What I've been up to

This is the reason why I have been so neglectful of my poor blog lately.  ORGANIZING.  I couldn't take our den and our laundry room dumping ground any longer.  Luckily, there is a door to this room so no one else has to witness this catastrophe. 

Here was the start of the organizing.  The ribbon and girly craft supplies.

Arron and I decided to remove all of the objects out of the den one Saturday afternoon (about 2 months ago) and move in the 4 shelves we had bought.

Thinking we could just get started on the weekend and finish in the next few days.  I'm not sure what we were thinking.  Cause then we decided that it really needed to be painted before we mount about 8 nine foot shelves to the wall.  So then we called the painter.  We don't even attempt to paint anymore (at least until we don't have 3 little helpers).

And then, here sat the shelves in the middle of the room for the next couple of weeks.  We decided that we had better get all the shelves we wanted so we could decide on the configuration we wanted and make sure it would work before we anchored them all to the walls.  Forever.  

Just another mess of what we had to deal with.  Those dang cords.  I do have a little project in mind I found on Pinterest to contain those bad boys.

And here you have it!  Our beautiful little den/craft room.  The paint is Dunn Edwards Foggy Day, which I love.  Although in my picture it looks off.  I have moved everything out of the laundry room that doesn't belong in there and each box is organized.  The books are organized by theme/topic.  I love it!  It feels so good to have one project down.  I just need to get a few more boxes put together and finish the bottom shelves.  But man is this a relief.  

Note: to make your house feel larger, move everything out of rooms into your entry way, living room, and dining room for about a month and then put it all away in a new spot.  It's amazing how big it will feel when you aren't going through a maze every time you answer the door or use the restroom.  Thanks heavens for baby gates during this production!

Kindergarten

This is so unbelievable to me.  My baby boy is in Kindergarten.  He is so ready to start school but I can't even imagine him being away all day every day.  Well we started off the day with a little family walk to school.  The boys rode their bikes, Chloe rode in the stroller, and Aaron and I walked alongside them.  I love that the school is so close.  Although right now it is pretty miserable to walk outside in the afternoon.  I'm not sure what we are going to do about that.  

 

Here he is standing so proud and excited outside his new classroom.

One last hug from Mommy!  I had to leave when the bell rang.  He waved goodbye and went about coloring.  I was sad, but really excited for him.  It made it much easier on me that he was so excited and ready to start school.  

 

Monsoon Season

I absolutely love monsoon season.  Well, except for the humidity, but I guess that's what makes it monsoon season.  I must say we got quite the storm on this Friday afternoon and I'm sure glad we were home to enjoy it.  These pictures were taken out of our master bedroom window.  I thought it was pretty amazing. 

We have enjoyed playing out in the rain during the day.  These are true Arizona kids, notice the winter coats as rain gear to stomp in puddles. 

 

 

 

 

Cabin 2012

We had a fun filled time at the cabin this year with our family.  The kids and I made the trek up there following Laura and Glen and Aaron joined us later that night (because he had to work during the week and we wanted to get out of the heat for longer).  I have to give a big THANKS to Laura, Glen, and Lauren for helping me out when Aaron wasn't there.  The woods is a little challenging with 3 little kids to one mommy.  I couldn't have done it without them.  I'm just going to post tons of pictures to tell the story.  We were there for 9 days.

 Not sure if that is Oreos on her face or dirt?

 Lane is not liking the camera lately, most of the pictures are of him covering his face.  This is about all I got of his sweet little face.

I just had to show this picture.  I enjoyed some peace and quiet on the drive home from one of our many fabulous hikes.  I must say, this is impressive.  4 kids sleeping at the same time!

Zackary earned his first Junior Ranger Badge. 

Otis gets really tired up north.  

The boys Dads, thought of a great idea!  Lets build the kids a tree fort.  Well I must say, it turned into quite a project.  Including detailed drawings (the architect in my husband) and some pretty serious materials.  The famous quote of the trip "we will finish in just a few hours."  Here is the start.

 Under construction...

 Still under construction...

 Waiting...

 Still under construction, but time to get the kids involved in a job, so painting it was the answer.

 Still painting...

Finally, 3 days later, we have a pretty amazing tree fort that I'm sure will last forever.  There was some pretty serious planning and construction involved.  With safety of the our precious babies in mind.  

They even camouflaged it pretty well.  

There are going to be some pretty amazing memories made in that tree fort.  

Swimming ISR

We finished up swim lessons with Chloe and boy is ISR impressing!  Every time I see my babies floating I almost get teary.  I don't know how to describe the feeling.  I am so proud of them, while being frightened that they could possible fall into a pool without anyone there, that they have learned to survive if that were to happen, the fear of how scared they could be, and excited for them to show off their new trick.  Does that make any sense what so ever?  I'm sure that anyone who has done ISR completely understands what I mean.  Anyways, here she floating and able to get to the edge or umbrella to stand up.  It truly is amazing and worth every bit of effort it takes to complete the training.
 Great job Chloe!

 

 

Breakfast in Bed

Little Miss has been getting breakfast in bed from her brothers lately.  They get out of bed head downstairs for breakfast bars (before we get up and now they know how to open them).  They decided it would be super nice of them to bring them for Chloe too (which it is).  Except for the huge mess it creates!  They are both so good to their little sister.