Clara Turns 12!

Sweet Clara turned 12 a couple days ago! She's such an amazing young lady - she truly cares about others and surprises me with her talents. She's growing up so fast and her maturity is a little intimidating at times. She's learning piano and violin and still bakes any chance she gets. We sure love her!

We celebrated with a date at Farmington Station after her first orchestra concert. Then the night before her birthday, she went skiing at Brighton with Barry, Quinton, Triston, and Connor. We spent her birthday spoiling her with presents, shopping, a gift exchange game, watching The Muppets Christmas Carol at the theater, and seeing some Christmas lights. She also requested to make her own gingerbread house from scratch. It was fun to have Shari and Grandma here. Grandma made the kids some awesome robes for Christmas.

 

Braces!

Clara is the first lucky duck to get braces in the family. Quinton probably needs them too, but his teeth can wait. Warren unfortunately might need 2 rounds of braces, so we will see how it goes. I'm glad Clara can still smile!

Warren and Sawyer Playing Basketball

This was Sawyer's first year playing rec basketball and he had a pretty great coach! He really liked it. I didn't get any great pictures of Warren's team, but he also did great playing 3rd grade basketball. I love seeing them try so hard and improve their skills.

Miles Turns 3!

Look who's 3! Miles is growing up so much! He talks all the time and astounds us with his smarts. He's sweet and snuggly and getting more and more stubborn. We sure love him!

To celebrate we spoiled him with presents, went to the zoo, made him his favorites, whacked a pinata, and had a Mickey donut cake.

November

Miles figured out a new way to go on walks.

Warren has been reading like crazy this year and is loving Harry Potter!

Barry and I are thoroughly enjoying having Quinton and Clara as babysitters. We ate at a neat place called Prarie Schooners one night.

Sawyer received the Make Your Mark award at school.

I finally talked Clara into giving away her giant pink unicorn her friend Kayloni gave her years ago.

She also did a science experiment for school making marshmallows.

House to Home

This post is mostly for my own satisfaction. We've been in our house over 3 years now, and thanks to being homebound and fairly crazy, we (mostly I, Barry's not a fan) painted every room in our house this year. I've posted before and after photos with pictures from the original house listing. Pictures don't really do it justice. The house had been a rental for 15+ years and no one had taken very good care of it at all. The carpet had holes, tears, and pet hair in it. The white linoleum in the kitchen also had holes and was no longer white. The downstairs bathroom had a linoleum that can only be described as a yellow poop color. The curtains all were caked in dust and spider webs. The yard and garden were a complete disaster and Barry has brought it back to life and we painted/replaced the fences as well. 

We were fortunate to get the carpet and kitchen floor replaced before we moved in, but everything else was fixed while living here, including bathroom/laundry floors, light fixtures, painting all the cabinetry and the railing in the kitchen and bathrooms, whitewashing the mammoth 80's fireplace, cleaning and organizing over and over again to make our stuff fit in a downsized house, framing the bathroom mirrors, and so much more. The dining table we had when we moved in was way too big. We bought another one that was too big as well, so I finally made one to fit the narrow space and it works so much better. We were also able over time to get the windows replaced (they let in so much cold/hot air and some you couldn't even see through) as well as the countertops with new granite ones. Moving to Utah from Idaho was fairly agonizing, considering how much more money houses cost here and how much less space you get for your dollar, but we were very blessed to find a fixer-upper in a tricky market and nice neighborhood and make it our own.