Amos and Fredrick Come to Town

We got to FaceTime with Kenedy for a couple of hours Saturday morning which was fun. Rylee took a screenshot while she was taking a turn chatting with her. It is always fun chatting with our favorite College kid!

We went to Nyssa this morning to go to the Owyhee ward and listen to Bailey give his Mission farewell talk. He did a really great job and I am excited to see him serve his mission, he is going to do such a great job. 

After we got home we took some Sunday naps and then waited for Joshua and Mallory to arrive with Amos and Fredrick. They are on their way down to Utah and we are lucky to have them stop by for a couple of days. We got out all ofRyker's cars and Amos was in his happy place playing with his favorite toys. Fredrick was just cute crawling around and exploring. At one point Kefford came him a nice footrest to sit on. We love when the Lutes family comes to town!

Beehive Party

Makayla's Mom invited all the neighborhood Beehives to go with them to the Temple Thursday morning. Rylee went with them and had a good time. I was glad when her Mom sent a picture of the girls in front of the Temple after they did the Baptisms. 

Allie Hansen, Claire Elder, Kinsey Bjorn, Tayci Olsen, Makayla Pace, Brynn Givens, Addie Lewis and Rylee

There is a new Rocket Car Wash over by our house and for their Grand Opening they were doing free car washes all day on Friday. We had to go to Wal-Mart to get stuff for Rylee's party and after that we took the Expedition through the car wash. Kefford always washes our cars and so I never go through a car wash. It was actually quite fun, I liked the flashing color and the sound of the wash was pretty soothing.

I liked it so much that when I took the Escape to get the Pizza for Rylee's party we took it through the free car wash as well. Such fun!

Rylee is not a party planner, she is not the most eager to go to parties and definitely does not like to throw her own party. So I was quite surprised when I found out she wanted to put together a party for the Beehives her age in order to pass off a Personal Progress requirement. She was very thorough in her planning and had multiple planning lists. That morning I took her to Wal-Mart so she could get food and she took a separate shopping cart from mine and went on her own to shop. It was pretty cute.

As it got closer to the party she started getting everything set up and I liked watching her attention to detail

She had 7 out of the 9 she invited that were able to come. Cousin Allie had been staying the night at our house for a couple of days so she was out there and Avynlea was out there off and on as well.

The night started with food and games and everyone seemed to be having a good time. I loved how well the girls got along. There was no drama and no issues. The girls were patient and fun, I loved it! Well, I loved what I could see of it. At one point towards the beginning of the party Rylee came in and closed the blinds in the living room because she did not want us staring at them. I told her she had to keep the kitchen ones open because I had to be able to chaperone a little bit.

Addie Lewis, Allie Hansen, Tayci Olsen, Kenzie Bjorn, Brynn Givens, Makayla Pace, Rylee and Clair Elder

Once it was dark enough Kefford put a movie on the projector and the girls settled in to watch "Monte Carlo". Unfortunately it does not get dark until late and about 45 minutes into the movie we had to turn it off and take them home. They were bummed to have to leave but I told them maybe we could have everyone back in a couple of weeks to finish the movie.

Rylee did a really good job at this party, I was impressed with her stepping outside of her comfort zone and how well she executed her ideas. She is a pretty great kid!

Hair Night!

Avynlea really likes the palm pattern that has been popular recently in a lot of items and while we were at Target she made a gathering of a bunch of Palm printed stuff and posed for a cute picture.

The Beehives asked if I would come to Mutual Wednesday night and teach them how to do hair. I was pretty excited because I love the Beehives and I thought it would be a lot of fun to give them some tips about Hair and try to teach them some cute hairdos.

I taught them a messy bun, a Hair Bow, How to easy hair wrap your ponytail and answered all their hair related questions. They were the cutest! They clapped for me a lot and were so excited with everything I taught them. I loved how super complementary they were of each other and that they would rave on and on about how well each other was doing. It was a lot of fun. 

Claire Elder came with damp hair and in her head she couldn't do anything while all the other girls were doing such great hairstyles. I told her that it takes a lot pf practice and that really the other girls were not doing that great of a job but she couldn't get out of her head and decided to go home. I felt bad and later sent this text to her Mom:

"If Claire wants to come over sometime I would love to do one on one hair tutorials with her. I hope she is feeling better and let her know I love her."

to which she replied:

"Thanks Elizabeth! I might have to join. We are hair challenged over here, she is feeling better though"

Makayla was struggling with being able to do anything with her hair and I asked her if she wanted to try doing a braid in my hair. She gladly accepted and after I showed her how to weave the braid she took my hair and braided like a pro. She was so proud of herself for doing her first braid ever and the girls were so excited for her and kept telling her how amazing she did. It was fun to see her level of confidence go up.

