I love Sunshine and other things

On Saturday Avynlea and Rylee went with me to our Stakes Humanitarian Fair. It is done every year and each Ward shows up with a project to help benefit some organization in the community. It is a lot of fun and last year Kenedy went with me but she had cheer. I thought Avy and Rylee would like to go and do something so they were my dates for this years Fair. 

One of the Wards had Super Hero capes to decorate and so the three of us each decorated one. 

I thought Avynlea's was really cute and creative with the word fly under the butterfly.

Rylee had a little trouble with hers but she did the best she could and it was darling. Some little girl is going to love that cape so much.

Mine was a little bit more basic. I just wrote "Super Kid" on it because the cape was blue and I figured it would be given to a boy and there were not a wide variety of boy decorations. I liked it.

After the capes the girls went and stuffed some teddy bears and then hung out with some friends. Most of the projects got done really fast. Our Ward did pillow cases for a group that gives Cancer Kids pillow cases to sleep on. We had a lot of donations and a lot of help and we managed to whip out 70 pillow cases! It was such a fun Fair and I always love going and being help people in our community.

After we were done we went out to the car to go home. I usually leave the keys in the car because the drivers door has a keypad to open the door with. I have never forgotten the code and it is a good system that works for me. While I was pinning together pillowcases I had Avynlea go to the car to grab something I forgot to bring in, not the keys :). I wrote down what I thought the code was and when she came back she said it did not work. Eek. From then on I could not come up with the right combo, I was so confused. So when we went out to the car I tried thinking of other things so that when we got to the code I could let my muscle memory kick in and type the right one out. but of course that did not work. I called Kefford who was out shooting with his cousin and he said he did not know it and I tried calling Kenedy who was at cheer but she did not pick up the phone. It was cold outside so walking home was not a good option. One of my older lady friends Husband was walking out of the church about then so we hitched a ride home with him. I found Ryker and he was able to tell me the correct code number which I immediately typed into my phone so this could not happen again.  Later after Kefford got home I had him drive me to the church to get our sad car. What a crazy event!

Kenedy Face Timed with Alyssa the other night and I found these pictures of the two of them on my phone. They took these so they could publish them on Instagram and write paragraphs on how much they loved each other and what great besties they are. You know typical teenage shenanigans. :) 

As I was waiting in the car to pick up a kid from Piano lessons I was really enjoying the sunshine. Oh how I love the sun! I snapped a couple of pictures to see how it would look with the sun on me. I was trying to be artsy and I like how they turned out. 

Class Pictures

Friday was class picture day at school and my girls wanted me to take their pictures before they left. They each chose their own outfit and I was pleased with both of them. Rylee wore the new dress she got and assured me she would take off her jacket for the official picture. I did not have her take it off for my picture because they were waiting for their ride to arrive at any moment. Again, I love the converse high tops with the dress look. Such a stylish kid.

Avynlea looked just as cute in her stripped top and leggings. Such beautiful girls I have, each with their own uniqueness and personality. So much fun!

Then of course they wanted one together each doing the same pose they did in their individual pictures.

Kenedy snapped this picture of Kefford eating his late lunch. I don't know why but it is here and I am going to post it. I have a lot of pictures of my kids and not a lot of me or Kefford so here you go.

Kenedy is 15!

Kenedy turned 15 on February 18th. She was so excited for her birthday and to be one year older. I would say how weird it is to have a kid who is 15 but I know I say that every year on her birthday and so I will not repeat it this year, although it is pretty strange. 

After school we had a limited amount of time to do her birthday thing and so when Kefford got home we got to it. We ate dinner and I made her favorite dinner of chicken and rice. I didn't even ask her what she wanted I knew this was her favorite and so I made it. Luckily she was happy about it.

We had her open her presents during dinner because Kefford and Ryker had to leave fairly quickly. First she opened up the present from Rylee. Rylee and Avynlea picked from the things I bought at the flea market to give to her. Rylee was really excited and kept jumping around as she was opening it.

A princess toy camera

And sleeping beauty toys. One booth was selling a bunch of toys and she had a bag filled with Sleeping Beauty toys for only $3 so I bought it for Kenedy. Not exactly what a 15 year old wants but she is her favorite princess and they were super inexpensive so I did it. She can play with them when she gets bored! 

Next she opened the present from Avynlea, more toys! 

