The Season Shuffle

It's that time of year. The colder weather has come, so it's time to pack up the short sleeved shirts and the shorts. Time to hunt down the winter coats, the black dress shoes, the sweaters. Time for me to get emotional while packing up the outgrown clothes.

I wonder if it is just me, but I dread it. Not only is shuffling through five children's clothes time consuming work, but I just get sad with the physical reminders that my children are growing up. I feel like a big baby.

This morning I went through Reagan's drawers. I stored the summer stuff that will fit for next year, and then I stacked stuff to be saved for Camryn. It was fun thinking of Cami wearing some of those clothes in a few years. Fun to toss the stuff I never want to see again.

The past week, I brought up bags of clothes for Austin and Camryn from the basement. It's a walk down memory lane to pull them out and think when the older kids wore them, thinking of them at their younger years. They are washed and ready to wear. However, those bags and boxes are still sitting in their rooms. Why? I am dreading the removal of their old stuff. The stuff I give away for good. There isn't any younger ones to pass them on to. Now I have to decide the donations, passing on or selling the barely worn, maybe even keeping a few. It's hard to get in there and work.

I know my mom must have had these same feelings, she saved a lot of our clothes. She has been able to give me some of my own clothes that I wore as a baby and little girl. Some of them were really neat to have, like the outfit I wore home from the hospital. It was special to have each of my daughters wear that dress home as well. But others, seemed old and dated, better to have been given up decades ago.

It's hard for me to let go, but I can do it...

Five Months Later

I've had a request to update my blog. Hmmm, it has been a while, Ashley! Thanks for the nudge to get back here. Alrighty, a few highlights of the last five months, with pictures!

We went to Sterling's family reunion at Bear Lake near Logan. Our favorite day was spend on the beach. Sand, boat, water, sun - sunburn. Good times! It was really nice to be with all the cousins and families. There were 25 cousins and 17 parents and sibling/spouses.

The kids went back to school. Morgan is in 5th grade. Gavin is in 3rd. Reagan is in 1st. Austin is in preschool through the city. 

When school had started, and we had not gone camping as a family, we brought camping to our home. We had a campfire a couple of weekends and we also set up the tent and camped. It was much warmer than heading to the mountains in September.

This is a recent picture of the family. We went hiking on Labor Day.

Then the birthdays...we had a celebration week in August. Sterling and I had our 13th anniversary, followed by my bday on the 24th, Sterling's on the 25th, and Austin's on the 26th. I wish his birthday was first in line, we are pretty partied and caked out when its his day. But everyone needs cake on their birthday. I won't give mine up! Gavin's birthday was just this week, he wanted the United States on his cake. We put the nine candles in states he has been.

This past weekend we headed up to Breckenridge for fun. We were able to see the aspen trees changing colors. It was really pretty. We hung out in the hotel pool a lot. It was fun to get away.

All caught up! Let's hope for at least a monthly post from here on out.