Birthday Boy

I made Rylee come with me to run an errand and she was not thrilled with the idea, but she brought her Kindle and relaxed in the front seat and made do, it was a quick errand.

June 9th was Kefford's 41 birthday. I made him steak and onion rings for dinner. Kenedy had to work that night and so we ate dinner and had cake and ice-cream without her. I had plans to make a german chocolate cake for his birthday but we had so many cup cakes left over from the party Kenedy threw her friend that we decided not to make more cake and have it all go to waste. Avy saw a life hack on pinterest about using a crayon in place of a birthday candle. She really wanted to try it out so we did on a paper towel. Sure enough it did what we expected it to do, it lit on fire just fine and then dripped wax everywhere. Fun to try but most likely will not be using this particular life hack in the future.

Once Kenedy got home she heated up the dinner we saved for her and then we all gave Kefford his gifts.

Movie theater candy...

new shirts, it said on the tag that they kept you from being smelly or something along those lines and so Kefford being Kefford....

had Rylee smell his armpits to see if he was smelly, gross.

Kefford has a love affair with Nike shoes and he was really excited to get his new pair. They are a really good looking shoe!

Cute little Rylee

I snapped a picture of Kenedy eating her dinner

I had the kids gather around their Dad so that I could get a picture of the 5 of them and in true Peterson fashion they made the cooperation difficult

I never give up and eventually I get what I want!

5 things I love about Kefford

1)Heis a great Dad and all of our kids love him and look up to him. I have heard all of the girls say at some time or another that they want to marry someone just like him and I think that is awesome. He has a great bond with all of his kids and they all love to hang out with him and he is always good to let them tag along on his adventures.

2)He is a hard worker and puts everything he has into what he is doing, his work ethics are beyond amazing and I am glad that he does work so hard for our family.

3)Kefford also has a strong testimony of this Gospel and I love how hard he fulfills his church callings. Whether it is a primary teacher or a member of the Bishopric or High Council he embraces and gives it his all. I love the example he is for our kids and know that some of their testimonies come from watching their Dad live the Gospel.

4)Kefford is funny and I love his sense of humor. He likes to laugh and it helps me to find the funny side in things and want to try to be more upbeat like him.

5)Kefford has surprised me many times with trips and presents and I love it. Their have been times where we tell each other we are not going to do gifts only to have him surprise me with something that I have been wanting. I like feeling special and loved. He is also good at letting me have my yearly trip home to spend time with my Mom and Sisters, I know it is hard having to cover both Mom and Dad rolls and I really appreciate him letting me take the time away to be with my family.

The next day we had Mikell kids over and James found the paper mache mask of Andrew Ryker has in his rom. He came down wearing it and looked so funny.

Bonnie

For the past several years Rylee has wanted a bunny. She talked about it a lot and even had a name picked out, Kefford told her that when we moved into our new house possibly she could have a bunny. She held him to that and once we moved into our new house the Bunny talk increased substantially. I was ok with getting a bunny for her as long as it didn't have red eyes, creepy, and it had to stay little, big bunnys are ugly and gross. Kefford found a listing on Craigs list of a woman selling 4 bunnys that were bred to stay small. By the time he got a hold of her she had an all black one and an all white one with red eyes. We put a hold on the black one and on Saturday while Rylee was at her friends house Kefford went and got the black bunny. Rylee was so excited to come home and find her long awaited for animal friend sitting in a box in our backyard. She picked the bunny up and said his name was Bonnie and his nickname was Bon-Bon. She has always wanted her bunny to be named Bonnie the Bunny and the fact that it was a boy dd not make her change her mind at all. She as so cute with her new pet and sat out in the backyard with it all evening. She took it on a tour of the backyard and the front yard with a brief passing through the house in between.

All the kids have been enjoying loving on this little guy and it is cute to watch. I am so glad it is a small bunny and I really hope we were not mislead and that it does stay small. Little bunnies are so cute and we really like this all black one.

Idaho weather is annoying and after enjoying some really nice, warm sunny days the weather took a turn and we got hit with a cold front. That didn't stop the bunny lovers they just set up shop in the garage and hung out there with the little guy.

On Sunday Avynlea decided to get a little weird and curled up inside the Dryer to pretend to take a nap.

We bought a hutch from one of Avynlea's friends for $20, it is old and not the greatest looking but we needed something to keep Bonnie. I think Rylee took these pictures of Bonnies home.

Kefford felt the need to make a new Hutch, one that had multiple levels and so he and Ryker went around and collected scraps of wood from construction sites that had been thrown away. He sketched out a plan and has been busy making a cool little hutch for Bonnie. He has been flying by the seat of his pants for most of the building but I have to say I am super impressed by his skills, it is looking really good.

Half Birthday Party

Kenedy's best friend McKoy had his half birthday coming up and Kenedy decided to throw him a half birthday party on Thursday night. She baked the cupcakes and supplied the house and her friends all helped contribute to the food. They wanted to go swimming and even though it was pretty cold decided to still go for it. They did not last long at the pool but I am impressed that they all got in even for a little bit. After the pool fun they came back and Kefford bbq'd hotdogs for everyone to eat and I was happy it was finally time to eat because by that time, about 7:30,  I was starving. The deal was they had to feed us too :).

