Ellie's Baptism

Ellie was baptized last week. She was very excited. Some of that excitement may have been that she got to share the day with her BFF, Izzy. And thank goodness she did. Izzy's mom just happens to be really talented at putting together cute invites and programs and nice finishing touches that I usually don't even think of. Thank you, Izzy's mom. :)
It was very nice because my parents and Ellie's older sister, Ryan were able to come. We thought the other grandparents were going to make it too, but were surprised with a last minute realization that that wouldn't be the case. But, that is another story. Maddie was also absent as she was in a show that night.

Grandma M did make Ellie a nice little baptism dress though. It turned out very cute. Not only that, she made Lauren and Ellie each a new "Easter" dress. Lauren is wearing hers in the picture above. I made Ellie and Izzy's "baptism" dresses. They went to the fabric store together and picked their patterns and fabric. Their fabric is matching, just different colors. I made the cupcakes. The day turned out well. The important thing is that Ellie is now baptized and thrilled to be so. She's so excited to be working on Faith In God goals and trying hard to always choose the right. I'm so proud of her.

Flower Basket Cake

This is the cake I made for our Relief Society Birthday dinner this year. The theme was "Bloom Where You're Planted." I did a basket weave with Royal icing flowers. I did the flowers this way so that I could make them in advance and then just place them when I put the cake together. It turned out well.

Great to Be 8

I was in charge of our Great To Be 8 (or 8 Is Great) meeting this year and found instructions on Sugardoodle.net for these cute cookies on a stick. They were a big hit!

YW Girl's Camp

 

 

 

 

I just found these photos that Emma took at camp this year. Unfortunately Maddie was unable to go, but Emma had a great time. She is really turning out to be the adventurous type. I'm so happy. Maybe we can start doing more outdoor family activities. Their camp was full of fun things to do including swimming, horse-back riding, rock climbing, and more. The weather even cooperated which was nice because the day before they left there was a huge rainstorm which made a muddy day for the leaders who went early to get things set up.

Humanitarian Dolls

The dolls are done.
I'm going to have to start this post with a little story. It's an analogy.
When I was teaching, one of the projects we used to do was a "World's Fair" where every child picked a country to do an in-depth report on. Well, I had one student who just loved the movie and music of Evita and was almost obsessed with Argentina because of it. So naturally she chose Argentina as her project. As the days of research, note-taking, fact finding, etc. progressed she became less and less excited until, in the end, one of the parents who came to the final World's Fair report day asked her, "So, Megan, what did you learn about Argentina?" Her reply was a vehement, "I hate Argentina!"
I have to admit that I have had a few days of "hating" these dolls. And here's why.
6 years ago I found myself in a position of being a brand new stay-at-home mom; something I had never been before. Yes, I had 4 young children and ran a daycare from my home, but I felt like I really had a bit of extra time and was feeling that I wanted to continue to contribute to the world and stay productive. So, I got on the church website and looked through the humanitarian projects available. This little doll pattern just caught my eye. They looked so cute and simple. Surely I could whip out a big bunch of these in no time. The date of the print-out is 12/11/2004. Now, I'm sure I didn't start until a few weeks after that, but it started out great. I got all the pieces cut out and the initial sewing done. That was the ONLY machine sewing to be done on these cuties. Let's just say I really underestimated the length of time all the hand sewing would take. And guess what? I HATE hand sewing. So the project got put away for a few, uhh, years.
With renewed energy and after moving them to our new house, I got them out again and worked on them until I was quite sick of them again. And away they went. And we moved again.
And again I dug them out, determined to finish them up. Made some headway. Moved again.
When we moved into this house and I saw the box that held them (and a few other unfinished projects) I was determined. My New Year's resolution this year was to finish all the projects in that box. I have already put together a quilt top (I'll post it when I quilt it) and can say with a huge smile on my face, that I have finished the dolls. Do not check the website. They are no longer on there as a project. But guess what? I'm sending them anyway. I wrapped each one with a cute little silly band (are you all experiencing this craze? My house is overrun with silly bands) and am shipping them away. I figured that each doll took about 1 1/2-2 hours to complete and there are 54 of them. I did most of the work while watching movies. I haven't watched a movie since the completion yet, but it will feel strange not to be sewing during it.
Humanitarian Dolls----check
It might take me a while, but I'm a finisher. Anyone need a size 2 little girl's dress? That's the next project. Started for Lauren. Shameful, I know.

Faith in God

Emma is my first child to earn the Faith in God award. I'm so proud of her. She really put forth the effort required to complete all of the goals and requirements.

I am told that there is no longer any sort of pendant, bracelet, pin, etc. to be earned. Rather, kids are supposed to feel the reward of living the gospel and accept that as the greatest reward possible. While I do believe that is true, I did want to express to her that her efforts were not only recognized by me, but very much appreciated. I want her to have something to remind her of the experience and, of course, to remind her to continue to make good choices. So, I decided to forego the hamster that she really wanted, and get a "hold to the rod" pendant. I hope it will last at least as long as a hamster would have.

8 is Great

Favorite memory of the day--When Lauren came up out of the water, the first thing she said was, "Boy, that was quick." I was kinda feeling the same way. All that time planning, preparing, coordinating, etc. for that one single moment. It did seem like it was over pretty "quick."

Articles of Faith

I'm so proud of my Emma. At the beginning of the year our primary gave all of the children the challenge to memorize the Articles of Faith. This is something we've worked on here and there throughout the years as a family and Emma is VERY good at memorizing stuff. So, it was not very surprising when she had them all memorized around the second week of January. But I was very pleased with her desire and ability nonetheless. Then she had to pass them off to the Bishop in order to receive her reward, which I believe was recognition and a certificate.
We had ward conference yesterday and the Bishop spoke. And truly, he based his talk around the Articles of Faith because he had been so impressed with Emma's accomplishment. Although he didn't mention her name in the talk, he did retell the experience he had had with "this young primary girl" and how it had really made an impact on him. He realized that he wouldn't have been able to do it and it inspired him to put new focus on the Articles of Faith and rememorize them himself. His talk was powerful and the Spirit was present there and touched many hearts (perhaps especially mine). It was a testimony to me that the postive actions of one child can turn into something that can strengthen the testimonies of many.
Lauren has been working on this goal also. She's taking it much slower. Memorization is a much more difficult task for her. But I'm so proud of her desire and that she continues to work on it when it is obviously a struggle. I just love my kids.

Activity Days Quilt

This is the quilt that I made and the activity days girls tied. They had a lot of fun learning how to tie a quilt and I thought it turned out quite cute. I put it together last spring and never got around to tying it and then one day I had to cancel our original activity plans and scrambled to put something together. It turned out to be a lot of fun and evryone was pleased with the end result.

Nature Walk

Just experimenting with Picasa. Thanks Erin. These are photos from our Actvity Days Nature Walk. The girls picked out cool stuff they saw.

Trunk-or-Treat

Just for fun I thought you might enjoy my costume for our ward's trunk-or-treat. I don't usually dress up, but thought I'd throw something together at the last minute. I went as a "washed-up" Diva. I didn't have time to make myself a Grammy, but that would have been the greatest finishing touch.

Also, we never did get a pumpkin carved this year, but Ellie and I did finally manage to put our gingerbread Haunted House together. Here it is.