's (our favorite Italian), Chuy's (delicious Mexican), Shady Grove (owned by Chuy's, but more American), Hula Hut (also owned by Chuy's but more Baja-style Mexican), etc, etc. Was nice not to have to cook or clean the kitchen for two weeks! :)

Tillman riding the quarter machines at Chuckee Cheese

Cyndi went home 2 days before I returned. I took a picture as she was getting ready to go through security at the airport. She didn't have a convenient place to put Tillman so she put him in one of the scanner tubs and just slid him along. I heard the guy behind her chuckle. It was cute and pretty funny.

Repelling

2008-07-16T23:20:00.002-07:00

Last week was our 3rd annual Mullenaux Family reunion. We ended up in the mountains between Lake Roosevelt and Young at a pretty nice camp site. My brother Cody just returned from Repel Master school for his job and decided to take us repelling.

We spent all morning sending kids and adults off a 60 foot cliff. Most were first timers and everyone was brave and had a good time. When we finished, Cody and I decided we would repel down a 200 foot waterfall and asked my Dad to go with us. To be honest, I didn't think he would and figured it'd be just me and Cody, but he agreed and so we tied off on his truck (see him and truck in picture below) and geared up. Before we knew it, we had a handful of brave souls who wanted to do it, including a few who'd repelled for their first time that day.

Cyndi was very brave and decided to give it a try right before we finished up for the day. I was proud of her. See the pics below.

My dad watching as Cyndi goes over the edge (Cyndi has a brown shirt and a cream helmet). You may want to click on the picture to blow it up to see things better. Anyway, going over the edge and putting your trust in the rope is definitely the scariest part. Get past that and you are home free....

Cyndi farther down

She's a little tougher to pick out in this picture. Quite a ways down. You can't see the bottom of the cliff in this picture, but you get an idea of the scale of things and how far down it really is. See the waterfall running to the right where all the green is

In this picture, she's just starting her free fall. The cliff curved back in and so there was nothing to put your feet on. You just repelled straight down or free repelled the final 60 or so feet.

It was VERY fun and a pretty big rush! Nice job Cyndi and thanks for taking us Cody! :)

New Addition to the Mullenaux Home!

2008-06-22T20:00:00.002-07:00

Tillman has some exciting news he wanted to share....

Running in the Sprinkler

2008-06-16T19:14:00.005-07:00

It was 112 degrees today, so Tillman and I spent a little time running the in sprinklers to cool off. He laughed the whole time.

Shirtless

He shorts kept falling down and making him trip, so we went trashy and let him run around in his diaper. Good times! :)

Fathers/Memorial Day

2008-06-16T18:57:00.007-07:00

Cyndi spoiled me on Father's day by making me some delicious cream cheese chicken enchiladas and my favorite cake. Thx sweetie!

We went to the Blackwell's on Memorial day for a little BBQ and fun with family and friends. Cari and Garrett were excellent hosts as always and we had a lot of fun. Tillman kept trying to push his little buggy into the pool, so we finally just let him. Cari was gracious enough to keep him from drowning and pushed him around for a while. :)

Stuff

2008-06-16T18:50:00.002-07:00

One of the bathrooms at my work was closed and had a "odor notification" sign attached to the caution tape. I thought that was pretty funny (both the caution and the odor). LOL!

Our little beater eater. Tillman's first beater.

The weeds in our backyard are out of control! Tillman was in heaven for two days while he and his daddy rode around in the tractor and cleaned them up.

San Diego

2008-06-16T17:41:00.016-07:00

A few weeks back we decided it was time for a vacation, so we packed up our things and headed for the beach in San Diego. We were there 4 days with our good friends, the Johnsons and had a really good time.

On the way there, Tillman thought it'd be funny to take off his socks and stuff them in his mouth.

Our first night there, we walked about 2 miles down the boardwalk to eat pizza at Belmont Park. That's a huge slice of pizza Nate!

Tillman and Elli in their wagon after breakfast one morning.

A big ol Jaguar at the San Diego zoo. That thing paced backed and forth in the cage acting like it was pretty upset and ready to eat someone. I tried to give him Tillman but Cyndi veto'd that

The Johnsons took us to a place where we could see starfish and stuff that were left on the rocks after the tide receded. We also saw a bunch of seals kicking it on the beach. Those things are some SMELLY animals.... Tillman needs some sunglasses. Either that or his mom is hugging him too tight. :)

The Zoo crew (minus Nate)

The silver thing hanging down from this Giraffe's mouth is its toungue. It was a long sucker. That pole must've tasted good because he licked that thing like a lollipop for 15 minutes straight.

Cyndi and Tillman

Cyndi found this "mini" plumber at the zoo and took a quick picture. LOL.

Spray Bottle Hilarity

2008-06-04T21:05:00.003-07:00

Every few weeks we stumble onto something that cracks Tillman up. This week it was spraying him in the face with a water bottle. Pretty funny huh? Below is a picture of him laughing like crazy and below that is a little video of the same. Enjoy! :)

Video of Tillman laughing while getting sprayed with H2O

Was funny the first time, so we tried again this afternoon. Still funny I guess... :)

St Johns

2008-06-01T12:34:00.005-07:00

Tillman and I made a trip to St Johns to attend Kim's youngest daughter Lexie's baptism. The trip was 4 hours each way, but Tillman didn't fuss at all. Good boy... It was a very enjoyable visit. Kim and family are always such good hosts.

My BnL (brother-in-law) Mike is holding his two youngest boys at the end of the baptism. All that spiritual stuff tired them out I guess. :)

Kim has some "sweet" toys for little boys. Tillman loved the two John Deere tractors! :)

I was trying to teach him how to be a "real" farm boy and drive around with no shirt. Since his phsyique is so impressive, he must have an equally impressive tan to go with it. LOL.

Olive Garden

2008-05-29T14:50:00.003-07:00

So here's our trip to Olive Garden last week and the typical scenario. Tillman just gets into his seat. He looks calm, maybe somewhat bored, but don't let that look fool you. He's really contemplating how to get his mom all fired up.

And he's off, reaching for everything he isn't supposed to reach for, trying to poke it, knock it over, or grab it so he can chuck it on the floor... :) This kid better have a good baseball arm after all this practice.

Grab the straw and give him little drinks and some munchies to occupy him so he doesn't destroy the table while we're waiting for our food. Not sure why he likes straws so much.

Ahhh, peace is obtained for a few seconds as he munches on one of his favorite snacks. Kidde puffs... Good boy. LOL.

Show me your Belly Button

2008-05-29T14:38:00.004-07:00

Ready for church

We've been trying to teach Tillman where his nose, eyes, etc are, but haven't had much luck with getting him to repeat our words or actions for those body parts. What we HAVE had luck with is asking him to show us his belly button. LOL. Here we were on our way out the door for church when I asked him to show me his belly button and snapped a quick pic. :)