Spring Break Adventures 1

Last week was Spring Break and so on Tuesday the kids and I left Kefford and travelled down to Utah to visit my sister Emily and her kids. Ashleigh was also going to be there because she flew up from California to go to her roommates wedding so that was an added plus! It wasn't until I got back and started downloading pictures into my computer that I realized how many I took. So I will post our spring break adventures into separate posts to stretch out your viewing interest! :)
The two little girls and I slept in Isabelle's room, while Kenedy and Ryker slept out on the couch. I had a really cute picture of Kenedy and Ryker all snuggled up to each other on the couch but I accidentally deleted it from the camera..Bummer! So you only get to see Rylee and Avynlea asleep on the floor.

We went to the mall and walked around looking at things. We happened to go into See's where we all got yummy samples. The kids really enjoyed their suckers!

Ben and Ryker sitting and relaxing with their suckers!

Crazy Emily and Ashleigh goofing around.

Top Model shot!

Ben, Ryker, Isabelle, Kenedy, Avynlea and Rylee

(Ijust hit spell check and every single one of my kids names were highlighted as spelled wrong. I found that funny. Emilys kids have nice normal names, according to the spell check!)

Funny faces!

Just playing with the camera. I think watching Top Model really makes me want to bring out my inner model!

It was a PERFECT spring day!

Today was a half day at school and so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go to the park. When we got back we found Kefford in the backyard riding the 4-wheeler to smooth out the dirt and get it ready for sod. Of course the kids wanted to get in on the fun and Kefford being the fun Dad that he is let them.
Avynlea and Ryker are on the crate and Kenedy and Rylee are on the 4-wheeler with Kefford.

Kenedy loved getting a ride.

This made the dirt look so nice.

Look at that crazy Ryker acting like such a boy!

Don't worry Ryker is not attacking a moving 4-wheeler, what kind of Mom do you think I am?

Then Kenedy had to have a turn on the crate.

Too much fun! What a wonderful spring day!

Rylee had a Dr visit

On Tuesday I took Rylee to the Dr for her two year old well child check up. She was a little nervous but once she realized the Dr was not going to hurt her she did really well. She weighed in at 25lbs 12oz which put her in the 40th percentile and her height was 35 1/2 which set her at the 90th percentile. I have really tall kids! She wasn't due to get any shots today so we all left happy.

Here she is at the Dr's with her sucker and sticker, what a happy girl!

Last night I brushed Rylee's teeth, gave her a Binky and then put her in her bed. I then went to brush Avynlea's teeth and after we were done we came back to her room to find this cute little monkey..
Oh so cool!

St. Patricks Day

So yesterday was St. Patricks Day and the kids and I decided that this year we wanted to catch a Leprechaun and demand him to turn over his gold to us. We then set about to build a trap the day before. We made it look like a Leprechaun hat and then put "gold" on top of the trap "hole". We then wondered how we would be able to get it to climb onto the trap so that he would fall in, hmmm quite the problem! Finally we remembered that Leprechauns like to break rules so Kenedy made little signs to attach saying, "don't climb on the top", "don't take the gold" and my favorite "don't leave treats or surprises". So our trap was set and we all went to bed with visions of little men in our heads!
You should have seen the excitement when we woke up the next morning! Ryker was out of bed and dressed ready to go down in what seemed like seconds. I made them all stay upstairs until everyone was ready for school and the day, poor Ryker had to wait a long time for all of us girls to get ready. They kept standing at the top of the stairs looking down trying to see something Leprechaunish. They all decided that the dark shapes they saw on the downstairs carpet had to be footprints.
Finally we were all ready to go and I went down first so I could get reaction pictures.

We were all so surprised to find lots of mischievous things happened while we were sleeping!

Lots of the furniture had been turned scaddywompus and what we all thought were footprints turned out to be chocolate gold coins that silly Leprechaun dropped on his way out!

The kids hurried to check the trap to see if we caught a Leprechaun, what we found was Ryker's spiderman action figure and a note that said.. "Nice try but I am too sneaky for the likes of you! Ha ha ha! Better luck next time! From Lucky the Leprechaun" The kids thought that was so funny!

Look what that crazy Leprechaun did to our toilet!

The kids had a lot of fun this day and all agree that next year we will try again to catch that Leprechaun!