At the end of the night I told the girls they had ten seconds to do their most wack-a-do hairstyle and then we were going to take a picture. They are such a fun group of girls and Iam so happy I got to hang with them for the night.

Back Row: Aubrey Pinon, Allie Hansen, Addie Lewis, Halsey Murray and Brynn Givens

Front Row: Tayci Olsen, Rylee, Makayla Pace and Kenzie Bjorn

Cherry Picking!

Ryker has been out at the farm working off and on since school got out. Mikell was out there recently with her kids and she sent me a couple pictures of Ryker being really sweet with his little Cousins. I really love that my kids have the opportunity to be around all of their little Cousins so often. They have learned so many skills in dealing with kids and it is going to only serve them well in life. I love that they are patient and kind with them and they genuinely enjoy being around them. It is pretty cute to watch.

Ryker and James                                      Ryker and Kelly

My friend Kim sent me a text asking if we wanted to go Cherry picking with her family. We didn't have anything going on so those of us who were home made plans to go, Mom, Heather, Avynlea and I. Rylee was in Emmett with Ryker for a couple of days.

She took us to a U-pick place in Emmett that I haven't been to before, which is not to hard to have happen, there are a lot of U-pick cherry places in Emmett. This one was really nice in that the tree branches were lower to the ground so we did not need ladders to reach the cherries. Even the kids had an easy time picking cherries.

I did not want a lot of cherries because they don't get eaten as fast and when I have tried to freeze them in the past they end up never getting eaten so I only picked one bucket for myself.

Heather wanted to take some Cherries home with her so she picked a bucket for herself and then Mom just picked cherries for both of our buckets.

Avynlea helped Kate get some cherries for her bucket, I spent some time helping Kate put cherries in her bucket but when I saw her walk away and dump them out I stopped helping her. I saw her do that a couple of times and figured she just didn't want cherries in her cute pink bucket.

Good times with cute friends. If we posted a cherry picking picture to our Facebook page and tagged this cherry stand in it they said they would give us a quarter off the per pound price. I was more then fine with that and posted the group picture of the kids we took with all of their cherries. Kim had a lot of happy helpers and ended up getting 80 pounds of cherries! I got about 8 and Heather got about the same. Kim freezes hers and uses them in smoothies throughout the year and she also takes some around the neighborhood to give to neighbors so she likes to have a lot on hand.

???, Allie, Avynlea, Kate, Sophie, Makenna Lindley, Henry and William

Idaho State Capital

Avynlea, Mom, Heather and I went to the Idaho State Capital today. Mom and Heather have never been and we thought it would be fun to walk through. 

The Lincoln Conference Room was open and empty so we went in to look around. Mom sat on a bench out in the hall after we were spending a little too much time in there but we were having too much fun acting like Senators and House Representatives. We didn't have anyone to take our picture so I set my phone up and set it up for timer mode. I had ten seconds to push the button and then run to my seat and I made it every time. Avylea also pushed the button a couple of times and she made it in time for the picture as well :)

 We were taking pictures with our glasses on and in the top picture the phone was starting to slide down as it took the picture. The bottom one was a much more successful picture!

 We couldn't go into the Senate Chambers but Heather was pretty sneaky and got her foot across.

 We went to the viewing area for the Senate Chambers and sat in there for a little bit. I wished they would have been in session then we could have heard maybe some interesting stuff.

 Avynlea took some pictures of the outside view and where the Senate sits.  

 The elevator we rode in was really small and kind of sketchy looking. If we would have fallen to our deaths in it I would not have been surprised.

Citrus Pear Revisited

I liked the first Citrus Pear class I did so much that I signed up to do another one. Now I have so many freezer meals in my freezer that I should be good for a while. I talked my friend Amber Connors into going with me and there were some other girls from our Ward there as well. Amber is a Labor and Delivery nurse and is pretty busy and I don't get to hang out with her as much as I would like so I think we were both excited to do this class together.

It was a lot of fun and we made a lot of recipes to stick in the freezer. I am excited with how many freezer meals I now have!

