Week in Review: Better Sleep = Better Week!

I'm happy to report that we had a much better week! Everyone is feeling back to normal, and Jude has been sleeping GREAT! He's cried out at night a few times, but he always goes back to sleep easily, so no complaints here! I'm hoping that's just because he's teething and will stop soon anyway. He's been taking great naps and going to sleep easily. It's amazing how much more pleasant life is when your children are sleeping! :) Aubrey has started napping again, and I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it's nice right now, because I'm taking a lot of naps myself, and it's wonderful to have the house completely quiet during naptime (as opposed to hearing her talk and play over the monitor) if I'm trying to nap. On the other hand, I don't like her napping because it takes her a little while to go to sleep, and then I end up having to wake her up because it starts to get late in the afternoon. She is always so grumpy when I wake her up. Then she takes FOREVER to fall asleep at night since she's napped and she gets up a lot earlier than when she's not napping. I know it would only take a few days of keeping her up to get her back to not napping and going to sleep really quickly at night and sleeping later in the mornings, and then we wouldn't have to deal with the afternoon grumpiness. All that to say, I'm trying to decide if I should just keep letting her nap if she wants to or see about nixing it.

Sunday: We were finally all well and able to go to church together. We got ready and put a ham in the oven for lunch. We were running a little late, which wasn't good because David had to do sound. We did manage to get there before church started, so all was well. After church, we went to Sunday School. I had this random coughing spell (I guess it wasn't totally random since I had a cold) and I had to leave Sunday School to go get some water. I felt like such an old lady! Haha. When we were finished at church, we came home and I fixed some sides to go with our ham. We ate lunch and put the kids down for naps. Jude slept; Aubrey didn't. I got a good nap in :) That evening, we went back to church, and we had fellowship and snack time after the service. I was talking so much that I got hardly any food. It was ok though -- I didn't really need to eat a bunch of chips and cookies for dinner anyway ;) When we left church, Aubrey said she needed to go to the bathroom and she couldn't wait until we got home. We stopped at a Subway to let her go to the bathroom and I got a veggie sub. We put the kids to bed when we got home, and David and I went to bed fairly early too.

Monday: We were up pretty early, and the only plan I had for the day was laundry and lots of it! I hadn't done hardly any laundry the week before, and our dirty clothes were out of control. I did laundry all day, and the kids played. Jude sat in my lap for a LONG time and we read books. He loves looking at books these days, and I love having him sit still in my lap! We ate lunch at home, and I put the kids down for their naps. I took a shower, and then I took a nap. When Jude got up, I went ahead and woke Aubrey up. I put some spaghetti sauce in the crockpot, and the the kids and I went to Wal-Mart. We looked around and killed some time. Aubrey had SO much fun looking at the toys, and she didn't ask for any of them :) We came back home after that little excursion. We played until dinnertime, and then we ate our spaghetti. The kids ate it fairly well, but Jude made a HUGE mess. I got that all cleaned up, and it took forever. Then I put Jude in the tub and got him cleaned up. Clean baby! I moved this bench away from the foot of my bed so that he couldn't get on my bed, but it didn't stop him from climbing!

Next it was Aubrey's turn to bathe. Another clean baby! She wanted me to take a picture of her with her puppy wearing the crown, and this was the face I got when I asked her to smile. Ha!

I got them ready for bed, and then I took Jude to his room to go to sleep. David got home and put Aubrey to bed, and then he ate dinner and I talked to him for a while. I made some banana muffins for the kids to have for breakfast, and I did my Bible Study homework for the next day before going to bed.

Tuesday: I got up and got myself and the kids ready for Bible Study. We got up earlier than we usually do for Bible Study, and it made the morning much less stressful. We were actually a little early getting to church. I dropped the kids off in the nursery, and then I went to my study. We're starting a new Kay Arthur study called Lord, I need Grace to Make it Today, and I'm excited about it! Not everyone had gotten their books in time to do their homework, and since our study is more of a discussion group (we don't have a teacher), we decided to wait until next week to start the new study. So instead, we prayed and wrote notes to our shut-ins :) It was a nice morning. After Bible Study, Rebekkah and I went to lunch at Broadstreet. It was fun! When we finished with lunch, we came home. Jude fell asleep in the car, so I transferred him to his bed, and he took a good nap. Aubrey played in her room really well too. I just rested/played on the internet while they were upstairs. That afternoon, David came home, and we talked for a while, and then I went upstairs to organize in Alaina's room. I got some clothes sorted while David played with the kids. We grilled hamburgers for dinner, and they were good! We put the kids to bed, and then we talked for a little while and went to bed too.

