A Day in the Life

Wednesdays are a crazy day in our family, and I've been wanting to document a Day in the Life on a Wednesday for awhile, and I finally got around to it today. I know I'll treasure these posts someday, thinking back to our day to day lives with babies.

We cram a lot into a typical Wednesday, especially this Spring. I feel like I'm constantly packing and unpacking bags, loading the car and watching the clock so we're not late for our next activity of the day. Thankfully, it's sandwiched in the middle of the week between some easier, less scheduled days. Here's what we did today:

7:00am- Elisabeth and Samuel wake up. I change their diapers and bring Elisabeth downstairs. Samuel wants to stay upstairs and play. I nurse Elisabeth and feed her a bottle

7:15- I get dressed and ready for the day. Nathan and Samuel come downstairs about 7:30 and Nathan asks to watch a show while I finish getting ready

7:45- I fix breakfast for the boys (waffles and strawberries) and feed Elisabeth breakfast (rice cereal and a jar of fruit baby food... and some cheerios)

8:00- While the kids finish eating, I pack Nathan's lunch for school (PB&J, goldfish, grapes and yogurt) and make sure he has everything he needs in his back pack. I also pack the diaper bag with snacks for Samuel and lunch for Elisabeth (and refill diapers, etc)

8:30- I take Elisabeth upstairs to get her dressed and pick out the boys' clothes. I come downstairs to dress Samuel and take the boys to the bathroom to brush teeth, wash faces, and comb their hair.

8:45- I get a few minutes to eat a quick breakfast while Elisabeth bounces in her jumper and the boys play and watch Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood in the Living Room.

9:15- We load up and drop Nathan off at school.

9:40- I stop by the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and then head to the library for Storytime

10:00- Elisabeth snoozes through the first half of Storytime, but Samuel participates. The librarian reads one of his favorite books, and he loves all the finger plays and songs.

10:30- We have a few minutes to kill until our lunch plans, so we head to the children's area of the library to read books and play with some of our Storytime friends. I make Elisabeth a bottle while we're playing too.

11:10- We head across town to meet my friend Shana for lunch at Panera.

11:30- Samuel is a handful during lunch, climbing up and down out of his chair and not eating. It is a stressful hour,  but I still have a chance to visit a little with Shana in between the disciplining and wrangling. Elisabeth is sweet, and enjoys some bites of Samuel's sandwich that he wouldn't eat.

12:30- We tell Shana goodbye and head home. Both kids fall asleep in the car.

1:00- Samuel manages to stay asleep when we get home, but Elisabeth wakes up. I give her some toys to play with in the living room to keep her occupied while I get some chores done. I straighten the living room and sweep and mop the living room floor.

1:30- Elisabeth has had it by this point and demands some attention, so I sit down and play with her.

2:00- Desperate to get a few things done  since nap time was a bust, I give Elisabeth a snack in her high chair. It lasts about 4 minutes before she's screaming and wakes Samuel up.

2:15- I load the kids up and pick up Nathan from school. He gives Samuel the biggest hug when he sees him. I just love their sweet relationship.

2:45- We're back home. Samuel shows Nathan some of the new books he checked out from the library, and while they're reading books, I give Elisabeth a bottle and put her down for a nap, since she missed her earlier nap.

3:30- The boys play upstairs while I clean up the kitchen. I wanted to remember this conversation that happened:

Nathan: "Samuel keeps messing up my toys while I'm playing"
Me: (in a sing song voice) "Find a way to play together"
Nathan: "No, Samuel needs to find a way to play together, NOT ME. He's ruining my fun"
Me: "You need to figure out how to play with him Nathan. Have you asked him to stop messing up your toys?"
Nathan: "No"
Me: "Why don't you try that?" (He runs back upstairs)
3 minutes later, Samuel comes down crying
Samuel: "Nathan taking my toys"
Me (in a sing song voice) "Find a way to play together"
Samuel: (Still crying until he sees the fruit bowl) Pointing at the fruit bowl- "Banana! Want Banana!"
I hand him a banana and he sits down to eat it and the conflict is solved

4:00- Elisabeth is still asleep and I pack Samuel's dinner to take to Nathan's soccer practice, and pack up Nathan's AWANA bag

4:20- I wake up Elisabeth and change diapers as Matt walks in. Then we load up and head to Nathan's soccer practice.

5:00- Nathan's practice starts. Samuel eats for a minute and then decides he wants to practice too.

