A Day in the Life 2015

One of the main reasons I keep coming back to this space and writing is because I love looking back on our life. And, I think that *someday* my children will enjoy reading about their parents, our life before they were born, how we prayed for and anticipated them, and the various details of their childhood. For these reasons, this post that outlines a typical day in our life is one of my favorite ones to look back on each year. 

If you want to see how our life has changed over the years (and as we've added more children to our family), you can read about a typical day in our life in 2012, 2013, and 2014. 

Each year, I have documented a day in April. Between having infant twins and hernia repair surgery, it had completely slipped my mind to document a day this year. However, one of my blogger friends did her Day in the Life post toward the end of April, and it reminded me that I needed to take photos and notes throughout a day so I could write my own post. The day I documented was Thursday, April 30 . . . I barely squeaked it in April :-).

My day began at 5:18am when the babies woke to eat. They were a few days shy of 3 months old at this time, and they would typically wake to eat between 5:00 and 5:30am.  

After eating this early morning meal, the girls would always be so happy!

Brecklyn

All smiles!

Brooke

Also super smiley!

I would often joke with Chris that 5am never looked so good :-)! While I was nursing, he got up and ready for the day. He left the house at 6:00am this day as he was working in the field and not in the office. This is about an hour earlier than he normally leaves for work.

Making enough milk to keep up with two babies takes a lot of effort on my part. I have to constantly think about drinking water to make sure that I get enough in my system each day to keep my production up. My practice is to drink 16 ounces each time I nurse. That, combined with what I drink during meals and at other times, ensures that I get at least a gallon of water a day!

First 16 ounces of water for the day:

The babies were tandem nursing at this time, and they are both fairly quick eaters. After they finished eating, we were all able to go back to sleep for a little over an hour until Brenson got up at 7:30am. Bren is my early-bird and likes to get up with the sun. However, he will often sleep a bit later on Thursday mornings because we are out past bedtime on Wednesday nights for Bible study. He slept 30 to 45 minutes later than normal on this day.

Bren likes to crawl in bed and snuggle with me for a few minutes before we get up and start our day. I love this time with my boy!

Once we get up, I throw on some clothes, wash my face, brush teeth, etc. We were staying home this day, so I didn't bother with make-up. Then, I head to the kitchen to drink another 16 ounces of water and a Spark (energy drink)! 

At about 8:00am, Brianna and the babies wake for the day. I change the babies' diapers and clothes, then they nurse.

Brecklyn

Brooke

While the babies nurse, Brianna and Brenson have breakfast. They typically eat fresh fruit, granola or oatmeal bars, and yogurt. Sometimes, I'll fix this for them before I nurse the babies, and sometimes Brianna will fix it for them. After they finish eating, they get dressed for the day. 

One of Brenson's morning chores is to take the dirty clothes and pjs to the hamper.

They both also make their beds in the morning.

After I finish nursing the babies, I almost always start a load of laundry. With 4 littles five years old and under, we do A LOT of laundry! 

While we did our morning chores, the babies played in Brecklyn's bed together for a few minutes. 

Brecklyn, Brooke

Haha . . . these faces crack me up!

Brianna helped me restock diapers in the top drawer of Brooke's dresser. 

Then, I decided to do a little photo shoot. Most days, we just play with the babies for a few minutes during this time.

Sweet Breckles

I love her little closed mouth grin!

Serious face

Brooke - who is generally more smiley than Brecklyn - wasn't feeling it this day.

She would smile, but NOT while looking at the camera.

I love her serious face, too.

By this time, it is 9:30am, so both babies go down for a nap.

Brecklyn sleeping in the rock-n-play:

Brooke attempting to fall asleep the swing. They did not typically nap in their bed at this time.

One of the biggest things about having more children at home is that we are rarely all doing the same thing at the same time. So, while I was taking photos of the babies and putting them down for their naps, Bren was playing in his room. He's generally good about playing independently whereas Brianna tends to follow me around the house.

As soon as the babies settled, I changed the laundry then set up a few activities to do with the big kids. Brenson and I practiced number recognition,

spelling his name,

and writing his name.

With Brianna, I practiced identifying beginning sounds and writing our last name.

Brenson is getting better and better at writing his name! He was proud of himself.

I helped him with the top one, but he wrote the bottom one by himself.

At 11:00am, the babies got up from their morning nap and nursed. After they nursed, they had a little playtime on their playmat.

It was about 11:45am by the time I got the babies changed, fed, and settled for playtime, so I went into the kitchen to get lunch started. While I fix lunch for the big kids, I clean the kitchen from breakfast and eat my own lunch as well. Yes, I eat while I'm working which isn't the best habit, but right now it's what works for us. 

Brianna and Brenson eating at the table:

This day, we had bean burritos (I just heat beans from a can and put them in a tortilla with a bit of cheese), apple slices, and carrots.

My bigs are good eaters which is so nice!

