Rylee's Project

Rylee came home from school with a cute project showing the parts of a flower. I thought it was a fun and creative way for them to learn the different parts. Avynlea thought the "Roots" looked liked shoelaces and kept teasing Rylee about why she had shoelaces on her project. To which Rylee would reply they are not shoelaces, it is yarn! Rylee at first was not too sure what she wanted to do with this project, keep it or throw it away. She finally decided to throw it away but I made sure to get a picture with her and the project before it was gone forever.

Throwbacks and more

My friend had posted these pictures from 1998, our High School Prom. Kind of fun to reminisce and see how young we were.

Desiree, Elizabeth, Janae, Chrystal, Jenna and Deborah

And of course Kenedy took advantage of the camera on my phone

Sunday we had Mikell and her kids over for dinner, Steve was out of town. James quickly attached himself to Kefford and became his little buddy. It was really cute how he would follow him around.

On Sunday I tried something new with my hair and loved it. My kids said it looked like my hair was a pair of big lips! Ha ha ha, that made me laugh, but it won't stop me from doing it again, I still love it!

It was Joshua's birthday on Tuesday and my Mom sent me this picture she found of the two of us. Too cute!

Sometimes when the cheerleader leaves her Pom-poms lying around, I will pick them up and play with them. I can't fit into her uniform so I might as well have something I can have fun with. I did pay for them after all. :) 

KitchenAid Miracle Worker

My KitchenAid decided to stop working the day before thanksgiving. I borrowed my neighbors to get through the holiday but since then it has been bust and I have had to get by without. Not fun at all! We looked into replacing it and also seeing how much it would cost to have it fixed and both options were so expensive. Kefford took matters into his own hands and after taking it apart, ordering a new part for cheap and watching some youtube videos he was able to fix it! I was so happy and super impressed, I really love being married to a man that is handy! My Kindle decided to stop being able to charge around this same time and Kefford was able to fix that also, this man is amazing!!!

First Cheer Competition!!

Kenedy had her first cheer competition on Saturday. Trista and Avynlea came with me to watch, support and cheer her on. Their squad competition teams were divided into four groups, Sideline, stunt, pom and show, with the girls being in 2 of the groups each. Kenedy is in pom and stunt. Only Pom and Sideline were competing today, the coaches did not feel that the other ones were ready. I got a picture of the girls right before they went on and I thought they did fabulous. I loved watching their pom performance. They did it to a song called "Bazooka Zooka Bubblegum" and it was so cute and fun. I especially loved the bright pink pom poms. The only other group to perform from our squad was Sideline and they were amazing to watch as well. The Sideline placed first and the Pom did not place at all. I was really surprised they didn't place because I thought they did such a great job. They did get the judges papers and so they can go over them and see what they need to do better next time. Kenedy had a lot of fun and I have to admit to getting teary eyed as I watched her. I love seeing my kids blossoming and finding things they are passionate about. Life sure is great!

Group shot of the squad. Kenedy is on the right at the end

Time for a Selfie!

The three of us were hanging out before they had to leave for school when Rylee grabbed my phone saying she needed to take some selfies. We all decided that was a fun idea and did it also.

Throwback Picture

My sister-in-law Anita posted this throwback picture the other day. This was taken about a month after Kefford and I were married. We flew to California for Jeremy and Anitas wedding and I don't remember this picture being taken but I love it! Dad and Jeremy were not dressed up because they were in the wedding and had not put on their tuxes yet. Anita, I assume, is not in the picture because she was off getting beautified for her wedding. 

Ashleigh, Erin, Stephanie, Breana, Heather, Dad, Jeremy, Mom, Grandpa Lutes, Grandma Lutes, Andrew, Elizabeth, Kefford, Joshua and Emily

Card Club and Family Game Time

I belong to a card club and one a month we each make 7 cards having to do with the theme and bring them to someones house, have lunch and exchange cards. It's lot of fun and I have gotten some really cute cards. This month the theme was love or Valentine's Day. I always look on Pinterest for inspiration and ideas and this time I found a card that I was in love with. Even though usually we are pretty elaborate with our cards I chose this one because it was so simple and plain but so very cute. I was not sure how the others would like it and so I made one and sent the picture to two of my friends in the group and they LOVED it! So I went with it. It was the easiest card I have ever made, I hand drew each one and it took me about 20 minutes to finish them. YES! Success!

