A great Young Women's activity

Oh how I wish I could have gotten better pictures of this! Hannah was asked to be a modle for a stake young women's modesty fashion show. She looked SO incredibly pretty. It was nice to see so many modest young women and enjoying what they were wearing. It was a great example for all the young women there watching to see great style that was modest. I am glad that Hannah can be a leader in showing her peers modesty is stylish in many different ways. She is becoming quite a leader.

Young Women's

Hello. It's me, Hannah. I have just gotten back and I really wanted to share what we did for Young Women's. Tonight was the Stake YW kickoff for the year. The theme this year is "Let Your Light So Shine" and so for an activity, we made paper lanterns and wrote our names on them as a promise to share our light with others. Once everyone wrote their name on them, we took the paper lanterns outside, lit them, and watched them as they gently flew up and up. As we watched them, we sang "The Spirit of God."
My feelings were very good tonight. I felt the spirit and I can't really explain my feelings quite correctly in words. I just felt a peace and calming feeling as they talked about the theme and especially when we sang and watched the lanterns float up.
It was a lot like the scene in Tangled when they lit the lanterns, only there were only four lanterns....

Derek's school projects

Derek had quite a few projects to do this year in school. He had to make a diorama of a Colosseum to depict Roman time. He and David did Roman soldiers fighting tigers.

Actually Derek and David made this project last year but I am including this with this years so that I get it in (and cause I missed putting in last year). Derek and David built an Electricity circuit. This is what he typed:

1. This project demonstrates how electricity travels through a circuit.

2. I am going to assemble my Choice Card which matches the shapes with the words by touching the ends of the test probes to the metal studs. If you match the shape with the correct word, the bulb will light up.

3. I connect the black wire from the light to the battery and the red wire from the battery is a test probe that will connect the circuit.

4. (Connect the wires to show the light works.)

5. Electricity will flow when the correct wires are connected and the circuit becomes live. (Show some examples by matching)

Here is the project and you can see the shape and words that will match up along with the metal studs beside the words and the shape.

The light is actually lit up, it is hard to tell but it is.

Here is the project of Derek's research on William Shakespear. He traced and colored the picture of Shakespear. He also had a report he researched of his life and contributions.

This was a project of Hades. Derek drew the picture of Hades and the symbol that he held. He typed out the facts about him and the powers that Hades has.

This is another shot of the Hades project.

This was a project of Derek's that Hannah helped him with. He was to make a 3 foot drawing of a person in the midevil times. This is a monk. The kids got a big kick out of this monk. Derek really enjoyed this project. He did a great job. It is great that we can save these projects through pictures.

And yes, Koda wanted to be in on the picture so bad. She loves being part of our family. We sure do love having her a part of our family.

It is quite amazing to watch my children grow and mature and learn and teach me. I love to be involved in all their school projects and I am so glad that they want me to be a part of them also. Thank you kids!

Great Sunday

We had a great Sunday together. After church we had a great dinner, ham, potatoes, corn, and rolls in our beautiful new kitchen/dinning room.

Later we all played Disney Uno and listed to Disney songs. It got very silly which was wonderful. I am so glad for the fun time we had together.

Derek's enjoyment of audio books

Derek has been really plowing through audio books lately. Here is a list of what he has been enjoying, The Charlie Bone series (4 so far), Pendragon Series (2 so far), The Last Apprentice Series (4 so far), Alcatraz Vs. the Evil Librarians (I love that title), A World Without Heros, and Hero. We have been finding so many great books for him to enjoy. I am so glad, so is he. Soon he will be listening to Michael Vey by Richard Paul Evans. Books are wonderful entertainment and learning tool. I am grateful for them and the love that I got from my Dad with his bookstore that I grew up in. Thank you Dad, I love you!

Scout Camp

As dictated by Mom from Dad. Derek and Daddy just came back from a great time at scout camp at Camp Tracy. Winter camp. Four wild Indian boyscout all needing merit badges in space exploration, finger printing, camping and rifle and shot gun shooting. They enjoyed winter camp with a high temperature of 22 degrees. Thank goodness they slept in a cabin with a pot belly stove and were able to stay warm. The highlight of the camp was making rockets which they each fired off from the middle of the frozen lake (it's a good thing I did not know this) to elevations of 500 feet. Only one successfully deployed it's parachute. The others either exploded at the peak of it's parabola, or spiraled downward out of control much like a bird with a broken wing into a forest of native Utah scrub oak. Only one rocket was retrievable. The boys fought back the urge to cry because they are now 12 years of age.

We shot 22 rifles and had target groupings the size of a quarter at 100 feet. We are all ready to be snipers. We even cleaned up all our casings. It was a balmy 19 degrees at the rifle range. We were completely amazed at our ability to shoot with such accuracy because our safety goggles would fog up.

We ate at least 6 dozen chocolate mint cookies before we ate 3 bags of Doritos. (this part was included for Mom's benefit to tease me)

None of the scouts packed toothbrushes, wonderful morning breath.

The cabin stayed a comfortable 50+ degrees.

Another highlight of the camp was to retire an old flag with a ceremony.

We completing the finger printing merit badge. Daddy finished the camp off with a trip to McDonald's so he could send all the boys home on a sugar high to their moms after receiving no sleep.

We are grateful they came home safe!

Remodel update, counter tops are in!

A nice pull out drawer for our big pots and pans

More pull out drawers, so much fun!

Here is the great lazy susan. We sure do love this

O.k. Koda is giving a hint as to what is in this drawer. That's right, a pull out drawer for the garbage. Yeah. It looks so nice and the garbage and recycle is hidden behind a nice cupboard and each has a separate bin, yeah again, much rejoycing.

It is hard to see the color of the counter tops. Maybe I'll need to get another couple of shots during the day with the more light.

Still. . . much rejoycing

Much more space

This area is great for storing my big, huge, enormous, obnoxious lunch box for work and my purse and Hannah's bag for school and still room to spare - Wow

Derek trying to duck out of the picture. Yeah, a place to store our broom, so happy. Also a place to store our casserole pans, cookie pans, and cutting boards. Much smiles.