Cheerleading Districts Competition and Ryker's Group Date

Districts cheer competition this year was another virtual competition. Saturday morning they were videoing at Meridian Middle School and parents were invited to come and watch. It was fun to be able to watch but I felt a little frustrated at the lack of times they performed their routines. In a regular competition they have one chance to perform each routine and that is fine but this is a video and I feel they should have kept going until they had it perfect. But that is not what their Coach wanted to do and they did them maybe one or two times. They couldn't do a couple of their routines because they were missing some of the cheerleaders and so they were doing those on Tuesday at the High School.

Avynlea is the flyer on the far right

Avynlea is the flyer holding the "S" sign 

Avynlea is the cute cheerleader on the very far right

In the top picture Avynlea is on the girls shoulders in the back and in the bottom one she is the flyer holding the arm on the very far right. 

In the top picture Avynlea is in the front on the right of the girl in the middle. In the bottom picture Avynlea is in the middle back with both arms up in a "V" .

Avynlea did a great job and it is always fun to watch her perform, she is a natural cheerleader and so talented! For Districts they ended up placing 1st in Co-Ed Show, 2nd in Sideline and 3rd in Pom.

Saturday night (Feb. 20) Ryker went on a group date with some of his friends. They started out by going to the thrift store and picking out outfits for their dates, the uglier the better. They came back to our house to wash some of the clothing to get the thrift store smell out of them and while that was washing they played games upstairs. Once the clothes were smelling good and nice and clean they put on their outfits and went to go eat dinner. I think they had a fun time. Ryker's date is Scotlyn whom he met while both serving on the Stake Youth Council Committee together. 

The next Friday Kefford, Rylee and I got to go to watch Avynlea cheer at the Boys Basketball Districts Championships. I didn't get to see Avynlea cheer because she was down below us but I got to watch the Boys win the Dasticts game against Rocky. It was such a good game and so exciting for our school to win. Rocky has won so many State championships and for Meridian to beat them out for Districts was pretty great. 

Kenedy got her hair cut and sent us a picture so we could see the end result. She looks beautiful as usual and I love her hair color and the length looks really good!

 

Happy 21st Birthday Kenedy!!

Kenedy turned 21 and for the first time I wasn't with her on her birthday, it was a little sad but she had a great time being celebrated by her friends. I found these cute pictures of her from when she was little to put on my Instagram and she was so cute. Sometimes I miss my kids being little but I have so much fun with them at the ages that they are now that it is ok. 

Two days before her birthday Kenedy's friends threw her a surprise birthday party, she suspected it was happening but put on a really great surprise face. McKoy dressed up as Abby Lee Miller and did a pyramid with Kenedy in the number one spot, rightfully so. Kenedy has made him watch all of the Dance Mom episodes and he did such a great job impersonating Abby Lee Miller, eerily so.

Happy Birthday Kenedy! We love you!!!

5 Things I Love About Kenedy:

1) Kenedy is so much fun to be around and really livens up the party. We love when Kenedy comes home to visit because she is a lot of fun and we have a good time being around her. She has fun ideas and likes to do things as a family such as movie night or game night. I love that she likes to being the good times in.

2) I love that Kenedy's priorities have shifted and when she comes home to visit she craves more family time rather than friends time. It makes me happy to have her around more rather than having to share her time with her friends. Kenedy is one of my best friends and favorite people o be around and I love all the time I get with her when she comes to visit. I miss her a lot when she is gone and am happy that she wants to come home and be with us.

3) Kenedy is beautiful on the outside and more importantly on the inside. She has a special connection with her Heavenly Father and is really good at feeling and hearing when the Spirit talks to her. She is prayerful about her decisions and even though she sometimes resists what the Spirit is telling her, because she wants to do what she wants, she ends up doing the right thing and I so admire her for it. I look up to her in a lot of ways and this is one of the most I admire her for.

4) I love how brave Kenedy is. She has always been able to do things that I think would be hard for me to do and she does it so effortlessly. She has been navigating college and making decisions and basically being a grownup and doing it so well. I have been so impressed with her and all that she is able to do on her own!

5) I love that Kenedy has made it a priority to establish bonds and better relationships with her Grandparents. She tries to contact them when she can to talk with them and get their advice on things. She loves her Cousins and her Aunts and Uncles and makes an effort to spend time with them when she is able and /or keeps in touch by calling or texting. Family has always been important to me and I am happy that those bonds are important to her as well.

Valentine's Weekend

Valentine's Day was even more special this year because we got to share it with more people we love. We loved having the little Lutes around to love on and cuddle. They are getting so big and we love being able to see them whenever we get the chance to. Of course I would have loved it even more if they would have moved to Idaho but Utah is at least closer to us then Seattle was and with them being in Utah we get to see more family whenever we go and visit and that is not a bad thing.

