Week in Review: Mom's Nights, Projects, and a Goodbye Party

Well, as I mentioned, we had a busy week. It was mostly all fun stuff, but sometimes even fun stuff can get stressful when things get too busy. My house was kind of neglected the beginning of the week, and I've realized that I just feel incredibly overwhelmed when my house is a wreck. Thankfully, we were hosting a party on Saturday, so not only did we get the house all clean and de-cluttered, but we also got some projects done that I had been wanting to do. So, the week definitely ended on a good note :) By the way, since I never did a Week in Review post for the previous week, the pictures in this post are from the last two weeks. 

Sunday: We got up and got the kids dressed and ready for church, and then we left. We had a good morning at church, and then we went to my grandmother's house for lunch. We had fun over there, and we left when the kids were getting super tired. When we got home, we put them all down for naps, and then I made several batches of pesto using basil I had gotten at the Farmer's Market the day before. I also baked some cookies for fellowship time after church that night. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading my book club book that I had once again procrastinated reading ;-/ We got the kids ready and went to church that evening. We had fellowship time after church that night, and it was fun! We got home pretty late and put the kids right to bed. I read more of my book until bed.

My sweet girls!

These pictures are all from Father's Day lunch at David's parents' house :)

Monday: I skipped going to the gym, and we just stayed home all day so that I could try to get my book finished. Aubrey watched a movie and Jude played while I held Alaina and read like mad :) I fixed lunch for the kids, and we played for a little while.

My life is crazy. Ha!

We had men working on our deck that day, so the kids were very entertained by looking out the windows and watching them. I'm not sure how they felt about working with an audience. Haha!

 I put the kids down for their naps after lunch, and I took a shower and got my makeup on. I then finished my book -- yay! That afternoon got kind of stressful for some reason. The kids were just into everything and making huge messes. I couldn't find any clothes that I wanted to wear, and I was just frazzled. I was thankful that I had a night out that night :) David had karate, so my mom came over to keep the kids while I went to book club. I gave my mom instructions and left. I picked Rebekkah up, and we had book club at a Mexican restaurant. We sat outside, and it was just really fun (but super hot!). Sadly, my mom texted me to say that Alaina was inconsolable and she wanted to know what she should do for her. I told her to go ahead and give her her bottle (even though it was earlier than I expected her to want to eat). By that point, I knew David should be home soon, so I was still able to enjoy my night. We stayed pretty late, and when I got home, the kids were all in bed. David said Alaina had done better after her bottle, but she was still fussy. She just gets super tired in the evenings, and she's not really happy for anyone but me. Poor baby! Thankfully, she had gone to bed fine. David and I talked for a while, and then I pumped and went to bed.

Tuesday: This was a BUSY day! We were up early for Bible Study, and we somehow managed to get there early. I did go off and leave my phone at home. That always makes me nervous, but we were fine. After Bible Study, we went over to say hey to my dad, and I used his phone. (My dad's ministry has a summer program, and he's at church with over 20 wild boys everyday ;) The kids and I ended up staying for lunch, and then we came home for naps. Jude fell asleep about 5 minutes before we got home, so of course he thought naptime was over. Ummm, no. I had to go rock him several times, but just as I was about to give up on naptime and go get him, he got quiet and went to sleep. My mom came over again, and I went and met David at a meeting. That went well, and when I got home, Alaina and Jude were still asleep! Aubrey was up and hanging out with my mom :) I was glad that Alaina was still asleep so that my mom didn't have to give her a bottle. I got her up and nursed her, and my mom went home. David had come home after the meeting, so he took the kids to play while I fixed pasta pesto for dinner.

How is she old enough for this?!

Of course Jude had to try out the Bumbo...

... and then he got mad when we put Alaina back in and tried to sit on her. Haha!

It seems like someone is always screaming around here ;)

 I was going to a Mom's Social that night for the moms from Aubrey's school that she is going to be starting in the fall. I was a little nervous about going since I didn't know many people, but I decided to be brave and go anyway. Ha! Sarah Denley and I got there at the same time, so that worked out well! Not only was SD there, but a couple of my friends from church were there, too, so I had plenty of familiar faces to make me feel at ease :) I met some sweet moms, and we had fun eating and getting to know each other. I left when it started to get late. The kids were in bed again when I got home, and David and I talked about our evenings. Alaina had been fussy again, but not as bad as the night before. I pumped and went to bed.

Wednesday: When we got up that morning, we ate breakfast and got ready to go to the gym.

Aubrey was working on her tracing during our "morning meeting."

I dropped the kids off at my parents' house first. I had a good workout, and then I ran to Kroger to get ingredients to make a dessert for small group that night. I picked the kids up at my mom's, and we came home for lunch and naps. While they napped, I made some dough and kneaded it, and then put it in pans to rise for bread. I then took a shower and got ready. I started to make my dessert for that night (peach crisp) and realized that the peaches I had gotten were too under-ripe. So I had to call David to ask him to get some more on his way home. At that point, I got stressed because the kids still needed baths and I still had to cook my dessert, and we didn't have a ton of time.

And then we discovered the kids in our closet having fun with my jewelry. 

Somehow it all got done, though, and we weren't even running very late. Our church takes a break from our Wednesday fellowship time during the summer, and this year we're doing small groups instead. The house where we were meeting was really close to David's parents' house, so we dropped Alaina off with them. Aubrey and Jude went with us, and there was a babysitter there to play with the kids while we had our Bible Study time. We had appetizers and desserts, and then we had our discussion/study time. We're studying the Lord's Prayer, and I'm really enjoying it so far. As soon as it was over, we went to get Alaina. She wasn't a happy camper. I fed her quickly before we left David's parents' house. David and the kids stayed in the car because it was past bedtime. When we got home, we put the kids right to bed, I put my bread in the oven, and then I worked on painting our coffee table for a while outside. The house was kind of a disaster, so we got it straightened up before going to bed.

