snow, half-birthday

In January, we got some snow and celebrated Kimee and Audrey's half-birthday.

January 21 was Kimee and Audrey's half-birthday. Kimee is now officially 8 1/2 and Audrey is 5 1/2.

On Jan. 22, the girls went outside and made these snowmen.

 Kimee's Snowman- "Icee"

Audrey's snowman- "Snowflake"

Maddi's "Snow Princess"

HOUSE before/after photos

We have done so many things to the house, but haven't taken pictures of everything. Here are a few things we have done...

Kitchen Stove - built in oven was broken, wanted to replace with something more usable, make the area more functional
BEFORE:

 AFTER:

Kitchen Dining Area-
BEFORE:

AFTER:
added in blue beadboard to match the blue countertops. Counter height dining so we can enjoy the view outside.

Downstairs Hall
BEFORE:
wall separated a hallway and a small storage area

 AFTER:
Took out wall to make a toy room. Window was previously in the storage area, so taking out the wall brought in a lot of natural light.

Family Room
BEFORE:
There was a wall and a door separating the downstairs from the upstairs. And note the wall paper.

(One of four walls we took out)

AFTER:

Now the family room is open to the main floor.

Front porch
BEFORE: (This is really a middle picture- I never took a before, when the entire post was wrapped with a giant wisteria trunk and wisteria was completely covering the entire overhang.)

AFTER:

Laundry/Craft Room
BEFORE:
One area we turned into shelves for all my stuff :)

AFTER:
(still not completely done, I have painting to do.)

GIRLS ROOMS (no before pictures)

Birthday, New Year's Eve

This year, for my birthday, I really wanted to paint. I asked Dave to paint for me as my birthday present. So we spent the day painting walls. It was wonderful. The day before, my parents babysat for us so we could go out to lunch, which was nice.

On Dec. 30th, we had a BYU Bowl game party with our friends the Foxes and Sinemas. It was awesome to have friends over and just hang out and visit.

 We also stopped in at Chuck E. Cheese during the Christmas break on a day we were running errands in Orem. It was a total surprise for the kids! (I think I had a couple coupons that were expiring :)

We were so excited to finally have our fireplace and chimney fixed for New Year's Eve. We built a fire, roasted marshmallows, and watched a movie. It was wonderful end to a busy year.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas.
Grandma and Grandpa, and Jill and Duane were able to come over for Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning... the girls ready to come down the stairs.

We had probably our smallest Christmas ever, as far as presents go, this year. The girls got books, horses, a Barbie, and little pillow pets. They were thrilled with everything Santa left in their stockings and were as happy as could be.

 Letter to Santa:

The Smith's and Grandma P. came over to our house for breakfast this year. We had stirum and waffles, fruit and bacon, and probably more yummy stuff.

Kimee was thrilled to get a book she had been asking for, Janitors. Her teacher had been reading it to them and arranged to have the author come and do an assembly at the school

Having fun playing in boxes during Christmas break. We left them up in the living room for a few days or so... They also spent days making Shrinky Dinks with the kits they got.

(Sorry for the lack of details. This is why I need to post much more regularly. I forget things so easily.)

Arizona

We had the most wonderful trip to Arizona in November to be there for our niece/ cousin's baptism. It really was almost a perfect vacation/family get-together.

We caravanned with Jill and Duane, which made it much more fun. We drove down to Las Vegas early Wednesday morning. We arrived around 2pm and were allowed to check in early! It really was a blessing, because we went straight to the pools. The lazy river was really cold, so we went to another pool. There wasn't much time left before the sun went behind the buildings. It was pretty cold. Then we headed to the hot tubs. Jill and I made a yummy taco dinner and then we went back out to a different hot tub for one last swim. We left bright and early in the morning so we could get to AZ ASAP!

We thought we would be able to see the Hoover Dam, but they built a new road and you can't see one little bit of it.

When we got to Phoenix, we drove straight to the house we were renting. Dad met us there. We didn't waste a minute getting into the pool. The guys got busy relaxing. It was so awesome!

 That evening Mike and Johanna flew in. Sage and Kimee slept in the top bunk. SOOO CUTE! It reminds me of when they were babies, only 3 months apart.

Friday morning we went for a hike up South Mountain.

 All girls!

 taking a rest

 We made it!

 Mike and Jo

 After a ways of hiking, Audrey got very tired. She wanted to give up. We told her how cool it would be if she could get to the top and tell her teacher at school and all her friends that she hiked to the top of a mountain all by herself. That really motivated her. She did it herself and was cheerful about it. We were SO proud of her.

 You could see all of Phoenix from this view. One of the coolest things that happened was, while we were up climbing up there, we saw some planes coming in to land at the airport. When we were at the top, Lora noticed that it was almost time for Janna's flight to come in. We watched her plane circle around and land. I texted her right as we were watching it and said, "We are watching your plane land right now from the top of the mountain." She replied, "Awesome! We saw you! Just kiddin'"

This happened at 11:11am on Nov. 11, 2011! I will remember it forever!

When we got back to the house, Mark and Trista, Matthew and Ashlyn came over. They drove in from California and stayed with friends in the area. Maddi and Matthew played very well together.

We had a big dinner that night with everyone. Jill and Trista serenaded us with the ukelele and violin.

On Saturday morning, we went to Sage's baptism. It turned out very nice.

 all the girl cousins that came

Lora and Sage, so beautiful

The rest of the day was spent swimming, eating, playing games, and paying tribute to Sage. We had a huge brunch sponsored by Grandma and Grandpa. That night we had a nice dinner and a special program to spotlight Sage. It was the end of a wonderful weekend.

On the way home, we decided to drive through the night Saturday so that the kids would just sleep through it and we could get home faster.

Kimee and Audrey slept the whole way, but Maddi had a hard time. She cried a lot. She kept saying that she wanted to go home and snuggle with dad. As we got closer, we kept telling her that we were almost home.  When we finally pulled into the driveway, she got very mad. "Not THIS house!" Sorry, Maddi. She wanted to be at the one with the pool and all the cousins. On the way to Arizona, I said I didn't want to go back for a long time. It's such a long drive. But after being in that fun house, I decided it would be worth it to go back again if we could stay there. It was awesome!