Cheerleaders Rake Meridian

I love Wal-mart shoes, they have cute shoes that are pretty cheap and it makes me happy. I bought these cute red shoes for $10 and I love them! I also love my buffalo print flannel!

Kim Hansen stopped by with  Brooke and a sodaliscious gift card for me for my birthday. She had Kate and Henry with her and I saw Kate in her glasses for the first time. Shel ooked so cute and I had her smile so I could take a picture and send it to Kenedy.

Saturday after Tumbling the cheerleaders participated in the Rake up Meridian Service Project. They do it every year and they rake the leaves of the home of people in need. They had two houses and the home owners were both elderly and very appreciative of all the help. 

In order to get the leaves squished down in the bags and to make more room they had Avynlea stand in it to crunch them down. 

The cheerleaders worked really hard and raked up enough leaves to fill about 14 bags, they did such a great job!

 Back row: Emma D, Maddie, Calleigh, Mariena, Brooke, Maryn, Lainey, Hannah, Alyssa, Hailey and Coach Nicole
Bottom Row: Tessa, Emma, Tierza, Alexia, Olivia, Delaney, Avynlea and Dreya

Later that evening Avynlea was cheering at the first JV girls basketball game. Natalie Hope is on the team so I got to sit with Lana which hasn't happened in a long time and which was a lot of fun. The game was against Rocky and Avynlea was able to see Shaeden which was fun for both of them. Two cute cheerleaders!

Disney Duos

Our Stake was hosting a must-stake and multi denomination stake dance with a Disney Duos theme. It was for 16 and up and it was a girl ask guy dance. Ryker's friend Chendel asked him to be her date and they looked really cute in their Mickey and Minnie shirts. 

Kefford was released from his Young Mens President calling with the new changes the church is implementing and was immediately called to be the First Counselor in the Stake Young  Mens Presidency. Because of his calling he felt obligated to help chaperone this Multi-Stake dance and me being his wife felt obligated to chaperone with him. Rylee was at a birthday party and needed to be picked up at 9:30 and since our only other available driver was at the dance also we couldn't stay and chaperone for very long, which I was fine with ;)

Kefford along with Rylee went and helped set up for the dance the morning of while I was with Avynlea at Tumbling and Raking up Meridian. They did a good job, it looked really cute and Rylee asked me to take a picture of the stage since that is the area she and Kefford worked on. 

Rylee's Orchestra Concert

Tuesday night was Rylee's first orchestra concert and Kefford and I both went to watch her perform. I liked that Rylee and I were both wearing black so I had the idea to take some stylized pictures. She sure is a cute girl and very quickly catching up to me in height. 

She did a really great job and the concert was over in about 30 minutes which is always my idea of a good time. I like them fast. It was fun to watch Rylee and I love how much she is improving. I really want her to continue on in High School so I made her a deal. I said I want her to do Volleyball in 8th grade but I wouldn't make her do it in High School if she stuck with the violin and orchestra. She seemed to think that was ok and for now agreed.

What a great kid she is!

Family Fun

Rylee sorted her Halloween candy and decided to pick out the ones she didn't think she would ever eat. She separated them into groups and then packaged them up and took them to school to give to her teachers. She is so sweet. 

Saturday we went out to the Farm and Ryker had fun riding in Maddie's go-cart.

Kenedy was able to go to church with us and she took Kim's baby Gwen to hold during Relief Society. I took a picture to show Rylee because Rylee has become obsessed with wanting Kenedy to have a baby. That would be fun but she definitely needs to get married first and then she can have a baby maybe in about 5 years ;). 

After church Kenedy tried to get a goodbye hug from Rylee before she left to go back to Rexburg.

Later that night the rest of us left at home played Disney Codenames and then Avynlea got wrapped up like a burrito. I always love family fun time!

Birthday Post

Friday November 8th RYker turned 17 and I turned 41! Yikes! 