Thursday: This was the first day with no plans all week. I decided we needed to stay home so I could work around the house. Since we had been gone a lot all week, the house had been a bit neglected, and since we were hosting a party that weekend, it was in desperate need of some TLC ;) I did take the kids outside to play on the deck that morning before it got unbearably hot. Even before 9AM, it was still so hot that we didn't last too long.

When we came back inside, Aubrey watched a movie while I did some laundry and dusted. I was able to clear away a good bit of clutter while Alaina took a quick morning nap. I fixed lunch for the kids, and then they played until naptime. While they slept, I took a shower and did more work around the house. That afternoon, my mom and brothers stopped by to pick up some fabric so that my grandmother could make pillows for me. David got home right about the time they got here, and we visited with them for a while.

I find it hilarious that this is one of the only and best pictures I have of all three of my children.

When they left, I needed to start cooking dinner, so David took the kids upstairs to play while I cooked. Jude was being super clingy to me though, and he cried and cried when David took him upstairs. It was so sad, but when he was downstairs with me, all he was doing was holding onto my legs and crying. Kinda hard to get anything done that way :-/ When dinner was ready, they came downstairs, and Jude had perked up. We ate, and then David went outside to mow the grass. I needed to go to Wal-Mart, so Aubrey and Jude went outside to play while David was working in the yard, and I took Alaina with me. She was so sweet and stayed in her carseat the whole time. (Usually she's really fussy in her carseat and doesn't sit in it happily.) When we got home, David was finishing up the yard, and it was getting close to bedtime. He put Aubrey and Jude down, and I got Alaina to bed. David and I then talked for a while, and I finished painting our coffee table before going to bed.

Friday: That morning, we got up and ate breakfast, and then I took a shower and got Alaina down for a nap. I got myself and the kids dressed (well, Aubrey put on a bathing suit. Whatevs.), and Sarah Denley and her kids came over for lunch. They brought Chick-Fil-A, and we had so much fun visiting! The kids played together well, and SD and I just talked and talked. Alaina ended up taking a long morning nap, which is unusual. Usually her morning naps are pretty short, and her afternoon naps are the long ones. I even got worried and went to check on her, and she was fine and sleeping peacefully :) I finally got her up and fed her, and then we just hung out some more. SD and I looked at the clock and it was 3:00!! WAY past naptime, but everyone was playing so happily that we lost track of time :) As soon as the Herringtons left, I put all the kids down for naps. Aubrey and Jude went right to sleep, and Alaina went to sleep too, but her nap was short since she had taken such a long morning nap. David got home, and the kids were still napping. We got them up, and my mom dropped off a chair that my grandmother had slipcovered for me and some pillows.

Jude wasn't thrilled with the idea of sitting with Daddy and Aubrey.

We went to dinner at Corner Bakery. We then went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Lowe's, and Hobby Lobby. It was getting late, so we came home and put the kids to bed. We got some work done around the house, and we were just about to go to bed when the power went off. Aubrey sleeps with her bathroom light on and a fan on, and when both of those things went off, it woke her up and really scared her. She was just crying and crying, and David and I both went into her room to try to calm her down. It was pitch dark and quiet, and she kept asking if she could sleep with us. One of us was going to need to sleep upstairs anyway so we could hear the other kids if they woke up, so we decided that David would sleep in Aubrey's bed, and Aubrey would sleep downstairs with me. We told her if the power came back on, she would get back in her bed. So we came downstairs, and before we could even get in bed, the power came back on. We knew it would be better for Aubrey to sleep in her own bed because Alaina usually wakes up around 6 or 6:30, and I didn't want Aubrey to be up for the day then, especially since it was midnight and she was still awake. So, we took her back to her room, and David laid with her, but she kept calling him up to her room for every excuse you could possibly think of. David said it was probably 1:30 before she went to sleep.

Saturday: We had to skip the Farmer's Market that morning since we had a lot to get done that day. When I got up, David went outside to mow the backyard.

I set this table up the night before... it sure didn't take long for the kids to destroy that set up. This is proof that tables with three legs are not a good idea with kids. Thankfully, I was able to replace it with a more sturdy table and a non-breakable lamp.

I stayed inside with the kids, and worked on cleaning the house. Aubrey was very emotionally fragile all morning since she was running on little sleep. Oh, she told us that she had sat up in her bed ALL NIGHT watching to make sure her lights didn't go off again. We asked her if she was sure she was up ALL night, and we said surely she slept a little? She insisted that she didn't sleep a WINK. She didn't close her eyes for even a second. Haha! Anyway, we fed the kids lunch and put them down for naps. Aubrey went down early because she was asking if it was naptime yet. Poor girl. She took a nice, long nap. David and I worked around the house, and then I took a shower and went to run errands while the kids napped. When I got home, David was mopping the floors, and the kids were still in bed. David went to take a shower, and I got the kids up and got them dressed.

We attempted to get a cute picture of Jude for his birthday party invitation.

My parents came and picked the kids up, and they took them to Chick-Fil-A and then to their house so that they weren't here during our party. Our guests arrived at 5:00, and we had so much fun! Everyone brought food, so it was very low-stress for me since I wasn't in charge of all the food. It was sad that the reason for the party was to say goodbye to the Arants, but it was a fun get-together still. We ended the party with a time of prayer for our friends as they start a new chapter in their lives, and it was bittersweet. After everyone left, we talked to the Arants for a while, and then my parents brought the kids back home. Alaina had spent a good bit of time crying, apparently. I hate that she's unhappy with other people at night. We got the kids right to bed, and then we cleaned up a little bit before going to bed.