A Laundry Crisis

I have a system for laundry. Everyone puts their laundry in one hamper in the master bath. As our family has grown, I've started to wonder if I should resort to separate hampers in the kids rooms, or a larger family one. I do an occasional load here and there, but typically I save it all up for Mondays. By Monday, the hamper is so full the lid won't shut. I start the first load before I head out for my morning run and I try to finish the last load before the kids get home from school in the afternoon. I fold all the laundry except for the kids stuff. Each of them have their own pile of clothes to fold and put away which they are expected to do before dinner.

Linsey doesn't seem phased by this task, she can fold her laundry and put it away in minutes. Even little Emma folds things in her own creative way and shoves them in drawers. Hunter however, really hates doing his laundry and in turn detests Mondays. If he ever sees me doing a load of laundry during the week, he'll ask in a panicky voice if it's Monday and the relief is obvious when I say it's any other day.

This past week, we were gone on Monday. It was Memorial Day and we were visiting the cousins. Not only that, but because of the weekend trip, we brought home a stuffed laundry bag of dirty clothes. There are almost 2 weeks of dirty clothes for 5 people stacked up in our poor laundry hamper.

Hunter walked in and carefully balanced his pajamas on top of the laundry pile this morning. He asked me, "What day is it mom?" I answered that it was Saturday. He responded, "It really needs to be Monday because the laundry is overflowing our house!"

This is true. The laundry IS overflowing the house.... HELP!
We may not make it til Monday.

Memorial Weekend

We love to take advantage of any long weekend by making a trip to visit the cousins in Coeur d'Alene. Memorial Day was the perfect opportunity to do just that. We loaded up the car early Saturday morning and arrived just in time to meet the cousins and get to Silverwood shortly after it opened.

Our kids have been pretty cautious about rides, but Linsey and Hunter followed their cousins lead and jumped right into those kiddie rides, loving every minute!

Emma was hesitant and didn't go on a ride until we found one that I could sit with her on. At first she wasn't so sure.....

but she ended up loving it and couldn't wait to try more. Phew.

Here was another favorite ride of Emma's. Linsey was kind to take her on it over and over.

Here is Hunter and his cousin Zach. They must have been having a whole lot of fun because they gave the thumbs up sign in almost every picture I took.

Here it is again!

That's my brother Chris and Gavin. The little guy must be a pretty crazy driver.

On Monday, we had a BBQ in the backyard. Why go to a park when they've got it all in their nice fenced in, private yard. It was perfect! The blow up water slide looks so small in this picture, but it was really quite spectacular.

Here Linsey is trying it out!

Hunter loves sand.

Emma could swing all day, I can't wait til she learns to pump herself!

These two are so fun to watch. They are such good buddies and play together so well. It's amazing that they never fight over toys or kick or hit, they just play and play and play.

This was my favorite picture of them.

We had a great time and love those long weekends with the cousins.

A Beautiful Day!

Saturday was the first real taste of summer. It was warm, sunny, and nearly perfect!

Isn't this the most gorgeous tree? I love it!

Havin' some fun in the sun!

So close to joining the 2 wheels club.

Jared hung a sheet on the back of our house and set up his projector in the backyard to create our own personal movie theater, drive in style. It was SO COOL! These pictures don't show it very well, but it looked great and the kids had a lot of fun!

Let's hope for a summer full of beautiful days just like this one!

No More Diapers!

I like to think of myself as an optimist, but I sometimes wonder if the skeptic in me and my somewhat realistic approach to life come across as pessimistic. I'm a planner and I find that I often hope for the best, but also plan for the worst (just in case). My mother always taught me, "if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is". I think she intended that more towards all those marketing scams, but I find that I've applied that to much more.

You can see how someone like me would have a hard time announcing that after almost 8 years, we are diaper free. It's only been 8 days, but really... knock on wood.... I think we did it! The first few days started out slow, but Emma has surprised us with her independence and even takes herself potty now.



Emma is so proud of herself and seems to walk with an extra skip to her step. It may just be that much more comfortable wearing underwear. Anyone who stops to ask her about it will get a proud show of those too.

Way to go Emma!

I keep waiting for a set back, and it may still come, but for now I am loving that I haven't changed a diaper since last Friday! Yahoo!

After a weekend putting up the playset...

Disclaimer: This is NOT my yard. However, I thought his was so funny that I had to share. Looks like it's a little more dangerous living in Alaska than I thought.

New Playset in Alaska

Gone Fishin'

Every year Jared likes to take the kids fishing at the Mill Pond lake just down the street from where we live. Many of you know that Jared has a passion for fishing, it's fun to watch as the excitement is passed on to our children.

There's nothing like the excitement of watching that bobber dip below the surface.

Start em' young!

Got one!

Linsey is our most daring when it comes to handling fish. I still remember the time she went on a preschool field trip and every kid got to catch a fish. Jared had taken her long before so she was well prepared, many of the other girls cried at the sight of their fish. She lifted her pole out of the water and the fish fell off the hook. There it was flapping around on the dock while all the other kids screamed and squealed. Linsey wasted no time and tackled that fish, catching it with her bare hands before it could flap back into the water. What a girl!

Emma feels a little different about touching fish.

Hunter has been timid in the past years, but this year he decided it wasn't so bad.

We look forward to this outing every year. It's fun to see the kids make progress towards being the expert fishermen and fisherwomen their dad dreams the will want to be!