Clothes Management

It's not pretty, but it's a big part of my life. I call it "clothes management" and I am pretty good at it. With three girls, I have to be good at it or we would spend a whole lot more money. Every few months or each new season, I box up the clothes that are too small or out of season and bring in new boxes from storage. This used to be much easier with only two girls, but the third girl about pushed it over the edge. It turns into a week long project every few months. Because if all the laundry is not done, or you don't get a chance to do every box and every closet then you will have loose ends. I hate loose ends - the few items of clothing that now need to go into some packed away box.

And due to the girls ages not all falling in the same seasons, I now need to specify sizes, ages, and often when I should pull that box out. Then there are the clothes that are on the verge of too small or too big - do you pull those or save them? Yes, it is probably a little easier if you don't have quite so many clothes to manage. But they are girls, and more cute clothes get added to the mix every time one goes through that age.

For the most part, it's fun for me to organize the clothes but there are also three little girls who LOVE the new boxes of clothes that come out. They want to help and see what is "new" to them, and this slows my process down. Especially when they want to try things on...like Addison here...

This is how I found her after I had been immersed and distracted in clothes management. She kept finding random things and the big girls would help her put them on.

I think clothes management will slow down as Addison continues to grow and she doesn't change sizes quite as often. It should turn into a once or twice a year thing, which will be very nice! But I am thankful for how much money we have saved and the cute clothes my girls can wear over and over.

Addison @ Two

So glad you can get images on cd at Yuen Lui now. Although I take a ton of pictures of the girls, I can't stop my tradition of the formal portraits, especially since Yuen Lui is so much more reasonably priced now. Here are Addison's two year pics:

Ten on Ten: April

We had pretty much nothing planned all day, except a trip to the park to enjoy the sunshine. That is my kind of Saturday. Here it is in pictures, every hour for ten hours.

Saying Goodbye

We went to say goodbye to our old house a few days ago. Derek was working on fixing up a few things before it officially went on the market, so I brought the kids to see it one last time. I hadn't seen it for almost 2 years, since our renters moved in. It was quite nostalgic for me, as I had all three babies in this house and it was the first house Derek and I had owned.

The girls thought it was pretty cool to see it all empty. Symantha said she was in gymnastics heaven, due to the wide open living room!

Then we went to visit our neighborhood park, a couple of blocks away. The kids have been dying to come back here and visit. It was really nice being able to walk to the lake and park whenever we wanted.

When Symantha was about 3 years old, she found some of these little green balls hidden in the wood chips at the park. She called them "Little fellas" and would collect them and bring them home to play with. It was funny that I found one today and asked her what it was. She knew right away and said, "A little fella!"

Amazingly enough, we just received an offer on the house yesterday and we accepted. It was only on the market for three days. I am very excited, but it is a little sentimental for me to say goodbye to our first little house where our family began. Now, we are hoping our property sells soon so we can finally be settled and feel like we are home again.

Goodbye binky

After putting it off forever, last night Addison went to sleep with no binky. We had been putting her blanky and binky "up high" (as she would say) on a shelf whenever she woke up, but it was time to be done with it. She looked at my with a straight face when I explained before bed that we would only be going to sleep with blanky and we were all done with binky. She was ok for the first five minutes, then cried hard for about 10 minutes. I kept going in and comforting her, and finally she asked for her baby and was done crying. As I closed her door, I heard her talking to her baby a bit and then she just went to sleep. She did wake up once during the night crying, but I cuddled her a bit and she went right back to sleep. What a relief!

All my baby milestones are flying by.... potty training, check. No more binky, check. My baby is not so much a baby anymore. I have mixed feelings about that, but I'm thankful that these things have been so easy for her (and me!).

From Hailey and the rest of us

Visiting the neighbors

I love that we can walk out our door and see these guys.

And take great walks to barns, woods, fields, rocks and rope swings. 

And have great picture opportunities along the way.

I will miss the views outside when we finally move off the mountain.

It has made living here so much more enjoyable!