first day of high school!

Today is the first day of high school for the 2009-2010 school year.
Molly is a sophomore this year. She was selected to be in Link Crew this year. Their first job is to make sure that all incoming freshman are comfortable and where they need to be. Link Crew members have each been assigned an advisory based classroom that they will visit throughout the year and lead the freshmen in activities and games. Molly will also begin French this year and is most excited about show choir and concert choir.


Austin is a senior this year. This is the last first day of school for him (well, I suppose until college!) Austin is doing marching band this year as well as lots of AP courses and Spanish 3. He has also signed up to be a peer helper for a special needs student rather than come home early.

So - today is the first day for me to have all five kids at school all-day. I had the dishes done, the laundry going, emails answered, and the downstairs picked up all before 8:30 this morning. Later today I'm having lunch with a friend but for now I suppose I can either finish the book I'm reading or clean the upstairs...I'm thinking the book sounds pretty good.

fun family happenings...

We had such a wonderful visit with my parents. It was so great to be at camp and know that the boys were well taken care of while we were away. I was so glad my mom and dad stayed a few days after our return from camp so that we, too, could spend time with them.
These pictures were taken the day before their departure. We got them some token thank you gifts before they departure. Miss them already!


Austin had marching band camp everyday, all-day last week. They had a performance for the families of band students at the end of the week to show off their hard work. James and Reid were on a scout campout so I took the other kids out to eat (Yes, Ryan had McDonald's but the rest of us had Panda Express, lol...)and then we went to the performance at the high school.



Molly and I got to see the musical Wicked! last Saturday. It was such a fabulous show! We both loved it (and loved that we had great seats). Such a great memory for me to enjoy that with Molly.


We spent the day with these two lovely ladies...friends make life so much more fun! We had a great time at IKEA before the show and Hobby Lobby afterwards.

Reid, Chase and Ryan all began school on Monday. Reid started middle school (6th grade) and Chase began fifth grade and Ryan started first grade. This will be the first year with all the kids in school all-day!

growing up...

Later today Reid and I will visit the middle school and find out who his teachers will be for sixth grade. It is hard to believe everyone is growing up. Austin will be a senior this year, Molly a sophomore, Reid is entering middle school, Chase will be top dog as a fifth grader at the elementary and Ryan will be entering school all-day as a first grader. Last night Chase, Ryan and I went to the elementary school so they could visit their classrooms and once again meet their new teachers. I am hoping for a good year. Ryan was more comfortable than to be expected but sure did not morph into an outgoing child over the summer. :) Regardless, his teacher is awesome and I'm hoping for great things.
I must admit, I'm kinda' sad that Reid will not be at the elementary school with Ryan and Chase. Reid has always been such a terrific helper to his younger brothers. But it is his time to move on and I know he is ready for bigger challenges.
These photos were taken a few weeks ago - Reid was able to take a lego robotics day camp on the campus of the middle school. He really enjoyed the classes. The teacher told me when kids would be stuck with their creations he would send over Reid to help since it came so easy to him. I appreciated that the camp was held on the campus right in the sixth grade area so he could familiar himself with that part of the campus. Welcome to sixth grade Reid!

Girls camp 2009

Bloom where you're planted!

Girls camp was AMAZING! Each day was truly spectacular, I loved it!
The stake staff and Youth Camp Leaders and Fourth Year hikers all met at the stake center at 10 a.m. Monday morning. Everyone was prompt and we got our week started after some fun pictures.
Sister Rustand, Sister Bell and myself ready for the week ahead:

The fourth year hikers all went in different cars than the YCL's and stake staff so it was quick goodbye to James and Molly as their two night hike adventure began!

The head YCL's and YCL leaders:

I had such a wonderful time getting to know this gal better - she is amazing, love her to pieces!

The campers all arrived on Tuesday morning and Tuesday afternoon we had a visit from Sacajawea! She taught us about friendship and told us stories of how she had received beads from individuals in her tribe but that she traded them so that Lewis and Clark could receive a gift for the President of the United States. She gave each of the Young Women a ribbon necklace with a bead and introduced a new tradition at camp this year. Each of the young women made 30 beads prior to camp, each decorated to represent themselves. They were to give them away to new friends, each time telling the person what they admire about them. The beads were a huge hit, as was her performance!

