Activity Day - General Conference Journals

A few weeks ago for our Activity Day, the girls made General Conference Journals. I figure they were getting old enough to start really listening to General Conference and what better way to motivate them than to have them decorate their own journals so they can write notes as they listen.

Here is a link to show how you can decorate a simple composition book.

And then I saw this link where they used pictures of the apostles as tabs so you could write the notes according to who gave the talk. i thought that was a great idea too.

The girls really loved decorating their journals. We will see this weekend if they actually use them!

Holland Trip Part 1

We started our trip in Strand Horst where we picked up our boats. We headed out and our first major site was this beautifully large castle. We knew we were in for some great sites and a truly wonderful trip.

Our first stop was in the cutest little town called Weesp. Every time we went through a town, there were three things each town had in common 1) A church with a gold clock tower, 2) an ice cream shop and 3) a windmill.


This little town was so picturesque and so we took a lot of pictures. Here are just a few of them from Weesp.


I love this picture of Hannah with her grandpa!

And I love this picture of Jake!

Hannah in Weesp.

Everyone rides bikes in Holland. They are everywhere! But none are as cute as this little red big that was in the front of a shop in Weesp. Love it!

We spent the night in Weesp and parked right by the church. So every 30 mins, we could hear the loud chimes of the clock. They were pretty until it was 3:00 am and you were hearing them every 30 mins. We learned a valuable lesson that night. Do not park the boat by churches.

Big We Holland Trip

Just got back from our family trip to The Netherlands. It was a blast. So many fun moments, pictures and memories, but for now I am going to post some pictures the capture the trip in a nut shell. I will get back to regular blogging after I adjust to the jet lag, get the laundry done and unpack!

Our first windmill siting.

Here are our official t-shirts for the trip. I love how they turned out.



Amsterdam had a big flower market. Of course, we brought home tulip bulbs to plant in our yard.

Our trip was all about the bridges. We had to wait for bridges each and every day. And they were all different and unique.

The kids passing the time on the boat.

A typical day on the canals of Holland. So pretty!

Activity Day Binder Sheets

About a year ago, I posted some Activity Day binder sheets I had created for my activity day girls. Every since then, i have recieved about 1-2 requests a day for these sheets. For a year, I have been emailing them to people, but I have finally got my act together and decided to make things easier for everyone. I have posted them on the web, so you can download them yourself without having to ask me for them and wait for me to email them to you.

It will make my life a lot easier and yours too, but I will miss your daily emails and kind words... they always make me feel so good. Hopefully, everyone will find these sheets helpful and easier to access now! Here are the links to the download pages.

Cover Sheet
Article of Faith
Articles of Faith Tracking Sheet
Faith in God Tracking Sheet
BInder Tracking Sheet
Gospel Standards


And here is a link to all my downloadable pages on scribd.

I want that...

I saw this photo and thought... he stole my idea. I love Latte bowls. Every time I walk into Anthropologie and see them I say to myself "I want to collect these bowls and then display them." But I don't every do it because a) i don't have the storage space and b) or a place to display them. But I love them. They are perfect the perfect bowl. Always colorful and pretty and the perfect size.

I wish I had a fun place to display these pretty bowls. maybe someday!

Lost Teeth!

Hannah's two front teeth have been loose for quite some time. I can't pull out teeth or even watch them wiggle for that matter and Chris just figures they will fall out on their own when they are ready (which is code for "he doesn't like to pull them either").

So, days before 1st grade, Hannah hit her front teeth with her knee and one of her teeth came right out. Which was perfect, since they were so close. But then she was left with this one tooth that was so loose and crooked, it looked like it was smack dab in the middle of her mouth.

Hannah came out of the bathroom one day and said "mom, do I look like Ray the Firefly?" It took me a minute, but I realized she meant Ray from The Princess and the Frog. I told her she did kind of look like him and she was so pleased with herself. But what i didn't tell her was that there was no way, I was letting her go to 1st grade looking like Ray the Firefly!

So, I gave it until Sunday and then I called our neighbors (the husband is a dentist) and asked (and kinda begged) him to pull the tooth out. So, we headed over and after a few minutes and full intrigue by all the kids, Hannah's second front tooth was finally out!

Hannah was sad, she didn't look like Ray anymore.. . me not so much!

Big We Trip

I am fortunate to have been able to travel with my family to many exciting places all around the world. A few of my favorites: Syria, Tonga, New Zealand, Vietnam and Turkey to name a few). My parents love to travel and so since many of us didn't get married until we were older, we got to accompany them on my many of their travels. When my parents would talk about traveling and trips, we would always have them clarify "Is this a BIG WE trip" or a "SMALL WE" trip. Meaning, was it the whole family or just the parents going on the trip.

So, now whenever we talk about going on family trips, we call it a "BIG WE" trip. Since, all of us have since married and now have kids, the BIG WE Trips have been scarce and slowly coming to an end, but not quite yet! We have one more BIG WE trip coming up and it really is a BIG WE trip.

It is everyone. Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. All of us are going to Holland to travel through the country via the canals and canal boats. I am excited for this trip, but at the same time fearful of the 20+ hours plane rides, the jet lag and traveling with all three kids (plus 3 more cousins).

But to add to the excitement, my parents decided to make t-shirts for the trip and they asked me to design them. So, here are our BIG WE trip t-shirts. It is a simple design (I gave everyone 4 to choose from and this was the one everyone picked). This trip will definitely be an adventure and ready or not, we will be stylin' fun family t-shirts for the adventure!

