Afternoon Sunbeams

Baby girl did good this morning, and slept in a little bit later. We did get up in time though to get the casserole in the oven early enough, since it had to sit on the counter for 30 minutes, and then bake for an hour. Emmie really filled her diaper up overnight, and it had leaked onto her jammies, so after putting on a dry diaper, she just wanted to hang out “naked” on the couch, which is actually pretty out of the norm for her. But she ate some mini muffins while we watched a show, and gave Mommy sweet snuggles.

Then she had an early morning bath, and we put on a super cute new dress, and a tiny little cardigan, and she was of course excited about the pockets on her dress and the cats on her shoes!

I was trying to get a cute photo of her on the walk into church, but she was very concerned about the golf cart she saw across the way, so she wouldn’t look at me or smile.

And you guys, this Overnight Cinnamon Apple French Toast Bake turned out soooo good! And since it was a 3-day weekend (which I didn’t even think about until we got there), so our numbers were lower, so we got to bring home some leftovers to, which I’m definitely looking forward to for later this week.

And then I looked down at the end of church, and realized part of mom life is having a paci & a pack of Smarties in your purse, that you don’t even remember putting in there 😉

After church, the whole family went next door for lunch at Zaxby’s, and Papa was pushing Emmie around the entire restaurant in the high chair, and she just thought it was the greatest game!

Some of our friends from church were also there, and sweet little Claudia, who loves Emmie, came over and they had a very sweet, grown-up conversation together. Claudia was just chatting away, and Emerson was very intently listening and watching her. (I asked her later what they were talking about, and she said “Cats, two cats. And dog, one dog.” And Claudia actually had two cats & one dog on her shirt, and Emmie was so smart to know that & remember it & tell me!)

She was playing with this car on the ride home being so silly, and she was so proud of herself for balancing it on her head like this.

And since the picture at church didn’t quite work out earlier, I asked if we could take a photo of her when we got home. She loved the idea and hammed it up for lots of good photos for me. I was trying to find some shade for her to stand in across the street from our house, and she was showing me, “No mommy, this spot has sunshine!”

Emmie went down for her nap pretty easily almost immediately after getting home. I washed up all the dishes that after putting together the casserole, I was too tired and it was too late to wash everything. I got it all taken care of pretty quickly though, and then I curled up in my favorite chair next tot he open windows to read for a while. I eventually dozed off and took a short nap, with the sun beaming on my face, and it was just so lovely.

Pretzel was enjoying the sunshine beams as well.

Emerson slept for a little over two hours, and woke up super cute and happy and sweet as ever. I had a few minutes to snuggle and love on her, and then I had to head out to church, for Singing Christmas Tree ensemble rehearsal.

While I was out at church, Daddy and Emmie had lots of fun playing out in the backyard, taking wagon rides and running around, playing with bubbles and her rice bucket, and just enjoying the beautiful afternoon!

But we had a really great rehearsal tonight too, and I loved singing with some other really great other ladies, and two sweet young girls. (Even though poor Trenton is way over on the side there, we didn’t banish him to sing by himself 😉 He was just the only guy there tonight and it kinda worked out that way.) And I got to see a pretty sunset on my drive back home.

We had grabbed a frozen lasagna at the store yesterday, so Jeff could just throw it in the oven while I was at rehearsal, and then everything would be done & ready by the time I got home. It was super easy and convenient, and it was yummy too. While we dished up the food and filled a couple of water cups, Emerson was rocking Harry Potter to sleep and singing “Jesus Loves Me.” This kid is just too stinking sweet.

And then she went wild! Well, she had been pretty wild before dinner too, but she just went even crazier afterwards. This girl was hyped up! She wanted to wear her unicorn costume, so she ran around in circles with it on for like 15 minutes, just laughing and squealing and giggling and being adorable.

She also played “Jesus Loves Me” on the ukulele, while wearing her costume and diaper.

And then played football for a while too.

We watched a few night-night videos on YouTube to calm down a little bit, and then put on her cupcake jammies for bedtime.

We had to repeat the last lullaby song a second time (that seems to be the norm a lot of days recently), but then she was good to go and ready to lay down in her bed. Luckily, there are no dishes to wash and the house is (mostly) clean, and we have the day off tomorrow! So now I think we’re going to find a movie to watch, and ya know, go crazy and make some hot tea.