Church Valentine’s Banquet

Emerson woke up at 6am, after leaking through her diaper and was not happy about it. But she didn’t want to go back to sleep, so we went into the living room for snacks and shows. I kept dozing in & out, and eventually we all got up and got ready to go to church. Jeff was actually the substitute teacher in our Sunday school class, and he did a great job. Then after the worship service, we had family lunch at Pepper’s.

After she finished eating, she wanted to go outside, so Uncle Keith took her out to run and around in the fresh air. When we went out there, she was literally running circles around him, laughing and giggling and having a grand ole time.

Nana & PopPop got Emerson this fancy little Minnie Mouse dress from Disney last year, and she was very into it this morning. (Try not to notice the queso on the top of the dress, post-lunch.)

She was exhausted and it was super easy to get her down for nap time, after just one book, three lullabies, and one “Jesus Loves Me.” While Emerson napped, I did a quick clean-up from all the toys Emmie played with this morning, and washed up last night’s dishes, then wrote the first half of this post and finished listening to this audio book.

Jeff had taken a short nap, so after that, we went out to the car to rehearse our song for tonight, without having to worry about the music or our singing being too loud & waking up Emerson.

After she woke up from her nap, we had just few minutes before Nana came over to “babysit” Emerson, while Jeff and I went to the Valentine’s Banquet at our church (which is where we sang our song tonight). We still had a few minutes before we needed to leave, so we hung out in the backyard together for just a bit, and my sweet baby girl was picking me all the little tiny flower weeds she could find. She was being so sweet about it too!

Then we headed out and had a great Valentine’s banquet at church! We actually went early to do sound check with the mics for our song (we sang “Hands of God” by Francesca Batistelli, by the way). Then we took some photos before it started with the cute little decor set-up, and once it started, we ate delicious BBQ for dinner.

I’ve said it before, but decaf coffee with dessert just feels like such a treat to me, and really helps make it a special occasion.

They hosted some “minute-to-win-it” games, and my parents played, and they were so funny!

This was my dad tossing marshmallows for my mom to catch in her mouth, even though they were terrible at it 😆

We did well on our song, and we both really enjoyed singing together. We’ve actually never done that before (other than in the car & at home), so that was a first!

Back at home, Emerson and Nana went on a little walk around the neighborhood, then they had dinner and lots of playtime.

By the time we got home, Nana had gotten Emerson almost completely asleep, so that was nice to come home to, and not have anything to worry about. We’ve made some tea, and I’m already in my nightclothes, so now it’s time to relax!