Gobble, Gobble

The kindergartners were all given paper turkeys to take home with strict instructions to cut them out and decorate them with anything they can think of. So after leaving the turkey on the counter for a couple of days I suddenly hit upon the perfect thing for Ryker's turkey. When he came home I told him my idea and he jumped all over it, he was really excited. So Ryker and I got together and came up with this...

BatTurkey!

I think it is the coolest looking turkey ever and watch out bad guys cause BatTurkey can totally beat you up!

The two of us

I absolutely love this picture. I have to admit though, I did have the thought while Lana was posing us that this was kinda weird, but it turned out looking so cool. Just like the pictures I always admired and wished we could take! I made the comment to Kefford that it felt like we were having our engagement pictures taken.

Family Pictures 2008

I wanted to update our family pictures from last year and after convincing Kefford that yes, it was necessary, he finally agreed. So I bought black shirts for everyone who didn't have one and off we went. (funny side story...Ryker got birthday money from his grandma Lutes and combined with his tooth money he felt very rich. When we were in Target waiting in line to buy his sweater Ryker told me that he wanted to buy the sweater. I said "no it's ok I have money I can do it" to which he replied "no mom I really want to pay for it" I finally convinced him to save his money to buy the toy he has been wanting since our friend let Rylee use her kids in church on Sunday. After our pictures Kefford took him to the store to buy the mini etcher-sketch he wanted. (i know it is etch-a-sketch but etcher-sketch is what Ryker called it and I thought it was cute) Lana did our pictures again this year and I am loving what she does. She has fantastic ideas and doesn't even get frustrated when Rylee screams and won't cooperate!

I really love my family!
I love the pictures that were taken of just Kefford and I! (Lana-Lou you did a fabulous job!)

I really do not know what it takes to get Rylee to be happy and smiling in our pictures.

This picture was a fluke! It is really the only one where she actually looks pleasant !

Avynlea is trying really hard to do her fake smile and I am behind the camera trying really hard to get her to not!

Ryker is extremely photogenic. I think he would be an awesome kids model!

Kenedy is just beautiful. I was coaching her about not doing her fake smile and said try doing a closed mouth smile. I didn't know she was never going to show her teeth again!

my stylista, cake, and more from the stylista

I just took this picture of Avynlea. I told her to get dressed for the day and she came down wearing Kenedy's shirt. This kid has some serious style!

After feeling bad that my big deal 30th birthday went neglected Kefford made me a cake Sunday after church. We did not get around to trying it out until after the kids went to bed but when we did boy was it ever good! So good that Kefford decided that this cake was off limits to kids, they could have different treats. I did cut myself a piece yesterday and share it with Rylee but, shhh, he does not have to know. When he came home from work yesterday he was kinda disappointed that when I put the saran wrap back on it was touching the frosting. I had to laugh when I woke up this morning to find the cake looking like this, all nicely re-wrapped so that no more plastic was touching the cake...bit OCD you think?
On Sunday Avynlea wanted to wear her pretty, green, poofy, sleeveless dress. I told her that was fine but that she had to wear her white sweater with it. I had to laugh when she came down with this sweater on. I took a picture, told her how pretty she looked, then told her to go back upstairs, take that sweater off and put on her white CHURCH sweater. This kids style really cracks me up. It is quite normal for her to bypass all of her pretty girlie shoes in favor of Rykers shoes. Yesterday we were going to the library so I dressed her all cute with a sassy hat and everything and then she put on Rykers old cowboy boots. I told you she has style!

Happy Bithday Elizabeth and Ryker!!

Ryker chose to have a speed racer birthday party. This is the cool speed racer cake that Kefford cut out and I designed. I think we did a pretty good job. Ryker said it looked awesome and his is the opinion that matters so it was a great success.

