The Many CD's

For those of you who know me well, know that I love organization! That is not to say that everything in my house is perfectly organized; it is not. There are so many areas in my house that need to be organized better, de-cluttered and sorted through. It always seems to be a work in progress.

I want to share with you my new favorite way of orginizing our CD's. We love to listen to music and with that comes many CD's. We have not yet moved into the twenty first century in owning a MP3 player, so in the mean time we still have to deal with our many CD's and their cases. I got this idea from my friend Melanie, thank you Melanie!

When organizing, everything needs to have a place. As you can see by the picture of the shelf that holds our CD player, there is not much room for CD's and their cases. So for the longest time our CD's did not have a good place to be kept, but now the pink container (pink not being my first choice of color for our living room, but just what I had on hand) in the picture holds all of the CD's that we listen to on a regular basis.

This container holds individual CD sleeves that hold our CD's. At the top of each of the sleeves is the name of the CD that it holds. Right 

now this container holds about 48 CD's and has room for many more. 

We always seemed to have trouble finding a place to store our CD's and cases, getting the CD's back into their cases, and finding the CD's that we want to listen to. Now when we listen to a CD the empty sleeve is returned to the front of the container so when we are done listening to the CD it is easily placed back into it's proper place. I cannot tell you how much this has helped us stay organized. It has even helped the girls easily look for and find the CD that they want to listen to.

Just for fun I stacked up 48 CD cases to show you how much room I am saving. As I add CD's the space saving concept helps even more. I have all of the original cases boxed up and stored in my garage. I just can not bring myself to throwing them away.

Here is just one last tip for those of you with little ones learning how to use a CD player. We have downloaded and made back ups of all of our childrens CD's. This way they are free to learn how it all works, and I do not have to worry about the Cd's getting scratched and not working any more.

Thankful for the Little Things

One of the fun and challenging parts of motherhood it trying to keep your children busy and occupied while trying to get various tasks done. For me the challenge always seem to come during meal prep time. On this particular morning I was trying to get breakfast in the oven and Macaylee was fussy and ready for a nap (she got up a little too early). All she wanted was to be held. I just needed about 5 minutes to get our breakfast in the oven and then I would be able to put her down.

As you can see from the pictures I am so thankful for this cabinet that holds all of our Tupperware and mixing bowls, all the things that the girls can play with. In my last kitchen my Tupperware was in a basket that was on a low shelf, that Maddie and Miriam could easily get to. Now all I have to do is open up the doors, take out some mixing spoons and they are good to go. On this particular morning it worked like a charm. I had breakfast ready in a few minutes and then we were off to nap time.

Lord help us to be thankful always

in all circumstances (Thessalonians 5:18)

And most of all to be thankful because

You are good,

and your love endures forever (Jeremiah 33:11)

Miniature Golf

We have had a full week getting back into a schedual of being home, getting the kidos use to not having their Daddy around as much, and fighting of a cold.

With Chris and I having already celebrated our anniversary early we thought that we would do something fun as a family. Our two oldest girls had gotten free meals at a local restaurant and free rounds of miniature golf at our local miniature golf course, so we thought that this would be a fun way to spend our anniversary.

After our dinner we headed over to play miniature golf and here are some of the pictures that we took of the girl's first time playing miniature golf. I had a hard time just picking a couple of pictures so there are quite a few. It was so funny watching the girls trying their hardest to just hit the balls let alone get it into a hole.

Trying so hard to hit the ball!!

Also trying so hard to hit the ball! I just love the great golfing stance!

It is just so much easier to guide the ball then do hit it.

Daddy with his handicap for this game!

Trying the "move the club" and "throw the ball" move.

A little help from daddy!

Through out the evening we had seen several people lose their balls into the water. Observing all of this, Miriam came to this water pond and decided to throw her ball in the water and then after enjoying that, she threw her Dad's ball in too.

Still trying hard to get that ball in!

Ready to be done!!!

Our Trip To California

We are back! We arrived back home from our trip to California very early Friday morning.  We had a wonderful time seeing family and friends. It is however so nice to be home! Here are just a few of the highlights from our trip!

The girls on the airplane.

As soon as we arrived in California we had a visit with Maddie's best friend Alayna and her family! We had a wonderful visit, catching up and seeing their new home. Madisen and Alayna had such fun playing with each other. 

Our 10 Year High School Reunion

Chris and I had the pleasure of attending our 10 year high school reunion while in California. I am sorry to say that I do not have any pictures from our reunion because I forgot to bring our camera to the dinner. We had a wonderful time catching up with everyone, finding out what everyone has been up to these past 10 years, and reminiscing about old times past. 

We were able to take a tour of our school campus the following day! It was fun seeing all the the class rooms were we use to spend so much of our time. We also tried to find our classes time capsule that was buried 10 years ago. Everyones efforts of much digging were to no avail. I guess it will always be buried, so if you ever come across a time capsule from the class of 98 let me know because it could be from our class.

As seniors we each got to have our very own parking space. As a project we all painted our parking spots. To our surprise you can still make out what was painted. Here are pictures of our parking spaces.