Rylee and Fredrick

Leona and Elizabeth

Kefford, Amos and Fredrick

We did Valentine's dinner on Saturday night so that we could share it with the Lutes's and what made it extra special was having Mallory help me with dinner. It wasn't as extra as I would have liked but it was a crazy day and kind of a last minute decision but we did what we could. Mallory made the delicious heart shaped meatloaf and I made the mashed red skin potatoes and pink heart shaped biscuits.

I made a valentines cake not heart shaped this year but I added the conversation hearts to it to make it more festive.

I made our traditional Oreo truffles for Kefford and the kids and they got valentines from their grandparents, Atticus and Mallory so they definitely felt the love. I sent Kenedy a Valentines box with the truffles and some additional candy plus valentines messages from all of us. 

Ashleigh sent pictures of Atticus making Valentines for everyone in the family. All of his cousins got special love bug valentines and then he made Family love bug cards for all of us. It was super sweet and so fun to receive.

In Rexburg Kenedy sent me a couple pictures of the Valentine inspired hair she did for the girls she nanny's for. I thought she did a great job, they look so cute and I am very impressed with her hair styling skills!

 

Lutes come to Visit, Snow and Axe Throwing!

On Thursday Joshua and Mallory came for a couple of days with their kids and used as as a stopping and break point on their move to Utah. We were very excited to have them come and for Breakfast Friday morning I made waffles for everyone with my new waffle maker. I saw it on sale at The Hobby Lobby and thought it the cutest thing so I bought it. It makes little waffle cars and trucks and is pretty easy to use and a lot of fun. I loved it!

We got a lot of snow that weekend and we had lots of helpers Saturday morning to help shovel the snow and play in it.

Avynlea had a tumbling class that morning so we didn't play in the snow but the day before I made "snow paint" by adding food coloring to water bottles and filling them with water for the boys to spray the snow outside. They seemed to really enjoy it so I refilled them so they could use them again on Saturday.

As Avynlea and I were leaving we took some pictures of all the snow fun going on. Rylee made a fun little seat made out of snow for Fred to sit in and I think he rather enjoyed it.

Ryker did snow angels with Fred and Joshua in the backyard and then he and Fred got buried in the snow by Joshua, lots of good times and thankfully no frostbite:).

Later in the day Avynlea went to go Axe Throwing at Paige's birthday party. I was invited to go along and hang out with my cheer Mom besties but I stayed home so I could spend time with my family who were in town only a short while. Avynlea had a lot of fun and did a great job throwing the axe, she was kind of a pro!

Paige, Roree, Luke, Landon, Hailey, Bailey, Natalie, Colton, Avynlea and Dreya

 

Rykers Scholarship and Avynlea Cheer Pictures

Ryker has been applying to Colleges and he has been accepted to BYUI and Utah State. We got an acceptance from Utah State first back in November I think. Early last month one of my friends told me her daughter got her acceptance letter to BYUI so I told Ryker to check his email to see if he got his. He hadn't and I kept on him all week to keep checking and I couldn't figure out why he hadn't heard anything. Finally the next week he came in and said he had an acceptance letter and he was on the Fall and Spring tracks. He had actually received it in January but only just now found it "palm slap to face". I thought it weird that he got his acceptance and his track assignment at the same time because Kenedy's track assignments came a couple months after her acceptance letter. I checked his email and that was not his acceptance letter it was just his track assignment his actual acceptance latter came the very beginning of December. Seriously, this kid.

Beginning of February Ryker got a letter telling him he received a Scholarship for Utah State which was pretty exciting. Now he just needs to figure out what he wants to do upon graduation, mission or school and which school.

Avynlea, Dreya, Natalie and Paige all signed up to cheer at one of the Basketball games together. Us Moms were excited to get to go to a game together and watch them cheer. 

Hailey cheered at the JV game right before the Varsity game and stayed till Halftime so she could take pictures with her Besties. It was fun to have the girls all together and to finally be at a game to watch them all. I had fun sitting with my Cheer Mom Besties and we made sure to get some pictures of us as well as our girls.

Amy and Paige, Carrie and Hailey, Avynlea and Elizabeth, Diana and Natalie, Griselda and Dreya

We wanted the four girls to recreate a picture I had from when they cheered in Middle School. At the time I was taking a picture of my cheerleader cheering and happened to get Dreya, Natalie and Paige in it as well, how fun that they became besties the next year. We were not allowed on the bottom level at the game so we had Hope take the picture for us, not the perfect recreation but still a good one.

