Face of Change

Brinley: "Can I pease have a piece of you gum?"
Me: "No, you just swallow it when I give it to you."

Brinley: "Pppeeeaassee?? I won swawow it dis time." (as she is reaching in my bag)

Me: "No Brin." (as I pull the bag away)

Brinley: ...silent...shocked...rejected

Me: "You can try a piece after lunch."
Brinley: "WHERE IS MY BLANKY!?"

Me: "It's alright Brin-I love you" (even though I am taking pictures & giggling slightly)

PS: Trinity was in a similar mood after I forced her to spit out the gum she swiped a few minutes earlier. Sneaky little thief!

Horrendous House Update

I am happy to report that due to an AWESOME friend I was able to be alone for 3 1/2 hours today. During which I cleaned, organized, & chucked as much as I possibly could some amazing headway was made in our horrendous house of horror!

Thank you so much Jessica you are a life saver & I am ready to watch your girls whenever you need it!

PS: We got our new bed from a super nice lady who lived in an equally nice house! She wanted a new bedroom set, but the bed didn't come in a Cal King so she was GIVING AWAY all of her hardly used Cal King stuff. SCORE!!

PPS: I posted our previous bed on Craig's list and sold it for $100 bucks! Thank you Craig. This week just keeps getting better! Now if I can only figure out how to get Matt to stop asking me where I put the cash...

The Best Part

We got a new bed tonight

its a simon's beauty rest

it is a california king

it came with an awesome matress pad

but the best part...



IT WAS FREE!!!

Where Does the Time Go?

Here I am Again...How Do I Keep Ending Up Here?

I love being organized. I love organizing other people's things & I used to love organizing my own things & had great pride in a clean and organized home.

Here are a few pictures of what my house used to look like:

Toy drawer under the girls' bedToy shelf in the girls' roomGirls' bedroom closetStorage shelves of all my "stuff"Toy closet @ my parents' house after I was finished with itThings were good-then something happened...3 things happened to be more specific-Trinity, Brinley, & Grayden. It's like I am the super man (or woman) of organizing, but my 3 kiddos are my kryptonite!! Here is a little example:

Let's go back a few months...I was feeling a little CRAZY & decided to look into the Family Advocacy program at our Dr's office. I was excited to attend the Love & Logic classes, find out about free babysitting programs they offered & overall I was interested in learning to better myself as a parent. What I didn't realize at the time was that I was also signing up for a monthly house visit from Melba (dun dun dun!!).

Melba is the lady over the Fam. Adv. department & is super nice, but having her show up one day (I had forgotten our apt) without being able to prepare for her visit has been haunting me for the past month & a half!! The house was pretty messy, I had started to pack for our month long trip to UT, & the bedrooms were a MESS!! I wasn't too worried because the bedrooms are all in the back of the house, but before she left she asked if she could look around!!! AHH!! ....s..u..r..e...you can......look around...(GULP)

My bedroom had a huge pile of laundry I was sorting through to fold & put away or pack. She looked at it & asked me where we slept at night. I nervously replied, "Well, we just put all the clothes on the floor when it's time for bed." D'OH! Not the best response...onto the girls' room. They had been playing pretty much unattended the previous day & had every single toy out and scattered on the floor. Melba looked in & Trinity stood up, almost as if she were on cue, and announced, "We never clean and our house is ALWAYS messy." I was flabbergasted & blurted out a nervous laugh... Onto Grayden's room/the storage room.

Let me explain this one. Grayden's crib was in our bedroom for the first couple of months & the third bedroom was strictly a storage room. I had been meaning to get it all squared away and moved out so we could make it into his room. Well, he got older & I wanted him out of our room, so we organized it well enough to fit his crib in there & he began sleeping in there. Just the weekend previous to this glorious home visit I had decided it was time to tear down the wall of storage shelves we had put up & start to get rid of stuff. Well, that is as far as we got so try to picture this. As you walk in the door there is a large dresser with an entertainment center on top of it that is a foot shorter than the ceiling. (We had it secured to the wall-which I quickly told Melba) to the left is Grayden's crib & on the wall next to that is the torn down metal shelving units stacked amongst the piles and piles of boxes & stuff that was once on them. The last remaining wall has a dresser & the closet door is open to reveal everything that is stuffed to the brim! It was bad!

She looked around the room & was at a loss for words. She slowly began, "This room is...well it is...it's...not a safe environment for Grayden." My heart dropped & I thought, "Oh great-is this lady going to call Social Services on me?" She turned and started to walk back down the hallway towards the front room & told me that we had too much stuff, which I already knew, & that I needed to get rid of it. "Bag it up & give it away" were her exact words. We left for Utah a few days later & that experience has been on my mind ever since. (Oh, she also asked if any of my friends in the area had a maid? ...subtle hint I need some serious help!!)

Fast Forward to Monday morning (of this week) I had just finished hauling all of our bags up from the van & looked around at the current task at hand. Unpacking is always my least favorite part of traveling. I couldn't help but think of Melba & then a light bulb went on. I made up my mind to clean out Grayden's room and get rid of some stuff before I tried to put anything away. It started off great & I was feeling so accomplished to have everything out of Grayden's room other than the dressers, the crib, & a small bin of toys.

