Octopus Pie

I really enjoy quiet mornings with my Tater Tot, while she eats her “Woody gummies” (they’re Toy Story themed), and I just stare at her. You guys, she’s just too precious.

She’s just doing so well brushing her teeth lately. I’m so proud of her!

We had a good morning at church, but it was raining when it was time to leave. We went out the back pathway, and she loved to stand in the rocks for a photo. Jeff went to the car to grab the umbrella to keep her dry, and she LOVED when Daddy picked her up under the umbrella!

She has been obsessed with “stories” the past few days, ever since Grandmommie told her the “Goldilocks” story. She asked me to tell it to her about three times in the car after church, so I found a video to watch on YouTube instead. Then the “Three Little Pigs” came on next, and she ended up being scared of the wolf. This was her shielding her eyes  from when the wolf had been on the screen right before this.

We got Arby’s for lunch on the way home, so we could get the fastest meal possible, to get her down for lunch as early as possible, since we had a busy day… And she loves having her own tiny sammiches!

But she also loves taking giant bites of Daddy’s sandwich too.

She went down for her nap a little after 1pm. And then I ran to Walmart. I had put in a grocery pick-up order, but I need to go inside for a few things that I hadn’t added to the list. It was actually nice to walk around kinda leisurely, with no child or hubby in tow. But then as I was going over to the grocery pick-up area, I remembered I was at the wrong Walmart. So I had to haul it across town to a different one, to get our groceries. So by the time I got home, I was in a chaotic rush trying to get all the cold stuff put away, and getting Emmie changed out of her jammies, and getting Jeff awake so he could change, and getting myself changed out of my church dress, and then loading back up in the car… Because we had our first Singing Christmas Tree rehearsal, up ON the tree!

Grandmommie met us at the church to pick up Emmie, and took her back to hang out with her and Papa, while Jeff, Mama & I (plus almost 100 others), sang for a couple of hours. I’m on the 7th out of 13 rows, which is not as high as I’ve been before, but it’s still pretty high. But it’s so cool!

On the left above me is my new friend this year, Amanda (we’re both in the ensemble together and I’ve loved getting to know her a little bit), and on the right above me is Victorious, and tonight was actually the first time I met her! (With so many new singers in the choir this year and such a huge group, I don’t know everyone, and still haven’t met all the new people!)

My friend Macie isn’t singing in the tree this year (she was home from seminary in New Orleans for the holiday weekend), but she snapped this photo while we were rehearsing. I drew the red arrow to point to myself, but you can barely see me because of the giant red bow slightly covering my face! I think I need a higher box to stand on, to raise me up another inch… haha 🙂

Apparently, Emerson and Grandmommie built a tent in the crib, and Emmie and Papa fed the deer some corn, and then when Emmie’s baby doll had a bump on her head, Emmie played that she was “Dr. Abby.” (Which is my friend and her pediatrician, haha!)

After rehearsal for all the main Christmas tree songs, plus a few extra minutes to rehearse our special ensemble songs, Mama, Jeff & I headed out. We went by Wendy’s to pick up burgers & fries for the family, and then back to Grammy’s house to eat all together.

The toy in her kids meal was a Transformer, Optimus Prime. Getting her to try to understand that, and say it herself, was really funny. She tried a couple of times, and finally the closest she got was something like “Octopus Pie,” and it was just so funny!

After dinner, Emmie got Grammy to help her go on one final holiday-weekend-hunt for Mary & Joseph and the “brown donkey.”

I volunteered my tree skirt for my Mama to use this year. She had an old one that was silvery and glittery, but she didn’t want to use it because it was falling apart and getting glitter errrrrryyyywhere… So I brought over this one for her to use (I think it would look weird laying on my blue dining room rug, so I think I need something new this year), and it looks great under her tree! I also had to relocate the bottom ribbon floof, because it was just not quite right from yesterday’s placement 😉

Grammy helped get Emerson in her jammies, and then we had to head home for bedtime.

But before bedtime, she had to find Sheppy at our house!

And this is her telling me that William and Andrew and Noah will be back at school tomorrow, and she was sooo excited. This little girl misses her school friends! (Although, I notice all of these are boys, so that’s got this Mama worried!)

She was MUCH better at bedtime tonight, and only tried one stall tactic (she needed one more hug & kiss from Daddy), but after that, we did only three lullabies with no repeats, and then laid her down in her crib. She was super sweet and super tired. Seems like Grandmommie & Papa must have worn her out this afternoon!

And of course, now it’s time for hot tea and the start of a Christmas movie, because you know I’ll fall asleep on the couch before we finish it.