Ryan and Rylan

Ryan has been asking to go to the Childrens Museum for a few months so yesterday I called his best buddy Rylan (and mom Erin) and arranged for all of us to go for the afternoon today. The two boys met at preschool and became fast friends with 0ne another. We had a great day exploring the museum - checking out the dinosaurs, the doctor area with fake stuffed germs!, the rock wall, store, maze, getting inside a real fire truck and more.



While there I noticed the exhibit of the Tucson River of Words Youth Poetry and Art Contest. Imagine my surprise when I saw Reid's poem on the wall! Ha - such fun! We didn't know it was there so that was a fun surprise. They had all the winning entries up on display. I had to take a picture to show Reid - I may need to bring him there to show him his work on display.

After the childrens museum we stopped for lunch at Wendy's and then the boys enjoyed a frosty.

This week has been busy but good. Molly and Reid both had dental appointments Monday a.m. and Molly had high school freshmen orientation that night. While walking from the parking lot into the cafetorium it really hit me that my only daughter is growing up.

Yesterday I taught my third session of Junior Achievement to Chase's class. Our topic is My City. So far we have talked about the roles of builders and city planners, different zones and what type of buildings belong in each zone as well as the importance of entrepreneurs to a city. Each of the kids made different decisions as if they were opening their own restaurant. Tomorrow I go again and we will discuss the purpose of a newspaper as a communication tool for people in a city. I am enjoying these lessons.

I also got to have lunch with my friend Luncinda yesterday at Olive Garden. I had been craving Olive Garden for some time as it had been a long time since I'd been there. It was a very nice, relaxing afternoon before the craziness of the early evening. Tuesdays are pretty busy since Chase has yoga and then soccer. I then headed off to book club, which was great.

Tonight for mutual we are going to the choir concert at the high school to support two of our youth. I'm looking forward to it. It is our first Priest/Laurel activity: we've invited the Mia Maids too so it should be fun.

Value: Knowledge

In the Young Women program there are seven young women values which help the young women understand more fully who they are, why they are here on earth and what it is they should be doing as a daughter of God to prepare for the day that they go to the temple to make sacred covenants. The values help them prepare for their future roles as a faithful woman, wife, mother and leader. Our ward has a value assigned to each month in Young Women. All of the month of April our YW value has been knowledge. The color which the Church has assigned to Knowledge is green. This is a little handout I did to emphasis knowledge. It is a cute little plastic green cup filled with green filler,a bookmark and smarty candies.
The bookmark says 'Drink' up knowledge and become a 'smarty!' It then lists the scripture that is assigned to the value knowledge which is "I will continually seek opportunities for learning and growth" D&C 88:118. We also emphasis the value of the month by having our table centerpiece feature that color. This month I put out artificial grass, hardcover books that were green, green marbles in a glass jar with a green flag placed into the marbles. I have gotten good feedback from the girls that they appreciate these small efforts.

Next month (May) the value is Choice and Accountability. The value color is orange. I don't have a lot of orange in my home but it should be fun to come up with different things for a table centerpiece. Any ideas for a handout?

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Molly's middle school's drama department performed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! They had a total of four shows - two daytime performances for elementary students and two evening shows for family and friends. Molly had the part of Mrs. Bucket, Charlie's mom. She also was a assistant director.
Here is the cast of characters looking at the map of Willy Wonka's factory. Character names from left are Mrs. Gloop and Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt and Mr. Salt, Violet Beauregarde and Mrs. Beauregarde (behind Willy Wonka), Willy Wonka, Ms. Teavee, Mike Teavee, Charlie Bucket and Grandpa Joe.
News reporter Phineous Trout was played by Adam, a young man in our ward who did an outstanding job!
Here is a photo of the Oompa-Loompas!
Molly and Bryce after the show. Bryce is another young man from our ward and they are good friends. He played Willy Wonka and Mr. Bucket - he did a fabulous job in both roles!

A poet in the family

Reid was selected out of over 600 entries as a finalist in the Tucson River of Words poetry and art contest. We are thrilled for him! He was recognized at the Vail School District Board of Directors meeting last Tuesday but we were unable to attend due to Stake Auxillary Training. They had him read his poem into an I-pod and they played it at the meeting for him. The local paper interviewed him and sent a photographer out to take pictures while he was at school and they published the article this week - pretty fun! His school, Mesquite, also had him read his poem on 'broadcast' - it is like live t.v. that transmits to each classroom in the school. They sent him a book with his poem published inside and this Go Guide! Let's explore the desert for families together book as a prize. Congratulations Reid! Here is the poem he wrote:

The Bird and His Brother

I'm flying with my brother while in the night sky.
Snow is falling every second of life.
I see a coyote, a bobcat and
a rabbit looking at me.
I see mesquite trees with thorns
as sharp as needles.
There are coyotes singing
to the stars with beetles all around.
I'm landing on the arm of a saguaro cactus.
It reminds me of my older brother.
There is water coming down every second of life,
as free as it can be.
I'm flying with my brother while in the night sky.

