Mile Run and more Fun

For the past three weeks I have taught our friday night dance classes solo. Kim, the teacher in charge, had to be away with the company kids doing dance competitions and so I have had a stressful three fridays. I am the assistant and have not done the choreography for these classes we teach but with her being gone I had to try to clean up the numbers, try costumes on, and teach the rest of the choreography  to the elementary age kids. As much as I love the girls we teach they are a hard bunch to teach solo. It is especially hard when we are so close to recital and it is up to me to get them through these last weeks. Luckily Kim will be back this friday and I can go back to being the assistant. :) I took this picture of our pre-teen girls after they put on their suspenders and glasses for a nerd dance they are doing, I then sent it to Kim to show her how cute they look. I really do love teaching Dance and although stressful at times it is a lot of fun and highly rewarding!

I found a couple of pictures on my phone that Kenedy had taken without my knowledge. I posted the second one on instagram with the caption "When you play with my phone the results get posted". She is lucky I didn't post the first one on instagram although posting it here might be sorta the same thing. :)

One morning I was getting ready to run on my treadmill and I quickly pulled my bangs back in a booby pin. I hate running with any hair touching my face so it all has to get pulled out of my way. I really didn't take any time to make it fancy just haphazardly pulled it back but what result was a perfect bump that usually is super hard for me to achieve when I am trying. I liked it so much I left it in place for the rest of the day. Yes I did shower after my run, no I did not wash my hair. :) Why ruin a perfectly good bump with a hair washing?

On Saturday Ryker, Avynlea, Rylee and I got to run a mile in the Meridian School District fun run. Kefford was busy setting up a booth for the youth appreciation day in Emmett with Keneny so it was just the four of us. Ryker decided to run at the front of the group with the fifth graders while the rest of us stayed back with the second graders. We decided to split the difference between Avys third grade and Rylees first grade groups. It was a super cold morning and their was a bitter wind that did not make it any better. We were so cold and I was pretty unhappy while waiting for the start time. Backing out and waiting in the warm safety of my car did cross my mind a couple times. Finally it started and we took off. Avynlea ran up ahead with her friend Alexandra while I stayed with Rylee and kept her at a steady pace. I told her we were going to run the entire way and she was down with that plan. I was really proud of her not once did she complain about being tired or wanting to stop, she stayed positive and stayed running. We encouraged each other and when we were getting close to the finish I told her we should run faster so we put on a burst of speed and sped our way to the end. At the finish line we found Ryker and Avy who said they also ran the entire way with Ryker finishing in the top 20 which was pretty awesome. The kids got medals and that was the best thing ever according to Rylee. She was so excited to get an actual medal!

After the race we hurried to the car and drove to Emmett to help Kefford and enjoy the Youth Appreciation Day. Once we were done with our long day we came home and Rylee put her medal back on and informed me she was going outside to brag about her medal. She cracks me up! It was a fun day and running with my kids was fun and makes me think we should do it more often.

Avynlea, Rylee and Alexandra

Silly Kids

I found these pictures hidden in my data base of pictures and realized that I have never posted them on my blog. So here are some pictures of my kids being so silly.

I used these red fluff balls for a nursery craft in December and when Rylee found one she used it for her enjoyment. 

I took these pictures one FHE of Ryker playing Apples to Apples and I am not sure why I took the pictures other then because I thought it was funny.

Kenedy found a new way to curl her hair without heat and I took some before pictures. I was going to take some after pictures but must have forgotten. She washed her hair at night and then rolled it up in pencils and slept on it. It looks way uncomfortable and I could not have done it but she said it was no big deal and did not bother her sleeping at all. Even though their is no picture to prove otherwise her hair did turn out quite cute.

Happy Easter!

For the past couple of years we did Easter Egg Hunts at Keffords parents house and then on Easter morning the Easter Bunny would leave Easter baskets for the kids. This year we were not doing any egg hunts at the in-laws and I was informed by a lady in our ward whom Rylee confided in that Rylee really wanted and egg hunt and was always disappointed that the Easter Bunny never left any eggs outside for an egg hunt. I was not too thrilled with this revelation because I think hiding Easter eggs is a lot more work then just putting items in a basket. Nevertheless I decided to be a good Mom and let the Bunny know this little request.

