another day to remember

today has been so fantastic.  

i had originally planned to shower before baby girl woke up but since i awoke to the sound of her 9:15am jabber, that didn't happen.  amazingly enough though, i didn't wake up with a headache like i normally do.  i didn't even almost pass out when i got out of bed!  baby girl and i had a delicious and enjoyable breakfast, after which baby girl played nicely on her own while i made up a menu plan and grocery list.  

we headed to the store, had an awesome time at walmart, and then after putting away the refrigerated items, headed out to the patio and splashed around a bit in "abigail's pool."

 

don't judge.  this is what we look like when swimming in the privacy of our back patio.

cropped pictures seem to cut out that white trash swim diaper look.

check out this crazy bug bite on baby's ankle.  i think a mosquito must have gotten her ten times in a row or something.

it seriously wraps around the whole back of her ankle.

watching water drip

and again

and again

and still some more.  i can't get enough of those baby shoulders.

and then we headed inside, got baby a dry diaper and baby girl ate lunch while i put away the rest of the groceries.  and then when i took her up for nap, i had such a special experience with her.

normally for nap time i put pj's on baby girl, give her a binky, read her a book, pray with her, and plop her down in the crib and say goodnight.  today i put her pj's on her, but then when i gave her her binky, she somehow just melted into my arms.  so holding her, i sat in the glider and just enjoyed the moment, thinking it would only last for a few seconds until she popped her head up and requested a book.  but she didn't.  she stayed that way, sitting in my lap, her body against my belly and her head against my chest.  her arms were wrapped around mine and i just sat there rocking her, soaking up every second of it.  it was the most perfect moment ever.  while i was holding her and rocking her, i let my mind slip back to when i was younger and would sometimes sit in that very position on my mom's lap at church during sacrament meeting.  i loved putting my head against her heart while she sang church hymns during the meeting and i remember telling her one time that she should join the mormon tabernacle choir.  i thought she had the prettiest voice ever... she sounded like an angel.  now let me tell you that while my mother has a pretty voice and can sing on key, she's probably no better of a singer than i am... but as her daughter, i thought everything about her was incredible. her dresses so pretty, perfume so wonderfully fragrant, and voice so perfect.  so as i rocked my sweet baby girl, i tried to wrap my head around the idea that i am to abigail what my mother was to me.  i only say "was" because it is the understanding of a child.  i know now that the love and respect and admiration i feel for my mother is immeasurably more now than what it was when i told her she should join the mo tab.  i have a lot to live up to.  and then my baby's loud breathing brought me back to reality.  i'd rocked her so long she fell asleep on me.  whoops.  rolled that baby into her crib and whispered sweet dreams.

and then another highlight of my day followed!  i got to talk to my dear friend weed (also known as "sister lisa" although not actually my sister) for a super long time and she always makes me so very happy because she listens to my ramblings about life and tells me about her super fun single life and dating experiences.  i can never get enough of her!

and then i finished cleaning the kitchen, showered, wrote the first part of this post, and greeted honey home from work at the early hour of 5:30!  then he told me the only reason he was home so early was because he thought mutual started at 6 instead of 6:30.  nope, but would you care to join me for dinner before we get baby girl up from her nap?  fabulous.

got baby up from nap around 5:45ish, fed her, finished cleaning the kitchen (holy cow was the overdue!) and finished just in time to welcome the youth and leaders right at 6:30!  we had close to 30 youth come and lots of leaders too.  everyone met at my house and then we split into groups, assigned areas and drivers, and then sent everyone out to go door to door collecting non perishable food items and toiletries for the parker task force.  like trick or treating!  we got tons of stuff to donate!  it went really well and i think it gave the youth a bit of practice for tracting (how do you spell that?!) on their missions and getting people more comfortable with speaking to strangers and having those kinds of missionary experiences.  i was really really happy with how the activity went.

we collected so much food and this isn't even all of it.

recap and sharing missionary experiences

trying to fit all the food in kassie's van

sooo sad lil lexi is moving to utah tomorrow.  i can't wait for her to come back and visit!

and then the rest of the night was pretty ordinary and typical and before bed i read baby girl the "puppy is lost" book for the millionth time that i've renewed from the library repeatedly for the past several months.  it kinda feels like we own it now.

and then i cleaned up the kitchen yet again.  how does it get messy so fast even when it was so beautiful this afternoon that i vowed to never cook or dirty my kitchen ever ever again (nothing makes me want to give up cooking for life like looking at my gorgeous sparkling kitchen).  and now i'm finishing emptying my brain into this blog post so i can have a peaceful night's sleep.  3 nights of no someone'stryingtokillme dreams and [hopefully] going strong!