February 2024 Projects

You know that one project around the house that you've tried to get up the energy to tackle multiple times, but just couldn't handle tackling? Maybe you've even attempted to take it on a couple of times but then decided that "out of sight, out of mind" was a decent mantra and tackled something else more pressing instead? Well, for us, that monster of a project was our kids' craft room in our basement, specifically their closet. It had been stuffed with discarded projects for a while, and I had gone down a couple of times with the intention of cleaning it out, only to be thwarted by the sheer size and mental energy needed for the task. It was a figurative monster in the closet! Finally in February, Brian and I metaphorically held hands for bravery and attacked the monster. It took so long to go through it, but we were finally successful.

Things we found in the wreckage of the closet: A shoe that Michael had made at one point. 

One of the airplanes he made back when he was really into making airplanes. 

The reason this taking on this closet was so hard is because the closet was chock full of our kids creative endeavors, and in some ways, it felt like we were throwing away pieces of their souls. We went through boxes that we had hurriedly packed back when we moved in 2020, boxes that contained coloring books and art stuff that we clearly hadn't missed throughout the last four years. We threw away or recycled so much stuff to bring order to that closet. We saved the best pieces of art, and got rid of the rest. It was incredibly satisfying! After we finished purging the closet, we finally attached the tree Rachel, Michael, and I did together back in our Fox Hollow house to the bottom of our Murphy bed. 

The closet looks so much better! 

Brian also got to work installing the French Barn doors that he got me for Christmas. He did drop something on his foot again, though I suppose it's been almost four years since he drew blood from his feet during a project, but to sort of quote him, you think he'd learn to wear shoes when working with tools! 

I love these doors so much! When we removed the closet from our downstairs entryway, I insisted we save the glass from the above door transom (all the interior doors downstairs have transom windows above them, and the closed door was no exception). The glass is a beautiful seeded glass, and I wanted to use it in these doors as a tribute. We took our saved glass to Jones Paint and Glass, along with the panels of glass that came with our doors and had them cut the old piece to the size of one of the glass panels in the door kit. They were able to find glass that matched our seeded glass and make five additional panels of glass to replace the original kit glass. When we put the doors from the kit together, we used the beautiful seeded glass instead of what came with it. I love how these upstairs doors now tie into our downstairs doors and really make these doors special. I can't tell which was our re-used piece and which ones are new. 

We did have to figure out a door stop that would keep the office door from breaking the new laundry room door. We finally landed on a door stopper attached to the office door. We were pretty nervous about breaking glass until we got that solution in place. 

I love that I no longer have a door blocking the cupboards in the laundry room! It feels so much more spacious in there without the inner swinging door. All that is left to do is patch where the old door catch hinges used to be.

Of course, Brian's always has a project or twenty going on at work, as well as a side app we're still trying to develop. Brian always has to be doing something, and usually that something is a project on the computer. 

While taking my studio architecture class in the fall, I decided we needed better lighting in the office, so I found a light that I thought would be better for that, and Brian switched it out for me. 

This decision led us to the goal to replace all the boob lights in our house, so I ordered a few more light fixtures to work towards that goal, and Brian happily replaced them. 

In February's episode of "Trying to Keep the Garage Organized", Brian decided to get better hosing for his shop vac. 

And organize this wall some more. 

I decided to pull out the quilt I started back when Rachel was a toddler. I had started this quilt as a way to support my friend Chelsi while her husband was going through treatment for brain cancer. I never finished it, and I decided it was time to do so. 

I pulled out all my completed blocks, took pictures of each kind and tallied how many of each kind I had, and then threw the photos into Photoshop on my tablet to lay the blocks out digitally and plan how to put them together. I think I decided that I needed a few more blocks, so I also got busy making those blocks. 

 I didn't finish the quilt in February, but it made for a nice reason to visit my craft room while I started working on it again. 

January 2024 Everyday Life

In between anniversary and birthday celebrations (and skiing/snowboarding trips), we had a fairly decent, though cold January. I started off the year with my silly childhood tradition of stepping into the snow barefoot. I make sure to do this once a year. It all started when one of my siblings ripped my boots off while we were playing in the snow, hoping to punish me for whatever thing I had done to annoy them that day, and being the stubborn person I am, I pretended that it didn't bother me to walk around in the snow without my boots. Now it's a thing. I sent this picture to Cal and Chelsea. 

Michael loves spending his spare time out in the woodshop/garage. I love that he's doing something creative instead of spending all his time on some kind of electronic. 

He carved this handle for a hand plane that my grandpa gave him. 

