6th Grade Awards

A week before the last day of Middle School I got a letter in the mail telling us that Kenedy was going to receive an award at the 6th grade awards assembly. I was excited for her but a little worried about how this was all going to go down. The awards assembly was from 7:45 till about 9. That meant we had to have all the kids up and ready for school so that we all could go to the assembly. Kefford would then have to take Ryker and Avynlea to school since school for them starts at 9:15ish and I would have to drop Rylee off at preschool which starts at 9 so that I could get to my 9:20 dance class which started at 9:20 and it usually takes me about 15 to 20 minutes to get there. What a rushed morning this was going to be.

The first award Kenedy received was for maintaining a GPA of 3.5 or higher all year. Way to go!!!!

The second award she got was a PRIDE award. This was a more exclusive award. The letters in PRIDE all stand for something different, P for Perseverence, R for responsibility, I for something, D for determination and E for something. Each teacher was respnsible to nominate one student from all of their classes for each of the different attributes. Kenedy got the PRIDE award for Respnsibility from her Music Teacher Mrs. Johnson. She was surprised and happy and I was really proud of her,

Kenedy has always impressed me with how hard she works at her school work and I am glad that she sets such a great example for her younger siblings.

Dance Cuties

This past year I was given the awesome privilage of teaching dance classes. A woman who moved out our ward a year ago owns a company called the dance connection and the gist of it is the dance teacher goes to the daycare and teaches a class once a week for those who sign up. Whith rylee being in pre-school and Cyndi needing more teaches I was given the opportunity to teach some classes. I didn't want to have to leave Rylee while I taught and so I taught while she was in school and then on Monday while she was not in school I traded with a friend some weeks but mostly Rylee just came with me. It was a lot of fun, sometimes frustrating, many times stressful but so worth it. I really fell in love with most of the girls :o) I got to teach and look forward to doing it again in the fall.

I wanted to tak pictures of htem all dressed up in their recital outfits but recital was so crazy and I was doing a lot of running around so that did not happen. I did teach for two more weeks after recital was over and so I took pictures of them in class. I taught seven different classes with three classes on Monday, two on Wednesday and two on thursday. My Monday and Thursday classes did their recital dances to Rapunzels "I See The Light" and "Kingdom Dance". My Wednesday classes did their dances to a Tinkerbell song and "Never Smile at a Crocodile". Because my classes were small we combined them for the recital and so I only had three dances performed at recital.

 Rylie, Bella, Kennedy, Mikayla, Perri and Taylor. Missing is Brylynn

 Abby, Abigail, Arika, Finley, Emma and Maddie
Maddie is wearing the purple costume that all of my dancers wore for recital.

Taryn,  Livia and Janie

Morgan, Audry and Amori

These are the crocodile hats that my amazing sister-in-law Brit made for my Crocodile dancers. They were so cute and looked awesome on stage!

Gabrielle, Olivia,  Kiera

Holly and Avery

I have a little story I want to remember about Holly. Holly was a sweet girl and a very dreamy flighty girl. In class during our dances she would get lost in the music and just do turns and sways before she would come back to reality and join the otherr dancers. She was really sweet and it was fun to watch her. At the recital she did an awesome job on her dance and after it was all over I went out to congratulate my dancers. I saw Holly and went to give her a huf and I told her how proud I was of her. She had a couple of bouquets of flowers that her family had given her and she wanted to give me one of her roses. I told her I appreciate it but it was bught for her and she should keep it. She said "No I want you to have it" and then she asked if it would make me happy. I finally accepted the flower and told her that everytime I looked at the rose I would think of her and that it would make me very happy. What a sweetheart little girl!

Callie, Alysha, Alyssa, Lucy, and Veva

I am very proud of all of my little dancers, I was super nervous about them being on stage not knowing how they were going to do but they all did amazing. I got comments from quite a few people that my dancers were the best ones. I will miss the ones who will not be there anymore but look forward to being back with the ones who will return!

14 Years!

Kefford actually gave cut roses for our 14 year anniversary this year. He has never given me roses before because he sees them as a waste of money since they die quick. I think he has learned that even giving me potted plants is a waste of money since they die quick from my neglect. I am not a plant person.

Happy Fourteen Kefford! I love you!!!

Those sneaky Leprechauns

Our Saint Patricks day was a pretty fun day this year. We woke up in the morning to find that the sneaky Leprechauns took it a step further with their tricks. Of course our house was messed up and of course they left some green tinkle in our toilet. But this year they left a box of Lucky Charms in addition to the chocolate gold coins and just look what was left on our toilet seat...

hehehe little green feet! What a cute and clever Leprechaun ;o)

We also found that our milk was dyed green

Kefford was not the most thrilled with green milk but he played along and didn't complain.

Rylee ate her yummy Lucky Charms in green milk!

