Someone Just Slap Me...

I've said it before in a previous post, but this past week, when Steve was gone, I was not a good mother. And I know, this is where someone says, "No, no, give yourself a break...", but seriously, I was not a good mom. Even though I knew all of the potential pitfalls going into a week without Steve, I still fell into every single one of them.

 

I was impatient, demanding, mean, hurried, with only a few moments of sweetness in between. I had a couple of brief moments that felt like fun, mommy/daughter moments, but as soon as my schedule got a little stressful, I turned into a not nice person and the girls bore the brunt of my stress.

 

I get an email everyday that offers encouragement to moms; it's an incredible website that is so very honest and godly and uplifting.

 

A few days ago, the topic was, "Is Motherhood A Burden?"

http://momlifetoday.com/2014/02/is-motherhood-a-burden/

 

 

You are highly favored. It was exactly what I needed, and such a blessing to my soul.

Playing In The Sun

This past Saturday, we had another house showing, so we took the girls to the park down the street. These girls love playing with their Daddy! They had so much fun having Steve's undivided attention after he had to travel last week!

 

 

 

 

We got to enjoy the sunshine, bond with our little humans, and have some fun!

This And That...

Last week, Steve was gone and the house was officially on the market, so it fell on me to keep it clean and get the girls out if the house whenever it needed to be shown. We are so ready to be in our new house and settled! I haven't been great about keeping up with the blog in the midst of all that crazy, but here is a little taste of what we did last week...

On Sunday, the house was being shown, so after church, we grabbed the girls and headed to Matt and Caroline's for the afternoon. Steve helped Matt fix a radio for his truck and I crashed on the couch with Caroline.

Steve was off on Monday, so we tried to get some final projects done around the house. Our realtor suggested we paint our front door, just to make it a little more traditional. It broke my heart a little, but if it helped sell the house, I was willing to do just about anything!

The (almost) finished product. I actually liked how the black came out with the gold numbers. I ended up painting the door knocker, too, but not in time for this picture.

When Steve's not around, I tend to eat a lot of junk food! I may have raided Bella's stash of Valentines candy.

I dragged the girls all over kingdom come last week! Between working a little extra and having to get out of the house for showings, it was definitely not the calmest week. Have I said yet how ready I am to live down the street from church?

 

Spending so much time at work meant we got really comfortable with Aunt Carol, our church secretary! Evelyn decided to crash on her chair one day!

 

Thursday night was my last night without Steve and also Sean's award ceremony for basketball. He was so cute and there was a juggling show that was seriously legit! The man tossed machetes at one point! This was Evelyn during our closing prayer; I love how she's in her copying phase! She wants to be like Bella and Mama so badly!

We're having a problem with Evelyn raiding my bathroom drawers and my nightstand. Here, she's trying to apply my deodorant to her underarm. It would be cuter if she hadn't stuck it in her mouth and tried to take a bite right after this picture. So gross!

Steve came home in Friday and we celebrated with Taqueria Tsunami! I love this place so much, and luckily, they have enough variety that Steve isn't sick of it yet!

It was sooooo goooooooood to have him home!!! The girls and I missed him a ton, and I did not handle the week well as a single parent!

Valentine's Day With The Littles

This is the first Valentine's Day that Steve just happened to be off work and we got to hang out! In the morning, we drove to Mel's office to surprise her with flowers!

Mel loved it and the girls loved seeing her!

 

 

We stopped for lunch at Taqueria Tsunami on the Square. Bella challenged Daddy to tic-tac-toe and Evelyn wanted in on the action.

 

Walking with Daddy after lunch! I don't think Steve and I have ever met for lunch on Valentine's Day, so it was kind of fun to be together!

That night, we had plans to go hang out with Ryan and Ashleigh. We were a little excited about the adult contact!

 

Bella and Molly at their special little table. They had so much fun together! Not much sleeping got done, but it was great to see them playing so well together!

 

 

Bella managed to get all four grown-ups in the shot!

 

Evelyn showing some love

The remnants of Mimi and Papa's valentines box. The girls got so wonderfully spoiled by their grandparents this year! Grandma and Grandpa sent some adorable outfits, a ton of candy, a huge "princess" coloring roll, and gorgeous, crocheted sweaters! Mimi and Papa sent matching dresses for Spring, Hershey kisses, some horses for Bella, and a red bear for Evelyn!

Bella Loves To Eat Snow!

We came home from Trey and Whitney's before the worst of it started to make sure the house was okay and none of our pipes froze. On Thursday morning, everything had calmed down and we got to play in the snow! Here are the pictures of our fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having Fun In The Storm

This past week, we had another forecast for snow, so we (us? we? I'm the worst former English teacher ever...) Southerners stocked up on groceries, prayed for the power to stay on and got cozy. On Tuesday morning, Whitney sent us a text, suggesting we all hunker down together. Somehow, Steve agreed, so we got to go have an adult sleepover! (Not in the inappropriate way it sounds.)

