Bailey Family

Our rule: The kids are given the option to choose ONE money-costing, time-consuming extra-curricular activity each year. (They can also choose nothing.)  Little short term things like a one-time competition, after school activities (like chess club) where I just pick them up late, and of course church activities (like boy scouts) don't count toward that limit. Most years we have had combined activities (like 3 girls all taking dance)...but not this year.  We've never had it quite as chaotic as this year! We have 4 activities for 4 kids at mostly different times and locations. Plus, the twins are now 8 and can go to Wednesday night church-sponsored activities. So now that you've had the boring mom-talk, let's get on with the pictures, as promised! Carolyn - Tennis lessons (group) Kaitlyn - recreational gymnastics (group class) Seth - rec soccer His favorite position is goalie Natalie - rec soccer  She is rarely near the bal...

1 room done...let's not count the rest right now :) Here are some before pictures: Walls cleaned and painted Curtains & sheers added (made curtains for playroom in last house, so that was an easy add) Put up little shelves for LEGO display Added  toy shelves for LEGO storage (cheaper than expected - yea Aldi!) Put up shelves for creations and trophies. (Will be adding some foam things behind the dart board...AFTER Seth patches the little holes he and his friends made!) Organized closet to be more manageable (I hope!) And after... It's still a boy's room (and certainly not "Pinterest Perfect", but that wasn't my goal) - it's organized and with weekly inspections (and daily reminders), it has stayed pretty much like this for over a month now. On to the next area(s) that are a mess...

I'm enjoying spring, but honestly, I just want summer to be here. I'm trying to "enjoy the journey" - doing normal spring fun, continuing to organize the house (especially the kids' areas), and work on have to stuff that I know I won't have time for in summer with 5 kids running around "helping" me...but I am tired of the busy school year schedule. Moving and getting a whole house set up and completely re-organized in the middle of the year (although a blessing the move and new house has been) has been a lot to juggle with school and church and sports. Anyways...here are the fun things (or at least the picture-worthy things...they weren't all fun). I'll leave out all the "have to's" on my list that I don't photograph. :) It's so fun to see what we've got in the yard since we moved in when everything was hibernating for the winter. This tree is all green now with just a few flowers left, but it was so beautiful to...

Life is still so busy (we're in school - what else is there during the school year but busy??) - but at least there's nothing huge going on right now (you know, like moving during the holidays followed by 4 birthdays). Here are some moments from February: We've had really odd (i.e., typical) weather lately. Alee has had the opportunity to try out her dollar tree kite (on the day she picked it out)  I'm pretty sure this is her first time with a kite ever. And play in the "snow" :) The girls had country western day at their school (each grade showed off the dances they'd been learning in PE class).    I know the picture looks funny, but I didn't know if all those kids parents would want them on the internet! Carolyn would have been embarrassed to have a picture of her dancing on the blog. (She's very self-conscious these days.) So here's one of her chatting with Alee before they got started. And you've...