winner winner chicken dinner times 2!

After church on Sunday Ryker sat himself at the kitchen counter with glue, tin foil and some little paper cups. When he was all done he came upstairs to show me what he had made.

He made a trophy, isn't it clever? :0) And he told me the trophy was for me for making the BEST DINNERS! Yay me!

What a sweetheart and what a fun thing to do. You can be assured that I will be keeping that trophy for a very long time!

Rykers Music Program

Last week we went to the school for Rykers First Grade Music Program. Ryker was very excited to have us come and would keep checking to make sure we would all be there. Kenedy got to watch the program earlier in the day at school and she told us how great it was.

The program started about 15 minutes late and so Avynlea and i goofed around a little with the camera.

Finally it starts and there is Ryker looking oh so handsome searching out the crowds for his family. First he spots me and gives me a big hearty wave. Then I see him mouthing, "where is my Dad?" until he spots Kefford who was sitting right next to me, and gives him a big hearty wave.

The program was combined with the second graders, some songs they sang together, others they sang by grade.

Here is Ryker performing the Rudolph song. It was a really cute program, all of the songs had hand motions to go along with them and the kids performed really well. We were much entertained and were glad that we could go to see Ryker sing!

Ward Christmas Party

Our ward christmas party was a little different this year. We still had food, it was a yummy potato bar, and we still had Santa. We also had fun activities for the kiddos. What was different was this year our ward party was focused on service. We put together 12 gift boxes filled with breads and jams and goodies and decorations, so that they could be handed out to those families in need within our Ward boudaries. It was really a really neat idea and I am glad that we got to be apart of it.

They had a table set up so the kids could make and take little graham cracker gingerbread houses.

Ryker filled a little box with the 7 things of christmas poem which was then put in one of the bigger boxes.

Rylee and Kefford taking it all in.

Avynlea had a ball coloring.

Ryker doing more crafting.

We then got to see Santa. Rylee had to be forced onto his lap so I could get a picture. Then spent the entire time covering her face from him. That is what she does when she is nervous or embarrassed, she hides behind her hands..kinda cute!


Ryker jumped on no problem and told Santa what he wanted.

Same with Kenedy.

Avynlea was a surprise. I had to drag her away from coloring so that she could meet Santa. The entire time we were in line she kept saying she didn't want to do this. But I made her stay so we could get pictures.

Can you see how happy she looks in the above picture? :0)

Ever the model, as soon as she saw the camera she gave me a nice smile!

After Santa Rylee got to sit and color.


Ryker finally built his own graham cracker house. Here is a sad little story..He built a two story and while Kefford was carrying it out to the car and the entire ride home Ryker was so protective of his house and kept telling us to be careful with it. We got home and Ryker rushed to the front of the car to make sure it was all good. He was happy to find it still intact. He gave me a high five and smiling started to climb out one side of the car while I took his house and climbed out the other. As soon as I stepped out the top part of the house fell off and went crashing to the ground. I could see Rykers shoulders hunch and without even turning around he started to cry because he knew what happened. I felt so bad, but I took him inside and pulled out a box of graham crackers and a container of frosting so he could fix it. That made him happy and he proceeded to make it bigger, to make it badder, to make it awesome!
This party was a great way to start out the christmas season and I hope that our ward will do a service christmas party every year. It was really nice!

Hair-tastic!

A looong time ago when Kenedy was about 4 she wanted to be the wicked witch of the west for Halloween. SO I bought a pattern, bought accessories, and got a cheap black wig for her to wear. She then changed her mind, I was glad because the costume looked difficult, and went with being a butterfly. The other day I was looking through my material and found the long forgotten black wig. Of course us girls had to take it out and see what we would look like with long, snarly, black hair.

Avynlea!

Kenedy!

Rylee!

Elizabeth!

Not too shabby. I think we pulled the look off quite nicely.

cookie tasters

Kelly and Elaine Josi came over last friday so that Kelly could bake and decorate cookies with Avynlea and Rylee. She was really patient with them and let them help out with the rolling and cutting.


When it came time to decorate the cookies we gave the girls frosting and sprinkles and let them have at it. They were so fun to watch and really enjoyed themselves.


Look at the concentration on this girls face!



We made a gingerbread cookie but while it was still in the dough stage Rylee bit its head off! So I took it upon myself to decorate that one. :0)



We had so much fun decorating cookies and as you can see made some really pretty ones! :0) Thanks Kelly for the fun the girls really, really love you!

Oh Christmas Tree

On Monday night we got out our Christmas tree and all the decorations so we could get it set up for family home evening. Last year Ryker really wanted to put the star on top but couldn't because of his broken leg, so this year it was his turn.


Rylee really got into the spirit of decorating the tree and was very precise about where she wanted the ornaments to go. I enjoyed watching her examine each ornament and see her really get attached to those she liked best.



The kids had so much fun opening boxes and pulling out the decorations. We heard alot of cries like "Oh I remember this one" and "Oh look at this it is so cute". It is fun to see how excited they were getting about it all.




Avynlea took a picture of the tree and it looks like we still have some decorating to do. It is so fun to have the tree up and to get ready for this fun holiday month.

Let the spirit of goodwill and giving begin!!

Our foxy friend

Every year the second week of November we go up to McCall to stay in the Timeshare condos in Aspen Village. We go up other times throughout the year to stay in the Peterson House but always the second week of November is spent in the condos. Lots of fun was had this year. Keffords brother Jeremy and his family were right next door to us and so we got to get together to do many fun things. The kids got to go ice-skating, hot-tubbing, swimming, they played basketball and racquetball (kind of :0)) at the club, I went and worked out with my sister-in-law Gwen. We just had lots of fun. SO guess how many pictures I took? I can't hear your guesses but I can tell you this, you are so wrong. I took two! Yup that's it, 2! Can you believe it? I am not sure what I was thinking, maybe that I was just picture taking out! Or maybe its because I need/want a new camera and was rebelling? Whatever the reason I only took two and here they are.

You have to admit it is a cute picture! Every year that we have been there there is a little fox that runs around behind the condos. This year we saw him sitting on the side of the condo just staring at us. So I gathered the kids together and snapped a shot.

Our foxy friend!