Wednesday: We slept until about 8:15, and it was SO nice! I couldn't believe everyone slept that late, but I was thankful :) We had a very uneventful morning at home. We ate breakfast, watched a movie, read books, and I did some straightening up. I gave Aubrey a bath, and I folded some clothes while she was in there. Then we ate lunch, and I bathed Jude. I put them down for naps, and Aubrey went to sleep, but it took Jude forever. He was just talking. I guess he wasn't as tired since he had slept late. I took a shower and got myself ready, and then I ironed the kids' clothes and got them up. We left to go to tutoring, and that was good. We had missed several weeks, so it was nice to be back. After tutoring, David met us at church, and we talked about our days while the kids played. When it was time for dinner, we went to the fellowship hall and had spaghetti. The kids went to the nursery, and my mom and I talked in my dad's office until it was time to go. Aubrey wanted David to drive my car home so that she could talk to him, and I was going to drive David's car. But when I cranked his car, it died. I was nervous about driving it and having it die, so David drove his car and I drove mine. Poor Aubrey was not happy :( She got over it, though, and we made it home ok. We put the kids to bed, and I got on the internet for a little while before bed.

Thursday: The kids slept until 7:30, so that was nice. When we got up, we ate breakfast, and then we went on a short walk. We would have walked longer, but Aubrey was over it. When we got home, we played in the backyard. The kids LOVE swinging, and the weather was nice. Aubrey wanted to go "love on" our dog, and that was sweet until he knocked her down and made her cry :( He's sweet, but he's big and not very gentle, and he doesn't mind me as well as he minds David. We came inside after that. I walked into the kitchen and found Jude like this. This boy is a climber!

We got cleaned up and went to Target. We browsed around for a while and got some diapers and a few other things that we needed. When we got home, it was time for lunch. We ate and then played for a little while until naptime. I put the kids down, and I took a nap too. I was SO tired all morning for some reason. Aubrey was pretty loud, though, so my sleep wasn't solid. It was better than nothing! I was going to go get her out of her room soon when she fell asleep. Jude woke up after about 3 hours, so I got him up and gave him a snack, and then we woke Aubrey up. She watched a movie while I straightened up the house and started cooking dinner. David got home a little later than usual because his car was in the shop, and he had to borrow his mom's car. We ate dinner as soon as he got home. Then I went upstairs and finished sorting all of the girl clothes to put into the attic. Whoo! David put both kids to bed since I was in the middle of that. We got Alaina's room looking pretty good, although we still have a few things to put away and a few small projects to complete. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, though! David and I went to bed fairly early.

Friday: We started getting ready after we got up. We were meeting SD and her kids for lunch. I bathed both kids and got us all ready, and we headed to lunch. It was a very rainy day, so we got a little wet, but no big deal :) We had a fun lunch! Poor Ann Peyton started feeling bad toward the end of lunch -- I really thought she was about to be sick! That kind of ended our lunch abruptly ;) Thankfully, AP was fine. When we got home, I put the kids down for their naps, and they both slept for a LONG time. Rainy day naps are the best! I wasn't feeling all that tired, so I didn't take a nap. I straightened up the house and read some blogs. I started to get sleepy late that afternoon, but I figured the kids would be waking up soon. I ended up laying on the couch and dozing for a a little while. I woke up shortly before David got home, and the kids were still sleeping when he got home. We had to wake them up. Aubrey was a little groggy and cranky when we woke her up, but she snapped out of it. We hung out at home for a little while, and then we went to dinner at a Chinese place. It was good! Jude had an epic meltdown in the middle of dinner. David had to take him out to get him calmed down. Other than that, we had fun :) When we got home, David and I put the kids to bed, and then we watched Mission Impossible 2. I have to say, it was pretty cheesy ;) It was entertaining, though. We went to bed after our movie.

Saturday: This was a good, low-key day with lots of family time. Eating a little breakfast. This was Aubrey's outfit of choice this week. It's one of my shirts, and she LOVED wearing it every chance she got this week. She's so funny!

We hung out at home that morning, and I made a grocery list. Jude loves Daddy's shoes!
I LOVE this picture!

Then we all got ready to go eat lunch at Corner Bakery. David got Jude dressed for lunch, and I thought he looked like he was about to go play some basketball or something :) He wasn't feeling a picture, sadly.

Lunch was fun, but it took forever to get our food, and the kids got a little impatient. It started pouring while we were eating, so we got a little drenched getting in the car :) We went to Kroger after lunch, and since it was raining so hard, David just stayed in the car with the kids. I got our groceries, and then we came home. Jude fell asleep in the car, so I transferred him to his bed. David put Aubrey in her room for rest time, but she kept calling him up to her room. Her rest time is never as good on the weekends as it is during the week, and I know it's because she knows David is at home, and she wants to play. We finally told her that she wasn't coming downstairs until we said it was time and that she wasn't to call us up there again. She went to sleep after that. While the kids rested/napped, I baked a cake for my little brother's birthday. It turned out lopsided and kind of looking like a hot mess (as my cakes ALWAYS do), but it tasted good. Jude woke up after a great nap, and then we woke Aubrey up. She was grumpy! We were going to my parent's house that night to celebrate my brother, Joel's, birthday, so I was really hoping that Aubrey would perk up, and she did after testing out the cake icing for me :) Jude sampled it, too ;)

David took a shower and got ready, and I got the kids dressed. We went to my parent' and had hamburgers for dinner, and then we ate cake and watched Joel open his presents (cards).It was a fun night! Jude will sit with anyone who will look at books with him.

We left when it was bedtime, and we put the kids to bed as soon as we got home. David and I stayed up fairly late.