Christmas Cookies, Kitty and KITCHEN!!!

We had a fantastic Christmas season.  We had many blessings.

One of our blessings was a Secret Santa who did the twelve days of Christmas at our door each night.  How wonderful!  John and Ella were so excited for this everyday.  On the fifth day of Christmas we opened our door to Krispy Kreme donuts..5 GOLDEN RINGS!  This picture was the Eight Maids a milking.

Mom and I did Christmas baking and spent nearly 7 hours in the kitchen on this type of goodness.

And more... we did fudge, crispy chocolate chip cookies...it was fun to share with our new neighbors.

John and Ella wanted to try mussels for dinner.

You wish is my command!

John and Ella asked for money for Christmas.  

John also got a Lego set and my old android phone with a phone plan.  

For the last few years, Ella has been asking for a kitten.  The answer was always NO, NO, NO.  

She gave up asking.

Two weeks before Christmas, Mom and I went off to the humane society.  An on Christmas Eve we gave Ella quite the surprise. 

SILENCE.

GIGGLES.

"She's purring!"  Thank you, Mommy!"

Anything for my Lady Lu.  

(and her broken finger - which she smashed on some weights)

The kitten is a 4 month old female orange tabby/maine coon.

She was originally named Precious - and she is that too.  We just call her everything:

"Precious"

"Kitty Kitty"

"Clawdia"

She is a purr machine and very sweet.  Even the vet said, "You REALLY picked a good cat, and I don't say that often."

We love her already and Adam is quite a pushover for her too.  She gets along well with the dogs and our rescued African Grey parrot.  I am officially Doctor Doolittle.

Adam began painting our front door shortly after New Year's Day- a lovely emperor's silk red.

I live it...and I love slippers.

Not quite finished...the trim, clear coat and new door key hole (which Adam painted red) are still needed.

Can you believe we are also new aunt and uncle to Rich and Treslees' new baby girl??  We visited them in the hospital and we are thrilled there is a new cousin.  What fun!!

And now, some people have asked...

KITCHEN BEFORE: 

 KITCHEN AFTER:

My mom is the key reason we now have a new kitchen and THIS is it!!!

We agonized for months about the layout, colors, materials, prices, appliances...

She really knows so much about construction costs/design/and all the build out.

It has take almost 5 months to perfect.

We chose white slab solid maple cabinets with natural maple slab island and shelving.

KraftMaid makes these and we really like the deeper drawers they have.

All doors are soft closing and have pullouts.

The counters are quartz Silestone in stellar snow and they are amazing.  When the sunlight hits the flecks, it disperses tiny rainbows on the ceiling...very good in feng shui.

The microwave drawer is just outstanding.  I cannot even believe we have a microwave drawer!

The trash/recycle bins are hidden inside that large pullout in the island.

Any ideas for flooring?  Leave a comment :)

The island does not have counter stools yet but can sit three comfortably!

We were working for a very sleek, easy to use, functional family kitchen.  I do not like a lot of molding details to wipe or dark colors.  My style is very Scandinavian, which some people find sterile.  

Adam really likes modern.

I find it blissful and airy, with a touch of edge.

Every detail has been custom fit to accommodate my left-handedness with optimal ease.

I have two full spice rack pullouts, pot shelves and more cabinets than I know what to do with.

We went a little over-the-top with all Kitchen Aid appliances from Spencers TV and Appliances.

This is our five burner gas range with heavy duty vent-outside hood. 

Remember, we couldn't have done this without Mom (she says "It's not too good for the Barrys" quite often!)  Aren't we so fortunate?  It's overwhelming.

The natural maple shelving will soon be accented with track lighting and decor.

That Lladro piece is our wedding cake topper.  I will decorate the shelving soon and probably frequently change what is there because that's my personality.

The refrigerator was built into the wall so it looks counter depth but when you open it, it is full-sized!

Flooring is a long ways away...we still have plumbing in bathrooms to do!

The double oven has auto turn-off and a thermometer that will show the temperature of the food on the screen.  The inside is blue which helps with lighting to enhance an accurate visual of the food.

These ovens have both been used and worked beautifully for the holidays.

The hardware was purchased from Clyde Hardware and is the Schwinn 4135.

I wanted hardware that was heavy duty to make a statement.

Well, that's it!

Happy 2014!

Please leave a comment :)  I don't know if anyone even looks at our blog anymore!

