Happy Mother's Day!

Chives from the front herb garden!

I don't consider myself to be a conceited or selfish person, and I hate saying a certain day is "my day." Even on my wedding day, I hated it when people said, "it's your day." No day is my day. However, on this Mother's Day, it sure felt like it was my day. It just a fantastic blessed day. It started kind of rushed...waking up late, making breakfast for the fam, and scooting off to Sunday School and church. Then, we came back, rushed around to get lunch ready, watched Caroline eat some "tatoes" as she has started calling them, cleaning up, and then putting Caroline down for her nap. Before this point, the day didn't feel any different than any other day of cooking, cleaning, and taking care of my family. After Caroline went down for her nap, Mimi, Papi,Craig, and myself went to work outside getting my gardens ready for the season. It was fantastic! We'd gone the day before to get plants, and Craig had gotten a truck-bed full of mulch a few days before. So everything was in place. A couple of hours later, we were done and everything looked wonderful. All the plants were planted right where I wanted them and everything was freshly mulched...I know it sounds weird, but I love love to mulch. My front flower bed is now the herb garden I've been wanting for two years! Love it! I have a beautiful lilac bush in the back that my very own mother talked me into getting, so I can't wait to see what becomes of it. I also got a few more gifts from my loved ones!

So all in all, it was just a fantastic mother's day. I got to do exactly what I wanted to do. I know it seems like on Mother's Day I should want to lay back with a glass of something and read a good book or sink down in a hot bubble bath, but I wanted to bring my garden to life...and with the help of my awesome family, that is exactly what I did! Thank you to my parents and my husband for making my Mother's Day exactly the way I wanted it to be. Love you all!

Pictures:
-Top Left: My lilac bush I'm so excited to smell!
-Top Right: The lemon balm I planted last year that did nothing then, but look at it now!
-Bottom Left: This is our back flower garden that I dug out myself the spring after we moved into our house!
-Botton Right: A beautiful little angel enjoying the sun in her shades and ready to plant!

"...She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed;her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things,but you surpass them all.” -Proverbs 31:10-12 and 25-31

Another First...

When I went back to work after Caroline was born, which was well over a year ago, I regretted the fact that even though I was working to provide for the needs of my daughter, I was going to be missing out on a lot of time with her. I believe that any good parent will agree that spending time with your children is as much of a need as ensuring there is food in their little bellies. Since I would be missing out on a lot of time with my daughter, I made two promises to myself: #1 I would never leave Caroline when she was sick because I figured if I can't be with her as much as I'd like, I'm at least going to be with the kid when she is sick. And #2 I will witness all firsts. As a rule of thumb, and Caroline's babysitter and loved ones will attest to this, nothing officially happens until I see it. Caroline didn't take her first steps until I was there to see it with my own eyes. Caroline did not cut her first tooth until I saw it breaking through the gums. And I definitely wasn't going to miss her very first haircut. She did fabulously! I didn't trust that she would sit quietly and patiently on the big black box they have for children to sit on when they are getting their hair cuts. So she sat in my lap instead. We chatted about several things...what she would do at the babysitter the following day, who she would play with, what she wanted for dinner, etc. All the while, her little blong flakes of hair falling to the floor and in my lap. It was an excellent experience, and another excellent first! My favorite part was that after it was all over, I could see my baby's eyes again!

Priddy-Mullen-Stauss-Bona-Mishoe Family Easter Weekend 2011

The biggest and brightest event in April was Easter weekend...which I like to call "Priddy-Mullen-Stauss-Bona-Mishoe Family Easter Weekend 2011." It was awesome! Though everyone couldn't make it...and believe they were missed terribly...we had an incredibly blessed weekend spending time with family. Here are some day-to-day play-by-plays of the weekend:

FRIDAY:
Everyone arrived Friday afternoon and evening. We inhaled some pizzas, and then the adults went to the Good Friday service while the kids stayed home and got Baby Carowine through her evening bedtime ritual. But before that, we just had fun smiling!

