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!

Pumpkin Carving

For Family Home Evening on Monday we went to the boise Mall to walk around and look at things. Rylee and I both found some cute headwear to try on and take pictures with.  

On Tuesday night Ryker, Rylee and I picked our pumpkins and did some carving. Avynlea was at cheer practice and Kefford was at The Barnyard I think. So it was just the three us. I told Avynlea when she got home she couldcarve her pumpkin but she didn't ever seem interested and never did one.

Wednesday night was our ward Halloween party. I had to leave after an hour to pick up Avynlea from  cheer practice so I didn't sign up to do the trunk-or-treat, I just did the dinner. Rylee found a friend and spent her time with her and did the trunk-or-treat when it was time. She didn't bring a bag so she just stuffed her pockets with the candy she got. It was a nice night and I enjoyed being there for the dinner and visiting with people. Kefford was at The Barnyard and not able to make it and Avynlea was at cheer practice and wasn't able to be there.

Rylee and Tayci Olson

Top of the Pyramid

October was filled with Avynlea cheerleading. I took a lot of pictures of her stunting at the top of her pyramids and decided to put her cheer pictures in one post. I love watching her cheer and while it is not as much fun sitting in the cold I would do it over and over again just to watch my cheerleader. She is so cute and has so much fun and makes it really enjoyable.

She has learned so many new stunts and I am always impressed with how fast she learns them, she is a natural!

With the weather getting colder it is imperative to start wearing layers and bundling up more. I was happy to be able to wear my Meridian Cheer gear to her game. And I love my yellow shoes that I bought from the Wal-Mart, they are the perfect color and are really cute and comfy.

Every week the coaches name a cheerleader of the week, someone who has worked hard and shown positivity and spirit. Avynlea got cheerleader of the game after the Rocky game and it was rightly deserved, she has struggled a little with being a Freshman Co-Captain but has finally found her voice and has really been able to step it up leadership wise. I know her coaches are proud of her for the way she has handled Drama and difficult situations and so am I, She is pretty amazing!

Every week I make cookies for the girls to snack on at halftime. It is not a requirement or any kind of expectation it is just something I enjoy doing and I know the cheerleaders appreciate it. For their last game and since was so close to Halloween I made these cookie dough mummies. The turned out really cute and tasted pretty great, the girls loved them!

I sure do love this cheerleader!

Cookie Decorating

I braided my hair after I washed it on Wednesday and loved the waves it gave me for the next couple of days. 

Rylee didn't have school on Thursday due to parent teacher conferences and I thought she should invite some friends over to decorate cookies. When I presented the idea to her I thought I was going to have to do some heavy persuasion but to my surprise she agreed to it pretty quickly. The girls had  a lot of fun decorating cookies and after they frosted and sprinkled all of the cookies they went upstairs to play some Mario Kart. It was a fun couple of hours and I am glad they were all able to come over.

Ella Eaton, Tayci Olson, Chloe and Mylie Pollock and Rylee

I had a lot of random Halloween colored frosting left over from the cookie decorating so I made a batch of brownies and used the frosting to frost them. I liked how they turned out, very spooky.