The cheerleaders had pictures taken the end of January and we finally got them back to see them. They had squad photos and individual photos taken and then they could do smaller group photos with their friends if they wanted. I love the pictures they took and think all the girls look beautiful!

Avynlea, Paige, Dreya, Hailey and Natalie

Kara has photos taken of the kids by their grade and here is the photo of all the Sophomores on Varsity.

Delaney, Hope, Paige, Avynlea, Dreya, Lucus, Rory, Natalie and Kate

Varsity Team Photo

fr: Meghan, Rory, Allie W., Natalie, Callie, Hope, Phoenix, Sienna, Dreya, Maya and Allie G

br: Paige, Delanie, Alyssa S., Tori, Avynlea, Lucas, Katie, Annie, Alaina, Madelyn and Alyssa D.

Avynlea is a beauty and I love how her pictures turned out, she is stunning.

Kenedy visits Idaho Falls and Avynlea's first Varsity Cheer competition

Alison went to Idaho Falls with Kylie and her family to visit Sara and Trista. Kenedy was able to go for the weekend from Rexburg to stay with Sara and be included in the fun. She had a great time being with her Grandma and her Aunts and among other things got to do fun crafts with Trista and Amelia. I am so glad that Kenedy was able to go and have a good visit.

The first competition of the season and it was the TVCI, Treasure Valley Cheer Invitational, and because of Covid ruining things again it was a video submission competition only. Meaning the cheerleaders filmed their routines and then submitted them to be judged. I love going to cheer competitions and seeing all of the schools compete and watching Avynlea and it is such a bummer that these things are being ruined. Parents were allowed to go the night of filming to watch the squad which was something. We had to be dead silent while filming and could not cheer for our girls until the camera stopped recording. I loved watching Avynlea and she did a great job but I wish things could be normal again.

Alison was able to come and watch which was special for Avynlea and great to have her there.

The timing was done on Thursday night and Awards were being sent out on Saturday night. I volunteered our house for the team to gather and view the awards presentation. It was a slide presentation and Meridian got first place in Show Co-Ed, second place in Sideline and third place in Pom. It was much better then we were expecting and everyone was happy with the results.

[Avynlea, bottom row far left]

 

Avynlea's Sweet 16 Party!

This year Avynlea got to have her Sweet 16 Birthday Party and it was a lot of fun. I put Avynlea in charge of planning most of it, she planned her cake, the food, who to invite and the activities and she did a great job! I did the decorations, fulfilled her food list and cleaned the house :). We asked her former Young Women leader Sister Culbertson if she would be willing to make a cake for Avynlea's party. She loves Avynlea and was more then willing to help us check that item off our list. Avynlea requested a funfetti cake with pale pink buttercream frosting. She wanted it simple with white roses and greenery. I bought the roses and the night of the party Sister Culbertson stopped by with the cake. I was at dance when she brought the cake by and when I got home I was in love with the cake! It was simple, elegant and beautiful, the perfect cakes for our Birthday girl.

Avynlea absolutely is not a fan of being sung Happy Birthday to but she sucked it up and let her friends sing to her before blowing out her candles. She didn't want a lot of candles so I think we only did 7, 1 and 6 :)

When we cut into the cake we found a fun surprise, Sister Culbertson hollowed out the middle and filled it with sprinkles! 

Avynlea and her friends wanted to play "fugitive" so they did that while I enjoyed the quiet with Amy and Diana, my friends and the moms of Avy's friends Paige and Natalie, I invited them to come and hang out with me during the party. About a half hour after they left the kids came back in and Avynlea and her friends were all hyped up about being stopped and questioned by a police officer. I guess there have been some suspicious activity in our neighborhood so it has been being patrolled by some plain clothes cops. The kids were seen running around the neighborhood playing "Fugitive" and so the cops stopped them to find out what was going on. Once they heard what they were up to they were left alone. It wasn't a big deal but it made for some fun excitement and story telling.

Kenedy came home for the weekend to surprise Avynlea for her Birthday and she helped create a game that had questions about Avynlea for everyone to play. I made a picture video for Avynlea and had everyone watch it. It was about 11 minutes long so I hope it wasn't too torturous for her friends to watch, at least they could see cute pictures of Avynlea.

For decorations I went with the colors Avynlea chose for her cake, Pink, green and white and I made a balloon arch and a cute "Avynlea is Sweet 16" banner with paper I found at the Hobby Lobby.

I bought tissue paper pompoms and the pompom banner from the Dollar store and they looked so cute and added a fun touch.

I am so glad that we were able to celebrate Avynlea and that she had so much fun at her party. She is a pretty awesome kid and deserves all the love and attention she received her birthday week!