Yosemite for A Day

While my sister was in town, we decided to take her to Yosemite for the day. I hadn't been there for some time and forgot how amazing it is there. It was definitely worth the car-sickness that was experienced on the way there. The weather was perfect and the crowds weren't too bad.

We stopped at one of the bridges ( I think it was Swinging Bridge) and the kids had a blast playing in the water. I wish we had brought our swimsuits, but it didn't matter to the kids, they were in waist deep and loving every minute of it. It was perfect because there was no current and the water was so shallow the kids couldn't get into trouble. Seriously, so much fun!

Here are a ton of pictures that we took to capture the day.

Craft Club - Monsters

We had our last craft club last week and with school starting, I forgot to get our crafts up on the blog. The last craft theme was all about Monsters! I cheated this week and got the craft from OTC.... paper plate monsters. Sometimes letting someone else do the work is better (okay, it is most of the time, right?)

This was such a fun summer activity and it will definitely be a yearly summer tradition.

BOOK: TIckle Monster
Craft: Monster Plate Faces (I can't find them on OTC, but they have plenty of other fun monster crafts)
TREAT: Monster Cookies

First Day

This week was the start of school. Hannah started 1st Grade and Ella started preschool. After six yeas, our lives have all changed. No more lazy mornings, no more having all the kids home, no more easy schedule. We are official. We get up early, everyone is out of the door by 8:45 am and mom is now in the car more than she would like to be.

But back to my girls. Hannah seemed excited for the first day of school. When asked if she was excited, she would tell people she was nervous about making friends, but I am pretty sure she heard me say that once and decided that was the response to have. I think the first day was a bit overwhelming. New classroom, new friends, sitting in desks, more rules than play, no toys, recess with the big kids and lunch in a big cafeteria. Each day seems to get better, but I can tell it is still a new thing that she is still figuring out.

Ella on the other hand, loves school and can't wait to get to her class. It is hard for me to get her attention to say good-bye. Definitely no school-shook there. I worried about putting her in 3 days a week, but after this first week, there is nothing to worry about. She loves it!

As for mom. I miss Hannah! I didn't think I would, but I miss have her around all day. I miss her playing with Ella. I miss her spirit and voice and creativity. This will take some getting used to, but i know in a few weeks, this new life will be normal and just what we do! Here is to a new school year and new changes and new learning and fun!

A Great "young" woman I Know!

I have this cousin who is about the coolest, smartest, most inspiring and wittiest woman I know. Every time we are together (which isn't often enough) we laugh, have insightful conversations, laugh and laugh. Along with her great qualities, she also has one of the cooler jobs (and when I say Jobs, i literally mean plural jobs)! She (let me see if I get this right, Laurel correct me where i am wrong).... she is director (or some up-there title) for Time Out For Woman, she works (or worked) directly with Sheri Dew, she speaks at multiple young women events on a monthly basis and writes books for Deseret Book.

Well, that is why I am writing about here. She is releasing her latest book title "He Love Us and We Love Him....You've Memorized It, Now Live It". She just has a way about her with the young women and she knows how to write and tell stories that touch hearts, inspires change all while being fun, hip and approachable.

This new books is coming out soon and when it does, she has promised me a copy of it and when I get that copy, I will have a little giveaway on my blog to pass that book on to one of you (or should I say a YW you know). I can't wait for it to come out. It really will be worth reading!

Oh, and if you don't win the book, go and buy it anyway! It is only $10 and well worth the money. She is using the money she makes to help pay for all her guest speaking travels to various girls camps, youth conference, etc. She doesn't let people pay for her travel, she pays for it out of the kindness of her heart... Isn't she awesome! But she gets more and more busy each year speaking and the costs are starting to add up! So, if you are looking for a great stocking stuffer for Christmas... this would be a great gift!

Activity Days - Hair Clips

For Activity Days we took the summer off. I only had one girl any given week, so we decided we would start back up when school started, so we could all be together and have fun together. So last week, we had our first activity (again) and we made hair clips. I found this idea here and the tutorial here. The girls really enjoyed picking out their material and making these clips. And the best part was the girls learned a little bit about sewing.
I told the girls I hope to see these clips in the hair on Sunday!

Getting Ready for School

We start school this coming Monday. My oldest is going into 1st grade and my middle child starts preschool. It is going to be an interesting year for me. So many big changes and now with Hannah going to school with the "big kids", I hope I can handle it.

But to get started, I decided to create some magnets that have a few "school schedules" to help me get started on the right foot this school year. I wanted to make sure i remember who drives what days for our carpool and what to pack each day for lunch. That is the biggest one to remember, so I am not trying to figure it out each morning.

I also made magnets for each of the parents I carpool with, so they too can have a little help the first few weeks.

I decided to made blank versions for you my readers, just in case you wanted to use them. And I figured out, how to add links for you to download them yourselves, without having to email me. So here they are: download the carpool here and the lunch menu here.

Calculating Success

I found this idea here and thought how easy and fun to give to my kids teachers this year. The calculators are from Target's dollar Spot, but I couldn't find any red (so sad), but I did find these fun colors. Then I created my own tag to match the colors and packaged them up.

Cheap, easy, cute and practical! What more can you ask for?! Here is to starting the school year out on a fun note!

You can download the tag here