Evan 6 (7) months

I meant to do all of this (have pictures taken) when Evan was closer to 6 months...oops. In my defense, I wanted to wait until he was easily sitting on his own....

I took Evan to have pictures done at JCP...I went mainly for the purpose of the bathtub collage you see below. I have one of those now for each of the kids, hanging in our bathroom. Here are the best pictures! Family - I didn't buy very many, just wallets, but if you want something bigger of any of these, just let me know.

Evan is doing all the typical 7 month-old baby things...sitting well, rolling all over the place, on the verge of crawling, trying all sorts of baby food. It's fun to see Travis and Jayna interact with him...they both really love him. We'll see how they feel when he starts getting into their toys :)

We love him to pieces!!

Eenie meenie miney mo

Every night Travis and Jayna each get to pick a book, then either Steve or I reads them to both of them. One night I taught them the "Eenie meenie" rhyme, and they both love reciting it. Though as you can see, Jayna only gets parts of it, and it just cracks me up! She has always been one to sit down for good lengths of time and read books, but now every time she finishes one, she picks up two more and does the rhyme first. We often hear her after she's gone to bed, reciting it in between books for as long as she can keep her eyes open.

Rooster, ladybug, and caterpillar...

We didn't get around to carving pumpkins this year (though I will at least get the seeds out soon), but Travis really wanted to paint his pumpkin that he got at his pre-k pumpkin patch field trip. Silly kid.

The rooster...

the ladybug,

and the caterpillar!

She's potty-trained!

I suspected that Jayna was ready to make the switch from diaper to underwear, and I was right! As with Travis, it was way too easy (seriously...a day and a half), and again, I'm soooo thankful! I hear lots of potty-training horror stories, and so far we have been spared any real difficulties. New underwear and M & M's did the trick. She even does underwear during naps, but not at night. Of course we're super proud of her, but we're also happy to only be buying diapers for one now! Way to go, big girl!!

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Hunter's Farm Pumpkin Patch

My favorite outing of the year...the pumpkin patch! Pictures speak for themselves...we all had a blast!

Fall leaves

Travis is a little bit obsessed lately with seasons, and what each season brings. I told him one time that in the fall, a fun thing to do is make a big pile of leaves and jump in it. Well, once I told him that, he asked us EVERY single day when we would get to do that. As much as I love fall, it seems like the leaves fall off the tree as soon as they turn color, and then of course since we live where we do, it rains...so it can be tough to find a window of time to do this. Fortunately, we found a day when Steve was off, it wasn't raining, and even though most leaves were still on trees, we improvised and had our fun. We ended up going to Point Defiance Park where Steve, who had thought to bring the rake, gathered a bunch of leaves and let the kids at it (that is, after first going to Owen Beach to throw rocks, of course). Free fun while enjoying nature - what could be better?!

How do YOU keep your house clean?

That's it. I give up. I am a no-good housekeeper! And so I need to hear from you all...how do YOU keep your house clean?!

Ever since I became a stay-at-home mom, I put it in my mind that part of my "job" was to maintain an orderly household, and I still hold myself to that standard. Theoretically, anyway. But if this were a "real" job, I'd so be fired! Maintaining a clean house with little ones seriously has become what seems like an impossible task to me. It's weird, because I don't like messiness and chaos. It kind of drives me nuts. Yet it obviously doesn't drive me so nuts that I do what I need to do to keep things looking halfway decent around here.

Now, I know that a perfectly clean house is NOT the most important thing in the world. I spend a whole lot of time every day just playing with the kids and enjoying them, and I know time spent in that way is much more valuable than time spent cleaning. I won't give that time up. On the other hand, I think I would enjoy that time with them more if I didn't have this huge housework to-do list hanging over my head. That, and I do think it's important for kids to grow up surrounded by more peace and order than disorder, and for them to learn lessons in daily responsibilities.

So, I guess I'm looking for the most effective ways of doing things. I know that work is involved, even with shortcuts. But the less time we can all spend on cleaning and chores, the more we can spend doing the things we love! Let's talk specifics...

Here are some problem areas for me:

1. Just keeping stuff picked up. I feel like 98% of the time I have to clean every day goes simply to picking things up and emptying/reloading the dishwasher. Which leaves virtually no time for any other chores. I know this will become less of an issue as the kids get older and can do more of this kind of thing, but for now, I feel like all I do is pick up after others. I will say that I recently dubbed 7:00pm as "clean-up time", with great success. And that way I don't spend the first half-hour of the kids' bedtime cleaning up their toys. (still other clean-up to do, but at least not that). Any other ideas in this department?

2. Laundry!!! Does anyone else feel like they are constantly drowning in laundry? My current system - to let it pile up until it really needs to be done - is not working. Because then it becomes too overwhelming of a task. It worked when there were just two, and even three of us, but not now. So I'd like to know if there's anyone out there who has a system that works for them. Do you do a little every day? All of it on one specific day every week? Twice a week? Any other thoughts?

3. I consider picking stuff up and laundry to be the two biggies. Then there's everything else...bathrooms, changing sheets, scrubbing bathtubs, dusting, organizing closets...you all know how endless this list is. Do you all just do these things randomly as needed? That's what I've always done, but then again, I can't tell you the last time I changed all of our sheets....(I know, that's gross). Dusting...I'm not kidding when I tell you I dust MAYBE twice a year. And our closets make me cringe. Does anyone out there have a cleaning schedule for these kinds of things? I'm considering starting one, but kind of afraid that would mean setting myself up for failure:) But I think I need to discipline myself somehow in order to keep things nicer/cleaner than they are now.

So those are the things I'd like to ask you all about. Solutions that have worked for me...like I said, 7:00 clean-up time. Also, there are some great products out there that make cleaning easier (love my toilet wand, and also anti-bacterial cleaning wipes for counters and bathrooms).

I do know that part of the solution is for me to just buckle down and get it done. But again, I'm looking for effectiveness...to spend the least possible amount of time necessary while still accomplishing what I need to. There are a few of you out there - even moms with young kids - who DO somehow manage to maintain incredible order in your home...I want to hear from you!