Graduation Cap and Gown Pictures

I wanted to get some good pictures of Kenedy in her cap and gown but there was not time before her Graduation weekend to do it. So on Monday Heather, Ashleigh, Mom and I took Kenedy over to her High School so we could get some shots using Heathers camera. Kenedy had some ideas she found on Pinterestso we tried some of those and then we had our own ideas to try. We were really excited with how they turned out and Kenedy looks amazing in every shot!

This last one was my favorite...no photoshop needed or used on any of these pictures :)

Kenedy Graduates!

I cannot believe the time has come to watch my oldest Graduate from High School! This was a really surreal yet fun and exciting day. We headed to the Taco Bell Arena at BSU at about 9:30, Kenedy had to be there at 10 and we wanted to get some decent seats. Once we got there Kenedy left with her cap and gown to go find her fellow graduates and to get ready and the rest of us went through security to find our seats. I thought it was kind of funny that there was absolutely no outside for or drink allowed, we all left our water bottles in the cars, yet they didn't see the treats I had in my bag, because they were looking in bags, and when the security girl had Rylee open her purse she saw it was filled with cheerios and laughed and let her through. So maybe no food unless you are a cute 11 year old:). 

The Graduation ceremony was only about an hour and 20 minutes long with the actual handing out of the diplomas being the longest part of it. The principal spoke for maybe about 5 or 10 minutes and then they had two student speakers, McKoy Bartlett and Macey Williams. They both did a good job although much of their speeches sounded the same, and I am quite certain most of the student speeches given at Graduations sound pretty much the same. Once they finished, about 5 to 10 minutes each, the Diplomas were handed out. It was a bit of a wait to get through all of the 350+ students but not bad for a Graduation Ceremony.

After the ceremony the Graduates flipped their tassels to the other side and then walked out. I loved that Kenedy was able to spot us in the stands and I waved like a proud maniac when I saw her waving at us. That made me so happy!

After the ceremony we met our Graduate behind the arena so we could congratulate her and take pictures.

Ashleigh made Kenedy a candy lei which is tradition in our family to do. It seemed to be tradition in a to of families because I saw quite a few, but none as cute as Ashleigh's. She did Almond Joys and Peanut Butter cups, two of Kenedy's favorites, and the colors matched Meridian school colors which was clever and fun. Ashleigh also had money tied around it. 

Let the picture taking commence...

I wanted a family hug picture which Ryker was not wanting to participate in, stinker.

Grandma Bonnie and Grandma Alison

Matt, Isabelle, Kenedy, Ben and Emily                    Andrew, Kenedy and Ashleigh 

Breana and Kenedy                                   Heather and Kenedy

Some of Kenedy's cheer friends came to support the graduates which was nice of them. In the upper pictures it's Chris, Carlee, Hannah and Sami

In the bottom pictures are Carter and Wilson two of Kenedy's good friends.

Once we were done taking pictures we all headed out to the parking lot. Kenedy spotted more friends on our way and so I was left with her to take pictures while everyone else went to the cars.

Quinn, Gabby, Carter, Kenedy and Wilson

Kenedy and Kody                                      Kenedy and Audrey

Kenedy and McKoy                                Kenedy , Tori and Kaitlyn

Kenedy, Ashlynn and Makayla                             Kenedy and Ashlynn

Gabby and Kenedy                                            Makayla and Kenedy

Danny and Kenedy                      Maddie and Kenedy

Jeff Hills (Teacher), Logan, Kenedy and Luke                 President and Sister Kropf

After we got home I had about 15 minutes to get ready for her Open House. I did an ice cream sundae bar with chocolate and vanilla ice cream, brownies, peanuts, sprinkles, whipped cream, blue gummy sharks, yellow and white sixlets and chocolate and caramel topping. We also borrowed Carrie Roberts(our Ward YW President) popcorn machine and had yummy popcorn. 