It was a crazy madhouse for one and a half hours because of all the kids that were invited. But since this was Ryker's first year of having a birthday party and because Kefford was home to help, I let Ryker invite as many friends as he wanted. OK so I am not that crazy I did put a somewhat limit to the amount of invites. I had just been in his classroom helping so I knew which kids were the problem ones and to steer him away from wanting to invite. The kids had alot of fun and Kefford was really good about keeping them somewhat calmed down. The only problems came when the games took too long and the ones waiting got restless and would start to chase each other around the house. We played pin the car on the race track, pass the car, and we had a pinata!

Happy 30th to me and Happy 6th to Ryker!

For my big celebration we went out to eat at Red Robins where Ryker and I got free ice-cream sundaes but we told them no singing. (I know, we are big party poopers!)

.

Voting Follies

*I Voted*

I wasn't going to post anything about today because I think everyone knows how important today is and anyway this blog is about my family and not about sharing politics. No offence to those who do share politics I just didn't want to. But I happened to have a funny thing happen today while I was voting, and so, for today, i will let this be about politics (kind of) and not about my cute and adorable kids.

A funny thing happened at the voting booth. I picked up my ballot and went to the last voting booth on the left, right next to a nice looking old man. I placed my ballot in front of me and proceeded to give it the once over. Just to take a breath and not let my voting nerves get to me. As I was reading it I suddenly got a BIG case of the giggles. I know, probably not the most appropriate considering where I was at and all but you tell me that not a single one of you would have done the same thing if you saw what I saw. In casting a vote for Governor or Senator or something (I really can't remember which) I saw this...

Pro-Life(formally known as Blankity, blank(i added the blankity, blank cause I cannot remember his former name))

This guy was so serious about this issues that he had his name changed just so we all understood what he believes in!! Now do you blame me for getting the giggles. The bummer side about all of this is that I had no one to giggle and make fun with. I tried engaging the old man next to me but he gave me a disapproving side glance and hugged his ballot closer to his body. Probably thought I was trying to cheat,well maybe I was! Next time all of you have to come voting with me so that I will not be alone with my giggles. Cause who wants to giggle alone?

funny stories and pumpkin carving

A funny story: My Mom used to make a certain kind of muffins called Mormon Muffins. They are really yummy and very healthy, made with, among other things, 10 grain cereal and buttermilk. I finally got all of the ingredients to make these muffins and I made them Sunday morning, forgetting until I was done that it was fast Sunday. But that's OK the little kids can eat them and I will try one later on. As I was making them the time came to pour in the buttermilk which I did, noticing that I did not have quite an entire quart. For those of you who know how I cook you know that this would not bother me one bit, I just make do. So I finished and the little kids ate them with Ryker telling me how delicious they were..good kid! SO later on in the day Kefford comes in the kitchen asking where his egg nog is. "Its in the fridge" I told him. "No its not" was his reply. So I opened the fridge to show him and then I paused....Oh, that's the buttermilk, so then, I guess I used the egg nog in my muffins! Oops..HAHAHA. I think the time change had an impact on me, that and being woken up at 6:00 by a poop covered Rylee. Yeah it was gross and yes it was all over her and her bed. But you know those muffins really taste quite good.Next time I will use the buttermilk and then decide which is better!

On Friday the kids did not have school so we spent the afternoon carving pumpkins. Well I carved and they watched. I did have them draw a design on the pumpkin and then I cut it following the design the best I could. I tried to get them to help clean the guts out which they kind of did. Kenedy kept smelling the insides saying out good it smelled, Ryker was getting grossed out putting his hand inside, he said it felt like brains. At one point I overheard him saying..."die brains, die"! Yeah he is crazy! Avynlea just watched and got in everyones way and Rylee slept through the entire thing. Enjoy our pumpkin carving pictures!

even though she was sleeping I did carve out a little pumpkin for Rylee. Here she is inspecting it!

Ryker, Avynlea and Kenedy anxious to trick or treat but humoring Mom and posing for a picture first!



"Die brains, Die!"