What a week!

Last week we started our basement remodel! Can you hear the hammers pounding and saws sawing?! It's pretty noisy around here. We hired a company for the remodel...adding a bedroom/office, bathroom, and a family room and play area for the kids. Come June when Baby arrives, we will lose the guest room upstairs for the new nursery. The new bedroom downstairs will serve as a guest room and an office space for Brent when he is working from home. The new bathroom will add to our current 1 bathroom house. A bathroom for guests and for Anna when she is older and wants to hog the mirror. And the new family room will be great for a much needed play area for Anna and Baby. Right now our dining room is half dining room and half play room, which is very crowded and causes us to often eat dinner with toys under our feet. The goal is that the basement will be done before Christmas, fingers crossed!

Basement before.

Basement currently. Studs up for bedroom and bathroom walls. And yes, a lovely hole in the floor for bathroom plumbing.

In the mean time, Anna and I have been mostly hanging around home while the "worker men" (as she calls them) work. We have been finding fun things to keep us busy. Here she is having fun with play dough and cookie cutters.

I was invited to a cookie exchange last week. We were asked to make 8 dozen cookies to share and exchange. That's 8 dozen. Eight, count them, eight. So 8 I made. But it was a joint effort - my mom found the recipe and Brent helped me every step of the way. 8 dozen cookies is not an easy task, but quite the accomplishment when all said and done. The party was fun and I came home with 8 dozen cookies made by my friends. Any one want a cookie?? I made Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. 8 dozen of these babies....

Here's to basements, play dough, and crinkle cookies. What a week!!