weekend happenings - journal entry

I purposefully left the camera at home this weekend and just enjoyed being. Friday night James and I attended Palo Verde high schools musical performance of You're a Good man Charlie Brown. Two young ladies that are YCL's at YW camp performed (great job Bekah and Karly!) so I wanted to go in support of them - the show was fabulous. I'm so glad we went! Afterwards we stopped by the fourth year YW camp overnight activity but the girls had just put in a movie so I only got to visit with a couple of them. Molly seemed to be having a good time with the other girls. They went on a six mile hike Saturday morning (three miles up and three miles down), she said she had a good time - it was hard work for her but she enjoyed it. At young women camp this year the fourth years will be going on a two-night hike rather than one night as in past years so this activity was to get them prepared for that, the girls seem to be excited for it!

Saturday was off to a early start for some garage sales with Joanne and Jo-Anne. It had been so long since I went to any garage sales and I had a great time with these two ladies. Plus I only spent $2.50 - can't beat that!

I stayed home to get some housework done while James took Reid and Chase to their last soccer game of the season. He did bring the camera to that event so I may post some pictures of the boys another day.

Saturday Molly and I attended the YW General Broadcast. That meeting is always so good! I took lots of notes and am excited to re-read the talks on lds.org. Afterwards James and Austin picked me up at the stake center and we took Austin on his chosen Parent-Child date to the Tucson Symphony. It was a WONDERFUL evening seeing the Tucson Symphony perform Bugs Bunny on Broadway. We had fourth row center seats! Austin made a good choice in this activity, it was very enjoyeable.

Today at church the messages that were delivered were about Hope. Since it is a fifth Sunday the YM/YW combined and were taught by a member of the bishopric. That message was also about hope and optimism.

Young Women Value Projects

My friend Cindy Jo asked me to post the ten hour value projects Molly and Julia accomplished to earn their YW Medallion.

FAITH:
Molly: Read the Book of Mormon
Julia: Memorized the Living Christ

DIVINE NATURE:
Molly: Helped plan and participate in the stake road show and then performed the skit "Moral Man and the Stake Dance"
(served on the youth committee that wrote the script, formed and oversaw committees consisting of acting, singing, costumes, props)
Julia: Planned and carried out a Joint YM/YW etiquette dinner for the youth of our ward.

INDIVIDUAL WORTH:
Molly: Performance in the play Aladdin Jr. Attended rehearsals 3-4 days a week from 3-6 pm for four months. Molly was in sixth grade at the time and says, "The play positively changed how I looked at myself and let me use my talents"
Julia: Practiced and performed at a jubilee for the dedication of the San Antonio temple.

KNOWLEDGE:
Molly: Went on a healthy diet to get fit. Studied about healthier substitutes, wrote down everything she ate. Learned that a diet isn't just about losing weight, it is about making your heart healthy.
Julia: She learned to knit!

Choice and Accountability:
Molly: Planned and Carried out a YM/YW Joint activity. The youth and leaders were on an airplane and they crashed. They found out they all had died and were greeted by an angel - they were guided to the different kingdoms and had a speaker. At the end they were taken to the chapel (celestial kingdom) where the bishop spoke to them. Molly found it to be a spiritual experience. (Note: this activity happened when Molly was a Beehive, this is an activity that our leaders in SLC have recently asked us not to have).
Julia: Planned and carried out a Combined YW New Beginnings activity. They made a dvd movie about the YW Values.

GOOD WORKS:
Molly: Babysat for ten hours for her parents to attend the temple. Molly practiced the skills that she will be using later in life: cooking meals, cleaning, finding fun activities to do with her younger brothers.
Julia: Served on the LINK crew at the high school. Performed many service hours, participated in freshman orientation.

INTEGRITY:
Molly: Served as choir and drama president. She was trusted with other students' concerns and problems and was to be an example to others and live with integrity.
Julia: Ran on her cross country team. There were many latter-day saints on the team that for whatever reason did not live the Church's standards. Julia consistently showed her integrity around these individuals.

The great thing about Personal Progress is that it should be things the girls are already working on, things they are doing right now at home, school, in their communities.

family visit

We were blessed to have family visit us this past weekend in honor of Molly receiving her YW Recognition!
Saturday evening we had a game night. Everyone did great playing Taboo! Reid and Jacob were so cute with their excitement.

We made s'mores!

We had a family dinner on Sunday night. Our family has no shortage of boys.
I discovered Sunday during gospel doctrine that James is cousins with the YM President in the Cienega ward - small world huh! SO we invited him and his family to dinner too!

Molly and Lindsey, cousins and friends, and the only girls for the entire weekend.

Molly with Lindsey and Aunt Patty:

We were SO happy Susan could come to dinner Sunday and to the program that evening.

Aunt Claire and Uncle Terry came too with their boys Taylor and William. It was so great to spend time together. Tyler, Aunt Patty's son is in this photo too.

