Week in Review: July 4th, Memphis, and a Big Girl Bed!

We had a fun filled week! It started off with a holiday, and I had a fun girls' trip in the middle. The week ended with a big transition for us: We moved Aubrey to a big girl bed!! I will do a whole post on that later when we have more nights under our belts :)

Sunday: We got up and got ready for church. David had to usher, so we really had to be on time. We did manage to make it just in the nick of time :) We had communion that day, and just as I that was being served, I got paged. I assumed it was Jude, but I really NEVER get paged for him. I rushed over to the nursery hoping everything was ok, and it was Aubrey I had been paged for! She had had an accident in her clothes :( She was sitting in the corner and wouldn't let the teacher help her. Poor thing! I think she was just embarrassed. She has not had an accident in ages, so I didn't even have a change of clothes for her. We had a random skirt in the car, and our nursery coordinator found a shirt for us. It was a rather interesting outfit that Aubrey sported during Sunday School ;) At least she was dry, though! After all of that, we went to Sunday School. We had another joint class with all the other adult classes, and it was good again. After church, we came home and ate tacos for lunch. We took naps after lunch and went back to church that evening. After church, we went to dinner at Amerigo. Yum, my favorite! :) We came home and put the kids to bed that night.

Monday: Happy 4th of July! We actually had probably the most low-key Independence Day in history :) David got up with the kids that morning, and I slept in. When I got up, we just hung out until Jude's naptime. I put him in bed, and then David, Aubrey, and I went outside to play in the water.That was fun, and we stayed out until Jude woke up. Once we were back inside, we all ate leftovers for lunch. The kids played, and I took a shower and got dressed. We had been having water coming up out of the ground in our flower bed for a few days, so David called a plumber. We expected them to not be working on July 4th, but we were hoping someone would be able to come fix it the next day. Turns out, the guy offered to come right away. I got both of the kids down for an afternoon nap, and then I went to Target while David stayed at home with the kids and the plumber. We had a busted pipe, so it's good that we were able to go ahead and get it taken care of! I got some diapers and other staple items at Target and then came back home. I pounded out some chicken and made a marinade when I got home. I then started looking for my cell phone and couldn't find it anywhere. David called it, and I had left it at Target :( Thankfully, it was safe in customer service. I did have to go back to Target to pick it up, though. When I got home from round 2 of Target, David grilled the chicken and I cooked some broccolini and baked some potatoes. We ate a good dinner, and I then cooked an apple pie. I just felt like we HAD to have apple pie on the 4th in order to be proper Americans :) After dinner and dessert, we just hung out with the kids until bedtime. After they were asleep, I packed some stuff for my girls' trip the next day and went to bed fairly early.

Tuesday: David woke me up at 6:30 so that I could get ready. For some reason, Jude decided to get up super early, too. I got ready and fed him and finished getting my stuff together. Aubrey woke up before I left, too, and my mom came over to keep the kids. They weren't too sad to see me go, thankfully. (It would make me SO sad to leave them if they were really upset -- they're usually so excited about playing with someone "new" that they don't even notice. Haha.) I went and picked Sarah Denley and Graves up, and we got on the road about 8:30. The trip was SO easy. We didn't even stop, and Graves was perfect. SD and I had a good time talking (in peace and quiet! VERY rare these days ;), and the time passed quickly. We got a little lost when we got into Memphis, but Ashley was able to help us out :) We were so excited to meet up with Ashley as soon as we got to the hotel! We went ahead and unloaded all of our stuff, and we were able to check in early. We got to our room and got freshened up, and then we walked to lunch. We had fun talking and eating together... just like the old days! :) We walked back to our hotel after lunch and ended up just spending the day there talking and taking pictures.

SD had forgotten Graves's overnight bag, so we needed to make a Target run. We got ready to go and headed to Target. While we were out, we saw a Pottery Barn Outlet, and of course we just HAD to stop :) After getting the essentials at Target for Graves, we went to dinner. Then we made an ice cream run!Ashley and I both said that neither of us are really "ice cream people" in general, but for some reason, we both agreed that we HAVE to have ice cream when we're on "vacation." Funny! The ice cream was delicious! We went back to the hotel after that and stayed up talking until 3AM. Yes, we did.

