Happy Halloween

Avynlea and Rylee were our only two to dress up this year and Rylee was our only one to go trick-or-treating. Times they be a changing and kids they be a growing.

Avynlea dressed up as a cute Giraffe and went to her friends house to eat candy they all brought to share and to watch a movie. She said she was the only one that dressed up which was annoying but she had fun hanging out with them. Ryker went to his friend Baeden's house and hung out with him playing video games.

Rylee invited Serena over so they could go trick-or-treating together. But before they did that we went over to the Given's for a pre-trick-or-treating dinner. Katie invited some families over for soup and we had fun visiting and hanging out with our friends.

After dinner Rylee and Serena went Trick-or-treating and Kefford and I went home to hang out and answer the door to give candy. This is the first year we did not go out with our kids and it was a little sad but also really nice. It was really cold outside and I was happy to not have to go walking around in it.

Rylee and Serena got back after about an hour to trick-or-treating and counted up their candy. It didn't surprise me that they were back so soon, Rylee has never been too interested in walking around getting candy and since she was little would be done within an hour of starting. Some things never change and I really love it!

Pumpkin Carving

For Family Home Evening on Monday we went to the boise Mall to walk around and look at things. Rylee and I both found some cute headwear to try on and take pictures with.  

On Tuesday night Ryker, Rylee and I picked our pumpkins and did some carving. Avynlea was at cheer practice and Kefford was at The Barnyard I think. So it was just the three us. I told Avynlea when she got home she couldcarve her pumpkin but she didn't ever seem interested and never did one.

Wednesday night was our ward Halloween party. I had to leave after an hour to pick up Avynlea from  cheer practice so I didn't sign up to do the trunk-or-treat, I just did the dinner. Rylee found a friend and spent her time with her and did the trunk-or-treat when it was time. She didn't bring a bag so she just stuffed her pockets with the candy she got. It was a nice night and I enjoyed being there for the dinner and visiting with people. Kefford was at The Barnyard and not able to make it and Avynlea was at cheer practice and wasn't able to be there.

Rylee and Tayci Olson

Top of the Pyramid

October was filled with Avynlea cheerleading. I took a lot of pictures of her stunting at the top of her pyramids and decided to put her cheer pictures in one post. I love watching her cheer and while it is not as much fun sitting in the cold I would do it over and over again just to watch my cheerleader. She is so cute and has so much fun and makes it really enjoyable.

She has learned so many new stunts and I am always impressed with how fast she learns them, she is a natural!

With the weather getting colder it is imperative to start wearing layers and bundling up more. I was happy to be able to wear my Meridian Cheer gear to her game. And I love my yellow shoes that I bought from the Wal-Mart, they are the perfect color and are really cute and comfy.

Every week the coaches name a cheerleader of the week, someone who has worked hard and shown positivity and spirit. Avynlea got cheerleader of the game after the Rocky game and it was rightly deserved, she has struggled a little with being a Freshman Co-Captain but has finally found her voice and has really been able to step it up leadership wise. I know her coaches are proud of her for the way she has handled Drama and difficult situations and so am I, She is pretty amazing!

Every week I make cookies for the girls to snack on at halftime. It is not a requirement or any kind of expectation it is just something I enjoy doing and I know the cheerleaders appreciate it. For their last game and since was so close to Halloween I made these cookie dough mummies. The turned out really cute and tasted pretty great, the girls loved them!

I sure do love this cheerleader!

Cookie Decorating

I braided my hair after I washed it on Wednesday and loved the waves it gave me for the next couple of days. 

Rylee didn't have school on Thursday due to parent teacher conferences and I thought she should invite some friends over to decorate cookies. When I presented the idea to her I thought I was going to have to do some heavy persuasion but to my surprise she agreed to it pretty quickly. The girls had  a lot of fun decorating cookies and after they frosted and sprinkled all of the cookies they went upstairs to play some Mario Kart. It was a fun couple of hours and I am glad they were all able to come over.

Ella Eaton, Tayci Olson, Chloe and Mylie Pollock and Rylee

I had a lot of random Halloween colored frosting left over from the cookie decorating so I made a batch of brownies and used the frosting to frost them. I liked how they turned out, very spooky.

October Randoms

Avynlea had a choir concert on October 17th which I was not looking forward to. It has been my experience that the High School choir concerts are too long and not very good. I was very pleasantly surprised when this one ended after only an hour! And it was pretty good, the music I didn't really recognize but all of the choirs sounded good and it wasn't painful to listen to. I was super happy with it and hope that all of the choir concerts in our future are just like this one. Avynlea looked really cute and my only complaint was that it was hard to see her on the stage. The singers were not arranged in any order and Aynlea ended up being lost behind singers taller then her. 

After tumbling on Oct 19thAvynlea asked if I could give Hailey and Andreya a ride home. I was fine with that but needed to stop at Wal-Mart for some items first. While in the Wal-Mart the girls found these kitty heads and wanted a picture. They quickly posed in their normal pose and I took a picture. Cute little kitties!

