Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Bryce's Homecoming

Bryce got home from his mission last Thursday!!! We were all so excited for him to come home. He is Kevin & Curtis' best friend... I kind of refer to him as my 1/2 brother.
We met Bryce's family at the airport. We love his family too! Bryce surprised everyone by sneaking in behind us instead of coming down the escalators. Punk...

After the airport we all went to dinner at Sizzler. Bryce was such a good missionary and we are so proud of him.
Sunday he had his homecoming talk. He did a great job. He is the same Bryce...I told his mom to savor the next little while...because I'm pretty sure they are only nice for a little while. And then they go back to their normal selves.

Bryce's mom always throws the cutest little backyard parties. She did a chips'n'salsa theme. We had a lot of fun.

We are so happy to have Bryce home!!!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

100th Post!

100 pOsTs iS kInD oF a BiG dEaL...
wouldn't you agree?
And...
so is kissing a frog!

You should have seen the look on Shawn's face when he saw me running after this frog. I don't know why he was so surprised... I have told him many times that I used to be a tom boy. Growing up I caught hundreds of frogs, snakes & lizards.

He must not have believed me.

So cheers to another hundred posts!

Monday, September 20, 2010

oUr LaTeSt ObSeSsIoNs !

So these things kind of contradict each other...but we aren't perfect yet!
We have recently discovered all of these new fabulous yogurt places. You know...the ones where you get to choose between a couple dozen flavors of frozen yogurt...and then pick a million different toppings.

This book is amazing. We are loving it. I'm going to make my family read it.

We are addicted!


This book is pretty awesome too. If you want to make a healthy lifestyle change read these 2 books. So far they are our favorites.

We have been attempting to change our diet over to one that is more plant based (or healthy). We can't believe how much better we are feeling with in just 1 month. I can't imagine how much better we will feel in 1 year!

Benefits from just 1 month:
  • We both have more energy!
  • I poop every day!!! Seriously this is a big deal for me.
  • Shawn has been off of his meds for a 9 days now and we haven't noticed any side effects! This is a pretty big deal too!
  • I don't feel bloated all of the time.
  • Sleeping better.
  • Less head aches.
  • Our joints aren't bugging us as much. I used to wake up every morning and my joints would ache. Like my elbows, knees, wrists, fingers etc. I used to also have to get up at least 1-2 times in the middle of the night to take Tylenol for my restless knees. I haven't done that in a while!
Bryce gets home on Thursday! We are so excited!!!!!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Short Routson Visit

My gramma and grampa Routson, and my aunt Becky, came into town this weekend for a quick visit. One of my Dad's best friend's little sister's passed away, and they came for the funeral. My dad's parents were also best friends with TerriLyn's parents...Bob & Patty Folkman. They are awesome people.
We all went to the funeral yesterday. It was such a great service. Wish I could have known her.
My brothers and me with my cute gramma Fran.
We sure miss Curtis!
My cousins, Devin, Chris & Amber.

We all got together for dinner on Friday night. I didn't get very many pictures of their quick visit. Last night the girls went to a movie and did a little shopping. Now they are on their way back to Arizona.

Love you guys!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Jack is on Tour

My aunt & uncle ( Scott & Jenn) just had a new little boy on August 29th. He is so adorable. My grandparents were going to go visit them last week, but had a bad feeling about the drive. Scott & Jenn decided to pack up their 2 babies and head to them instead. They said they were "taking Jack on tour". haha. I'm so glad they did. They did it with Afton too. Jenn was on bed rest for a lot of her pregnancy so I think she was a little excited to go somewhere (even if she did complain about the Utah weather).

