Ryker's Birthday Party

We didn't have Rykers party until 2 weeks after his actual birthday. Ryker invited the kids from his primary class and our neighbors that he plays with to his party. Their are alot of kids in his primary class but I didn't want to leave anyone out and same with the neighbors. So adding everyone up and including our kids we had 17 people at his party. Of course the thought of all off those kids running around my house made me want to break out in hives so I had to find somewhere to take the party to. A couple of months ago Ryker was invited to a party held at a place called "Bounce!" It is an area with a ton of inflatables for the kids to play on. It is close to us and reasonably priced so that is where we were going. I didn't want to pay the extra money to reserve the party room so what we did was have the kids meet at our house and then we drove everyone there and then drove home after we all had our share of playing around!

I got in one of the inflatables with Rylee and Avynlea and Kefford got this picture of me about to go down the slide. Too blurry but a nice effort. :0)

Ryker and his friends all thought the Velcro wall was pretty cool. You put on the suit of Velcro and jump and stick yourself to the wall. It looked like alot of fun.

Happy fly on the wall. :0)

I had fun running around and playing with Rylee and Avynlea. They are such cute and happy girls!

They loved the slides and going down backwards was loads of fun!

Happy girls!

It was hard to get a non-blurry picture on these action shots. Maybe I should have adjusted my cameras settings. Hmmm would have been good.

Ryker really wanted to invite his cousin Bailey to come to his party. They are good friends and enjoy being together, it was really cool of his Dad to drive an hour to get him here. We had Bailey come on Friday and stay the night so the two of them could have some time to play.

Bailey was really sweet to Rylee and Avynlea and went down the slide a couple of times with them.

They loved going down as a train!

Party kids waiting for their turn on the Velcro wall.

More party kids waiting.

A picture of Ryker ready to take the leap!

Rylee got her Daddy to push her around in a fun little car. Towards the end Rylee got really tired of the place and laid down on the floor to fall asleep. I knew then that we should probably go on our way.

But not before I got a picture of Kenedy taking the leap.

And she's stuck!!

Time to get home and open presents. Rykers favorite part! :0)

Abby Blackburn

Alan Begic

Morgan Cawley

Baeden Jones

Braden Irish

Alex and Jonathon Peterson (no relation :0)

Tre' and Ty Page

Josie Berger

Tyler Pierce

Teni Kafusi

The entire party!

Time for cake. I made chocolate cupcakes and then we got ice-cream cups and rootbeer or lemonade for all those kids.

The cupcakes were placed in the shape of an 8 for the birthday boy!

Happy Birthday to you!

Good blowing!

Rykers friend Teni showed how pooped I felt by the time it was all over, their is definitley a reason why I do not do these huge elaborate parties every year! Ha!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth and Ryker!

Every year in the second week of November we get to go up to McCall to stay in the Timeshare condos. It is always loads of fun because lots of Keffords family is up there at the same time. This year the kids had the week off from school due to track break and Kefford took the week off from work so we got to go up on Monday. The Monday which also happened to be November 8th which just so happened to be mine and Rykers birthday!

Kefford went into work for a couple of hours that morning and he took Ryker with him. I told the kids when we all woke up that I was the birthday girl and I really wanted them to be obedient and nice to each other on my birthday. Did it happen? Not a chance. There were so many fights and arguments that it really was not a fun day. Darn kids! :0)

So we got up to McCall and after unpacking and hanging out we went out to Dinner. About a month and a half ago Kefford and I decided that we really needed to get into the habit of reading the scriptures together as a family every night. We have tried in the past and always for whatever reason stopped doing it. I told the kids that if we stuck to it for a month and read every night that we could go out for ice-cream. Kefford took it a step further and said forget the ice-cream he would take us all out to dinner as a family. The kids loved that idea and we started and we did it! So the dinner out in McCall was a birthday dinner but also a congratulatory dinner on a job well done for reading the scriptures every night without fail. We did let the kids know that we have to keep going, just because we had our dinner out does not mean we can quit. ;0)


After dinner we came home to open presents and eat some cake. Ryker is such an impatient little guy, all day long all he wanted to do and all he talked about was opening his presents. He was getting a bit upset that we kept telling him no and he had to wait till that night. I like the anticipation, the waiting is all part of the thrill for me and so I could not understand why he was so impatient. Finally we let the kid begin. He only got a couple little token gifts because this year he will be getting a birthday party and when we do parties I always spend a little more and make that the child's present from us. But we did not want Ryker to feel shafted on his birthday so Kefford and Kenedy went to the store and got him a couple of little items.

