A Great Weekend!

This past weekend was busy, but a lot of fun!

Friday night we had house church. Our topic was “discipline” and it was good hearing other parents talk about what they do with their kids and what we can all do to raise the kind of kids we want to raise. We had so much fun talking afterwards that a couple of the families didn’t leave until 11:30! I love it when people stay long…I always have so much fun hanging out with everyone!

Saturday I spent the day doing laundry and taking care of the kids. John had to work at Holidays in Powell, so it was just the kids and I all day. Around 3:00 the kids and I headed over to Holidays in Powell. The first thing the kids did was drop their letters off for Santa in the huge mailbox. Then we went in and they sat on his lap. We had been prepping Ryan for this for weeks and he told us that he was not going to cry and he was going to tell Santa exactly what he wanted for Christmas. But as it was our turn, and Mrs. Clause was talking to each of the kids, Ryan did not want to get out of the stroller! Josh sat on his lap first and talked to him, and then it was Ryan’s turn. Thankfully John came over from his booth and helped me out :) He had Santa play tug of war with the candy cane with Ryan and pretty soon Ryan was laughing. After that Ryan was comfortable enough to give him a hug and then sit there and talk to him. After that I got a picture of all three, and then Kylie sat on his lap.

Once we were done with Santa, we went into the craft room and the kids did a ton of crafts! It’s such a fun time…everything is free and the kids always have such a blast! After they were all done, we headed home and I fed the kids dinner and let myself sit down for a little bit.

John came home around 6:00 and we started getting ourselves and the kids ready. We had our house church date night and all the kids were going to one house where we had two baby-sitters lined up. Then the adults were heading out for a great dinner. The kids got showers/baths and put on/packed up their PJs and we headed out. The two sitters that we had are girls from church that the kids and parents absolutely LOVE! The one girl we had nanny for us a couple of weeks this past summer.

So the adults all headed out (there were 8 of us). The restaurant was really good (J. Liu’s)! The only downside was the seated at the table next to us right after we were seated were two women and 3 little kids (ranging in age from probably 5 months to 3 years). Of all the times and all the places! Of course I love kids, but when we are out for an adult dinner, I don’t want to sit next to toddlers throwing fits. And it’s weird because this was not a child-friendly restaurant, so I’m surprised they even brought them in there (besides the fact that it was 8:45 at night!).

After our two-hour dinner, we headed over to Jenni’s ice cream and had a great dessert. Our entertainment for the night was one of the guys pumping his French press coffee and then complaining about the pieces of coffee grounds in his cup. We were still joking about that at church the next day :)

We finally got the kids at 11:30 and they were so exhausted! We got up and went to church and then came home for Joshie’s first playdate with a kid from school. After his friend left we spent the afternoon cleaning up/cooking/relaxing. Our church was having a potluck dinner/play that night, so I had to make food for it.

We left before dinnertime and headed to church. The potluck was amazing, as usual! The food was fantastic and the kids were really easy this year (compared to prior years with Ryan in a stroller, etc.). I asked John what in the world we were thinking going back to a baby again when things were getting so easy! After dinner we headed into the Rec Center theater where our church had bought out a special performance of a one-hour special “A Christmas Carol Musical.” It was cute and the kids had a lot of fun!

Afterwards we headed home and the kids got ready for bed. John and I watched some TV and hung out with Ryan who was being cute as usual.

It was really a fun weekend and not too stressful! Hopefully the next couple weekends are the same way…I don’t want to let the stress of this time of year get to me :)