busy lunch day

So at the beginning of the school year the school held its annual cookie dough fundraiser sale. The top seller of each grade gets to go on a limo ride to McDonald's. Kenedy has been the winner the past two years and this year we combined their orders and let Ryker take the credit so that he could have his turn in the Limo. This boy has been so excited and has been anxiously waiting this day for a long time. I went to the school to take some pictures before they left for their little trip.

The owner of the Limo is that weird guy in the middle. His business is called Rod's Limos and he has delusions of being Rod Stewart.
It looks like in this picture Ryker is staring at Rod trying to figure him out. Good luck with that one buddy. Here is Ryker in the limo ready to go. They got to have the principal ride with them and they all thought that was pretty cool. After they got back I asked Ryker how it was and he said he had a lot of fun. He said they had to drive around in three circles so that the kids would be hungry before they went to McDonald's. According to Ryker he was already hungry and driving around made him starving!
While Ryker was busy on his Limo ride I got to have lunch with Kenedy at her third grade "Soup-er bowl" party. Everyone contributed food to make hoagies, have soup and juice. It was fun hanging out with her and I am glad I did. She was really mad at me this morning because I wouldn't sign her homework sheet because I needed to see her homework done before it got signed. We really need to get this homework business worked out. Anyway we had fun and I enjoyed being in third grade again. Ummm this soup tastes good!

Look who came to play!

While Lana was here for two days helping me quilt my kiddos had so much fun playing with hers! Avynlea and Natalie spent all day playing Polly Pockets and Littlest Pet Shop. I was really amazed with how they got along. No arguments, no pouting, just blissful playtime! She is welcome back any day!

And Rylee was thrilled to have a real baby to mother. She would follow him around playing and talking to him. Of course it could have been the binkie in his mouth that she was following around. We had to take it our of HER mouth a couple of times. She better not get the thrush poor Drake has, and he better not get the fever she was plagued with. I think it is just a teething fever because it was gone after a day. But, you never know! So glad that these kids could have fun together! It made sewing and visiting with my friend really enjoyable!

what's for dinner tonight?

When we all sit down to dinner I know that I can expect one of two extreme emotions from Ryker when he sees what we are eating. The first, and my favorite, is overwhelming joy! He gets really excited, tells me how much he loves what I made, and then tells me I am the best cook ever. The second emotion I get is extreme disgust! This comes with lots of moaning, cries of "how could you make this? You know I don't like it", disgusted looks and major pouting. Tonight I made Beef Stroganoff for dinner. Can you guess which emotion I got tonight?

This is the face we got throughout dinner. He has never had this before but knew he would not like it from the way it looked. He eventually tried it and was able to finish it, I think he really liked it after he tried it but was to proud to admit it.

Want him as your dinner guest?

three little girls!

(This is for you Heather)

There are nine kids in my family, 6 girls and 3 boys, Stephanie, Erin, Jeremy, Elizabeth, Heather, Emily, Joshua, Ashleigh and Andrew. Long before the last two or three were around or older, Heather, Emily and I were known as "the three little girls". We did not like it! We had matching dresses, matching quilts, matching hair. That I think we did like. I can't remember but I think it was fun to be matching, but the nickname we could do without. I am sure it was because we did not want to be classified as "little", we wanted to be mature and independent like our big sisters, we did not want to be "the three LITTLE girls".

Heather-5 1/2, Elizabeth-7, and Emily-3

So what do I do? I grow up, have three girls, and start making them matching dresses and eventually matching quilts. But I don't call them the "three little girls". Honestly I probably would if that was how it was, but with Kenedy being older and having Ryker between them it just doesn't work. And if I am to be completely honest sometimes I do call Avynlea and Rylee the "two littles". Not because I am trying make them feel young or like babies, but because sometimes it is just easier to say the "two littles" then their names. It isn't all of the time or even most of the time, but yes it is some of the time.