Aunt Suzy-Q got to help Caroline with her favorite time of day...bath-time!

SATURDAY:
We started Saturday with an awesome breakfast...big, beautiful Belgian waffles and fruit...and lots and lots of coffee. As you can see, Uncle Wayne is really enjoying his breakfast!

The Mullens and the Bonas took a trip to Target for some last minute Easter items. Aunt Suzy-Q and Uncle Jeff bought Caroline some really cool blocks and a "Fancy Nancy" book. Caroline is playing with Aunt Suzy-Q and enjoying her new blocks!

Sometime Saturday, it got hot and muggy so we decided to let Caroline run around in just a diaper. But we ran into one small problem...she kept taking her diaper off! So in an effort to keep
her from doing this, "Engineer Papi" was on a mission...and he succeeded!

Another bath-time...this time with Aunt Nancy and Aunt Pam!

























EASTER SUNDAY!
Easter was fantastic. We all went to church together and took up two pews! Then, we came home and ate a big Easter dinner...ham, turkey, two kinds of potatoes, rolls, and all kinds of great stuff! Then, we watched as Caroline found what the Easter bunny had left her! The weekend was absolutely wonderful and we will never forget it. Even though we don't live as close to each other as we'd like, I thank the Lord daily for the family he has blessed me with. We love each other and genuinely enjoy each other's company. I know it was a long blog posting of the weekend, but I wanted there to be plenty of memories for everyone to share and enjoy, and I wanted the Mishoes, Priddy's, and Andrades to feel like they were part of the weekend as well! God bless my family! Miss you all!

Abby the Tabby Cat

We've been having some issues with our "sweet" tabby cat, Abby. Over the last couple of months, she's turned into quite the high maintenance little feline. In addition to multiple trips to the vet for urinary tract problems and special food, she also happens to be quite the noisy cat in the middle of the night...beating on doors, slamming doors, fighting with the other cat. She's pretty much a nocturnal nightmare. So we finally wised up and decided to let her spend her nights in a pet taxi in the living room. Now before any of you start calling PETA, the cat carrier is about four times her size so she has plenty of room to stretch out and be comfortable. The first night, however, I wasn't smart enough to put a small litter pan in the cage. When Abby strolled out of her cage the next morning quite dirty and smelly, her grand prize was a bath! She did remarkably well, but I'd forgotten how small she actually is, and how incredibly pitiful she looks when she is wet!

Yummy Treats

Every year, our ministerial association has a dinner and pie auction. Last year, I didn't get a chance to participate, but this year boy did I ever! To your left, you will see a very chocolatey, very rich candy bar pie. I originally thought it was going to be a disaster because my pie crust totally dropped over the sides and looked terrible! But once I over-filled the crust and over drizzled the chocolate, it turned into my favorite mistake! Not sure how much it raised, but the chocolate drippin' off the sides tells me it's priceless!

Catch-up Blogging

Okay. So it has officially been four weeks since my last posting, and I've missed blogging terribly! But unfortunately, finding time to do it is sometimes just hilarious to even think about. At any rate, here I am back to blogging.
The Mullen Family has been very busy in the last four weeks...making pies for town auction, going to Mimi and Papi's for a big Priddy family weekend, first haircuts, and of course celebrating Mother's Day...which is now one of my favorite days of the year! I've got pictures of just about everything, so we'll do a little catch-up blogging so everyone can see what we've been up to over the last month! And of course...there are plenty of pictures of Sweet baby Caroline! Enjoy!

Things I Love the Most. . .

As I've gotten older and my life has started to make more and more sense, and I'm sensing what my true purpose is, I try so hard not to take simple things for granted and I try more and more to really see and appreciate the beauty in the little blessings God grants me daily. So I thought I would just share a few...

The first breeze of spring...

