New Title

So, I've finally won and I'm soooo duper super excited about it!

What have you won, you ask?

Around the first of the year, my friend had a baby girl and named her Makenna. I instantly fell in love with the name and told Ryan that if we ever have a girl, I wanted to name her Makenna.

It might have taken several months, but he has finally stated that he likes the name Makenna for our baby girl (that will be here in a month and a half or so'ish).

Now, we need to change our blog title.

Why you ask?

Well for those of you not in the know, RAKA stands for: Ryan, Amanda, Keedan & Astro.

We will need to incorporate an M and sadly lose the last A (b/c Astro is now in heaven).

Or we can just come up with a clever title that will not need to be changed everytime there is a new addition to our family.

Any suggestions?

Sidetrack from Improvements

Yes, I've been slacking on my house duties lately....but really who can blame me? I've gotten sidetracked into sewing and I'm not even feeling bad about it.

I was afraid that Keedan would be a tornado during my various projects but he has been very good and seems intrigued when he watches.

Here's a sidetrack from the point of my post.....here are some super cute pics of Keedan trying on some of Ryan's gear last night.

And other cute pictures of last week when some of his cousins were here.

Heading out to to the pool.

Attacking D'mar with bubbles.

OKay, back to the reason I"m blogging.

I've been working on decor for the baby's room. So much fun!

I think making all this stuff has gotten me even more excited about having a girl.

So here's what I've got so far.

Here are just 3 of the 7 mini dresses I sewed together yesterday. I added little belts to them so far but they still need some embellishing. I'm going to string these little dresses on the outside of the crib like a clothesline (with clothespins too). I haven't decided if I want to paint the clothespin's or leave them natural. We'll see.

Here is the fabric for the curtains I'm making. I'm not quite done, ran out of thread, but next week they'll be done & hung (b/c new window's will be installed then...YAY!)

So now I've gotta decide on how I'm making the bedskirt and bumper pads. I was thinking about using the stripes for the bedskirt and making the bumper pads with the flowery fabric, but I just can't make up my mind.

That's it for now. Hopefully, I will make my decision sooner than later.

Our New Outlook

This past Wednesday our house received an enormous face-lift by the addition of new windows in the living room. I'm so happy with them b/c the old ones had broken latches and were NOT air tight, so our electricity bill was pretty pricey this past winter.

We had sub-contractors from Lowe's install them, so it seemed to go by pretty quickly.

This past Saturday, however, Ryan and our wonderful missionaries here in Clovis did some Do-It-Yourself work in our Kitchen (not so quickly).

10:30/11:00 am
They were removing the bay windows and outside brick wall to make room for french doors.

This was particularly Not a fun part of my day b/c the dog kept getting loose outside the gate and I'd have to chase her down. It wasn't too terrible at first, but it just kept happening, so we finally tied her to a tree. I know animal cruelty but at least there was no more pregnant lady cruelty, right?

1:00 P.M
Missionaries left and Ryan was determined to get those french doors in.

5:00 P.M.
Break time and ooooohhh how refreshing it was.

11:00 P.M.
Thanks to the help of a friend at 9:30 P.M. that came over to help Ryan move the door, we now have a Sweet Back Door with no door knobs yet, but they're coming...hopefully very soon :)

So Where Ya Been?

We've mostly been here in Clovis but have been exhaustingly busy with life and our remodeling endeavor.

I wish I had more time for blogging but alas I've been too lazy for that. Anyway here's a quick update for those of you whov've been wondering what we have been up to.

Had a marathon couple of days to finish up some drywall so that carpet could be installed....and alas we met our deadline thanks to several wonderful friends that helped us out with various tasks.

Went to the midnight premiere of Eclipse. I had a fabulous time!

We started with girls night out get together at AppleBees and then off to the Show.

I stole these pictures off of my friend Jeni's blog b/c I didn't take a camera (gotta love technology sometimes, huh?) Jeni scored a pair of free passes to the movie that she generously shared with me.

My brother Levi and his wonderful wife Brittany and sweet boy Trevor came for a visit and stayed for the 4th of July weekend. We had such a great time with them! (I was a slacker at taking photos but I do have some video I can try to upload)

Our sweet dog Astro died. I won't go into details b/c it will make me cry but I'll just say he was the very best dog I and we have ever had!

I (Amanda)turned the big 31 and Ryan was fabulous about making me feel so pampered and loved! Koodo's to you Ry!

