Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Frenzied in February

February was a little frantic.  Nathan and I both had a very busy month with church meetings, which means there are not as many pictures.

Valentine's DayπŸ’˜

Hannah had been counting down the days to Valentines day since (I think) January 8th.  She noticed that I had a Valentine's Day gift for her as I had wrapped it at the beginning of January.

So when the day arrived, she woke up to this:

Red, heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes!

The she was excited to open up her gifts:


With the left over fabric from the pillowcases I made some hair ties for her too.  I accidentally put the Christmas one upside down.  Oops.

So Hannah went off to school, and then when she got off the bus I surprised her and we had a girl date.  We went to the salon for haircuts.  Well, more like trims.

After our hair cuts, I headed to the church to finish setting up for New Beginnings.



New Beginnings

On Valentine's Day the Young Women had our annual New Beginnings.  This is a night where we welcome the incoming Beehives (12 year olds), and talk about the Young Women program of the church.

The theme for the night was "Inside Out" from the Pixar Disney movie.  Honestly, this was one of the funnest themes we had.

Some of the girls dressed up like the characters (I dressed up as Disgust).

The young men gave each of the young women roses during New Beginnings.  It was really sweet.

Our presidency usually likes to get gifts for the girls.  We got them these infinity scarves with hearts on them.  We hoped that when they feel any of the emotions (joy, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear) that they will feel the Savior's love, as if it were someone wrapping a scarf around them.


Odds and Ends

One of the activities the young women planned this month was a Fear Factor.  I was so proud of the girls.  They each carried out their assignments, and it really came together for them.  They had an ice bucket challenge, three food activities (one involved baby food, one involved eating either pudding or mayo disguised as pudding, and the other food was eating a cooked duck egg😬😯).

Unfortunately, I was too busy moving around the activity that I didn't take any pictures.  Someone did take a one.  It's not much...but it's all I got.

One of my laurels made this torch.  Whoever won the activity got to take this home.

We had the missionaries over for dinner.  Hannah always enjoys having them over.

Hannah went to a birthday party, and found a Mine Craft costume.  (And yes, we know the mask is on upside down, but she didn't).

Hannah has been really wanting to do a science experiment that involves making slime.  She and Daddy attempted, but it didn't turn out too great. 

Hannah and Daddy had a Daddy-Daughter date.  They went clothes shopping, and Hannah wanted Daddy to try on a bow tie.

Y'all.  It's February.  And this is the kind of weather we are having!

Isn't that awesome?!  Just out of curiosity, I looked at what the weather was like in Pennsylvania.  After I looked, I was so glad I no longer lived there.

We had our annual ward conference this year.  During the last hour the young men and women combined.  When ever the youth get together, they will almost always sit apart from each other.  They do mingle and mix at activities, but when it comes to choosing any kind of seats (in a car or in a building), they almost always separate.πŸ˜‚

I was one my way home from work one day, when I got a call from the school.  It was the nurses office.  They told me that Hannah had a fever.πŸ˜•So we came home, got into some nice warm jammies, got a blanket and the i-pad, and got comfortable.  Poor little thing.

That was our frenzied month.  We are looking forward to Spring Break!

Infinity scarf picture courtesy from Etsy.com

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

January -- the beginning of the year!

January was awesome, and quite tiring!  When we got back from California, we went to work the next day (why did we do that?), and jumped right back into our church callings!  Not to mention all we needed to catch up on at home: the laundry, mail, emails, finances, grocery shopping, etc.

Roll Tide!🏈

First of all -- Nathan and I were SUPER EXCITED that Alabama won their football game against Clemson!  We were still visiting my parents at the time, and enjoyed watching that game!  I wore my Alabama socks a few times in January.

THEN, we were even more excited when we beat Georgia in the Championship game!  Man that was such a good game.  Going into the ball game I honestly thought we were going to loose.  And it looked like that for the majority of the game.  But then miracles happened y'all and -- we won!  Go Alabama! Roll Tide!

I think within one day of winning the championship, signs, car magnets, and stickers similar to these were starting popping up all around town.  Football is pretty much a religion here.




Happy BirthdayπŸŽ‚

Someone had a birthday!  Hint: he's wearing the Penn State sweater.  Hannah's so cute in that picture.

