What Do You Do in the Wintertime?

Here are a few random pictures from my cell phone during the winter season.  We were always up to something.  Sometimes, it was fun.  Other times, it was mundane.  But, here's our life in a series of random pictures.

This is what it looks like when we go to the dentist.  It's chaotic to say the least.  There's me and all four kids shoved into a little room, and--yes--I'm sitting next to Viv on the chair because she was freaking out about getting her teeth cleaned.  Always an adventure...

Do you see what I have to deal with (and ignore) when I fill in on the weekday morning show?  Haha...

Aiden and I miniature golfing on a date...

Before leaving, Aiden decided that he needed to make sure all the putters were facing the same direction.  Apparently, he's inherited a little OCD from me.  Sorry, son...

Then we went to get ice cream and celebrate our OCDness...

Mike and I took Cohen and Viv on a double date in January.  Viv is crying in this picture because her ice cream was "too cold".  Yes, you read that right.  She's upset because her ice cream is too cold.  Haha...

Girl Scout cookie time...

My view each weekend--the 2News Weather Center...

One of the perks of working the weekend morning show is the food each Sunday morning.  This particular morning, we had a local company called Cirkels on the show.  They made stroopwaffles, a Danish cookie sandwich.  Each stroopwaffle is cut in half, then one side is covered in caramel, and the halves are then put back together to create a cookie sandwich.  You can then add toppings to the top of each stroopwaffle as well...

They were heavenly.  My job doesn't suck...

Well, this picture just screams winter, doesn't it?  This was a cold, dense fog that settled into Utah County late in January...

We have a lot of growth in our area, and as some of the new businesses open up, they offer free stuff for the first x number of people in line.  McDonald's started this trend when they offered a free extra value meal each week for one year to the first 100 people in line.  Mike and some of his friends camped out, and got free McDonald's for a year.  Well, Wendy's did the same thing when they opened a few months ago, so Mike and his friends did the same thing.  Here he is, waiting in the cold for his free year of Wendy's...

Some of the other crazies in line with him...

Gorgeous sunset from the Provo City Center Temple Open House...

Cohen and Vivvie playing with their shell pets we brought them from the Bahamas...

On a sad note, a good friend of mine was shot and killed back in January.  Officer Doug Barney was a Unified Police Officer that was also one of our officers at KUTV.  He was shot in the head and killed by a man fleeing from a car accident.  He had walked me to my car just 10 hours before being killed.  His final words to me were to "stay safe".  I told him to do the same, and he said, "Oh, I always do."  Little did he know that he wouldn't be able to stay safe just a few hours later.  I attended his funeral with some of my co-workers.  Afterwards, I rushed home and grabbed my kids so we could watch the procession along the freeway as his fellow officers from around the country accompanied Doug to his final resting place...

The ribbon from his funeral...

Here's Vivvie reading a book to her little Minnie Mouse.  She's such a good little mommy...

I love this picture!  So much excitement!  I don't even know what they were so excited about.  We were out to lunch.  Maybe they were just really happy that the food was ready.  Haha...

Out to dinner with Nana and Poppy to thank them for taking care of our kids for a week while we went to the Bahamas...

Look!  I crafted.  My mom, sisters, and I made these for Valentine's Day.  It was only after we were done that we realized there was a typo.  Haha!  Oh well...

This was apparently dress-like-a-bumblebee day at work.  Sheesh!  We do this all the time...

Nothing better to warm you up than a little gumbo...

Gas prices continued to fall like crazy over the winter months.  At times, I felt like I was stealing.  I haven't paid this price for gas since winter 2001 while living in Louisiana...

Another ice cream date.  Connor gives it a thumbs up.  I give it a thumbs down, and want a little more creativity...

This was an essay Aiden wrote in school.  The kids read an article about clouds, and they were then supposed to write a brief easy about what they had learned.  Aiden got docked points because he went on a big tangent about meteorologists (when the text had said nothing about meteorologists), but I was still a super proud weather mama...

Speaking of Aiden, the kid is a developer in the making.  He loves to code!  He bought an app that teaches him how to code, and then bought this book at the book fair...

An early morning selfie at work...

Vivvie insisted on wearing white sandals to school one very cold day at the end of January.  I tried to tell her it was 10° outside and that sandals weren't a good choice--but she insisted that sandals were the perfect choice because it was sunny outside so, therefore, she knew it wasn't cold...

I actually used this story in a talk I gave at Stake Conference in March.  I used it as an analogy for our lives, saying that sometimes--like Vivvie--we think we know what's best for us.  But, Heavenly Father has a deeper knowledge than we do.  It's our job to trust Him in these situations, and put away our sandals (metaphorically speaking, of course) when He tells us it would be better to wear snow boots...

Valentine's dinner at La Jolla Groves...

Vivvie and her friend Ilaria playing babies.  I loved how they put headbands on each of their heads.  I guess Moms ALWAYS wear headbands (???), so they felt they were crucial...

