Week in Review: Thankful

I'm writing this from my new laptop! Finally! :) That means next week is going to be picture dump catchup week ;) I really don't even know where to start with the catch up posts. Anyway! Last week was really great. We had lots of time with family, David was off work the second half of the week and we always LOVE having him home, Thanksgiving was wonderful, I had a fabulous birthday with the people I love most, and I just felt so blessed.

Sunday: We had church and Sunday School like normal. We came home and ate lunch, and then we had a normal, uneventful afternoon. We went back to church that evening. We had cookies after church because they were doing Operation Christmas Child boxes, but we hadn't had dinner yet, so we didn't want our kids eating a bunch of cookies. Aubrey had a meltdown over that, and we had to make a speedy, somewhat stressful exit. We were worried dinner was going to be a disaster, but we went anyway. We ate at Newk's, and it actually went well and we had a nice time. When we got home, we put the kids to bed and I got on the internet and read a little bit before bed.

Monday: Aubrey didn't have school since it was Thanksgiving week, so we had a day with no plans. Alaina had had a cough and congestion for weeks, and I had taken her to the doctor a couple of weeks ago to get her ears checked, but they were fine then. She hadn't gotten better, though, so I called the doctor again that morning. I took a shower and got dressed, and I talked to the nurse. I went ahead and got Alaina an appointment for the next day to get checked out. I wanted her well for our big holiday week :) We didn't have a THING to eat at home since I hadn't been to the grocery store for the week yet, so we had to go get Chick Fil A for lunch. We ate it at home, and then the kids played until naptime. While they slept, I got a few things done around the house. I made a grocery list and waited for David to get home so that I could go without the kids. By the time I went to the store and got home, it was getting late, but I cooked dinner and we ate a little before 7. We gave the kids baths before bed, and I watched Dancing with the Stars. I read some of my book club book that night.

Tuesday: Alaina had an early doctor's appointment, so it was a rush to get everyone out the door on time that morning. We managed to get to the pediatrician's office a few minutes early though! It turns out that Alaina had an ear infection, so I'm glad I went ahead and took her! After we left the doctor's office, we stopped by Target to get her antibiotic. We shopped for a little while while we were in there, and then we came home. After all that, it was only about 10:30 when we got home. I put Alaina right down for a nap, and Aubrey and Jude were already begging for lunch. It was too early to eat, though, so I made them wait. The morning ended up feeling SO long for some reason. Alaina got up and we all ate lunch, and then the kids played some more until it was naptime for all of them. Once I got them all down, I was super sleepy. I ended up dozing on the couch for a little while (between trips upstairs for various reasons). David got home a little early since it was a holiday week, and we hung out until it was time to get ready to go to his parents' house for dinner. We got the kids ready and left. All of David's siblings were going to be in town for Thanksgiving, and two of his sisters were already in town, so we went to his parents' house to hang out with them :) We had a lot of fun! Our kids loved playing with their cousins! After dinner, we came home and put the kids to bed. David and I talked for a little while and I got on the internet. We went to bed late.

Wednesday: David didn't have to work -- yay! We decided to work on getting our Christmas decorations up. We got everything out of the attic and then David set up our trees. I worked on decorating them as much as I could with the kids up, but I didn't make a ton of progress. I love decorating for Christmas, but the process always stresses me out a little. It just makes SUCH a mess, and I do not function well when my house is a wreck. We ate lunch and gave the kids baths. We put them down for naps, and then I was able to get a lot more Christmas decorating done. The house was still a disaster, but everything was starting to come together :) I finally had to quit decorating and go get ready because we had a Thanksgiving service at church that night. We all got ready and we left a little early so that I could run in Hobby Lobby and get some ribbon. After that, we were still like 20 minutes early for church. That's pretty much unheard of for us. Ha! The service was good. This was the first time we've had a Thanksgiving service like that, and I was glad we did. After church, we went to dinner with my family at 5 Guys. That was fun! I had to run in Target on the way home for diapers, and then we brought our kids home and put them to bed late. I did more decorating and got almost completely done with that. All that was left was putting all the boxes back in the attic. Oh, and cleaning up all of the glitter that gets everywhere when you decorate for Christmas. Haha! David and I went to bed late again.

