White Elephant & Purse Cookies

We had a rough bedtime last night, so I didn’t get to blog, so I’m writing one big giant post tonight to cover both days, with loads of photos.

WEDNESDAY

All five girls were back together again for school drop-off, and happy to see each other on a cold morning!

We had our work Christmas party with tons of snacks & a white elephant / dirty Santa game during our lunch break. We had tons of delicious snacks and food, and played such a fun game. I ended up being the center of attention when everyone kept stealing from me, with FIVE presents stolen! Which was actually fun & funny. But I ended up with a Starbucks coffee mug & coffee, so I was happy with that!

Jeff had driven to pick up his twin boys yesterday for them to spend Christmas break with us, so Emmie and I just shared some leftover Chinese food together for dinner. Then just chilled and took it easy the rest of the night.

Jeff and the boys got home around 8pm-ish, and Emmie was so excited to see them.

Like I mentioned before, we had a rough bedtime, and it took like 1.5 hours of all the hoopla before I could get Emerson down for bedtime, at like, 9:45 finally. At that point, I was just strung out & exhausted myself too, and way too tired to blog. So I just went to my room and watched Survivor by myself, and fell asleep…

THURSDAY

The governor very graciously gave us lowly State workers two extra days off (today & next Thursday), so today started our very long weekend for our Christmas break. We mostly stayed home for the day, just taking it easy, doing some chores, hanging out, spending time outside, and just being together.

Emmie and I ran to Publix for a few quick things, and she took her purse, and wore this mask the whole time.

At the checkout, she opened her purse for the first time, and I realize it was jammed full of wooden cookies she had been playing with all morning. Lemme tell ya, I died laughing when I saw this.

I’ve been absolutely obsessed with hummus lately, and I started putting feta on top of it lately, and it’s amazing. My friend Britteny told me later that they put olive oil on it too, and I hadn’t thought to do that before, but I’m definitely doing that next time. Also, that “Italian” style sub I made was super good.

I loved this girl in this soft romper that is one of her big sister’s hand-me-downs. So precious and sweet.

After lunch, I got Emmie down for her nap, and got dinner in the crock pot. Funny story – if anyone remembers this, last summer, Walmart accidentally gave us the wrong grocery pick-up order one time, instead of my order. They refunded my order, and I ended up just reordering all my stuff, but I got to keep all the wrong stuff. I recently remembered this Buffalo Wild Wings garlic parmesan sauce from the wrong order, and just Googled recipes of what to make with it today, and decided to throw this pasta recipe together for tonight, since we already had what we needed at home.

Jeff took the boys to AMC to see the new Spiderman movie, so after both my girls woke up from their naps, I made myself a gigantic iced coffee (in a Newk’s cup), and we went for a little stroller / bike ride down the street in the nice weather.

The boys got home just a few minutes after we got back home from our walk, and while I was back in my bedroom, Ryan got Addison out of her car seat and was just holding her, with her kicking her legs and being so happy. It was so sweet!

Emmie wanted to sit in this tiny seat between the two car seats, because she said she wanted to be able to give her a paci or feed her a bottle if she needed it. And please notice they’re holding hands

We spent about an hour down at the park that’s about a quarter mile from our house, playing on the playground, walking to the dog park, and walking down the boardwalk by the tiny lake/pond.

These are the treasures Emerson found for me on the walk.

Once we got back home, all I had to do was boil some water for noodles, and Jeff shredded the chicken. I made up some simple side salads, and voila, dinner was done! This pasta recipe was very similar to my favorite Olive Garden crockpot chicken pasta, but with the Buffalo Wild Wings garlic parm sauce. This one was good – we all cleaned our bowls and both boys got seconds – but I like the other pasta better. (Emmie didn’t like it though, but she ate Gogurt & butter noodles.)

The girls kicked & splashed around in the bathtub for a little while, then we got them both ready for bed. Addie had one more bottle with jeff and fell asleep easily. I read Emmie her bedtime story, and then we went back to her bedroom to go through the rest of the routine.

Bedtime went much more smoothly tonight with no issues, and so I was of course very grateful for that tonight. I had already washed one load of dishes earlier this morning, but I had another HUGE load of stuff to take care of tonight. I was able to get to it all, after about 30 minutes, and have clean dishes drying all over the drain rack and stove now. Today was a good day, but I’m ready to just sit back and relax now, for sure!