They ate and hung out in the backyard and I tried to take some pictures.

I never remember to take pictures of her get togethers and I always regret it later so this time I made sure to get the job done right. I told them all to gather for a group picture and it was pretty loud and chaotic and everyone was having a hard time listening. So I had bossy pants Avynlea help me out and she was not shy in telling those teenagers what to do. It really was making me laugh.

I captured this picture of Avy in her element telling them all what they were going to do next and how to do it. 

Joe, Kenedy, McCoy, Ian, Luke, Wilson, Isaac, Carter, Quinn, Aiden, Anna, Madi, Shay, Charissa, Gabi and Ashlynn

Swim Season is now in Session!

Wednesday was the perfect swimming day, it was hot and sunshiney and I loved it after such a hard winter. Elaine's grandson Rexstyn has hero worshipped Ryker for a long time and is always asking to play with him. Now that the kids are out of school it is easier to have him come over to play with Ryker. I invited Elaine to bring him over to go swimming and he had a lot of fun playing in the pool with my boy. It is always so cute to see my big kids playing so well with the littles. Being around non stop little cousins has really brought the best out in them.

We also invited Mikell to come over with her kids, they have been asking to come over and swim with us and this was the perfect day. 

Kenedy and Brooke had fun swimming around and I absolutely love their laughter.

I tried to get a picture Kefford and Jenna but they swam off out of frame and it was so bright outside that I could not tell what pictures I was getting.

 Avynlea had Rose come over but she did not bring her swimsuit so she watched Avy swim around for a while and then they hung out at home.

Poor Rylee still has two weeks of school left and missed out on swimming with everyone. So after dinner while the other kids were at mutual I took her over to the pool and swam with her for a bit. It was actually kind of fun just swimming with Rylee.

On Thursday I picked Rylee up after school because she had an honor choir pizza party. She thought it would be fun to get triple the sun protection by putting on all three pairs of sunglasses that were hanging out in the car. She is a silly goof!

Life is Better When You're Singing

Rylee made everyone pancakes for breakfast and she made herself a heart pancake. It was super cute and the pancakes were delicious!

Tuesday night Rylee had her last Honor Choir concert of the year. She did a good job and had a lot of fun singing. She even had a small duet with Alaina Cotrell and it was fun to see her shine. I loved listening to the music and was able to take video of all the songs that she wanted video of. 

Last Days of School!

On Thursday I went to the sixth grade awards assembly with Alison. I was so happy that Avy was able to maintain her 4.0 grade point average for the entire year and that she was able to be recognized for her accomplishments. She has really loved her teachers and made some good friends this year. 7th grade is going to be awesome!

After the sixth grade was done with their assembly we stuck around for the 8th grade turning point ceremony. Bob and Alison have Audrey and Isabelle with them for a few weeks and Audrey was able to tag along with her this morning. She was very excited to see Ryker and kept asking when it was over so she could go and hug him. It was a nice ceremony with speakers and musical numbers. I really liked the featured teacher speaker who talked to the kids about putting down the phones and talking to each other. He told them that phones don't have hearts and if you want to make connections with people it has to be done face to face. It was a really good speech and so prevalent to todays youth. After the speakers and such the kids lined up row by row to have their name announced where they would then walk across the stage, turn on a lightbulb and then pass through the line of 8th grade teachers waiting to wish them good luck into high school. It was pretty cool and I liked seeing the teachers greet Ryker whom he made connections with. 

After it was over he came over and Audrey was able to get her hug. She sure loves Ryker and she is feisty, she threatened to beat him up if she didn't get to see him at Lagoon. Since we are not going to Lagoon this year that might be an unpleasant meeting for the two of them the next time they meet.

The next day was the last day of 11th, 8th and 6th grades for Kenedy, Ryker and Avynlea. They are all moving up and on. 

I had them go on the front porch so I could get pictures of them on their last day and we had to wait while Kenedy finished texting her peers. Avy and Ryker joined in on the "texting" fun for a picture while we waited.

After they went on their way Kefford and I dropped Rylee off at the Hurst's so she could hitch a ride to school with them while we went to the 8th grade awards assembly. Ryker was also able to carry his 4.0 gpa throughout the entire year and that was a proud moment for me. He worked really hard to keep his grades up and I really hope this determination will stay with him throughout High School.

I put this picture on Instagram with this caption

"Pretty proud of these two smarties🤓🤓! What a great way to end his last year and her first year of middle school!"

I think Kenedy must have felt a little left out because she commented on the post with 

"YAY KENEDY WHOOHOO"

So I had Avy take a picture of her while sleeping and and put the picture on Instagram with this caption

"The cheerleader is exhausted because not only did she compete and cheer on the varsity level but she sang in the a cappella choir and maintained a really high grade point average this year👏🏻💙🎀💛🤓. We are pretty impressed with all of her accomplishments!"

Hopefully it makes her feel better and I am really impressed with her grades as well. She had a 3.9 gpa with honor and AP classes on her schedule. My kids are pretty amazing!