Having said all of that, I finished the dresses. Looking at the picture reminded me of that awful nickname and all of the memories associated with it. My girls love the dresses! They love matching and are excited for it to get warm enough to wear them to church. I had fun making them and am really proud with the new sewing skills I learned. I was tempted to leave off the pockets because they scared me but I did it and they look so much better with them. Now I am going to finish the quilts and they are excited for those as well.

Good friends = Better times!

Last week our friend Amberly came back for a visit, finish cleaning and pack her house up. We took the opportunity to have a girls night out. On Thursday we went to Costa Vida for dinner and then headed over to Nampa for some Chocolate Fondue at The Mona Lisa.

Camille, Candice, Lana
Amberly, Brooke and Elizabeth

I have never been to The Mona Lisa and have always wanted to try it out. I love fondue and have heard really good things about this place, let me tell you it did not disappoint. The food was great, the atmosphere was great, but being with friends was even better. We were the only ones in the restaurant and had so much fun talking we were practically kicked out. The poor waitress was waiting on us to be able to go home and once we saw her standing around with her purse on her shoulder we knew we had better go.

The next night we got together to watch a Jane Austin flick called "Mansfield Park". Once again we hung around talking and having fun. Once we realized how late it was (12:30) we had to say our goodbyes to our friend and head home.

Thanks you guys for all of the fun! Let's do it again sometime!

Dancing Queen

About a week ago Kenedy brought home a paper from school about a dance clinic to be held at Meridian High School. I thought it would be fun for her to do it and she expressed some interest, but believe it or not it was Kefford who really pushed me to sign her up, he said that it sounded like it would be a lot of fun for her. I was a little hesitant because I didn't want her to do this alone without any friends but she was OK with that and told me to remember when she started soccer and did not know anyone on the team but she ended up making friends. So I signed her up for the two hour a day four day clinic. She went to the first class and came home so excited! She had so much fun and even knew a couple of girls from school, one of whom is also in our ward. She loved it and could not wait for the next day. At the end of the week we all got to go watch her perform at halftime at the high schools varsity basketball game.

Rylee and her Daddy at the game. Avynlea being a goof ball.

Ryker being even goofier.

As a quick side note Kefford was telling the kids that they were going to have to start paying for their own food. Ryker tried arguing that he was too little and we were bigger so that wasn't fair. That didn't work so then he said "you are the Dad and I am not going to be a Dad for 16 months so you have to do it!" Very funny!

Finally it was halftime and of course the dancers performed facing the other direction , but I just got up and moved very quickly to the other side so that I could see.

They performed to the song "Walking on Sunshine" and Kenedy did so good. She was really cute and I was excited for her to have this experience.

She told me afterwards that she wasn't even really nervous. I was impressed with how much the kids did after only a week of rehearsing. The student teachers were sitting on the sidelines helping with the moves, but the girls were doing great out there on their own.

It was a "Pink Out" game for breast cancer awareness and the girls all got pink shirts with "Blue dance Crew" written on them. Kenedy slept in hers last night and wants to wear it to school on Monday. I think I better wash it first.

Good job Kenedy!

I am proud of my girl!

Ryker speaks

While we were waiting in the car for Kenedy to come out of school, Ryker and I had a most interesting conversation.

Ryker: When I grow up I am going to live in California.
Me: Oh really? Why is that?
Ryker: So that I can visit Grandma Lutes every day.
Me: Well thats nice but what about me, I want to see you too.
Ryker: Weeellll, we can make plans to visit you.
Me:Oh, thanks. ...but you have to live close to me so that I can hold your little babies.
Ryker: You can hold them only if my wife lets you.
Me: Why wouldn't she let me hold your babies?
Ryker: Because I will be at work and she has to let you hold them.
Me: If you are going to marry a girl that won't like me and won't let me hold your babies then you should not marry her.
Ryker: (shrugs)

good toots?

