The Ones We Spent Together

Jeff had to be up at the crack of dawn this morning, in order to get to church for his rotation running the camera for the LiveStream. Emerson was also of course up super early, and immediately started looking for snacks.

Oh man, I wish I could remember what she was making this face about – I remember it was funny, but I forgot to make a note of it! Dang it.

Emmie and I had lots of play time together this morning, just us two. The boys woke up around 10:30, and then we watched church online at 11am. (It was tricky, since Emmie just wanted to play, but we did our best to pay attention to the worship and sermon.)  Emmie had lunch, and then I got her down for her nap. Jeff brought home lunch for the rest of us, and then we ended up all falling asleep for a little bit after watching about an hour of Star Wars Episode V.

After her nap, Jeff started working on the cabinets again… notching out little spots for each of the lower hinges was annoying, and made a huge mess with wood & shavings everywhere, but he got it taken care of, and now all but one of the lower doors is on. (One piece of the cabinets split a little, so it’s wood glued & clamped right now, and he should be able to hang it tomorrow.)

However, since the lower hinges are different than the uppers (read: cheaper), some of them don’t close all the way still. So we have to put these little clamp things back on, that used to be there and we took off, but that should fix the problem… Ugh, it’s been just such a process. We literally started June 5, and today is July 5, and as much as I wanted to be done today, we’re probably about 90% done, and we’ll still need to do some more work…

She specifically asked me to paint her toenails today, and then spent a solid three minutes looking through my box picking out the right color. And I love this glittery turquoise color she chose!

The tool Jeff was using to notch out the spots for the hinges was loud, so Emmie and I were playing in my bedroom, in the bed, with a flashlight, pretending we were hiding and camping, with my legs and arms as the tent poles.

We tried to spend a little time outside, but it was just so stinking humid, it felt like wading through a swamp, so we only lasted for about ten minutes. While we were wandering around though, Emmie was like, “Let’s go look around, let’s look for something we’ve never seen before!”

This is one of the dressed I got at Walmart yesterday (Time & Tru brand, only $13.86!) – super cozy and flowy and very comfy for around the house. (Well let’s be real, I’ll also wear this to work once we start going there again. Shoule I go ahead and get a second color? I’m leaning towards yes…) Anyways, Emerson also wanted to wear a dress like Mommy, so we picked one with a little ruffle around the bottom like mine, and she loved it and looked adorable. So sweet and cute!

More cabinet work… (Also, peep that 1960’s shelf paper!)

Close-up of the notches he had to cut to inset the hinges, so the doors would close better.

We did some laundry and dishes and tidying and vacuuming, and made the boys help out with all of it. Meanwhile, this girl just ate snacks and wore her headphones 🙂

We kept it simple for dinner with hot dogs, mac & cheese, and chips, to continue to very America-themed holiday weekend foods.

We had some more family cuddle and play time for a while after dinner, and also switched over some loads of laundry. Emmie sat with Daddy watching videos for a bit, and then she was very sleepy and tired and ready for bed.

She wanted to wear her peach jammies again, and she grabbed a peanut butter cracker, and picked out her otter book.  This book always makes me feel a little bit emotional, just because it’s so sweet. But today, her and I had such a perfect day (with super minimal whining or the usual toddler issues), just playing and being with each other. It really felt like a magical day.

“I taught you lots of things I know, and learned so much from you.”

“And when I think about the days that I will love forever…”

“…the ones I will remember are…”

“…the ones we spent together.”

Actually, one of the small toddler-tantrums we had today, was because Ryan helped her get a snack this morning instead of me. So she melted down for a bit, and when she finally came over and sat with me, as she was still crying and gasping for breath, she said, “I just love Mommy so much.” And it was so sweet I’m almost crying just thinking about it again tonight. My little otter baby is my whole world, and I’m just so thankful for her!

I’m thankful for our three-day holiday weekend, with lots of time with both of our families, and time with just our little 5-fam today as well. And now it’s time to finish up today’s Star Wars movie!