And of course he enjoyed his annual conference call with his family.  Those are always fun and entertaining.😁



Prophet

When we were in California we saw the news that President Thomas S. Monson passed away.  This saddened us in many ways, but also brought joy knowing that he was reunited with his beloved wife.  I was especially sad because President Monson has been an apostle since I was born.  I have lived my whole life listening to his wisdom, advise, and counsel.  He was a wonderful man and will be greatly missed.

However, the work of the Lord continues, and He has established a system where the world will never be without a prophet again.  On Tuesday January 16th, we watched the press conference from Salt Lake announcing that President Russell M. Nelson had been set apart as the 17th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  As I listened to his first address to the world as the prophet of God, I had an overwhelming feeling and confirmation that this is indeed the Lord's prophet on the earth today.  I'm grateful for that witness, and look forward to the leadership that President Nelson will serve with.



GymnasticsπŸ…

Hannah got free tickets to go see the University's Gymnastics team.

She got to meet Big Al, and the coach of the women's gymnastics team at a local grocery store.

It was princess night (and it was rather chili), so Hannah wore her Elsa pajamas.  We all had a lot of fun watching the girls perform.

We especially enjoyed watching one of the gymnasts named Maddie.  Nathan is working with her on a project at work.  These girls are so amazing, and are really good!

Hannah was really excited to meet her.

Pillow cases and hair ties πŸ›

I finished making Hannah her seasonal pillowcases.

Valentine's DayπŸ’˜

St. Patrick's Day☘

Easter🐣🐰

4th of JulyπŸŽ†

And her back to school pillowcaseπŸŽ’ (you know, the time period where there are not many holidays between Independence Day and Halloween)

I gave her the Valentine's Day pillow case this month, but plan on giving her the rest for Valentine's Day.  She LOVES these and enjoys using them throughout the seasons.



Mullets

Lately, the mullets have been coming out!

We saw this one at Hobby Lobby.  I couldn't tell if this was a boy, or a girl.😏I think it's a girl because of the way the bangs are combed forward.


But this one took the cake!  I found this guy at Sam's Club, and I got a front view, side, view, and a back view.  It was a beautiful thing.



Miscellaneous Stuff

I was on my way to an appointment when I saw this trailer home and couldn't believe it.  This is one tornado away from being swept away.πŸŒͺ

Hannah has realized that her baptism will be happening this year (where does the time go?πŸ•)  She is so excited about it that she did a journal entry in her notebook.

Hannah has been wanting to play Battleship lately.  It's a little advanced for her, but she and Nathan decided to give it a shot.  I think she'll need someone to be on her team for a little while longer.

This girl is a sucker for chocolate chip pancakes.

I love blogging about this next picture.  Hannah and Nathan: cutting the cheese.πŸ˜‚

Elder Erickson and Elder Johnson.  They serve in the YSA branch (a unit that Nathan oversees).  They are so much fun to have around.  I totally photobombed their picture.πŸ˜†

Hannah got a cool project book from a lady I work with.  You make dresses from the movie Frozen out of paper!  These were actually hard to make, and once you put the dress on, you can bend or sit down.  So, Hannah didn't wear it very long.

I was driving around the University one day, and I saw this street sign.πŸ˜‚

Nathan pulled a late night and did some work on a project.  Apparently Hannah heard him working and came to hang out with him.  It turns out that they both fell asleep on the sofas, and when I woke up this is what I saw:

For Alabama, we had some pretty cold weather this month.  I didn't bother me too much.  It would be chilly for a few days, and then it would warm up to the 50s and 60s, and then drop back down some.  But for Alabamians, they were freezing!πŸ’¨⛄

We also got to go and see Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  He took a Saturday evening and dedicated it for the youth and the young single adults (YSAs).  Since Nathan and I both oversee those groups we got to attend.  We also had to bring Hannah with us because all of our babysitters would be in the same meeting we would be in.

Here is a picture of us in our seats waiting for the meeting to start.

All three of us got a chance to meet him.  Hannah was especially excited to meet him, but got a little nervous and shy as we approached.  We were not allowed to take any pictures with Elder Andersen, but I will say that the meeting was so wonderful, and spiritual!  Thank you Elder and Sister Andersen for taking the time to come and see the youth of Zion!


Alabama Football win picture courtesy of www.foxnews.com
Alabama 17 wins picture courtesy of www.secstore.com
President Monson picture courtesy of lds.org
President Nelson / First Presidency picture courtesy of mormonnewsroom.org
Elder Andersen picture courtesy of lds.org