Nana and Poppy went birthday present shopping with us right before Vivvie's birthday.  Then we all went to get some ice cream--because that's what this family does...

Aiden's best friend, Logan, also had his birthday the end of February.  He told his mom that he wanted to have "all the Storrs' kids" over for a sleepover for his birthday, so all four of the kids had a big sleepover with three of the four Simon' kids...

Eating pizza at the sleepover.  Here's Aiden and Logan..

Josh and Connor...

And the three littles--Vivvie, Cohen, and Ilaria...

Here's some pics from a date I went on with Cohen.  First, he wanted to go rock climbing...

Then miniature golfing...

And, finally, to get caramel apples.  Yes, I talked one of my children into NOT getting ice cream...

Not only did Logan have all four of our kids over for a sleepover to celebrate his birthday, but he took all three boys swimming for his party.  Here's some pictures that Lisa, his mom, sent me.  First of all, the whole group.  From left to right, Connor, Bella, Aiden, Logan, Kohler, Dallin, Josh, Cohen, Christy, and Ilaria...

Mike and I went on a date to Waffle Love one evening.  These waffles are the best waffles ever, so I had to take some pictures...

This is the Chicken and Waffles...

At the 2 Your Health Fair with co-workers, Debbie Worthen and Chase Thomason...

Just a couple days after the health fair, I came down with a cold.  Ironically, I likely picked it up at the health fair.  Haha...

A selfie that Amy took of me doing the weather along the green screen...

Cohen was the Student of the Month for February for being kind.  His teacher wrote, "Cohen, I am so proud of you! You are always so kind to everyone! Thank you for always being such a good, kind friend. We love you!"  Ahh, he's a keeper...

Vivvie getting measured at her five-year-old checkup.  She is the cutest, and is growing like a weed.  She measured in at 39" this day...

So, those are some of the things we did through the cold winter months.  I hate winter, but it's more bearable having this awesome family surrounding me.  --Lindsay

A Small Kitchen Update

When we built our house six-years-ago, we decided not to pay to have the builder install a backsplash.  We felt their price was way too high, and we said we would just install one ourselves after moving in.  Well, fast forward six years, and we still hadn't done it.  By this point, our kitchen had become very out of style.  When we originally built our house, the "Tuscan Style" was the cool thing to do, and I loved it.  I designed our entire house to look very Tuscan.  Everything is very dark and heavy.  Well, again fast forward six years, and the Tuscan style is totally out.  In fact, the complete opposite is in style--everything is now bright, light, and white.  Sigh...  I didn't want to do a full kitchen remodel just yet, so I decided to see if we couldn't spruce up and modernize our kitchen a little bit with something as simple as a backsplash.  Maybe it could make me hate my kitchen a little less for another several years until a complete kitchen remodel can be done.  So, we decided to try it.

Here are some before pictures of the kitchen.  Well, they're almost before pictures.  Mike had already started ripping off part of the granite backsplash at this point, but you get the idea.

It was pretty plain jane, as you can probably tell.  Time to give this place a little character.  As mentioned earlier, Mike started by ripping the granite backsplash off, but we did run into a problem.  Do you see how the countetop steps down on the left side of this picture?  That's considered our desk area.  Well, the granite backsplash from that part actually goes behind the higher countertop, so it couldn't be removed without leaving a big hole...

We ended up leaving it in place and just installing the new colored glass and travertine backsplash right on top of it, so it goes straight across this section...

We ran into another problem on the other side of the kitchen as well.  Once the granite backsplash was torn off, we realized that the granite didn't actually go all the way to the wall on one section.  We never knew this because the granite backsplash always covered it up.  But, the new backsplash wouldn't be thick enough to cover it up.  Sigh...

Mike and his dad came up with the idea of building a faux wall that would sit at a slight angle.  It is such a slight angle that you really can't tell it's not straight, but it covers up the gap between the granite and the wall...

Then Mike installed the backsplash.  See...you can't even tell that the wall is slightly crooked back there...

Here's the finished product on this side of the kitchen...

We ran into another problem on the other side of the sink too.  There was never a cabinet on this side of the sink.  I always thought it was weird, but it didn't really bother me.  Well, once the backsplash went up, it really accentuated the fact that there was no cabinet here, and it really started bothering me...

So, Mike came up with the idea of installing a few open shelves on this side of the sink.  Open shelving is all the rage right now, so we decided to try it.  We stained the shelves to match the rest of the cabinets and then decorated them with lots of colorful, fun things...

Here's how it looks in relation to the cabinets.  I think it's a fun (and inexpensive) addition...

And here's some pictures of the final product.  I decided to take some pictures during the day, so you can see the true colors in the backsplash.  The ones taken at night make the colors look a little funky, so I wanted a more true representation.  So, here you go!  The final product...

It's not a perfect solution...that would be a full remodel.  But, until then, this has helped modernize the space a little bit, and made me hate my kitchen a little less.  --Lindsay