Week in Review: Birthdays, Christmas Parties, and the Ballet

Last week was a fun week! It was busy busy, but it was fun stuff that was keeping us busy! We had a couple of Christmas functions that we attended, had some family birthdays, got to see some friends, and even got to go to a ballet! :)

Sunday: Jude had had croup over the weekend and was still under the weather, so I stayed home with him and Alaina, and David and Aubrey went to church.

The three of us had a low-key morning at home. Alaina napped, and I made some baby food and worked on cooking lunch. I took a shower, and David and Aubrey got home from church. We ate lunch, and they told us about their morning, and we told them about ours. After lunch, we napped and then I got ready for night church. Aubrey and I went to church, and David and the little kids stayed home. Church was good, and after it was over, Aubrey and I went to dinner at McAlister's. It was so fun to get that one-on-one time with my big girl :) When we got home, David had Alaina ready for bed, and I fed her and put her down. David got the other two kids to bed, and then we talked for a while before bed.

Monday: Aubrey went to school that morning, and I got myself and Jude and Alaina dressed to go to the park. I haven't been to the gym in AGES (I literally haven't been since Aubrey started school -- boo!) but it's so hard to get there between Alaina's naps. Anyway, I was wanting to get some exercise, so we went to the park and walked. Well, I walked. The kids rode in the double stroller and chilled ;)

Apparently riding in a stroller that Mommy is pushing is tiring! ;)

After we had walked for a while, I got them out of the stroller and let Jude play. He had a lot of fun! We headed home after a while, and I put Alaina down for a nap. I fixed some lunch for Jude and took a shower. When Alaina got up, I fed her baby food and then we went to pick Aubrey up from school. We came home for naps and I got on the internet and got a few things done around the house while they slept. That evening, I cooked some salmon for dinner, and miracle of miracles, the kids actually ate some! After dinner, we played and I watched The Voice until David got home. We got the kids to bed, and then David and I talked and straightened up the house before bed.

 

Tuesday: Jude was pretty much well by this point, but his nose was still runny, so I decided we would skip Bible Study just to be on the safe side. We ended up staying home all day and just having a very uneventful day. As much as I love being at my house and hanging out with my kids, they always seem to fight like cats and dogs when we don't get out of the house, so days at home are kind of hard. I broke up a lot of fights and managed to get a few things done in between. After lunch, I bathed the kids and they got water ALL over the bathroom. I got them down for naps after baths, and Alaina took the best nap she had taken in DAYS. I was very happy about that :) I took a shower and got ready, did some laundry, and got on the internet while they slept. When David got home, we got the kids ready and went over to his parents' house because it was his dad's birthday!

This is what we get when we try to take a picture of all three kids. I love's Alaina's face in this one. Ha!

We had a fun time over there celebrating Granddaddy's birthday :) We left when it was bedtime. We got the kids right to bed, and David and I stayed up too late.

Wednesday: That morning, David took Aubrey to school, and I got myself and the kids ready. Alaina took a nap while I was getting ready, which always works out well. We left to go meet Sarah Denley and Graves for lunch at Mellow Mushroom. That was so fun! We had fun talking, and the kids did pretty well. Time ended up sneaking up on me, though, and I was a little late leaving to go get Aubrey. I got to her school on time, so it worked out fine. Once we got her, we came home for naps. The kids all took really great naps that afternoon. Thank God! I got them up before David got home and got them dressed because it was my mom's birthday and we were meeting her for an early dinner. My dad was still at work and couldn't join us, but my brother and his girlfriend did. After dinner, we were going to a concert by Keith and Kristyn Getty at First Pres. My dad wasn't going to be able to leave work in time to go, so he offered to keep Jude. We dropped Jude off at our church with my dad (Jude was SO excited about riding in Bop Bop's "big truck." Haha!), and then the rest of us went to the concert. We were running so late, and my brother, who had gone on ahead of us, called to say there was standing room only. I was just so stressed and felt so rushed that we talked about just forgetting the concert and going home. We decided to try it anyway, and I'm so glad we did! It was awesome! It was PACKED out, but it was worth the craziness :) After the concert was over, we came home. My dad and Jude had had so much fun. They had gone to Chick Fil A for ice cream, so Jude was a happy camper. Haha! We got the kids to bed as soon as my dad left.

Thursday: That morning, Alaina woke up early, but it worked out well because we were going to lunch, so I was able to put her down for an early nap. While she slept, I got myself and the kids ready. I was so excited because the Arants were in town, and we were meeting them for lunch! We went to PF Chang's, and David met us there too :) We had SO much fun visiting with David and Rebekkah, and I just wish we could have had more time with them! The kids started to get restless towards the end of lunch, but they did fairly well all things considered. After lunch, we came home so that the kids could nap. They ended up taking good naps, and I had both a restful and productive afternoon. I changed clothes and got ready for our Women in the Church Christmas Banquet that evening, and then I got the kids and fed them a snack. We loaded up into the car and went to church to meet David. He was teaching karate at church and wouldn't have time to get home before I needed to leave, so we just traded off. He took the kids home for dinner, and I stayed at church for the banquet. It was really nice. Each Sunday School class had decorated a table, and everyone did a great job. After it was over, I came home and talked to David for a little while. We straightened up the house and went to bed.

