Break 2016-2017

Cary has some time off at the end of the year, so that is nice that it coincides with the kids time off of school.

One of the mornings during our break, we drove to Petra for waffles at Ben and Chandra's, and then they let us leave our kids there. Winning! 😁

It's inevitable, and you always hope it won't be the case, but 

during the break it seems like everyone is sick. Clara was running a fever and keeping me up at nights for almost a week, the other kids just seemed to have a cough/cold but it didn't turn into anything major like it usually does. We've been really healthy this year and no major illnesses or anything occurred until December! I think that is some sort of record for us. 

 I gave these mugs to Cary, a few quotes from a favorite tv show of ours. 😄

(Kenneth did the drawing on the mugs for me)

Our new project! We took our bedroom closet, and the hall closet.

What the rest of the house looked like when we took out all the stuff out of the closets.Yikes!

One morning I drove Aidan over to the Border to meet up with Nomi and Charlie. On the way back I took advantage and stopped to take photos of the foggy morning we were having.

This photo was overlooking the reservoir. 

Looking towards EskDale

Britton working on his reading.

Hanukkah, New Year!

Hanukkah started on Christmas Eve this year, and the last night of Hanukkah was on New Years Eve. It was actually kind of convenient. 😁

We lit the hanukkiah for the first night during the Christmas Eve service, and then we just ended up combining the Hanukkah party with our New Years party. 

A few photos from Hanukkah, but most are from the last night, our Hanukkah party/ New Years Eve party.

Tabitha and Cheri helped me out by making the donuts and apple fritters! 

Clara loves this game! 

This was the first year she's stayed up all night. She's usually a 7:30 and she's done kind of girl, but she's been doing a little better with late nights.

We had snow on the ground, and when I walked across the community around 9:00 that night, the fog was settling in, so when it was time for the fireworks, there was fog and hoar frost on the trees and the effect was incredible. It was SO pretty! I only had my phone with me so I took this picture and then my phone died! Ugh.

I noticed Cary wasn't using his, so I grabbed his phone and took a few more pictures, but I was really wishing I had my big camera with me!

New Front Door

 One of the first things I wanted to change when we moved to this house, (besides everything) 😉 was the front door. It's your typical 6 panel steel door, but we learned the hard way with the back door into the laundry room that these doors were not a "standard" size, and the bore holes were different. Wah, wah. 😓

The most offensive part about the existing door was that the frame was installed wrong (not the door's fault) but the fit was not very tight and so there were gaps on the top, bottom and sides. Not very useful for trying to keep hot or cold air out. Cary has tried over time to fix the frame as much as he can, and fill in the gaps with weather stripping,.

I researched around and it became apparent that it would have to go the custom route (semi-custom at best) and I we put that in the "not gonna happen for a few years" pile. 

Last summer I was searching on KSL classifieds looking for a door for our office, and I happened upon a door that I thought would be perfect for our front door. Cary happened to be in Layton, so I asked him if he would stop by and check it out. Long story short, he came home with the door.

It is a wood door, so we are taking our chances, especially with our front door being on the west side of the house. In this case though, wood was perfect because this door was just an unfinished slab so we could cut it down to the size we needed and also router in our own holes for hinges, door knob, and lockset. 

The only pictures I could find of the front door (March 2014)

a close up of the threshold area. (don't mind the cute kid and cat)💖

The front door from the inside (November 2013)

November 2013

November 2016, right after we finished the office

The door is in the top right of this photo. We picked it up in August, but waited until we were done with the office before doing any work on it before staining, sealing, and routing holes. I debated leaving it it's original color, but thought going a more walnut brown with the outside of our house would look better. I did leave the side in the house slightly lighter than the outside side.

After install, but no trim up 

I like the little bit of extra light it lets in.

We're pretty happy with it so far. Cary also replaced the rusting out aluminum that was under the threshold and put some Trex type material there.

We even got a door knocker for practical reasons and for fun. 😁