We now have a new dog...her name is Nala and she's still a puppy but big. Yes, it's a bit soon after the passing of our wonderful pooch Astro but we hope to have her used to our family quickly for reasons I cannot talk about except that it's nice to have Ryan do the rough housing with the dog and not I (haven't taken a picture yet but she looks very similar to Astro except that she's blonde instead of a red, oh and she's a girl :)

Lastly, we are having another baby in 3 months.....crazy how fast time flies. We are excited to be having a GIRL and for Keedan to have a sibling to play with!

Messy Business

Our home remodeling adventure has definitely been an experience. Just last night we found out that the patio door we ordered 2 weeks ago (might I add that we were told on Sat. would be here on Tuesday) will not be arriving b/c Lowe's doesn't sale them anymore.
What??????? Funny this wasn't mentioned earlier.....like after we had initially ordered it and paid for it or at least sometime SOON after.

Needless to say, customer service will be receiving a call from a not so happy pregnant woman who spends WAY to much time and money in their store.

Enough angry ranting, now to the happenings as of late:


We have been prepping our house for carpet to be installed very soon. I will not say when it will be installed b/c I don't want to jinx us. Seems that we have run into some obstacles over the past few days, so I'll just be positive and say "soon we will have new unsmelly carpet".

To do so, we have:


- Emptied Bedrooms (into living room and dining room)


- Scraped the Popcorn Ceiling


-Applied Mud and Tape if needed...and Sanded


- Textured/Texturing



- Received MUDDY feet

We have completed two rooms with new texture, just two more to go. Hopefully, the last two bedrooms will be ready for paint tomorrow...as I have rounded up a posse of ladies to help me paint them.

Here's being Optimistic throughout all the obstacles that lay around us.


(staged...Amanda was not injured while shooting this photo)

More pics to hopefully come, so stay tuned.

Girls Camp 2010

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend young women's camp this year as a leader with the stake camp committee.

The campsite was located in south NM and was absolutely breathtaking.

The theme was "Happily Ever After, A Princess Retreat".

(My campsite was up this trail)

A total of 5 days I was there. Might I add that I Thankfully did not get sick with a bug that others had gotten.

While there, I not only got to know some really great ladies, but I also learned how to cut a tomato properly, how to strip iceberg lettuce properly and that there are GIANT Giant Marshmallows that exist.

On venue day, I gave a class called Charm School. There I gave a quick talk about taking care of our bodies and then the YCL's and other leaders gave the girls manicures. It turned out Great!

(Three Blind Mice)

Each Ward and the Stake put on skits that had there theme tied into it. They were super entertaining, everyone did a great job.

We picked Cinderella as our main theme and not to be biased or anything but it was pretty HILL-ARE-EE-US. As you can see from the picture the lady sitting in the chair (Janessa) couldn't keep from laughing for very long. I too was laughing constantly.





The last day early in the morning (6:00am)everyone hiked to the lake lodge which was high up in the mountain and overlooked the lake with tall trees all around.
It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!
At this place we had our testimony meeting. We began with songs and of course prayer and during the songs I could really feel the spirit.


It was a very nice break from being around my two boys ;)
I hadn't laughed so hard in a very long time.
I had the very best time and was so grateful for the opportunity to be there and for Ryan's support in my decision to go and let me not forget the two wonderful babysitters (Jeni & Tina) that watched after Keedan while Ryan was at work.

Air Force Command Retreat to Sacramento, NM

We traveled to Sacremento, NM for an Air Force retreat this past weekend.

Went Fly Fishing, sadly with no luck. People were feeding the fish dog food earlier in the day, so we tried attaching a piece of dog food to our fly but they still didn't bite.

Keedan absolutely loved the OUTDOORS. He threw some serious fits when we were indoors and even managed to open our room door multiple times to run outside. We had to baracade the door with a chair and heavy bag.

We also played a bit of paintball. I was nervous at first, but manned up and did some divin' in the woods with a non-lethal weapon. J/K no diving but definitely some shootin'.

Ryan in sniper mode.

Ryan in running mode.

Ryan in "I got hit in the face and the paint leaked threw my helmet" mode.

On our way up the hill to eat some fabulous grub!

We were part of the Blue Team...hence the blue bandanna's .

We had a great time and enjoyed our free time away from Keedan as well as our time with him.

Good Times, Good Times :)