It's been a while, but here I am!

I had the most wonderful vacation last week! It was the first "vacation" we've had as a family since our honeymoon, and the first vacation for the kiddoes. We went tent camping in Hyrum, Utah for 3.5 days where my son J caught his first two fish--a couple (or maybe the same one twice?) of small big-mouth bass. The fishing bug has definitely bit that boy! Poor C didn't keep her line in the water long enough to catch one, but she was OK with that. I plan on taking the kiddoes fishing at least twice a month through the summer. Ahhhh.....dangling your feet in cool water while holding a fishing pole and reeling in a trout or two.

Part 2 of our vacation landed us in Ovid, Idaho at the Bear Lake Ranch House for a mini family reunion with relatives from Provo and Spanish Fork, UT, Michigan and Florida. Oh, to find 100 acres in Bear Lake County, Idaho to raise hogs and beef and our kiddoes. Sigh...

We absolutely had the time of our lives there. We should have tried the vacation thing a long time ago.

Bring on the yard sales!!

My 6 year-old son put on a pair of size 8 slim jeans the other day. They fit perfectly in the waist, but were just barely brushing the tops of his feet. Great. Another growth spurt!! What's a mother to do in the middle of February with no yard sales in the near future? I guess that's why he'll keep on wearing snowboots until yard sale season begins! Good thing we still have 8" of snow in our yard!! But, if the snow melts too soon, eBay----here I come!

I love yard sales. When I can help it, I get all of my kids' clothes at yard sales and rarely, if ever, buy them at the store. I've gotten the most gorgeous dresses for my daughter at garage sales. Beautiful boutique dresses for a mere $2 each!

When I'm in "yard sale mode", I balk at paying over $1 per item (unless it's a gorgeous dress), and prefer to pay $0.50 per item. I just love it when I score 6 pairs of jeans, 10 shirts and a dress or two for under $10.

In addition to buying clothes for the kids (I've gotten some great clothes for myself, too), I like to look for antiques. My eye isn't quite sharp enough to spot the really awesome antiques, and I usually don't get there early enough to score the good stuff. But this summer, I'm going to try to get up earlier and compete with the die-hard collectors. And, that would also be a great strategy in getting clothes for my boy. Because I have a feeling that finding clothes in decent shape for a 6-7 year old boy won't be easy!

Melt snow, melt!!!! Please hurry! My daughter just informed me that she can't button her jeans!

You too, Mom!

When did my kids get so big? I was kissing their chubby six-month-old cheeks just yesterday, wasn't I?

We were late for the bus yet again (a recurring habit that started about 2 weeks before Christmas break), so I drove them to their school. They were in great moods in the car this morning, thumbing through a grocery store ad in order to find something that started with the letter of the day, Ee. C found a BowFlex man ("I found one! It's a guy exercising. He's lifting something to make his arm muscles strong!") and J found an energy drink ad. Cool!

When we got to the school, I cut out the pictures with my handy-dandy Pampered Chef cutter and gave them their pictures. As they were exiting the car, I said my usual, "Love you! Have a great day!". My sweet little girl, C then turns and says to me, "You too, Mom!"

I think we've reached yet another milestone.... *sniff*

Let's get ready to organize!

Ok...so this blogging is harder than it looks! I've got to start making this a habit!

Well, I am perhaps the most cluttered, disorganized person in the world!! My house is too small, I have too much stuff and trying to organize it seems overwhelming--especially when I have exactly 3 hours to get it done before bedtime during the work week and I find so many other things to do on the weekends. Ugh....

Well, yesterday's opportunity just seemed to fall in my lap. The planets must have been aligned or something, because I actually wanted to get my kids' bedroom cleaned, dejunked and organized. Let me tell you--it was no small task! The last time I had done this was at least 6 months ago. What a mess!! (My twins are only 6, so it's not like I could have sent them in there to face the gargantuan task alone. I had been telling myself that as soon as I get it all organized, they will be able to maintain it with a little parental direction.)

I am organizationally challenged. I had only one toy box when I was little and all of my stuff went in there: Barbies, Barbie clothes, Tinkertoys, blocks, play dishes, etc. When I wanted to play with something, more times than not, it happened to be on the very bottom of my toy box. That necessitated emptying out the entire thing and leaving a huge mess on my bedroom floor. For my kids, I wanted something different. I remember how frustrating it was to have all my stuff in one container, but had a hard time coming up with a system that would work.

First, I bought shoebox-sized plastic containers (they were great, but not all of the Barbies or Rescue Heroes would fit in them). Then, I bought a couple of sets of stacking open storage bins (loved the nice open feel of being able to see what was in each bin, but Polly Pockets, Barbie shoes and Rescue Hero water bombs would fall through the holes in the bin). But, yesterday, I bought what I believe are the solutions to all of my problems: a sort of dresser with clear plastic drawers that can be easily removed during play. My son's is the large wide version and perfectly holds Rescue Heroes and action figures and their associated equipment in the top drawer, Hot wheels race tracks in the middle drawer and Brio train tracks in the bottom drawer. My daughter has the medium-sized one and it holds Polly Pockets/Betty Spaghetti in the top drawer, Barbies in the second, and My Little Ponies in the third. They are excited about this system too.

But, perhaps the BEST part of my day was when my kids willingly put aside baby or babyish toys to go to the thrift store (the biggest of which was their Step2 kitchen!!) and willingly threw away broken toys.

My husband was thrilled too! In fact, so that I wasn't so overwhemed, he offered to be in charge of the mountain of laundry that was generated! Hooray for wonderful husbands!!

I wish that I could have taken today off of work to finish (I'm half done), but I think that if I go in there a little each night, I'll be able to complete it. Then, once I get that off my back, I can concentrate on dejunking my living room, then kitchen. I'm feeling really good about this!