End of August

Friday August 25th was the first football game of the season! I love going to football games to watch the game and to watch and support my favorite cheerleader. After school Kenedy had some of her cheer besties over to hang out and get ready for the game. I enjoyed listening to them chat and talk about different things and love that Kenedy has some good friends on her squad. 

Kenedy, Hannah, Lindsey, Audrey and Emily (hidden behind Audrey :/)

I brought Avynlea and her church bestie Shaeden with me to the game. They spent most of the game walking around and hanging out so I probably won't spend money to bring them again. They can hang out at home for free. Because they were off socializing I was sitting alone for some of the game which is ok but I would rather have a friend to sit with. The ones who I usually sit with, Amber, Lana and Jessica couldn't make it so that was a bummer. Luckily not too far into the game I saw Mady Ray and Emily Johnson two youth from our Ward and I told them they could sit by me. I had a lot of fun watching the game and visiting with these girls. It was nice to get to know them better and they were fun to hang with. 

When I first arrived at the game I noticed Kenedy and a few others were not on boxes, I asked her why and she said because they did not have enough and have to wait for the coach to get more. Way to plan for that one head coach. 

Meridian played against Centennial and the first quarter Meridian did awesome and were ahead by 4 touchdowns. They then lost a lot of steam and by halftime Centennial had caught up to them. After halftime it got really exciting and by the last minute we were on the edge of our seats with it being such a close game. Luckily Meridian won by 1 and we were so excited!! I love the unity and spirit that the Meridian students show for their school and team. It was such a fun night and I am so glad they won!

As we were leaving I got a picture of Avy, Shaeden and me, this was one of the few times I actually saw them that night.

 Then when we got home and after Kenedy got home I had to get a picture with her. I was trying to look for her after the game so we could get a picture but it was too chaotic and crazy with all of the celebrating fans.

Avynlea went to the store with me and we had some time to waste in the store as we waited for an appointment I had to get my bangs trimmed so we played around in Walmart. Avynlea found some fun Dinosaur claws to play with and then I had her put on the animal heads. 

She is cute even as a bear, sloth and a rabbit.

First Day of School Take 2

On Wednesday August 23rd the rest of the kids went back to school. First to leave were Kenedy and Ryker to the High School. This is Ryker's Freshman year and Kenedy's Senior year! This is Kenedy's first year of going to school with a sibling since she was in the fifth grade and I am so glad she and Ryker have this year to be together. I have seen a shift in their relationship the past half a year in the positive and it makes me so happy that they are becoming closer and enjoying each other more. I hope they are able to bond even more this year before Kenedy leaves next year. 

First up for pictures was Kenedy. 

Before she was camera ready I caught her doing what she does best and took a picture. 

A couple days later I found Kenedy's Kindergarten first day of school picture and I made a collage with her First day of school Senior picture and posted it on Instagram with this caption...

"Then and now, from Kindergarten to Senior. 💙💛 2018 is coming too fast 😭"

After I did Kenedy's pictures I took Ryker's. He is now a Freshman at the High School and ready to rock the next four years. I had him hold up 9 fingers to represent that he is in the 9th grade and it confused him a little bit as to why he had to do that. 

What a handsome guy!

A little bit later Avynlea was ready to go start her 7th grade year. I found another picture of a hairstyle to try on her and I think it turned out really cute. She is so fun and such a pretty girl, I know she is going to love being a 7th grader!

Total Eclipse

Mon Aug. 21 was the day Idaho and the rest of the world, it seems, has been waiting for for a long time. It was the Solar Eclipse. I have been seeing signs and information about it for a couple of months but never thought too much about it. It seemed cool but not something to get too crazy about. Luckily we were close to the path of totality and did not have to go too far to experience it. I would not have traveled out of state for it like a lot of people did. We were just blessed to be in the path this time around. The Saturday before Kefford and I thought we should stop procrastinating and try to find some glasses. Unfortunately a lot of places were sold out but fortunately Kefford called Fred Meyer and they had just gotten some in so he and I headed over to get some. Since they had a limited number they were only allowing each customer to buy 4. Kefford and I went in separately and I bought 4 pairs and he bought 2. Kefford was going to Emmett on Monday to make calls for work and Emmett was more totality then Meridian so we decided to all go with him and watch it together in Emmett. He called some of his friends who live in West Emmett and asked if we could watch it from their house and they were absolutely great with that. 