Stitches, Disneyland 2, Renovating Kitchen

Ella made the swim team and wows us with her breast stroke...placing 4th at her first swim meet!

Her team is very competitive and one of the top Olympic qualifying pools in the country.  We aren't interested in being overly committed with sports, but for now she seems to like going for an hour to swim.

She moved out of ballet since it was very expensive/straying out of our comfort zone.  Who knows, maybe ballet again next year, maybe swim...we'll let her get a feel for different things and then decide. Go Ella!

John made a very big decision to stop gymnastics in order to pursue his love for engineering.  It was a hard choice because he was progressing so fast in gymnastics and on track with a scholarship-type program.  However, he loves building more than anything.

We found a competitive robotics club whose leader is an engineer grad from MIT.  He is currently being taught EV3 programming (Lego's robot programming system).  He will also be learning C+ programming and VEX robotics soon.  Their current mission is to build a Lego rescue bot which can save lives during a natural disaster.  He is absolutely loving it and will be competing next month!

While helping with our kitch demo, John's hand went through part of our tile backsplash and off to the ER we went.  Why is he smiling in this photo?  Because we were laughing at how much the medical technician wrapped his hand up.  I think she went through 2 whole rolls of gauze.

Stitches out!

You can see our kitchen is quite a construction sight.

Gross.  Gross.  Gross.

Nana kept projects running while we escaped for Disneyland with our friends Nichole and Ivan.

CarsLand is a fun place...where you forget vanity completely.

We went for Mickey's Halloween Party.  Do you like our authentic homemade costumes?

Jessie And Woody did!...

and pretty much EVERYONE at Disneyland.

(Just don't tell them I threw a bunch of stuff together the day before---using whatever I could find around the house).

Nana even donated her favorite old t-shirt for Ella's fringe vest and skirt.

I think people felt sorry for us or something.

John is a robot, in case you didn't know!  

We used leftover plumber's tape from our remodel to give him that "really cool look".

Can you hear my sarcasm?

We are now calling him "John-Bot"

John-Bot makes me smile.

School Year Starts

Sadly, summer break went much too fast.

To celebrate John's and Ella's remarkable grades from the prior year, we took them on a weekend of FUN!

Ella chose to go to Make Meaning and decorate a cake.  John made a candle.

We also saw Despicable Me 2 and went to the water park.

Way to go guys!

John made Principal's List for massive improvement over the past year.  He also scored a whopping 97th percentile in math standardized testing.  Go John!  Ella's straight A's blew my mind.  Her favorite subject is also math and her artistic abilities are endless.  Are these really my children??

The 2013-14 school year began so soon. With temperatures still well over 100, it still felt very much like summer. Such is the case when you live in Arizona.

 John and Ella looked ever so stylish. We are using backpacks from last year to save $$.

I still stand in awe of these amazing kiddos.  How did I become SO blessed?

Mom (a.k.a. - Nana) Helped me sketch out a kitchen and we have been tackling this massive project over the past couple of weeks.  It's a good thing she's taking some time off from work.  

While the kids have been at school, sometimes we (I) get a little overzealous about things.

I got very mad at some plumbing issues and noticed Mom trying to trench through the yard for a rose garden.  "Give me that pick ax!" I exclaimed.

This was how I got my angries out.

Slowly the backyard is coming together.

When the kids get home they often help with moral support...

...And physical support.

We were shocked when our dog baby Mona darted our of yard and chased down our neighbor's mastiff who was taking a walk.

Good gravy!!

What was she thinking??

The mastiff nearly killed her.  The neighbor had to pry the "sandlot" dog off of our little trouble maker.

Mona's courage and stupidity earned her two puncture wounds and bite marks all over her front quarters.

In the morning she could not walk.  Off to the emergency clinic we went.  I thought for sure she had irreversible internal damage.

Fortunately, no!

Mona, don't do that again.  

And I love you.

On the weekends we've been filling our days with church.

This is how I found Ella in the spare bedroom on a recent fast Sunday.

Ella dear, arise and shine forth!

Sweetly, she fasted for me to get better from an illness.  I was healed and grateful for her faith.

We woke up very early this past weekend for a ward temple trip to the Snowflake, Arizona Temple

Ella was just thrilled to visit such a wonderful place.  Isn't she heavenly?  

"We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him"...

Bon Bon, I can't even stand how cool you are.

It was a family trip to remember.

Peter's Revelation to Take the Gospel to the Gentiles