Christmas Gift Exchange

No one has said anything about exchanging gifts this year but I figured out who everyone has. So here it is if you think it might be wrong let me know.

           Your Name ------ Whom You Have

             Dad                         Mom

             Mom                       Lawna

             Lawna                     Robin

             Robin                      Eileen

             Eileen                      Layne

             Layne                      Ethan

             Ethan                       Kristen

             Kristen                     Naomi

             Naomi                      Brittana

             Brittana                     Dad

I rotated it twice from last year because otherwise we would have had ourselves. So basically whoever had you last year, you know have them. I am not sure if everyone wants to do a limit I think we did $20 last year. 

Tana is Playing Softball

 Her team is the Red WIngs

Click HERE for a Video of Tana Batting

Tree Trimming Time

First off this is Naomi and I have never blogged before, so we will see how this goes. So on Friday April 5th some guy came and chopped down the box elder bug tree. Then he trimmed the one next to it, that has the tire swing on it. Then this past Thursday the 18th Tree Trouble came and trimmed the two that are by the house and got the dead out of the poplar tree. They cleaned up most of the mess, but there are still a trillion sticks on our lawn that I can't wait to pick up in the freezing wind:). Layne said he wanted to see pictures so here they are.

 

 Here is a small portion of the mess that they made.

 You can't really tell from this picture, but they were

pretty successful at destroying some of our bushes.

 The box elder bug tree is gone. Well kinda gone,

 the trunk is still there, obviously.

 Trees . . .

 Trees . . .

 and more trees!

 Here they are hard at work.

 They didn't really trim this one they just took the dead out of it.

 And here we have some popcorn popping on our apricot tree,

I think its pretty so I decided to share it with you.

Tana is Playing Volleyball

 The team name is "Boom".  When they score a point they all say, "You just got Boomed!" and stomp their feet.

Spring Break Get-Together

Kristen and Naomi took some of these pictures.

All together there were 14 of us (Including Karson's mom, Kris and Ethan's friend, Sydney) who went to Hagerman to see the alligators and swim at 1000 Springs.  Levi had to work :-(

 It was early and still chilly, so the gators were keeping warm in the hot springs water.

 Mom kept saying, "Look at the white teeth."

 Looking for fish

 Mom said that I'm never in any pictures.  So Kristen took a picture of me.

 The water was so warm and there was a lot of steam in there.

 Proof that Kristen stood up on the log

Naomi recorded Dad on the diving board

Before they got dressed, they all went for one last jump

Mom soaked in the pool too for quite a while, but didn't end up in any of the pictures.

 Kasen wore his goggles for a whole day afterward

Grandpa Koyle's Funeral

 

 

While the casket bearers were standing in the wind...

Everyone else was huddling together in the tent

 

 

 

Bishop Douglass helping with the last little bit

the luncheon

Some of the people who traveled through the storms:

Heather Grant

some of the Greens

Roy and Julie with their "twins", LaNae and Miriam were born 4 days apart

Kimberly and Wyatt

Terrys

Priscilla Peterson, Shanna Koyle, Ruth Waite, Paul and Karla Douglass

Mom's Surprise Kitchen Makeover

In Mom's last missionary letter to Ethan she wrote, "I wanted to paint the kitchen but that has not happened yet. I hope it does before the summer is over."
Ethan replied, "It sounds like you are trying to get me to paint the kitchen for you ;) Sure I will help."

Early Monday morning, July 23rd, Ethan took Gordon, Sandra, and Naomi to the stake center so they could start their 4 day Trek to Wyoming and back.  When Ethan got home, he emptied the kitchen.

 The week before, Dad had called "the guy" about patching some of the walls and ceiling.  In this picture you can see one of the places that needed patched.

 Ethan, Kristen, and Brittana started scrubbing the walls.  "The guy" came and worked on some spots.
This is a wall before it was scrubbed:

This is after scrubbing all day:

This is the spot by the fan after it was patched and textured, but before it was painted.

The stuff they scrubbed the walls with had a strong smell.  So Ethan looked like a terrorist part of the time.

He had just got his new phone a few days before and the only way he got service inside the house was if the phone was sitting in the kitchen window.

Kristen had a couple days off work, so she stayed to help.  A lot of these pictures came from Kristen's camera, so this is one of the few that was taken of her.

 Tana's gloves had holes, so she put bags over the top of them.

 Tuesday they started painting the trim around the windows and one doorway.  They used caulk to fill in some cracks in the plaster walls.

 Tuesday evening, Kristen brought Brittana over for swimming lessons and fell asleep on the slide.

 Wednesday, Kristen got more paint and then went back to Twin Falls (and Levi).

 After work, Karson went to help.  Also, Cousin Wyatt stopped to help a few times, but we didn't get any pictures of him.

On Thursday, it was a rush to put everything back before the Trekkers came back to town.  They were trying to put it back to normal as much as possible, so they could see how long it would take for Mom to notice any difference.

In this video, (if you listen closely after Naomi comes in) you can hear Mom say, "What the heck!?" because she saw one of the places in the hallway that "the guy" patched.  So when she walks into the kitchen she is looking at the place on the ceiling by the fan that he was also supposed to fix.  So she doesn't see the dark brown trim around the windows.  This video is a little long, but we cut out a full 2 minute chunk of staring at an empty doorway. (you're welcome)

This is what it looks like now above the big window and table.

This is above the water cooler.

Lower Calf Creek Falls is no longer above the shelf.  Mom wants to get a bigger frame for a picture collage of her grandkids to put there.