Eliza's Art Show

 Eliza has been taking art and has been enjoying it.  She had her first Art Show.  It was fun to see all the kids art and spotlight Eliza!

 She loves this fish 3D painting!

We love her teacher Amy and think she is pretty amazing!!

A Day of Shopping

 We started Christmas Camp the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Mike and I divided up the kids and took them shopping.  The kids drew names for each other and bought presents for each other.  After we met at Red Robbins for lunch.  We had a fun day shopping and wrapping presents for each other and cousins!

Service Project

 The day after Thanksgiving we got together with the Schwitzer side to do another Thanksgiving together.  After dinner we did a service project as a family.  We made food kits for the school district.  They hand these out to kids over the weekend that need help at home with food.  It was a good project because the kids did most of it.   We made about 80 bags!

Lucy is the Turkey

 Lucy's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year!  So, lucky girl, she got to be the Turkey! :)  I can't believe Lucy is five.  She is such a joy to have in our family and brings such a sweet spirit in to our home.  She loves her siblings and enjoys playing being with them.  Just this year she has made more friends and enjoys playing with them.  She loves animals and plays with them like they are her babies.  She has so sleep each night with two stuffed animal dogs, her baby doll, and her white little lamb.  She is good helper to Mom and keeps me company in the day while the other kids are at school.  She started pre-school and enjoys that so much!  How I love my little Buttercup, and we were so happy to celebrate her this day!

 Being the third girls she is used to hand me downs and playing with all her sisters old toys.  Our doll house was in pretty bad shape so, we got a Lucy a brand new doll house.

 A new family for the doll house

 A car for the family

 She wanted this American Girl Doll Dog.  She named her Lila.

 We made a special Turkey birthday cake!

 In the morning Jason had some of his friends over to have Turkey bowl in our back yard.

 In the afternoon we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Young's for Thanksgiving.  The girls and Allen making the rolls.

 Grandma and JanaLynn working on the Turkey.

 We sang Happy Birthday to Lucy and hopefully she made a wish!

 That evening we hung out a played games as a family.  We played adults against the kids in the Beat the Parents game.  It was fun!

We had a wonderful day being with family and thinking about all our many blessings that day!  How blessed our family is!

Thanksgiving pies for the Homeless

On the morning of the 25th the YW had no school so, we got them together to do a service project.  We made tons of pies to take to a homeless shelter for Thanksgiving.  Our girls are such great little pie makers, and they did a great job!

A Princess Party

 Lucy got to have her first friend party this year.  She was so excited to have her friends over.

 We had all the girls come dressed in their princess dresses and we played lots of princess games.  I didn't get any pictures of the them playing games… trying to get seven 5 year olds to play games and listen is hard work!!  The girls also got to decorate their own princess tiaras!

 Opening presents...

 We had princess cupcakes with ice-cream for dessert.

Rachel, Ambree, Emily, Lucy, Elizabeth, Ainsley, and Gwen.  Lucy has some fun friends and cousins that came to celebrate her 5th birthday.  We had a lot of fun pretending to be princesses and celebrating Princess Lucy!

VIP Lucy

Lucy got to be the VIP at pre-school all week.  I have never seen a girl so excited!  She got to be her teachers special helper, her poster hung up in the classroom, she shared treats, and the class asked her questions about herself.  It was a special week at pre-school for her!

Daughter of God Week

 Being in the Young Women's presidency has been one of most challenging, but most rewarding callings.  Over the past couple of months we have felt as a presidency that our girls really lack self- confidence!  We felt really strong that if they understand who they were… A Daughter of God that it could help them understand so many things in their life.  I found this idea on line from another ward that had done this week for their girls, and I suggested that we do it for our girls.  We were all on board because this week took a lot of time and thought.

We started off on Sunday with a combined YW lesson to kick off the week.  Andrea taught an amazing lessons on each of the girls worth.  We then handed each of the girls a gift bag with 7 envelopes.  Each envelope was day and on that day they opened the envelop.  We each took a day as their YW leaders.  We shared scriptures, stories, music, and pictures that we hope would inspire the girls each day.

On Wednesday we had a combined YW.  We listened to the talk "Who's that girl" and the girls painting nails and made bracelets while they listened.

On Saturday, we met to watch the movie Cinderella and have a pizza party together.  After the movie, we all knelt down as a YW and had Brother Whiting open our fast.  We all fasted the next Sunday for our sweet YW.  The YW were fasting to gain a testimony of their worth.  All the leaders, bishopric, stake YW presidency, ward council, and the girls parents all fasted for the girls on Sunday.

During YW on Sunday we handed out paper for the girls to write their testimony on it.  At first we thought we would have a testimony meeting during YW, but at the last minute Paige felt like the Lord wanted them to write their testimony.  This ended up being so neat!  The girls wrote amazing testimonies and experiences they have had this past year that have helped them draw closer to the Lord.

That evening we invited all the girls to the church with their parents to break the fast, have dinner, and a small YW excellence.  All Sunday I felt the spirit so strong.  Not only did I feel it strong for the YW, but had the spirit witness to me again that I am a Daughter of God that Heavenly Father loves me and is aware of me.  Even I need that every once in a while!!

 I thought the gym looked so pretty!  We wanted it to be really special for the girls.

 I took pictures of the girls one Sunday and then we set them out on the tables with their accomplishments from the year.  We also set there testimonies on the table.  As the parents came in to look at the tables many parents were in tears.  Many of them had not heard their daughters testimony, and it was special for them to read it!  Many girls said they liked writing it better because some of them do not like to express their testimony in front of everybody.  We were so glad we listened to the spirit on that one!!

 We had dinner of Soup, rolls, salad, and dessert.  The Stake YW spoke, Bishop Olson spoke, and some of the girls shared some of their talents.. dancing, piano, and violin.  We then put together a slide show of the girls.  We asked each of the parents to email us 3 qualities ( not physical, but qualities that come from their Heavenly Father)  We had their name with their picture and the qualities that their parents see in them.  We had the slide show go with the song "Lighthouse in the Night" by Jenny Phillips.    I do not think there was a dry eye in the room!

We really do have amazing YW and they shine with so many qualities that come from Heavenly Father.  They are so kind to each other and really show me what true Charity is!  I had so many girls come up to us after thanking us and letting us know that this week really effected them.

I hope this week becomes a picture in their testimony scrapbook.  When times get hard they can look back on this week and know that Heavenly Father loves them so much!!

 My Beehives!  Kate

 Kami

 Katelyn

 Brinlee

 Aubrinn

 Jessica

 Marin

 Miamaids and Laurels    Tiana

 Hannah

 Abby

 Katelyn

 Brynlee

 Lily

 Courtney

 Cailee

 Ashley

 Gracie

 Maddy

Marlee