The last couple of days have been so very busy. My sister-in-law moved to another city in Germany three weeks ago and she was able to come for a visit yesterday. She stayed until this afternoon. We had such a good time catching up! The girls and Will just loved her and her daughter.

For her visit, I attempted cooking a beef roast in the oven for THE FIRST TIME!! I got some great advice from my mother-in-law and I am happy to report that it was DELICIOUS! I think I’ll be doing this more often. We even had Mindy over for some wonderful leftovers tonight.

This afternoon we took a walk to the post office. I was so excited to finally get Photoshop Elements 6! I’ve been using version 4 and ordered this newer version for my scrapbooking. Watching the mail while waiting for a package is worse than watching a pot for water to boil. It seems like an eternity since I ordered that software, but it really hasn’t been that long.

I couldn’t wait for the children to go to bed tonight so I could install elements and start playing! I had some small issues with the installation, but I couldn’t turn the computer off until I at least put together one simple layout.

Here’s my very fist layout using Elements 6:

The title is Sweet and I credit the Sweet as Cheery Pie page kit by Nicole Young for the papers and elements used.

This is such a sweet portrait of Mary Catherine taken the summer of 2006. She was just over a year old and I took her and Elizabeth Anne to have pictures taken so I could send Keith some for his Father’s Day gift. He was nearing the end of his first deployment and I thought he would enjoy having pictures of the girls.

For more Wordless Wednesday participants, visit 5 Minutes for Mom or the Wordless Wednesday Headquarters.

This is the picture I used in the digital scrapbook layout: Proud Sister

Both my husband, Chaplain Andrews, and his co-worker saw this picture and thought that Will was “taking a leak” (as they put it) on the floor and EA was laughing at him.

The thought didn’t even cross my mind when I first saw it, but now that they’ve mentioned it, it’s all I see.

Is this just another difference between women and men? What do you think?

Sleep is so important to the life of a mother.

It seems that we spend more of our time focused on our children’s sleep than almost anything else…discipline, nutrition, growth, milestones, etc.

We count the days until our little babes will FINALLY start sleeping through the night and taking routine daytime naps.

I’m no different than any other mom…I like my sleep, no, I LOVE my sleep. And in order for me to get my sleep, my children must sleep themselves.

Every book or article you will read on the topic of sleep with suggest one important necessity to sleep….establishing a regular routine. Well, that’s great, but what does that look like….what does that SPECIFICALLY look like.

My children are past the age the age of bath, bottle, and bed.

Just as a side note…I never understood that or followed that routine anyway. It bothers me when the advice that we are given contradicts itself. We are told not to give babies bottles (milk) before bed but yet every example of a nighttime routine mentions the three B’s: bath, BOTTLE, and then bed. What’s up with that??

OK, back on topic.

My children are past the age of that routine, so if you’re wondering what a night time routine looks like to this mother of twin three year olds and an almost fourteen month old going it alone because her husband will be away for the next year, read on.

The hours between five and seven pm are the absolute busiest in our home. I am going non-stop…I don’t even have time to do a quick e-mail check or twitter! So, that’s where I’ll start.

Dinner - We usually eat dinner between 5 and 5:30 every night. It’s usually closer to 5 than 5:30 because Will gets very cranky if he’s hungry and then that makes getting dinner on so much harder.

After dinner, they all play “quietly” while I clear the table and clean the kitchen. I love the quote, “The Meal is not Complete Until the Kitchen is Neat”. I don’t ALWAYS live by it, but I strive to.

Baths - After the “kitchen is neat” we start bathtime. EA and MC take baths every other day unless they really got dirty during the day, which almost never happens. I bathe one of them along with Will. He is such a messy eater right now, that he always needs a bath!

I give the girls extra time to play in the bath while I change Will into his pajamas. Then I get a little girl out of the bath and put pull-ups on both girls. (they’re potty trained, but I haven’t attempted to have them sleep without pull-ups yet, I think that may disrupt some sleep)

Brush our Teeth - We then all brush our teeth together. Will even loves to join in now that he has six teeth of his own!

Put Your Jammies On - After all teeth are brushed and all jammies are on, we do a run through the house to make sure all dirty clothes are put in the hampers and all stray toys are put away. I also give out stickers for completed chores (this is something very newly added….the girls love it!!).

The Lord’s Prayer - We then all kneel at EA’s bed and recite the Lord’s Prayer. EA and MC are even starting to remember parts of it. After this prayer is said, both girls get into their beds and under their  covers.

Story Time - The girls take turns each night picking out a story for me to read. They each have their own favorites so there is not a lot of variety here.  EA’s favorite is “Brown Bear” (Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson) and MC’s favorite is “Baby” (Love You Forever by Robert Munsch). Will toddles around their room as I sit on their bed and read their story.

Personal Prayer - After I read either “Brown Bear” or “Baby” I cuddle with each girl and say a personal prayer for them. I pray especially hard that they will go to sleep quickly and gets lots of rest!

Night, Night for Will - Will waves goodnight to his sisters and we travel to his room. I turn out his lights and cuddle with him a bit while his lullaby music plays. Then I lay him in his crib and sit in a chair to read while he falls asleep.

Now that I’ve written it all out, our routine sounds so long, but believe me the time passes quickly.

I used to dread this time because of it’s business, but now I have come to cherish it. It is a special time with my children and I to be together before they go to sleep. They used to fight against it…they didn’t want to take a bath, they didn’t want to brush their teeth, they didn’t want to put on pajamas, they didn’t want to go to bed. But now that we’ve established a routine that works for us, they know what to expect and don’t put up a fuss (most nights, anyway).

Do you have a nightly bedtime routine that works for your family? Have you had to adjust it over time? Does it help to get you little ones to sleep so you can have some of your own?

And if you are not getting the sleep you need at the moment, Let’s Talk Babies is hosting their first writing project on the topic of sleep. Take a look, and maybe you can discover the hidden secret you’re looking for!