Matt came home and gave me a nice reality check by telling me that in my attempt to clean one room the rest of the house got trashed!! Awe CRAP-he was right! So for the past few days I have been trying to do further "deep" cleaning so that the other rooms can be clutter free. However...things just seem to be getting worse!!! The pictures from above were taken back in January & the last one is at my parents' house of their toy closet when I cleaned, purged, & organized it. I will shamelessly admit that this is what my house looks like today:

Yea, embarrassing eh? I think Jessica is one of the few people who have had the pleasure of getting a peek at my house like this!! Yikes! (Know you know why I only open my door 2 inches and peek out at you) In comparison to the first pictures both shelves are empty & don't even have the shelves in them anymore, and the big drawer has no more visible sections. Everything has been thrown into any available space & shoved under the bed.

Just thinking about the job that lies ahead is exhausting. I would much rather continue going to the pool, playing at the park, weeding our garden, or anything other than cleaning. I do need to give kudos to Matt who has been doing the laundry & cleaning the kitchen for the past 4 days. If he hadn't stepped up to the plate I may not even be able to find my way to the computer or find the camera!! What a great hubby!! I am not doing this post for sympathy or encouragement even...I just had to get it off my chest & say...what the heck? How does my house keep getting like this!!!

TO BE CONTINUED...

Girls Night Out-Pedicures

My sister had the fabulous idea of doing a "Girls Night Out" while I was in town, so she set up for the 4 of us to go get pedicures together. My Dad & Brother were kind enough to watch my kids & off we went.

Kellie was laughing as her foot was being scrubbed to death!

My Mom had never had a pedicure before & was enjoying the hot bath for her feet & the heated back massage. Once her feet actually started getting worked on her level of calmness changed a bit.I couldn't resist taking a little video because it was so funny. If you listen closely you'll hear her comment that she has 55 year old "virgin feet". (I hope you don't mind me posting this Mom-I had to it is such a fun memory!)

This picture was taken seconds after I stopped recording the video & tells the true story of how she felt! Hahaha I love you Mom!!

What pretty feet!!

I had SUCH a good time & haven't laughed that hard in a long long time!

We hopped in the truck together & decided to get some delicious food from Chadders. (The AF knock off of In & Out Burger)

My Mom couldn't stop admiring how soft & beautiful her feet were! I think she might be addicted!! :) We need to make Girls Night Out a permanent tradition. Thanks Mom, Kellie, & Kim-I had a great time!!

Mini Pool Party

It didn't take long for the party to get started & the first chance they got the kids requested a pool party at Grandma & Grandpa's house. All seven of the grand kids had a blast running around & hopping in & out of the little pool. My parents had a fun sprinkler that sprayed water around everywhere, but the only way my kids would get near it was when it was turned almost all the way down! My niece Sierra Trinity My nephews Caleb & CobeyBrinley with her sun umbrella-she isn't much of a water girl. Brienna (my other niece), Trinity, & Sierra Grayden loved basking in the sun with all the big kids! The girls were in heaven when we put the slide into the pool.Even though Grayden didn't spend much time in the water he LOVED being outside.

Brinley had gone inside to get some dry clothes & was taking a long time to come back so I decided to check on her. I found her asleep right in the middle of the hall with a half eaten "snack" in hand. She was wrapped in her blanket & when I went to pick her up & put her on the couch I found that the blanket was the ONLY thing she had on!!

Who needs clothes in the summer anyway right?

Trinity latched onto one of the little bikes while we were there & probably put hundreds of miles on those little tires!! Grayden & Brienna sharing a ride together.The kids loved the pop up tent & bus we brought & Brienna kept poking her head out the window to say, "HI!" She is such a cutie pie!!

Lehi City Parade

After spending over a month in UT during one of the busiest months of the year (as far as activities going on) I have a TON of pictures to post. I would like to say that I will be posting once a day like I did once upon a time, BUT I make no promises that I'll keep up, so don't hold your breath. However, I am going to kick off my month of fun with the first fun filled day that we spent in UT starting with the Lehi City Parade.

Trinity offered to spray anyone who needed a little cooling off during the parade!

My parents' ward won the award for best float in the competition this year. It turned out so cute! Everyone had to do a float under the theme, "If I could I would..."

This is the new Bishop spraying my dad & another ward member as they walk past.

The girls loved seeing all the different "mini floats" that had entered & really loved this float...

"it's candy land Mom!" Brinley told me.

The highlight of the parade was when Sponge Bob, Winnie the Pooh, Elmo, Tigger, Minnie & Mickey came by!!

Matt and I actually got a picture together, courtesy of Trinity, and it turned out pretty good!

After the parade was over we met up with my older brother, older sister and her family at Bajio's for a delicious lunch. A Bajio's really needs to open up in Denver!! Once we were finished eating we were off to get ready for the Oquirrh Mt. Temple open house. Check out the previous 2 posts for pics of that & Grayden's B-Day party that same night.