Meagan works for Kefford and Kelsey and they have a house up on a hill with a really nice view. It was fun to hang out up there with them and watch the Eclipse. When Kefford got done with his calls we headed out to their house and the Eclipse had started so we were watching it as we drove up the hill. 

Once we got to the house we hung out and visited while intermittently putting on our glasses and staring at the sun disappearing. 

We were able to have Meagan take a picture of our entire family wearing our glasses before the Moon completely blocked the sun. 

I was surprised when the weather started to get cold, I was not expecting that. I think it might have happened when the sun was about 3/4s blocked and then the last minute it was so cool to see the world go dark. We did not see a complete black out but it was dark! I saw Venus appear in the sky and I was in awe of what we were witnessing. As I was watching this eclipse I was thinking of how lucky we are to witness such a magnificent part of Gods creations. I love the reminders of His love for us and the amazing things we can witness. 

Once the eclipse happened Kefford was messing with the telescope and he got the Crescent shadow on some paper. 

Meagan's next door neighbor had a really big dog that they took us over to see. My girls were really interested and got a picture with him but I was not so I stayed over at Meagan visiting with her.

August Summer Fun

Kefford took Ryker with him to Emmett to help cut the maze into the corn for the Barnyard Cornmaze. Ryker is never thrilled to go and do this work because he says it is hot and boring but he is a good sport to go and help out with minimal complaining. Kefford sent me this picture he took of my favorite son in the cornfield.

Brighton put together a neighborhood food truck party for our Banbridge community. Kenedy was working, Ryker and Avynlea were out at the farm so that left Me, Kefford and Rylee to attend this free food gathering. They had three food trucks at the grassy area by the pool, a hot dog truck, a taco truck and a hamburger truck. Rylee got a hot dog while I picked a taco salad from the taco truck. Rylee liked hers while I was incredibly disappointed by mine. I was expecting a Costa Vida type salad but what I got was completely subpar and not very tasty. Kefford came a little bit later then us because he was finishing up a video game race and when he arrived he picked a hamburger and fries. I was really jealous when I saw his meal and wished I could  have gone back in time and chosen differently. We had an extra food ticket because the hot dog truck did not take Rylee's so after some encouragement from Kefford and some friends i went and used it to get some fries. They were tasty but did not completely make up for my mistake in choosing the taco salad. We had a good time visiting with neighbors, listening to music and eating free food. Brighton also had a sno cone truck come and we all got free sno cones which are always delicious!

Mallory sent me this picture of Amos lying on the quilt Rylee made for him and wearing the onesie I gave to her at their gender reveal party. He looks so stinking adorable in this picture and it made me want to be with him so I cold pick him up and squish him, He is so cute!

Rylee took another picture of her bunny, she actually took about 4 but I chose just one to include in the blog.

One Thursday when Kenedy was working Rylee and I decided to go to her work to buy some pizza. I had a coupon which we used and it wasn't until about two weeks later that Kenedy found out she could have been letting us get half price pizza this entire time! I think this girl needs to ask her employees more questions. She did not know that I was taking her picture and I caught her during the times she was not smiling. She is actually a happy employee to the customers.

Kefford and I took Rylee with us to Walmart one evening and when we got to the entrance to our subdivision Kefford let Rylee climb onto his lap to drive the rest of the way home. She loved this and did an ok job of getting us to our house.

I like finding pictures of hairstyles on Pinterest and I like trying them out in my girls hair. On Sunday I did two of the hair styles I found in Avynlea and Rylees hair. They both turned out super cute and the girls got a lot of compliments on their fancy hairdos. 