Like I said, while the Bigs were eating I was cleaning the kitchen. I unloaded clean dishes from the dishwasher,

and reloaded it with dirty dishes.

After lunch, Brianna and Brenson help me clean up the lunch mess. Brenson uses the hand vac to spot clean the floors,

while Brianna wipes down the table. They love doing their chores (for real!)

As soon as I cleaned up lunch, I prepped dinner. This day, I just pulled a frozen meatloaf and a frozen mashed potato bake from the freezer to thaw a bit.

When the big kids finished their chores, they went outside to play. I can see our swingset from the kitchen, so it works out perfectly for them to play while I prep dinner.

At some point during lunch, I went and moved the babies from the playmat to another "station". Brecklyn practiced tummy time on the giraffe mat, 

while Brooke sat in the Bumbo for a bit.

The babies went back down for nap around 12:30pm which was about the same time that the big kids finished up their lunch. This is the reason I can't (don't) sit down and eat lunch . . . too many things going on at the same time! 

Sometimes, I let the big kids play outside right up until naptime (for them, that is 1:30pm), but sometimes I call them in so we can spend some time reading before nap. This day, I called them in at 1:00pm so we could read Little House in the Big Woods together. We were getting ready to finish it (my kids really enjoyed it!) You can see that I'm holding Brooke in this photo. Both babies were being fussy. They have the hardest time going down for this particular nap. 

At 1:30pm, I put Brenson down for nap and nursed Brooke. She fell asleep, so I swaddled her and put to bed in the pack-n-play.

Brianna is a HUGE helper to me during the day, and she entertained Brecklyn (who was up and hungry also) while I nursed Brooke. If one baby is really fussy or upset (like Brooke was this day), I nurse them individually. It just works better for us if one baby is worked up.

Brecklyn nursed after Brooke, and Brianna got in bed for some rest time. She doesn't always nap, but she has to lay in bed and rest for at least a little while. Brecklyn also fell asleep at the end of her nursing session, so I swaddled her and laid her in bed with Brooke.

Sweet sisters sleeping with their noses touching :-)

By 2:15pm, all the children were in bed and the three youngest were napping. Brianna ended up napping this day too, it just took her a bit to fall asleep. During naptime, I will usually do housework, finances, catch up on text messages, browse the internet, etc. However, at this time, I was just over two weeks post surgery and still requiring extra rest. I took my opportunity to rest while the children were resting. 

At 4:00pm, we are all up from nap. Chris got home not long after this (early for him, but he had gone in early this day). I immediately nursed the babies, then laid Brecklyn on the floor to play for a bit. 

Daddy took Brooke into the nursery to change her and spend some time with her. She loves her Daddy!

Just look at how she's looking at him!

The big kids are always excited to see Daddy, too. They went back outside to play shortly after getting up from nap. 

Oh, and guess what I was still doing? LAUNDRY!

A little before 5:00pm, I put dinner in the oven and left to run a few errands. Sometimes, I take the children with me and we run errands during the day. Sometimes, I wait until Chris gets home and run them by myself (by myself is just so much easier). 

I got home at 6:00pm. The big kids were still playing outside.

The babies had just gone down for their evening cat nap. This time, Brecklyn was in the swing, 

and Brooke was in the rock-n-play.

Chris was working on our bathroom wall which he was trying to repair, so I got everything ready for dinner. At 6:30pm, the babies woke up from their cat nap, and we all sat down to eat. I finished my tenth 16 ounce glass of water during dinner (meeting my daily goal!)

Every. single. time. we sit down to eat dinner, Brenson is the very last one to finish. He is a super pokey eater and it just takes him forever. We will often set a timer just to motivate him to move it along a bit faster. So, this is a sight we see pretty much every night . . . Bren sitting alone at the table finishing his food.

I cleaned up the kitchen while Brenson finished eating, and Daddy gave Brianna a bath. As soon as the kitchen was cleaned up, I gave the babies a bath in the kitchen while Daddy bathed Bren in the bathroom.

So fresh and clean!

Daddy got to snuggle the babies for just a little while before bed.

The whole crew at about 7:30pm:

Immediately after this was taken, the babies nursed and went to bed. We had our family devo with the big kids, and they were in bed by 8:15pm. Generally, right after we get all the kids in bed, Chris and I do housework for about 30-45 minutes. There's always something that needs picked up or a floor that needs swept or laundry that needs folded. We spend time together from 9:00 - 10:00pm . . . sometimes just talking, sometimes watching TV, sometimes just being in the same room while we read and enjoy the quiet. By 10:00pm, we fall into bed ourselves to get some rest and start it all over again the next morning :-).

It's kind of amazing to me how much life has changed from year to year in these posts. I did notice that I've talked about laundry in every post, though. Ha! Life is incredibly busy right now, but so sweet at the same time! I'm sure by the time I write this post next year, our day-to-day will look very different, but we'll be as blessed as ever!