Remember yesterday when Emerson and I prepped today’s breakfast casserole? I baked it early this morning, and it smelled soooooo good while we were getting ready. And it looked amazing!
Jeff was on camera-duty for church today for the live-stream, so we all loaded up and headed to the church. He stayed there for a few hours, but then Papa picked up me and Emerson and took us back to their house, where we ate our breakfast casserole, and hung out for a while. We saw this cool old car at church, so we had to take a photo!
And this turned out soooo good! It’s overnight blueberry lemon French toast from my fave food blog, and it was delicious.
While the rest of the family did their Sunday school class via Zoom, Emerson and I played in the back room with babies (we diapered them) and her ice cream cart.
Emerson helped Papa put some corn out for the deer, which is always one of her favorite activities when we’re at their house.
She wanted to put her feet in and feel the water, and then she was just dying to jump in! Turns out one of her bathing suits from last summer was still here (and of course still fits her tiny self), so she convinced Papa to put on his suit too and get in the water with her.
It was actually super freezing, but she absolutely loved it! She was having a blast! She slipped once and Papa caught her arm and only the very bottom of her hair got wet. But then later she stepped off the bottom step and went completely under the water. We thought she would freak out and be done, but she just kind of groaned and squealed with excitement, and was ready to keep playing!
After about 20-30 minutes, we finally had to convince her she needed to get out so she could warm up and eat some lunch. Grammy blow-dried her hair, but she had to keep her hands over her little ears the whole time because it was too loud.
I had to force her to stay awake on the ride back home (it helped that she was eating puffy Cheeto’s), because she was exhausted after such a big morning and more than ready for a nap. So we did that as soon as we got home, and she was asleep in my arms in the middle of the very first lullaby.
Jeff and I ate some of our leftovers for lunch today, and then he ran to get some stuff we needed for projects from Home Depot. I wrote the first half of this blog post, and then worked on washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen. After Emmie woke up and had a little snack, we did chalk in the shade in the carport, and she was covered in the stuff!
So I put on her bathing suit to hose her down and get all the chalk off, and she just went crazy having fun in the water!
She got cold quickly though, so I wrapped her up in a towel, and set her out in the sun to dry off and warm up. She sat out there like that for about 10 minutes, which I thought was hilarious and adorable.
After getting dried off and re-dressed a second time today, we gathered up some stuff to go sit in the front yard, while Jeff did some work in the carport. (I didn’t get photos of him, but he took out the pocket doors in our living room, sawed off the bottom 1/4″, and then put them back in, so that they would open and close more smoothly. And they work so nicely now! He just has to put the framing back on and then we’ll have to do some touch-up paint to finish it off.) Anyways, since he was using a super loud (circular?) saw, Emmie had to wear her headphones while he was working.
But today was absolutely perfect and beautiful today! It was the perfect temperature, with super low humidity, which is such a rare treat for Florida.
My little helper-girl helped clean up with living room (I bribed her with ice cream, knowing we would have some for dessert), and then she helped get her laundry loaded in the basket and carried to the front of the house.
And then we had some spontaneous dinner visitors! I mentioned yesterday that my in-laws picked up two of my nieces from Georgia to keep here in Florida for a few weeks, so they grabbed DQ for dinner and came over to visit with us. And the three girls had so much fun playing! Emerson absolutely fell in love with them both at Thanksgiving, and it was so sweet watching them all play together again tonight!
Libby (12), Andersen (8), and Emerson (2.) They ran all over the backyard all together after using up allll the bubbles, loved on Pretzel, giggled a lot, and just had so much fun.
I had the girls take Emerson to the potty before bedtime (hoping that would help if the big girls went with her instead of Mommy for a change, but no go… she still hasn’t ever peed in the potty at home), and then she requested Andie put on her nightgown, and Andie to read her a book.
She went back out and ran around the yard in her nightgown for a few more minutes, and then gave everyone lots and lots of night-night hugs. As they were pulling away in the truck, she started whining and wanting to tell them goodbye again, even though she already had like five times. Luckily they rolled down the window and waved again, and saved Emerson from having a meltdown.
She was completely exhausted by this point, after a BIG morning, a short nap, and a very busy afternoon and evening. She did still end up having a small meltdown when I made her stop chugging her drink (she got mad and cried and left to go tell Daddy on me, she literally said “I’m mad at Mommy cuz she told me I couldn’t drink”), but we calmed her down, and read a Bible story while she cuddled with Daddy, and then she was ready to love me again. We did her lullabies, and she was quiet and calm and ready to lay down.
The house is clean and the dishes are washed, and I’m all tired out too! Today was so great and practically perfect and I loved it so much. Mama needs some rest now though!