Kenedy had a lot of family and friends come to wish her congratulations and we tried to get a picture of her with everyone but some managed to sneak out before we could.

Trista and Kenedy                      Sara, Kenedy and Trista

Kenedy, Amelia, Kylie and Andrew                                     Sara and Kenedy

Kefford, Kenedy and Danny Ricks               Kenedy and Kirsten Chidester

Kashyap Family                                             Russ and Holli Pollock

Dustin, Sadie, Kinzley, Whitney, Kenedy and Madi                                    Zimmerman Family

          Uncle Ron and Cecily Froeher                   Qiana Brielle, Hazel, Asher, Xander and Tayvia

R. Ethan and Kenedy

Bottom Left: Sean and Arin Lamb

Temple with my Family

With Mom, Ashleigh and Andrew Brown in town we could not pass up the opportunity to go to the Temple to do inititories. Mom and I went and did a session the previous day which was awesome and it was even more awesome to go back to do more Temple work with more of my family. After us girls were done we went up to look in the Celestial room. Ashleigh has not been in this Temple yet so I gave her a somewhat tour. We even got to peek into the Bride's room which is so beautiful! They wanted to see the Baptismal font so we went to the waiting room past the Temple desk and sat and waited for the guys to come out. so they could go also.  I kept checking out the front to see if they somehow snuck past us but never saw them. We were sitting and waiting for about half an hour when Kefford poked his head around the front partition and motioned to us. It seems they got done before us and had been waiting in the front waiting room. Too funny! Once we got our group back together we went down to see the font and then out to walk on the Temple grounds and take a couple of pictures. It really was a great night!

Emily and her family arrived late Friday night with Breana in tow. I wanted to take my Mom and sisters to my friends boutique, Hattie and Grace, which is an online boutique she runs out of her house. The great thing about her being local is I can go to her house and try on the pieces rather then just ordering them and hoping they fit. The last time I was there she had some really cute stuff and I knew my family would love them so I took them to her house Saturday night. Lindsey has all of her clothing in an upstairs bedroom and she just let us go on up, shut the door, and have fun trying things on and modeling for each other. We had such a great time and laughed so much that night, it was really great fun. We all ended up getting some cute dresses and wore them to church the next day. We took a picture of us in our new Hattie and Grace clothes and I think we look pretty great!

Tie Dye Parties!

This year we got white shirts for our Lutes family beach shirts with the plan to tie dye them. Kefford and I brought our shirts back from California and I asked my friend Beth who is an expert at tie dying if we could come to her house and have her help us out. We went Monday night for FHE and after showing us some patterns and techniques we picked our colors and got to work. It was a lot of fun and pretty relaxing, it made me want to tie dye more things! We all enjoyed doing it and the shirts turned out pretty cool.

My Mom flew into town the next day for Kenedy's graduation and that night was Rylee's last choir concert. Kefford got some pictures of her during her first song and I feel bad that that was all the picture taking we did. I cannot believe we missed out on taking a picture with my Mom and our entire family. She did a really good job and her concert was the best one yet since it only lasted 30 minutes!

Ashleigh and Andrew Brown drove into town the next day with Heather arriving on Friday. They brought their white shirts and I took them over to Beth's for some more tie dying fun. We are definitely going to have the best shirts on the beach this year!

Senior Walk

After Rylee's concert as we were leaving Principal Doni Davis stopped us to ask Kenedy if she was coming to the school on Friday for the Senior walk. I was a little confused and asked her what she was talking about and Doni said they are having the Meridian High Seniors come to the school in their cap and gowns to walk through the halls with the kids lined up to watch. I have seen pictures and videos of places doing this and always thought it was so cool and wished they did something like it for our kids. I was so excited and asked if I could come and watch which Doni of course said yes to. So Friday morning Ashleigh and Andrew Brown, Mom and I went to Chaparral Elementary to wait for the Senior Walk. I was so excited.

