Beautiful Dancers!

The last part of May was spent getting ready for our Dance recital. We had to spend one Saturday getting pictures taken and while I don't have the professional ones ready to upload I can show off the pictures I took of my super cute girls.

The girls wore these cute costumes for their ballet dance. It was to a song called "Crazy". They absolutely loved these costumes and look adorable in them.

This jazz dance was to Marilyn Monroe's song "Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend" So, so, so stinkin cute. The dance, the costumes, the girls, everything!

Kenedy wore this outfit for her Jazz Dance. I don't remember what the song was that they danced to but it was a cute dance. :o)

This was her Hip Hop dance costumes. We supplied the black sweats and then her dance teacher, Miss Kim, puffy painted glow in the dark designs. All of the girls had different designs on their sweats and, luckily, Kenedy's looked the best and the coolest. This dance was performed with a black light and it was so cool to see the paint glow. We couldn't see faces since it was under a black light but since all of the girls had different designs we were able to tell where Kenedy was.

Another Wicked Night!

A little over a year ago my friend Lana called with the news that the Broadway Musical "Wicked" was coming to Boise and asked if I wanted to go in on getting group tickets with Ladies from our ward. Um, heck yeah< I didn't even have to thing twice. I was totally in! I think people have been getting tired of me saying this but I saw this musical a couple of years ago with my amazing sister in LA and I loved it! I was excited to have Kefford and Kenedy go with me to see it again, so I ordered three tickets.

 After more then a year of waiting it was almost time to go. About two weeks before hand we were at Keffords Aunt Tamis house and we were talking about Wicked and she said that she really wanted to go but the tickets were all sold out. I was bummed for her because I knew she would have loved it. A couple of days later Lana called me again with some bad news. During this year of waiting she got pregnant and had a beautiful baby girl, unfortunately now that she had a newborn she felt the need to opt out of going and was looking to sell her ticket along with another friend who got free tickets through her husbands work. After I got off the phone with Lana I immediately called Tami and asked if she would want to buy the two tickets. She was excited and said she would. Yay! So Tami came and brought her daughter Karli. It was really fun to go and have them be there with us. I managed to rearrange the tickets so that Karli and Tami could sit with us.

So after watching this Musical for a second time here are some of my thoughts on it. Not that anybody really cares. :o)

*For me the first time around seeing it was much more magical. I went into it knowing nothing and so everything was a wonderful surprise.

*the first half of the show, though it still has some of my favorite parts, drags a little.

* I love watching the second half and seeing how everything gets tied into the Wizard of Oz and how everything comes together.

* I absolutely love all of the music and had a hard time not getting up and breaking into song with the actors. Their voices are much, much better than mine and it would not have been appreciated.

*we were in the balcony which I was not expecting and if I had known before when I bought the tickets I would have paid more so that we could be closer.

*I am almost positive all of my friends wanted to shoot me whenever the words "I saw it before in LA" came out of my mouth. I swear I never said it to brag it was just to let people know that since I have seen it before I am now an expert and everyone can absolutely trust me when I say that they will love it. OK so also maybe to brag a little that I have an awesome sister who took me for my birthday, Best Birthday date EVER!

* I hope they make this into a movie worthy of the Broadway production so that the rest of my kids who know and love the music can experience the magic in the story.

* I am really glad that Broadway shows are showing up in Boise and I really hope that this new trend continues. It breaks my heart every thime i think of it that I did not take advantage of Fiddler on the Roof being here also. I love the movie, it reminds me of my Dad, and I know I would have loved to have seen it on stage.

* Oh and Kenedy loved it like I knew she would and Kefford thought it was a little too chick flicky for him but did enjoy many aspects of it.

Mothers Day

Let's just say that I got the luck of the draw when I married Kefford. He is the best Husband I could have asked for and is constantly doing little things to let me know he loves me. My Mothers day was a great Day thanks in part to my amazing Hubby and also my fantabulous Kiddos. Church for us starts at nine and luckily all of Keffords meetings were cancelled that day in honor of Mothers Day. Yeah! So Kefford got up early, got the kids up and had them help make me breakfast. I decided I better use this time to get ready for church, in peace!, and so I did but made sure I was back in bed when the kids brought up my breakfast. I got yummy french toast with strawberries, bananas and orange juice. It was so cute to hear them preparing this "surprise" for me. I loved all the whispers and shushing of each other trying not to wake me up not knowing I was awake and already ready for church. hehehe

 After church we all came home and Kefford barbecued delicious steaks for dinner. I was upstairs doing some more relaxing and when I was called down for dinner I found all the kids sitting at the table with big grins on their faces. They all then brought their hands out from behind their backs and gave me some fun and pretty flowers to plant in the front yard.

After Kefford and the kids cleaned up dinner they had me sit back down so that they could give me their Mothers day gifts. Kenedy gave me a cool case for my phone, Ryker a bag of doves peanut butter chocolate, Avynlea a really pretty ring and Rylee gave me a cool necklace. Kefford took the kids out the day before so that they could pick out gifts for me. After all this Kefford gave me a gift card to Kohls,

Being a Mom is a hard job but I love my kids so much and I know that they love me. They are so forgiving of all my faults and I am trying to do better at doing the same. I love Kefford so much and am grateful for him in helping me with this job I have.

