a bit of before and after ...

so, spring is coming and so is spring cleaning. does anyone really only clean in the spring? where did that term come from anyhow? even the thought of cleaning big just once a year seems rather strange - maybe it's just me? the truth is, our house is messy. often. if I actually want our house to look decent, I have to declutter constantly, pick up toys constantly, and wash constantly. I don't. you can pretty much expect to find clutter in our house. I'm more focused on the actual cleaning (as in, ridding of germs, vacuuming, dishes, etc.) to worry too much about the stuff that matters less (to be clear, that's: matters less to me) ... and there are spots where even the cleaning is suffering! shocking - I know! I am not too proud to share with you just how bad a few rooms get ... we're speaking of the upstairs rooms! Our room is currently "storage" to boxes of both items to be sold at our next yard sale and items that have shifted from box, to bucket, back to box to somehow - someday, find a home here! I'm not sharing pics of our room because the only real change was that I picked up all the shopping bags off our floor and put all the purchases away - finally! and shifted a couple things from our room to Annicka's - our second "storage" area! yah, that's sort of a punishment - her room is now for sleeping/reading only (and caring for her hamster) as it's gotten to it's worse and I've had it. I took all the toys away from upstairs rooms - it's in buckets, bins, whatever - sitting in Annicka's room, waiting to be sorted. I just couldn't take the constant mess any more, desperate times call for desperate measures, after all! Zoey's room was mostly only to blame on me. i got lazy about putting her clothes away (that lovely dresser, is a lovely pain in my rear-end when it comes to opening drawers) and still hadn't really picked it up ... her room has still never been officially "done". such is me. I'd say "that's just how I am", but according to the book I'm currently reading I can't say that - because all things are possible, even me changing! that's right folks, you heard it here first - Sasha can change, but not through her own strength. only with the strength from God will that happen. anyways ... I do have challenges that I've yet to overcome, laziness being a big one. but last week, I was able to do a little bit to shift things around and get them looking loads better. trouble spots remain, I'm focusing on the positive though: you can see the floors, clothes are put away, there's no toys. and it's stayed this way - for nearly a week. ok, ok - Annicka's room has had issues (how is that possible, given her restrictions?) but I've taken care of that too. so, now that I've written the longest ever non-paragraph bunch of odd sentences just strewn together, we'll get to the pics ...

be sure you click on these, I'm not sure how to make them bigger ON the blog!

first up - the boys room
there's one there of the hall "before" too

Annicka's room

and Zoey's room

when you click on this, take special not of the middle pic ...
and the doorway - I did indeed laugh out loud when I first saw this
pic, I didn't even notice when I took it!

balloon fun - the girls!

yes, it's my girls! is it strange that I'm so giddy about the fact that I can say "my girls"? (btw - I'm just as giddy over the fact that I can also say "my boys"!) Annicka is always coming up with great ways to stay entertained ... ok, she's always coming up with ways to do crazy things to her siblings - and get away with it! last weekend it was rubbing a balloon on Zoey's head and witnessing, in amazement, her hand stand up! and then, the balloon stay "stuck" to Zoey's head! it was pretty funny and of course a good opportunity to snap some pics of our everyday hi-jinks!

quotes of the week ...

I'm sitting here with Jericho working on homework, when he starts explaining to me why twelve being a "one and a two" is "just dumb". OK? then a little while later he saw Nana's pic on the facebook chat box and goes, "aw Nana ... can you go on Nana-dot-com?". seriously laughed out loud on that! I asked him what he meant, and he said "you can go online and see Nana" - awwww!

Liam's been telling us he wants to watch "Badoo" and I kept asking him if he meant Babar, a "new" show on the new Disney Junior (um, yes, the kid is tv crazy - I should probably be working on that) ... anyway, when he said it was an elephant, my conclusion was he meant Babar. He said no and has been frustrated, well - he just asked again to watch it, so I checked the guide and saw that Babar was about to come on, and in the info it said something about "Badau" - there ya go! so, I was right ... and so was Liam!

we're having a fun saturday morning (after a couple yard sales) playing rockband (the Beatles, our fave) ... Liam loves it, even though he has no real concept of following the game! so cute, perched on the stool, playing the drums - he says: "where's the cymbals?" TOO CUTE. (is that really how you spell cymbals? looks weird) he's such a smart little guy, I don't know how he knows so much - he picks up on everything!

cutest ever! the big kids (as I call Jericho and Annicka) were up here in my room and we all could hear Liam coming up the stairs (he tends to chit chat a lot) so they decided to hide from him. He came in, came over to me (at the computer) and says "have you seen my girl, Anni and my bubba?" - love it. he is so darn cute!

so, in the past few months - especially this year - Liam has decided he's not a fan of water. and he's quick to express his lack of enthusiasm for the healthy drink by such things as throwing his sippy cup and having an all out temper fit. lately he does something that's really cute though, after you've filled his cup he'll grab it and shake it and often say "dere's wader in here?" (there's water in here). it's seriously cute the way he says it. I just can't write how cute it sounds!

news worthy!

remember that post about me putting Zoey in her crib and her going to sleep - no fuss? what was that, thursday? well, over the weekend I convinced daddy to put her in there - she did it again! and just now, I decided it was time for a nap (even though we only had an hour until needing to go pick up kids ... how I wish I didn't have to do that, homeschool anyone? lol) and I put her in her crib. guess what? she fell asleep right away! this is a big step for her. now I need to start remembering to do this every day!

love.

love this face.
I mean, seriously, LOVE.love those sweet little hands

LoVe those standing up, chubby little legs

LOVE those sweet feet and tiny little toes

healing up ...

I finally took an updated pic of Liam's foot (last saturday). the final piece of "tape" (steri strips) came off, or - according to siblings - was pulled off by him! I think I already put this in a quotes post, but it was hilarious when Liam kept telling me his foot was "made out of glue" and "the doctor did it" - crack me up. he still tells me it hurts, on occasion, but i don't know the severity of that! I know he wants me to be careful when I put on shoes, which seems like a sensible time to be concerned, poor little guy! I can't seem to wash off the brownish stuff off his foot (near his toes) - I don't even know what it is, for sure. anyway, from what I can tell it's healing up nicely.

nap time ...

Zoey did something almost amazing on friday! I decided to just put her in her crib - it was clear she was tired - and see what she'd do. I've done this before with varied results, most of which ended with me getting a very upset baby out of her crib (I was not this way with my first three, especially at this age, but I've never been able to let Zoey cry!) There was one time, not too long ago (shortly after that day she fell asleep in her "playroom") that I did this and let her fuss ... and fuss she did. It was a cycle of play, whine, fuss, repeat for a good hour before she finally went to sleep - and that was hard on me. Friday was different though. I didn't even take the monitor downstairs with me. I knew if she really cried, I'd hear her. I never heard a peep. After a while (admittedly, quite a while - like over an hour) I went upstairs to take a peek at the monitor, this is what I saw:tell me those little crossed feet aren't the cutest! CUTE! she has some odd sleep positions, on the tummy with arms straight down just doesn't look too comfy, in my opinion. but, hey, she went to sleep on her own, in her crib. that makes me happy. now if only we could make this a regular occurrence! I guess I really need to get this house back on a routine. maybe. possibly!