5:30- My parents join us at practice so they can take Nathan to church with them as soon as it's over (they run by Sonic to pick up dinner for him)

5:45- We load up Samuel and Elisabeth and tell Nathan and my parents goodbye

6:15- We make it home. I feed Elisabeth dinner (and Samuel finishes his dinner) while Matt eats. Then I heat up leftovers for my dinner.

7:00- Samuel asks to watch the Jungle Book. I turn it on for him, but he ends up playing on the floor with me and Elisabeth more than watching it. We do all dance during the "Bear Necessities" song and Daddy gives horsey rides to Samuel and Elisabeth. And Elisabeth practices her crawling. She is getting REALLY close!

7:40- I take Elisabeth upstairs, change her into jammies and feed and rock her while Matt changes Samuel into his jammies and reads books

8:00- Elisabeth is having a hard time falling asleep, so I let her read a bedtime book with me and Samuel. Then I brush Samuel's teeth and put him to bed and try to get Elisabeth asleep. She recently learned to sit up in her crib (from a lying down position) and it's causing some problems with her falling asleep. I come downstairs and unload the dishwasher and then make her another small bottle which does the trick and she falls asleep.

8:30- By the time I get Elisabeth down, Matt is almost asleep too (He's been going to work at 5:00am all this week). I kiss him goodnight and finish straightening the house and work on the computer. My mom calls and asks if they can take Nathan to Cherry Berry since his teacher bragged and bragged on what a big helper he was at church. After a particularly trying day with Samuel, it did my Momma heart good to hear Nathan was so well-behaved at church. It was a reminder that training and being consistent when they are young will pay off in a couple years.

9:10- Nathan gets home, and we change into his jammies, brush teeth, and he reads books in bed.

10:00- I'm finishing this blog post and heading to bed. Maybe I'll read for a bit before falling asleep.

Easter 2015

We had a special weekend celebrating Easter and our Risen Savior!

I ordered a set of Resurrection Eggs this year since I thought Nathan was old enough to understand the Easter Story. He loved them! Samuel liked opening the eggs too but is too young to really understand. I loved Nathan's reaction when he opened the last egg and it was empty. He was so surprised and it opened up a really good discussion about the surprise of the women at the tomb when they saw Jesus had been raised from the dead. I'm looking forward to pulling these out every year. I read the story and opened the eggs with him earlier in the week, and then Nathan wanted to take them to Grammy's house and she and Papa Joe both did it with the boys and then on Saturday Matt read it to them again. It's a special thing (and a humbling responsibility) to teach my children the Gospel. 

We also made Resurrection rolls on Saturday too. The boys loved it!

After they went to bed Saturday night, I set a few things out for Easter morning.

I went MAJOR low-key on Easter baskets this year. I knew my mom was going overboard, so I let her do the spoiling and just got the boys one toy and a treat. Poor Elisabeth didn't even get anything from Mommy and Daddy this year. But the boys loved their simple baskets. Nathan has told me multiple times how much he loves his new train. Sometimes simple is best.

Matt was deacon of the week on Easter Sunday, so he left the house at 7:15 that morning, and I was responsible for getting the kids up, dressed, and fed and out the door by myself. It was a whirlwind morning, but we made it, and even managed to bake cinnamon rolls for breakfast for a little Easter treat.

Matt thought I was crazy when I told him the boys were wearing green pants for Easter, but I thought they looked darling! Cutest boys in the world.

And I can't tell you how many years I've been swooning over Little Girls' Easter dresses. I just couldn't stop smiling on Sunday to have a baby girl to get dolled up for Easter. Boys are fun and I've enjoyed shopping and dressing my boys up for Easter every year since Nathan was born, but girls are a whole other story!!! I told Elisabeth I'd buy her an Easter dress every year until she is at least 25.

The kids and I went to the early service at our church (Matt had to stay for both services), and then headed over to my parents' house to celebrate with them. It ended up being a pretty crazy day with Matt getting out of  church late and Barry having to leave early in the afternoon to help with a drama at his church, so we just ended up ordering pizza for lunch. It was simple but special.

As soon as Matt walked in the door after he finished at church, the boys were begging to see their Easter baskets from Grammy and Papa Joe.

They got lots of fun new books and toys. So fun! And sweet Elisabeth didn't get left out. She got some adorable Vera Bradley outfits and goodies.

It was rainy all afternoon, so instead of hunting eggs outside, we stayed indoors and hid eggs around the house. 