A cute shirt

Another Sleeping Beauty toy

Another super cute shirt

When I was in California and at Downtown Disney with my Mom I found this mug that I knew Kenedy would like. I always bring my kids back a little something when I leave on trips and this time I got Ryker, Avynlea and Rylee some things from the lego store and this was Kenedys leaving town present. She just had to wait till her birthday to get it because it cost a little more then the legos, and it was bought with her birthday in mind.

"Make it blue"                                             "Make it pink"

Then she got her final gift. Kefford gave her a pink charging cord and she thought that was it but then I called her number and a different ring tone rang because the number was now attached to her new phone! She was really confused when the phone was given to her asking if it was really for her and I showed her on my phone that I was calling her on that phone.  She was pretty thrilled with the gift. 

After the rush job of opening presents we sang happy birthday and she blew out her candle. I didn't have any normal birthday candles and so I just stuck a small candle on top of the cupcake tier. It worked great!

It was a purple cupcake mix with the aqua blue frosting but the purple was not as vibrant as I had hoped and imagined. It looks like chocolate cake in the picture. Oh well. 

It gave Avynlea a nice smile.

While Kenedy was at mutual one of her leaders and a couple of the girls snuck away to come heart attack her room. That was fun. Kenedy was not surprised when she came home because she said they were not as sneaky about it as they tried to be. Hahaha. It was still a fun thing to do.

5 reasons why I love Kenedy:

1) She is really forgiving and lets things go easily. I am really trying to learn from her example of not holding onto things. We will have an argument about something and then rather then holding onto her anger or attitude she usually is fine a little bit later. I love that about her and think that is a super way to be. 

2) She is very thoughtful to others. For Valentines day she made an original card and inclosed a personal heartfelt letter to each of the other JV cheerleaders, 19 in all. She spent a good amount of time doing these and did them without expecting anything in return. In fact none of the other cheerleaders did any valentines. The other morning I was not feeling well and I let Kenedy know that she needed to make her own lunch that day. I usually make the lunches. When I finally crawled out of bed to help the others get ready for school I found that she had made lunches for everyone, something I did not ask or expect her to do. That was really sweet and thoughtful and helped a ton. I loved it.

3)She is a beautiful girl! I love that she does not feel the need to wear a ton of make-up because she really does not need a lot. She keeps it natural and is just so pretty. 

4)She has awesome friends and makes good choices. I love the group of girls she is friends with and hangs out with. Some of them she has been friends with since Kindergarten and others she has collected along the way. These girls are so good to each other and help each other make good choices. The other night she had friends over for a movie night and the movie they chose to watch was one we had seen on TV and thought it would be OK. Later she told me that it was showing some things not so great and they decided to turn it off and play games instead. I love that she was able to make that decision with her friends and choose the right. Kefford and I were hiding out upstairs and would not have ever known, probably, but they made the right choice.

5) Kenedy has made the goal to get her Young Womens Personal Progress award before she turns 16 and is well on her way to meeting that goal. I think that is amazing and am so proud of her for making that goal. Her YW leaders are always telling me how much they love Kenedy and are so glad she is in their group. The president told me she is grateful in that Kenedy is always the first to volunteer for anything and always follows through. Another leader told me today that Kenedy always has such deep and insightful comments to make in class and she is so impressed with her testimony and spirit. It certainly makes a Mom feel so good to hear these things. I really love this girl of mine!

Kenedy's Favorites:

Color: Blue

Dinner: Chicken and Rice

Dessert: Ben and Jerry's "Everything but the..." IceCream

Candy: Symphony Bar

Church Song: If You Could Hie to Kolob

Radio Song: "I'm Not the Only One" by Sam Smith

Movie: Music and Lyrics

TV Show: Dance Moms

Friend: Lauryn Warner and Ashlynn Rich

Scripture Story: Helaman and the 2000 Stripling Warriors

Book: Fault in our Stars
School Subject: Acting
Thing to do: Be with her sisters
Princess: Aurora
Sport: Cheerleading

Valentines and more

While in California I put a heart in my hair like I did my girls hair. I really liked how it turned out, it was really cute!

Valentine's day was upon us and we looked on Pinterest for inspiration. Thank heavens for other people who have creative ideas and are willing to share their super powers. I am so tired of the cheap, generic ones the stores all sell...boring.