Chris' parking space

Anna's parking space

Meet "Mokey"

My sisters have two cats named Smokey and Rocky. Miriam fell in love with both of these cats. Every morning when we got up, we were greeted by Miriam asking for "Mockey, Mockey?" She always wanted to go outside to find the cats. For many of you who know our girls well, know that our girls act like they like animals until they get close, then they are afraid, even to the point of tears sometimes. As you can see from the pictures this was not the case this time. She would pet them and even let them rub up against her. She would talked to them and tell them what to do. Even using her "NO" many times with them.

Amy, Rocky, and Miriam

Miriam petting Rocky

Miriam watching one of Grandma and Grandpa's kittens

A Surprise Getaway

Chris surprised me with an early getaway for our anniversary. July 28th will mark our 7th anniversary. Chris planned a night away to Sea Ranch where we stayed for our honeymoon. We had a wonderful time just the two of us. This was the first time in 4 1/2 years that we have been without children over night. We had a wonderful time together and it was beautiful along the coast! The fog never came in, so we had clear skies for our whole visit. Here are a few pictures.

Our Room #11

The view from our room

The Sea Ranch Lodge (where we stayed)

The sunset from our room window

We also had a wonderful time seeing and spending time with both of our families! We enjoyed a Baby shower for my sister Sarah, birthday party for my sister Amy, fun at Chuckie Cheese, and a special Tea Party for all the girls that my sister in law Tracy hosted.

What Can Be Done With An Hour?

Ever since we have had children, well I guess it has been ever since we have been married, Chris and I have not had the blessing of living near family; that is until now. Seven months ago my sister and her husband moved from California to Indiana and now live in our neighborhood. Today my sister took all three of my little ones for an hour so that I could get last minute packing done before we leave on vacation. I do not very often get an hour, free from interruptions, to get things done. What a blessing this was! I was not only able to get packing done, but get my house in order before our trip. Here is all that I was able to accomplish with this hour.

1. Finnish the last minute packing


2. Put two baskets of laundry away


3. Do a "whole house" pick-up, clean-up, and put away


4. Vacuum the up-stairs


5. Clean the sinks, counter bars and toilets in all bathrooms


6. Move the sprinkler a few times


7. Check my email 


8. Read a few new blog postings that were waiting for me in my gmail reader


9. Clean out and rearrange the van for our trip to the airport


10. Start the dishwasher

Thank you Rachel for the time you take to invest in my children's lives! They alway look forward to spending time with you. What a wonderful blessing it was to me to have this time to get my house in order before our trip.

Traveling with Children

I have been gathering things for the girls to use on our coming trip and thought that I would share them with all of you. We have flown many time with our children. More times then I would prefer, but when you live far away from family that is what happens. I have learned along the way what to bring and what not to bring. Each trip I learn something new. Many times what works for one child does not always work for another. My goal is always to find things that are compact, will not be messy and to bring a few things that are new to the girls.

Here are two projects: the paper bags and felt pens are to make puppets and the chalk is to make drawings on the black construction paper. We did both of these on our last trip and the girls enjoyed them.

I think that these are called cootie catchers. I am sure that many of your remember them from your childhood. On our last trip I printed out a pre-made c00tie catcher off the Internet, inside were little fortunes. Maddie loved it but did not quite understand the fortunes. For example one said, you will make a new friend today; after we read it she would ask "Who am I going to meet mommy?"  I didn't really have an answer for her, other then trying to explain that fortunes are not real. After these kinds of questions, on almost every fortune, I decided to make my own. Maddie has been really interested in knock knock jokes lately so I made one that has knock knock jocks inside and another that has some bible verses she knows. I also put shapes in various colors on them so that we can get a little practice on shapes and colors at the same time. Click here to see instructions on how to make a cootie catcher.

I usually like to make a trip to the dollar store or to Target's dollar section to get a few small things that the girls would like. So $8 latter this is what I have. Everything with multiple pieces gets put into a zip-lock bag. The jelly beans will also be put into a zip lock bag so that after they are opened they will have a place to be kept.

Here are a few of the things that I am bringing from our own closet. The stickers and note pads are always enjoyed by the girls. On the top right you will see princess post-it-notes that I got for our last trip. The post-it-notes are fun because the girls can draw on them and then stick them anywhere and I do not have to worry about them not coming off. The crayons are to use with the coloring book from the dollar store. I love these retractable crayons! They help to keep things neat and mess free.

These are two things that I would never fly without. Wipe are a must to clean up snack and food mess and project messes (other then there normal use). The little blue roll are little plastic bags (I buy them at Target or Walmart in the baby section). These are made for dirty diapers, but I use them to hold all of our garbage. It is amazing how empty cups, snack rappers, and dirty wipes collect and need a place to be put. This way when the stewardess comes around to collect the trash it is all ready for her to take.

I fit all the activities and toys into the big freezer zip lock bag and the green and white bag on the right. The little bag in the middle holds all of Macaylee's toys.

Will be taking these things, a bag with snacks, our portable DVD player, a small soft portable cold food holder, a Leapster and a children's camera. We will be able to fit everything into a small carry-on suit case, diaper bag and Madisen's small rolling suite case (Madisen's suite case is more for her enjoyment then for anything else).

What are the things that you love to do with your kids when you travel. Is there anything that your kids love to play with on trips? I would love to hear your ideas and tips.