Decorating the Tree

Once all of our Thanksgiving guests left it was time to get out out Christmas stuff. Rylee wanted to be a Christmas girl with the tinsel garland and tree skirt so we dressed her up for a picture before we put that stuff on the tree. She is a little cutie!

After they were done putting their ornaments on the tree Ryker and Avynlea goofed around for the camera. I have been having lots of fun playing with the portrait mode setting on my phone.

Ryker got to put the star on the top and he did a grand job

More portrait settings fun

After we were done we read some Christmas stories and had some cookies. It was a great night. We left Kenedy's ornaments in the box so she could put them up when she got home from school.

Thanksgiving

The Robertsons plus Breana came to our house for Thanksgiving this year along with Alyssa and Kenedy home from college and we had a lot of fun. Isabelle asked if I would do her hair for Thanksgiving and I gave her a fancy hairdo. It is a bow split pulled out french braid into a bun and it looked so cute. She has a lot of hair which was really fun to work with. I also had Emily helping me make bear ears and tails for one of my dance classes which you can see a little bit of in the picture on the right. I think in that picture Avynlea and Isabelle were doing their nails, there was a bit of that going on this Thanksgiving break.

Kenedy and Kefford did their annual Turkey carving, I like that it is now a tradition for them to do it together and we got some pretty great pictures of them carving and goofing off for the camera. As you can tell by the selfie Rylee took the top 4 pictures before I took the phone from her and took some pictures because Kenedy didn't think she was doing it right.

The dinner was really good and I did not take any pictures of the meal or of us eating but we do have these two after dinner selfies. :)

After trying to sleep upstairs with all of the girls Rylee finally came down and slept on the floor in my room. She wanted to sleep and the other girls wanted to stay up talking so she found a great solution. Breana stayed in Rylee's room while they were here and I am pretty sure Rylee was very happy to get her room back when they left. 

Ryker and Ben had an enjoyable time playing Zelda Monopoly during Thanksgiving break. With Matt and Emily sleeping in his room and Isabelle and Avynlea sleeping in the TV room upstairs Ryker and Ben made the office their bedroom. I tried having them sleep in the closet under the stairs but it seems they are now too big for that small space, bummer.

After dinner was eaten and cleaned up us girls went to Target, Old Navy and Bath and Body Works for some Black Friday Shopping. The next day we also went to American Eagle and H&M where we found some great deals. Rylee was not wanting to go with us at first but at the last minute decided to come along and she had more fun then she thought she would. I was glad she came and I got to have all three of my girls with me, it was so much fun! We shopped and talked and laughed and enjoyed all the good times.

After we got back home we all hung out in the Living Room playing games like "peep, chick, peep" and "Do what I do" and having more fun.

Rylee and Kefford spent time on her Kindle rather then playing the group games with us but that is just fine with me, they were in the room with us and that counts for together time

Saturday Bailey had invited Ryker to go motorcycle riding with him, Ryker wanted Ben to go also and so the four-wheeler was loaded up for Ben to ride. They had a good time and it was fun for them to get out and ride around

Later that night we went to Scentsy headquarters to check out the light tunnel I have been hearing so much about. It was a little bit of a line to get in, just because everyone would stop at the entrance to take pictures, but not too long of a wait and it was fun to walk through the lights. 

After we were done walking through the tunnel the kids took turns rolling down the hill. Kenedy and Avynlea made me laugh with their Princess Bride impressions while going down. I was taking a lot of video but no pictures, it was too dark outside with no lights around us to see much anyway and I am pretty sure all the video saw was blackness with sound. Oh well, the memories are there.

The next morning was Sunday and everyone went to church with us which was fun. We took one big group picture before sacrament meeting and then Emily and I snuck a selfie when we saw our dresses together were Christmas colors

The Robertsons and Breana left pretty close to right after church and then after dinner I took Kenedy and Alyssa to the gas station to meet their ride back to Rexburg.
As always I had a really fun Thanksgiving holiday with my family and am always sad when everyone leaves but can look forward to seeing them all again soon.