Avynlea went with a pig theme and used the toilet paper rolls I have been saving up. She painted them pink and hot glued eyes on them and made them into little pigs. We put Hershey's Hugs and Kisses inside and glued on a note that said "Hogs" and Kisses Love Avynlea. It was so cute and she did most of it herself. I was worried about the glue gun but she did awesome and did not get burned at all. Better then me for sure, I get burned all the time when I use the hot glue.

She then continued the pig theme by decorating her box to look like a cute little piggy.  We even added a curly tail.

Of course we put hearts in their hair and we made them even more festive by using the hair chalk to tint the hearts pink.

My friend drives carpool in the morning and she sent me and Allison a picture of all our girls who all had hearts in their hair. Great minds think alike. These girls all look adorable!

Avynlea, Claire Mortensen, Alayna Cottrell, Victoria Mortensen and Rylee

I am a little happy that cadbury eggs are in season right now and a little not happy because they are such a temptation being so delicious to eat. 

I took drinks in for Rylee's class party and I did not get a picture of them but I bought cherry kool-aid pouches and added a tag that said "Love Potion No. 9". My kids did not understand the No. 9 part of it and so I played the song with the same name on youtube so they understood it came from a song. Ryker later said that he had that song stuck in his head all day. 

Rylee had a really cute and easy Valentine, we bought little cereal boxes and put a tag on that said "I "Cereal-sly" like you Love Rylee" We tied a spoon onto it with a ribbon. So cute!

Since I was there for the delivering and opening of Valentines Rylee had me take her picture with her cereal and her box. I totally dig this kids style, high top tennis shoes with her cute dress was right up my style loving ally!

She also wanted a picture of her full box.

My phone has decided it does not have a lot of storage room and has been a huge pain with taking pictures. It randomly will not take pictures, rather, it tells me I do not have any storage space and cannot take a photo, so I did not get a lot of pictures on valentines day. I took Rylee's valentines idea and bought my kids each a box of their favorite cereal and wrote on a heart "I "Cereal" sly love you Love Mom" They thought it was a great gift! I had the kids help me good clean the house that morning for about two hours and then they had the rest of the day to play outside. Kefford and I went to the flea market to check it out and I found some little things to give Kenedy for her birthday. Then we went to the cheesecake factory, along with everyone else in the county it seemed. We waited about an hour for a table and when we were finally called I overheard the guy at the front desk tell a person it was an hour and a half wait. Since they told us 35 minutes I was guessing they would have to wait longer then the hour and a half. We had a great dinner and spent some good time together. I love this guy of mine! While we were waiting for a table we went over to the mall so that I could get some more Ariel socks. The ones I got last year I wear all the time and they are starting to get holes in them so I needed some new ones. I was excited to find some with different designs. 

Also after cleaning the girls got to open valentines from their Grandmas. We are lucky to have such fun Grandparents in our lives!! Ryker was outside playing and when he came in I tried to get a picture and that is when my phone decided to not be my friend. 

In a non-valentines note the other night I had prepared dinner and sat down to eat at our designated dinner time and realized I was all alone. Kefford was not home from work yet and the kids were all off doing different things. As I looked around the table I had the thought that here was my future. It was a little sad. Rylee came in a couple of minutes after I took the picture and when she sat down I said Rylee here we are looking at our future meals. She said "yup, after everyone leaves it will be me and you". I hope my kids live close so they can visit often. It would be sad if I could not see them as often as I will want too. 

Twinners

Cheerleading is an expensive sport! Luckily Kenedy loves it so much and is so dedicated so it makes it worth it..almost ;). She has a lot of cheer pieces to wear and this hoodie was one she got. A couple of weeks ago we all got an email telling us that some of the girls have dropped out of cheer and were selling their hoodies. I immediately replied saying I would take one because I have a cheer Mom shirt but it is always covered because I am always so cold so I thought this would be great. I could support my cheerleader and still be warm. After I got it I wore it to one of the basketball games and noticed some of the cheerleaders who were not cheering at this game wearing their hoodie. I started to feel super self-conscious thinking I was looking like one of those Moms, you know the ones who sit in the audience dressed like their daughters mimicking their moves. Not that I was mimicking any moves at all, I was just watching but you know what I mean. So I texted my sister-in-law to ask her opinion because she was the one who told me jokingly that she could see me being one of "those" cheer Moms. Here is how the exchange went

me: I am wearing a cheer sweatshirt that other cheer leaders are wearing. Is that equivalent to me wearing a cheer uniform, cause I am feeling pretty self-conscious.

