Friday, October 31, 2025

Peterson Annual Halloween Party and Halloween

 It was time for our annual Peterson Halloween Party and I was excited to have everyone come over for food and fun. It was a rainy day but that didn't stop the kids from having fun in the bounce house. Rylee came home for the weekend which I was so happy about. We did soups and desserts and it was a really fun day. Not a huge crowd this year but I am so happy that everyone still wants to come to our Halloween party and that we can still host even though I don't have little kids at home. I love my Peterson family!

l-r: Sadie(Belle),  Xander(Yoda), Maddie(Tinkerbell), Tayvia(Rey), Hazel(Obi wan Kenobi), Lainey(Vampire) Asher, Qiana,  Caleb(Harry Potter) Garrett(Harry Potter), Joshua(Army Man), Rylee, Kinsley(Vampire) and Dillon(Spider Man)

Avynlea and Kenedy wanted to see a picture of Dillon in his Spiderman outfit. My girls are obsessed with Dillon and find him so entertaining.
Hazel, Alison, Dillon and Joshua
Elizabeth and Rylee

I love my tree in the backyard when its Fall and the leaves are turning colors. It looks like a fire tree and the colors make me so happy
I signed up to make treats for our ward Halloween Party and I made these delicious Brownies and sugar cookies. Unfortunately I was sick the night of the party and couldn't go so I had Kefford take them for me. I thought they looked really cute and wanted a picture of them.

On Halloween night Kefford and I watched a movie in our bedroom so that we could pause it every time the door rang and hand out candy to the trick or treaters. It was a fun night with just Kefford and i. I have really been loving this empty nester stage of life which is so surprising to me. I love my kids and of course I miss them and are excited whenever they come home to visit but having just Kefford and I at home has been a lot of fun. It is like we are newlyweds again but we have money and aren't poor, its the best!

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Life is Good

I got a pattern for a quilted bow while I was in Utah and I really wanted to make a Halloween bow for my front door. I wanted spooky material to be a little bit of a contradiction to the cuteness of the bow and I really love the material I found. The bow turned out so cute and I am excited to make more for different Holidays!

While working for Walmart in Logan Ryker saw a beautiful sunrise that he took a picture of and then sent to our family chat along with a picture of his reaction to the beautiful sunrise.

Rylee did the college girl hair chop and it looks so cute. She loves it and it looks so good on her!

I got a fresh set of nails for Halloween and these are spooky and I love them. Brynn does such a good job with her designs and no matter what design I bring her she is able to execute it perfectly an often better. I will miss her so much when she leaves for College next year.

Avynlea went in for her after surgery checkup and she sent us a picture of her x-rays. The hardware they put in to fix her shoulder is insane and so close to the surface. I am glad they were able to fix her but man that hardware is big.

I love getting college pictures from my girls and love that they remember me.
Rylee and Avynlea
Kefford was FaceTiming Rylee and Avynlea while he was with his cousin Bryan and he put him on the FaceTime so they could say hi.

I was baking sourdough and I was supposed to put a pan in the oven underneath the baking bread and pour boiling water in it so it could steam while the bread cooked. Unfortunately I missed reading the part that said it needs to be a metal pan and I put my favorite blue glass pan in the oven that we got when we got married and as soon as I hired the water in it shattered. I was pretty sad about that and will not make that mistake again.
Rylee and Avynlea signed up to take a weight lifting class together which Avynlea now cannot do but it is too late to drop the class. So she goes every day and takes notes and observes while Rylee does her workout. 

Rylee








Thursday, October 9, 2025

Avynlea Breaks Her Shoulder

 Kenedy got a new Kindle, a little one, and she was excited to send me a picture with it. I am excited for her and love that she is such a fan of reading. We give each other book recommendations and I love sharing this hobby with her.

