Week in Review: Decking the Halls and Other Normal Activities

We've had a good week! Thankfully, we've all been well, and we stayed fairly busy, which is always fun, but it was much more restful than the holiday week before :)

Sunday: We got up bright and early and got ready for church. Oh, just lounging in the window sill eating an apple for breakfast. Normal morning around here!

I put a roast in the crockpot for lunch, and then we attempted to take some pictures. Our kids just don't like Sunday morning pictures apparently:Yeah, getting up at the crack of dawn will do that to you, Buddy.
She wouldn't look at the camera.

We had a good morning at church and Sunday School. Jude had gotten up at 6:30 that morning for some odd reason, so he was just exhausted in the nursery. When I got there to pick him up, they told me that he just could not stay awake any longer, so they put him down for a nap. I know they thought this would be best for him, but I inwardly cringed because I knew that meant no nap that afternoon, and he had only gotten to sleep 30 minutes at church. There was nothing to be done at that point, so we got him up and headed home. We ate the roast for lunch, and then I baked some cookies to take to church that night before I took a nap. Aubrey has cookie on her face, but it's a sweet picture :)

David played with Jude for a little while hoping to get him tired enough to take a real nap. He, of course, never did. David said he gave up after an hour, and they just went into Aubrey's room and played. We got ready and went back to church that evening. Jude was past the point of tiredness by this point. See? He was exhausted and melting down about everything.

We did have a good night at church, though. After the service, we had fellowship time. We didn't stay very long because we knew we needed to get Jude to bed. He went right to sleep when we got home, and so did Aubrey. When they were both asleep, I watched some TV and blogged while David read before bed.

Monday: This was a COLD and rainy day, so my goal for the day was to not leave the house. The kids and I just hung out at home all day. I did laundry, changed the sheets on our bed, put some clothes away, and straightened up. I had book club the next night, and I hadn't read much of my book, so I read that off and on all day. Aubrey watched some PBS Kids while I worked around the house, and Jude played. We ate lunch and just played and hung around the house some more. I straightened up the kitchen, and then I put the kids down for their naps. I took a short nap myself, but Jude didn't sleep real long, so it was cut short. When both kids were up, I decided that it would be nice to get out of the house for just a little while. It was still raining, so we loaded up and just went to Sonic for a drink. When we got home, we played until dinner time. I had put some chicken and wild rice soup in the crockpot earlier, so we ate that for dinner. Surprisingly, Aubrey ate it really well! We had a nice evening, but it got long after dinner as Mondays always do. I gave the kids a bath -- Aubrey specifically requested a bath together. I let them stay in there as long as they wanted to, so that killed a lot of time. When I got them out, it was Jude's bedtime, so I took him upstairs and put him to bed. David got home right after that, and he played with Aubrey for a little while and then put her to bed. I just sat the rest of the night and was thankful that another Monday was coming to a close :) I stayed up until I finished my book club book.

Tuesday: The kids slept later that morning, so that was nice! When we were up, I got ready for Bible Study and then got the kids dressed. Well, Jude clearly wasn't quite dressed at this point, but they were so cute sitting in their chairs next to each other.

We got to church, and the kids went to the nursery and I went to Bible Study. After it was over, Rebekkah and I went to lunch at Newk's. Jude was so tired during lunch, and he got fussy. We had fun, though! When we got home, I put the kids down for naps, and they both slept that day. Aubrey took a while to fall asleep, so she was just getting quiet when Jude woke up. I had pretty much just enjoyed naptime. I didn't do anything productive. The house was pretty clean, so I just rested and got on the internet. When Jude was up, I played with him until David got home."Oh!" Jude was having a snack and telling me very important things!

