Nostolgic Laundry...

I have been enjoying all the pictures around the blog world taken with the instagram app. The yellowish glow brings you back to your childhood and makes everything seem nostolgic, no matter what the photo content. (Especially if part of your childhood was in the 70's) I imagine that when I was a small child in the 70's our home was surrounded by this golden glow at all times.  So if you want to feel better about your life, take a picture of it with the instagram app. Even something as mundane as laundry will make you nostolgic. 

Now that I do up to 20 loads of laundry a week I am embarrased when I think back to my laundry routine in college. I want to write letters to anyone that shared a washing machine with me and apologize! This is what my "routine" consisted of.  1. Wear everything you possibly can in your wardrobe that is clean and put off doing laundry as long as possible.  2.  Finally decide to do a few loads.  3. Load darks 4. Run off to do something way more exciting. 5. Come back and run the darks again since they have been sitting a while and probably need another rinse. 6. Finally put darks in the dryer.  7. Person waiting to use the laundry machine finally unloads your dryer full of clothes and dumps them in a pile.  8. Return to laundry room to gather your pile of cold, wrinkled clothes. 9. Repeat.

Who would have imagined that I would later become the laundry pro that I am?  I actually like doing laundry now, unless I get behind. Then I am doomed.  The thought of piles of cold wrinkly laundry sends me over the edge so I try and fold things the second the dryer beeps. I have changed my "routine" several times over the years.  It seems that someone has an accident and sheets need to be changed just when I think I am on top of things.  Monday and Tuesday are my busiest days and I do at least a load or two every other day of the week except Sunday. I try to take that day off and come Monday every laundry basket in the house is full! I have to admit my kids are the worst when it comes to laundry. They change clothes often and put EVERYTHING into the dirty clothes. (Sometimes even clean clothes I just folded...that one really makes me mad!) We change sheets often too. Now with the pool we have more towels and swimsuits.  This makes for LOTS of laundry.

My biggest challenge?  Getting everyone to take their individual baskets of clean clothes back to their rooms and put the clothes away. It drives me nuts. I think it must be sweet justice. I remember when I was about 15 we lived in military housing in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.  The laundry room was in the basement and my room was 4 floors above that on the 3rd floor.  My mom would do my laundry for me and nicely fold it on a table and all I had to do was go get it and put it away.  One day I remember my Mom telling me she was no longer doing my laundry since I could not even put the laundry she did away. I thought this was mean and unfair.  I felt like my sister and I were persecuted since Mom still did both of my brother's laundry.  I now think-I can't believe she held out that long!  Let this story be a warning to my children about what happens when you don't put your laundry away.  I guess I will have more patience with their laundry habits since I didn't seem to get it down until I had kids of my own seeing how I still didn't get the concept in college! 

Sometimes when I am folding laundry and it seems neverending I think how in a few years I will not have this much laundry. It will just be Ryan and I with a couple loads every few days. I will no longer have little baby sleepers to fold. There will not be any dirty soccer socks.  I will not have five million items of girls clothing since Anne changes her clothes that many times a day right now.  No more Volcom tshirts and matching plaid church shirts from the boys. It makes me sad.  I know I will miss it.

I now have a teenager...a year in review.

Happy 13th Birthday, Joshua!

Turning 12 was big. In our church that is the age that you are ordained to the Priesthood-which does not mean you become a priest like in the Catholic Church-however, you do get certain responsibilities and it is a pretty big deal!  You graduate to bigger and better things. And now THIRTEEN...I officially have a teenager in the house! What?  How did that happen?  Joshua seems to manage to elude the camera often...I think I have the fewest pictures of him out of all the other kids.  I do have some good ones though! Here is a review of the last year starting with a picture of him on his last birthday.

 Joshua always manages to find time to goof around, especially while doing dishes, and having a broken leg didn't slow things down!

 Since the doctor would not let him ski with his broken leg, he resorted to sledding down steep hills.

 Another big change-a new baby sister, Sophie Rose.

 Joshua loves being with his cousins and I wish I had a picture of him with Holden or Chloe too! That will definately be a priority when we come out and see them for Thanksgiving. I was lucky and got to hang out with these three last night and they are a riot!

 I think Joshua will kill me for this one.  I can't help it, I think it is so funny.  They were doing a play at the Pollards house and he is wearing Aunt Jennifer's old prom dress.  Lookin' good, Joshua, lookin' good.

 I have lots of pictures with this face.  He HATES smiling for pictures on demand. 

 (Unless he is with his cousins or friends that is, and for that I am grateful!)

 Another one he will kill me for...don't worry Joshua, about three people read my blog.

 I love this picture.  I had just picked up Joshua from the Trek he went on with our Stake.  He had to wear "pioneer" clothing and they pushed a handcart, slept outside, and did lots of walking. He had  GREAT time.  I was trying to get a picture of his face to show how dirty he was.  He was brown from the sun and dirt and very tired.  (But what a cute pioneer, don't you think?)

 Having fun celebrating his cousin Holden's Birthday. (No, we are not in Hawaii...that is Bear Lake!)

 He had lots of fun at the Cook Family Reunion in Lava Hotsprings.

 Joshua didn't hesitate to jump off the platform high dive...you would not catch Mom doing that! 

