Merry Christmas!

Lance and I attended our annual white elephant party with Shilo Hills ward friends. We hosted our Bell Tower Christmas dinner at Churchill's Steakhouse and had all five full time employees (plus a guest) minus Heather who was sick. Churchill's NEVER disappoints so it was nice to enjoy each other without discussing work. We also attended another white elephant party with friends from our West Valley ward. We walked away with gourmet chocolates and new washcloths. 

Christmas Eve jammies! Ezra is so skinny that he needs an extra, extra slim fit in all of his clothes but for some reason these pajama pants were about 10" too long. But they're so soft and he loves them! We played games all night together as we snacked on Christmas goodies, meats and cheeses, crackers and chips, and Martinelli's of course.

I didn't take any pictures of Christmas day aside from the gifts Donna made for the kids, and Ezra's super long sniper rifle. It's so big it made me chuckle.

These are the cute gifts that Donna made the kids. Kimball's is a Mario mystery cube, Ezra's is a super soft dinosaur, and Cora's is a flower doll. The dress (petals) folds up and turns the doll into a flower.

We're so grateful for friends and family who remember us year after year when we don't live near them. FAMILY IS EVERYTHING!!! I loved getting to celebrate Christ's birth with so much music this year, nothing invites the spirit quicker and it is especially so in public settings. I'm thankful for my Savior and know He lives and loves us. He is in the tiny details of our lives and I'm so grateful for the daily tender mercies that I don't deserve but receive.

 

Christmas Traditions

Time for our annual ornaments! I had planned to make two different ornaments with the kids this year but only ended up doing one with them. Look at these adorable windows! The kids did a great job.

I had also planned for the kids to make these ugly sweater Christmas ornaments but as I started to make Christine's, I quickly found it to be very time consuming, lots of tiny details, and too much cutting for little hands. But I think these ornaments for Christine turned out hilarious!

Christmas baking! The kids helped me make caramel, two batches of fudge, party chex mix, chip dips,  gingerbread cookies, and a few others I can't remember. We're still snacking away at them, yummy!

 

Kinetico Cake!

Christine was commissioned to make an illusion cake for the Kinetico Christmas party. Check out her water softener!!! So proud of her!

 

Impatient Shenanigans

These two have to sit in the car with me while Kimball does his piano lessons. And when it's already dark at 4pm, they struggle to contain their energy.

 

Kimball's Choir Concert and Winter Piano Recital

This handsome kid had a middle school choir concert and his winter piano recital. He rocked both of them of course, and we're grateful she's chosen music to be a part of his life. He's got a gift for making up his own songs on the piano and is always asking his teacher for harder music. It is fun seeing how much progress he has made this year. He is one of three boys in his choir class but he really likes the choir teacher and makes singing a treat instead of a chore for the students.

 I have a video of his recital song but it won't upload here.

Savannah's Visit

Savannah came up to visit Charity for a whole week which was so much fun for her. The first two days Charity worked so Savannah and I palled around doing Mom stuff. I was able to go shopping with them for a whole day while the kids were at school! I definitely felt like a mom as my role was to go get different sizes of clothing from the floor for the girls to try on, but we had such a great time. Those two girls are a hoot!!

Savannah instantly fell in love with Murphy and wanted to take him home, haha. It was nice for Savannah to experience Charity's life in the YSA ward, a good group of church member friends, and just a taste of independence. She said she's made some goals for herself when she gets home so she can improve her spirituality and meet goals in that regard. Savannah is the party! I mean that girl is just a ball of optimism and happiness, it is so easy to be around her and instantly feel loved and valued. She definitely has a gift for that. She said she wants to come back in the summer before she goes to college at ISU so we'll see if that actually happens. She's always welcome here!

 

The SpoCottage

On black friday 2022, Lance and I signed papers to purchase Riplinger Funeral Home. The entire purchase includes the business, funeral home property, and a little gray house behind it. We turned around and sold the business portion because Lance does not have time to run a second funeral home, so in regard to the actual funeral home we only own the property. The property includes a sizeable three bedroom apartment above the chapel that we rent out to our business partner.

The little gray house quickly became my project. It's a small three bedroom, one bath house approximately 825sqft. and had been sitting unoccupied for 4 years. We discussed fixing it up and renting it on Airbnb. I found a painter (who didn't do a very good job) so every wall has new paint, he patched up the ceiling, and did some texture work. After that was finished I discovered a leak in the basement coming from the bathroom. Uh oh. We had to completely gut the bathroom as there was water damage and mold everywhere, including the subfloor. Since the guy had to redo the bathroom floor we decided to go ahead and replace the kitchen floor as well. We installed all new light fixtures, knobs and handles, light switches, and blinds.

We did install an automatic sprinkler system since we can't be there everyday to move hoses around to water the grass. We also had to replace the VERY old furnace and figured we might as well put central AC in as well. 

Then came the fun part for me as I got to decorate the whole house! I kept it all pretty minimal and simple, only playing up colors, patterns, and textures. I knew with it being a Bnb that most home-like finishing touches wouldn't be practical. I tried to maximize the number of beds in the small bedrooms so even though there's only 3 bedrooms it will very comfortably sleep 7, more if some sleep on the couches. My goal was it to make each room very calming and comfortable.

It does have an unfinished full basement which is where the washer and dryer are located. We may finish out the basement to have a master suite and small living room down there, but not for several years. The house has a decent sized yard and next year the plan is to install a six foot privacy fence and spruce up the landscaping.

It has been a fun project for me to do and now when it is rented, I have to go after each stay and clean it from top to bottom. It doesn't take too long because the house is small and I'm pretty sure it is cleaner than my house. Below are the before and after pictures of each room.

This is the itty bitty master, good bye to the purple walls. I love my poppy curtains, they pack a punch!

This is the largest bedroom which has a full-over-full bunk bed and a pull-out twin size trundle bed. There's also room for a crib which gets stored in the closet. Again, I played with patterns and colors to maximize the homy feel without "stuff."

No more green walls in this bedroom.

Before and after of the bathroom. Once it was gutted the contractor was surprised to find all the walls are made of plywood, not lathe and plaster, nor sheetrock. He also found hundreds of razor blades hidden behind the wall because back in the 50's people didn't know how to dispose of razors and medicine cabinets were equipment with a hole to the wall for disposal.....only to be discovered 70+years later.

The kitchen had fairly new cabinets and all appliances were in good shape. We only replaced the flooring, faucet, light fixtures, and cabinet pulls. Not in this photo is a beautiful scenic picture of Spokane mountains above the sink.

Not much needed done with the living room, just new paint. Having new blinds and installing appropriate curtains make all the difference! This house has a lot of fairly new windows so it has great natural light.

I forgot I marked up this photo, haha. I love the red striped curtains! They make the room feel bigger with the vertical stripes, the linen texture add appeal and not pictured in this photo is a large picture of downtown Spokane at night. It's beautiful! It also has pops of red so it brings out the curtains and pulls the entire room together.