Organizing - one step at a time

Ever get that chaotic feeling like your house is a mess no matter how much you clean it? I'm there. I have decided it's because everything that you CAN'T see in my house has become completely unorganized. So, my new goal is to fix it. One room at a time, one week at a time. Project #1- My office. It was the WORST room in the house, by far!

I didn't even dare to take pictures of the true "before" because the piles stacked all over the desk and the floor were just humiliating. The bins on my shelves were overflowing with who-knows-what and I could never find a thing!

My amazing mom came over and helped me conquer this one. It really did take us ALL day!

Before (but more like halfway through):

After:

Camping

We took our kids camping for the first time this weekend. It was an adventure. Maddux and Reese were in pure heaven. Dirt, bugs, sticks, rocks, pine cones, hikes, and all you can eat junk food....pure. joy.
We had a total blast...until bedtime! It took 2.5 hours of crying, whining and begging before they finally asleep. Our brand new tent leaked horribly and we got hit with a nasty storm. I ended up drenched and we got up at 1am to rearrange the tent so I was no longer laying directly under the leak.

It was totally worth every second of the awful night to watch the kids have so much fun during the day! We will definitely be doing it again soon (with a new tent).

Bop Bop blowing bubbles with the kids...

Group hike...

camping = sitting on a muddy ground and eating dirty M&Ms, right?

Lightsaber fight with Uncle Joel...

Blue teeth from M&Ms with Grandma...

When they finally gave up...

Drew and I played a game after we finally got the kids to sleep. The rest of the fam was passed out by then....

Maddux helping Daddy take the leaky tent down...

Checking out the fish at the Fish Hatchery...

I have the cutest kids on this planet. period.

:-)

I know I'm a little biased, but I'm ok with that. The always amazing Aubry (startinphoto.com), took these impromptu pics for me and I cant' wait to get them up on my wall!

This shows my kids personalities (and vastly differing skin tones) in a nutshell!

LOVE it!

4th of July

4th of July is my all-time favorite holiday.

Since moving to Arizona 9 years ago, the heat has put a damper on the holiday for me. This year I decided I was going to change that. I was planning for weeks, maybe months in advance to camp in Heber to get out of the heat for the weekend. The plans failed. Plan B - drive to Heber for the day, watch the Saturday fireworks show and hang out in the cool weather. Fireworks were canceled and I failed again. Plan C, watch fireworks from Drew's office building that overlooks Tempe Town Lake. Good enough, right?

I woke up in the morning Monday morning feeling absolutely terrible. Drove straight to the Urgent Care and found out I had Strep. UGH!!! Plan C, cancelled? No way! By evening Drew also had a sore throat, but he is a trooper and went along with our original (plan C) plans. We drove to Tempe and made every effort to avoid direct contact with any other people.

It was awesome. We parked for free in the $10 parking garage, walked to a sub shop to eat, back to Drew's office with AC, 25 cent sodas and waters (outside was selling for WAY more), free arcade games to keep the kiddos occupied until the show started, and only one other couple on the whole floor with us. (Oh how I LOVE LifeLock) We could even hear all the patriotic music that was playing along with the fireworks show!

Definitely the way to watch the fireworks! We will hopefully do it again next year and be feeling a little better!