I got home from California in the evening and Kefford picked me up from the airport. He was a little late getting me and after I got in he told me that he was just on the phone with Avynlea and that she broke her shoulder bone playing flag football. According to Avynlea she made the most epic, amazing catch and when she came down from the catch she landed on her shoulder and broke it. I was ready to head to Rexburg immediately but we decided to wait and see when they would schedule her surgery for. Meanwhile we called Danny Ricks to see if I could stay with them which of course he said yes and I called Alison to see if she would want to go with me and she said yes. She thought to drop me off since I could use Avynlea's car and she would pick up Trista and go to Montana to see Mikell and her kids for a couple of days. I talked to Avynlela later that night and she told me about what happened and said that they first thought that she just dislocated her shoulder and so they called Tyler on FaceTime since he is in PT school and he told them some things to do to try to get it back into socket. It wasn't working and he finally told them to go to the emergency room where she was told it was broken. They scheduled the surgery for Monday and so Alison and I drove to Rexburg on Saturday between conference sessions. I went to The girls apartments so I could be with them and help Avynlea and then later that night I went to the Ricks. Avynlea was doing surprisingly well, she had her arm in a sling and was taking pain killers. Sunday I watched conference with Dannys family and Avynlea and Rylee came over to spend the day with all of us after the first session. We went on a walk in their neighborhood and spent some time throwing rocks into their pond. Danny gave Avynlea a blessing for her surgery that evening and I drove thumbtack to their apartments and stayed one last night with the Ricks.


Monday morning I went over to The Cedars to pick up Avynlea and Rylee to go to the hospital for Avynlea's surgery. I braided her hair while we were waiting for her to be taken back. Alison and Trista met us at the hospital and waited with us which was great because they helped distract Avynlea from what was going to happen. 
The nurse had us mark Avynlea's arm with her initials so they made sure to operate on the correct shoulder. Rylee wrote her initials and then she added a happy face and she drew a poo emoji which Avynlea did not like so I wiped it off with an alcohol wipe.
Avynlea was taken back to the operating room where they gave her a nerve block to help with the pain after surgery. While she was gone into surgery Alison and I went to Walmart to get her drug prescriptions. We went through the drive through and it took literally over an hour for them to fill her prescription and get it to us. I was stressed and anxious and just wanted to be back to the hospital before they brought Avynlea back from surgery. After waiting over an hour I talked to Kefford and he called the pharmacy to put some fire in them and they finally got us what we needed. 
When they finally brought Avynlea back she was in immense amounts of pain because it turns out the nerve block did not work. Her pain was so bad she was sick to her stomach and couldn't stop crying. She was also so hot so they put cooling cloths on her and I held the fan on her face to try to help cool her off. We were at the Hospital for about three hours after surgery just trying to get her pain under control. It was awful and we were all so sad for Avynlea. Rylee was crying watching her sister cry and I felt so helpless at this point. Finally she felt ok enough to leave and we loaded her up and carefully tried to drive her home without causing her any more pain. 
Avynleas roommate was out of town for the month which was lucky because I was able to stay in the room with her and help give her the medications she needed during the night. I didn't want to be intrusive with the rest of the girls living in the apartment so I stayed in Avynleas room a lot while I was there. Once we had her pain under control and had her medications on a schedule Avynlea was doing good. Rylee was over a lot to spend time with us and Avynlea has good friends who stopped in periodically to check on her.  On Wednesday I went with Rylee to the store to get her some things as well as Avynlea. Avynlea decided that she was doing good enough that I could leave and that night she went to be with Ally and stay the night with her. I was happy to be able to have been there to help her but I was ready to go home. I spent two nights in her apartment and I felt it was time to go. 
Rylee went to the Rodeo the night I left with her roommate Charli and they had a lot of fun and looked super cute.
On Sunday Avynlea and Rylee went to Saras for dinner and I was so happy to know that they were being taken care of and that Avynlea was doing good. She said Vinny had a hard time not banging into her hurt arm but all of the adults were good to keep an eye on her and keep him from hurting her too much. 

Avynlea got to meet Kirby Heyborne who is an LDS comedian-musician and has a show on the BYU channel called "Making Good".