sleep.....

this was my 3am wake-up call.

it was a long night.

we went to bed at 9:30 (yes! 9:30!) because i had been exhausted all day and hadn't had a nap. :)

this little one woke up at 12 and went back down at 1.

then there was the 3am fun. after that she went down at 4:30.

then i woke up with the big kids/matt at 6.

i saw christian off to the bus at 6:45 (matt left at 6 and lexi at 6:15) and hustled back to bed.

and then addie was up by 8.

so that's about 7 hours, broken up into 1-3 hour increments.

mama's been tired.

(this pic courtesy of addie the photog, who happens to love instagram!)

((i stayed in my robe all day and frankie woke up in those jams and went back to bed in them. don't judge, it was one of those days.))

thursday wasn't one of those days though.

sweet colleen had texted and asked if she could get the girls on thursday, but addie has preschool and i had already arranged a ride, and i wasn't sure how everything would work.

so thurs morning colleen texted and asked if addie could just be dropped off after preschool, and also offered to drive her there. then addie's preschool ride texted that her kids were sick and were skipping, but she had arranged for another ride for ad's. then that ride called and said they weren't going either. no problem, i thought, i can rush and get there and maybe only be a few minutes late. but i hadn't fed delaney and didn't know how she'd do for 30+ minutes in the car without having eaten.

so i stopped, took a deep breath, and texted colleen to ask if she could pick addie up after all.

i don't know what my problem is and why i hate accepting service.

before laney was born i gave myself a million pep talks.

it's okay to let lana watch the girls while you have the baby and matt comes to visit.

it's okay to let monique keep the girls while matt visits and we bring delaney home.

it's okay to let people bring meals and pick up the girls and, and, and!

it's the circle of service, sometimes you give, sometimes you recieve.

well i was okay, until thursday.

and then the

"well, i really can do it myself, even though it might make the baby and me miserable, i really can do it"

mentality kicked in!

anyways, colleen said of course she could take addie to preschool, and then when i was getting her carseat out of my truck i realized that frankie's carseat was still in matt's car (she went to scouts with him on weds night), so i wouldn't have been able to drive her anyway.

double blessing.

she ended up keeping addie all day, which was so nice to spend some one-on-one time with delaney and with frankie. i guess really that's two-on-two time, except that when d went down, i focused on franks, and when franks went down, i focused on d.

also, matt, delaney and i (christian babysat while lexi was at cheer) went to a delicious dinner at outback to celebrate an early valentines day. i had a coupon that expired on the 10th, so even though i really didn't want to take delaney out, it was use it or lose it, and i'm glad we went.

d-money and i both cleaned up, dressed up, and had a great time.

and she didn't cry at all, contrary to how she was feeling in this pic.

back to today...

that frankie-girl loves her sister!

she smothers her with kisses and lays on her.

she puts her beanie on when it falls off.

forcefully.

she teaches her how to be a tough chick.

"just kidding, mom! i'm just dancing, see?!"

i tried to nap when the girls did, but lane's woke up after about 30 minutes, in which time i had been tossing and turning. so i fed her, laid her back down, and then frankie decided she was done napping. i knew she needed the rest, so left her to whine for about 10 minutes. by that time it was almost time for christian to come home from school, so i headed downstairs to unlock the door for him, then back up to lay down. then i got no less than 10 texts, and even though my phone was on silent, it was still vibrating. (why does it do that, alli???) then i finally fell asleep for about half an hour. but i woke up cranky, hate when that happens.

then:

addie had poo'd her pull-up.

lex had decided to stay at school for pizza and "forgot" to let me know. again.

chris needed a foil dinner, about 10 minutes before he needed to leave for his campout.

matt had planned to go on the campout with christian and he was going to take addie along, but she's had a runny nose all day, and it's supposed to snow tonight.

so then he was still going to go, which didn't seem like a good idea to me, but i hate to tell him not to go, cause i feel like him going is supporting christian, and that's important.

he was home for about 5 minutes and said, "maybe i shouldn't go?"

thank heavens.

he got christian off to his campout (and he took the little girls, bless his heart!), alexis and i made chocolate covered strawberries for the camp fundraiser, and i lightened my load.

matt made dinner, we let the girls watch some tv,

 (i'm working on my mother of the year acceptance speech right now!!)

and had a nice night.

and lexi reported that our strawberries sold for $41, so yay!