A bunch of pictures and two posts in one

Hey everybody! I hope you holidays were great! We are recovering and life is getting back to normal. I have a TON of picture that I want to get on here but they are taking sooooo long so here are some important ones :) Enjoy...

Post #1:


30ish weeks prego! Baby Sarah is doing great but it's been a rough pregnancy so I'll be glad when it's over.

My sweet boys! Grandma Welch sent these outfits for Christmas. Aren't they just the cutest things ever!? I love these pics of them. Thanks Grandma!!

POST #2:

I've been bit by the organization bug. I LOVE to organize things! I always have. My parents used to give me the "special chores" because they knew I'd organize the book shelves or whatever right. Anyways, call me obsessive, call me anal, whatever I LOVE to color coordinate things, have matching things, and have a place for everything! Oh yeah and I love lists. I have lists everywhere!! In my purse, in my many many notebooks, on my fridge, on my cupboards, on the wall....they're everywhere. :)

I don't have a lot of space in our duplex and with Daniel in school we don't have a ton of money to spend on the fancy organizing things so I have to be creative. Here are just a few of the things I've come up with.

Disclaimer: I said I LOVE to organize. I would just like to clarify that "organize" does not necessarily mean "clean". I try very hard but I also have two little boys that make messes faster than I can clean so keep that in mind. :)

Kitchen:

We put up these spice racks today. They're supposed to be the things you put inside your cupboards or in a pantry or whatever but we don't have that option so we did it this way. It comes in a pack of 3, 3 different sizes, for like $7. They're not the most beautiful things in the world but when you love to cook and season food as we do you gotta do what you gotta do! We freed up a WHOLE cupboard by doing this so tomorrow I get to organize that!! :)

Here is one of the best Christmas presents I've ever gotten!! My dad made this peg board for me a couple of years ago and I have LOVED it so much!!! I might be hard to see what all is on it, but I've put on some baskets that I found 3/$1 at walmart and put little seasonings, extracts, and random small things in them. I love that I can hang everything from my utensil drawer on here! The drawer space is only so big in a duplex, 4 drawers to be exact...not much so this is super great!

Laundry Room:

Here are the two side walls in the laundry room. I have an over the door shoe hanger nailed to the wall in almost every room. They make so much sense to me! I put EVERYTHING in them! I call them my "junk drawers". When space is an issue, as it is for us, this is so great! That way I have all my junk and I know where it is and I can see it clearly...this one is exploding a little but it works.

Another great idea from my dad! He came last year to help after one of my surgeries and wanted to do something nice for us so he put up shelves all the way around the top of our laundry room. It's hard to see since our laundry room is in the hall but you get the general idea. I love that everything has a place and take a look at my cleaners! They pretty much all match (thank you melaleuca)!! That makes my brain happy :)

Eating Area:

Two things that I love in this room are these! My GIANT dry-erase board and my mail sorter. The dry-erase board is just a big white board from Lowe's for like $10. It doesn't wipe off quite as good as a real one but a little rubbing alcohol once in a while and we're in good shape. I keep this mainly for daily tasks and my Menu. I LOVE my menu. Thanks Mom for teaching me this! I plan out my meals once a week and shop accordingly and I know before 5:00pm what's for dinner!

My Mail Sorter came to me in a dream! I love my shoe holder organizers but they just aren't the right size sometimes so I made my own version and it works great. I have a spot for everything such as: Car Ins., bank statements, medical bills, student loan info, ect... I clean it out every couple months, as you can see that time is soon coming!

Okay, I LOVE LOVE LOVE these!!!! I had a great time making them too! We were filling 5 gallon buckets with oatmeal for our food storage and we had all these empty canisters and I though, "surely there's something I can do with these." They seal just tight enough to keep things fresh. I have everything from flour, sugar, oatmeal, crackers, to drink mixes, chocolate chips, and more. They keep it out of my tiny little pantry and I can see what i have. I just covered the canisters with scrapbook paper covered with contact paper. so easy!

Random:

Here is my gate! I LOVE my gate. Why do I have a gate you ask? Because with a gate my children stay out of the kitchen!! I was ready to just take a piece of plywood and stick it in front of the walk way but Daniel had a better idea. He made the whole thing for me!! It turned out so good and it works really well. Isn't he the best? It also collapses so that when we need to move it it can fold and go away.

Here is the stuffed animal net I made. It was so easy and so cheap too! I took a flat twin sheet ($3 at walmart) and cut it in half, sewed a hem on the edge I cut, bunched the corners and sewed it really tight, and nailed it right into the wall. It's worked great for a long time!