We got to the school pretty early because I was paranoid about missing it and we sat in the car and visited for a little bit. We saw Rylee coming in from Recess and I rolled down the window and called out her name so we could wave to her. She was super embarrassed and tried to ignore us but then she kept peeking out of her classroom to see if we were still there, it was pretty funny.

Kenedy sent me a text letting me know she was on her way to the school so we went inside and sat in the hallway to wait. Mr Thornburg, Rylee's teacher, saw us so he sent Rylee out to come and see us. Again with the embarrassment from her. She said a quick hi and then scuttled back to her classroom.

The graduates finally arrived and the teachers had their kids line the hallway. The music started playing the the Seniors started to walk in. The elementary kids cheered and clapped and high fives the Seniors as they came walking through, it was pretty cute. The Seniors came in kind of clumpy and it was hard to take good pictures and video because some of them were hard to see, I told Doni that next year they needed to come in one at a time and spaced more apart. Other then that it was pretty great!

Once they were done the kids went back to class and we found Kenedy, she wanted to get a picture with Rylee and then go to her third grade classroom to see them. 

Rylee reluctantly came out to pose for a picture and she did smile which was good of her.

This past semester Kenedy took an Education Assistant class, which had her in a third grade classroom at Chaparral assisting every other day. She wanted to stop in to get a picture with her class and it was pretty cute hearing them call out her name so excited to see her when she walked in. She got a lot of hugs and congratulations from her third graders.

Piano Recital

We got to watch Avynlea and Rylee perform in their end of the year piano recital. They both did such a great job and I am so proud of how much they have improved. This was Avynlea's last piano recital as she has now officially aged out of the level that Kathy teaches. I am a little sad that she is done with lessons but am really happy with how much she has learned and how hard she has practiced. I am pretty sure she is the only one of my kids to have never complained about taking piano. 

Such pretty girls!

Seminary Graduation

Seminary Graduation was the week before Graduation which was nice. Because in February our subdivision was put in a new Ward and Stake Kenedy had her Seminary Graduation with our new Stake, Meridian West. At first Kenedy was really sad about that and wanted to Graduate with our old stake. When I told her I could make arrangements so that she could do it with the Linder Stake she decided to stick with our new, she has a lot of friends in this Stake and it worked out well. 

The Graduates walked in to the Chapel according to Ward and sat in the front of the Chapel. They had some really great speakers, one of them being McKoy Bartlett, Kenedy's best friend. He is a really good speaker and so composed and has a maturity about him. As I was listening to him speak I felt like I was listening to a Bishop or Stake President and even sent Kenedy a text saying "Future Bishop right there". Kelsey, another of Kenedy's friends spoke and she did amazing! She is a convert of about a year and a half and after she was Baptized decided to take Seminary while making up the years she missed. She completed four years of Seminary in a year and that is impressive. Her talk was about 15 minutes long and it was completely memorized. I couldn't believe how well she did without any notes, seriously so amazing!

After the ceremony we went to the gym for pictures and ice cream cones. 

                     Ashlynn and Kenedy                                               Kenedy and Brother Sell (one of her                    seminary teachers)

Oak Creek Ward Graduates

Samuel Kropf, Kenedy and Shanae Ririe

Some seminary Graduation outtakes...

This and That

I bought some key lime pie and orange cream flavored licorice for us all to try. When I gave Kefford his he mentioned that they never have black licorice in the Twizzler brand. I told him that we did see the black licorice and the next time we were at the store I snapped a picture with Avynlea holding a package for proof.

Playing around with some of Instagrams filters.

Rylee had safe patrol after school and so I had to go pick her up that week instead of her taking the bus home. She was on ball duty that week and I got to the school in time to see her carrying out her duties. I rolled down the window and took her picture and yelled out "Hey Ball Girl!". She was not amused but she sure looked cute!

Kenedy sent me a picture of some photo editing she did and it made me laugh a lot.