Before and After, as requested by "Joe Blow"

Some "Joe Blow", who is afraid to use his own identity when he comments on my blog, wanted to see the "before and after" pictures of the work we did on our home in Idaho Falls. I'm happy to oblige...but it'd be nice if Joe Blow would tell me who he really is.

Before:




After the first day:




The final result:


The yard still doesn't look as good as it did when it received constant care but I decided it looked good enough that I could sleep at night. :)

Update: Joe Blow=Spencer Styer. I think he was feeling bad that I didn't show the results of his hard work. Also, I need to thank my in-laws for driving to Idaho Falls to do yard work for a day. We honestly couldn't have done as much without them.

Granny Day Camp

We drove to Idaho Thursday evening. Our home in Idaho Falls is still vacant, awaiting renters. We felt that we had done everything we could to get the house ready on the inside but we were very concerned about the yard and came to the conclusion that in order to get renters, we needed to spend some time overhauling the yard. So, although gardening is not the way we wanted to spend the weekend, that is what we did. (I nearly cried when I saw how overgrown, dry, and ugly my once beautiful yard was when we pulled up Friday morning. I was smiling by the time we left Saturday evening though. Lots of hard work and many hours transformed it once again.)

Lucky for us, Granny Jane didn't have to work Friday so she offered to keep the boys at her house. They had a great time. She prepared many activities and kept them busy all day! They had a treasure hunt, went on a nature walk, had ice cream cones at Rupe's and got to play an arcade game, and made a cute kitchen craft. We wouldn't have been able to accomplish as much in Idaho Falls if we would have been worried about the boys. Thanks Granny (and Grandpa) for the entertainment!

Happy 9th Anniversary!

Today was our 9th Anniversary. Emily babysat the boys while we went to dinner. When we got home they were all hiding behind the couch and they jumped out and yelled "Happy Anniversary." They had made us a poster and had sprinkled the table with Squeezes, Hugs, and Kisses. So sweet!



It seems that the only thing that is constant on our anniversary is that we have Cameron take our picture. Here's this year's shot:



9 Things about the Last 9 Years:

Nine changes of address (3 in Logan, 3 in Idaho Falls, 1 in Blackfoot, 1 in Smithfield, 1 in Utah)
Eight Jobs (Spence=Shuttle, Maverik, Buck's Service, Platt Electric Supply. Nat=Shuttle, Bama Bay, Curves, Piano Teacher)
Seven Vehicles (Chevy Cavalier, Honda Civic, Purple (old) Jimmy, Green Ford truck, White (new) Jimmy, Ford Windstar (current), Saturn (current))
Six Inches on Spencer's waist (Let's face it, we've both gained weight in the past 9 years)
Five Losses of our Grandparents (My Grandma Tew and Grandpa and Grandma Baldwin, Spence's Grandpa and Grandma Christensen)
Four Grandparents to Spoil our Boys (My parents, who still live in Blackfoot, but take every opportunity possible to see the boys...Spence's parents who recently moved back to Utah and can't get enough of their grandsons.)
Three Adorable Children (Um, duh...Cameron, Gavin, and Owen)
Two Times we've been able to have Callie live with us (once in Logan and NOW)
One Happy Marriage
I'm so grateful that Spencer and I found each other 9 years ago. He is such a good husband and he works so hard for our family so that I can be home with the kids. He is such a support to me in every way and I love him a lot!



Here's a sweet picture of Spence last week when he was getting ready to head off to Scout Camp. Doesn't he look so cute in his uniform?

At Last...a Blue Cast

Gavin got his cast on Thursday afternoon. He has been able to have his entire Primary class, Grandpa Rick and Uncle Ryan, Grandpa Dave and Grandma Tisa, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Emily (Uncle Jeff signed "King of the Bears"), some of Spencer's co-workers, and his brothers and parents sign it. He's anxious for tomorrow because I teach piano lessons on Tuesdays and he can have my students sign it. He'd love to have more signatures if you are in the area. I can't believe the difference a cast makes. Gavin is back to his normal, adventurous self!!!

Gavin's Big Break

Yesterday afternoon, just as I'd started a piano lesson, Gavin came inside and was screaming/crying as if he'd been seriously injured. I asked him what was wrong and he showed me this little scratch on his wrist and told me he'd fallen out of the tree. (He has been told numerous times NOT to climb the tree.) I told him I'd look at it closer when my lesson was finished and gave him a cold, wet paper towel and told him to hold it against the cut. When my lesson left, I tried to look at the scratch again but Gavin wouldn't move the paper towel from his arm and said it just hurt really bad.

