New Attractions At The Baxter House

We have had lots of re-arranging of major non-living space at our house recently. One of our monster projects was cleaning out the garage to get all the new storage shelves moved into the garage. Since we cant get either vehicle into the garage anymore, we decided to go ahead and turn it into extra storage space. Preston's office downsized tons of furniture when they made the move to the HP site. We were lucky enough to win bids on the silent auction for the bookshelves. We have turned the garage into our own "grocery store" - lining up the shelves just like at the store, in isles, and moving all non-essential food and water storage outside. This is slowly clearing space for all of our home-canned items in glass jars to be inside where they are safer. It has been a big conversation piece in our neighborhood and having people visit. It has also become a fun maze play area for the little peeps. They love running in and out of them just like it was a big maze.
Our other big re-arrangement finally came yesterday when the new W/D arrived. When the washer died last weekend we were pretty stuck, esp after it flooded and we used every available towel to get the water up off the floors. The towels, along with mountains of laundry have been waiting until the new ones came yesterday. At first I was a bit intimidated, but we seem to be settling in with them ok.

This is where the kids and I spent a good hour together. Kaeli read through the manual as we tried to figure everything out. The kids spent most of the afternoon fascinated with watching the drum turn one way and then the other and watching all the clothes slosh around.

Ok, so I have to admit, I spent some time being fascinated myself....

Ky seemed to be the most enthralled with the whole thing. He plopped himself down with his new best friend (a stuffed duck from his primary teacher) and his new Halloween bucket, and sat and watched the wash go around and around. The funny part of watching him is that he would follow the wash drum with his head. As it went around, he would circle his head in the same direction. When it would change, so would he. It really was kind of funny. On one circle around he actually looked up at me and I just happened to have the camera in hand. It reminds me of when we got the new stove. I have picts of him and Colton in the same position, also fascinated with being able to look throught the glass and watch the food bake - esp if it was treats. Funny how the most simple things are so captivating to kiddos. We should learn a thing or two from them to find joy in the very simplest of things...
So far things seem to be going well. Both W/D hold tons more than our others did and even though the cycles are longer, I am getting 2x as much done at once. Should have all the mountains taken down to mole hills (or totally gone) by tomorrow. Extra glad that it is the weekend, hoping to have some quiet, non-stress time to just be with kids and get house stuff caught up. Will keep our fingers crossed that after so much unexpected misadventures that things will be more quiet for awhile...here's hoping.