Church CleanUp

Saturday morning it was our turn to help with the Church cleanup. Kefford and I drove separate because I had to leave the clean up early with Avynlea in order to get her to tumbling on time. When we got to the church Kefford was cleaning windows with Rachel Pace, she is one of my little dancers and she was pretty excited to see me. I was assigned to help Natalie, Rachels big sister, empty out the garage cans and while we were doing that we were joined by their older sister Makayla and then Rachel got done with windows and came to tag along with us as well. It was fun and pretty cute to see these three girls following me around.

Rachel and Kefford

Avynlea's friend Natalie stayed the night at our house after the Stinky Sneaker and was going to tumbling with us. Because she was with us she got to help with the church cleanup as well, lucky girl.  Avynlea, Rylee and Natalie took care of cleaning all the chalk boards.

Natalie, Avynlea and Rylee

Ryker had the backpack vacuum and was in the chapel vacuuming the floors and the pews. He looks pretty professional with that thing on his back.

Saturday night Avynlea cheered at the J/V boys vs Rocky game and she looked super cute while doing it. We were doing pretty good and were staying even until the halftime where we pulled ahead for a bit and then in the end Rocky passed us and won. That was a sad loss but at least it wasn't by a lot.

It was Stake Conference weekend and Ryker had to go early to the Stake Center to help direct traffic. I felt bad for him having to stand out in the cold but he did save us a good seat so I was happy about that. :)

Stinky Sneaker

Joshua posted a picture on our family chat that showed it was snowing in Seattle. It happened to be snowing out here in Meridian also so I snapped a picture out the back window and sent it to my family. I love how pretty it looks when the snow is freshly falling. It feels and looks like I am in a snow globe.

Team cheer tumbling has been done since December but for those that wanted to continue working on skills, Kaeleigh, the tumble coach, kept our practice spot open. So Avynlea has been going every Saturday along with 5 other cheerleaders who are her friends and if a practice has to be cancelled they go on Thursday for a makeup. Avynlea has been working on her roundoff back handspring for quite a while and has it down but is still pretty nervous about doing it on her own. On Thursday she went to tumbling and was able to do her stunt with her spotter standing a couple of yards away from her. After she completed it her friends who were watching were so excited for her they cheered and mobbed her surrounding her with hugs! It was the best thing to watch, I love how supportive this small group of kids are with each other, they cheer each other on and give such positive encouragement. 

Friday night was the annual Stinky Sneaker game vs Mountain View. J/V gets to cheer at the Varsity game for the Stinky Sneaker but first they had to cheer for the J/V boys who were also playing Mountain View. It was a close game but Mountain View pulled ahead and it was a bummer of a loss for J/V.

I love going to the Stinky Sneaker game! Meridian has the best school spirit and it is so fun to be caught up in the excitement! We were able to sit opposite from Meridian this year which was a lot of fun because we could watch our cheerleaders and our kids cheer and have fun. 

Meridian won the game 72-52 and we also won the Stinky Sneaker for the 9th year in a row!! Way to go Meridian Warriors!

Matthew and Ryker

Madison, Sadie, Avynlea, Rose and Paige

Avynlea, Hailey and Dreya

Funny Atticus

A couple of weeks ago one of my little dancers Mom came up to me before class with a Birthday invitation to my dancers birthday. She said that Roen really wanted to invite me to her party and I thought it was so sweet that she thought of me. It was at Eagle Island's sledding hill and it was on A Sunday. I felt weird about possibly going to a Birthday party on the sabbath but I really felt I should make an appearance since she took the time to invite me. So I went and visited and froze and hopefully made Roen happy by my being there. She is such a sweet girl and I really love her and her Mom, such a great family!

Ashleigh and I frequently chat with each other over Marco Polo, her video sent today really made me laugh. Atticus makes frequent appearances in her videos which makes me happy because I love anytime I get to see my Nephew. He has discovered his nose and in the video had his finger up it for a short time. He is too young to be picking anything he just discovered a hole on his face and was exploring it. But it sure looks funny. Towards the end of the video he was off camera playing with his toys while Ashleigh was chatting when all of a sudden Atticus's cute little face popped up and he started making funny noises with his mouth to the camera. He is turning into such a cute little ham! I am so grateful for technology and how man keeps coming up with new and faster and funner ways to help me communicate with my family. What a blessing!

All About Ryker

With the New Year Church Basketball starts up for the Young Men. Ryker wasn't sure he wanted to play ball but he kinda had to, if anything to try out the new basketball shoes he got for Christmas ;)

We had a lot of Deacons playing and a lot of them are still 11. When we came in and saw the tall guys on the other team and then our little team of what seemed like mostly 11 year olds, those of us there to watch were worried. 

Turns out we shouldn't have worried, we have some good players in those young, and old, guys and our team ended up winning. It was a fun game to watch and Ryker did a really good job in being more aggressive and confident. Towards the end of the game he got fouled and shot two free throws. They didn't go in but I am so proud of him for his improvement in playing the game and for being so positive with his teammates.

Ryker was playing a game on his computer and I thought it funny that it looked like he was sitting in  a Disco ball. He was sitting on my Mermaid pillow with all the sequins covering it and the way the light was shining on it was a cool effect.

