Hawaii! Part I

At last, here are some pictures from our Hawaii trip. It was super fun! Thanks to my wonderful grandparents for taking us.

This is all the girls (except Fayth and my Grandma). It was our first morning in Hawaii (rainy). My Aunt Karen, cousins Shelby and Abby, my sister Ashley, my cousin Kallie, me, and my mom.

Papa and the boys

Me and my Grandma with Fayth, at her 50th Anniversary dinner. It was great!
Oh and just a side note, my naturally curly hair went crazy in Hawaii. It was impossible to keep it straight. But it was easy to do!

Relaxing with my boys on the beach

Brothers in Paradise

Hanging in the shade with Fayth, who had a fever a couple days of the trip. (Ty just informed me that Fayth looks like a boy in this picture)

Tanner and Tytan by a sea turtle

Those are the best pictures from my camera. More to come from my Dad's camera soon!

Thank you!

Thanks to my friends and family that gave me some advice in my previous post. It really made me happy! I think as mothers and wife's, the more we can stick together and share advice and ideas, the better. I have to thank my best friend, Katie. She made me feel so much better. Because I always need advance notice when someone is coming over, and that is the only time that my house is ever clean. I was wondering if I was the only one this way, but I know that I am really not. Phew! Also, Kirsten talked about a website called flylady.com. You must go there! It is great! It asks if you live in CHAOS? Cant Have Anyone Over Syndrome. That is totally me! There is great advice on there, such as just spending fifteen minutes in the morning picking up, and fifteen minutes at night. Literally, set the timer...and that will help keep things under control more.

So today my task is going to be cleaning out our closet. I have done a total of six loads of laundry since yesterday. It is all folded on the floor in my room, but I can't put any of it away because my closet is such a disaster. I had taken the box of summer clothes out, when we went to Hawaii. It is still sitting out, with clothes in and out of it. Tons of clothes and shoes are strewn all over the closet. So today, that is my goal. To totally clean it! As for those of you who have not given me advice yet, keep it coming. We all can learn from each other! THANK YOU!

Advice

I could really use some advice from my fellow bloggers. How in the world do you keep your house clean? How do you keep your laundry under control, or teach your children to clean up after themselves? I find housework very overwhelming, and I know I am terrible at it. So far today I have cleaned out our "office". I have put ALL the dirty clothes into appropriate color piles. I have done three loads of laundry, and am in the process of folding the clothes. I have emptied out the dirt in the vacuum. For me, this requires walking across the street to the dumpster. And I accidentally dropped the filter in the dumspter, so I had to ask my son for help! I lowered Tytan into the dumpster (luckily they had just emptied it so there was no trash in it) and he got the filter out for me. And then I lifted him back up. That was an adventure! Any advice? What are your cleaning schedules? Or better yet, is your house always a disaster like mine? Oh and I promise pictures from Hawaii are coming soon...this week for sure!