YW Recognition Night

Last night Molly received her Young Women medallion! We had a special recognition night for her and another young woman from our ward, Julia. They are both outstanding young women. I was so pleased with the amount of people who attended the ceremony! Family, friends, ward family, school friends, and seminary teachers, it was just amazing, the room was FULL of people who love these young women. My heart is full of thanks!
Each young woman asked one person to speak about her accomplishments. Molly asked her dad to speak. I was SO touched by his comments. I was touched that Molly was brought to tears by the things her father shared. That was a special moment for me. James and I with Molly:

Each young women did seven ten hour value projects (and much more!) to earn her medallion. Here is Molly with her table display of her ten hour value projects:

Here is a picture of Julia with her table display:

Here is Bishop Boerup presenting the young women with their medallions. Before he presented them he had those in attendance say descriptive words of each girl. James and I agree it was a wonderful thing for these girls to hear words like "talented' "smart" "beautiful" "friendly" "outgoing"...and then he asked them if they believed that they were these things. These young women are amazing - they do need to know how wonderful they are. We loved that the bishop did this activity!


When this picture was taken Molly made the comment that this was a photo of the future Laurel class! She is so excited to be a laurel! That will not happen until December and I keep reminding her to enjoy being a Mia Maid. She does LOVE it but for some reason teens are so eager for the next thing... But we are excited for Molly to join us when she turns 16.

This picture is of the women in the room who have previously received their YW medallion. Molly and Julia joined their ranks! There was actually more women than in the picture but not enough chairs - the room was that full!

I love this picture of Molly and her seminary teacher. How great that she came! Molly loves her! She is someone who has impacted her life for good!

I will need to post again tomorrow with the fun family pictures that were taken. Molly was blessed to have family come into town to see her receive her medallion. They are so important I need to do an entire post of them!

A weekend all about...

Molly!




James' sisters are headed into town tonight for the weekend (so excited to see everyone!) to help us celebrate Molly receiving her Young Woman Medallion. The ceremony will be Sunday night. The medallion is the highest award given in the Young Woman program of the LDS Church. It is equivalent to the boy scouts Eagle award. I am especially thrilled for her - she has been very self motivated throughout the entire process of earning the medallion. She has instilled in me a desire to earn my own award (and I'm slowly working toward that goal). Congratulations Molly!

Camp Kick-Off!

The night before we left for California we held our stake Young Women Camp Kick-off. Our theme this year is Bloom Where You're Planted. We had a great night: the new stake camp staff was introduced and then the time was turned over the Youth Camp Leaders. Each year level went to a different room and YCL's lead them in camp songs, getting to know you games, making posters that we will use for decoration at camp, and a scavenger hunt. At the end of the evening everyone enjoyed chocolate pudding cakes with gummy worms inside and a flower bloom on top!

Here are the four Head YCL's performing their skit to introduce this years theme to the young women of the stake. The first years are roses, the second years are clovers, the third years are sweet peas and the fourth years are lilies of the valley.

A picture of Molly alongside her fellow fourth years singing their level song:

Sister Bell and I - we get to work with the YCL's together:

Knotts Berry Farm, Legoland & the beach

We had a fantastic family getaway to California! Here are some photos of our visit to Knotts Berry Farm.
All the kids:

Austin and Charlie Brown:

Ryan inside a Snoppy bounce house - he had a blast getting the bounce house all to himself!

Chase bought a stuffed Snoopy that has been loved by all of us.

The boys getting ready for their ride.


The next day we headed off to Legoland! We visited Legoland about five years ago when Austin was about 11 years old, Molly was ten, Reid was only five, Chase was four and Ryan was just about a year. Although the kids are older now we still enjoyed this trip just as much. Legoland really is geared toward kids that are ten and under but we all had a great time and will most likely visit again in the future.
Here's Reid and Chase on their lego car.

We saw a 4-D movie that we all enjoyed (love the special glasses!)

Love that Legoland got this 16 year old to smile!

Legoland has an entire area for pirates - one by one our boys were turning into pirates!


Before we left the park I had to show some love to R2D2!

Molly needed to battle Darth Vader...

I think this is the only picture of James and I together from the entire vacation:

BEACH!
Before we left for home we made a stop at the beach. It was a beautiful sandy (and empty of people) beach!
I love that Ryan started off with his heavy coat on...

Then he took the coat off and off came the shoes and socks...

He decides he REALLY likes the beach...

And soon enough he's running everywhere with no shirt either having the time of his life. I wish photographs recorded giggles!

I'm loving California!