Front row: Elizabeth, Erica Lish, Chelsea Thompson, Mikelle Anderson, Emily Walker and Kylie Bruneel
And in the back row in the purple sweatshirt is Amber Connors

Dairy Days Parade

Meridian High Cheer has always been in the Dairy Days Parade and I was so excited that Avynlea was going to get to be in it for the next four years. I love supporting my kids and watching them in their activities. This year their float theme was "Cow-alot" a play on "camelot" and last week we got together and decorated shirts and made crowns. They had two options for crowns, one was a Burger King crown that the kids could use and decorate the other was to make a flower crown. Avynlea decided on the flower crown and after getting her supplies she started working on it while I used a sharpie to draw bricks on a gray tablecloth. Once I was done I checked on Avynlea and she had given up on the crown deeming it too hard and was working on painting her shirt. While she did that I worked on the crown and was able to figure it out and make a really cute flower crown for her to wear. I was quite impressed with it and she really liked it also.

Avynlea had a team BBQ to be at before the parade so after she was ready I dropped her off at the park to be with her teammates but not before taking a picture of her in all her cow princess cuteness!

Kenedy was in town this weekend with her roommates because Kefford had agreed to take them to the Dam to go tubing. Rylee wanted to go with them and so it was just me, Mom and Heather at the parade. 

Channel 7 set up right next to us and did a weather forecast, I am not sure if they caught us on camera but I was hoping not.

Meridian DanceTeam, Cheer and Band were the first in the parade after the American Flag. We spotted Avynlea on the other side of the street walking with her friends and passing out candy. We yelled her name to get her attention but she didn't show much reaction when she saw us. I was videoing and so I had Heather take some pictures for me. She is such a cute girl!

Once they passed by we settled in to watch the rest of the parade. I got a message from Avynlea 3/4's of the way through the parade saying she was done and ready to be picked up. I let her know we were not able to leave because the streets were all blocked off but I told her where we were and after meeting her halfway we got her to come back and sit with us through the rest of the parade.

Team Picture
Avynlea is the second girl in on the left in the second row

Seattle: Time to Leave

Friday morning we had to leave Seattle. Joshua and Mallory were both working that day so we planned to leave when their Nanny showed up. But first we had to get some last minute cuddles in with our favorite Seattle Little Guys.

Heather, Fredrick, Elizabeth, Amos, Bonnie, Avynlea and Rylee

We stopped at a rest stop to use the restroom and as we were driving away I noticed the license plate of the  car parked next to us had Avynlea's middle name with the correct spelling. I had her take a picture because we thought it was fun.

We had such a fun time in Seattle and look forward to making this an annual trip.

Seattle: Lunch at Google!

The girls have really enjoyed playing with Amos this week. He is a super easy and fun kid and he has loved having his cousins giving him all the attention. Here Avynlea is playing blocks with him.

 Joshua works at Google and today Mom, Heather and I were able to go meet him at work to eat lunch with him and tour the campus.

 Google treats it's employees well that is for sure! They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and it is all free. They have multiple cafe's and kitchenettes with different foods and snacks in all of them. For lunch I had a Pork Chop, steamed carrots, a mixed greens salad and a roll. I then had chocolate frozen yogurt and two peanut butter cookies. As we were touring through looking at everything we walked through a kitchenette that had snacks and I grabbed a fig bar and some jelly bellys and a seaweed pack to take home to the girls.

 Mom and Joshua had a fun time highjacking my phone when I left it with them to get some Fro-Yo and then to use the restroom.

 At Google we saw a wellness center and a hair studio, we also saw a gaming room where some people were gathered watching a basketball game. I did not see a lot of work happening but I am sure that was going on somewhere :)

 It was take your Dog to work day which Joshua did not know about and we saw a lot of dogs with their owners. This one was waiting outside the coffee bar and was super chill and patient the entire time that we saw him there.

After our tour we went back home and Heather and I took the girls to Uwajimaya, an Asian Market in Seattle. It had all the Asian stuff you could want and we had fun buying some Asian candy and looking at all the stuff.

 After we got back from the market we waited for Amos to wake up from his nap and then we went to get cookies and go to the park.

 Rylee, Heather, Avynlea and I had a race to see who could reach the top of this rope climb first, Rylee won and I came in last. I was super nervous going up and really hesitant which is why I was last. I am OK with my last place finish, I would rather get last then rush to win and accidentally slip and fall to my death. Also the rope climb was taller then it looks :/

At dinner Amos asked everyone one by one if we had a good day today and we were all able to give a big YES!