This weekend, Mimi and Papi (Mom and Dad Priddy) came to visit for a nice, relaxing weekend at the Mullen House. The entire weekend was absolutely wonderful with fantastic food, shopping, and a birthday celebration! The weekend started Friday with appetizers and a jewelry party for the girls and dinner in St. Mary's for the boys. Then Saturday...
Beautiful Beignets
Brandon and Elizabeth bought us some beignet mix while vacationing in New Orleans. Beignets are French doughnuts, and absolutely delicious! As you can see from the photograph below, they don't look like conventional American doughnuts, but rather square shaped and coated in powdered sugar...though Papi threw some shredded cheese over his instead. That's our Papi!
I'm a fan of the sugar myself, but either way,
we had a fantastic experience making them!
Birthday Dinner Italiano
After a fun day of shopping, Mimi, Caroline, and I returned, and I made a wonderful "Meat-Lover's Lasagna" recipe from one of my favorite cooking magazines, "Healthy Cooking". It's just a great lasagna made with sausage and ground beef, so it really is for the meat lover. Served with salad, Italian bread covered in my special blend of Italian cheeses and spices, and topped off with a slice of Dairy Queen ice cream cake, it was definitely a meal to celebrate my birthday!
And the weekend wouldn't be complete without a picture of baby Caroline...covered in chocolate and smiles!
So in all, weekend was a complete blessing. Spending much needed time with family is always a great way to finish one week and begin a new one.
"We love because He first loved us."
-1 John 4:19
Mornings in the Mullen House can be somewhat rushed, but we have a system all the same which usually begins with two to three slaps of the alarm clock and eventually dragging ourselves out of bed. Lately, we've been dragging slower and slower. At any rate, Craig gets Caroline up while I get breakfast ready. Then Caroline comes in and sleepily gets started on breakfast, which on weekdays, generally consists of some "O's", water, and yogurt. I'm usually chomping on some toast and guzzling coffee while we watch Phineas and Ferb...a cartoon that we have all come to love and appreciate.
Some mornings go quite smoothly! But as with many of us, there are those mornings where it is just hard to get motivated.
Regardless, by 7:10 a.m., we are usually in the car and making our way to the babysitter's house. And that's the way we start our day! Sometimes they can be a challenge if we've all been deprived of a good night sleep. But eating together and helping each other get the various jobs of the morning done are really excellent ways to start our day. "A cheerful heart is good medicine." -Proverbs 17:22
OK...so we have taken a sabbatical from blogging, but we are officially back in action. I have set a goal for myself to write at least one good blog posting once a week, and I'm really going to try and stick with it. What was once just a place to put a few pictures and captions will now hopefully serve as an outlet for maternal thoughts and family stories. Needless to say, when your life revolves around the life of a toddler, there are just a few stories to tell along the way...which takes me to my first maternal thought. Sleep. It is no secret that babies do not allow you much sleep during their first few months of life. As a parent, this is expected. However, as they get older, they hopefully and prayerfully will fall into some sort of excellent routine where eventually, you can place them in their crib...not your bed...and they can soothe themselves, and by extension, everyone else in the household, into a peaceful and quiet sleep. This may last for awhile, and then something upsets the routine...be it a cold, or in our case for the last few days, teething. At this point the entire routine is thrown out of whack...sleeping through the night is a thing of the past for the littlest in the house as well as her zombie parents. So as full time working parents, you have one goal when your child wakes up screaming at 3am...damage control. You use your "What to Expect: The Toddler Years" book as a door stop, and do what desperation tells you to do because at this point, sleep for everyone has become the number one priority.
Our little family has been experiencing all of the above over the last few days. After dealing Caroline's cold that lasted for almost two weeks and was eventually passed down to me, we got two nights of full, uninterrupted sleep...and then the rain came. She is now cutting her third tooth. It is definitely something that every parent inevitably goes through, but nonetheless, is never easy to handle. So we are doing what we have to do at this point...Tylenol, Motrin, Oragel, musical beds.Despite our latest challenge, we are absolutely blessed everyday by our healthy baby girl and all the happiness she brings us. These little bumps along the road are just that. Tomorrow is another day!"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances." -1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
So in all, weekend was a complete blessing. Spending much needed time with family is always a great way to finish one week and begin a new one.