Wednesday: Thankfully, we were able to sleep in until 10 after out late night. We got up and all got ready and packed all of our stuff up. We checked out a little before noon, and left to go to lunch. We went to a mall somewhere outside of Memphis and ate at this delicious crepe place. Seriously, it was SO GOOD.After lunch, we went to a few little boutique stores, and then we wanted to go to a thrift/antique place. We happened to run into someone that Ashley and Sarah Denley knew, and she was able to tell us about a GREAT antique mall nearby. It worked out SO perfectly, because I found a big girl bed for Aubrey!! I was so excited! The best part is that it's already been painted and distressed, and I got it for what I think is a great price! :) I had a moment of panic when we tried to load it into my car and it almost didn't fit, but we got it in there. By this time, it was late afternoon and time to say our goodbyes and head home. We were sad to say bye to Ashley, but we planned to see each other again soon! SD and I stopped at a McDonalds on our way out of town so that she could feed Graves. We got on the road around 4:30, and the trip home was very smooth, too. Graves was wonderful again and only cried toward the very end. I dropped SD off at home, and then I got home around 8. I was excited to see David, Aubrey, and Jude, and I think they were pretty happy to see me, too :) Especially Jude. I talked to them for a while, and then I put Jude to bed. David unloaded Aubrey's new bed, and she was super excited. It was cute! We just needed to get a mattress. David put Aubrey to bed, and then I talked to him about the trip for a while before going to bed. I was tired after pulling such a late night! ;)

Thursday: Jude woke up fussing at 5:30AM, but I managed to get him to go back to sleep. Sadly, he woke up again at 6:20, and then Aubrey was up at 6:30. Not exactly what I was hoping for :( We just hung out at home all day.

Aubrey has gotten really into puzzles.!

I enjoyed being with the kids after being away from them the previous two days. Jude was pretty fussy and clingy. I think it was partly from me being gone and partly because he's getting a tooth. He took a good morning nap, and then we ate lunch.
Sweet boy getting a bottle.

I bathed Aubrey after lunch, and then it was time for naps for everyone! The kids both went to sleep at the same time (thank God), so I took a nap, too. It was nice! When we were all up from our naps, I put makeup on and straightened up. Then David got home and we talked to him and went to dinner at Cheddar's. After dinner, we went to Target and I got a few things to try for Aubrey's new bed. When we got home, we put the kids to bed and then just had a low-key evening.

Friday: We were up bright and early again. Jude is on a get up at 6:30 kick :(
Aubrey loved listening to David's ipod for a little while before he went to work. Notice her bedhead! ;)

I decided that we were getting out of the house that day! When Jude went down for his nap, I got myself and Aubrey ready. We left to go run errands when Jude woke up. We went to Hobby Lobby to get stuff for Jude's birthday banner. I didn't find everything I need, but I got a few things. We went to lunch at Chick Fil A after that. I didn't know it was dress like a cow day at CFL, so I kind of felt dumb when we showed up in normal clothes. ;) It was a madhouse at CFL, of course. We managed to get in and get lunch, and then we went to Pier 1. I had a credit that was about to expire. I got a pillow for Aubrey's bed. When we got home, I put Jude down for a nap, and he went to sleep easily. Aubrey never went to sleep, but she stayed in her room for a long time talking and playing. I finally got her up, and she colored for a while until Jude got up.

She's been really into coloring lately, too.

"No more pictures, please!"

David came home and played with her for a while, and then I got ready to go to a birthday party. My mom and brothers came over to keep the kids, and David and I went out to eat for a friend's birthday from church with a lot of couples from our Sunday School class. We had fun, and Jude was asleep when we got home, but Aubrey was still awake. David got her to bed, we talked to my family for a while, and then they left. We went to bed not too long after that.

