On Monday for Family Home Evening we talked about the Plan of Salvation. Avynlea did a great job being the "Vanna White".
Tuesday was Valentines Day! I made Oreo truffles the day before and packaged them up nicely and wrote a valentine to each of my kids and to Kefford telling them a couple of things I love about them. They came downstairs Tuesday morning to those on the counter along with some Valentine goodies from Grandma Alison.
Kenedy is always in a rush to get out the door in the mornings and she was gone before I could think to get a picture of her, but not before we had family prayer. For her first semester of Junior year Kenedy had early morning seminary and would leave for school right before 6:00. After a couple of days into this schedule I was thinking about how sad it is that Kenedy couldn't start the day off right by having family prayer with all of us and so Kefford and I started getting up before she left to have a prayer with her. For her second semester Kenedy decided to change her schedule and go back to release time seminary rather then early morning. I am so happy that we can all be together again in the mornings for "all of our family" family prayers.
I managed to get a picture of Ryker and Avynlea before they rushed out the door with Kefford to catch their bus. I love that my kids are now taking the bus, it has made life a lot nicer for me in the mornings and after school.
I did a really pretty Valentine's Hairdo in Avy and Rylee's hair. Because she was in such a rush to leave, the picture I took of the back of Avynlea's hair was a little blurry.
Only one kid left in Elementary school and that means only one set of class Valentine's! We found a cute idea on Pinterest and I found that I could order the gummy bears from Amazon. I ordered them last Friday and they scheduled them to arrive on Valentine's Day. That was not going to work for us. Kefford had printed the Valentine's for us when he went to his parent's house over the weekend and since we already had the cards we needed to find another way to get the gummy bears. Luckily we found out the World Market carries them and Kefford went and got us a bag on Monday. When Rylee got home from school she was able to get her Valentine's put together and they looked really cute.
side note: the gummy bears came during the day today and I was able to stop the UPS man so he could take the box back and send it back to Amazon for me. Hopefully I get my money back.
I also volunteered to make the sweet treat for her class party and when Alison brought us Valentines she also brought us some cookie dough! I used that to make 4 dozen heart shaped cookies which Kefford and Rylee helped frost and decorate. I had enough for the party, for us to eat at home and we gave some to the kids bus drivers. Avynlea also took in a couple to her favorite teacher. We love sugar cookies!
A Valentine Selfie :)
A couple of days before Valentines Day Ryle's teacher sent out a signup email to signup for things to take to the party. They are only allowed one sweet treat and then the rest of the goodies are supposed to be healthy items. I did a healthy item for her Halloween party and decided to sign up to do the sweet treat and I wrote that I would bring sugar cookies. I made the cookies and brought them to the school and then stuck around for a little bit. While I was in their another Mom came in with a bag and she told the teacher she brought sugar cookies to contribute to the party. Rylee's teacher looked a little taken aback but said OK and added them to the table. I. Was. Ticked. I spent a lot of my day making these cookies and here another Mom comes in with store bought cookies. There was a sign up for a reason and it just really got to me that she did that. Ugh. I had to leave to pickup Avy from school and when I came back to get my plate there were still a lot of cookies on it. I was happy to take them back home because we all love sugar cookies and will eat them but it bugs me that it happened.
Rylee was super cute with her Valentine's Box that we created. She had a fun time at her party and that is all that matters. That and that nobody ate my cookies.
When Kefford got home from work we left to go eat dinner at Red Robin. Kefford and I like to go out to eat on Valentines Day and it is nice to have an excuse to go out as a couple randomly in the middle of the week. There were a lot of people waiting but it went quick and we only had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. The food was delicious and the company was even better. It was a good night.
I made the kids our traditional heart shaped meatloaf for dinner. I also put potatoes on the stove to boil but had to leave before they were finished. Ryker was put in charge of finishing the mashed potatoes and I told him to put a little food coloring in to make them pink for Valentines. He went way overboard on the color and they turned out to be a very bright red. I appreciated his help nonetheless.
After we got home we gathered together for family prayer and after I told everyone they had to say one thing they love about everyone else. I also told them I was exempt since I already did that in the cards they all received from me.
I took some pictures while we were sitting around and since Kenedy thinks I do not take enough pictures of her I made sure to take extra of her.
