Dance Concert...Gracie in action

I went to my "adopted" niece's, Gracie, dnace concert on Monday, June 13th.

She was so cute. We had fun watching her and then going to eat afterwards. Matt wasn't able to come because he had clinicals, so I took some pictures and video to show him as Gracie is his favorite and he was pretty bummed that he was going to miss the concert.

Gracie on stage about to start her first dance

Me and Parker (Gracie's brother) waiting for the concert to start

Gracie at the end of the concert smiling at us...I have to kinda agree with Matt that she is one of the cutest girls we know.

Me and Katie (Gracie's little sister) waiting for the dance concert to start. I usually agrue that Katie is the cutest girl when Matt says Gracie is. It is fun to tease him :-)

Me and the girls.

It was quite funny because during the concert and after a couple of ladies that were sitting behind us kept saying that "that is the cutest little girl", which was Gracie. I got to claim her as my daughter for a little bit, but had to fess up and say she was only my niece. Too Bad.

Young Women and Young Men Fundraiser

We hold an annual fundraiser every year for the Youth in our ward to help raise funds to pay for camp. We had a breakfast, car wash, and auction on Saturday, June 11. Luckily the weather was perfect....and alot of people showed up too. We were able to raise about $2000.00.

The young women prepared an item for the auction. We all learned to crochet a square. The squares were then all put into a blanket of values for the auction...we were able to make 2 of them. In the end, Matt and my 1st counselor, Leslie were bidding against each other for the first one and we ended up at $51.00 for each blanket. (never give the husband your check book).

Matt was agreat sport and helped with the food for the breakfast.

This is one of the orange square that I crochetted for Young Women Value blanket!
Took me quite awhile to learn how to crochet, but after I learned it was fun.

The $51.00 blanket...It will be great to remember what I learned in Young Women's year from now.

A - BOW - IE

A - BOW -IE (Bows by Abbie)

So I thought I would try and make some more bows. I kind of have a bug.... I made 19 or 20 this time and had so much fun I went out and bought all the essential bow making items. I will have to take a picture of it all sometime.

Well here my creations. Let me know what you think.

Memorial Day Weekend....and a great Memorial Day Deal!

Memorial Day Weekend hasn't been all that fun. Matt had clinicals Friday, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday from 7:00am to 7:30pm. So I tried finding things to do.

On Friday, I went up and baby sat the Elswood kids, while David and Kristin went on a date. It was quite interesting to say the least. 3 kids under the age of Four (4, 2, and 6 months). I had to make dinner, heat up hotdogs, get the jello out, chips, and a drink. Fairly easy right....Yep...that is what I thought until Gracie's little friend stayed over for dinner too and Parker (6 months old) was hungry, so he decided to scream while I tried to get the girls their food. Oh and Gracie's little friend is bossy, so the girls wanted to do everything her way.

Lets just say, No more friends while babysitting, unless I don't have to "cook" dinner.

I got the kids ready for bed and read books until it was time for bedtime. Thank goodness Parker fell asleep on me and the girls love me so they went right to bed without any problems. YEAH!!!

Saturday and Sunday were pretty uneventful, except Sunday I made 21 hair bows, which I will post pictures in a couple of days.

Monday, I coerced Matt to come home early, so we could go on a date. We first went on a walk, then to Michaels for more bow making supplies, then to Big-5 for a canopy, dinner, and a movie. It was nice seeing my husband for a little while.

The Canopy Story -
           Matt and I have been thinking about by a canopy for camping for quite awhile. Why you might ask? Well when we go camping it usually rains. We went camping 5 times last year and it rained 4 out of 5 times. Pretty lousy odds. So we have been looking for a good canopy that will last a long time, can withstand the weather, and not to expensive. I have been searching the ads for the last couple of months and saw the "Memorial Day" sale at Big-5, so we went and checked it out.

Well we got our canopy.
13x13 feet wide
Regularly Priced -          $200.00
Sale Priced -                 $149.99
Floor Model Discount     $15.00
Ad Coupon                    $10.00
Gift Certificate                $75.00
Gift Card                          $5.60
           Total Price Paid $52.00

Thought of staying dry while camping.....PRICELESS!

HURRAY

Matt took his CT Boards on Tuesday....He passed with 91%. Now he has two licenses, one to take X-Rays and one to complete CT Scans. These are not technical terms for the licenses, but what I call them

We have 6 months left of Matt being in school and then we are done. It will be very interesting to see what will happen up until then and what will happen afterwards.

WISH US LUCK!!!

Mother's Day or Daughter of God Day!

So this year's Mother's Day was a little bit harder than usual, but I wanted it to be a good day, so I renamed it Daughter of God Day!

We are all Daughters of God and I wanted to show my Young Women how much I loved and appreciated them. Along with my mom, Matt's mom, and our Grandma.

We dipped strawberries on Saturday Night. Lots of them. I want to drizzle "black" chocolate of the brown chocolate. We didn't have any dark chocolate, so I thought I could use food coloring to make the medium colored chocolate black. Well it didn't work. It turned the chocolate and ugly green and also made the chocolate to work the right consistency. (Matt told me on the instructions, not to add any moisture. I didn't listen very well.)

We gave our Moms' a plate or chocolate covered strawberries and Grandma a Pansie. Grandma said chocolate ruins the strawberries. (Good thing, we gave her a plant. Love you, Gram!)

I gave the Young Women the following scripture and a Chocolate Covered Strawberry after the lesson.

Proverbs 31:10


10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. (Or Chocolate Covered Strawberries)

Matt eating one of the "Green Chocolate" covered Strawberries

Aren't they beautiful...and they taste great too!

If you look really hard, you can see "Green Chocolate" Covered Strawberries. 

Happy Daughter of God Day to every Young Woman (yes, I mean you!)

BABY Blanket

One of my Young Women advisors is going to have a baby boy and I couldn't think of anything for the young women to make for a boy, so I decided they could tie a baby quilt.

So I got the task of making the quilt, I kept putting off making for a couple of weeks. Well the day was getting closer and closer to tie the quilt, so I finally buckled down and did it.

I cut out all the squares and figured out a pattern. My mother-in-law helped me pin and iron as I sewed. Thanks, Ma! Well we started about 5:30pm and ended at 10:30pm. The longest part was the backing for the blanket - buying it, washing it, and waiting for it to dry. But it got finished.

The Young Women tied some of the quilt, but we ran out of time, but it is complete and we will be giving it to the advisor this Sunday. What a great Mother's Day present!