I just made a lot of work for myself :)

Wow, have I been busy this evening.

I decided on the way home from dance class that I am rearranging the whole house.

We were in San Antonio for a couple of years. We were only at Ft Hood 2 yrs. We were in Monterey for 4 yrs, but we lived in 2 different houses and it made it seem like 2 tours :) Now that we're approaching the 2 yr mark here in Alaska, maybe the Army wife in me is itching to move? I'm not sure....but instead of moving, I am purging and rearranging.

Maybe it's because I'm so incredibly sick of bedtime. And sibling fighting. And messy bedrooms.

We have a 4 bedroom house with 2 living rooms. We have 5 kids.

Tori's crib is in my bedroom right now and I like it that way. She's close by. I can keep her in the crib while I shower. I'm not worried about a certain 2 yr old jumping in to visit her :)

Ellie, Kate, and Lexie were all sharing one small bedroom - a bunkbed and a single bed crammed in there. Lexie's constant chatter caused problems at night. Also, 3 girls sharing one closet was not fun. Their room was always a mess.

Nick had his own room (which doubled as the guest room) with a toddler bed and a full sized bed in it. He NEVER played in there. He NEVER fell asleep in there alone. And we've been here nearly 2 years and have only had guests one time - not really a need for a room devoted entirely to guests.

The bedroom downstairs was made into the playroom and the living room downstairs is the office/school room.

So, what I have done is moved Lexie and Nick both into the playroom together. I moved Kate into Nick's old room and Ellie has the room with the bunkbed in it all to herself. Everyone seems blissfully happy.

Tori fell asleep early. I held Nick down here at the computer (and he fussed as usual). During that time, Lexie fell asleep in her new bedroom without a peep. Then I decided to set Nick in his bed. I left him in there and he has been laying in there for 1o minutes. He hasn't gotten out of bed and he hasn't made a single noise. I just checked on him again and gave him another kiss goodnight.

Could this be the answer to all of my problems?? I sure hope so :)

So, instead of getting tons of schoolwork done tomorrow, I will be continuing to move and clean their rooms. I did the beds and dressers (why didn't I think of this while Andy was here so that I didn't have to move furniture down the stairs by myself??), but I still need to sort through the messy closets. It will take me a while.

I really can't believe how excited the older 2 girls are to have their own rooms. Kate is already taking such pride in the fact that it is HERS. She says that she wants to keep it clean and organized. We'll see if she sticks to that :) Lexie is pretty happy too. She said that she is the big sister in the room now (instead of the smallest of the 3 in their old room) so Nick will have to listen to what she says, because she's the boss! Ha!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this works!!!

Oh, and if I can manage to move it, I think I'm going to move the treadmill into my bedroom so that the living room isn't so crowded (and so the kids don't climb on it anymore!). I'm not sure if I can move though - it's pretty heavy!!

I also moved the high chair upstairs (it was in the schoolroom) and I put a small kid-sized table and chair in the school room so that Nick has a special place to color and do puzzles during the day. The large table only has 3 chairs and he never had anywhere to sit. He already spent an hour sitting there tonight doing puzzles and hanging out. I am going to be a jumperoo/exersaucer thing for Tori in the schoolroom.

Well, I have more work to do, so I had better get to it!