While we've been waiting...

Having a newborn is starting to sound like a relaxing option around here.  Somehow we keep getting ourselves immersed in "house projects" that are exhausting but oh-so-good to get done!

We did a major re-organization on the basement.  Took out the couch and coffee table and turned it into a playland for kids.  While we were at it, I spent several long days sorting through toys and ended up with lots of garbage bags of donations and trash.

My favorite part of all the work is going over-board on labels at the end!

The end result: a fun place for kids to play, craft, and swing and climb.

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A couple weekends ago my little brother Benj came over and helped Ryan expand our attic storage space.  We are so dependent on this attic to help us fit in our house and it was overflowing!

Of course you can't just add a few floorboards...we took almost everything out of the attic and went through tote after tote of books, papers, decor and kids clothes.  It was amazing to me how much of it had been just sitting there for the last 6 years!  It feels so good to have it all organized and labeled again (and much of it thrown out!).  And thanks to all the woodwork, it's actually accessible now! 

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This past week my Mom came over for a day to do a cooking marathon.

I've always wanted to try mass producing freezer meals for the family have only tried a recipe here and there. Well...we now have almost 20 meals packed and frozen.  Hopefully we can keep our hands off of them until my initial post-baby support diminishes and it'll make my adjustment to juggling 4 kiddos a little easier!

The meals we tried were: manicotti, chicken alfredo casserole, crock-pot taco salad mix, and beef stew.  Plus we made about 7 dozen muffins for kids snack food.  Yummy!