Reid Gubler, age 10
Teacher: Mrs. Knox

Young Women camp activity

We held our second young women camp activity last night at Sister Cowley's home in Vail. Here's a group photo of the leaders that were present, from left: Sister Weaver, Sister Campbell, Sister Cowley, Sister Kramer, Sister Allen, Sister Kam with Jackson, Sister Nichols, Sister Gubler.The girls all got to make their own tin foil dinners and then worked as a group on the dessert. Here they are placing all the ingredients into the dutch oven for our brownie dessert.

The group finishing up the tin foil dinner. We had ground beef, hashbrown potatoes, sliced carrots, onion, corn, and seasonings to place inside our foil. They taught the girls how to press their food really thin so it will cook through and the importance to double layer it so it does not leak, as well as using heavy duty foil and 'shiny side out, shiny side in' on the foil and how to fold it up properly. The girls learned a lot of good basic information.

Sister Cowley had already gotten the coals burning before our arrival so they were nice and hot for us.

All of the girls needed to build a small fire of their choice - tepee and log cabin types were the favorites. They then needed to attempt to get them to burn without matches or lighters! It was a great pre-camp activity. Camp songs were enjoyed by all also - fun!

A day with the Clarks

Since our ward was split a couple weeks ago Bishop and Hannah Clark hosted a get together at the church ball park for the families of those who served with him during his years as a bishop. They had a full barbeque: chicken, corn on the cob, beans, rolls, green salad and, of course, all sorts of popcicles! Bishop is famous for often supplying yummy popcicles of all varieties.

These men all served with bishop Clark as counselors, executive secretary, ward clerks, young men president...
Bishop and Hannah had so many fun things planned. Here is Hannah blowing up a rocket balloon - the kids had so much fun chasing them as they blasted off.
Chase taking his turn with a rocket balloon! They also had a huge pinata full of candy. The kids loved it! Brother Spear brought his mini-bike and everyone, big and small, had a good time going for a ride on it. Later some enjoyed a game of baseball, many of us just enjoyed visiting with each other.
We got there about 5 p.m. and the caretaker had to ask us to leave at 9 p.m. We were all so relaxed and having such a good time we were not ready to go home yet. Our family gave Bishop and Hannah a picture of the Mesa temple as a thank you for their endless hours of service. We will so miss not being in the same ward as them, but know our friendship will continue.

YCL Sleepover Workparty

The YCL sleepover/work party was at our home last night. We started at 7 p.m. at ended this morning at 9 a.m. The girls got so much accomplished. Camp songs were practiced, banners were made, clothespins painted, get to know you games played, Oriental Trading catalogs looked at for B.O.O.T. camp treats, lots of food and fun. We had 20 girls come, which is a great turnout. These young women are exceptional. They have such great, creative ideas and lots of energy! We had a lot of do and nobody went to bed until about 2:45 a.m. I slept from 3:15 - 7:15 - getting up to cut up some strawberries and watermelon to go with the breakfast. We enjoyed Costco muffins, bagels with cream cheese, fruit, applesauce and juice.
The first year YCL banner is almost complete but they needed to take it home to finish so I didn't get a picture but here are the others: 2nd year banner: There color is lavendar and they are the Specialists. I love their giant dog tag.
3rd years are the Corporals! Our theme is B.O.O.T. camp (building our own testimonies) I love how each name is on a boot!
4th years are the Sergeants. They are also known as Sara's special silver star sergeants. Here is the YCL banner. I love how they made army planes and had each of the girls dropping out of the plane with their parachute. We have 31 YCL's this year!

Our four head YCL's leading us in camp songs to begin the night.
We did a little hula hooping in between activities.
Sara with her banner idea!
A group shot...
Painting secret sister clothespins for the stake staff .

The night was so much fun. I so enjoy these young ladies!

Good friends

My friends, Wendi and Kristen, drove from Gilbert just to spend the afternoon with me. How sweet is that! Kristen had never been to our home so first we took some time to show her the house then we enjoyed a delicious lunch out. I chose Beyond Bread and found out they don't have that in Gilbert - maybe it's a Tucson thing - I'm not sure, but it was yummy. The weather was gorgeous so we enjoyed our lunch outside on the patio.