Happy 2nd birthday Rylee!

Rylee turned two yesterday and what a day we had.

She got to open one present in the morning which was clothes from Grandma Alison.
What an adorable girl in her adorable new outfit!
After we took the kids to school Avynlea and I took Rylee to Target so she could pick out a birthday present and so we could also get party supplies. Not surprisingly Rylee found a baby doll that she would not leave alone. It is a cute doll that talks and moves and Rylee just sat in the cart and held it laughing and talking to it.

After shopping we stopped and got popcorn for a little treat.

See the baby? I was going to let her pick it out and then secretly buy it and hide it for her to open later but she would have none of that. This doll stuck by her side the entire day. She even took it to bed with her!

After her nap I let her put the sprinkles on her cupcakes. She loved that and really loved eating the frosting. She picked the purple frosting!

Rylee was doing weird things with her face. Notice the Disney "Special" plate? The kids get to use that on their birthdays and other special occasions. So since it was Rylees birthday she got to use it for dinner.

Me and my birthday girl. I sure do love this girl!

Present time! She knew just what to do with opening her presents.

Rylee's new stroller and baby.

Opening a present from Grandma Lutes!

She was very excited to open a gift from Grandma Lutes and find a cute ball.

Love it!

Rylee and her birthday gifts! See she finally got her quilt!

Kefford hadn't seen her do this lopsided smile before and he really got a kick out of it.

Blowing out her candles. Make a wish!

Yummy cupcake!

Celebration!

Rylee and her Daddy!

Rylee seemed to really enjoy her birthday and loved being the center of attention. We really love this girl and are so glad she is in our family!

Dress-up

My sister Emily has taken to giving Avynlea the clothes that don't fit her daughter Isabelle any more. Avynlea loves getting these fun clothes and has a closet stuffed with clothes because she also has older sister hand-me-downs. One of the items was this pretty dress that was made for Isabelle to wear in a wedding. Avynlea got a lot of wear out of it usually with her brothers old cowboy boots or her black boots. She always looked adorable and I am sad that I never got around to taking a picture with her in it. A couple months ago she pulled it from her closet wanting to wear it only to find after putting it on that it was too short. So it got handed down to Rylee. Rylee looked adorable and I remembered to pull out the camera and take her picture.

Isn't she so cute!

Once her picture was taken the rest of the kids wanted their turn in the spotlightHere is Avynlea in her Sunday Dress.

This was another dress from Isabelle and has since made it into Rylees possession as well.
Kenedy wearing her Baptism dress. This was made for her by Emily and has gotten a lot of wear this past year. We thought it needed a splash of color on this particular day so we added a flower to the sash.
Isn't Ryker so adorable? I love his little sports coat he wears!

When Kefford leaves...

This weekend Kefford was gone on a little trip to Chicago with his cousin so they could pick up his cousins car and drive it to Idaho. While he was gone I had to find some way to keep the kids occupied and happy so on Saturday we took a trip to the discovery center. The kids loved wandering around and experimenting with the displays, I loved watching them. They were really having fun when they got to play in the "veterinary clinic". This was one of the favorites!

Dr. Ryker with his patient.
Dr. Avynlea assembling a breathing mask.

Dr. Rylee with her cute lopsided smile is carrying around the food bowls.

Dr. Kenedy is helping my pet turtle to get better.

After they had their fill of taking care of animals we moved on.

Ryker thought this "how bones move" demonstration was cool. Unfortunately his legs were not quite long enough to get the full effect.

Tough girl Rylee laying on a bed of nails! Tough girl Avynlea taking her turn. I had her make the nervous face for the picture.
The kids then got to go shopping in the little interactive store. This was also a lot of fun and I was really impressed with the concentration they used and how they were willing to clean up and "re-stock" the shelves. They even re-stocked baskets full of items that were left by other kids.

Kenedy checking out her items.

Avynlea with TWO shopping carts. She must be shopping for the month.

Ryker re-stocking the shelves.

Rylee doing her shopping.

We had a really fun time and the kids all told me thank you and how much fun they had. That evening my friend Mary Howell and I took our kids over to Carl's Jr. to eat and play. We ended up staying 2 hours cause the kids were having so much fun. It was also nice to sit and have a friend to talk to.

This was a fun day for us all!