Lesson Learned.

Well, mamahood has once again slapped me in the face.  

Or pinched me, maybe, since that seems to be Annie Louise’s new favorite thing to do to me. 

We had a way too many things going on Saturday.  

We started off the morning by sleeping in…like super late.  It felt super nice until I realized we had a birthday party to be at in 2 hours – we all needed baths/showers, present needed to be wrapped, clothes needed to be iron…the list goes on and on.

The birthday party was awesome – so much fun.  Except that it was almost too much fun.

Someone (ahem, Annie Louise) didn’t want to leave said awesome birthday party, but I mean who can blame her…did you see that awesome slide?!  Here’s a tip - if you ever need to leave a party quickly, just strip your screaming, arms flailing toddler down to nothing and you’ll be leaving quickly.  

Trust me.

I heard some of the most high-pitched screams I have ever heard for 5 minutes until I turned around and saw this.

Out like a light.

Starting to feel pretty good about myself – toddler is out.  Will transfer her to her bed where she can sleep the rest of the afternoon until our family pictures at 5 p.m.

WRONG.

Get home, get toddler out of car, toddler is wild…and awake.

Daddy takes toddler on a looooooooong car ride.  

Still awake.

Get ready and arrive early to our family session.

Our poor photographer.  That’s all I’ll say.  

Not only did she witness a toddler running wild, she also got to see lots of bribing and pleading, one spanking and hear lots of “NO, MA’AM, ANNIE LOUISE!”

Word to the wise – never have family portraits within a half-mile radius of a massive playground.  Your toddler will run towards it.  Promise.

So embarrassed.

Our precious photographer was so patient and kind.  I hope we got at least one good photo…

We were a tad late to our last-minute dinner with…are you ready for it? KATELYN!!!!!!!

I know many of y’all know Katelyn from my blog/vlogs.  Y’all, I seriously ran to her like a little girl when I saw her.  I have never hugged someone so tightly.  

Everything from the weekend didn’t matter after that moment.  Who cares if my toddler screamed for 10 minutes straight when we left the birthday party?  So what if I was mortified and humiliated when my usually good-natured gal was absolutely wild during family pictures?

This is our life.  And we are so blessed to be living it.

Katelyn has faced cancer and even death with grace and beauty and joy.  To sit at the same table with her and hear her tell her story was absolutely inspiring. 

Our gals sat next to each other and were the happiest gals you have ever seen.  Future ADPi sisters and BFFs for sure.  Can’t you just picture them doing diamonds <> on their bid day?  

So, I learned a lesson (or two) this weekend, but more importantly than that?  I ate dinner with a walking miracle, and I thank God for that.

UPDATE: after I scheduled this to post for today, I received a link from our photographer with our session sneak peek...oh, my word.  We got some good images!  Check them out HERE!