Canned Food Storage

 We have been looking for a way to store our canned food that takes up less space than just putting them on a shelf.  We found inspiration on Pinterest and built our own self-rotating racks!  With just a piece of plywood and some 1x3s and some 1x2s.  Some L brackets and lots of screws we built this!!  We made sure that the cans that we wanted to put here fit in each row.  At the bottom of each row, we put this wedge piece.

 And on the wedge we screwed in an L bracket.  That way the can doesn't fall out on it's own.

 We screwed two boards with an angled cut at the top to the wall and the rack had boards with opposite angle cuts on the back. 

 Here is the first rack.  The end spot was not big enough for a can, so Toby just put two shelves and we are stacking tuna there!

 And here are both!  I love them!!!

UPDATE We had a request for more information on the canned food rack that we posted a couple of months ago.  Since it's hanging on the wall, it's kind of hard to get pictures, so I'll try to explain what I did.

If I was building it again, I'd use very thin plywood (1/4" or thinner) for the pieces that go on the front of the rack, instead of 1"x2".   They just have to be strong enough to prevent the cans from falling forward and using thinner wood would make it lighter.

The angled piece at the bottom of each row of cans was just cut from a 2x4.  My saw blade wasn't quite large enough to cut all the way to the top of a 2x4 so I cut off about 1/2" from the top of the 2x4, see Fig 1.

Then I cut the 2x4 lengthwise in half at an angle.  I angled my saw blade at around 25 deg to cut through the bottom corner and angle up to come out at the opposite top corner see Fig 2.

Once I had it cut in half at an angle, I cut the piece into 2-3" wide triangles.  These are what I attached to the bottom of each row of cans.  I glued and then drilled a countersunk hole in the angled pieces at the bottom of where the cans will go.  I then put a screw in the countersunk hole and made sure the head didn't come above the surface of the wood.  That gave me a sturdy and secure surface to attach the angle bracket.

The boards that hold it to the wall were about 1/2" thick plywood.  I cut them into strips about 6" wide.  Then, I made a 45deg cut lengthwise down the center of the strip, producing 2 3" wide pieces.  I then repeated until I had 4 3" pieces for each rack.  I marked the two halves so I knew which pieces went together, in case there was any variation in the 45deg cut.  Find the studs in your wall and mark them.  While you could use drywall anchors I think screwing the boards to the studs is much more secure. You attach two separate piece to the wall, with the cut side pointing upward and the high side of the 45deg cut away from the wall.  This creates a pocket against the wall.  If you attach it backward, the cut will slope away from the wall and the food storage rack will fall off.  I then set the other two pieces into their matching pieces on the wall.  With a second person, we then held the rack up against the 4 boards on the wall.  Quickly drive 2 screws through the rack into each of the unattached pieces.  This will connect them to the rack and make sure they match up with the 2 pieces on the wall.  I then screwed screws through the rack into both the rack mounted board and the wall mounted board to give it more strength and prevent it from moving.

Abby's Baptism

 Abby and Toby before the baptism.  She was a little nervous, but very excited!

 Family pics before the baptism.

 Family pics after.  This dress has Abby in her special dress that we got her for her baptism.  I made the jacket and flower to go with the dress.

 And of course, the silly picture. 

We are very proud of Abby and her decision to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  She is a very special girl and we love having her in our family!

Abby's Eighth Birthday Party

 For Abby's birthday this year, we let her have a sleepover.  Good Heavens, I don't remember why we agreed!  Just kidding, it was really a fun time for her.  She had her 4 best friends come over: Megan, Isabelle, Emmaline, and Grace.  The had lots of fun dressing up and playing Wii and anything else they could think of to do!!

 Thomas, Abby and Molly at the party.

 The girls playing Wipeout on the Wii.  It was hilarious!!

I still can't believe that she is 8!  They are growing up right before my eyes!!

January 2012

 Abby got her ears pierced.

 The moon looked like a bowl.

 the clouds looked so much like mountains, that I did a double take and almost thought I was back in Utah!

 I fixed Molly's hair for church one day (she usually likes to leave it down) and I loved the results!  Of course it didn't even stay up through Sacrament Meeting and it fell because her hair is sooooo straight!

 Thomas earned his bear badge and is now a Webelo!!  Go Thomas!!

New Year's Eve

 We had our neighbors and good friends come over on New Year's Eve to enjoy fireworks with us.  Here are all of the kids in the back of the van watching the show!  And here are two of the better shots of the fireworks.

Christmas 2011

Here is a small portion of our Christmas pictures from this past year.

The tree.

Thomas wearing his tie that Grandma Christensen made for him.

 The girls in their custom dresses from Grandma Christensen.  She even let them pick out their own fabrics.

 I bought these dresses on a great sale at Kohl's with the intention of using them for family pictures this year, but this is as far as we ever got.  We did finally take a family picture at Abby's baptism in Feb.

 Christmas morning with Santa gifts, Thomas got a glow in the dark hexbug set.

 Abby got her American Girl knockoff that she wanted.

 This was Molly's first year that she actually made a list and remembered what she wanted.  One of the things on her list was Christmas Barbies.  I found this set at Target for like 25 dollars.  She was so excited to get just what she asked for!

 Toby also got just what he asked for!  A 9" band saw!!  Woohoo!!

 I was so happy to get more pieces of my Willow Tree nativity.  And instead of the 100 dollar creche, Toby made me a beautiful, thoughtful, one of a kind creche!!  I love it!!

 All of the kids playing with their new stuff!  Including Toby in the background!

 Aunt Mitzi sent some cool stuff that she got in Laos.  The girls each got a beaded purse and some money from her trip.  Thomas got a shirt and some money!  They think it is sooo cool!  Thanks Aunt Mitzi!

Spelling Bee

Thomas was in the top 20 spellers in the 4th and 5th grades at his school this year. 

He got to participate in the spelling bee and he came in 10th place.  So, I guess he is the 10th best speller in our school!  And that was with very minimal studying since he found his study list the morning of the spelling bee and only studied that day!  Way to go Thomas!!

Christmas Ballet Recitals 2011

 Here are some pictures of the girls Christmas Recitals this past year.  They did pretty much the same dances as the year before, only with a much bigger class.

 If you remember last year, Molly was the only child in her class, but this year there were about 15.  She ended up quitting in February because she did not enjoy the larger class.  So this will probably be her last recital (unless she decides to try again another time).