Beginning of May

Avynlea has shared my cell number with her friends and I frequently get text messages and FaceTime  requests from them, it can get really annoying. Saturday night she was at a party and I got a text message from a classmate letting Avynlea know that a friend of theirs was in a four-wheeler accident and had been life-flighted to the hospital. When I picked up Avy I told her what happened and she immediately started texting to figure out what was going on. We were told that Makenna was at St Al's in Boise and she could have visitors. We stopped at Maverick on our way home so Avynlea could pick out some candy for her friend with the intentions of going to visit her before church the next day. 

The next morning we picked up another friend, Rose, and headed out to Boise to see Makenna. She was happy to have visitors and was very talkative. Avynlea said she talks a lot at school. I think she was more doped up on medications because she had a tendency to say some strange things. She said that she was riding a four-wheeler and was going too fast when she hit a bump and was thrown off. She broker her collarbone, her wing bone, some teeth and had to have stitches put in a cut in her head. Poor girl. After about an hour of us being there we had to leave but  I made sure to get a picture of the three of them before we left.

Avynlea's hair after taking it out of the messy bun we did looked pretty 80's to me. Big and fluffy!

During picture day at the studio Kim asked me if I would figure out the Lollypops we needed for our Kinderstars dance they were doing to "Good Ship Lollypop". I told her sure and she requested that I had them ready by the next week so the girls could have a couple weeks of practice with them. I thought about them off and on the next couple of days trying to figure out how I was going to do them but put them on the back burner and then forgot about them until two nights before I needed to have them done. I woke up in a panic at 4 in the morning stressing out about these Lollypops and trying to figure out how I was going to get them done. I laid in bed for an hour thinking and trying to figure it all out in my head. Finally an idea slipped into my mind and I know it was a tender mercy from the Lord helping me out. The next day after my dance classes were over I stopped at Hobby Lobby and got my supplies and then headed home to get to work. I hot glued two paper plates together  with a white spray painted dowel in between for the stick it was then covered with purple tissue paper and purple cellophane and tied with a green ribbon. It turned out so cute and perfect and Kim loved it!

The other night the clouds were looking pretty stormy and we took some pictures because of how cool they looked.

The first week of May is teacher appreciation. Avy and Rylee really wanted to do something for their teachers and so I asked my sisters for some ideas. One of the things that was mentioned was to get a basket and fill it with some fun things. Rylee really liked that idea and wanted to go to the Dollar store to get items to put in a basket. I did not have time to drive to The Dollar Store so I talked them into doing a movie bucket. I bought some redbox movie codes offline and printed out a cute printable. At Wal-mart we got some fun movie bowls and bought some treats to put inside. Avy really wanted to get her teacher some new dry erase markers because he never has any when he needs them so we picked up a pack of those. I thought the "buckets" turned out really cute and I hope their teachers liked them. I normally don't do anything for Teacher Appreciation because I do end of school year gifts. I decided this year since we are doing something at this time that I will forego the usual end of teacher gifts, although I will probably end up making cookies or something for them to take in because I never like to send them empty handed on the last day and teachers do a lot!

I got this email from Ryker's English teacher and I thought it was so kind of her to write it. I think my kid is great but it is always nice to hear positive feedback from outside sources.

This and That

I got an email from Ryker while he was at school and he had this picture in it. I really didn't understand the picture or the email and had to wait until he got home to ask him about it. In his World Civ class they were studying about WW11 and some Veterans were in the class presenting and they brought some items to share one of them being this bazooka. Ryker went in after everyone had left and asked if he could have some pictures taken with him holding the bazooka. They were nice and let him. 

April 23 was the annual Mile Fun Run for Elementary Kids. I have done it with the girls in the past but last year we were in Utah and could not do it. We were pretty excited to participate this year until the day of and we saw and felt the weather. It was COLD!! Wet and cold! I was expecting it to be cancelled because of how wet and cold it was but nope it stayed on and so we went. The last time we did the mile run I thought it felt pretty short and so I tracked this one with my phone to see just how long it really was. Avynlea and Rylee did such a good job of running the entire way with me. Towards the end Avynlea was starting to feel some cramps but I encouraged her to breathe through them and keep running. I knew she would be proud of herself if she did not stop running. When we got to the finish line I checked my phone and like I thought it was not a complete mile, it was .96. I didn't see why they couldn't have pushed the finish back a little bit to make it a full mile but oh well. By the time we were done we were done. We had to run through a lot of grass and our feet got soaked and we were cold and just wanted to get out of there. We had to wait around for Avynlea's friend to finish running because she was coming home with us to play for a couple of hours and we were not happy about having to stand in the cold longer. Finally she was done and we could leave and when we got home I made everyone some hot chocolate and washed and dried our socks. Even though it was not great weather I had fun running with my girls and I am glad we did it!

Beautiful Avynlea

Later that day Avynlea and Rylee had their Piano Recital. They both did really well and each had their pieces memorized although Rylee used her book when she played because she was nervous and worried she would mess up. I was pretty proud of my girls with all they had accomplished so far on the piano. They both enjoy learning and never complain about practicing.

Avynlea played "The Gentle Brook"

Rylee played "Feelin' Happy"

Kenedy went to church the Sunday after her surgery and was really feeling the pain. She took some tylenol but was really uncomfortable and had a hard time with her foot. At one point I looked over and caught her with her head on Ryker's shoulder. I thought it was so sweet and not of the norm that I had to take a picture. Probably taking a picture during Sacrament meeting is not the best idea but I was glad I did capture this tender moment.

