Our "Today"

I am wanting to capture more of our "normal" so I can remember some of the details of our family in this season of life.  So, last night I charged my camera battery and set it by the bed and made a goal to try and snap some shots of a "normal" Thursday.  Except when I finally jumped out of bed (see below) I forgot to snap one of Sydney, mostly because she was already in my room and using my iPhone by the time I remembered and processed I had snoozed WAY too long!  Oh well, I am getting ahead of myself.  Let's just pretend our day started calmly with this smiling face and move forward!

 Good morning sunshine!  Both of the girls wake up ready to smile, talk and eat!  Work days, I usually set my alarm for 6:03, snooze once and get up around 6:10.  This morning I snoozed three times and finally got up when Sydney came in and started singing to my alarm clock radio station.  Sydney almost always gets up and comes into our room when she wakes up (around 6:30am- 365 days a year!).  Kate wakes up between 6:30 and 7:00.  We headed downstairs for whole wheat waffles, bananas and milk and Brent "supervised" watching an episode of Curious George while I jumped into the shower.

 While I was getting ready for work, Sydney "supervised" me putting on some makeup and Brent and Kate played in the playroom, then we got the girls dressed, teeth brushed, hair tamed, and out the door.  I wish I could say the beds were made and the breakfast dishes were cleaned up.  But overall it was a fairly typical morning for us, except that I was running about 15 minutes late.  So the beds were not made.  And the plates got rinsed off and dropped into the sink.  

 And we're off...

 Today Kate stayed at Mrs. Heather's house with Walker (as soon as we got there she needed to "supervise" him eating his snack).  Are you seeing a trend here???  Logan was there too but I didn't snap a picture of all 3 babies :(.

 Once the littles are dropped off at their 2 spots, my "work" day begins.  I am a speech pathologist for the local school districts Early Childhood Office.  I have a desk in a room with 16 other speech pathologists, but I generally only spend about 6 hours a week at the office.  Therefore, my therapy bag this year has a sassy and true monogram.

 My days are crazy busy and almost non-stop from 8-3:30.  I currently see 37 clients at 12 different schools in North Little Rock and Jacksonville twice a week.  I literally spend as much time in my car as I do at my desk!  I do love that I get fresh air, random moments of prayer in the car, and when the mood suits, time to sing along to my favorite Lady Antebellum song while heading to my next school.  And my work days FLY by because I am so busy.  Before I know it...

 I am peering over the deck at Sydney's preschool trying to sneak a picture of her playing with some buddies on the bike track.  But I got busted immediately and got grins instead!

 I warned Heather that I was bringing the camera back this afternoon so she "happily" let me snap a few with Miss Prissy wearing pigtails for the first time!

 Sincerely, Heather has been such a blessing to our family over the last 13 months by taking such great care of Kate.  She is moving to just a day or 2 a week this semester to take time to focus on homeschooling and her own kids and I couldn't be more thrilled for them.  And God is SO GOOD to me that he worked all the details out perfectly so that Mrs. Renee (another wonderful, Godly woman whom I LOVE) can keep Kate the other days.  I will have to highlight life at Mrs. Heather's and Mrs. Renee's another day!

 Sydney is begging to take a picture of me with my camera at this point, and she didn't do too bad, considering my Nikon D40 you have to look through the viewfinder and not the LCD screen.

This Spring: Mondays we have swim lessons, Tuesdays Sydney has dance class, Wednesdays Erin and I are leading a women's bible study (Beth Moore's Revelation and it is NOT too late to sign up!) so Thursdays are quickly becoming one of my favorite days.  Nothing scheduled to do!!!   So today we headed home to enjoy the warm afternoon with some swinging.

 Gigi was near our house after Pilate's and she came by for dinner (nothing fancy tonight- a naturally rising frozen pizza, corn and pears because at 4:55 I hadn't even brought my purse inside, much less had a moment to cook a great meal).  It is a goal I am working on to use the crock pot more and to cook on weekends.

 I LOVE this picture!!!  Bath time is loud and messy every night!

 "Enough pictures today already MOM!!!!"

 Brent had been hunting this afternoon with my Dad, but he got home just in time to love on a sleepy Kate Emerson for just a minute.  She is asleep and down for the night by 6:45 most nights!  

 Sydney loves to drag out the bedtime routine, which these days feels more like a ritual.  I am trying to go with it, because I enjoy spending the time with her and I keep reminding myself that soon enough she will be begging me to stay out of her room :(.  After we work on taming the hair situation and pick out clothes for the next day, she loves to read books, play teacher or some other imaginative game, and the singing machine from Christmas has been a big hit.  She loves falling asleep to music.  AFTER we say prayers, rock for one song, and then I have to climb in bed and listen to one more song in her bed.  I am not kidding.  The baby is SO easy compared to the big sister at bedtime.  My goal is lights out for Sydney by 8:00.

Brent is fantastic at cleaning up the kitchen and downstairs while I bath the girls, but most days the first moment I have had to relax all day is around 8:30.  I wish I could say that every night we sit and have great conversation about our days, but the truth is I love to settle into the couch or bed with the iPad, blogs, pinterest, and email while watching something random I have DVR'd.  This season it has been New Girl, Hart of Dixie or Parenthood.  And I like E!News and some Kardashian on the side :).

OK!  I will be shocked if anyone besides my Mimi or Aunt Cathy even read this random post, but at least I will remember some snapshots of our routine!  

Hope your Thursday was as full of blessings as mine.  The DVR is calling- night!!!