I got up early and made funfetti pancakes for Ryker and my Birthday breakfast. I put a stack of pancakes on our Special Birthday plate for Ryker and stuck a candle in it. After a while I noticed the candle toppling over and when I went to fix it I discovered that the heat from the pancakes was melting the candle! I didn't even think that it would do that! 

This day was a pretty normal day despite it being the greatest day of the year. I had a dance meeting and I also taught my dance classes after school. Caitlin is a teacher I work with at The Dance Connection and she shares my same birthday. Holly brought cupcakes to the meeting to celebrate our Birthdays which was fun. 

At dance I found Brooke Knott so I could wish her a Happy Birthday. Brooke has been in our friday night classes since she was 5 and we discovered early on that we share the same birthday. I call her my Birthday Buddy and I love that we have this bond. Brooke is now 12 and she and Kim came into my class at the end and had me stand in a circle of all my dancers so they could chasse around me and sing Happy Birthday. Brooke then gave me a Brookie, she brought treats to share with her class and saved one for me. It was a nice time and I felt loved.

As soon as I got home I changed my clothes and got ready to go out to eat. I had Ryker open up his gift from his Grandma Bonnie which was candy and money and I Marco Polo'd it for her. I also opened up my gift from my Mom which was candy and a Red Robin Gift card. I love Red Robin and loved my present! I was a little surprised that Kefford was letting me do all of this and that he wasn't trying to rush us along. But it all made sense when Kenedy walked in the door a couple of minutes later and surprised me. She and her friend Amy came home from College to surprise me for my birthday. It was a fun surprise and it shocked and scared me when she first came in the door. 

We headed out the door and went to Chili's. We were going to go to Sizzler but Kefford called to make reservations and they said they don't do reservations that it is first come first serve seating and that they had a swim team there so it was really full. Kefford was telling me about this and he mentioned trying to make a reservation for 7 which confused me but he explained it away by saying he thought that Ryker's friend Matthew was coming with us and then he must have just though him with 6 because we sometimes forget that we are down to five with Kenedy gone. I didn't think anything of it until I saw Kenedy come in, then it made sense and I realized Kefford almost blew the surprise

We had a good dinner and when we came home Ryker and I opened our gifts. Ryker got hot cheetos, a motorcycle kit, a hydroflask, bullets and a clay pigeon shooter..

Kefford and Avynlea made us chocolate cake and they went a little overboard adding milk to the frosting so it was pretty runny. Chocolate cake is always good so I didn't mind.

I got a shirt from Brit, a crumble cookie delivery from my friend Jessica Mortensen, gift cards and new pots and pans. 

Church Crazies

Kenedy went on a little roadtrip with her friends this weekend down to California. On Friday they went to Disneyland after driving down most of the night before, sounds exhausting. Then Saturday they went to the beach and then drove home on Sunday. Sounds like she had a fun but tiring time. 

During Sacrament meeting Avynlea and Rylee amused themselves with some clay they brought with them. The unibrow and mustache were making me laugh, I love their silliness.

Happy Halloween

Avynlea and Rylee were our only two to dress up this year and Rylee was our only one to go trick-or-treating. Times they be a changing and kids they be a growing.

Avynlea dressed up as a cute Giraffe and went to her friends house to eat candy they all brought to share and to watch a movie. She said she was the only one that dressed up which was annoying but she had fun hanging out with them. Ryker went to his friend Baeden's house and hung out with him playing video games.

Rylee invited Serena over so they could go trick-or-treating together. But before they did that we went over to the Given's for a pre-trick-or-treating dinner. Katie invited some families over for soup and we had fun visiting and hanging out with our friends.

After dinner Rylee and Serena went Trick-or-treating and Kefford and I went home to hang out and answer the door to give candy. This is the first year we did not go out with our kids and it was a little sad but also really nice. It was really cold outside and I was happy to not have to go walking around in it.

Rylee and Serena got back after about an hour to trick-or-treating and counted up their candy. It didn't surprise me that they were back so soon, Rylee has never been too interested in walking around getting candy and since she was little would be done within an hour of starting. Some things never change and I really love it!