The boys hunted for awhile and then wanted to get back to their toys. We stayed and napped and relaxed for most of the afternoon. That evening we went to a drama performance at my parents' church that Barry was helping with. It was a great performance and a special way to end Easter Sunday.

One of Those Days

We had a pretty fantastic Saturday this past weekend. We started the morning with Nathan's first soccer game! He was so excited. He calls his games soccer meetings and talks about water breaks and warming up and his team cheer. And he has asked since the day we talked with him about playing soccer who will come to watch his games and asks us to yell, "Go Nathan Go!" while he is playing.

It was adorable watching the three and four year olds play. Nathan is figuring out the game but really doesn't understand much of what is going on. He runs in the general direction of the ball, but always looks over at the sidelines and waves as he is running by. And we had to stop mid game for a potty break too :).

Even though he isn't the most talented kid on the team, I'm really proud of his cheerful attitude, his obedience to his coach, and the fun he has on the field. I'm excited to see how much he improves as the season plays out.

I was thinking all week how Saturday would be a dream come true and I would be a Soccer Mom! I've always looked forward to raising a family and  to the future when sports and other activities were apart of our lives. Sometimes I can't believe we're already in that season of life.  I'll always be Nathan's biggest fan, no matter what he decides to pursue. I just love that kid!

Samuel and Elisabeth were great spectators too.

Samuel always follows everything Nathan does and wants to do whatever he is doing. (I've been talking to Nathan about what a big influence he has on his little brother), so he had a hard time watching on the sidelines instead of getting in on the action. We had to run after him a couple times when he darted to the middle of the field. But food is a good distraction for him.

Nathan's team is the Blue Monsters, and he loves the fun team cheer they do at the beginning and end of the game.

After the soccer game, we loaded up and headed to the zoo for the afternoon. I packed a lunch for everyone and we spent a couple of hours walking around, seeing a few animals, riding the train, and playing on the playground.

The animals were more active than we're used to seeing. I don't know if it's because we went later in the day or if the weather was just better, but we saw penguins swimming, a chimp feeding her baby, and elephants with their trunks wrapped around each other. It was a fun afternoon.

We even managed to keep the boys awake on the drive home. We came home and rested for a couple of hours. No one ended up napping though (except Elisabeth). Nathan asked if we could go to Chick Fil A for supper, and we thought it was a great idea. A new Chick Fil A recently opened closer to where we live, so it was fun to check it out. Samuel was so over tired, he couldn't sit still to eat, but other than that it was a fun time. After we ate, we all spent some time in the play area. The boys played, Elisabeth scooted around on the floor, and Matt and I laughed at our sweet boys.

Samuel really had no idea how to play without Nathan. While Nathan was finishing eating, we let Samuel in the play area and after going down the slide once, he sort of just hung out by the door wandering around. Once Nathan was with him though, he had a blast. He followed him around doing everything Nathan did. A few times he came down the slide and couldn't immediately see Nathan. He would yell, "Where's Nathan?" I just love that they are such good friends and love each other so much. It will be interesting to see how Elisabeth fits in to that dynamic as she gets older.

We came home, had baths, watched part of a movie, and had our bedtime routine. Sweet Elisabeth was worn out from her busy day, and fell asleep so easily taking her bedtime bottle. I just rocked her, stared at her, and cuddled her for way longer than I usually do. I know how quickly her baby stage will be gone, and I wanted to capture it and bottle it up. I ran my fingers through her fine baby hair, rubbed her chubby fingers, and kissed her rosy (from a little too much sun) cheeks before I put her in her crib.

Our over tired Samuel had a rough time going to sleep, so I snatched him out of his crib a little later and rocked him. I don't think I've rocked him since Elisabeth has been born. But he was so tired, he gave in and relaxed in my arms. I sang to him and watched his heavy eyelids fight to stay open before he gave in to sleep. I smelled his freshly bathed baby-shampooed hair, stared at his perfect, peaceful face, and choked up as I felt the weight of him in my arms, overwhelmed with gratitude that he belongs to me, and at the same time my heart breaking for how quickly he is growing up. It was a really perfect way to end the day.

When we were driving home from the zoo, I commented to Matt that back before we had kids (probably even before we were married), whenever I thought about the future and having children, a day like Saturday was one of those days I was imagining and looking forward to. It was just a really fun day with our three awesome kids, spent as a family. I also commented that I didn't think about all the diaper changes (some in the back of the van), or the grouchy tired child, who refused to eat his dinner, or the pure exhaustion after getting all three successfully asleep. But while I didn't think about those aspects back when I looked forward to the future, I also know that I won't remember those parts twenty years from now when I reminisce about the times when our children were small.