I have special reasons that I love all seasons...I'm not a huge fan of summer because I detest hot, unbreathable weather. But I do love springtime. I love the smell of fresh grass as neighbors race to be the first to mow their not quite over-grown lawns. I love the newness of everything, and the discovery of them. One morning you may wake up and your garden may be bare. The next day, you walk outside and there are rows of daffodils awaiting you! Something I love the most about spring are the days when it's about 72 degrees, light humidity, and not a cloud in the sky. I step outside, I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and I feel the tiniest breeze. It feels so fantastic as if it is welcoming me. Now that Caroline is getting a little older, it is so much fun to take her outside on these days and just watch her explore, peak around corners, gently touch the flowers, and scream at the excitement of it all!

Embracing the silliness of it all. . .

I am a mother, a wife, and have a full-time job, so at any given minute I have about fifty different things on my plate...get to work, make sure the gas tank is full, fix dinner, get Caroline's things ready for the sitter, get lunches ready for the next day, pick up toys, yadayadayada. Though I do have a never ending to do list going on in my head, it's nice sometimes to just stop and enjoy the silliness! Maybe it's a funny dance with my husband or giving Caroline a fancy up-do or dressing her in Cow-covered rain boots, or playing "Ring Around the Rosie" , or taking a minute to truly embrace the humor in one of mine and Craig's favorite tv shows...once in awhile, it's nice to wipe out the to-do list, forget everything I've got planned, and just embrace the silliness!

You Are What You Eat. . .

Lately, for some reason, I've become obsessed with wanting to know all the celebrity diet secrets. It started with Patricia Heaton, who plays "Frankie Heck" on one of my favorite tv shows "The Middle". In real life, she is a mother of four and obviously stays very busy...but I couldn't get over how tiny she was! So I got online, thinking she must have some weight loss/maintenance secret that all hard-working-but-no-time-to-actually-work-out-mothers should possess! I had to have it, whatever it was! Well, I determined that her "secrets" involve plastic surgery, colonics, and eating once a day. Now I don't judge her for doing any of these things. She is a movie star for crying out loud, and if I had people scrutinizing my every move, I'd make sure I was lookin' tight and tiny too! But after learning this and realizing the pressure she must be under to look the way she does, I stopped comparing myself to her. I love eating my favorite foods...way to much to have it pumped out of me! My favorite foods, if I'm going to be honest with myself, are really just about anything. I love pasta with lots of sauce...the creamier the better! And what's pasta without a giant, buttery bread stick to dip into it! Yum! I also love cheese by the block and chips and fries and ice cream and those super-long pretzel sticks and super-huge soft pretzels with cream cheese for dipping! Yum! I love it all really. But one of mine...and Caroline's...favorite things to eat is chocolate...anything!

And the clean-up is even more fun!

And a Little Child Shall Lead Them. . .

Between work and home, I get to spend a lot of time with children, which is probably one of my favorite things to do. Children, in my eyes, are just fantastic and have so many great qualities....they can maintain their innocence while still being brutally honest with you. The truly embrace life for what it is, and not what it should be. Until they get a little older, they dance around, most of the time literally, without a care in the world...they don't worry about what people are thinking or what college they are going to get into or if all the bills have been paid on time. Sometimes I like to look at adults as very jaded children because I believe that we all have childish sides. We just have so much other stuff distracting us from it! Last weekend, I was blessed to be able to spend some much needed time with my parents and my brother and his beautiful family. My father and I were helping my oldest niece into bed one evening, and as we were tucking her in, I reminded her to say her prayers. So she bowed her head and stated her nighttime "Now I lay me down to sleep..." When she was finished, I asked her if she had any "special prayers" she'd like to say. She look up at me with the big brown eyes and said "I would like to pray for my friends." I don't have any pictures of this wonderful weekend to show you, but the mental picture of this moment my father and I spent with this three year old little angel will never be forgotten.

"The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. "

-Isaiah 11: 6