On Monday of this last week, it was my dad's actual birthday. So after Jackson's swim practice and Ellie's dance class we got to celebrate with him again. Everyone was wiped out from the weekend and Amanda and her kids were still getting settled so my mom just ordered some pizza and Amanda got some cupcakes from Wal-Mart. Then the next morning the twins and I hit up Aldi and Wal-Mart and Bennett has now decided that it is fun to throw things out of the cart. Makes for a more interesting shopping trip I guess. Andrew had a trial later in the week, so he was only home for a quick lunch and dinner and got home late Tuesday night. Thankfully the kids all behaved pretty well and I was able to fit in some of the office work I needed to do while they played around in the evening. We then had a pretty normal day on Wednesday. After small group and baths, Lincoln decided to layer on the pjs. He ended up with 6 pairs of pants/shorts and 4 tops. He wasn't doing it to be silly, just to stay warm :-). It was odd seeing him with all the clothes on because he looked "thick" as Andrew said. He did a couple more nights and I told him no more. That was a lot of pjs to deal with while getting ready for school in the morning.
On Thursday I had high hopes of getting a lot done and it just didn't happen. It started with the teacher gifts. Sara came up with a cute idea using a collection of free subway art she found that had different ones for each holiday/season. Then we got matted frames to put them in. I wanted to put the Christmas one in the frame and tie up the others to include in the bag. So I thought I could knock them out easily and mark that off my list. But it didn't work that way. The wording on the prints came right up to the edge and the opening in the mat was 1/2 inch smaller than it said it was supposed to be. After considering different ideas, I took some time to work with my Silhouette and cut out the mats so they were a little bigger. I eventually got the gifts all put together, but it definitely took longer than I had hoped.
As I said earlier, I am trying not to stress over everything that there is to do in the next few weeks. I know I am definitely not the only one who feels a little overwhelmed, but I just feel like I am trying to make sure I have who and what where at the right when. I am trying to keep track of the dinners, food needed, gifts needed, parties, etc. Like teacher gifts, which I was excited to have figured out. After I got everything I needed, then I got notes from Jackson and Ellie's teachers letting me know that they would prefer not to get teacher gifts this year. Ellie's teacher requested gifts to use in the classroom and Jackson's class decided to purchase food for the school's food pantry. All great ideas, but they are also something else to get and keep track of. But my extra teacher gifts didn't go to a complete waste because Amanda is able to use one for Carson. Carson is attending kindergarten at Faith Lutheran while he is here and he is loving it. He and Lincoln get to be in the school program together this week which is fun.
I had offered to have my family over for dinner Thursday night since they are also busy, but their busy includes middle of the night feedings with twins. But what I was going to be making they had just had the night before and by mom had already set some stuff out from the freezer for dinner. So we headed over there that night. Andrew had another late night at the office but he was also able to get some of his case settled. He didn't get back until after midnight and I was just getting to bed too. I know that if I want to get everything done and still have a few days before Christmas to just enjoy, then I will have to have some later nights now. Hopefully my plan will work.
Andrew had his trial on Friday and since part of it was already settled, he was done by lunch. Jackson and Ellie got out of school at 1, so he picked them up and then took Jackson and Lincoln out to the ranch. Ellie wanted to stay home because she got to use her new paint set Lissy gave her for her birthday. She created quite a few masterpieces.
And of course these guys are always around. They are sporting an outfit Lissy got for them for the Christmas season. She also got them for Preston and Grayson. They said "Gift to All the Ladies" and have Santa of the rear of the pants. I told Lissy they will probably wear them at least once a week the month of December.