Rylee was wanting her friend Maryn to come and play after school. She tried calling and when nobody answered she sent this text. I thought it was so cute and sweet that she was concerned something was wrong when they did not answer.

Foot Surgery

Kefford's Cousin Taylor had her twins and on Sunday after church Kefford, Kenedy and I went to the hospital to see her new babies. Hayes and Navee were so cute and so tiny, I think combined their birth weight was less then Rylee's. It was so fun holding them and I loved holding both of them for a few seconds while Kenedy and I traded babies. 

Kenedy has had her foot growing wrong and we have noticed it for many years but were told we had to wait to do anything about it until her foot was done growing. She has what some might call a bunion but we try not to refer to it as that because it bothers Kenedy so much. She just does not like the word. So I just say her bones are growing wrong and leave it at that.

Now that she is 16 we decided to take her in for a consultation and the podiatrist looked at her x-rays and said she was a great candidate for the surgery. He explained everything they wee going to do and all I heard was they were going to fix her foot, the medical terminology just goes over my head.

A Beautiful Weekend

The sun was shining and the air was warm and the kids had their friends over for a little bit so I made them play in the backyard. It was perfect! 

The little rascals were playing a lively game of Harry Potter with complicated characters and story lines. I wanted to get a picture of them all running around with their wands but I was more content just sitting enjoying the sun. I did get this picture of Rylee when she was sitting down doing witch things and she gladly held up her wand for the picure.

I am not sure why these pictures of Rylee eating dinner were taken but she sure is a cutie!

Saturday night we went to the YM/YW Spaghetti feed and auction camp fundraiser. We paid $10 for our family to eat dinner and then could bid on different items that were being auctioned off. I donated 2 dozen homemade rolls and 2 dozen of my sugar cookies to the cause but never saw how much they went for, they were part of the silent auction. Whomever did get them was very lucky indeed because my rolls and cookies are delicious!

Kefford really wanted this "Batman vs Superman/Ironman vs Captain America cake from the silent auction. He kept an eye on the bidding and swooped in at the last second with the highest bid. He was pretty pleased and it was so delicious. Heidi made the cake and she is awesome at her craft. It was chocolate chunk cake with a raspberry filling and chocolate frosting. Kefford also bid on and won a 250 pack of bullets. It was a very successful night for the youth and they raised the money they needed and then some. 

While we were having this nice sunny weekend, Kenedy was in California enjoying the gray skies, cooler temps and little bits of rain. She went to on a tour with her choir and they went to Utah where they stopped at Highland High for a showcase, next they went to Las Vegas where they got to go see the blue Man group. After the fun of that they headed down to California to go to Disneyland and California Adventure. They had some performances to give and some workshops to attend but other then that they got to hang out in the two parks and have fun. Kenedy had such a fun time on this tour, she loved being with her friends, seeing the show and of course going to Disneyland. 

On Saturday the lucky girl got to meet up with my Mom, Heather, Ashleigh and Andrew Brown for a couple of hours in the afternoon. My Mom treated her to lunch, used her discount so Kenedy could get some fun things more inexpensively and they all rode some rides together. I was so happy that Kenedy could spend a little bit of time with my family, they are awesome! Of course not one of them thought to take a picture together until it was too late but my Mom snapped a picture of the rest of them on California Screamin' as they were taking off and Heather and Ashleigh snapped a couple of "stalker" pictures of Kenedy after they all said goodbye. Being with Family is the best!

Conference Weekend

For conference we decided to spend some time out at the farm. Alison was planning an Easter Hunt for those that were in town and since we were going to be there Saturday we decided to stay the night so we could be there Sunday as well. Ryker was having fun playing with Sadie for a little bit. She is such a little cutie and it is always fun to watch Ryker love on his little cousins.  

While we were waiting between sessions for cousins to start showing up Grandma let Avynlea and Rylee pull out the bubbles. They were making some really cool bubbles and even had bubbles in bubbles. 

A while ago Rylee expressed some interest in her Grandma's Sudoku so while we were there she let Rylee try to tackle some of the easier ones. It was cute watching them together.

Once some more people showed up, we had an impromptu softball game. It was mostly my family against Gwen's family but we had Bob playing on our team. Trevor grabbed some plastic plates for the bases and by the time we had a handful of people running on them they were broken up into shards and I was worried about all of the bare feet. Luckily no one got injured. 

Alison took pictures and I was glad to send them to my phone so I could have copies of them, Obviously from this picture of me "hitting' I am not a baseball player. I tend to hit down at the ball and Kefford kept telling me to stop hitting down. It made me remember playing church ball as a youth and hearing my Dad coaching me to stop hitting down. Clearly this has been a problem for a long time. 

After the second session on Saturday the Grandkids got to do an Easter Egg hunt

And then after a delicious dinner of Carne Asada the kids got to light their lanterns and let them go. They were all super excited about this and it was so fun to watch them make their lanterns glow and let them go. It was a bit worrisome as the lanterns drifted towards the tree, Rykers lantern was rubbing against the tree as it was going up and we all thought it was going to catch fire, but it didn't. I am amazed that nothing happened considering how close it got to the tree. 

We stayed the night and watched conference with Kefford's parents the next day. It was a great weekend and I was happy to spend it with family!