 1st day of MIDDLE SCHOOL! 

 Kickin' it at a Hillcrest Football game this Fall.

 I had to put this picture in here, not for Sophie or Ryan, but because Joshua is doing one of his favorite activities, playing games on his ipod Touch. He is most likely planting a garden for his Smurfs or something worthwhile like that.

 Joshua had so much fun this Halloween. He better enjoy it since he is now the big 1-3!

Joshua is a great kid!  I could not be more proud of him.  He does great in school, he always helps around the house.  He is dependable.  He makes me laugh.  He is fun to hang out with.  I love going to the store with him, or just hang out singing with him in the kitchen.  I could go on and on, but I will save it for his journal and not further embarrass him here.  

We love you, Joshua!  Have a GREAT Birthday!

PS I swear it was just yesterday he looked like this-

PPS Most people call him Josh now.  :(

11-11-11

I was going to write about Michael's Baptism last week...but I will save that for a little later. Just wanted to give a quick shout out to some important peeps today.
Not only is it 11-11-11, but it is Veteran's Day and my niece Abigail's Birthday! 

My Dad set a great example for his children and grandchildren and we are all so proud of his service!  Now that I have my own four boys, I think of how hard it would be to send them off to serve our country during a time of war. I know my Grandma always prayed for my Dad while he was in Vietnam and for that I am thankful. I know that many grandmother's, mothers and wives pray for their loved ones and sometimes they do not return. 

Recently he came to Luke's flag football game...

Doesn't he look sharp in his new orange coat?  Good color, Dad!

Abigail is turning FIFTEEN today, I can't believe it!  Since her and Joshua almost share a birthday, I thought this was appropriate!  :)  Really I am short on time, and just realized I do not label my photos very well.  Just know that she is now much taller and more mature and gorgeous as ever. 

Our family has tons of fall Birthdays and I already missed Alexis, and Pierson.  Lame-o.  For now, here is to our Abigail!  Have a GREAT DAY! 

PS I just saw that Sarah over on Cloverlane beautifully shared some of my sentiments on Veteran's Day from the perspective of a mother.  Check it out if you have time!

Halloween

Halloween already seems so long ago.  It was a great day, but I felt like we were "rushing" a little too much! James was sick and I was in charge of his class party at school.  I rushed around all morning getting last minute stuff for that.  Then it was a rush to the school (I brought him with me even though he was still sick) for the big parade and party. Then we rushed home, rushed getting ready for the next event-the ward Trunk-or-Treat.  We didn't even get dinner in. "Sorry kids, looks like we are having Reeces cups and Skittles for dinner tonight."  Then we rushed all over the hill and neighborhoods trying to get in as many houses as we could.  It seems the whole day was rush, rush, rush!  I never get in as much as I plan. I had planned on making cute little pumpkin pancakes for breakfast-never made it.  We never even got to carving pumpkins this year-gasp! Overall though, we had a lot of fun and that is what matters! Sophie looked cute all day in her Halloween outfit the Garzas gave her when they came.  It was so cute! I wish I had a better picture of her in it. 

The kids posed for an official Halloween photo before we ran out the door.  Michael was Captain Jack Sparrow. Sophie is a bumble bee, James is the banana, Joshua is Kip from Napoleon Dynamite, Anne is a dragon, and Luke is the clown.  Anne had planned to be a butterfly all along.  (The girls would both be going with the insect theme.)  At the last minute she insisted she wear one of her brothers old Dragon outfits.  Ryan tried to talk her out of it, but that is our Anne-very opinionated.  She looked cute and stayed warm.  I will have you know that the clown wig Luke is wearing was from my childhood. My mom used to wear it when she dressed as a witch for our class parties.  She also made his outfit. 

James could not decide what he wanted to be and since he was sick he was not in the mood to figure it out.  I called home from Kmart that day and said, "Hey, I found a banana costume on sale!" He thought it sounded great so we went with it. 

Here we are at the Neighborhood Trunk-or-Treat in the Church parking lot.  It last for about 10 minutes and the older kids went around about 5 times and got a ton of candy. Sophie is like thinking, "This stinks, it is way too cold and I am not even getting any candy!"

I have to admit I saw the idea for this costume on another blog.  It was a hit and perfect for Joshua. He had so much fun quoting Kip all night.

Michael looked so good, I wish I would have taken a picture of him earlier in the day to get the full effect. 

Since we moved to Idaho it has become a tradition to go down to our cousins the Pollards neighborhood and meet up.  We took a picture after they had made their way through the neighborhood. It was so cold!  We then piled in the suburban and headed up the hill to hit a few more houses.  They would all cheer if they went to a house that gave them a "FULL SIZE CANDY BAR!"  Michael could not believe people were so nice to just give away, "FREE CANDY!" and he also was impressed that a few people we went to must have been "SO RICH" because they had a "REAL FLAG POLE in their yard!"  It was a lot of fun.

Then the kids came home and did the usual-dump out their bags and compare their loot.

Some of Joshua's friends drove by and picked up Joshua so he went with them for most of the night.  He was happy with their finds. 

Even Sophie got in on the action, trying to get any candy she could get her hands on.

As a child I was always sad when Halloween was over, it meant 365 days until we got to do it all over again!