No Date Night This Week

Tonight we went over to our church for the annual chili cook off. Natalie had her usually "chili" meal, which looks a lot like her salad bar meal: cheese. Then she had some cornbread. Which she didn't care for, so then she went for dessert.

We've got some major sweet tooths in this family (those come from my side of the gene pool) Owen and Daniel dressed in their PJs for the chili dinner tonight. They all ran around the gym the whole time and had fun with their friends, and I enjoyed a quiet meal at the table by myself and a few small visits with neighbors. As we were coming in tonight, Hyrum held the door, I was holding my salad I was bringing. Then Hyrum said "Where's Daniel?" Luckily he had noticed that Daniel was not in the group of kids that ran ahead. I had locked the car already... "Is he in the car?" I asked, so sad that I hadn't seen him. Hyrum went back to see, and yup, he was in there. Daniel took it well, he was just waiting quietly in his car seat. Thank you Hyrum, I'm grateful for these extra eyes and brains to help me keep track of kids.

The big kids are patient with the little kids. Owen and Daniel have really enjoyed being in the big boys bedroom lately. They will dangle their stuffed dogs and toys off the top bunk by their leashes. Today Owen put himself down for a nap in Hyrum's bed.

I thought that was cute and funny.

He knocked his alarm clock over. They like to get on Wesley's bed and get in his hats and toys and everything and mess it up. That's not so nice, but they are patient with them. We're all used to the chaos I guess. When Mel calls she mentions how nice and quiet and clean it is for her in her new life at BYU! We used to have a life like that. And we will again someday, I trust. And someday my kids will have kids and they'll be the ones with the messy house! haha. And Daniel down for his hap - he just waited to collapse.

And that's how it usually goes around here this year. Nap time was so nice and structured last year - Natalie would go catch the bus for afternoon kindergarten. We had lunch at 12, she left at 12:30, and right after she'd left that was when I gave Owen his binky and blanket and I gave Daniel a bottle as I put him in his pack and Play (which he wasn't yet able to escape from) and then I closed the door and had 2-3 hours to myself, it was really nice. Life is not structured like that this year. I'm lucky about once a month, so far, to have all 3 of them in bed and have some quiet time during the day. But usually atleast one of them is up and so it's go go all day. I am grateful for Fridays and to have the kids come home early to help love Peter and play with Owen and Daniel. And I am grateful for our weekly date nights that help Corey and I reconnect. If we go someplace close, I have been leaving Peter, so it's a really nice break. We didn't get date night tonight cause of the chili cook off, and tomorrow is stake conference, so we probably won't make it out this week and I'll probably be feeling it Monday. But we are pretty consistent with date nights and that gets us through.