Friday: I got up early and started getting ready because we were taking Aubrey to the ballet! I got the two of us ready and put Alaina down for a nap, and my mother-in-law came over to keep Jude and Alaina. Aubrey and I met David for The Nutcracker, and she was SO excited! She kept saying, "I'm so exciting!" ;)

We went with her school, so several of her little friends were there too. She LOVED the ballet! She sat really still and was totally into it the whole time. I loved watching her. After it was over, David went back to work, and Aubrey and I drove through Chick Fil A on our way home. When we got home, Jude and Alaina were just hanging out with their grandmother :) They had had fun and done well, except Alaina wouldn't take her bottle. As soon as my MIL left, I fed Alaina and put everyone down for naps. I straightened up and got on the internet while they napped. When David got home, he played with the kids for a while, and I got ready for our Sunday School party. My mom came over to watch the kids, and David and I left. This turned out to be a WEIRD night. We got to our party, and it was fun! It was a small crowd, but sometimes those are the most fun. After we ate, we were playing a board game, and David's phone rang a couple of times. One time, it was my brother, so David went to answer it. Apparently, my brother and his girlfriend were ice skating (there is this new outdoor rink in town), and my brother had fallen and hit his head on the ice. He talked to one of our doctor friends, and he said my brother needed to go get a CT scan. But my brother hadn't been able to get in touch with my mom (who was at our house). David came back into the room and told me all of this real nonchalantly. What?!! I kind of freaked out and went to call Anna (my brother's girlfriend) to get more details. She said John was more than likely fine, they just wanted to be safe, but they had been trying to call my mom for like 45 minutes and couldn't get her. At this point, I started to freak out that something had happened to my mom and the kids. I went and told David that we needed to go home, so we made a speedy (and, I'm sure, dramatic) exit from the party. I kept trying to get in touch with my mom the whole way home from the party (it was about 30 minutes from our house) but couldn't get her. David was convinced that she was just trying to get all of the kids to bed, and they were fine, but I just KNEW something awful had happened. I was literally beside myself by the time we got on our street and told David I was too scared to even go inside and that I needed him to go in first. Right as we were pulling into our driveway, my mom texted me and was like, "What is going on??" I went sprinting into the house at that point, and I'm sure I looked like I had seen a ghost. My poor mother was like, "Why do I have all these missed calls???" She had just come downstairs and looked at her phone and didn't know about my brother yet, so I told her what was going on and that she had scared me to DEATH. She had been upstairs the whole time with her phone downstairs. Alaina kept fussing, so my mom had rocked her multiple times, and she was reading to Aubrey for a long time. Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter, my mom ended up rushing off to be with my brother, and he turned out to be fine. He did have a concussion, but no brain bleed or anything. Good grief, apparently ice skating is dangerous! Alaina wasn't feeling well and kept waking up even after my mom left. David and I went into her room many many times over the next hour or two. To add to the weird night, our neighbors were having a wild party. People were running up and down our street yelling at midnight, and a car alarm went off for several minutes before a group of giggling teenagers went and stopped it. I went outside to talk to David while he was feeding our dog, and we could smell alcohol all the way in our backyard. We don't live in an area that is normally rowdy, so I was SOOOO annoyed. The ONLY reason they didn't get the cops called on them is because my husband is more gracious than I am :/ Things finally settled down enough for us to get some sleep, but it was very late when we went to bed.

Saturday: David and the kids came and woke me up at about 9, and Aubrey asked if I'd go to the Farmer's Market with them that day. She said, "I want to spend special time with you, Mommy." Who can say no to that?? Certainly not me, so I got up and got dressed, and we headed out. Since we had gotten such a late start, they were no longer serving breakfast at the Farmer's Market. Aubrey was SO disappointed, but we told her we'd go somewhere else for breakfast. That didn't make her happy either, but she eventually perked up. I ran in the organic grocery store that's near the Farmer's Market, and then we went to Primos for breakfast. It was so good, and we all enjoyed each other's company :)

This is some water that got spilled on the table. Aubrey saw it and said, "Look! It's a boy praying." Hahaha!

 When we got home, we got the kids down for naps, and then I had to go out and try to find something for Alaina to wear for her baptism the next day. We had tried the Howie christening gown on her, but it was too small since we had waited so long to have her baptized. So, yeah, here it was the day before and I had nothing for her to wear. I went to a million stores and couldn't find anything I loved, but I finally settled on a dress and came home. It was late afternoon by that point, and the kids were up from naps. David had done a lot of straightening and cleaning while I was gone since we were having company the next day, and I greatly appreciated that. I fed Alaina and decided what I wanted to cook for lunch the next day. I then made a grocery list, and we went to dinner. We went to Kroger after dinner, and then we came home and bathed the kids. We got them to bed, and then David and I did more cleaning. We ended up staying up way later than we wanted to, but I had to get everyone's clothes ironed and the house company ready for the next day.