You can never have too much STORAGE!!!

Being the organization freak that I am, I find that I never have enough storage. The Master Bedroom closet in our house is huge - about the same size as the bedroom we used for the nursery in our home in CT - but the space was poorly allocated. So Al and I decided to reconfigure the entire closet and add some much needed storage. That's what we've been working on for the last couple weeks. We are also in the process of really bulking up our food storage and we desperately need some place to put it all. The garage is out because of the high temps we reach during the summer and we don't have a basement. We finished painting all the shelving a few nights ago and I've spent the afternoon unpacking boxes and putting everything away (there's that nesting instinct going again). So here are some after shots. The top two shelves are deep and tall enough to hold huge plastic storage tubs or 5 gallon buckets of food storage. From the floor to the bottom shelf is high enough for 5 gallon buckets as well.

Where the shelving is now used to have one hanging rack on 2 of the 3 walls. The top shelf goes all the way around the closet. And we still have plenty of shelving to grow into.

This wall used to have one hanging rack so we moved it up and added another shelf for all of our shirts and my skirts (and yes, I ROYGBIV my clothes according to season)

The opposite wall is slightly longer than this and holds all of our pants and my dresses. We also have a large crawl space under the stairs in our closet where we will put the bulk of the food storage.

I've also mentioned that Al and I have never been able to store all of our clothes in one place before due to older homes and small closets. This little exercise has also taught me that not having ample storage and access to things probably makes you overbuy. I am dying over how many pair of shoes I own. Three plus shelves worth makes me think I really DON'T need any more shoes for awhile!!

Without further ado... kids rooms!!

Sheesh. Has it taken us long enough? After all my whining and complaining, I thought I should post the finished products. I really do love how both rooms turned out. Here you go:


Makenna and Baby's room:


Close up of the vinyl lettering above the dresser:
I obviously still have a lot of accessorizing to do here. Not the time of year to be finding a lot of pink and green in the stores. I will do a matching name sign and picture frames above Baby's bed when we finalize our name decision. I have also ordered this in hot pink from PBK for the corner of the room by the bookcase. The part of the room that took the longest was the bead board and the huge moulding above it (two pieces of moulding). I adore how it turned out though. Allen did say that if I ever want bead board again to get a job, save my money and hire someone to do it for me (only half kidding, I think).

Carter's room:

The small wall walking into his room:What I LOVE about the paint job is that it is just one big accessory. I really feel like I don't need anything more on the walls. I have one other thing to put up but need to figure out how to incorporate it into his room. He is also getting a PBK chair for his room, but in red that will go in the corner by the window.

Thanksgiving Weekend (now with pictures!)

Happy Very Belated Thanksgiving! We had a great, busy weekend. Allen's mom and little sister Laurie joined us for the weekend and we had a great time.

Earlier in the week we also decided to tackle some home improvement projects this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday night we painted Carter's bedroom. On Thursday morning we TOTALLY broke tradition since I didn't watch the Macy's Thanksgiving parade (a tradition from my childhood) and Al didn't play football (a huge, huge tradition from his childhood). Al was pretty bummed that he missed the ward Turkey bowl but it started a couple hours earlier than he thought. Anyway, we spent the morning setting up all our office shelving and unpacking our hundreds of books. Incidentally, Allen has finally decided he can part with his engineering text books and even some of his books from MBA school - hallelujah!!

Allen's mom and sister came down at about noon and we headed over to our friends the Nobles house for dinner. Al's family and the Nobles have been friends for decades and we have hung out with them a lot since we've moved to Phoenix. It was SO nice to be invited to have Thanksgiving with them. The best part for me is that I didn't have to do ANY cooking. Al's mom made 8 pies and I provided some ice cream and toppings and that was IT!! We had a great time. The weather was great, we got to eat in the back yard (in the 70s and quite pleasant), the kids got to play with their friends for hours, good food, etc. Here we are before dinner:

On Friday, LJ decided to brave some Black Friday shopping with me. We actually only hit a few places so it wasn't bad. I finished up ALL my Christmas shopping except for a few things for Allen. It's so nice to be done and know I don't have to brave the crowds unless I want to. We went to Costco, Gymboree and a little home decor store here in town and that is it. Early Friday evening we headed to Mesa to eat at yummy Rosa's (my SIL Tess' favorite AZ restaurant)

and see the lights at the Mesa temple. It was so much fun and we were actually COLD. It's funny because it was in the 50s but it felt really cold to us - I guess the climatization really has begun for us. The kids had a great time and loved the lights. Carter in front of the manger scene.

Saturday was just a whirlwind of projects. Al, LJ and I finished up Carter's room -- I seriously love it so much I could cry. I cannot wait to share pictures of the kids' rooms as soon as we get everything on the walls. Al's mom was a real trooper and kept the kids totally entertained for most of the day by taking them shopping and out to lunch and then later to the park, etc. We had a nice family dinner and spent hours visiting.

Yesterday was so super busy. Al and I spoke in Sacrament Meeting and I taught Relief Society on Elder Oaks' amazing conference talk Good, Better, Best. I made homemade chocolate chip cookies for the entire RS to illustrate the principle of Good, Better, Best (good =Chips Ahoy, better=toll house premade cookie dough, best=homemade cookies). The ladies LOVED it and I was happy with how both the talk and lesson went. We were both so relieved when church was over yesterday and spent the rest of the day together as a family. Now we're ready to tackle decorating for Christmas and finishing up the kids' room. We had a great Thanksgiving and are grateful for all of our abundant blessings. Hope you had a great one too!

(ETA: I'm still having major issues uploading to blogger-hence the missing pictures. Would really love to throw the router out the window--except I like surfing the internet from the comfort of my own bed occassionally. Anyway, LJ has better pictures of the family that I will get from her and add later.)