Organized!!!!!!!!!

A little while ago, I posted a picture of our messy, unorganized mess of toys. I was ready to throw them ALL out. The kids were spreading toys ALL over the house. When they play with toys they like to play with many different toys together at once.
As you can see we did not have a good system for the toys. Plus, we have acquired all these toys for the past 7 years and we haven't gotten rid of any since then.
So I had in my head how I wanted it done and I was dreading it. So yesterday I finally did it, I went through the toys.
This process included pulling all the toys out of 3 kids' bedrooms, under beds, couches, closets, everywhere. We put them all in the family room and organized them into groups. Cars, stuffed animals, "pretty things", balls, blocks, baby toys, etc, etc. Our long couch was FULL of stuffed animals and piles were everywhere. The family room was pretty full of toys.
Once that was done, we built new shelves, then I went through each pile decided what to keep, what to get rid of, then filled the baskets and a few rubbermaid totes, 1 for each bedroom and we had done it. See for yourself the finished product!

This is before, what a mess!!!




And this is after!!!! This is the same area, just more organized.



So I am VERY happy and the kids are too.
I have to give a VERY BIG GIGANTIC THANK YOU to Tabby and Heather who helped!!!

It seems like I haven't posted a picture lately, so here is one of my favorites of the kids when we went to Mt. Rushmore.

Ouch.

I rode my bike today for the first time in about 13 years. Long time I know. It is true, you never forget how to ride a bike, but I did forget how uncomfortable bike seats are! Seriously, how can anyone enjoy riding a bike when the seats hurt so darn bad! It was a good ride, but my bottom is paying for it today. Who knows maybe if I keep riding I will get use to it, or maybe it will get worse?! Someone seriously needs to reinvent bike seats!

At it again

I finished my kickboxing at the beginning of June and I am ashamed to say I have not kept up excersing like I wanted to at home.
On my last few days of my class I came down with strep throat, June 7th, I even ran the mile with it and it hurt!, so it took a few days to recover, then it was time to prepare for our 11 day vacation. We got back from that on the 29th of June and I came down with strep again! on the 1st of July. I didn't exercise during any of this mind you.
I don't know what has been going on since I have felt better. I don't know if my body was trying to make up for all the 10 weeks of getting up at 4:30am, but I have been sleeping until about 8:00am. Brent gets up at 5:30am gets ready in our room for the next 2 hours and then leaves for work at 7:30am and I am (most of the time) DEAD asleep!
So I was sick of this. For me getting up and exercising and then being showered and dressed before the kids get up makes my days go better. I can get out the door earlier in the day and I just plain feel better about myself. So I called my neighbor and said "I need to exercise, I know it is asking a lot, but do you want to get up at 6:00am and go walking with me, as often in the week as you can?" She said yes! So we started today. It felt good to be up and "power walk" (I Hate running) and be ready again early. Hopefully we can keep it up! Anyone want to join us?!

Requested

I have been finished with my kickboxing for some time and I got the before and after pictures from them and I will NOT post them, but I have a before and after that we have taken so due to a couple requests here they are. I don't know if you can tell a difference from the pictures, but I feel the difference.
So the top one was taken recently, not a flattering face I am making but I don't have many pictures of me. The middle is before I started kickboxing and the last is just a cute picture of Sarah when we went to the zoo.
I will definitely do the kickboxing again, but with wanting to get pregnant and needing sleep!
(I don't miss getting up at 4:30am!), I will do it after I am done having kids and can sleep without having to get up with one child or another. So for now I just try to stay active and eat healthy.

6 for 6

Little Sarah, so happy to see the camera!!!!
She is finally leaving her hair up! Her hair is long enough to constantly be in her face if it is not up and when we were in Utah, she was frustated saying "Hair...Face!" and now she can finally see. She learned that her hair will stay out of her face if she leaves her hair ties in!!!!


Megan, before the her tooth falling out.



Megan and Joseph being friendly!!!!



It is hard to believe that my 6 year old has lost 6 teeth! She lost another one last night and #7 is hopefully close behind. She should have lost #7 way before #5 and #6, but since #7 was really lose on the right side of her mouth she started eating only on the left side and caused those 2 to fall out! My memory card is full but I will clear it and post a picture of her latest toothless spot later! Congrats Megan!!!

I FEEL LIKE.....

TOYS ARE COMING OUT MY EARS!!!! Plain and simple we have to many toys! Anyone have any good ideas on how to keep toys organized and to a minimum? I can't take it anymore!!!! My goal is to go through them this week or next week and get a better system down. I am dreading it though because that means I have to pull all the toys out of all the kids rooms, look under all the beds, couches, etc. and pull them all into the family room, get rid of all the misc. that the kids have thought they just "have to keep" and put them in a new order. Then try and keep the kids from mixing it all up again and putting it back to where it belongs! Not a fun task! Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

getting back to life

These pictures are from last years July 4th, since I didn't get any this year. Can you believe how bald Sarah is! and Megan looks so much more grown up now, she has lost 5 teeth since then!, Joseph I think looks the same, except lately he doesn't smile for pictures!

On our way back from our trip, Brent and his mom got sick with the flu, then tuesday afternoon I started feeling yuck again. It felt just like strip throat, again! I was just in at the doctors June 7th and it was July 1st and I had it again. I had not been to the doctor since May of 2007, I never get sick! So I went to the doc on wed. morning, so by thursday night I was feeling well enough for the big july 4th parade here in west des moines. Unfortanetely, I did not bring the camera because I wasn't up to fighting Sarah for it. We had a good time though and on July 4th we went over to a junior high, where we can usually see fireworks pretty well from a park not to far away. This year though, we couldn't hardly see them, but there was a game going on over at valley stadium next to us and they set off fireworks. They were close enough we could actually feel the big boom when they would go off. So that was exciting. Sarah kept saying "fireworks...scared" over and over. I don't think she enjoyed them as much as Megan and Joseph.

So, now that the holiday is over and I am feeling better and the kids have not come down with what I had or what Brent had, I am hoping things will settle back into a good schedule. If there is such a thing!