Yum, Yum, Yummers!

I am not a big fan of eating pies. But the one pie that I do get on the pie train for is the coconut cream pie. Oh man that pie is so delicious, especially the one from Marie Callenders. Unfortunately, except for rare times during the years, those pies are none too cheap. So a couple of weeks ago I decided I was going to try and make my own coconut cream pie. I found a recipe online for the filling and then a good friend of mine gave me her secret pie crust recipe. With those in hand I set out to make myself a delicious coconut Cream Pie. Yum! To make the crust I broke out my brand new food processor from Pampered Chef. I put the ingrediants in and started processing, unfortunately it was not cutting the butter up fine the way it was supposed to. I assumed it was because the butter was still pretty frozen from being in the freezer and so after letting it sit out for a long while I tried again. Still not chopping good. I kept trying and trying until I finally got tired of it and gave up figuring that was good enough. The chinks were smallish but not tiny like they were supposed to be, oh well. After I dumped it out I looked inside the processor and realized that I never took the cardboard coverings off of the blades. Oops! Never even thought to look in and see if there were any parts to remove before I could start using it. I felt a little silly but, whatevs, obviously next time it will work better because I took off the cardboard and threw it away. :o) So I made the crust and then got to work on the filling. I was so proud of myself while making the filling. There were a couple of things that were a tad confusing in the recipe, like "temper the eggs", but after thinking for a second I remembered what "temper the eggs" mean. The Food Network is definitely a learning channel. :o) So I got done with the filling, put it inside the crust and stuck it in the fridge to let it cool. After a while I could not wait any longer and so I pulled it out and had myself a big slice. It was perfect and oh so delicious. I was surprised with how easy it was for me to make it and I anticipate many more homemade coconut cream pies coming my way! Lucky for me my kids are not fans so more for Kefford and I. Yeah!

This apron I am wearing deserves a little mention. Every year Grandma Marge gets a gift for all of the grandkids. Last year (2010) all of thee married Grandkids got these homemade aprons. I was not able to go to the Annual New Years party at Grandmas house that year, I think I was in California, so we did not get our gifts until later. We got what we got and were quite happy about it. Months later I found out about these aprons that everyone got and wondered why I did not get one. So the next time I saw Grandma I asked her about it. She thought for sure I got one since she made enough for everyone and did not have any left. I told her I did not get one but that it was OK. Of course I totally wanted one but it was not a big deal. I knew that she was so sick of those aprons since she had to make about a billion of them and that making one more filled her with dread. I told her it was OK and not to worry about it. wouldn't you know that months later after all that Alison gave me a package from Grandma Marge and inside it was this special apron. I think it means more to me getting it this way because I knew how hard it was for her to make one more and I know that I am loved. She is a special lady and I am so glad that she is my Grandma! 

Monster Trucking

Kefford took Kenedy, Ryker and Avynlea to the Monster Truck show this year. It was Avynleas first time going and she said it was cool but really loud. The kids love this annual tradition and look forward to going as soon as it is mentioned. They always meet up with Keffords brother Jeremy and his three kids, being with their cousins make it extra fun. Since I was not there I have not a whole lot to say except a good time was had by all!

Someone is missing a tooth!

Avynlea has had five loose teeth for a couple of weeks now..five! On Friday night I was feeling her most loose tooth and I told her that it was probably ready to be pulled out if she wanted it to be. She of course said yes and told me to pull it. I of course said no way and had her wait for her Dad to come up so he could do it. Once Kefford came upstairs he took Avynlea into the bathroom and with a yank pulled that tooth right out. Avynlea said it hurt a little but she did not cry and she said she would be willing to have more teeth pulled once they are sufficiently ready. What a brave, toothless girl. Avynlea slept in Kenedys bed that night and so the tooth fairy found her tooth in a baggie on the floor. When Avynlea woke up the next morning she found her tooth gone with $2 in its place. Yay! Avynlea has in mind a five dollar toy that she has been wanting to buy so she gave me her money for safe keeping until she can collect enough cash to get her toy. Smart toothless girl!

Cool Hair!

Kefford is barber for himself and Ryker in our household. Not too hard when you are only giving buzzcuts, but he does a good job and we will let him keep doing it. Ryker gets buzz cuts through the spring, summer and early fall but as the air starts to turn cold the buzzing stops and the hair starts to grow long. Kefford stops cutting Rykers hair and lets him grow his hair out a little in the winter to keep his head a bit more warm. I don't like the looks of it towards the end of winter, it is a crazy mess and very hard to comb. But Ryker and Kefford both think his hair looks awesome. Unfortunately for the boys once the warmer weather hits it is time for the hair to go. So not too long ago Ryker got his much anticipated (by Mom only :o)) warm weather haircut. Ryker was not happy to have it but as Kefford was cutting he gave Ryker some fun,  short lived, hairstyles which made the boy suddenly happy. What a fun kid, too bad I didn't get an after picture, just picture in your head how cute my boy looks with his buzzcut. Oh so cute!