Mallory: Haha! It's perfect!

Me: Another Mom is wearing one so it's ok right?

Mallory: Definitely okay! You are just more dedicated than all of those other lame Moms. 

So once I got Mal's approval I felt a lot better, plus it makes me feel giggly when I wear mine when Kenedy wears hers because it annoys her a little and she will take hers off.  Ha ha ha!

I think Kenedy is almost taller then me. In the picture it looks like she is but I am wondering if it is a weird angle. Either way she will be passing me up.

Birthday Surprise Day3

The next day, Sunday February 8th, we all went to Mom's ward to watch Jeremy Jr get set apart for the office of Priest. After Sacrament meeting Joshua set him apart which was really cool and I am so glad that I could be there for that. Living so far away I miss a lot and I am always extra grateful for the special events I get to be a part of. After the setting apart we went outside for the last group shots of the weekend. 

Emily, Joshua and Andrew flew out that night and everyone else had to go back to work on Monday, except me. I was able to get subs for my Monday Dance classes and so I had my Mom all to myself for the next day and a half. We went to Downtown Disney and had fun shopping and just hanging out. I especially loved being able to be outside in the warm sunshine with my favorite Mom.

On Tuesday Mom checked her mail before we left for the airport and she found a thank you card from Avynlea. her name misspell made me laugh.

What a great weekend this was. I am impressed that we were able to pull it off but we did and we all had so much fun together. I love my big family and I love my Mom and I am so glad that we got to get together to celebrate her!

Birthday Surprise Day 2

The next day all the siblings met back together at Mom's house to get ready for her next surprise activity. But first Mom had some Birthday Presents to open. 

Someone snapped a picture of me doing my make-up, not sure who

Mom turned 70 but she looks so young that people expect her to be able to do more then she can. Even though she is tough and can do a whole lot more then most 60 year olds. So Heather and Joshua collaborated and made her this awesome shirt to wear around.

Heather got Mom this cute rain jacket

Joshua got Mom a new cell phone

And Erin made Mom an adorable love banner

After the presents we loaded up the cars and headed over to the cemetery to visit my Dad's grave. Emily and Stephanie made a couple of detours for flowers for Mom and the grave and doughnuts for the rest of us. It was a really nice time talking about Dad and our memories of him. He was an amazing man and we all miss him terribly. Before we left we got another group picture and I wanted a picture of my Dad's headstone, Joshua had Mom stand in front of it for a cool shadow shot.

After we were done Erin took Mom to run some Errends, and keep her out of the way, and the rest of us headed to the stores to get some supplies for the surprise party we had planned. We invited Mom's closest friends and her sisters for a Birthday Party for Mom which she had no idea about, of course. We had it at her friends house and we went over a little early to set up. We had sandwiches, chips, salads, cake and an ice-cream sundae bar. When Erin brought Mom she told her she needed to drop something off at Connies but when they got here they saw some friends walking up to the door and so Mom figured something was up. It was still fun and she was surprised her Sisters were there.

After we ate and visited for a while us kids presented Mom with her gift from all of us. We took my Dad's signature from a card he had given my Mom and had it made into a necklace, it was really cool and she loved it. A couple months ago I asked Heather if she would be sneaky and look through Mom's things to find something that had Dad's signature. Erin was there that day and she went into Mom's room to help her. They said they looked in so many places and were getting a little bit frustrated wham all of a sudden both of them had the same thought to look in the same place. They went over and there it was, the card with the perfect signature. Definitely my Dad was there helping them search.

After the gift I put in the DVD I made with all of the Grandkids telling their Grandma how much they love her with their Birthday wishes. It was really sweet and they all did a great job.

Such a fun party. I am so glad we got to celebrate this special Lady!

while I was gone Kefford sent me a picture of the bullseye Rylee got with the BB gun.

And Kenedy sent me some pictures from her cheer competition that was the same day as my Mom's Birthday. The first one was her telling me she missed me and the second one was the "pass" they had to use to go to the bathroom, hilarious. I was really sad to be missing her competition but I did see the first one and there will be others.