I had some items that were specific for different kids and so I put those items in the baskets and left them out for the kids to find and look at Easter morning. I let them know that these items were from Mom and Dad and they seemed to like what they had. I also had Easter treats from both Grandmas that I stuck in the baskets and I did make sure the kids knew whom they were from! :) We have pretty awesome Grandmas!

Meanwhile the "Easter Bunny" had hidden eggs around the house and in the backyard for the kids to find. All of the kids seemed to be happy with this turn of events except for Kenedy, she was super bummed not to have the amazing basket she has gotten used to in previous years. I discovered that I cannot win them all and decided to let it go.

Avynlea was super excited with the Hamster Webkinz she got and Rylee was beyond thrilled to find that she received a Bunny Webkinz. Avy named her Hamster Smores and Rylee named her Bunny Jessica.

I had bought the girls items a while back and had planned on getting out to the store to get Ryker a few things but then a couple of days before Easter I got pretty sick and was not able to make it to the store. I felt pretty bad but luckily Kefford pulled through and found some things he had hidden away to put in his basket. 

I bought a couple of super cute Easter bows at a Holiday Boutique I went to and am so happy I still have girls young enough to want to wear them. Seriously adorable!

I was busy in the kitchen trying to prep things for dinner before we needed to leave for church and so I sent my camera out with Kefford to capture some images of the kids Egg hunting. I caught peeks of them through the kitchen window so I was not totally left out of it all.

They had a lot of fun egg hunting and while they were opening their eggs I heard Kefford talking to them about why we celebrate Easter. The next day for Family Home Evening Kenedy prepared a great lesson on the resurrection and we read about it in the scriptures. 

After church the kids were outside playing when they saw a duck had landed on our house. This was a fun sight and Kenedy took some pictures of it. 

I made our traditional Easter Bunny cake and while it turned out, in my opinion, not cute, it sure tasted delicious. Kefford requested homemade frosting because he does not like canned chocolate frosting and so even though it required more work I went with it and am so happy with how it turned out. It tasted so good and i might have to start doing homemade chocolate frosting from now on.

Feeling Wicked!

On Saturday I got to take Kenedy and Avynlea to see Wicked! I probably would not have bought tickets this time around since I have already seen it twice but my girls really desperately wanted to go and so I went ahead with it. Rylee wanted to go also but I knew she was not yet ready to be able to pay the attention that is due to this great musical to really appreciate it. So she stayed home with her brother and Dad. 

Alison, Trista and Sara also came along for this fun girls night. I started doing the broadway musicals with Alison a couple of years ago and I am so happy that we still have this tradition. It sure has given us all some really great memories and I hope for many more.

One funny thing about this outing was Alison and I had on identical sweaters, unintentional, and Sara and Trista were wearing almost identical outfits, also unintentional. 

While we were watching the show I was super happy to be there watching it. I love the music, the story, everything and I am glad that I did get to see it again. After it was over everyone agreed on how much they loved it and we went to Olive Garden for dinner and conversation. 

We had such a fun time and I am so grateful to be able to do these types of things with my girls and Keffords Mom and Sisters. I love memory making events!

Easter Breakfast

The weekend before Easter weekend was our Wards Easter Breakfast. We brought Kyla and Taylor, two girls who live down the street along with us. 

Instead of the usual pancake breakfast they did biscuits and gravy which was delicious but I kind of missed the pancakes. :)

After a nice message about our Savior and the Resurrection the kiddos were sent outside to hunt for eggs. 

Rylee, Taylor, Kyla, Gus, Avynlea and Gretchen

Later on in the week the kids had a day off from school and I took Avy and Rylee to get their hair cut. I am not good at all about taking any of my kids to get regular hair trims and I need to be better about it. Especially after seeing how healthy and pretty their hair looked after getting them cut. I hate to admit it but I am pretty sure it has been 2 years since they last got a hair cut. I hope I am wrong because that sounds terrible but I am thinking that's about right. 

Even though Avynlea didn't want too much off I had the girl cut off about 2 1/2 to 3 inches. It made her hair look so much thicker and healthier! Rylee has been wanting bangs for a long while so she got bangs and then I had the girl do slight A-line cut and her hair also looked so pretty and healthy. Definitely need to be better at this hair cutting business.