Last night we are all sitting in the family room watching TV when a smell drifted past my nose. It smelled so bad I immediately thought it was Rylee so I checked her diaper. Nope not Rylee. I then questioned who usually is the source of the smells. I said "Ryker was that you?" and he confessed to it. I told him to say excuse me and then commented on how bad it smelled. So then Avynlea says "Ryker does not make good toots!" I had to laugh cause really, who does?

Sprinkles!

Today I took a little break from sewing and made cookies with my girls. I put the cookies in the oven, sat down to my computer, heard the timer, got distracted, forgot the cookies, suddenly remembered the cookies, ran into the kitchen to pull out a batch of very well done cookies! I had Avynlea pick the color to dye the frosting and she wanted blue. So I put lots of blue color in to make it very bright. I then assembled the cookies and the decorations, sat the girls on stools, frosted the cookies and let the girls have at it with the sprinkles.
They were very excited to put the sprinkles on. We showed Rylee what to do and she caught on really quick. There was more pouring then shaking going on with these sprinkles but that is how we like them. The more the better! Rylee ended up just holding the jar right on top of the cookie!

We ended up with some beautiful and very yummy cookies!

Want some?

snooze away!

When we got back from Australia we gave the kids our sleeping masks that we got on the planes. They all thought they were pretty cool and after trying them on everybody but one put them away! This is how I found Ryker sleeping when I went up to bed. I love that he looped the straps around his ears and, you will notice, under his chin. This boy really wanted that mask to stay on. He told me the next morning that he really liked sleeping with it and he probably would have continued sleeping with it but it ended up getting ruined the next day. After I took his sleeping picture I had to go around and take pictures of the rest of them, they are all so cute!
Avynlea minus the ever present thumb!
Rylee looks very uncomfortable and is often found in weird positions! Kenedy just curls up and likes to be surrounded by pillows!

Kenedy plays piano

Kenedy had a piano recital on December 20th that I forgot to write about. She has been taking piano lessons for a year and a half now and in the fall started with a new teacher. We like this teacher better and I feel that she is really improving on her skills. I think that if she were better about practicing she could really be great but for now I am happy that she is doing it without a whole lot of complaining. Actually I don't remember the last time she has complained about practicing so that's a good thing!
Her piano recital started at 6:30 and it was a crazy day. I had gotten back from Australia the night before (really late) and got my kids back that morning at about 10:oo. I then had to start unpacking the kids things and in between catch up on all that they have been doing while we were gone. Later that day Kenedy and I started making brownies so that we could give friends and neighbor some treats. I also needed to have a treat prepared to take to the recital. Well when it was time for us to go the brownies were not cooled and so I grabbed a plate of treats my neighbor had dropped off and used those as my contribution. Sneaky, maybe, but I call it using my resources and I told anybody who cared that they were not my own!

Kenedy had forgotten her piano book in Nyssa and after making many frantic calls to friends trying to locate a book we could borrow, I called Alison and had her email the music that Kenedy needed, of course then our computer had trouble printing. Kenedy was extremely panicked about not having her music especially when I told her she might have to do it by memory. I suggested she might want to say a prayer for helping her memory or to get the music which she did. She started practicing her song while Kefford tried to print. I finally told them both that it was too late we had to go without but I knew that she could do it. Well as we were pulling out Kefford saved the day by running the music he finally got printed out to us!

Kenedy played the song "The Handbell Choir" and she did fantastic. I knew she would have been able to do it without the music and secretly I was glad that we couldn't get it, but then we did get it in time and she felt better about having it.