Saturday: David got up with the kids and let me sleep. When I got up, Jude was down for his nap, and I got ready to go run errands. David took Aubrey to go buy a mattress for her new bed, and when Jude woke up, the two of us went shopping to find a birthday outfit for him. We ran all over town, and I didn't find what I was looking for. It was SO HOT, and Jude wasn't real happy to be loaded and unloaded into his carseat multiple times. Poor baby! He had a major meltdown, so we stopped at Target and I fed him lunch. I got some sheets for Aubrey's bed while we were there, and then we went home. David was there, so I put Jude down for a nap, and then went back out. I went to a few more stores and finally found an outfit for Jude's birthday. I felt like I had run all over town all day! When I got back home, Jude had just gotten up. Aubrey was still napping, and when she woke up, we went to her room and set up her new bed. Unfortunately, the box springs we had gotten made the bed way too tall. I knew we were going to need to exchange it for the shorter one. It was already late in the day by this point, though. David had to go to my parents' house, get my dad's truck, come back home, load up the box springs, and then drive to the mattress store all before they closed in less than an hour. I took the kids to dinner while David did all that. Aubrey decided that she needed to go to the bathroom as soon as we got our food. Of course. David called me in the middle of dinner to let me know that he hadn't made it to the store before they closed. Ughhh, just a stressful night. The kids and I went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond and TJ Maxx after dinner before going home. David was able to rig Aubrey's bed up without the box springs so that she could sleep in it that night. We had already told her she could, and she was really excited.

I put Jude to bed and then went to Kroger. By the time I got home, I got on the internet for a little while and then was ready for bed after our crazy day!

This is going to be a busy week! I'm going to be trying to get everything ready for Jude's birthday on Saturday. We're having a small, low-key party, but I want it to be special for my sweet baby. I am in denial that's he's almost ONE!

Girls' Trip!

I was able to have a super fun little mid-week get away to Tuesday and Wednesday. Sarah Denley and I met Ashley in Memphis for a mini girls' trip, and we really had a great time being together and catching up! Memphis is about half-way between where we live, and it's such an easy trip that we decided that we will definitely have to repeat this! :) We didn't do a ton while we were there, which was fine with all of us. The purpose of this trip was to catch up, and that's exactly what we did! We spent a ton of time just sitting in the hotel talking. We did venture out for meals and a little shopping, too ;) While we were there, Ashley gave us a few little photography "lessons." Really she just showed us how to use some of the settings on our cameras. I took TONS of pictures of random objects. Some of them are terrible...... and some of them turned out ok. We did have one adorable LIVE model to practice on, too!I just have to say that this little man was a trooper for our girls' trip! He really couldn't have been any better! Such a sweet baby :)

I'm so thankful to have these two sweet friends in my life. We can always pick right back up where we left off when we see each other, and we just fall right back into our old conversations. We stayed up until ALL HOURS of the night (and wouldn't you know that my kids got up at the CRACK of DAWN this morning to repay me for leaving them) talking about things that are really serious (parenting and discipline) and things that are completely funny and frivolous (what is the definition of a BEST friend and is it possible to have more than one?). Love them! As much fun as it was to get away, I was happy to come home where I belong with my three loves!

Week in Review: Navarre Beach

We had so much fun at the beach, but we missed David and we're happy to be home now! The kids really did do great considering they were running on a lot less sleep than they're used to and they spent A LOT of time in the car. My mom was a huge help with them, but no one can compare to having the other parent's help. I can't imagine being a single mom! I think the hardest part of not having David there was being the only disciplinarian all week. That just gets exhausting after a while! Aubrey was super attached to my mom all week, so that actually made things a little easier on me. She wanted my mom to do everything for her. Haha! I'm totally bummed about the pictures I got! I knew I didn't take a lot, but when I just looked at the ones I did get, they're pretty awful. I don't know WHAT was going on with my camera. I think maybe the settings got changed when other people used it? I'm hoping that's the case, because 99% of these pictures are not even usable. I'm still going to post them, but just ignore the fact that they are all cloudy and awful looking :(

Sunday: This was Father's Day, and we were hosting lunch at our house for both of our families. Unfortunately, Aubrey had picked up a bad cold at VBS the week before, so we decided that she needed to stay home from church. I stayed home with both kids, and David went on to church. This actually worked out well, because I was able to get everything ready for our company coming over after church while I was at home. Of course we were sad to miss church, though. I was also able to start putting a few things in our suitcase for our upcoming trip to the beach. Since we were at home, Jude was able to take a good morning nap -- he slept for over THREE hours. He was exhausted from VBS the week before, poor baby. Our guests arrived right after church, and we grilled hamburgers for lunch. We kept it VERY casual, and that was nice! We had a great time visiting and celebrating our wonderful fathers/grandfathers! :) After everyone left, it was late afternoon, and we put the kids down for naps. It was really too late for me to get a nap, so I got on the internet and did some more packing. That evening, David stayed home with the kids and I went to church. After church, I ran by Target on my way home to get a few last minute items for our trip. We put the kids to bed, and I did some more packing before going to bed.