This year church for us is at 11:00. I love 9:00 church because it is in the morning and you have the rest of the day to do whatever but I did find that Sunday afternoons and evenings tended to drag on forever. 11:00 church is great. We can sleep in a little, I have more time in the morning for dinner/lunch prep. and the afternoon isn't as long. On this Sunday we had enough time to play a game of Skip-Bo together. I love Family togetherness time. We just don't have Kefford with us since he has morning meetings. 

Doll Kits and Ice-Cream Sundaes

I frequently log onto our local libraries website to reserve books online. A couple of weeks before Christmas I had gone on to find some books and I discovered an announcement about American Girl Dolls. Our Library used to have a display of them that has since been taken down. I wondered what they were going to do with them and thought they might sell them. But according to the announcement we can now check out the Dolls from the Library. I showed my girls and they were pretty excited about it and wanted to reserve some Dolls. So we did. There was no way to tell what place in line we were and so we just had to wait. Every day my girls were asking if I got an email about the Dolls which I never did. Eventually I discovered that the Dolls could be checked out for 28 days and I told my girls it was probably going to be a long time until they could get them. 

On Monday I got an email from the Head Children's Librarian telling me that the Dolls we placed on hold had a waiting list but they had 3 other Dolls available if we wanted. After I taught dance I decided to go and see if they had them still so I could check them out. Luck was on my side, they had two Dolls left and they were mine as long as I was on the waiting list which was 75 people long. They had so many people sign up that they have started ordering more Dolls!  Of course I was on the list and so I was able to check out Julie and Rebecca for Avynlea and Rylee.  They were going to be so excited and I could not wait for them to see the Dolls. 

A little bit later I got an email telling me someone made a mistake and I was only allowed one Doll on my card so I needed to bring one back. I was bummed and knew I would have a very sad child if she did not get a Doll but her Sister did. So I emailed her back apologizing for the mistake and after explaining to her I had two girls who each wanted a Doll I asked if I could return one and then turn around and recheck it out using a different card. I immediately got a return email telling me if I would give her a card number that she would do it for me electronically. So of course that is what I did. She came through and did it and I thanked her profusely. I love our Library so much and am grateful for understanding librarians who could be not so understanding. 

I was excited for my girls to get their Dolls but we had to get through piano lessons, homework, dinner and clean up before I could tell them about the Dolls, it was killing me! I did mention to them about the long waiting list and I told them they would probably be 16 before they got a Doll to check out. Finally they were finished with everything and I told them they needed to clean up in the toy closet which is where I had put the Dolls. They were so excited to find Julie and Rebecca in there waiting for them and were so happy to start playing.

Each Doll kit comes with an outfit, a book, a journal, a bed and bedding and a special brush or pick.  

Rylee got Rebecca                                        Avynlea got Julie

I snapped a picture of Ryker playing on his tablet. He is such a cute boy. 

Rylee was in charge of treat for FHE and when I asked her what she wanted she told me ice-cream sundaes, yum yum. She wanted to have ice-cream with whipped cream and cherries, none of which we had on hand so I texted Kefford asking him to stop at the store to pick the ingredients up on his way home. 

When it was time to serve she even knew how she wanted them served, in our fancy glasses. She did a good job and it tasted so good. She looked so cute serving me my sundae, so excited and happy about it. 

Fruit Salad

Avynlea has been asking me all week if she could make a fruit salad. I finally let her go for it and she was so happy. She made it with apples, bananas, oranges and kiwi. Once Rylee saw what she had she helped her eat hers and then made one for herself. Then Ryker saw what was going on and had to have one for himself too. What a bunch of fruit eating cuties.

As the girls were getting ready to go to bed Avynlea called out to me that Trinity was not in her cage. I went in to check and sure enough the hamster had gotten out because Avynlea left the hole exposed on the top of her cage. She didn't think she could get out and so was not concerned with the opening. I told them to start looking and called out to Kefford that we had a hamster on the loose. They found her pretty quickly under her doll bed and when they found her it was not a pretty sight. The Hamster was fine but the big hole she chewed in our carpet was not OK. I cannot believe the amount of damage this hamster did. Kefford and I were not happy at all. I tried taking a picture of the damage and it is a little blurry but I think one can get the picture of what happened. Kefford wanted to get rid of the Hamster then and there but he took a little while to think about it and hear Avynleas pleas and decided it could stay but once it dies no more Hamsters. I was OK with that. Darn that Hamster.