Visiting Seattle

Mallory sent me an email quite a few months ago telling me I should come and visit them after they have their baby with a link to some really great airline deals. I thought that was a fantastic idea but didn't jump on the real fast enough and lost out on the super cheap airline ticket. I was really bummed out about it but a few weeks later the same deal came around and I jumped on it. 

My drivers license expired the day of my birthday so I went to the DMV and spent hours there to get my license renewed because I knew I would need a new one to fly. I was given a temporary license and I thought I was good to go with that. But no, at the airport I was stopped trying to go through security because I had a temporary license. I was given an in depth pat down and they went through all of my stuff. It was pretty embarrassing but at least I made it through. I was told that they would have accepted my expired drivers license and I was really mad about that. Oh well, I made it through.

Joshua and Amos picked me up at the airport and when I turned to talk to Amos he started crying, what a silly boy. I brought him a tractor and gator miniatures and gave him the gator while in the car to try to win him over, it did not help. 

We drove to the mall so that Amos could make it to his haircut appointment and Amos was not thrilled at all with getting his hair cut. Joshua tried to distract him with pos and the TV they had on but the poor boy spent the entire time crying. I felt bad but stayed back because given the reaction to me in the car I didn't  think I would be any help to the situation. After the hair cut was done we took Amos to the little play area in the mall and it was there that he finally warmed up to me. Yay

Once he had his fill of daytime we loaded up and went to their home where I got to see Fredrick and Mallory. Fredrick is so cute andI got to spend lots of time holding him and when I wasn't holding him I was playing trucks and cars with Amos. It was a really fun trip and I enjoyed every minute with my cute nephews.

Amos knew the name of every vehicle in his collection and he quickly learned the names of the Tractor and Gator I gave him. He really liked the added toys to his collection, 

 I got there Wednesday morning and left saturday morning, it was a really quick trip but a really fun trip. 

When I was dropped off at the airport I got into the mile long security line and realized I left my jacket and wallet at Joshua's. I was not too worried about it because he said they would send them to me and I had my temporary ID which even though I would have to get a pat down at least it was something to get me through security. Wrong. In addition to the full body pat down and the bag search I also had to answer security questions because i could not produce anything with my name on it. It was not fun and really embarrassing but I finally made it through.

November Randoms

Kefford and I went on a dinner date to Panda Express and he had me take a selfie of the two of us to send to Andrew. Andrew shares a love of Panda with us and he wanted him to know he was missed I think.

Rylee got a hold of my phone and took a cute picture of herself

I was taking Avynlea to her choir concert and she wanted assurance that her hair did not look funny so I took a couple pictures to show just how cute she actually looked.

She did a great job in her first choir concert of the year. Avynlea auditioned and made it into the jazz choir which she was happy to be a part of this year. 

Our Stake had a stake yard raking service project that Kefford was in charge of. Avynlea, Rylee and I along with Avynlea's friend Sadie showed up at the church to get our yard raking assignment. We were given the address of a yard in our ward and when the guy gave us our paper he said it was a really big job and that they would send more people to help us. It turned out to be a huge job, the yard was a farmhouse yard with a lot of mature trees and it was completely covered with leaves. We were given 10 bags and after the four of us filled 5 of them Kefford showed up to help and then a little bit later one more guy came by to help out. Once we had the man power we got the last five done really quick. It was cold and hard work but it felt good when we were done to have provided the service.

I did a get ready with me video for my youtube channel and did hairstyles on me, Avynlea and Rylee. This is the thumbnail I took for the video and also for my hair instagram page. I think we look pretty cute, I love my girls

 While at the music store Rylee really liked seeing this miniature Violin, it made her feel like a giant I imagine

Temple Square

At the end of October we got a message from Breana on our family group chat that she was going through the Temple for her first time and invited anyone who could to come. It turned out only Emily and Matt and Kefford and I could make it, understandable since it was in Utah. Kefford and I drove down Friday and stayed in a Hotel in Ogden before getting up the next morning and driving to Salt Lake City. We met Matt and Emily for brunch and then walked around Temple Square and explored for a little bit before the session was to start.