The day after getting back from our cruise and Idaho trip (the one that started in December, not the one I just blogged about), Serene invited us to go to the play "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder," and we decided to go. It was so funny! We were laughing so hard throughout, thanks to the talents of the actor who plays multiple characters. 

Jen also came, so it was fun to hang with her. Serene saw so many theater friends there that night that we never got a photo with her. 

Would it be January in Highland without lots of this action happening? 

When Rachel is not at school or dance, she can often be found just like this: 

She tries to squeeze in her leisure screen time whenever she can get it. Notice that she's wearing her ballet tights? Yup, she's grabbing a half hour after getting home from dance and before she has to go to bed. This girl is so busy! 

We gave Gabe a book of gift cards for his birthday (because he LOVES food and we thought he could use more one-on-one time with us.) He invited Rachel along when he used this gift card to Mi Ranchitos in January. These two love Mexican food! 

His gift card included enough for him to try fried ice cream as well. Those gift cards were burning a hole in his pocket throughout the entire month--he couldn't wait to use them! 

I got a new white dress to wear to the temple, but the sleeves were sheer and the inner lining only went to just below my knees instead of to my ankles, so I took apart my old temple dress and used the sleeve and skirt linings in my new dress. Ta-dah! Up-cycling for the win! 

Throughout the month, there were even times that the kids chose to spend time together. It feels rare somedays, but maybe that's what makes these moments so spectacular. 

We have some ladies come to our house every other week to clean it. I always feel a little guilty or something admitting that out loud, but I'm so grateful that we can do this. We tidy the whole house up (which takes an hour or two), and then come and do the actual cleaning. Sometimes, we laugh at how they put things back together when they're all done, like when they put this bathtub tray back upside down. 

Brian took some time to organize the garage--again. It feels like a constantly on-going (or re-doing) endeavor. With Michael's new tool stand that Gabe and Brian made him for Christmas, we just didn't have room for this guy anymore (well, Brian actually wants something bigger to go somewhere else) so this guy got a new home with Cal. 

Which meant all the tools that were in there now needed to go in here. 

Rachel got this sweet pop-out card for her birthday from Nana and Papa, and here's Gabe checking it out. This was probably supposed to go in her birthday post, but it got missed. 

We found this giant Lamb Chops toy and considered buying it for Gracie, but we opted to go another route. 

Rachel got a fish from school. It died. 

Brian made a drawer to go under our stove top. Surprisingly, it doesn't get hot under there. 

We LOVE how it turned out; he did such a good job. 

And this freed up three drawers to be used for something else! 

We had Tyce, Peter, Michael, and Kristina over for game night in January. We even sang around the player piano, and it was so wonderful having them all here. We adore all these people and are so grateful for their friendship (Peter left before we got a picture). 

Lea came over one night to get a pedicure from Rachel, and Rachel adored every minute of it. 

Gabe and Rachel both enjoyed using her foot bath. 

We must have got her these shoes for her birthday. That's the only thing that makes sense with this picture since Rachel is wearing them with one of her leos, which she would never do in public, so I'm guessing she's trying them on here. 

Our newish ward finally made ministering assignments for the Relief Society in January. They decided to try a new thing where your ministering sister is the sister you also minister to, and then we each got put into a "circle" for added support. This has been so incredible for me personally. They introduced this Circles concept at a dinner in January and had us sit with the ladies in our circle. We then introduced ourselves and talked about how we could help each other. I mentioned that since getting diagnosed with A-fib, I have struggled with getting back in shape. I needed to go so much slower and build to every one else's normal ability. I told them about how discouraged I was by how difficult it was to just go on a simple walk. These women basically said, "We've got you" and we stared going on walks together in the rain and snow. They constantly checked to see if they were going too fast for me or if the distance was too far. One of them, Lindsay, told me about how several years ago, she had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and had been in a similar situation with her own health. She knew what it was like to start from scratch and lovingly taught and encouraged me to have patience with myself. I will forever be grateful to these women who walked with me, at my pace, in the cold winter months, so I could regain my ability to walk distances again. My heart is still not in the shape I want it to be, and it might never be, but I feel like my overall health is so much better, and I owe so much of that to these women.  Thank you, Brooke, Lindsay, Afton, and Annika for literally walking beside me during one of my biggest trials. 

I'm so grateful for our new ward, even if that meant we got stuck with the 1:30 church time. We love being able to go to church and worship with such amazing people. 

Did I mention that Michael spends much of his spare time working with hand tools in the garage? 

Near the end of the month, Brian got to go see his dad conduct the Utah Premiere Brass in concert in Provo. He even got a picture of Kirt next to this giant poster of Kirt. 

And then we woke up to February.