Welcome..... Three new members to the Family

So this weekend has been exciting with the arrival of three new members to both our own family and extended family. The first arrival was our new chest freezer, all 7.2 cubic feet of pure frozen tundra. One would think that we wouldn't have room in our little apartment, but we make space for our priorities.

The freezer in its first and new home. The corner.

Our empty freezer, but not for long

The second arrival was a quarter of a cow. You may be wondering how we got only a quarter of a cow. Easy, all you have to do is raise it, kill it, and then cut it into quarters. OK, we didn't do any of that ourselves, but our friend Jed's family did. A few weeks ago Shan and Jed offered us a deal on half a cow, not an actual half a cow, but half a cow cut up into smaller pieces. Being the meet lovers that we are we said sure. Jed's family has a farm and we knew that the beef would be some good stuff. After a little thinking we thought half a cow would be too much for just the two of us so we settled for just a quarter. In the end we ended up with close to 200 lbs. of pure beef which included hamburger, roasts, ribs, steaks, and other cuts of beef. Now for a second you might have wondered where we would put a quarter of a cow, but then you remember that we just bought a new freezer (you should by now realize the true reason for buying a freezer). We are truly happy about this addition and tonight we are going to enjoy a huge T-bone steak for dinner. We'll let you know how divine it is.

Our freezer now half way filled with pure beef.

Close up of our pure beef.

For the last year and almost a half we've been taking advantage of having Michelle's grandparents living next door by using space in their garage freezer. It has been nice because Michelle likes to buy me frozen meals for my lunches when I work. She only buys then when they are on sale, so when they are she buys a lot. We have appreciated the grandparent's rent free food storage, but we've decided it time to become adults and store it ourselves.

Our freezer now full with the stuff we've been hiding in the grandparent's freezer.

Now for the final arrival...... Baby Bracken Carl Valdez son of Brett and Dyana Valdez. Michelle's sister Dyana gave birth to their first child just minutes after getting to the hospital. I will let them share the details, but we are excited for the both of them and think Bracken is just the cutest baby ever. We can wait to get one of our own in March, but that is so far away. For now we will just be content with finding out the sex of our baby this Wednesday. Keep your eyes out for a post later that day.

Bracken Carl Valdez

So little

Bracken getting his first diaper change from his father Brett.

Michelle with her newest nephew

Just five more months till I'm a Dad. It can't come soon enough.