Outpouring of Love

Emerson helped pick out her own outfit for school today, including her little flippy-flops and her floppy sun hat, which she was super excited to wear to school for water day! She also just looked so adorable sitting on the armrest of the couch, eating her gummies. I actually didn’t mean to have the flash on for this first picture, but she’s still adorable 🙂

Almost every single day she has to hold my hand and walk on this little part of the curb on the way into school. It’s very sweet.

But my goodness this girl is quite the goofball!!

So I discovered yesterday that you can fancy-up some instant packaged oatmeal by adding butter and brown sugar, and it tastes almost like homemade from the stove top, and it’s sooooo good. (Oh, and that little flamingo, silicon coffee mug topper helps contain splashes and also keeps it warm!)

And you can clearly see my girl had another great day at school and water day!

Today was actually super crazy busy at work, so I had a full day of non-stop craziness, but at least it made the day feel like it was going by faster! Oh, and I spent the day listening to Taylor Swift’s new surprise album today, and it is so good. I liked her last album, but I love this one.

I picked up my girl after school like usual, and she was so cute and excited to see me. We headed home and cuddled for just a minute or two, before I started working on our dinner. And please look at my gorgeous new Pioneer Woman Dutch oven! My sweet mother-in-law Nita got it for me as a surprise, and I love it so much. I’ve had it for about a week, but tonight was the first time I got to use it. And it worked great and looked so cute on my stove-top!

After watching “Puss in Boots” together on the couch (it’s just a 15-minute short movie), we decided to work on those boxes of hand-me-downs some more. There were so many great things, it was a treasure trove of great stuff. Everything from shorts & t-shirts to pajamas to cotton dresses to fancy Christmas dresses. And guys, I’m so stinking excited about some of these clothes! This is one we just had to try one, mostly to make sure it wasn’t too short, but also because all the little baking stuff on it was so cute!

She couldn’t quite get her night gown back on the right way afterwards though, and it was a very funny few minutes. First, it was inside out, so after swinging it around like a helicopter for a bit didn’t work, she handed it to me and asked, “Can you get it outside-outside? Then she couldn’t get all the arms & head in the right holes and was a little bit stuck inside!

She chose the same dinosaur book as last night, and as I read it she looked up at me with those big blue eyes with the most rapt attention, just listening to me read about what dinosaurs do. I could barely look away from her eyes long enough to read the words, because her intense eye contact was so precious!

My girl was sweet and precious at bedtime, giving me all the kisses, telling me she gave me all of them and she didn’t have any left for the rest of the night. But she said she’d have more in the morning, so that’s good news.

Yesterday’s heart surgery news is still heavy on my heart (and our family), and there have been pockets of time throughout the day where both Jeff and I have cried a little bit here and there. But I have also felt such an enormous amount of overwhelming love and support from you guys, and for that I am extremely and incredibly grateful.

Y’all have reached out through comments, messages, phone calls and texts, and it has really meant so much. I’m so thankful that our family and friends are showering this entire situation in prayers, and even sharing it with their friends and church prayer lists. We have an entire army of prayer warriors lifting up my baby girl, which is absolutely incredible! I might be an emotional basket-case, but the outpouring of love certainly cheers me up.

We have no real plans this weekend, so I’m gonna soak up every minute I can with our little family. Looking forward to time together, doing just some normal family things!