Monday: I got up and got ready and then tried to get the rest of our stuff together to leave for the beach. Thankfully, David went to work late so that he could help me get everything loaded up. I couldn't have done it all without him! We had to take Aubrey's bed apart when she woke up and get it in the car and then load everything else around it. I had one FULL car! We said goodbye to David and left our house about 10:00, and we met my mom and brothers at my grandparents' house. We transferred a few things from my car to my mom's car, and my brother Joel got in the car with me, and then we were off! We didn't make it TOO far before we were stopping for lunch at Wendy's. We had a pretty good trip. It wasn't without it's stressful moments, but I thought it was a success since we made it safely, and there wasn't a whole lot of screaming involved! :) We had to stop a few times, but that's to be expected. We ended up getting there at around 5, so I'd say we made pretty good time. We unloaded the cars and freshened up a little bit and then we went to dinner. We ate at a Mexican place, and then we went to the beach to walk around for a little while. It was SO beautiful, and we stayed until almost dark just playing and enjoying it. Jude was pretty exhausted, so we headed back to get him in bed. He went down easily, but we had some trouble getting Aubrey's bed together. We finally got it, and she went down easily, too.

Tuesday: I was up bright and early with the kids. Jude and I had had a bit of a rough night, so I was feeling a little sleepy! When my mom and brothers got up, they took Aubrey and went to Wal-Mart while I stayed home and tried to get Jude to take a nap. He was so tired that I didn't think it would be a problem, but he took FOREVER to fall asleep. He had JUST dozed off when they got back, so they all got ready and went to the beach while I stayed with Jude and let him nap. He ended up taking a marathon nap and didn't wake up until I went in to check on him. When he was up, I fed him lunch, and then we got our bathingsuits and sunscreen on and met my mom and brothers and Aubrey at the beach. We had lots of fun! I played with Aubrey in the water and sand for a while, and Jude sat under an umbrella with my mom. He wasn't a HUGE fan of the beach, but he was a trooper! :) After a while, my mom took Jude back to the house, and my brother and Aubrey and I stayed at the beach a while longer. When we got back, Jude was asleep in his carseat. We all took showers and got ready, and I bathed the children and got them dressed. Then we went to the Destin Commons. We were going to eat dinner at Hardrock, but it was PACKED, so we ended up just eating at a pizza place. The kids were kind of melting down at this point because they were tired and hungry. The pizza was good, though, and everyone was in a better mood after dinner :) We walked around the mall for a while after dinner, and I bought my book club book to read at the beach. We finished out the night with ice cream from Cold Stone before heading home. The kids went to bed easily again, and I slept in a different room from Jude, and he had a much better night :)

Wednesday: We were up early again, but not as early as the day before. My mom and brothers had all gotten really sunburned the day before, so none of them wanted to go to the beach. Aubrey was a little pink, too, so I wanted to keep her out of the sun also. They said they would watch the kids for me if I wanted to go to the beach. I got Jude down for a nap and then went to the beach all ALONE. It was pretty nice, I have to admit! :) I just sat in a chair and read my book and enjoyed the peace and quiet. I didn't stay too long, and when I got back, we all got ready to go to the outlet mall. We stopped at Hardrock on our way and ate an EARLY dinner (like, 4:30 early). We didn't have to wait, though! Aubrey did NOT want to be in this picture, and I decided that wasn't a battle worth fighting at that point. After seeing how terrible the picture turned out, I think that was a good decision.

After dinner, we went to to the outlet mall and shopped! That's always fun! I got a few things but mostly just had fun looking. Aubrey was a little fussy from skipping her nap. We let her play on the little playground at the mall for a while. We got some gelatto before heading back home. It was a LONG ride back, and the kids were ready for bed when we got home!