Thursday: David let me sleep in some, which was so nice! Our Thanksgiving morning started out nice, but things quickly got stressful. That ALWAYS seems to happen when we're trying to get ready to go somewhere on holidays. I hate that that's the case. We were trying to bake pies and get clothes ironed and get Alaina down for a nap, and we just kind of got overwhelmed. And then I was frustrated because the outfits I wanted the kids to wear and had already ironed ended up being a little too small. At that point, I didn't have time to iron anything else, so they just wore them anyway. So, basically, my kids all have on high waters in the Thanksgiving pictures. Ha! I know that's a silly thing to be upset about, though. Once we were all finally loaded into the car, we were able to take a few deep breaths and enjoy the rest of the day. We were with David's family, and it was a great day. We took a lot of family pictures before we ate, and then we had a delicious meal! After we ate, the kids just played and played and played all afternoon. We had brought the pack n play for Alaina to hopefully nap in, and I did get her down for a nap, but it only lasted about 30 minutes. She has just NEVER slept well in that pack n play. It was better than no nap, though! It was a nice warm day, so we played outside that evening. Finally, around dinner time, we had to load up and come home because Alaina didn't have any dinner there. When we got home, we fed her and the kids played for a little while. They were all exhausted after a day of playing hard with no rest time, so we put them all to bed early. David and I were pretty tired too, but we stayed up and watched a movie. We went to bed when it was over.

Friday: This was my birthday! Oh, and Black Friday ;) For as long as I can remember, my mom, grandmother, and I have always shopped on Black Friday. We don't do anything crazy, and I wasn't even looking for anything major, but it's just a fun thing that we do every year :) David and the kids came and woke me up that morning and gave me my birthday present. It was a sweet start to my birthday! I then got ready and went and met my mom and grandmother about 10:00. We had fun! We met up with my aunt, her friend and her mom, and my cousin and went to lunch together. Then we shopped more! I got a few shirts. I tried on some boots but I was being SO indecisive for some reason, so I didn't get any. I shopped until about 3:30, and then I headed home -- I was needing to go feed Alaina at that point. Haha! When I got home, we all got ready for my birthday dinner :) David had told me that we were going out with my family and my grandparents, but he didn't tell me where. I hate surprises but he likes them, so that was a good compromise :) We ended up going to a restaurant called Table 100. I had only been there for lunch and had been wanting to go at night. David had made reservations, and they had given us a private room. He didn't ask for one, so that was a nice surprise (I'll take that kind of surprise). It worked out perfectly with the kids because they were able to be a little bit louder than they would have otherwise been able to at a nice restaurant. We had a lot of fun, and the food was great! I got an awesome dessert. I enjoyed spending my birthday with my favorite people :) After dinner, it was still pretty early, so David and the kids and I decided to go to Best Buy. We ended up finding a good Black Friday deal on a laptop, so we got it. Whoo! We came home and got the kids to bed after that. David and I did a little straightening up around the house and went to bed.

Saturday: David took Aubrey and Jude to the Farmer's Market and Alaina and I stayed home. I got a little bit done around the house while they were gone, and then when they got back, we got busy cleaning our house. David's family who were still in town were going to come over that afternoon, so it gave us the motivation we needed to go ahead and finish the Christmas stuff and put everything back in the attic. We ate lunch, bathed the kids, and put them down for naps. I finished straightening and cleaning -- I love a nice, clean house :) Then I took a shower and got ready. Alaina and Aubrey got up, but we had to wake Jude. David's family got here and we had a nice visit. There was a little bickering between the kids, but I guess that's just the way it goes with little children. We played outside for a while, and then when it started to get close to dinner time, I fed Alaina and we all left to to go to dinner for Daivd's parents' anniversary. We ate at Amerigo, and it was delish as usual :) The kids got restless, and we had to make speedy exit when Alaina started wailing. It was a nice dinner, though. I ran in Kroger on the way home while David sat in the car with the kids. We unloaded groceries, got everything put away, and got the kids to bed when we got home. David and I talked and he set everything up on our new laptop. I ironed the kids' clothes for church and we went to bed.