The Daily Hailey

I can really honestly say that today was probably my favorite Sunday in a really, really long time. We haven’t been to church in probably five or six weeks, and if I can be really straight up with you guys, church is hard for us. Not because of any faith changing reason, but we have to wake our sleeping kids, leave early (especially on worship leading days), and then the kids have to sit still and relatively quietly through 2+ hours of a service, meet lots of new people, and its just a big challenge. So it was our first Sunday since mid-July and we were up for leading worship. My parents bowed out and offered to take the kids, so it was just Brady and I.

On the drive to town, we told Dekker we were going to church, and he gave every possible suggestion of where we should go that wasn’t church. So that didn’t bode well at all. But he was happy to see grandma and grandpa, and the four of them played and ran around while Brady and I practiced. The girl who ran the words was right on time, and the sound guy was early! Its sooo awesome to actually have mics hooked up for the first song in practice!!! It went completely smoothly and we felt great about the set.

In church, I realized that while our baby news has been public for a few weeks now, not everyone at our church has Facebook, and probably not everyone knows! So I shared that with the church and they celebrated with us in applause and prayer. Pretty awesome to have such a big group of people so excited to see our family grow. We did the rest of our worship set after that and it went off pretty much without a hitch. It certainly wasn’t perfect, but it felt like we didn’t have any big flubs or rough patches. It was just really refreshing to have our first time back up front not be a total disaster.

Dekker was a bit restless during church but aside from a couple whiny moments, he did awesome. Laela, on the other hand, was sooo bored with being held and just wanted to be free! So I let her crawl around a bit, but her adorableness is incredibly distracting to those around her, and I felt a little bad disrupting other people during the sermon. So I played a bit with her in the back of the church, and traded off with Brady when she got too heavy in my arms. We finished off the service with a song and everyone went downstairs for lunch. I guess this Sunday was sort of a “welcome back” Sunday, post-summer. Dekker was ready to get out of there, so my parents took him home for lunch, and we kept Laela at church with us for lunch.

We sat with good friends and talked about the lumps and bumps of parenting while eating chicken, buns, salads, and ridiculously delicious cupcakes. We finally left when Laela was clear it was time to go. Not even tastes of icing would make her smile anymore.

Poor munchkin. We went to my parents to give her some milk and put her and her brother down for naps. While she napped, my mom talked on the phone with my sister for a while, and eventually joined Brady and I for some SkipBo. It lasted a while, but Laela woke up after two hours down and was still noticeably tired. But she wanted to be up! And she was sooo beautiful, even with a more solemn face on.

When Dekker woke up, we had supper of hot dogs and FRESH corn on the cob that my parents actually purchased from a nearby colony. Beautiful, sweet, yellow corn. Also, watermelon and cantaloupe. It was probably the perfect, most delicious supper I could have asked for. Being my mom, she had also recently made a dessert that I’ve really been hungry for but hadn’t yet worked up the energy to make. Rice Krispie cake with chocolate peanut butter on top. Unbelievable. There was also a banana cake, which I’m sure was delicious but I didn’t go near. Two pieces of rice krispie for me! I fed Laela a little sliver of banana cake, and Dekker had a piece too. The second he was done, he asked for more. I told him one piece was enough (really didn’t give much explanation past that point) to which he responded “Thank you, grandma, cupcake. Get down, please?” And he left the table. No fuss, no fight. Just a polite “thank you” and he excused himself. I was SO proud!

We kicked around longer than usual, just finding the day to hit the spot more than usual. But around 8:15 (already 45 minutes past the kids bedtime) Dekker announced that he was ready to go now. That is a HUGE deal, since he is normally really sad to leave. But today, he knew it was time, and that he was tired. So grandma walked out with us to help us carry some of our stuff (she may have sent the cake home with me…), she gave us all hugs and kisses, and sent us on our way. We had fun music on the drive home, and the kids are already fast asleep. But not before something hilarious happened!

While we were getting Laela all wrapped up before putting her down, Dekker asked in his quiet questioning voice “Be all wrapped up?” Sooo this happened.

It was completely endearing and adorable and I loved it. He didn’t go down swaddled or anything, but it was just a cuddly moment and they were sooo taken with each other. I love these little guys!

What a PERFECT day!!! I hope you all had some great rest, or great family time, or something awesome happen today 🙂 It just feels like that kind of day to me.