Aubrey was still sleeping, so we he went upstairs to wake her up. They played for a while, and I got ready for book club. We got the kids started on dinner before I left, and then Rebekkah picked me up. We had book club at Corner Bakery, and it was really fun! We had read The Good Daughters, and it was an interesting discussion. We stayed SO late talking (not just about the book the whole time!). Corner Bakery ended up closing, so we stood in the parking lot in the freezing cold to finish our conversation ;) When I got home, David had put up our outdoor Christmas decorations! :) He had also put a bunch of laundry up. He always puts me to shame with what he's able to accomplish while also watching the kids! We talked for a while before going to bed. By the time we went to bed, it was well after midnight.

Wednesday: We were up early, and I was sleepy after my late night. I woke up after moving around for a little while :) We had an uneventful morning at home. I went ahead and took a shower and got dressed that morning, because we're always so rushed trying to get out the door for tutoring. I bathed the kids after my shower, and they played in the tub for a good while. Kiss kiss! Love these pictures!

We ate lunch, and I picked out their clothes, and then I put them down for naps. Jude slept for 3 hours! While they napped, I did some housework and got on the computer for a while. I finished getting ready, got the kids ready, and then it was time to leave. We drove through Sonic on the way to church :) Tutoring went well that day. After it was over, I got the kids from the nursery, and we played and hung out in the gym until dinner. We had red beans and rice for dinner at church that night. When we finished with our meal, the kids went to the nursery, and I taught my class. After church, David was going over to help some friends who are moving out of state load up some of their stuff. So, I took the kids home. When we got here, Aubrey was just heartbroken that David wasn't home. Poor thing cried the whole time I was getting Jude ready for bed and putting him down. I finally got her calmed down and put her to bed. I think she was just exhausted -- she hasn't been napping, but she's still getting up early. I think it finally caught up with her. I got on the internet until David got home. We talked and went to bed fairly early.

Thursday: Jude got up around 7, but Aubrey slept until 8:45! I knew she was tired :) Jude and I got ready, and then I got Aubrey ready when she was up. Aubrey is telling Jude to look at the camera. Hilarious since she rarely will look at the camera herself. Haha!

We went to church to help some ladies decorate the church for Christmas. However, when we got there, there were no nursery rooms available. We have a preschool at our church, and they use most of the rooms, and then another group meets at our church on Thursdays and they use the other rooms. So, all of our kids were just playing in the fellowship hall, and there was only one girl to watch them. There were only 5 kids there, but they were going in opposite directions. Jude went right for the stairs going up onto the stage. After following him around and getting him off the stairs for about 1o minutes, I decided that the most helpful thing I could do was to take my kids and leave. Ha! I felt bad that I wasn't able to help, but I tried! Since we were out already, the kids and I went to a sample sale and got several outfits of all three of them :) We were going to run more errands, but it was pushing lunchtime by this point and Jude was fussy. So we drove through Arby's and headed home. We ate lunch, and then I put the kids down for naps. They both went to sleep and took GREAT naps. Jude slept for 3 hours, and Aubrey slept for almost 4! I took a nice nap myself. When we were up, everyone was rested and happy :) I put the Rudolph movie on for Aubrey, and I started cooking dinner. Jude got a little clingy while I was trying to cook. He found some cupcake liners, and I let him play with them just so that he would be occupied.When David got home, dinner was about ready, so I finished up, and we ate. Jude wouldn't touch any of his dinner. Ughhh. After we ate, Aubrey wanted to watch Rudolph with David, so we let her watch it again. Haha! By the time the movie was over, it was Jude's bedtime, so I put him down. We let Aubrey stay up a little later since she had slept so much that day. It took her FOREVER to go to sleep. I went to her room around 10:30 and told her she needed to quit talking and go to sleep. She said she would, but not 5 minutes later, she was talking again. She was repeating "ouch" over and over, but she didn't sound upset, so we figured it was just another stall tactic. David went up to check on her after a minute or two, and I heard her start screaming, and David asked me to come upstairs. It freaked me out so bad, because I didn't know WHAT in the WORLD was going on. When I got to her room, I saw blood on her sheets. Apparently, there was a tiny piece of glass on her floor (from months ago, according to Aubrey) from when she broke a vase top that was on her dresser. She had gotten up after I left her room (don't remember what reason she gave for that?) and stepped on the glass and cut the bottom of her foot. David said she wasn't very upset until he turned the light on and she saw the blood. Then she freaked out. We got her foot taken care of -- a princess bandaid made it ALL better -- and we changed her sheets. She insisted that she couldn't sleep on the "sheeps" with blood on them. We tucked her into bed, and thankfully she went right to sleep after that. It was after 11 by that point, so David and I went to bed too.

