Been awhile

So I totally know that it's been awhile, and I have the best of intentions of getting caught up, but life has been crazy, so when I have a second you will know more!

Genealogy

So on Tuesday night's when I run off to YW, mom invites Grandma and Grandpa Robinson over to work on genealogy. They have been doing a lot of research and are getting things ready to go to the temple. It is fun to see them every week and nice to know that I am loved. I have caught the bug too and hope to work more on our family line.

Mom and Grandpa, they make me laugh!

Clara's Day

A couple of weeks ago my dad blessed Clara. She was so cute and smiley which is usually not the case with her. I thought it was a great experience and I am hoping that it may inspire my brother to get back to church!

She was fascinated with my glass bead bracelet, it kept her quiet and still during the blessing.

This Week

I have been crazy busy this week. I have been trying to get things bottled and canned and frozen and dehydrated. My garden is producing a ton of stuff so that just means no real free time for me. So far I have put up 19 quarts of pickles, with another 20 pounds soaking in ice water, 23 quarts of tomatoes.

When I went out Wednesday to pick the garden, I was overwhelmed. I picked a basket of green beans, a basket of squash, and 3 baskets full of tomatoes. It was crazy!

YW Clean Slate Activity

Last night we had a great activity. We decided to challenge the girls to start the school year off with a Clean Slate. We talked about how the Anti Nephi-Lehi's buried their weapons and vowed never to pick them up again. They watched their family members be slaughtered by the Lamanites when they came again them to war. Some of those Lamanites were converted. We told the girls we wanted them to choose something that they are doing that they shouldn't be, or choose something they need to be doing that they are not doing right now. We wrote those "sins" down and burned them, to get rid of them. We then told them for the next month we will be focusing on getting rid of that bad habit or sin. We then made journals for the girls to monitor their progress. We also have 5 traveling journals going around that we want the girls to write words of encouragement in to inspire the other girls! It was a great activity.

Restoring Honor Rally DC

This last weekend me and mom went to Washington DC to attend the Restoring Honor rally held by Glenn Beck. It was a fun, but quick trip. The rally was super uplifting and it was wonderful to meet so many nice people who agree that our country is heading in the wrong direction. We stayed downtown and the W hotel. It is right next door to the Federal Reserve. We walked over to the Lincoln Memorial and hung out until things got started. There were so many people there. It was totally amazing! There are some disputes as to how many people were there. Let me just tell you it was packed from the front of the Lincoln Memorial all the way filling the reflecting pool and the fields on the sides, the WWII memorial was full of people, back from there, the lawn in front of the Washington Memorial was full over the top of the mountain and spilling down the back side. There were a TON of people there.

My Garden

So far this year my garden is getting big and producing a lot of stuff! I have been surprised about how much stuff has grown! It's always exciting to get more stuff going and have a feast from the garden!

Pepper, eggplant, beans and onions

My tomatoes are huge!

Treasure Hunt

So Garrett has a current obsession with Pirates and Treasure etc... So when he was over on Friday, my mom told him I would put together a treasure hunt for him. What a fun time! We only had the little kids involved but the big kids wanted to do it too! Maybe next time we will have 2 treasure hunts! Here they all are reading and with their clues. The treasure was just some candy wrapped in gold and silver! It was super fun, can't wait to do it again!

YW Budget activity and Cook off

So last night we had a budget and cook-off activity! We talked about keys to managing money and then gave the girls money and had them shop for stuff to make dinner. (we had brought stuff from our pantries and the store labeled with prices) They were given $7 to feed the 4 or five people in each group! They all agreed on what to cook and make and then went to it! I think they learned a lot and had a lot of fun. If they fill out the Teen Budget form we gave them and live within that budget for 3 months it passes off a personal progress goal!

Trying to decide what to make with the money that they have.
Grocery shopping can be hard with so many different opinions!

The first group cooking away, they made a pretty simple meal of top ramen, corn, oranges, french bread and brownies! The other group finally decided on Chicken alfredo and brownies. It was fun to see them working together and challenging each other for thing that they wanted!

Thumbs up from the picky eater of the group!



Licking the beaters

and having a clean plate, it was delicious

Syd was so cute she played with Sister Lamaster's kids outside. She is such a beautiful girl and she is so great with the kids, she will be an awesome mom!

Everyone enjoyed the brownies, we then took the left over brownies around to the girls who were unable to attend! It was a fun night!

YW Virtue the Amazing Race

The combined YW activity was so much fun! Laurel found it on the Internet and we knew we had to do it. She was released a couple of weeks before which put a huge load on our new person, they ended up having Laurel help and it turned out great! The girls had tons of fun, it requires a lot of leaders though so if you do it make sure you get help from everyone and maybe even ask some of the girls mom's to help out! The girls were amazing to see them work together and to see how everyone finished! It was a great end to a wonderful career. I still will have to hit her up for ideas!

The girls trying to figure out the ancient writing on the golden V's from the baseball field!

Rods and rivers, chutes and ladders

Trying to find the 1 piece of rice that is red and get the blind folded person to gasp just that one!

Working hard to get a stain out, little did they know it was impossible and they would have to visit and chat with the bishop!

Can you put a section of scripture in the right order? This was much harder then the girls thought it would be, but the got it eventually!

The race to read, everyone had to read 1 or 2 chapters depending if they had read their scriptures in the last 24 hrs

Finding our virtue flag from last year and almost to the end of the race!

Our winning team with Laurel who ended everyone and gave them treats! They did a great job!









V is for Victory!