Instead, I'll remember chatting happily with Nathan at the zoo and the way he grabbed my hand, smiled up at me, and said, "I love you, Mommy." I'll remember Samuel yelling at the tigers to "Wake Up" and Elisabeth completely conked out sitting up in her stroller as we wandered around the zoo. I'll think about the way she fit perfectly nestled in my arms as we rocked and listened to lullabies. I'll laugh at the image of Nathan running down the soccer field not paying attention to the ball, but instead smiling and waving at his fans on the sidelines and think of the Samuel's sweet baby voice singing "Hallelujah, Praise Ye the Lord" on the drive home from the zoo.

These days with Little Ones are hard, but they are good.

Weekend Recap

We had a fantastic weekend! All weekend long we had fun things planned, and it was really great.

Friday night Matt and I went to see Cinderella at the Warren. He gets the best husband award for taking me to that movie and being so sweet about it. We ate dinner during the movie. The Warren experience is just so fun. It's ruined all other movie theaters for me (except the dollar theater, maybe- you can't beat cheap sometimes). The movie was excellent, and although I absolutely loved my date for the evening, I was dreaming about taking Elisabeth (dressed up as a princess, of course) to these movies in the future. I don't think Matt will be too disappointed to be replaced :).

Saturday morning we picked up the kids and drove to Stillwater for the day to spend time with the Shondelmyers. We've been trying to get together with them for a few months, but with six kids during flu season, finding a time when everyone was healthy at the same time was trickier than we thought. I'm so glad it worked out because we had the best day with them.

There's a C.S. Lewis quote that says something along the lines of- a friendship being born when someone says to the other, "What, you too?" and I can't think of a friendship that that quote better applies to than our friendship with Corey and Brooke. We just have always had a lot in common with them since we first met in college. And now, we both have three kids, three and under. There were so many times during the day, where I kept thinking "What, you too"- "You can't get out of the house before 9:00am either with three little ones" or "I corral my kids the same way during a trip to the grocery store" or "Aren't hair bows so cute on baby girls?" It was a special time to catch up with them and watch our kids play together. We are so thankful they are back in Oklahoma!

We met at the Wondertorium in Stillwater and played and visited for a couple of hours. Our boys love playing there. Nathan is already asking when we can go back.

Brooke and I spent most of the morning in the baby room with Kaydence, Keaton, and Elisabeth. The babies chewed on everything in sight and Brooke and I visited.

(Someday when these two are roommates at OSU, we'll frame this picture in their dorm room)

When it was time for lunch, we grabbed some fast food and headed to a local park to eat and play.

Nathan, Samuel, and Wyatt played and played at that park for two solid hours. They had so much fun (and the girls and Keaton had fun hanging out under the awning too).

We managed to get them to take a break from playing for dessert.

Later that afternoon we hugged goodbye with hopeful plans to see each other soon. I thought this picture of the the big boys hugging was the sweetest thing. I really hope they become great friends.

After such a busy day of playing, all three kids crashed before we even got out of the Stillwater.

That evening, my parents invited us over for dinner. My husband never turns down steak! We had fun visiting and eating delicious food. After dinner, the boys went for a drive.

I guess my parents decided Nathan was a good enough driver to graduate from the backyard to the sidewalk. Those brothers were so cute. Ahh, such precious memories!

Sunday morning, this cutie woke up at 6:00am ready for the day.

I got up with her and got ready and we had the least stressful Sunday morning I think we've had since she was born. Normally it's a crazy house trying to get everyone fed, dressed, and out the door on time.

We even had time to take a couple pictures before church.

Stopping at Little Caesar's for lunch after church had sort of become a tradition for us. The boys were yelling for Crazy Bread the whole way home. Samuel even made up a Crazy Bread song and sang it on the way home.

I don't think it will be long before this girl will be asking for crazy bread too! For now, she'll settle for pizza crust.

After naps, we walked to the playground in our neighborhood and let the boys play for a bit. We are loving this Spring weather. Then we came home and ate a quick dinner. The boys asked to go to church with my parents that night. They were really excited because since Samuel turned two they could be in the same class on Sunday nights. They were hugging and talking about how fun it would be to be in the same room. I love that they are such sweet friends.

While they were at church Matt, Elisabeth, and I went to the grocery store (which made my Monday morning much less hectic) and even had time to go on a two mile run around our neighborhood before the boys made it home. It was a great end to a wonderful weekend!