Our Fourth Child

No, I am not announcing that we are expecting, and I meant to write this post MONTHS ago. But there is a member of our household I love and has made my life a ZILLION times easier!

Our washer/dryer machine. And yes, it does both--an all-in-one machine.

Our story behind it: When we moved into our trailer in January, one of my conditions was that, with three little babies, we get a washer and dryer. There were no hook-ups in our trailer, so we started looking into what was needed to get hook-ups. $1,500 for the electrical upgrade alone--not leaving anything to get a machine, let alone trying to make a vent for the dryer. YIKES! We started looking into something besides the traditional washer and dryer to avoid the need for an electrical upgrade. We looked at several portables, read the reviews, and then somehow came across this model from LG. It's both a washer and dryer in one, can plug into any typical outlet, and just needed to be hooked up to a water supply. It simply vents from all sides, eliminating the need to create a vent that leads to outside. And it's super energy efficient--it's supposed to cost $14 per YEAR on the electric bill, if you're doing 8 loads of laundry a week (which we don't).

I was sold. The only problem we worried about was being able to fit it into the doorway, through the hall, into our bathroom. There is a door to outside kitty-corner from our bathroom, and we cut a box to the dimensions and practiced several times exactly the angles we needed to put it in to make it fit, and took all the trim off the doors to add an extra inch we needed.

As soon as we got our tax returns in February we started shopping. We were super fortunate and found a brand new one on ebay for a discount (although it was brand new it had gotten a small dent in shipping it, thus the discount)---selling in Denver! We called, bought it, and Tyson picked it up the same day. He drilled some holes, hooked it up to our water heater, and our lives have never been the same ;)


Doing our first load. The kids were entranced.

Although it takes a little bit longer to do a load of laundry, anywhere from 3-5 hours (a typical washer and dryer take about 45 minutes each to run a cycle, meaning if you're on top of it it takes 1 1/2 hours to do a full load), I love the fact I don't have to switch the load. If Tyson starts a load and I don't know it, and don't get it out until 3 days later, it doesn't matter. I don't have to restart the washer, the clothes are mildew-y, etc. It also has a time delay on it, so I can put clothes in at night, have it start around 2 AM, and then they are done, dry, and warm around 7 AM and I can put them away as soon as I get up--and then the laundry's done for the day! Victory!!! BEST. INVENTION. EVER.

Anyway, I'm going to move on to our real wonderful children. These are some birthday pictures taken at Target (love their coupons!).

A little while ago Amri was crying and Jeffrey was playing with play-doh.
He suddenly announced, "I made a heart for Amri!"