Feature Family - Meet the Garners

Meet the Garners:

Clint, Katie, Bailee, Rigby, Bryce, Madalyn, Vera, Eliza, and Ember

Clint and Katie met at BYU-Idaho under typical circumstances with an atypical twist .

Clint and Katie met at BYU-Idaho under typical circumstances with an atypical twist. Clint had a girlfriend and Katie had a missionary, but both were members of the same Family Home Evening (FHE) group in their student ward. Relying on the unspoken code of roommate secrecy, Katie confided in her roommates that she had a bit of a crush on Clint. This “fortress of solitude” meeting, however, would turn into a more public charade at the next FHE get-together. They were playing a harmless game of Truth or Dare, when to her chagrin, one of the roommates challenged Katie, who naively chose “truth.” In a sneaky turn of events, the roommate all but threatened to expose her secret to the rest of the group with the simple question “Do you have a crush on anyone in the ward?””

While “anything goes” in a game of Truth or Dare, the heart-palpitating problem was that Clint was present in the circle. The nerve! Knowing herself to be a terrible liar with no poker face, and lacking the cleverness to weasel her way out, Katie blushfully admitted that she did, hoping to avoid any suspicions from her crush who sat within arm’s reach. As luck would have it though, Clint jumped on the curiosity wagon for his turn and pinned Katie even deeper in her own territory with the allbut-mandatory follow-up “Who is the person you have a crush on?” Luckily for her, Clint’s relationship was on the rocks, so her admission gave him the encouragement needed to ask her out, and things took off from there! No harm, no foul. Huge thanks to the roommate!

They were married shortly after the semester ended in May 2003 and moved to Spanish Fork several years later in 2007 when they found a great home near Spanish Oaks Elementary School just above the river bottoms.

Clint received a bachelor's degree from UVU in Business Management with an emphasis in entrepreneurship while Katie studied art education at BYU for a semester until becoming pregnant with their first child, Bailie. Clint is a partner of his own property management and real estate investment company right here in town — AmeriTrue. Katie is currently having great success as a portrait artist who has specialized in spiritual and religious perspectives, including doing commissioned portraits of children who have passed away.

Along the way, however, were opportunities to grow through failure. Clint succeeded with real estate early on after graduating, only to have that

success bottom out after 2007 due to the crash in the economy. They also made an investment in purchasing Aspen Salon (with two locations), but they struggled to get that business to prosper and eventually sold it off. Katie tried her hand at a greeting card company which never got off the ground, and even ran into a wall after having a great start to her DoTerra business. But these paved the way for their current successes which have continued to today.

Clint grew up on a farm in Idaho and is good at working the land. He loves to hunt and fish. He also enjoys building things and is skilled with using his tools and machinery. Currently, he is helping build Katie’s new art studio (which Katie is thrilled about!). He utilizes his business degree from BYU very well and is quite a successful entrepreneur.

For years into motherhood, Katie wanted so badly to paint again. She patiently and painstakingly waited for the time when she would be able to get back to painting. Several years ago through what felt like divine intervention, an opportunity fell into Katie’s lap to paint murals for the Parade of Homes, which led to her meeting the scary financial goal she had set for herself at the beginning of the month.

While “anything goes” in a game of Truth or Dare, the heartpalpitating problem was that Clint was present in the circle. Within a couple of months she had been hired to assist in painting the mural in the Meridian, Idaho temple. These experiences led to more pursuits painting murals which brought her enough confidence to jump into her biggest passion — painting portraits from a spiritual or religious perspective. So Katie pushed herself to purchase booth spaces at art shows, forcing her to produce more artwork to showcase, get her name out there, and above all, perfect her craft. Her breakthrough came in 2018 when she was pregnant with their 6th child. Something inspired Katie to find a way to represent her spiritual perspective on childbirth in a single painting, something that included Heavenly Mother. The thought of broaching what could be seen as a taboo subject was a bit unnerving, but she painted it anyway shortly after giving birth. After posting a picture of her work to Facebook (titled “Mother to Mother”), the painting began to spread quickly across social media, going viral with over 1,000 shares. In the painting, Katie depicts one set of hands (Heavenly Mother) passing a child through the veil to another set of hands (an earthly mother). Thirdhour.org wrote a piece about the painting and that spread it even further. Within no time, the demand for copies of the painting shot through the roof to the point where she could barely keep up with it.

The success of “Mother to Mother” gave Katie the needed confidence to pursue three more works featuring Heavenly Mother, the most recent being “Mother’s Embrace” showcasing a mother holding her baby while both of them are wrapped in the arms of Heavenly Mother.

In addition to these works, Katie has made a name for herself painting portraits of children who have passed away. Her family self-portrait was also just accepted into the 35th Annual Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah exhibit currently at the Springville Museum of Art (which runs October 13 - January 12).

The Garners have seven children: Ember (2) is spunky and fun. Eliza (3) is very friendly and talks to everyone. Last year, she was badly burned in hot bathwater which she turned on by herself after climbing into the tub. Being so young, she didn’t have the reflexes to jump out, so she just stood there getting 3rd degree burns up to just above her ankles. Eliza spent 32 days in the UofU burn ICU and received 2 skin graft surgeries. She was an inspiration to many people there, being only a 2-year-old with such a great attitude: she couldn’t talk much yet, but she said “thank you” to everyone, even when they drew her blood! Katie was interviewed about Eliza’s story on a podcast (Thriving with 8). You can find it under the episode titled “I Prayed for Angels.” Now, one year later, she has another skin graft surgery scheduled for November. This will likely be a regular recurrence until she’s done growing. Yet she has smiled and been so happy through it all.

Vera (9) is sweet and friendly. She is nice to everyone and is gifted at making friends instantly and remembering everyone she ever met at the park. Often, she wants to go hang out with her newfound friends and doesn't understand why she can’t always simply call the random child she met at the park to go play with them again. She also loves clogging.

Madalyn (11) loves gymnastics and goes to

Maple Grove Middle School. She is a happy, bubbly soul and does an amazing job caring for her younger siblings. (For which her mom is grateful).

Bryce (13) is incredibly outgoing. When a small child, he talked to everyone at the grocery store, and he’s still like that. He loves to chat and make people smile. He’s the type who will serve all day long just to make someone else feel happy. He plays the trumpet and enjoys being in the concert band and jazz band at Mapleton Jr High. He looks forward to joining the marching band next year.

Rigby (15) is a sophomore at MMHS. He has an inventor and entrepreneurial spirit, like his dad. He loves challenging himself to come up with new product ideas and trying to figure out how to make them.

Bailee (17) is artistic like her mom. She's very passionate about it and hopes to pursue a career in art after high school, possibly as an art teacher. She also loves to cook and plan parties and is looking forward to being a mom someday.

Spanish Fork is thrilled to meet the Garner family!