We left early Saturday morning to head to Ottumwa for Jackson's first swim meet. We got a sitter for the twins and I am glad we did. We left a little after 7 and by the time we got there the place was packed. It was at The Beach Ottumwa in their indoor facility. The high school team swims there and they have some bleachers but there were 5 teams there, so space was limited. While I waited for Jackson to get out of the locker room and try to get him situated, Andrew tried to find us some seats. We ended up with both kids on our laps. Jackson's first event was #4 and then he didn't swim again until #84. I was a little nervous for him because he had never practiced a start off the block but he did a few during warm-ups and did a good job. He had also never actually practiced a race. They just do their workout of laps during practice. Thankfully his first event was his easiest, the 25M freestyle. He was in a heat of just three kids and was excited he got second. We were so proud of him for finishing his first race. We didn't let him know that when times were posted later that he ended up 8th out of 11. He still thinks he got second. Instead of waiting in the hot natatorium until his next event, I had him change into some sweats and we hung out in the lobby area. Andrew took the other two to fill up the car. Before he left we got a text from our sitter saying that she got sick and thought she may have food poisoning. She had just gotten the twins down for their first nap and it was around 9:30. I called my parents house and no one answered, so I tried my dad's cell. He was at the hospital finishing up rounds so he just ran by the house to relieve Sara of her duties. I felt so bad for her. My dad didn't have any carseats, so he ended up just buckling them both into a seat with the seatbelt. I guess partway through the trip, Miles tried to stand up and was trying to get out of the seat. Thankfully they made it to my parents house unharmed and my parents and Amanda got to watch three sets of twins for the rest of the morning/afternoon. And we were thankful because we were able to stay so Jackson could finish up his meet. His next event was the 50M free. He said he wanted to do it because he wanted to do his flip turn. I think it was harder than he thought it was going to be and he ended up not doing his flip turn. Again, we were just happy he finished and he never stopped. I think he got last with this one. And just a few minutes after he was out of the pool from that race, he had to head to the bullpen for his last race, the 25M breast. It ended up being the most entertaining race. Ad they said, "Swimmers take your mark" he realized he hadn't pulled his goggles down and tried to get them down and was late starting. I think he was then distracted and started swimming freestyle. Again, he had never practiced starts which would had been really beneficial for breast stroke. He did realize halfway through that he was doing the wrong stroke and switched to breast. I imagine he was disqualified, but we didn't mention it to him. We didn't stick around to see the time sheet for the official results. I loved watching him race though. I hope he sticks with it and enjoys it as much as I did. I think he is the youngest on the team and I don't want him to get discouraged. Now he gets a break while Truman is on Christmas break which I think will be good for him. Then if he still wants to continue I think it will be time to get some racing trunks-he even said he wants a pair.
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| Talking to his coach before his first race |
After the meet, we grabbed some lunch and headed to Target so I could pick up a few things and the kids got get their Christmas presents for each other. Of how I miss Target. It has been a long time since I have been able to get to one and I wish I wasn't so rushed. I looked at a few things and then we helped the kids pick out their gifts. We had drawn names last month so we had to make sure they didn't see each other's gifts. Andrew took Ellie and Jackson up separately to buy their gifts because Ellie had Lincoln and then I took Lincoln after they were gone because he had Jackson. When we got back to Kirksville, our twins were down for their nap so I got some stuff done around the house and Andrew headed out to the ranch. Jackson and Ellie stayed with me, but Lincoln doesn't like to miss a chance to go out to the ranch with his dad. Lissy came into town that evening, so we ordered Mexican because it is her favorite. Then I decided to give our twins and Colton and Carolina a bath. They are a cute group.
Soon after I took this picture, I was started to wash all of them when I noticed a small piece of poop floating in the water. Then it was chaos as I was trying to get them all out without them touching it. I had to call for help because I knew if i put one of the babies down, they would try to go down the stairs. So we got them all out, my dad retrieved the poop and wiped down the tub and then it was bath time again. We weren't quite sure who the culprit was but I am betting it was one of mine. Thankfully, they have never done it before. My others have, but not them, until now.
Now we are wrapping up the week and getting ready for another. I was able to do my grocery shopping before church this morning. I had quite a bit to get for different things going on this week so I knew it would probably be best to try to do it while Andrew could keep all the kids. After church, we had Carson over to play. They were waiting in our driveway we we got home from church and they played all afternoon and watched the Grinch. Andrew went to the office and I worked on stuff for the twins birthday party and cleaned up around the house. Then we all loaded up and went to my parents for dinner. After Lissy took the kids for a quick, cold walk around the block (they can be a loud bunch), we finished evening with an intense game of Uno. Even Lincoln joined in and made it even more entertaining. And my dad provided hot chocolate for all of us.
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