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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Family Closet

I know, I know, you've probably never heard of it, and I know at first, it'll sound crazy.  See the problem is, for the last year and a half, I've been having some problems with the laundry.  Not only do we have a lot of it, as you can imagine 7 people do, but our laundry room is down stairs on one side of the house, and our bedrooms are upstairs on the other side.  So laundry involves me, going up and down the stairs like a pack mule.  Another issue is that in all honesty, the laundry wasn't making it upstairs, unless we were having company (about once a week).  I'd fold the laundry on the couch, and everyone would come down and start shuffling through...DISASTER! 

The other thing that wasn't workin' for us was our pantry, our pantry and our laundry room...same room!  We don't know who designed our house, but come on, laundry room/pantry...geesh! 

So, Scott and I have been discussing idea's, looking for storage solutions, talking about dumb butler or laundry shoot, etc.  Then I came across the family closet idea!  I made the suggestion to Scott, waiting for him to tell me I was nuts, but he liked the idea!  Well, one day I decided I was going to get started on it myself!  That morning, I dropped the kids off at school, and went to Walmart in search of storage bin options for my new family closet.  I walked in and right there in the center aisle I see stackable bins, regularly $5 on clearance for $1!!!  So, here is what my new Family closet looks like (mind you the floor still needs tile...and Scott, if you're reading this, the tile is in the garage, whenever you feel the motivation!) I love it!
Scott got these lower cabinets off a job site, they were getting thrown away (we are going to put a counter top on soon).  We took our pantry shelves out (there were two rows), and put a closet shelf in place of the top one.  Then bins on top, my $1 bins!  And under the cabinets, more of my stackabe $1 bins. In the drawers I have belts, hats, bows, accessories, etc.
I've got two laundry baskets, one for dark and one for lights...don't mind Ava, she's sorting.

And on the other side of the room, my washer and dryer...and I hang dry clothes on that rack.  At some point I can also add more bins on that shelf if we need extras, but for now we still have a few empty in the lower cupboards. 

So, all that space we had for our food was now gone...yikes!  So I moved some stuff around in the kitchen, still wasn't quite cutting the mustard.  Then it hit me!  I had a cabinet upstairs that would match our woods downstairs! 
Cans, dry food, box food baking, etc...

And snack foods in here!  So, the total cost of what this project cost was less than $30!  Lovin' it!

Friday, August 12, 2011

First Tooth!

Our Baby Girl has her first tooth!  We had been at a playgroup and when we came home I was playing with her an noticed her gums on top looked puffy.  I lifted her lip and could see the outline of her top four teeth!  They weren't poked through, but thet were not far off!  I was thinkin' if her tops were that close her bottoms which are usually first must be really close!  I stuck my finger in and sure enough, felt a nice sharp tooth in there!!  She's such a trooper too, no complaints, just a bit of a runny nose.
I got my first tooth today!

Friday, August 5, 2011

Ava is 9 months

And she certainly has opinions.  She is becoming much more vocal (Mama is her favorite :).  She loves being outside, eating yogurt, and baths are still a favorite.  She is beginning to wave, and hold her arms out for you when you reach out for her.  Ava is starting to give kisses...mostly the messy, drooly ones!  She is wearing 12 month clothes...she's advanced that way!  She's still toothless.  Ava loves her brothers, and they love her back!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Back to School 2011

After a LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGG summer (according to me), the boys are back to school!  Blake is in 5th, Logan in 4th and Hunter is in 1st.  Blake has his first male teacher, Mr. Cook, which he was nervous about...but so far so good!  Logan has a first year teacher, Mrs. Rios, who was the student teacher in Blake's class last year and was great.  Hunter has Mrs. Voss, Blake had her for 4th, his first year at Leading Edge, and Logan had her last year...we already love her, so we are thrilled to have her again for Hunter.