Friday: Aubrey slept pretty late after all the excitement the night before, but Jude was up at his normal time. I fed him breakfast, and then we just played until Aubrey got up. Baby bird!

She said her foot felt fine, and she walked normally, so I was relieved about that. I took a shower and got dressed, and Aubrey watched Rudolph again. My dad and brothers came over to deliver a treadmill that my grandmother is letting me borrow (yay!), and then I got the kids ready and we went to run errands. We went to Target, Hobby Lobby, and then Chick Fil A. It was crazy crowded at lunch, so I was glad when Aubrey chose ice cream over playing in the play area. We headed home after lunch, and I put Jude down for a nap. Aubrey played while Jude slept, and I did more Christmas decorating. I pretty much finished up everything I wanted to do, so that was a good feeling! When the kids got up, we played until David got home. Aubrey had some ice cream leftover from lunch in the freezer, so she got that out immediately upon waking ;)Aubrey shared her leftover ice cream with Jude without me even telling her to. She would give him little licks, and it was SO SWEET.

David vacuumed Aubrey's room to make sure there was no more glass, and I got ready for a dinner we were going to that night. We fed the kids dinner and then took the kids over to David and Rebekkah's house so that we could share a babysitter. We rode to our dinner with the Arants, and it was so much fun! There were about 6 or 7 couples from church there, and we laughed SO hard. At one point, I was laughing so hard that I thought I might put myself into labor. We definitely don't want that! After we ate, we played Catch Phrase, and that's always fun. We had some VERY competitive people there ;) We left after several rounds of the game, and we picked our kids up. It was WAY past their bedtime, but they seemed to be holding up ok. The babysitter said they were all good, and I know Aubrey had fun! (I'm sure Jude did too, but he didn't tell us all about it like she did. Ha!) We put them right to bed when we got home, and David and I went to bed pretty soon after the kids.

Saturday: Even after going to bed almost THREE hours after his bedtime, Jude was up at 7:15 :( David got up with him, and I slept in. David woke Aubrey up at 9, and they just played. When I got up, David got ready, and I got Aubrey dressed because they were going to ring the bell for the Salvation Army. I was going to stay home with Jude. As soon as they left, I tried to put Jude down for a nap. It was way earlier than he usually naps, but I knew he was tired after his abbreviated night of sleep, and we had lunch plans so I wanted him to sleep before then. It took a while and several trips to his room, but he finally passed out and slept. I took a shower and got ready while he slept, and then I woke Jude up and dressed him right before David and Aubrey got home. We went across the street to our neighbor's house for lunch. They are actually missionaries from our church who are living in a mission house right now, so it's fun that they've been across the street. We had a fun lunch with them even though Jude was pretty fussy. Aubrey had so much fun that she had a major meltdown when it was time to go. Embarrassing! We put her down for a nap when we got home, but she never slept. I tried to put Jude down for another nap, but he never slept either. David took a nap that afternoon, and I went up and down the stairs many times to remind Aubrey to keep the volume down. I finally just got both the kids up, and we played in Aubrey's room until David got up. We got ready and left the house. I ran in several stores and returned some clothes, and David stayed in the car with the kids. We ate dinner at Newk's and then went to Target and Kroger. We came home and unloaded the groceries and I put Jude right to to bed. We got some kiddie scissors for Aubrey and she practiced cutting out some shapes. It's hard to get the hang of using scissors, but she was catching on! :)

David put Aubrey to bed after she worked on using her scissors for a while. I got on the internet until bed.