date night/lazy weekend

another wonderful, busy and yet lazy weekend.

On Friday night, I had a hot date with that good looking man o mine. We actually arranged it as a double date with my cousin, who we were setting up with a friend from church. Normally I'm reluctant to set people up (and my husband even more so) because I don't want to assume that just because two people that I like and who happen to be single, might be perfect for each other! But this particular match kept coming to mind so I figured it was worth a shot.

We had arranged for our favorite baby sitter but at last minute, a friend called to ask if we could share the sitter. We've done this before, leaving our two older girls and their three older kids with the sitter and they have a great time. This time I was reluctant because I had planned to leave the baby. But this particular sitter is wonderful and very capable so I agreed. But when Husband went to drop all the girls off, our friend's three children had been joined by at least 4 other friends and we didn't know if they were staying or not. Plus, our friend had left their new baby with the sitter as well. So Daddy decided the big girls could go play but AngelBaby stayed with us for the evening.

AngelBaby lived up to her name and was in fact, a perfect angel. She stayed in her carseat, content to watch us and smile through most of dinner until she fell asleep. We never even had to get her out of the carseat until we returned home from the restaurant. Dinner was fantastic, we went to my favorite place in the valley for Mexican food and had a great time talking and laughing and leisurely making our way through dinner. Entertainment options are limited in our little town (unless you get an early start) so after dinner we sat around our living room for more relaxing and talking. (as a side note, the blind date seemed to go well. :) time will tell what they do from here but hopefully this at least means neither of them hate me.)

Yesterday was one of those rare Saturdays when we had no commitments and simply got to enjoy being at home as a family. (Sometimes I'm tempting to create fake "out of town" weekends just so we can have more of these delightful days.) I made chocolate chip pancakes, we watched some tv and took down the Christmas tree (some may say this way long overdue but I like to drag out the season as long as I can. Plus we got a late start this year.) Daddy took the ornaments off the tree, gave them to the girls who scampered over to give them to me for sorting and putting away. I actually love this part because we have some great ornaments and I love reminiscing about the wheres and whens we got them. Plus I'm a little bit neurotic and I actually like wrapping them carefully and putting them away so precisely organized. Naptimes, a lazy lunch, reading stories and best of all, watching the snow fall! (ironically we took the tree DOWN on the first major snowfall instead of putting it UP) The storm dumped several inches of heavy wet snow on us and my sweet husband spent a significant amount of time pushing it around.

By early evening, we finally got cleaned up and dressed for the day. Then we were joined by Grandma and Grandpa for a fun family night dinner at the new bbq place in town (food was good, service was horrendously slow, best part was the free self serve ice cream station). The girls and I enjoyed extra bedtime stories since they were being so good and finally got them tucked in for night. Then Husband asked that ill fated question "Babe, can you help me with something?" My slight hesitation (it was 9:00 after all) was answered by "nah, it won't take very long." (famous last words). So we spent three hours insulating our garage doors. The work wasn't too bad actually, it was nice spending time together and fun to get to work with my hands and be helpful in creating something (that didn't have to do with my normal wife and mother duties). He measured and gave directions while I measured and cut and gave him pieces to hang. Not the usual date night activity but in the end, it was nice being together and the finished product looks great (and will hopefully cut our heating costs).

A few hours later (after not near enough sleep), little girls bounded into our room for cuddles and breakfast. Husband had to disappear to meetings and we're off again into another busy day. Some say Sundays are to be restful, perhaps peaceful and even reverent. Not so at this house. We play hard in the morning to wear them out so they will nap early. Otherwise, our 1:00 church time is downright painful for our overly tired and cranky children. So now the girls are napping and soon we will dash off to church where we try desperately to keep them quiet and distracted until we can ship them off to Primary and attend our own Sunday School classes. Here's hoping for a great Sabbath day.