Afterwards we stopped at HomeGoods and Wendi bought these adorable green and red stools. They are going to be able to be slid out of the way under a small table she has and then be pulled out when extra seating is needed. They are very cute. Wendi was a good sport as I pulled out my camera in the store - the cashier I'm sure thought I was a little odd but oh well! LOL!

Our afternoon together was much too short. Good friends truly make life great! Christy and Shari - you were both missed! I hope you can come next time!

new callings

Last Sunday was our first Sunday as a new ward, the Desert Willow ward.

It was so quiet! The overflow doors remained closed. There was only one Gospel Doctrine class and we all fit in the Relief Society room. There were enough of us to have a good discussion but it was small enough that individuals felt comfortable commenting. Our discussion on Sunday was really good. We talked about magnifying our callings. My thoughts turned to church assignments as well as my calling as a wife and a mother.

I have been given a new calling: young women president. It has been about 13 years since I have served in young women. When I was pregnant with Molly and then after her birth I served as a beehive advisor and then as 2nd counselor. I have however had connections with the YW through girls camp. I have served as a ward camp director numerous times, assistant cook twice, craft specialist three times, camp spiritual teacher for "Land of Destiny"...This new assignment will challenge me, I am excited to serve and hope I am up to the task. They have reassured me that I will remain in my stake camp calling as the Adult YCL leader. I love that calling so that is a relief. Currently I am gearing up to host the YCL work party/sleepover at our home on Friday. We have 31 YCL's this year. I'm sure not that many will be able to come but we should have a good turnout. They will be painting their level banners and secret sister clothespins, learning about proper devotionals and flag ceremonies, eating and getting to know each other - it should be a lot of fun.

James was also recently given a new calling on the Stake High Council. The ward he has been assigned to is the Valencia ward, the ward we broke off from. So the members will know him and (hopefully) love him as he learns his new responsiblities. The assignment he has been given is to be the High Counselor over the Young Women. I am thrilled for him and his new calling. It just feels right. He now has the opportunty to also attend young women camp - not sure how we will do that, but he will at least come up a few times during the daytime and then be home at night to be with the boys.

He played!

I haven't had a chance to post a couple pictures from Saturday's soccer game but hurray, hurray - he played!!! I have some really cute pictures of him that I can't get to upload right so you may see more another day.

Ryan wanted to sit out the start of the game and then he played pretty much all the rest of it. We are so proud of him.Here he is playing goalie, standing next to assistant coach Eric. Coach Eric is in our ward and does an amazing job with Ryan. Coach Eric is probably talking to Ryan about soccer and Ryan is probably telling Coach Eric about something that happened in one of our video games or about something he saw on Spongebob Squarepants. Nevertheless he had a fun time! Hurray!

Happy 16th Birthday Austin! Last night for Family Night we celebrated his 16 years at Little Anthony's 50's Diner. The kids had never been there before and really enjoyed it. We liked that the little boys could get up and wander over to the arcade room while we could still keep an eye on them. Everyone had a good time!

This last photo is of a bedroom makeover performed as a birthday gift to Austin from his friends Josh Wheeler and Julia Eddington. They tore apart his bed, t.p.'ed the entire room, added a lot of candy. This picture doesn't show it but there was A LOT of toilet paper and crepe paper in that room - we filled an entire garbage bag!

Happy 16th Birthday Austin! We love you!

Austin celebrates!

On Saturday Austin invited a small group of close friends over to help him celebrate his birthday. His actual birthday is Tuesday, April 15. They had a good time eating, playing foosball, the Wii, watching a movie and just hanging out. Here is a group photo just before the annual silly string war! It got pretty messy, but so fun!
Here's the group watching Austin getting ready to blow out his birthday candles. He invited such a great group of young people.
Happy, Happy Birthday to you, Austin! It is hard to believe our oldest is turning 16!
$16 for turning 16 years!

All things ARMY!

Here is a photo of Ryan from Monday. I did some Monday cleaning then played a game, did some cleaning and played another game... He always ends up winning the army battle, how does he do that?
I'm beginning to collect items for our summer young women camp. Our theme is B.O.O.T. camp - Building Our Own Testimonies. When I wore the pink ribbon on my whistle at the camp kick-off some of the other leaders teased me saying they will never be able to take the craft lady out of me. (The last two years I served as stake camp craft specialist - this year I am the Adult YCL leader) I think they secretly like my pink ribbon! :)
Look what I found at the Target dollar spot! I am going to fill these with goodies and give them to the head ycl's. I am on the hunt for all things camo so give me a shout if you see something you think I might like.

I know some friends have mentioned their wards/stakes have done this theme before and I would love to hear and truly appreciate your sharing of any/all ideas of activities, decorating, hand-outs, devotionals.