shoes....

I took this photo a few weeks ago and meant to write a post for it but I am just now getting around to it...I had a sort of "ephinay" moment one afternoon...it went something like this, it seemed like for the hundreth time that day I was picking up shoes, dolls, blankets, stuffed animals, any everything else that seems to end up on our floor when it occured to me, if my kids didn't own so many pairs of shoes or each had 5 dolls they claimed (3 girls=15 dolls at least!), I wouldn't spend so much time having to pick up after them or nagging them to do it themselves!


I always wondered how the pioneer women got everything done that they needed to and I think I finally figured it out...each child owned one pair of shoes (if they were lucky), one or two toys a piece, a limited number of clothes, and that was it, hence there were not 20 pairs of shoes between 3 children to get dragged all over the house, even if you had 10 kids it wasn't a big deal because each person only had one pair and they had them on their feet unlike my children who leave trails of shoes like hansel and gretel's trail of breadcrumbs.

Stuff...we definitely have to much of it! I've always known it but now that I am the one trying to keep it all under control it is driving me crazy! So I've started it is a slow process trying to weed through it all and resist the urge to buy my girls another cute dress or the never worn pair of stride ride shoes that I find at the thrift store for $3...(okay I did give in and buy them for Malia, but I got rid of 4 pairs when we got home!) but I am making process, if I could just keep the girls out the bags and boxes of things that I am getting rid of...they go through them while my back is turned and drag in all their long lost treasures!

I recently read a post by friend Rachel who is in Columbia with her husband adopting 4 kids where she reccounts her trip to a shoe store to buy her kids shoes, it was touching and heartwarming and reminded me just how truly blessed I am to have so much STUFF in my life!

My new favorite sites...

I love stumbling across a great new website, I found these one night and stayed up way too late reading through them!

I never grew up http://inevergrewup.net/
We have been using some of the alphabet ideas and it has been a great source to find some more kids music to request at the library.

Makes and takes http://www.makeandtakes.com/
we did the paint mixing this afternoon and we're planning on doing the There's a Wocket in My Pocket activity tomorrow. We made the recycled crayons one afternoon, they don't color as well as we thought they would but it could be due to the fact that we have cheap crayons! The Muffin Tin Mealtimes have been a hit at our house!

Small Notebook http://smallnotebook.org/ has encouraged me to try and curb our spending this month and get rid of stuff!

And finally Simple Mom http://simplemom.net/ I love her ideas for dinner. I hate having to try and decide what to fix to eat each night and I thought having a theme for each night of the week was a good idea...I did it last week and it seemed to work and I am planning on doing it again this week. I don't know if I will be able to plan the whole month but at least I've got an idea of where to start!

the littlest pioneer

I just had to post a photo of the littlest one...doesn't she look cute?

Unfortunately it is hard to get her to hold still to get a decent picture!

For anyone who wants the pattern it is Simplicity pattern 3725

My ancestors would be proud...at least I hope!

In honor of pioneer day my sister and I decided that we would make our girls bonnets and aprons...I am proud to say that I did, I am not sure about Christal as I finished mine up tonight alone but they were not nearly as hard as we imagined them to be, and I even sort of understood the jist of the pattern language.

When I was in 5th grade my teacher had us all write down what we were going to be, I said I was going to be a famous fashion designer and seamstress, I didn't know at that time that the lanuage they use in patterns is not English, well besides a few halloween costumes and princesses dresses this is as far as I have gotten on that goal. But after tonight I think that I might just give it a try! Even little Lyndie got one, but since it was 11:45pm when I finished her's I was not about to wake her to pose for a photo! The girls are so exicted for the upcoming stake pioneer activity this weekend!

I like to think that my grandmother's and great-grandmother's would be happy with my sewing abilities, they aren't much but at least I'm trying and I think the girls have caught the sewing bug too!


Here is Lainey working on her pillow, I had to keep a close eye on her as everytime I turned around she was trying to get on my sewing machine!

The hardest part of the whole thing was trying to wrestle my 3 kids in the fabric store, every time I take all of them in there, I say never again, but I always seem to forget!

If anyone is interested in making one let me know and I will email you the pattern name and #, Christal took it home. It only took about an hour to make a bonnet and an apron.

Summer Concert Series...

So there are some advantages to getting to be the one to help organize a youth conference for 400 youth and adults! This past weekend I helped our stake with our multi-regional youth conference that our staked hosted for the first time ever. Through a woman in my ward we were able to get in touch with Nancy Hanson. If you remember back to your BYU college days of Peter Brienholt concerts, I am sure that you will remember Nancy. She is the woman who joins along with Peter for a song or two and sings the "itsy bitsy spider song" about an old flame!

Well she was suppose to sing at our youth conference on Friday evening but getting kids under control at the beach just wasn't going to happen...so she came and sang a few songs before our testimony meeting and then offered to sing for a group on Saturday or Sunday evening.

I offered my house and so Sunday night we hosted a "summer concert fireside" for our family, some friends, and the youth of our ward. It was so much fun! It was just like my good old BYU days when you snuggled under a blanket, under the open sky, with a setting sun and listened to good music! The only difference this time was all the kiddos running around in the background! It sure is good that Justin reinforced the swing set as it got lots of use, by lots of kids!

Her friend Merlin brought up his sound system from the LA area and sang a few songs too. It was one of those nights that you just didn't want to end!

My little climber....

Every family has one, or at least I've been told. My other girls were not climbers, they were active and into things but not at all like this little one! She climbs on absolutely everything. Our chairs now reside in the garage, on the table or laying down on the floor! The piano bench...it has taken up an undefinite residence in the garage, some day it may return but not while this one is around!

A Belated 4th of July to everyone...

I was in charge of the pancake breakfast at the church this year so we were all up way too early. But it was a huge success and I think my plea to my ward members that I wanted to get to the parade with my little ones got most everyone there on time! Amazing how you can get people to the church at 8 in the morning when food is involved...may be we need to start offering food in the morning on Sundays too! Luckily I have a great couple from the other ward who helped out tremendously and even let us take off before it was all cleaned up so that we could get the girls to the parade. The girls had a great time riding their bikes and did a good job not running into the backs of people walking in front of us. Justin and Lyndie met us towards the end of the parade, they watched most of it and Lyndie picked up candy on the street before they came and met us.

We all just kind of hung around in the afternoon and they about 4 the boys started to put the swingset together. I know that Justin enjoyed having some extra able bodies to help him and I was on Lyndie duty most of the time!

We finished just in time to go drive up on the hill and watch the fireworks, the big girls both crashed as soon as they got in the car and missed the whole show. Malia woke up the next morning and said, "Mom, we didn't see the fireworks!"

We made a quick stop at In-N-Out for some all AMERICAN hamburgers.

Project 4th of July: SWINGSET

I am now thinking that I was a bit crazy for wanting a swingset as we have to keep a 24/7 surveillance on the backyard with Lyndie around!

Malia loved working with Daddy, she got pretty good at putting the screws in!

Lainey seems to believe that clothes are optional...

and most of the time they are if you are under 4 feet tall at our house!

Everyone was ready to swing, even the big BOYS!