Taking pictures of the chaos

Sometimes when my house gets really messy, I like to take pictures of it. Yes, you heard me correctly. I take pictures of it in all its messy glory. Then I clean it and take pictures after it's all done. I mainly do this because it helps me see that I really have done something that day, even though the kids turn around and erase it all 2 seconds later. But it shows me that the work I put in really does make a difference, and it helps motivate me to keep it up. I also want to have proof that my kids tortured me. ;-)

So up for your viewing pleasure tonight is my kitchen! Derk left town again for a few days, and I was fighting with a headache for the first part of the day. So the kids tried to help by making their own food and just wreaked havoc on the poor kitchen. I finally had enough after I put them to bed tonight and went to town. I'm really glad I took the pictures because it sure makes me feel good to see the difference!

The befores. What you cannot see in the pictures is the abundance of sticky stuff that covered pretty much every surface. The kids made themselves cinnamon and sugar toast for breakfast, and it only went downhill from there. :)

And the afters! I didn't have the energy to mop, but everything else is done.

You should try it!!
It does wonders for your motivation!

Asher's doctor appointment and t-ball games

Asher had his 5 year check up today. I took my time finding a pediatrician, and I'm very happy with her! She did a fabulous job and was extremely nice and thorough. He is totally perfect! His eyesight is 20/20, he passed his hearing test with flying colors, and everything else looked good, too. He weighed 42 pounds and is 41 inches tall.

After his doctor appointment, Asher had his second t-ball game. His first was this past Tuesday. He's made it very clear that he HATES his team name -- Blue Bees. I laughed and asked him what he'd rather his team was called, and he said he wanted to wear a red shirt and be called the Red Runners. Silly boy. :)

The games are at 6pm every Tuesday and Thursday. I think 2 games per week is a bit much for Asher, and the game time is pretty crappy, too. Right in the middle of dinner. Plus he's tired by that point. The first game was a bit rough, and he had a hard time staying on his feet the last few minutes. So I decided to pack our dinner and eat it at the park before the game today (instead of after the game at home), and he did much better.

Go, Blue Bees! And go #10!

And some videos! The first video is of Asher's first time up to bat. And the second video is of their team cheer after the game. They cheer, "Flames!" first (the name of the team they played), then they cheer, "Blue Bees!"

Easter 2010

We had a really nice, relaxing Easter weekend. It was General Conference for church, which made the weekend that much better. I always say how much I enjoyed the talks, but there were a few this time that I think were given just for me! It was wonderful and uplifting.

In between sessions on Saturday, we dyed our Easter eggs. Now here's a huge confession: this was our first year dying eggs. That's right, we've never done it before. We usually just buy the plastic eggs and let the kids have a blast hunting them. But we decided we'd been bad parents long enough and should give it a shot. The kids loved it, of course, and we had some fun, too. We also learned that glittery Easter egg dying kits should be banned from the face of the planet. Never. Again. But the tie dye ones turned out neat!


Easter weekend also brought with it a new addition to our family. An upright freezer for our garage! Well, it's actually only temporarily for the garage. Once warm (i.e. scalding!) weather hits, we don't think it'll be cost-efficient to have it out there. We're hoping to get it moved into the pantry within the next few weeks. I've read up, and apparently it'll be easy enough to get an outlet in there. Anyway, I found it on Craigslist for a great deal and was super excited to get it. Now I'm working on getting a list together for meals to prepare to fill that baby up! Any suggestions? On my list so far: spaghetti sauce, chili, lasagna, taco meat, shepherd's pie, tater tot casserole. But after that, I'm drawing a blank!

After the last session on Sunday, we let the kids go out and play for a bit to burn off some energy. They all did EXCELLENT sitting and listening to Conference, especially Kyrie. But man, were they going stir crazy. While they rode bikes, Derk and I just relaxed. And all of a sudden, the house started to shake! And it kept getting stronger and stronger, louder and louder. It took us a second to realize it was an earthquake, and a BIG one at that. We ran out and got the kids inside, and I made them stand in the front doorway. It lasted for nearly a minute and ended up measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale! After that, we felt 6 aftershocks, the largest of which was a 5.0. It was crazy! Derk and I both had some messed up equilibrium after that.

Easter dinner was nothing short of delicious! Before Derk's grandparents left Yuma to head back to Salt Lake, they gave us a bunch of stuff from their freezer, which included t-bone steaks! We decided to use those for our Easter dinner. So we had grilled t-bone steak, mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. Kyrie set the table and made menus for everyone. :)

We ended the day by reading about the crucifixion and resurrection. I got so choked up reading it and could barely make it through. I knew the story already, of course, but to read it again just made me have such a deeper appreciation for what He did for us. What they put him through was unspeakable, and my testimony of the Atonement and my love for my Heavenly Father grew exponentially.

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter, full of the love of the Savior!

Doing dishes isn't so bad

I checked the mail today, and imagine my surprise when there was an unexpected package there for ME! It was from my best friend April. She sent me this beautiful tile and then a little Dr. Pepper lipgloss. It was so perfect and fun! Thanks for making my day, April! You're the best, and I feel blessed everyday that you're my friend!

April has sent me a few things over the last year, all of which are on my kitchen windowsill. I spend a lot of time at my kitchen sink, and it's nice to see those sweet things from my friend as I'm doing that dreaded chore. So I knew that was right where that tile was going. I call it my April corner. :)

While I was at it, I took a picture of the other side of the windowsill because the left side is special to me as well. I've got a collection of things from Portugal displayed there. The first picture is a hand painted plate that my mother got and gave to me before we moved to Arizona. The second picture is a set of 3 hand painted tiles that each have scenes from Portugal on them. The middle one that says Porto on the top is the city where I was born. My dad gave these to me as a gift a few years ago.

These few items make doing dishes a little less horrible. :)