Our Girls & Their Summer Clothes....

It is that time of year again. The dreaded time when we go through the closets and get out the boxes upon boxes out of the attic and see what still fits, what is too small, and what will fit for the spring and summer!

With 4 girls in the family this is a loooooong process. Emma is the easiest! Since she is the oldest she has no hand-me-down boxes to go through. Also, because she is 11 and 5'3" she is not growing out of her clothes as quickly as the younger ones.

But Gracie, Ruby, and Chloe all have so many things to go through! Not only do we have our own personal hand-me-downs, but seeing as how we have 6 children (4 being girls) we have also been the recipients of much generosity! In fact, one of Gracie's soccer teammates is the youngest in her family. Her mother was talking to Sean and asked if we would be interested in having Helenae's clothes that were too small for her so that Ruby and Chloe could use them. She said that she totally understood if we were not into hand-me-downs! Sean just laughed and said with 6 kids to clothe we will take all the help we can get!

So once Emma has gone through and done her own inventory, it is time to start with Gracie and Ruby. We had a total of 6 boxes just for them! Let me tell you, these girls are GIRLY GIRLS!!! It was like their own little modeling session! Had they not been taking off & putting on clothes, I would have loved to have videotaped the whole event! I have never seen so much hair flipping, hip shaking, head turning and lips puckering from a 3 year old and a 7 year old! They were the perfect models!

However, not all of the clothing measured up to their standard of "cuteness"! Even I will admit to questioning my judgement in not only buying various items, but also KEEPING them! What was I thinking? Ruby even pulled out a pair of denim shorts that we bought used for Emma, and said, "Mom, these are gross"! And yes, they were.

Well, once we made it through the boxes and boxes of clothes, we had stacks and stacks for DI, and piles and piles of laundry!

So, nearly one week and 8 loads of laundry later, we now know what will fit the girls for the spring and summer.

And it looks like Chloe is getting the sweet end of the deal... Because after having gone through 3 girls (some more than that because we were given and had bought many used clothes for Emma) many things were just hanging on by a thread or completely frumpy! And I certainly don't want Chloe feeling like "frump girl"! (not that she would even know!) That means we get to go shopping!!!!

So, this post is dedicated to my girls! And my girls' clothes! And my girls' stuff! I know that someday it will all be gone and I will probably miss it (see Cozy Messes post). So for now, I am grateful for it all... and grateful to have been blessed with 4 lovely, healthy, unique , and happy little girls!

Lucky 13

Sean & I celebrate our 13th anniversary today! That means that we have been married over 1/3 of our lives, as he pointed out this morning. Life has been good to us and we have been blessed in so many ways.

So, what have we been up to these last 13 years?!

Well, we both have graduated from Boise State. That is also where we met, so BSU's campus is home to many precious memories for us both.

We have lived in 3 different homes and have owned 2 of them.

We have had a variety of vehicles... 11 of them, to be exact! Two of which have been minivans. Something I swore I would never drive, but am absolutely in love with now!

We have 6 active and healthy children! Emma (11), Jackson (almost 10), Gracie (7), Ruby (almost 4), Calvin (8 months), and Chloe (8 months). They keep us busy and make our home pretty messy, but we wouldn't have it any other way. Besides, at least I have a "reason" for a messy house! What would be my excuse if I didn't have 6 kids?!

We have lived in 3 different wards: The 2nd Ward (March 1996-August 1999), The Millcreek Ward (September 1999-September 2003) and The Indian Lakes Ward (October 2003-present). We have been blessed to make dear friends and learn many things from each of the wards we have lived in.

I have been lucky enough to be able to stay home with the children since Emma turned one. Sean, on the other hand, has consistently been out in the workplace! Another thing we have blessed with. He has worked at 4 different CPA firms: Balukoff Lindstrom, Grow Rasmussen, Ivy & Bauer, and Roberts & Co. In 2006 Sean & Doug Roberts became partners and so Sean bought part of the firm. Now he currently works at Roberts Hart and Co. He loves it there. But, from each of the other firms where he has worked he has been able to learn many valuable lessons, which help him with what he does today. Our whole family knows what a blessing it is for him to have a job. Especially with how the economy is now.

Although we have been blessed in more ways than we can even count, we have also had our share of trials! We have survived me going back and finishing school after Jack was born (a completely stressful time), 6 miscarriages, one loss of a job, 11 tax seasons (trial & a blessing), & 3 car accidents, various trips to the ER, but no broken bones, yet! It seems like there should be more, but I honestly can't think of any others. Looking back, although they were very difficult at the time, each trial has brought with it an abundance of blessings! One of the greatest blessings is that of seeing the goodness in others. Had we never gone through any of these difficult times there would never have been a reason to receive service from others. And our family has been on the receiving end of so many acts of kindness and service. What a blessing that has been!

We have learned, and are still learning, to speak each other's "love language". Sean's aunt and uncle gave us the book, "The Five Languages", as a wedding gift. It is the most wonderful book and I completely recommend it to everyone! Along with "The 5 Love Languages of Children"! But it seems that once Sean figures mine out, for some reason I switch! Poor Sean!! :)

Our life together has been good. We count our blessings every day and thank our Father in Heaven for each other and our families. We are grateful to have been married in the Boise Temple 13 years ago today, and to know that our family can be sealed together for eternity if we continue to make good choices and endure to the end.

I love you Sean and I love our life together!

Hide & Seek Anyone?

Today I went upstairs for a few minutes while Calvin & Chloe were rolling around on the living room floor. I came back down & could not find Chloe! She has been up on her hands and knees quite a bit lately trying to crawl, but has not yet made it forward. I could not hear her or see her anywhere! I thought that I would have heard her for sure if she had rolled down the stairs to the basement and I hadn't been gone long enough for her to even make it to the stairs!

Then all of the sudden, I saw something moving underneath the couch... I got down on my hands and knees and pulled up the dust ruffle (is that what it's called on a couch?). Anyway, to my surprise, there was little smiling Chloe, as happy as could be!

Of course, I had to run and get the camera first before I pulled her out!

I'm starting to get this sinking feeling that things might be getting harder before they get any easier! :) But it's the good kind of hard, I guess...

I just need to get used to not taking my eyes off of these 2 cute little creatures!

Cute Cupids

On Valentine's Day Jackson had a brilliant idea of taking a picture of Calvin just in his diaper and then cutting it out and hanging it from the ceiling so it would look like Cupid. He even made a little arrow for him. Calvin, of course, destroyed the arrow, and the pictures never did get printed. But they sure are cute to look at!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!