Avynlea, Hailey and Dreya

I have been thinking lately that it would be fun to cut my hair but have not been able to get the nerve to do it. I really like my hair long and although I haven't been doing as many braids and hairstyles I still liked doing stuff with my hair. I went to my friend Angela to get myhighlights touched up and while there I had her cut about 4 inches off my hair, that was the most I could do. It was a lot for a girl who hasn't had her hair cut in many years and while she was doing it I was telling myself it was ok, it's just hair and it will grow back. Luckily she is my friend and didn't think me too weird for my verbal reassurances to myself. I like the length and how healthy my hair looks and while I considered going shorter I am glad I didn't. This is a good length for now.

Just a girl taking a picture in portrait mode.

I didn't want to spend a ton of money ordering Volleyball pictures of Rylee from the school so I decided to do it myself. Rylee was not thrilled with getting her picture taken and was not exactly as cooperative as I hoped she would be. I tried taking some pictures on Saturday but they didn't turn out the way I wanted and so we tried again on Sunday after church. I took a million pictures and finally got one that we both liked. Avynlea managed to get some behind the scene pictures of Rylee which accurately convey how she felt about this picture taking session.

The winning picture :)

6th Annual Peterson Halloween Party

We had our 6th Annual Peterson Party on October 19th and it was a fun time, so fun that the only picture I took was the group picture of all the kids in their costumes.

Alison and Bob came with rolls and a plethora of king size candy bars, Jeremy and Gwen came with a cake, Brit came with a soup and her kids, Mikell came with a soup and her kids, Whitney came with cupcakes and her girls, and Michelle and Trevor came with a soup and their two boys. I made Hot Chocolate and bought Apple Juice. We missed the ones who couldn't come but had fun with the ones who were there. I really need to think of activities for the kids for next year so they have more stuff to do, but overall it was a success and I am happy that we started this tradition 6 years ago and that it is still going strong!

Back Row: Qiana(Carmen Sandiego), Asher(Jack Sparrow), Avynlea(Giraffe), Garrett(Dalmation), Brielle(Waldo), Brooke(Bo Peep), Jenna(mermaid), Madison(Officer Hobbes), Rylee(kitty cat), Sadie(Bo Peep)
2nd row: Tayvia(Cinderella), James(Yeti), Kelly(Elephant), Jason(Sheep),
Front row: Caleb(Puppy), Xander(reverse Dalmatian), Hazel(Monkey), Lainey(Sheep) and Kinsley(Sheep)

Young Women in Excellence

Sunday was Young Women in Excellence and our Ward did it a bit differently this year. Usually it is help on a Wednesday night and parents are invited to attend. This year the Young Women took over the sacrament meeting and it was awesome! We were told in Conference that the Ward members need to get to know their youth and this was a great way to do it. The YW leaders asked 8 young women to  each speak on a different value. Since Rylee and Avynlea both completed their Personal Progress this year they were asked to speak. Rylee chose Faith and Avynlea did Individual Worth. They both did a really great job and I was super proud of both of them. 

After church the Ward members were invited into the gym where the girls had items about them displayed o to help the Ward get to know them a little bit more. Avynlea brought her pom pom's and a cheer bow to show she is a cheerleader, her ukulele which she has taught herself to play, her favorite picture of her as a baby and her Personal Progress awards.

Rylee displayed a book because she loves to read, a drawing notebook which she kept shut because she did not want anyone looking at her drawings, music sheets to show she plays the piano, her violin, and a dance picture from her and Avynlea's first year of dance. They both did a great job displaying items that represented them! I love these girls so much!

I walked home with Ryker and Matthew and snuck a picture of these two best buds while on our walk.

At the Cornmaze

I answered the door one afternoon to find a post it note on my front porch. The note was addressed to Ryker and since he was not at home at the moment I went to inspect. I found candy and post it's all over the driveway and on the garage door. I could se a mini van hanging out in the middle of the street down a ways and I figured it had the culprits in it, when they saw me looking they drove away. Right before Ryker got home I was outside taking a picture and the mini van drove by this time with the windows down and I could see a couple of girls in it with a Mom driving. Ryker got home shortly after and he said he passed them in the subdivision. As he was out collecting his notes the mini van drove by again this time with honking horns and shouts out the window. Turns out it was Ryker's friends Amanda and Kaylie, they thought he seemed a little down lately and wanted to cheer him up. They both wrote him a nice letter each and then filled the post its with inside jokes and funny sayings. It was really sweet and hopefully it did the trick and cheered Ryker up.

Avynlea is one of the 4 co-captains on her cheer team and there are also 2 social captains which round out the leadership for the JV team. The social captains are in charge of planning team bonding sessions. One of the social captains had a concussion so the other one took it upon herself to plan a team bonding without her. She decided to do a movie night and then Avynlea told her about our corn maze which she thought was good idea and decided to add that to the agenda. So the plan was to meet at our house at 5:00 and then once everyone was there load up and carpool to the cornmaze, once they had their fill then we would go back to our house for a movie night. 

Once the girls did the cornmaze we let them in the barn to take some pictures. I think the girls had a lot of fun and overall it was a fun night for the cheerleaders.

(top pic) Hannah, Tessa, Olivia, Delanie, Kayla, ?, Calleigh, Emma, Alyssa, Andreya, Avynlea, Hailey, Tierza, Emma(Pam) and Lainey.

Hannah, Avynlea, Hailey and Andreya

One Saturday Rylee invited her friend Serena to the cornmaze. They are at different Middle Schools but I am so glad these two have been able to keep up their friendship. They had a lot of fun in the maze and exploring the Barnyard.