suddenly so ambitious

There have been a couple of sewing projects that I have been wanting to do for some time now. Unfortunately I have had too many other things going on and to be frank I have not had the desire to pull out the sewing machine...until now! Recently I got bit by the sewing bug and suddenly got very ambitious. I thought to post the before pictures on here so that it will give me more motivation to get on them and get them done. I have a bad habit of starting projects and then quitting in the middle of them because I get bored. But no longer! I will start and finish these projects in a timely manner because it is a new year and a new me! Plus I really want to develop this talent with sewing.
I have had this material for a couple years now always with the thought of turning it into a skirt. Well with my new found ambition and Joann's having patterns on sale for 99 cents I am now making my skirt! This will actually be the final project because the other ones have a higher priority. (I took this picture with Ryker just waking up and he had his eyes closed because the light was too bright. We slept on the couch bed together because he wanted to and no one else would do it with him. He was a good sleeping buddy and it really wasn't his fault that I had a hard time sleeping. Unless it's my own bed I don't sleep really well.)

At some point in the near future we are moving Avynlea into the bedroom with Kenedy and Rylee and are going to be investing in bunk beds. I want the girls to have matching quilts and so that is another of my projects. I will be turning this cute material into rag quilts! My idea is to have the brown material be the common color in all three and then I will have one pink and brown, one purple and brown and then the final one will be green and brown. I did spend more then I wanted to on the material but I found the material I wanted for the best price I could find. It was all 50% off! Plus everyone I have talked to who sews told me it was better to spend a little more because these will be more durable, longer lasting quilts. (: As you can see I have the squares all cut out, it really didn't take as long as I thought it would once I figured out the best way to cut it went way quick. My friend Elaine came over one afternoon to help me and that made the cutting fly by. The only thing that worries me about this quilt is the batting. I bought a thicker batting then what would normally be used for this type of quilt because I wanted thicker quilts. So it will be interesting to see how they turn out. Hopefully they will be cute! I am thinking that if I have enough left over I want to make some type of curtain for the window.

This beautiful girl is modeling the material for my final ambitious project. While I was at Joann's getting material for the quilts I came across a dress on display made from this cute material. I fell in love at first sight and bought the pattern (for 99 cents, never pay full price for those patterns, it may take a while but they do go on sale and you can get it cheap) then found the material and got enough to make dresses for all three girls. Wow is right! The pink fruity material will be for the skirt and the green will be the bodice. I got some buttons and ribbons to decorate them with once the sewing is complete and I am excited for these to see how they turn out!

Party Time!

While Kefford and I were in California my sisters, Mom and I made time to do our annual Gilmore Girls bash! This includes wearing Gilmore Girl inspired shirts, where Mom won the prize for best shirt, Buying and eating so much food you think you are going to puke (we had chicken fingers, tacos, Chinese food, fried macaroni and cheese bites, chips, dips, ice-cream, pizza, curly fries, cookies, licorice and probably lots more)
We pulled the poppers that my Mom had bought which were filled with fun little prizes, fortunes and party hats! My prize was a magnet clip which I have already put to good us.)

And of course we watched ALOT of Gilmore Girls episodes! It was another fun party and we even devil egged Joshua's car, poor Josh, but it is tradition! Those pictures are on Erin's camera and will be uploaded and discussed once I get them!

Stephanie, Mom, Elizabeth, Heather, Breana

Ashleigh and Erin

We are amazing! Thanks everyone I look forward to next years party!

Weird Hair

No longer weird!
I went to bed last night with my hair still wet from my bath and when I woke up this morning it was crazy! My bangs had curled into springs poking up from the top of my head and the rest of my hair was crazy kinky. I am sure you are trying to picture it but not even the best of you can do that hairdo justice. I didn't have time before waking the kids up to flatiron my hair so it was looking funky. Kenedy had a third grade field trip to the philharmonics and needed to dress up fancy. She decided to wear her sparkly Christmas dress which comes down to her knees and her black leggings underneath. I worried about the bottom half of her legs getting cold so I told her to put on my black knee highs. She looked adorable! But she confessed to me that she felt like she looked kinda dumb. I told her "Kenedy you look sooo cute, and trust me I know cute". She looked up at me and said "Mom if you know cute then how come your hair looks so weird?" ! Sooo funny! I then explained to her the reason why and she accepted that and off she went to school. Don't you love how honest kids are. She was right, my hair looked really weird but it looks better now that it met my flatiron!