Just a quick post today. I am LOVING California! It is gorgeous here - the weather, the green, the fact that I am on vacation! We made it here in only seven hours - amazing since we stopped for lunch and a restroom break, and for gas...We are loving the hotel, delicious breakfast AND dinner is served here, so convenient! We have a suite so we have two t.v.'s which is great since the kids are on their cable fix.
Yesterday we had a terrrific day at Knotts Berry Farm. We stayed the entire length of the park being open: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. and enjoyed every minute of it. I really like Knotts Berry Farm, it is sooooo low key, so friendly, NO crowds. We saw two of their great shows: the Wild West show and their award winning Native American Legends show.
We love Camp Snoopy! All of the rides within Camp Snoppy (just a quarter of the park) are geared toward the little ones, but adults can also ride alongside. We also enjoyed the more high adventure rides. Me, a little two much...I went on the Silver Bullet-the roller coaster where you go upside down and do lots of loops and twirls-twice in a row (they let us stay on to go again) and I got very nauseated. I must be getting older because that is the first time a roller coaster has made me feel so yucky. Luckily it was at the end of our day. I sent James to the grocery store for chicken noodle soup I felt so yucky. :) James, Austin and Molly were daredevil riders all day long so I felt like a wimp, but that's o.k. with me. I had a great day with the little boys!
The character Snoopy has always been a favorite of mine ever since I was a little girl. All in all it was a fantastic day!
Today we are off to Legoland!

Lunch date, Soccer Saturday

My good friend Cindy Jo came into town on Saturday for an interview with the UofA nursing school. I was blessed that she had time to get together for lunch. Cindy Jo is such an awesome friend - so hope you move back, I need you around so we can have more conversations about hay and straw! :)

She looks so cute in her interview outfit - I love that she wore green and not the standard interview black....


After saying good-bye to Cindy Jo I went to the boys soccer game. They had a double-header so James went to game number one and I went to game number two. They won both games! The first game Reid and Chase both scored two goals each! Whoo Hooo! Game number two their team won 1-0. The teams were very evenly matched but our guys did great considering it was their second game of the day.

Me and my boys after the games (they enjoy using my camera!):


Saturday night was adult session of stake conference and then a dinner date for James and I. James took Reid on a boy scout overnight Friday night (both had a fabulous time!) so we didn't go on a date Friday.
Today I got my massage - so thankful for the gift card James gave me for my birthday back in September. The massage was especially appreciated since I've been spending every waking moment on girls camp details for our camp kick-off. I think I'm ready...tomorrow is the big night. I just need to go make copies tomorrow and gather some last minute items but I think all will go well.

Daughter Date-Night

I like to take each of our kids on a one-on-one date every once in awhile. Recently Chase and I went to Burger King (his choice!), Austin has an upcoming date with mom AND dad to the Symphony, Ryan is waiting for me to schedule a date to the zoo with me. Molly had her one-on-one last night. We went to Gilbert to see her friend (and mine) Connor perform in Light!


I got to see Wendi (Connor's mom) and Kristen! SO fun! Although we just got to talk briefly before and after the show it was terrific to see them. I'm looking forward to seeing Kristen again next week when James and I get to attend her daughters wedding reception.


Here we are with the star of the show!

Light! is a musical theater/show choir group for teens. Molly sure wishes they had a group like this in Tucson! She loved the show. I'm hoping to get the group to come to Tucson for a fireside for the youth of our stake.

Ode to a Grecian Urn...

Thursday night was our Relief Society birthday dinner and Variety show. A group of us took from the performance in the musical, "A Music Man" and showed our own interpretation through dance. Here we are after our performance:


I'm not sure if the audience 'got it' but it felt good to laugh (at ourselves) and share the experience with friends.

No need to journal more about our performance.
I'm still laughing.

Happy March!

Spring is in the air! I'm doing a little of this and a little of that...

Reid and Chase are enjoying soccer. James and I are enjoying that they are playing on the same team this season. Chase is enjoying playing goalie and Reid's favorite is defense so he doesn't have to run around that much in the heat. He's getting lazy in his old of age of 11. Their games are not until two in the afternoon and the desert sun is hot at the time of day so I can't say I blame him.


Yesterday I had a meeting to exit Chase out of his IEP. It was an exciting day! He is doing so great at school. I know part of his success is thanks to a wonderful teacher but also due to Chase's hard work and maturity. Of course I am hesitant about what the future will bring to him (especially as he progresses in a couple years to middle school and hits puberty) but he will remain on a 504 plan so that will cover him should any need for services arise. He will still continue his yoga outside of school. Yoga is something he will most likely participate in his entire life.
Way to go Chase!

We are looking forward to a trip to California. A day at LegoLand for Reid, Chase and Ryan and a day at Knotts Berry Farm for Austin and Molly. Whoooo Hoooo! We are super excited. AND it seems maybe us older folks will get to sleep-in in the mornings as the kids are thrilled the hotel will have cable t.v. (we got rid of cable last October and the kids still talk about it - ugh!)

I've been busy working on our stake Girls Camp Kick-Off. We have a major camp activity each month from now until camp happens in July. I love every minute of it but right now our house is suffering in the organization/cleanliness department. I am loving this years theme: "Bloom Where You're Planted!"

I received a gift certificate for a hour long massage last September for my birthday from my sweet husband and have finally made the appointment. Looking forward to doing that on Monday!

James and I got to attend the stake temple session last night. The attendance was not that high but most of the bishops and members of the high council were there. So many blessings in attending....so glad we went.

Can't wait to see my good friend Cindy Jo on Saturday. Man, I miss her! She's coming in from out of town. Looking forward to eating some yummy Mexican food with her and talking for hours...