Laundry....ughhh!

Okay, everyone has to do it but, do we like doing it?

It's one thing to only have to do it for two or three people, but SIX!!

Plus doing towels, sheets, blankets, comforters, rugs, or anything else washable that a kid touches.

Here's a picture of our laundry room now. As you can see, it is VERY small!

We decided to stack the washer and dryer to give us a little more room.

Here's the laundry room we had at our last house.

Even though it was unfinished, it had great potential and was HUGE!

After seeing both Laundry rooms, which one would you like the most?

A laundry room is a laundry room and you do the same thing both places, but one is better than the other (in my opinion)!!

The new one is small, finished, and upstairs. The old one is large, unfinished, and downstairs.

My favorite one is..... the small one, and not for obvious reasons.

Yes, it's nice not having to do laundry with the spiders and on a cold cement floor, but
I did laundry with the spiders for most of my life.... it was nice having help.

But, I like my smaller laundry room because it's small.

When I had a big laundry room it was easy to let the laundry pile up and get overwhelming. Plus it was hard to haul up that much laundry once it was clean.

With my little laundry room I have to keep on top of it so, I can reach my washer and dryer.

And I walk by it a million times a day. So, I'm reminded to do it a million times.

Plus I'm less likely to forget a load in the washer or dryer.

That's why I like my little laundry room!!
***

This is my mountain of Laundry that I was always doing when I was at the other house.

Soooo crazy!!!

It makes me have anxiety just looking at that huge pile.

My piles NEVER look like that since moving, and I'm very glad!!

Now I just need to train my kids to put their laundry away NICELY.

Part 2 of....So much going on

The new house has a LARGE tub with jets

in the master bed room that the kids are in LoVe with.

When it's tubby time, they usually want to fill the huge tub,

add a few color changers, some bubbles, and play.

As long as everyone gets clean...let's play!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My niece Kylee was given an opportunity to go with a group of kids

from her school to Guatemala and do a few service projects!!

My sister Liz jumped on the chance to go with them to be a chaperon.

How fun is that!?

They gathered clothing, toys, and MANY other things to ship to Guatemala.

They also had fun preparing to get there with fundraising, passports and.......shots!

While there they gave out the stuff they collected, played with the kids, built a day-care

and a had a little fun on the side.

Here's Kylee with one of the cute kidos.

They went on a zip-line through, I assume, the JUNGLES!

Was it jungles?.....I'll have to ask.

This is Liz after her wild ride.

This is Kylee beginning her ride.

She recorded her ride, which was pretty funny...

and nauseating to watch.

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Clarissa, my oldest niece, decided to go on a mission.

She had enough of BYU Idaho, for the time being, and sent in her paperwork.

They anxiously waited for her call and......

Destination:

New York, New York

Spanish speaking.

(Jealous, I want to learn Spanish)

Doesn't she look so ExCiTeD!

The Fam after Clarissa received her Endowments.

She was so excited because she went on her 21st Birthday

June 26, 2010

One of the many cute pictures Liz took of Clarissa in a Wheat field in Idaho.

Awesome theme...."The Field is White and Ready to Harvest"

She survived the MTC, her first Thanksgiving and Christmas away,

and seems to be loving and learning a lot!

I am so proud of her!

Love you tons Clarissa!!

Soo much going on.....

A lot has been going on lately that I have totally been forgetting my blog. After our long summer, getting kids back in school, moving, work, PTA treasurer stuff, holidays, a couple funerals, and kids in general, my list could go on and on.........
It doesn't help that my boys used my camera as a sniper scope on one of their NERF guns, so that thing is having a few issues. **I have been a little frustrated while taking pictures**

Here's my feeble attempt at catching up:

As I was cutting all the boy's hair,

Sydney was feeling left out and wanted her hair cut short like her Cousin's.

I didn't know exactly which cousin she had in mind, but I wasn't willing to go as short as she was saying (she wanted it to her chin).

So,we came to a compromise.

I was going to cut it, and she was going to be surprised as to what it looked like.

The before pictures...

She was soo excited to get her hair cut

and I was glad to be able to cut some layers off

from a previous hair cut.......that she gave herself!

The After pictures:
As you can see, we cut some inches off, but nothing drastic.
She loves it, her hair is easier to comb, we are all HAPPY!
(Although I'm a little sad she doesn't have as many baby curls...dang big girl hair)
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Our Family Christmas present this year was from my sister, Liz ,and her family.
Liz and Kylee where going to Guatemala for a service project
and they had a fundraiser selling discount cards to different places.
So, we where the lucky recipients of discount tickets to the Syracuse Family Fun Center.
The kids where extremely excited to go and reminded us
every time we drove past it to go to school.
We finally found time to go. So here's where the fun began:

We first played in the Trampoline room.

Trampolines EVERYWHERE!

Then we played a game of bowling.
When Sydney bowled,
it took forever for her ball to make it to the pins.











The boys loved showing off their skills.
It was cool because the machine told you how fast you threw the ball.
To say the least, I was a wimp!









The scores for Kaden, Tyler, and Dad.









The scores for Sydney, Blake and Myself.
Yes...I lost to a 5 year old!!

We then went to Mini Golf.
It was pitch black and they only used black-lights...
Very cool!
We found vacuums at the end, which I thought was funny
and I had to get a KODAK moment of it.

This guy freaked Kaden and Sydney out!
Mind you, it's dark and he's GLOWING!!











Sydney loved the unicorn though.
Red eyes= a little creepy!









Everyone was having so much fun that they kept leaving me in
their golf ball dust.








We had free admission to everything so we decided splurge
on lunch. This is us waiting for the food.

Dad has "Forest Gump" eyes!











Tyler and Blake.....
So patient!!!
LOL









Sydney was fascinated by the napkin dispenser.
She kept pulling out more and more napkins.
We finally had to hide it!

After lunch we played a game of Laser Tag. I couldn't take pictures because I was busy getting laser therapy on my BUM!
I stunk so bad, and I was protecting Syd!

The boys played another round
while Syd and I enjoyed
the bounce houses and trampolines again.

Happy Birthday Blake!

It's a little late but, I wanted to recognize my little Blakie!

Last Friday, the 18th, Blake turned 9!

This is the last year in his WHOLE life that he will be a single digit old!!

This year we did the usual party stuff.....

We invited family over, had a little dinner, opened some presents and had some cake.

Blake and Grandma Beep-beep thought up and designed the cake weeks ago.

So, we where excited to see how it turned out.

Here's a few pictures of the festivities......

Blake the Birthday boy!

Logan learned to walk, so here he is showing off his skills.

Kaden wearing a box on his head....what a crazy kid!

Here's Blake helping to decide where to put the candles on his cake.

Blake wanted a Lego cake so they came up with HUGE blocks that looked like real Lego's.

He picked the flavors and colors...It turned out pretty good.

He was so excited to get a Remote control car.

Although he already has a remote control 4-wheeler, he really wanted

a car or truck too.

The AWESOME helicopter kite he got from Grandma and Grandpa Duke,

Brandon, Katie, and Logan.

(He actually flew it the next day....very fun!!)

The Fam enjoying pizza, salad, and a private viewing of Tangled.

Even though Blake is no longer LITTLE, this is how I will always remember him...

My Little Blakie!!

I LOVE YOU TONS AND TONS!

Happy Birthday!!