Hannah Terrell, Ryker's friend from the Verona Ward, sent him a text to invite him to go on a double date with her. She is a sweet girl and I am glad she invited Ryker and that he had fun. They went bowling and it seems like they had a good night. 

A New Baby

While I was in California Mikell had her 6th baby, a baby boy. I always go to the hospital to visit my new Nephews and nieces but since she left the hospital before I got home we went as a family over to her house on Sunday so we could all meet the little one. Mikell and Steve were still deciding on a name for their newest baby and didn't have anything official to call him yet but she did say they really liked the name Luke. Even without a name he is still cute little baby and I was happy to meet him and visit with Mikell and her family. Steve has issues with anyone holding his newborns, luckily I made the cut but my kids have to wait for a day when he isn't around to get their turn.

Kenedy took this picture of Avynlea while we were sitting around visiting and it especially made Brooke laugh. My kids are pretty funny.

I took this picture of Avynlea while she was eating an applesauce pouch. I thought she looked like a baby eating her food and kept saying "Mama, Mama" to her in a baby voice. Heather does it to Mom when she is drinking from her water bottle and it always makes me laugh so I took a video of this and sent it to Heather. We are all pretty funny :)

Last Days in California

I wanted to be helpful and last year my Mom had her Christmas tree out for longer then she wanted so I took it upon myself to take her tree down. I took off all the ornaments and put them in their packaging and then I took the tree apart and wrestled it into its box. It was hard work and I was sweating by the time I was done but I was pretty proud of myself and really happy that I could help my Mom out. 

My Mom and I wanted to go to the Temple and I also wanted to visit my Aunt Jeri who lives about 30 minutes past the LA Temple, depending on traffic of course. On Friday Heather drove Mom and I to the Temple and then she took her car to charge while Mom and I did initiatories. I haven't done initiatories in the LA Temple since I went through for my own and it was cool to be able to do them again. I got done before Mom did and after I changed I looked around the locker room area and found the Bride's Room. The door was open so I went in and looked around. I really did not have any memory of being in the room when I was a bride but being in there brought back memories of when Ashleigh was a Bride. I was her hair stylist and was able to go in and be with her for a bit to fix up her hair, that is a good memory.

After we were done we went out and took a couple of pictures and then sat on a bench in the sunshine to talk while we waited for Heather to get back. It was a really nice time with my Mom.

After we got picked up we headed over to Simi Valley to see Aunt Jeri. We stopped off at Panera's  to get some lunch to take with us. We had a really nice and long visit with my Aunt. She had a tray of Christmas Cookies she had made sitting on the table and after we ate our lunch Heather and I sampled some of her cookies. Every single one we tried was so good and we tried a lot, we also had to try some of them twice just to make sure they were as good as we thought. They were delicious! My cousin Lisa stopped by to visit her Mom not knowing we were there and it was fun to catch up with her as well. She works the graveyard shift at the Hospital and had just woken up from sleeping so she would not be in the picture with us since she didn't have any makeup on. I thought she still looked beautiful but I can understand not wanting to be in a picture when I don't feel my best. She was sweet and took a picture of the rest of us for me. I love my Aunt Jeri and have good memories of her always being actively involved in our lives. She always sent us cards and money on our birthdays and remembered us at Christmas as well. We didn't see her as often as we wanted but I am pretty sure she is all of my siblings and my favorite Aunt because we knew she loved us and stayed in touch often. I just love her so much and am so glad I was able to visit her again.

Saturday Heather, Mom and I met up with Ashleigh and Atticus for one last hurrah before I left to fly home that afternoon. We went to Brandon's Diner for Brunch and it was delicious. I was glad I got to see Ashleigh and Atticus once more before I left. I had a really great and relaxing time in California and am really glad Kefford and my kids let me go down once a year by myself. After two uneventful flights I was picked up by Kefford and then I came home to a clean house with Christmas all put away! My family is the best! It was sad to leave my California family but I was happy to come home to my Husband and kids.

New Years Day Hike

January 1st found Ashleigh, Andrew Brown, Atticus, Heather, Mom and Elizabeth hiking up Mt Rubidoux. Last year it was just Heather, Atticus and I because Mom wasn't feeling good and Andrew Brown had to take Ashleigh to the hospital because she had Mastitis. While last year was enjoyable it was even more fun this year with the extra company. Mom made it up to a certain point and then she went back to the car, her back was really bothering her and I know her Kidneys were also, she is a trooper for going as far as she did. The rest of us made it up the hill where we took a couple selfies with the view in the background. Atticus was the perfect baby and fell asleep in his stroller.

The next day Mom was doing her volunteer shift in the Hospital Gift Shop so Heather and I met her there for lunch. It was fun visiting with her and seeing her do her job. Heather had fun acting like a crazy person coming to the gift shop and Mom showed us where the panic button was in case a real crazy comes in.

Later in the evening I took down all of the ornaments off Mom's tree and packaged them up for her. I then did something I have never done by myself or at least have never done without Kefford's help, I took down the Christmas tree and packaged it up. That was a chore but it wasn't too bad, just left me with a couple of scratches and feeling like I had wrestled a very large porcupine. It was really hard work but I was happy to do the service for my Mom :0)