For dinner we had green mashed potatoes, green juice, green rolls and corned beef. It was delicious and made out St. Pattys day extra fun!

Mothers Day 2012

Mothers Day was a good day for me. As usual I got pretty spoiled by my Husband and kids. I got brought breakfast in bed which was french toast, oranges, eggs and orange juice. Yummy!

I look pretty scary in these pictures since I just woke up so please no judging! ;O)

And who doesn't love a good orange smile?!

The kids could not wait to give me the gifts they made in school.

From Rylee

She also gave me a mason jar covered with red tissue paper glued onto it and filled with flowers. She was so excited when she brought that home all wrapped up. She wanted to hide it and made me promise not to look until mothers day. So cute. Kefford got me some flowers and so I cut those down and replaced the fake with the real and set it on the piano. It was so cute and such a fun gift from my Rylee.

This was perhaps the best thing ever written about me. Avy is adorable!

In addition to the homemade gifts Kefford took the kids shopping and Kenedy got me a wonder woman t-shirt, Ryker got me black pajama bottoms, Avynlea got me a pretty heart necklace that said love and a gift card to Sonic from Rylee.

For some reason the pajama bottoms embarrassed Ryker and would not carry them around the store. They are black jersey Capri length with an edging of lace around the top and I have no idea why he was so embarrassed other then he said they looked like underwear...ok?

Also Avynlea wanted to get me a different heart necklace one with bedazzles all over it but the rest of them said no to get me the one she did, she was put out about it and not happy but I loved it and wear it often!

Good Mothers Day and I really love my kids!!!!

Rylee turns 5!

Rylees fifth birthday started out with her being allowed to open one present. She opened the present from Grandma Bonnie because it had come in the mail the day before and the suspense was killing her. She kept asking the day before all day long if she could open it but I said no she had to wait. And wait she did, until the next morning. Grandma Alison came over the day before and Rylee got to open her present which was some cute outfit. Lucky for us so that Rylee could have something new and cute to wear on her special day.

So Rylee opened up her package and found a super cute Princess Piggy Bank that her Grandma bought her from Disneyland. The little darling of course loved it and loved the sound of change she heard coming from the inside.

So once we got through the day we had dinner, which was pancakes, and then Rylee got to open the rest of her presents.

As you will be able to tell from looking at the next set of pictures Rylee has been well trained in the art of picture taking. I did not once have to tell her to pose or smile as soon as the present was opened she turned to me, displayed the gift and smiled for the camera. She is an easy one!

Rylee loves watching Dora and so I bought her a movie so that she can watch Dora in the car or whenever she wants. I have since regretted this a little since it has been non-stop Dora everywhere we go, but it's OK I just banned her movies from the car for a while.

This girl loves to wear dresses and so I was happy to find some really cute ones for her to indulge in. The great thing with all of these gifts is that she was with me when I picked out and bought all of them. Either I am really good at being sneaky or she is really good at being oblivious.

To go along with the dresses I found some really fun leggings to pair with the plainer dresses. The patterned dresses will be worn with leggings already owned.

She really wanted a new swimming suit and picked out this really cute Hello Kitty one!

And of course the girl who loves dresses needs to have a dress to wear to bed, so she got a new nightgown!

Grandma Marge sent Rylee some money which as soon as it was opened went right into the piggy bank. She said she is going to save money until her piggy bank is full and then she will buy whatever she wants. Awesome!

Rylee wanted a Rapunzel themed birthday and so I got balloons and cups and plates with Rapunzel on them and then made pink cupcakes with purple sprinkles. She was a happy girl!

5 Things I Love About Rylee:

1) She is my cuddler and loves to give me hugs and kisses. I love snuggling up with her especially in the winter because I am always cold and she is always hot so she acts as my personal heater!

2)Rylee loves to help me around the house. Not all the time but often enough that it is appreciated she will get the urge to clean and will tidy up her bedroom and makes all of her siblings beds. She is so sweet.

3) Rylee has a fun imagination and has no problem playing by herself and losing herself in her games. I love overhearing her while playing with her barbies because she gets so into it.

4)Rylee is a leader and is a big help to her teacher at pre-school. Her teacher often tells me that Rylee likes to help the boys solve their conflicts without getting bossy or know it all about it.

5) Rylee is a beautiful dancer and is so fun to watch in dance class. She really gets into it and always does her best!

Rylees Favorite Things:

Food: chicken nuggets

treat: cotton candy and M&M's

movie: Rapunzel

TV Show:Dora the Explorer

Color: Dark pink and purple

Toy: Brittney the hamster

Friend: Gus Gus and Brylyn

animal: Hamsters and ponies

thing to do outside: play at the park with family

Book: Dora

Color book: Strawberry Shortcake

primary song: Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam

about thing about being five: That sometimes I won't suck my thiumb