Two beautiful girls!

Avynlea helped me out Sunday morning by make the dough for the rolls. We kind forgot about the dough and she left it in the KitchenAid instead of taking it out, kneading it and letting it rise in a different bowl. When we came home from church we laughed at the dough we had forgotten about.

No matter we were still able to make delicious rolls and the most tastiest cinnamon rolls ever!

Kefford went to the farm to pick up Ryker and he brought back potatoes, watermelon, onions and cucumbers for us. I didn't want the onions to go bad before I could use them so I chopped them up to put them in bags in the freezer. Onions make my eyes burn so bad so I put on some sunglasses hoping that would help them not burn. Avynlea told me goggles would work better so I switched the sunglasses out for my swim goggles. Avynlea thought I looked pretty funny and she took a picture of me. I looked funny but my eyes did not burn and I was able to get three sandwich bags filled with chopped onions into my freezer. I call this a win!

Rylee's First Day of Fifth Grade!

Rylee started fifth Grade on August 7th. She was so excited for her first day and didn't mind a bit that she started school a week and a half before her siblings. She is in Mr Thornburgs class and her best friend Serena is in there with her. Hooray!

I cannot believe that this is our last year of Elementary School. I look forward to having all of my kids on the same schedule next year but am always a little sad to see these little stinkers grow a little older.

Hiking with Grandma and Cousins (Grandmas Trip part 2)

Wednesday morning Grandma Alison took her crew of girls on a hike. 

By the time they got back Brit, Mikell and Whitney had arrived with their kids. 

I am glad that these girls got to spend so much quality time together and with their Grandma. What wonderful and fun memories they made!

Qiana, Brielle, Rylee, Mikayla, Avynlea and Allie

Grandma Trip 1

While the 4 of us were on Trek, Avynlea and Rylee got to spend the week in McCall with their Grandma Alison and Cousins. The first part of the week it was Grandma Alison with just the older Cousins...Rylee, Avy, Mikayla, Allie, Brielle and Qiana. Allie and Mikayla couldn't go up the same day the rest of the group went so Bob flew them up in his plane the next day. The girls all enjoyed riding in the golf cart to go pick them up and Rylee had fun pretending to drive it. At one point the cart moved and the girls all jumped off nervous about what they might have done.

On the way back up to the house they passed a pasture filled with cows. Alison dared the girls to go touch a cow and said that if they succeeded she would give them $10. Allie, Rylee, Avy and Qiana were the ones brave enough to try. Poor Qiana couldn't make it over the fence but I love the shot they got of Avynlea dabbing as she jumped over. Turns out touching a cow is a lot harder then one would think. The cows would run away as they got close and not one of the girls succeeded. Alison finally had to call them back to the car but they each got $2 for their efforts.

Back at the house they decorated hiking bags and watched a tutorial on how to make bookmarks so they could make some at the same time. That was a fun craft project for these girls who all love doing crafts.

Alison next took the girls ice-skating which was a real treat at least for my girls. Avynlea always wants to go ice-skating when we are in McCall and we rarely do so she was in ice skating heaven.

Rylee, Brielle and Qiana

Rylee did not being a sweatshirt or a long sleeve shirt and when she got cold while skating her Grandma was nice to let her wear her sweater.

Brielle.Avynlea, Mikayla, Allie, Rylee and Qiana

Avynlea and Allie had a lot of fun showing off their fancy falls!

Once the skating was done the next item on the agenda was to get into their swimsuits and go play at Blackhawk lake. They had fun swimming around and jumping off the dock.

Alison had them line up in order of height and then in birth order for some pictures. I found it interesting that the only similarity in both pictures was Mikayla being the oldest and tallest and Qiana being the youngest and shortest. 

After a fun filled day the girls got to spend some time relaxing in the hot tub, and having cups of ice is always a requirement to help cool one down when the hot tubbing gets too hot.