Birthday Celebrations

Spencer turned 33 on October 9th. As is the tradition, I made him a Pumpkin Cheesecake that was absolutely delicious. I'll post the recipe here. Callie watched the boys while Spence and I went to a movie but his birthday was pretty low-key, the way he likes it.

Owen turned 3 on October 20th. We pretty much celebrated for 4 days straight. On Saturday we went to the Farnsworth Farms Fall Festival in Sandy. We got there a little later than we should have but we were still able to ride the hay ride, taste fresh apple cider, walk through the vendors, and buy some homemade kettle corn. Owen wasn't sure about riding on the hay ride. Here he is before it started:

He eventually relaxed and loved it. So did Cameron and Gavin:



Sunday we had a Styer Family dinner to celebrate Spencer, Owen, and Tisa's birthdays. Tisa's birthday is on October 19th. Chopper and girlfriend, Niki, came. We had ham, funeral potatoes, green beans, frog-eye salad, rolls, and a Robot Birthday cake. Owen was mostly interested in opening presents. He kept going to them and asking if it was time yet. He received such nice gifts...new (much-needed) clothes and lots of fun (& noisy) gifts. He is so spoiled and loved by his grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Thanks for making him feel special.





Monday we went to dinner at IKEA. I knew that the restaurant existed but we'd never been there. However, to celebrate Tisa's birthday I took her to have the IKEA experience. We checked the kids into the play land and spent the entire hour browsing. Then we decided to have lunch there because they were letting kids eat free. It doesn't get any better. It was so yummy that I wanted Spencer to eat there too. So we went there for dinner :). If you haven't tried it, you should. Very reasonably priced and quite tasty. Plus, on Monday nights they have family-friendly entertainment. It just so happened that the entertainment that evening was face painting. The woman doing it was amazing. She painted Cameron's face into Spiderman, Gavin's into a pirate, but Owen didn't want his face painted so she quickly drew a snake on his arm. And she did it all in about 5 minutes! And it was FREE!!!!





For Owen's actual birthday (Tuesday) we went to Chuck E. Cheese. Another first for our little family. I can't say any of us liked the pizza but the boys loved playing the arcade games, earning tickets, and picking their prizes. I'm a little worried that Gavin and Cam may think we need to celebrate their birthdays for 4 days!

Football!

Cameron finished the football season on October 13th. He had so much fun. He scored a touchdown, was able to be the quarterback, and learned how to play defense.


Other than the final game, we enjoyed sitting in the fall air. (It rained cats & dogs on the final game...brrrr!) Here is a video of him running the ball...please ignore the crazy lady behind the camera (me).

Kicking October Off With a Bang

We spent a long weekend (Friday-Sunday) in Idaho with Granny Jane and Grandpa Rick. Granny hosted her traditional Halloween party with the grandkids. Everyone got new Halloween shirts.

They decorated cupcakes,



Played "Pin the Wart on the Witch",


and "Fished" over the bannister. One of the prizes that was caught was glow-in-the-dark bracelets. Here's the whole family swinging them around in the dark. They also got play guns, yo-yos, and a lot of noise makers.


Owen thinks he is so big...he insisted on holding Jette!


Saturday we enjoyed the morning session of Conference. Then we drove to Pocatello to watch the ISU football game. My cousin, Dustin Tew, is the Strong Safety for ISU. It was fun to watch him although ISU got creamed. Dad & Spencer went from the game to Priesthood Meeting and the rest of us met No'el and the girlies at Rupe's for dinner. I had my camera the entire time but didn't remember to take any pictures...typical.

Sunday morning my mom decided to make Danish Ebliskivers for breakfast. Ebliskivers are sort of like a pancake ball, made in a special pan, served with syrup or jam. Spencer has given her a hard time anytime she's mentioned the Danish pastry because he thought it was a made-up word. They were so yummy and Spencer later said he'd prefer Ebliskivers to pancakes any day!


We watched the Sunday morning session of Conference (well, some of us watched and some listened with their eyes closed).

We had Sunday dinner and headed back to Utah. What a relaxing weekend! Thanks for the fun.

Violated and Totally Exposed

Because this book is going to be made into our family journal I've decided to write this post...not because I want the world to know about it or because I'm looking for sympathy.

Yesterday morning, September 30th, Spencer woke up pretty early to get ready for work. Lately he's tried to be at work by 7 am at the latest but yesterday he started moving around at 5:30. Callie had woken up about 30 minutes before and was getting ready for her day. I was still sound asleep, aware that Spence was up but not willing to get out of bed yet. At 6:00 he came into our room and said, "You may want to wake up, I've just called the police and they're on the way to our house...we've been broken into." Obviously in hysterics, I jumped out of bed and put in my contacts. I ran downstairs to discover that our TV was missing. I asked Callie and Spence if anything else was gone and Callie said her iPod had been taken from her car. My stomach dropped because I'd left my purse in my car the night before. I ran out to the car and discovered that my purse had also been taken. The officer arrived quickly and started taking a detailed report.

Spencer told us he had woken up, gotten dressed, came downstairs, got his jacket out of the closet and went to get in his car without turning any lights on on the main level of our house. When he got out to the garage he noticed that the interior lights in my car were on. He walked over to the driver's side to check the doors and noticed the "man-door" to the garage was slightly ajar. He walked back in the house where Callie was getting ready to leave. They turned on the lights and saw that the tv was missing. That's when he called 911.

Poor Cameron (who is feeling very guilty) had used the door to the garage earlier in the week and had forgotten to lock it. We NEVER use that door and didn't notice that it was unlocked. It was very windy with thunder that night and any noise we may have subconsciously heard through the break-in was attributed to that. Needless to say, whoever came and interrupted our entire lives, was probably just getting started when Callie and/or Spencer woke up. They walked past many other valuable things that I think, if they'd have had time, they would have taken as well. The saddest part of the entire episode to me is that they stole Cameron's red Cars wallet which had his hard-earned $15 in it. He was devastated when he discovered it was gone.

I've had to cancel EVERYTHING that was in my wallet. I spent the majority of yesterday on the phone putting Fraud Alerts on our credit, cancelling debit and credit cards, and figuring everything out with our banks. It's been a nightmare! If there was a font on my computer called "sarcastic font" I'd use it to thank whoever broke into our house, who stole our TV, Callie's ipod, Cameron's wallet, and my purse because it has been an absolute joy to clean up his mess. Okay, I'm getting bitter again so I guess that's it.

We're happy to say that we were protected. I cringe when I think of what may have happened if anyone would have woken up and seen the criminal. I'm grateful that he didn't get away with very much. And yes, we are double and triple-checking our locks from now on. This will not happen again!