Important side note: I have wanted to name my first son Jack since I was about 14.
reasons why:
  • after my cute great grampa Jack. I have lots of memories of visiting them for lunch every week at their house on the golf course. I loved to lay on their sheep, fur blanket. He would sing lots of random songs to me. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" "Throw 'em Out the Window".
  • Back in the day when people weren't naming their kids Jack I thought it would be awesome.
  • Jack Bauer is one of my biggest heros. I love the show 24.
  • I freaking just love the name!
awww. So Jenn & Scott claim they didn't know I wanted it...except for that's pretty much a lie because everyone knows how long I've been talking about it. I was pretty devastated/mad for a while about the whole situation. And I had pretty much decided that I was going to name my kid Jack and make it super annoying when ever we were all together. But, as soon as I saw him I realized that he is a Jack...and I can't be mad...and I'm over it.
So cute! He has tons of dark hair, and lots of fur...like on the back of his ears. I could not get enough of him. I even got to fall asleep holding him a couple of times. He is such a good baby. I heard him cry like 1 maybe 2 times the whole 4 days I spent with them. Jenn kept telling me that he wasn't my baby. I wish he was...Except for when I attempted to change his diaper and he peed on me and was still kind of pooping. Good thing Gramma was right there!
My mom made some amazing cupcakes. We had to lick the bowl!
Jenn & Jack
I took Afton outside and started doing this with her on the long board. As soon as Scott came out she wanted nothing to do with me. He kept ruining our special bonding moments!!!
How cute is this picture? Emily kissing baby Jack.
Everyone came over for dinner.
The kids feeding Curtis' turtle Swayze

Kevin pushing Spencer & Afton.
Sunday we went to a near by park for a bit. Gramma kept taking pictures of the "beautiful clouds". They did look pretty cool...like someone painted them.
My mom made lots of yummy things while they were in town. She taught me how to make this easy bread recipe.
Afton loved Maggie!
I just got done making my own yummy bread! I'm so proud. I did it all by myself! Half of it is blackberry cream cheese, and the other half is cinnamon sugar with cream cheese.

So glad that Scott & Jenn came into town. We love them and their adorable kids!

PS...I didn't do so well with our plant based diet this last weekend...as you can see. But I haven't had any meat for 31/2 weeks!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Swiss Days 2010

This was my mom's 3rd year selling her cute little books of mormon. I remembered to take pictures this year! Swiss Days is so much fun. I look forward to it every year. It's always Labor Day weekend. It's a lot of work. . . mostly for my mom. But this year we all helped her prepare. She went with 800 this year!
My mom has everything organized so cute!
She shares her booth with Tanya Stoddard. She sells really cute temple bags!


My gramma and grampa.
Spencer with his new funky beanie.
My dad with this random cute little girl that came into our booth.
Our booth was right up against the rode with the parade this year! The Westra's were across the street.
Me with my cousin Justin
We had a lot of fun this year. Friday night we all went to dinner together as a family, minus Shawn. He didn't come up this this time. Saturday Mickie & Stacey came up for a bit. I shopped around with them for a little bit, but the booth got really busy. We didn't sell as many as last year, but after talking to other people it just sounds like people weren't spending as much money this year.

The rest of our Labor Day weekend consisted of a Real game, nursery drama, and a soccer tournament that Shawn played in!

Friday, September 3, 2010

Yes Shawn is an Aflac agent

So my lovely wife has done so well to inform you all about our lives. So I thought that I would take the time to post this one thing.

Growing up sucks! Choosing a career and what you are going to do for the rest of your life is extremely difficult.

I had this opportunity arise to join Aflac as a sales representative. One thing that I didn't want to happen though is to become that annoying sales guy. You know that guy that you have some type of relationship with, but acts like your relationship is so much more meaningful just so he can sell you something. I don't want to be that guy.

One thing that I have learned though over the last couple of weeks, is that Aflac is an outstanding company. I have had my run ins with health insurance, and it has not been the best real world experiences. Usually when you think of an insurance company you think of some giant corporation taking your money and taking advantage of you. At least that has been my experience. Aflac is unique in that it is an insurance company that pays you the policyholder the cash benefit, instead of paying directly to the hospital and or doctors. Now Aflac is not designed to cover all of your medical costs, but it is designed to help you when you have life events happen. If you cut your finger, break a leg, have a baby, etc. etc. they pay you cash benefits to help you pay the bills. That could be medical bills or just plain bills.

Listen, it is too difficult to explain everything on this blog. If you are interested in learning more please feel free to call me or send me an email. We can set up a time where I can bring you a packet and summarize what Aflac has to offer. I am trying to grow my business so that I can be a grown up and live in the adult world. :}

Shawn Blymiller shawn_blymiller@us.aflac.com


I thought this video was tailored just for me...