Be the Light - YW in Excellence

This past Wednesday I had the privledge of putting on YW in Excellence for our ward girls.  I wanted it to be a really special night for the girls and for them to feel the magnitude of their individual worth and that their time they put into personal progress is important.

There are so many awesome ideas online and I was drawn to the theme of "Be the Light."  A talented woman has shared tons of freebies with this theme.  I used her stuff and added a bit of my own to customize it to our ward.  The night turned out beautiful!

I mailed all the girl's and their families all invites.  Doesn't everyone feel more special with a personal invitation!

The program was fabulous!!  It was kept to an hour so the talks were short and sweet.  The first musical number was lovely with the girls being accompanied by one of them playing the ukulele.  The last musical number I just love and the girls sounded great!

The talks the girls gave were focused on these three quotes:

Kind of tricky making a primary room - seminary room - pathways room - toddler music room...also a YW in Excellence room.

Each of the girls filled a plastic lightbulb with something that brought them the Light of Christ this past year.  I encouraged them to tie it into their Personal Progress projects but they didn't have to.  Their ideas were awesome!!  

My new skill of cookie decorating that I learned at AGW this past year came in hand with making these cute light bulb cookies.

This was trickier than I thought to make -- wire twisted heart.

My adviser and I made these super sweet necklaces for all the girls.  They were very easy to make (again someone had done all the hard work already) and I think will be a neat memento from the evening for the girls.

I loved thinking about LIGHT and the ways that I am letting my light shine!  It is a wonderful concept to think about  

Two Tickets To Paradise

Tyler had a busy Saturday with a cross country race in Leavenworth and then he scooted back to wash off that sweat and dress up in his fancy duds.  He took the lovely Kathryn to Homecoming.  They are friends from school and Tyler asked her out by taping balloons all over her car one evening at her soccer game.

They enjoyed dinner with a large group at the 2nd Street Grill and then came on over to the dance.  Lucky Tyler -- his mom and dad signed up to be coat checker people and so we got to spy on them throughout the night.  Fun night for all -- but boy, was it an eye opener for Birch and I.  Lots of dirty dancing going on!  I was dying to go show all those teenagers some real moves but Tyler was pretty sure that adults were not allowed on the dance floor. 

Glad Tyler had a fun night!

Tyler and Kathryn

Loves Everything Soccer From Head-to-Toe

Cooper reminds me a lot his big brother Alex in many ways.  One thing that particularly stands out is the way both LOVE the "uniform" of any sport.  Cooper loves to look his best on the field. This year I've seen a dramatic improvement in his competitiveness.  Don't get me wrong...Coop has always loved to win but this year he seems more aggressive. 

100% in!!!

It was windy at the game but Chloe still enjoyed a little time on the playground.

I've felt that the last few years the kids haven't been doing a very good job at supporting each other in their extracurricular activities (ie.  coming to band and choir concerts and sporting events).  When everyone was little we always loaded them all up and they had no choice but to come and cheer on their sibling.  I guess after they got old enough to stay home alone that started to wane a bit.  This year we are trying a bit harder to encourage the kids to come be a cheerleader for their sibling (sometimes seems like a punishment to their parents though).  

Love this action shot when Coop was goalie.

Karate?

Coop has been blessed this past year to play on a team full of friends from school and church.  His coach, Anthony Mugleston has been really kind and instructive with the boys.  I'm imagining this will be their last year as next year the boys will be old enough to play on the Junior High teams.

Star Spangled Banner - Proud to be an American

Alysee made us all proud Friday night when the chamber choir was asked to kick off the homecoming game with an amazing rendition of The Star Spangled Banner.  I wish I had a recording to share how amazing they sounded but Birch did capture several pictures.  I was proud to see the audience and football players all respectfully standing and putting their hand over their hearts. 

Junior Boys' Drill Team

Still trying to decide if I should be proud or squeeze my eyes shut...  Tyler joined the Junior Boys' Drill Team for the Homecoming Pep Assembly.  They practiced early morning for one week and they showed off their stuff on Friday.

Tyler is a bit hard to see in the video (and sadly it is taken from the wrong side of the gym) but he starts out in a coat and pants...then strips down a bit...then is wearing a white headband with a red vest and white cheer skirt and black spandex.  He is on the middle left hand of the screen and is the second to be thrown in the air.

https://youtu.be/4kVUgLa2TVU

Nate turns pro...at least in my books

Nate always puts 100% in whatever he does in life -- soccer is no exception.  He has had an awesome season this year on the 8th grade team.  This past game he scored two of the three goals the team made.  My only worry is that he has had several headers -- poor noggin'.

General Conference...good for the soul

What a WONDERFUL weekend we have had listening to uplifting words and being reminded of things to improve in our lives!  Yesterday we had to multi-task while listening to conference with a soccer game and cross country meet.  Today was wonderful to just sit back and soak in the goodness.

We had our traditional monkey bread, breakfast casserole, fruit, and juice for breakfast.

I'm so thankful we can sit in our jammies and listen to conference.

The last session of conference we worked Vision Boards.  The purpose of a Vision Board is to give each person a visual of goals they want to attain in their life.  What you want to become, places you want to go, attributes you want to work toward, a bucket list of desires, etc...  There is no wrong or right way to make a vision board.  We each labored away quietly (well, pretty quiet) on our creations for the last two hours of conference.

Birch designing away.

Coop sketching out his ideas.

Chloe painting her vision board.

Birch adding the details to his vision board.

 THE FINAL PRODUCTS!!!!

Alysee's vision board

Chloe's vision board

Tyler's vision board

Birch's vision board 

Momma's vision board

Coop's vision board

Nate's vision board

We couldn't leave Elder Ditto out so I made him a vision board of his current life.

I'm looking forward to re-reading and listening to the conference talks again the next six months.  It was different to not hear the prophet speak to us today as he was at home due to age.  We are going to hang our Vision Boards in the mud room so we'll see them each day!  Here's to attaining our dreams!!!!