Here are some crazy leaders late at night - we have a lot of fun together!

Molly, Haley and Marissa (tent-mates) looking fab!

The fourth year hikers came into camp Wednesday with a roar of cheering. These young women are amazing, they hiked 18 miles! James went along as priesthood and did fabulous!

It is tradition for the fourth year hikers to stop and put charcoal on their faces just before coming into camp. Molly cracks me up - she made herself have a full beard, crazy girl!

All the campers made adorable bags for their camp crafts:

Our high adventure this year was a zip-line. The priesthood did a terrific job setting it up (making it twice as long as two years ago!) Here's my turn on the zip-line:

We had a YW Value Olympics - each ward was in charge of one of the YW Values and did a ten minute activity focusing on it. Our ward was in charge of the value Knowledge. Our ward camp directors did an wonderful job!

For ward hour each ward got to choose their own activity. Our ward painted fingernails and gave each other hand massages. It was a very relaxing activity.

Hangin' with the girls...

The leaders view from outside our tents...

Camp leaders:

Camp Head YCL's:

Camp banners:





The skits this year were hilarious! Molly played a rapper in the fourth year skit and so FUNNY! How I wish I would have gotten it on video.

James gave the closing devotional on Saturday morning. He did a great job. His thoughts focused on the recent stake boundary changes. This years theme, "Bloom Where You're Planted" was inspired. Half of the YW from the camp will be attending camp elsewhere next year. It felt like a family was being broken apart yet we all understand it is an inspired move and accept the change. Afterwards we all sang God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again and I don't think there was a dry eye in the camp.

My parents are here!

I am so happy that they have arrived! They will be watching "the boys" for us since James, Molly and I all will be spending a week at young womens camp.
We celebrated a belated Father's Day/Birthday for my dad with gifts. We gave him a box of See's chocolates, a book on mushrooms, and a mini pull-out scrapbook about him.


We celebrated Independence Day together. It was very low-key but the boys loved the smoke balls and pop-its during the daytime and the sparklers, crazy eyeballs and blooming flowers at dark. They also loved just being about to light matches (I think that was the big thrill)!

We all enjoyed a delicious July 4th barbecue of hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, baked beans, chips, deviled eggs, fresh green beans and this for dessert:

I love that my mom doesn't just slice strawberries - she adds in raspberries and blueberries too!

A great weekend.
Tomorrow morning James, Molly and I are off to camp - see you in a week!

Young Women happenings...

Wednesday eight of our young women, myself and another leader went and did hand massages and manicures at an adult day facility for developmentally disabled adults. We did this activity at a different location a couple months ago and the girls were happy to perform this service again. I am so blessed to be associated with such amazing young women. I'm sorry I didn't bring my camera this time. Our lives were blessed by our visit.

I hosted a breakfast on Friday morning for one of the young women who has lived in our ward for the past year who is returning home - she will be greatly missed! I am lucky however that she lives in the same state as my parents so hopefully I can visit her.

We had a light breakfast of three types of muffins - blueberry, cinnamon swirl and chocolate chocolate chip, juice and lots of fruit: cherries, watermelon, oranges, bananas along with strawberry yogurt.

Final preparations for young women camp have been keeping our household busy the past couple days. Lauren (my co-leader for the YCL's) and I made these fun headbands for all the YCL's. Each are color coordinated for the color which represents the level they are working with along with strands of blue, which is the YCL color. The flowers represent the 'bloom where you're planted' theme. Lots of flowers will be blooming at camp this year!


Here are some wood flowers that will be blooming. They are my VERY first attempt at doing something like this and yes, I know they are very basic but they will (hopefully) be great for a girls camp setting. I will cluster them in groups of three (the 'stems' are three different heights) around camp. I learned so much through the process: I got free wood, had to free hand a shape (and even that is such a stretch for me, I am so not an artist as you can tell), I learned to cut out the wood and paint the wood. I bought a sealant for the wood since it is sure to rain at camp. James cut the 'stems' for me and added them to the flowers. Hopefully each time I do something like this it will quicker and be more detailed in the final product.