I realized later that we did not get any pictures of the 4 of us together but I did get this amazing picture of Kefford!

The Salt Lake Temple does live sessions and it was nice to be in there to experience it. Kefford and I have been there for one once before about 6 years ago and while I wouldn't want to do a live session every month it is nice to go to one every six years or so ;) 

I was nice to be in there with Breana for her first time and I am glad that we were able to go. Kefford and I were driving back to Meridian that day so we left pretty quick after the session but we made sure to get a picture of us with the Temple. It is such a pretty Temple and i love it's history.

And a random picture I took of Kefford using his phone

Happy Birthday Elizabeth and Ryker!

Jessica does really cute painted signs and for Lana and my birthdays she had us come over and make signs of our own. We had previously picked out our quotes and she had everything ready for us for when we arrived. We applied the vinyl template and did all of the painting and the entire time I had my doubt about how this was going to turn out. I was not confident in my painting skills at all. But Jessica kept reassuring both of us that they were going to be great and she was right. When I took the vinyl of my end product I really was amazed with how great it looked. This was a fun birthday gift and I hope we can do this every year;)

Kefford offered to take us out to eat for our Birthday dinner and we went to my new favorite place..Tin Roof Tacos! I love their food! We did not have a lot of time because Ryker had his National Honor Society Induction ceremony that night and I was going to be taking him to it. 

Ryker tried to get into the NJHS in Middle School and was really bummed out when they turned him down. He had the grades and the service I just think his application needed more finesse. He was really excited when he was accepted into the NHS which is the one that counts and now he can finally let the past rejection go. 

The ceremony was really short which was great! They had a couple short speakers and then they called the kids up one by one to get their pin and certificate, shake the officers hands and then sign their name in the book. 

I am really happy that Ryker was able to be inducted into the National Honor Society. It shows the kind of person he is, hard working, reliable, honest, friendly...the list could go on and on, he really is a great person.

After the ceremony we took a few pictures and then headed back home to finish celebrating our Birthdays.
First up was present opening. I got the cute hat from Heather, The shirt from my Mom and the jack connector and charging pad from Kefford and the kids

Ryker got candy and Money from his Grandma Bonnie and a Nike Jacket from his family

See's candy from my Mom and shoes from Kefford and the kids. While Ryker got a Zelda monopoly game

I got this super cute mermaid tail blanket from Brit which Rylee was happy to try on and model for me

After the gift giving it was cake time! when I asked Ryker what kind of cake he wanted he responded with chocolate. I was more then ok with chocolate and I love texas sheet cake so that is what I made. Cake is delicious!

The new Nutcracker movie came out and Cyndi treated all of us dance teachers that Friday to go and watch the movie together. It was a cute movie and it turned out to be a sequel to the original nutcracker so that was fun. I made all of the teachers pose for a picture after because we always say we will but it never happens. This time I made it happen :)

Brigitte, Cyndi, Elizabeth, Holly, McKayla, Caitlin, Riley and Stephany

I had dance last night and Brooke has been taking Friday night classes with us for the past 5 years at least. Until this year, she decided to try something else and it is really sad not to have her cute face around the studio. We discovered early on that we share the same birthday and we call each other birthday buddies and it is always fun to se each other for our birthdays. I was really happy when she came to the studio the Friday of our birthday week and I made her take a birthday picture with me. She is the best!

Friday night we also had Ryker's friend party. He is super low key and did not want anything huge so he just invited some friends over to hang out and play games. I made cupcake and we had ice cream. It was the perfect party for Ryker

 Maya, Addie, Hannah, Porter, Ryker, Sam, Nathan, Matthew, Aubrey, Shandel, Ali, Emma, Annika and Echo