Feeling Wicked!

I have really been slacking with my Australia postings and I would like to take the time right now to clear the air. For the past week and a half I have been working on getting my pictures and vacation logs organized into a book which once I have completed will be published into a really cool book that I can have displayed for everyone to see. So with working on this book I have become really burnt out because although it is fun to be doing it, it is time consuming and I am not in the mood to rehash everything again for the sake of my blog. Hopefully I will get it done soon and I will come to the point where it will be great for me to start posting again but for now it will have to wait.
Having said that, on the day that we flew back into LA I had a really fun night out with my sister that desperately needs to be shared!
So this is my little sister Heather. She is 18 months younger then me and we grew up really close. Many of my fondest childhood memories are with her. She was my co-conspirator in crime but because I was the loud one she never seemed to get caught, I always got blamed for everything! Anyway we were really close and remain so to this day. So when she found out that I was going to be in California for two days visiting she bought tickets for my birthday to take me to see this..
(Top Model really needs to discover this modeling talent!!) the Broadway Musical "Wicked"! The only things I have heard about the musical was that it was about the witches from Oz, that it is based on a book but do not read the book because it is very naughty (don't worry I never have) , and that people are OBSESSED with it. I thought well it must be OK for that many people to see it over and over again but really how great could it be. So while I was looking forward to this night out with my sister and while I was pretty excited to see the musical my expectations were not too high.
After waiting for Heather to get home for work we started getting ready. I had Ashleigh do my eye make-up because she is talented like that and I got dressed in my fancy clothes. I had to borrow a jacket from Heather because it being summer and all in Australia I did not have one. I thought I would be OK without but as Heather put it."it's freakin' LA, you need a jacket", so I took hers and I am glad I did because it was pretty cold. We finally got out the door and me being famished as usual I had her go through a drive through to get some food. I paid for our meal because I didn't want her to think she could take advantage of me on our date because now she is not paying for everything. Ha Ha Ha, I know I am sooo funny!
We arrived at the theater and settled into our seats to watch the show.

You guys, the show was unbelievable! I LOVED it and am now recommending it to all of you. If you ever have the opportunity to see this show, even if you have to drive a few hours, then do it! You will not be sorry. It was so different then what I had expected and then ending was such a surprise. You think you might know all there is to know about "The Wizard of Oz" but trust me this will have you rooting for the ones you never thought to root for. I loved the music and have since bought a CD of the soundtrack plus I bought a book all about the making of the musical. It is filled with insiders knowledge and behind the scenes trickery. My one disappointment is that since the show has now left LA I will probably never have the chance to see it again. Wouldn't it be cool if it came to Boise? I would take Kefford, Kenedy and Ryker to see it, cause they too would love it!

Thanks Heather for a fun girls night out, let's do it again sometime!

my list of 8...

Random picture of me and my brother Joshua at my Dad's art show. I am sixteen and he is ten.

Lana tagged me and since I never did the tag she tagged me with before I thought I would go ahead and give this one a try. Plus Megan kind of guilted me into it so here you go. My list of things...

8 TV shows I love to watch...

(oh you are really putting your precious time in jeopardy when you ask me this question. I LOVE TV and even more I LOVE reality TV. So here goes with this and always remember..don't judge me...you probably watch the same things!)

1 The Office (by far the best show on TV. why "Two and a half men" win more awards I will never know.

2 Kath and Kim

3 24

4 The Biggest Loser

5 True Beauty

6 America's Next Top Model

7 Survivor

8 The Amazing Race



8 Favorite Restaurants



I am going to skip this one. Kefford and I do not eat out enough for me to have 8 favorite restaurants. So sorry and so sad!



8 things that happened yesterday



1 we got our Direct TV hooked up and I am loving it! Plus we got DVR for upstairs and downstairs. That means I can record 4 shows at one time! Oh life is good!