We had a few errands to run so I loaded everyone into the van. We ended at Grandma Tisa and Grandpa Dave's house. After a little coaxing, Grandpa was able to convince G to let him look at his wrist. Gavin even let him apply some neosporin and a bandaid. Nearly 2 hours after his fall, Gavin was still whimpering and complaining that it hurt. We looked at the wrist again and it looked a little swollen and my mother-in-law said she thought I should have it x-rayed, just to be sure.

So Cam stayed with Grandpa, (Grandma had a Visiting Teaching appointment) and Owen stayed with Aunt Callie (who was home sick with pneumonia) and I took Gavin to the pediatric clinic by our house.

We had to wait for the on-call x-ray tech to come to the clinic and Gavin wouldn't let the nurse or doctor touch his wrist. After the x-rays were read it was determined that he'd broken both bones in his arm. They put a splint on his arm that he'll wear for 2 days so the swelling can go down and then he's scheduled to get a GREEN cast on Thursday.


We had tickets to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House last night and decided to go, even though we were late and didn't know how Gavin would do. He was a real trooper but it was a little odd because he was mellow and observant instead of bouncing off the walls. The temple was gorgeous by the way.

New Friends

Cameron, Gavin, and Owen have spent a lot of the summer playing at the neighbor's house. A few months ago a new family moved in and they had a girl who was Cam's age, Lanee, and a little boy Gavin's age, Curtis. Nearly every day the boys would meet Lanee and Curtis to play in their splash pool. I've spent a lot of time sitting with their mom, Ashley, while the kids played. (We even had a long discussion about the church, since she didn't know much about it and was curious.) We're not sure what happened but earlier this week, when the kids wanted to play, they knocked on the door and were told that the kids didn't live there anymore, that they'd moved back to Texas. We're feeling a little bad at our house about it but here are some pictures of them together.

4th of July

We love the 4th of July. This year we spent the entire weekend camping at Bear Lake. We found a fabulous campground that had coin-operated showers,flush toilets, picnic tables, firepits, and GRASS and it didn't cost a fortune! I'd recommend the Bear Lake North RV Park and Campground to anyone. Check them out here.

We arrived Thursday evening. Mom and Dad had arrived about 30 minutes before us. Spencer quickly put up our new tent, Dad set up Callie's, and then the adults put up a shelter to go over our picnic tables. By the time we finished, it was dark and we went to bed.

Friday was spent at the beach. The weather was beautiful and we all had a blast. We had so much fun that I forgot to take any pictures. Spencer's parents, Dave & Tisa, came up for the afternoon. The boys loved playing in the water and on the sand. They all got nice suntans, Spence, Callie, and I got sunburns! Gavin kept calling the sunscreen "sun-scream" and he'd say, "Mom, I need some more sunscream." If only I'd applied it to myself as often as I applied it to the boys.


When we finished at the beach and went back to camp, Emily and Jeff arrived. Soon after dinner and a short visit, the rain started coming down. We hurried to our tents and stayed mostly dry through the night. Here is our campsite, all set up. The Harding Hotel is on the right(you can just see the edge of it (it's green)), then Callie's (blue), our's (tan and blue) and our parents (under a pretty blue tarp). The whitish gray thing on the far left is the shelter we ate under.


Saturday, the 4th, we went back to the beach. It was an overcast day. Emily started off by flying a kite. After she got it up in the air she said, "Is that all there is to flying a kite? Why do we think it's so fun?"



Eventually it warmed up enough to play in the water again. I was a little more careful and wore Cam's Hawaii hat so I wouldn't get super burned. It helped.


As we were getting ready to head back to camp, Uncle Mike and Aunt Sylvia showed up. Isn't Aunt Sylvia festive?



We went back to our campsite and made a flag out of cupcakes:


We roasted hotdogs, cooked hamburgers, and had a mini devotional and fireworks presentation given by mom.




Oh yes, Uncle Jeff taught the boys how to make ninja masks out of their t-shirts, too.


Then we loaded up and drove into Montpelier, looking for fireworks. Let's just say we missed the Melaleuca Fireworks in Idaho Falls. And it was super chilly. Thanks to Emily and Jeff's 72-hour kits, we each had a blanket.

We broke camp Sunday morning and returned home. I am already looking forward to our next camping trip. When or where that will be is still a mystery. Anyone wanna go camping?

Spencer wore many hats this camptrip. He was dubbed the "chef", the "maintenance crew", and the "chauffer." It was appreciated by all.