Man the waiting was killing this kid!

His first present was Nerf dart refills for his Nerf gun. We really should have thought ahead and packed his gun so he could have used the darts. Oh well.

Lego Car

A hug from Avynlea..so sweet!

A car kit to put together.

I think he liked it. :0)

Now that he had opened his presents it was time to move on to bigger and better things...my presents! :0)

Kefford got me gift cards to Victoria's Secret ( i have been wanting a pair of their pajamas and a new bra :0)), a gift card to the Nike store (so I could get some new workout tops), A BSU shirt and new Sketchers.

Not too shabby! :0)

I love these shoes. I have a pair just like it that are a beige color and they are so comfortable and so easy to wear. But I have had them and worn them for so long that they have a hole in the side of one of them. It still doesn't stop me from wearing them but it is fun to get a new pair in a different color!

After presents came cake but by that time I was on the phone with my Mom so we didn't sing of blow out candles but I did enjoy the yummy chocolate cake that Kenedy made. No pictures of the cake either. Oh well :0)

Me and my Birthday Boy!

This year is extra special in a couple of ways.. it is Rykers Baptism year and it is his hot number. Ryker turned 8 on the 8th! That only happens once in a lifetime so that was lots of fun!!

Rykers Favorites:

Dinner: hamburgers

Dessert: Cake

Candy: Smarties

Color: green

TV Show: Bakugan Brothers

Movie: Phantom of the Opera

Song: Batman

Toy: Bakugans

Book: Stink

Friend: Braden Irish

Church Song: Children holding hands around the world

Holiday: Christmas

about being 8: That he gets to be Baptized

5 things I love about Ryker:

1) He is a real sweetie and when he is in the mood he can be such a softy. there have been many times that he will come over and randomly give me a kiss or hug. It really makes my day! And if you have ever seen him around a baby you know that it is true. His soft side sure comes out for babies, he loves them!

2) He works really hard in school and likes to make his teacher proud. He got a not so great report on one of his projects which you could see in his face made him feel bad and so the next school project he had to do he worked really hard and did a perfect job!

3) He listens really well in Primary and always tells us the stories he has learned from his teacher. It has become almost a Sunday Dinner tradition to have Ryker tell us the story his teacher taught him that week. He soaks it all up like a sponge!

4) He is a good friend. He is always excited to see his friends and is very generous to them. Many times I have to stop Ryker from giving his things away. He always tells me it's ok and he wants to give to his friends. I love that he is so caring!

5) He is my only boy and he is all boy. He has a sensitive side but he is so rough and tumble that it all evens out.. for the most part :0) I love Ryker so much and I am so glad he is a part of our family. Life would not be complete without my boy!

Happy 80th Birthday!

Back in October we went to Nyssa to celebrate a combined 80th birthday party for Keffords paternal Grandparents Marge and Farrell. They had a fun little reception that was put on by Alison and Bob and Uncle Alan and Aunt Tami.

Alison and Tami had put together a montage of pictures of Marge and Farrell taken throughout the years. It was so fun to see them younger and at different times throughout their lives. These pictures are their Senior pictures, how cute are they?

Grandma Marge and Grandpa Farrell
We sure do love these two!
The highlight of the evening happened towards the end. I was sitting at a table visiting with some cousins when Kefford came up behind me to get my attention. The exact moment that I turned and saw what I saw was documented by Kefford's Uncle Brad.

Apparently Rylee went upstairs to the nursery with some of her cousins and let them draw all over her face. She looked kind of ridiculous! It was pretty funny though. I think she also drew on her cousins but her Grandma Alison washed them off before pictures could be taken of the artwork.

Too bad it wasn't a Boise State game day then the Blue and Orange would have been perfect!

After we left Kefford wanted to stop by Target, it was a little embarrassing parading through target with Rylee looking the way she did. We were in the back of the store looking at toys when Avynlea decided she had to go to the bathroom. So I took her to the front of the store to use the restroom. When we got back to the rest of the crew Rylee decided that she had to go to the bathroom. So back to the front of the store I went. It was a little annoying, but I did take the opportunity to scrub her face mostly clean. What a crazy kid!