2 Talked to Lana for 45 minutes on the phone about how we spent 2 1/2 hours visiting teaching one of our girls sunday night. Kefford was not pleased when I got home, I didn't even tell him it was only one girl we went to. To be fair he did not hear me say I was going to the church to enter numbers and THEN going visiting teaching, so he was pretty worried...and upset...but mostly worried (:

3 Blogged about my amazing kids

4 watched some celebrity documentary thing on Angelina Jolie while folding laundry. Sigh and gag if you want to but I got all of my laundry folded and put away all while being entertained by someone elses life. So there!

5 Watched The Bachelor and laughed

6 Watched True Beauty and laughed harder. some people are sooo funny.

7 played ring around the rosie with my family during family home evening.

8 put the kids to bed and finally relaxed!



(obviously these are not in a morning to night type of order. They are in a first things that pop into my head type of order. )



8 things I love about winter



1 Christmas

2 my birthday and rykers birthday

3 snow (sometimes)

4 snuggling up nice and warm in a blanket

5 Hot Chocolate and Hot apple cider

6 getting to see my family

7 Kenedy and Avynleas birthdays

8 being with my Hottie Husband



8 things I am looking forward to



1 Kefford and my next big vacation getaway

2 going to spend time with my family

3 summer

4 heat

5 sunshine

6 vacation at the beach

7 valentines day

8 Kefford coming home



8 people I tag



No names if you want to then do it if not then don't, no pressure, except for you Meggo you better do it, you will feel better about your blogging, for real!

fun happenings!

Rylee came out the other day wearing her Daddies shoes and hat. I think she looks adorable and I always love it when the kids decide to play dress up with their daddies shoes!
Kenedy was assigned to give a talk in church yesterday. So yesterday morning I told her to get a pencil and some paper and I told her that she was going to write her talk. I have always done it before but I think that she is old enough and smart enough and she needs to start learning how to do it herself. She was nervous with the whole idea and quited frankly a little peeved but I asked her some leading questions and gave her a little guidance and she did it! I was so proud of her, i went in at the end of the third hour to listen to her give it but I had already missed it. In Senior primary they do the talks in the beginning. I was really bummed about missing it so when we came home from church we had her give her talk to us! She was great and said that when she was giving her talk in church she said some extra things! This girl is awesome! Here is the talk she wrote (the topic was "we are all spirit children of God"...
I am a spirit child of God which means when I was a spirit I was a child of God and I still am. SO is everyone else in the world even those who do not believe in Christ and if we are all children of God we are Heavenly brothers and sisters and we should treat others nicely even if they don't look the same as us we still need to treat others nicely. Being children of God also means we need to help each other and be good examples so that we can all live together in Heaven with Heavenly Father. And also follow the golden rule, treat others the way you want to be treated. For example, if there is someone who is mean to you at school and you are walking home from school one day and you see that same person that was bothering you and he falls off his bike and you think hey that's the person that hurt my feelings. should I help him? Yes cause we are both children of God and if I do that he might be nice to me because I help him. Them you help him and he is nice to you. and again treat others the way you want to be treated and you will be treated as you treat others"
She said that she forgot to say "in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" at the end and was a little worried about that but I told her that's OK! Isn't she great? Love that kid and how she is growing up!
Yesterday morning I was browning a roast beef in hot oil so that I could put it in the crock pot to cook while we were at church. I let the oil get a little to hot since when I put the beef in, hot oil splattered up my arm. Oh man was I in pain. Kefford had me put some anti-bacterial medicine on it and this is how it looked when the huge red splotches had faded.
The pictures are a bit blurry because I was taking a left handed picture of my right arm, not an easy thing to do. My arm feels and is looking better today so no worries everyone! I will survive! Though I have to admit I was very pleased with Keffords caring reaction. He was a sweetheart, love that man!