 

 

The girls loved watching the snow come down!

 

Steve and Trey had to still get some work done, so they worked while Whitney and I read on the couch.

 

All of the kids, coloring at the table. Bella insisted on keeping her coat on for the first four hours or so...I think she was hoping we'd let her go outside and play!

 

I can't remember the last time I sat on the couch an read!

 

Whitney started to snuggle with Sean, and Evelyn just couldn't stay away!

David said, "I'm gonna climb on your head, Steve!"

 

 

And then this happened...I love how the kids get along!

 

Snuggling with Bella; I swear she purposefully tries to look half-dead in pictures!

 

Whitney snuggling with Sean and Madeline.

 

Sleeping on the Sapps' couch! We had such a great time, sleeping over and getting to spend so much real time together!

Little Bit Of A Rollercoaster

The last 48 hours have been a little crazy! This weekend was our last big push to get all of our projects done around the house before the realtor came this morning to take pictures. 

Most of our day on Saturday was spent at our small group's garage sale, so we decided to skip church (sorry, Dad!) and work like maniacs! Mel came over before lunch to join in the fun, and we got an unexpected offer from our friends, Matt and Caroline, to come and take the girls for the afternoon, so we were able to get a lot done with minimal distraction! It was such a HUGE help to have the girls out of the house for a few hours! We painted the ceilings in the living room and kitchen, sanded and painted the kitchen walls, staged the rooms in the house that still needed to be done, packed up closets that had been stuffed with random things as we were clearing space for paint and supplies, and planted some new (meaning "alive"!) greenery in our planters out front!

 

Steve was planning on leaving this morning with his exam team to head to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for the next three weeks, so I was all geared up and ready for a long few weeks "alone". (When you have children, you're never really alone - even if you desperately want to be!) Due to ovulation schedules and all that jazz, we had the last-minute idea for the girls and I to join him for a few days this week in Tennessee. We were actually really excited about it, but it made the next 24-hours a little stressful!

 

We got to enjoy a wonderful wedding last night for our friends, Melissa and Marlon, and then rushed home to pack all of the things we would need for the girls and I for two days in a hotel, and also try and clean/stage the house for the photographer coming out in the morning. Our area is supposed to get snow again this week, so I packed extra supplies just in case we had to stay in Tennessee for an extra day while the ice melted, and also threw some blankets and extra food in the car in case of an emergency.

 

This morning, I got up with the girls, got us all dressed, packed the car with a crap-load of supplies, called the handyman to tell him I wouldn't be home while he was working, called his company to pay over the phone, called my realtor to ask her to turn off all of our lights after the photographer took his pictures, threw my crock-pot that was filled with dinner for a friend with a new baby in the front seat of the car, and headed to grab breakfast for the girls on my way to the church to do a few missions things before leaving town! Whew!

 

I was feeling pretty good as I headed to church; feeling like I had gotten all of my crazy, morning to-do's done with minimal stress! Halfway there, I got a text from Steve that said his management was getting nervous about the storms coming in and had cancelled all over the travel for this week. Cancelled. Which means the chaos of last night and this morning was essentially for nothing. It will be wonderful to have Steve home for this week, and it also gives us a few extra days to finish some of the minor things we wanted to do before the house went on the market, but it was so deflating! I was like, you have got to be kidding me! I may have told Steve that he and his bosses owed me huge. So all of the crazy and the anticipation and the planning is now unnecessary. Steve will probably end up working from home for the rest of the week, and I doubt very seriously that anyone's going to be looking at houses during the snow, so we potentially have a very calm week ahead of us!

 

Three weeks to go until we move to the new house! I'm looking forward to feeling like we're actually ahead of the curve this week instead of stressing about all of the things we had to do to get here!

 

Little, Wonderful Things

Got caught up today in taking pictures! We were supposed to have a play date with a new family at church, but they had a sick baby at the last-minute, so we got to have a nice, lazy morning instead! This was the first morning this week that we didn't have anything to do, so it was a welcome relief!

The girls wanted to model their new Valentine shirts from Grandma...

 

A progression of Evelyn "finagling" out of her diaper...this is a common occurrence now; if I forget to out pants on her, the diaper's coming off!

 

 

 

Bella with my church ID badge, telling me she wanted to be just like me when she grew up! Love those little words!

Sassy girls, playing with sunglasses!

 

Experimenting with my phone this morning, I managed to get a beautiful, close-up shot of Bella's eyes and her lovey. (With a great filter, too, of course!)

 

Around mid-morning, my friend, Emily, who has two of her own children and is currently pregnant with her third, stopped by to pick Bella up and take her along to Catch Air for a destination play date! Bella had a blast with Ally and the "bubbles dance party", and I got to watch an episode of The Office and take a shower in total silence. (Evelyn was napping.) It was a pretty awesome morning!