Thursday: The kids were up early again, and we just hung out until everyone else got up. My mom was still really sunburned, so she decided to not go to the beach again. I got Jude down for his nap, and my brothers and I got ready to go to the beach. I BEGGED Aubrey to go, too, but she wanted to stay with my mom. Oh well! My brothers and I went to the beach, and I read my book club book the whole time while they played in the ocean. It got really overcast and started thundering, so we left. When we got back home, Jude was awake, and Aubrey was napping. We got ready to go to dinner. We wanted to eat at Harry T's, so we were trying to go early so that we wouldn't have to wait. I had to wake Aubrey up, and things just got a little stressful while we were trying to get out the door. When we finally got out to the car, my mom realized that their bag of stuff they had bought at the Polo Outlet the night before was missing. My brothers went back inside to look for it, but they remembered that they had almost definitely left it at the gelatto place we had eaten at the night before. My mom was (understandably so) pretty upset, and things were just a little tense for a few minutes. She called the gelatto place, and, amazingly, they had found the bag! The only bad news was that meant we were going to have to drive ALL the way back to the outlet mall (over an hour from where we were staying), and the kids were just SO tired of being in the car. I was pretty frustrated at that point. We did still end up eating at Harry T's before going back to the mall, and it was fun. We ate outside, and the sun was directly in my eyes for most of our meal, so that was a bummer. We had a good meal, though, and we walked around for a minute before we ate and got a few pictures.Another picture with the back of Aubrey's head.

After dinner, we went to the outlet mall. Finding the bag was kind of like going on a wild goose chase. No one knew where it was and we kept getting sent to different places. It ended up being in a back cabinet in the gelatto place. The bright side was that we got gelatto again while we were there! Ha! We didn't hang around because it was getting late, so we made the long drive back and I put the kids to bed. We watched TV for a little while before going to bed.

Friday: We woke up to RAIN on our last day. It was dark and thundering and pouring. It was actually kind of nice except for the fact that we were at a loss about what to do. We just hung around for a while, and then it cleared up. My mom wanted to go to the beach, and Jude was napping, so I just stayed home with the kids. Aubrey really wanted to go to the beach with my mom and brothers, but my mom couldn't chase her around since she was still burned and needed to keep her sunburn covered. So, Aubrey stayed with me, and when Jude woke up, the kids and I went to Zaxby's and Wal-Mart for baby food. I fed Jude lunch when we got back, and then put Aubrey down for a nap. I put Jude down shortly after that, and both of the kids were just talking and not sleeping. My mom and brothers got back, and I just got Aubrey up. I went in and fed Jude, and he did end up going to sleep. I decided to go back to the beach one more time. I REALLY wanted Aubrey to go with me, but she wouldn't! She just wanted to stay with Gramzie. I had a nice time at the beach, though, and I didn't stay too long. When I got back, we all got ready, and we went to an Italian place CLOSE to where we were staying for dinner. It was really good! After dinner, we went to the beach and tried to get some pictures. No one (Aubrey and Jude and my brothers) was really being cooperative, and it ended up just being pretty frustrating, and then my camera died.After we got back home, I put the kids to bed, and then we started packing up as much of our stuff as we could. We cleaned up a little, and I stayed up too late. Almost as soon as I dozed off, Jude woke up. He ended up having a fairly rough night and was up several times.

Saturday: I was worried that I would be SUPER tired after going to bed late and being up several times in the night, but I got to sleep until about 8:45, so I was ok. When I got up, we got BUSY! We were staying at our Aunt and Uncle's house (they were out of town), so we had to clean it all up before we left. It ended up taking forever, and we didn't leave town until 11:30. As soon as we got on the road, it was time to stop for lunch. We ate at an Arby's, and then we were finally homebound! I was ready to get home and see David and be in my own space by that point. The drive went pretty well. The kids did great, and Aubrey just whined a little (she was SICK of the car), and Jude slept some and fussed/cried just toward the end. We stopped several times for potty breaks, and we made it home around 6. We were SO excited to see David! He had the house completely clean for me and had gotten several projects done around the house while we were gone :) Aubrey was super affectionate towards him -- she kept kissing him over and over. So sweet! David unloaded the car, and then we went to Newk's for dinner. We ran in Kroger after we ate, and then we came home and I put Jude to bed. David had to put Aubrey's bed back together, and then he put her to bed. David and I talked for a while and then went to bed early.

After two weeks of being off our normal routine (due to VBS and our trip), I'm hoping we can go back to "normal" this week. Jude has some catching up to do in the sleep department! Poor baby is exhausted! I love doing fun, new things, but it's nice to return to our normal weekly activities now!