Young Women In Excellence

I can honestly say that I love my calling and I love these girls (even though we are missing a few in the picture).  I am the YW Secretary, but I am also in charge of Personal Progress, which means that I had the "opportunity" to plan Young Women In Excellence (YWIE) back in December.  After perusing Pinterest for inspiration, I had several themes picked out.  In the end, I went a different route and chose "You Are HIS Sunshine".  I couldn't shake the idea that I really wanted the girls to understand their worth and that they ARE His sunshine, and that they need to then radiate that sunshine to those around them.  Sounds a little cheesy writing it out, but it felt right, so I went with it.  I was able to use some of the decorations from Brooke's birthday party, which made preparations a little bit easier.

The program included a song by the YW (Walk Tall, You're a Daughter of God), young women and leaders sharing their experiences with the personal progress program, a short message from me, a video presentation (an almost-disaster), and closing remarks from the Bishop.  Oh, and refreshments.

In my mind, the video presentation spotlighting the girls was going to be great.  I was going to get all the pictures, use picMonkey to write their names on the pictures, and put them all together in an awesome video.  Well, after a month of asking the girls for pictures (and only having like 2 girls send any), my plan was failing.  About a week before YWIE, I again reminded the girls, then posted a reminder on our Facebook page (which also goes to parents).  I gradually began receiving more pictures, but I was still missing A LOT.  I really considered pulling pictures off their Facebook accounts (which I hate that you can do), but felt like that was a bit creepy. The day before YWIE, I had finally scrounged up at least one picture of every girl (even if they were outdated), and finalized the video, which was totally stressing me out.  About 10 am the morning of, I had a parent email me some pictures and write "hopefully it's not too late." I already had pictures of their daughter from another young woman, so I simply replied that I had already finalized the video, but that their daughter was definitely represented.  I mean, this was hours before the program, and I had about a zillion other things to do. (I know I am venting.)  The dad then replied, and said "Isn't there any way you could squeeze these in?".  I really didn't want to deal with it, but decided that if I had time later, I would go back, edit the video, and then export it again.  Sounds easy, but it is time consuming.  Long story kinda short, I was able to add the pictures (along with more pictures another girl sent late), and had the final video on my little jump drive.  I was feeling pretty happy with myself :)  When I arrived at the church to set up the video with the guy helping with all things technical, he informed me that his cords for the projector didn't work with my mac.  What????? I almost died inside.  I called Kevin, who informed me that we a cord at home that would work.  (I think I was prompted to look for a cord earlier in the afternoon, but failed to act on it because I figured the guy with the projector would have whatever we needed.)  So, Kevin was saintly enough to drive the 25 minutes to the church and bring it to me after he had just set down to eat dinner with Brooke.  He arrived literally 3 minutes before it was time to show the video. Talk about divine intervention :)  In no way was the video what I had originally envisioned (due to having the pics last minute), but I still felt like it added something special to the evening. Maybe just because I love the girls in it, haha.

As a take-home reminder of the evening, I created the Sunshine printout and put them into these awesome $1 Ikea frames. My hope was that the girls would place them in their rooms as a constant reminder :)

Overall, I felt like the night was a success and I had multiple people tell me how much they loved the program, so that was encouraging.

Love Day 2015

The Monday before Valentine's Day, Brooke and I headed to Grandma's house for a girl's V-day party. We were the first to arrive, so Brooke had Grandma all to herself. Brooke loves these push-and-go Mickey/Minnie cars.

Tongue out in concentration, haha.

Kinley and Brooke made valentines, cute little giraffe crafts, played A TON, and enjoyed a pizza lunch.  Nothing could be better!  Brooke loves her cousins, and it is fun to see them interact with each other.

On Valentine's Day, I spend the morning with these lovely girls.  It was our Stake's YW Basketball tournament, and we had a lot of girls participate.  Since we were one of the first teams to arrive, our girls played first, but they unfortunately lost the game.  We then spent the next 2.5 hours hanging out in the Relief Society room eating snacks, playing games, and talking a little strategy.  They did much better the second game, but lost again, and were out of the tournament.  Kind of disappointing since we were 3rd place last year, but hey, the girls had fun, so I would call that a success. 

That afternoon, I went with my two valentines to La Madeleine for an early dinner.  It was a delicious meal with my cute dates. We opted to get a fancy heart cheesecake as well, since you know, it was Valentine's day and all.  It was pretty good, but not as great as my mom's :)  On the drive home, Brooke started saying "this" over and over, then chimed in with "open".  I reached back to see what she had, and found that she had somehow grabbed the cheesecake box from the diaper bag and was trying to open it.  I guess she wanted some more :)

When we arrived home, we gave Brooke her valentine, which was a new bubble machine.  Her old machine broke, and I found this one that was even pink and purple.  Couldn't have been better. This girl loves her bubbles.  The bubbles come out the top, and she had her face right in the midst of all the bubbles, just as happy as a clam. Makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Kevin wrote Brooke a love note, which she carried around the rest of the evening.  I think she knew it was something special.

I sure love my girl and her Dad :)

life with my little one (february)

Just some random things I want to remember about Brooke right now:

She is a girly-girl, but also not.  She loves her purses, bracelets, bows, and babies.  But she also loves to play with dirt and be outside. 

Something about a sleeping toddler is just adorable.  She still loves her dolly, but Minnie (a gift from my friend Joanna when their family went to DisneyWorld) has become a fast favorite as well. And let's not forget that she calls her "Mimmie" :)

She woke up when I got her out of the car after church, so we took a little Sunday Selfie.

Stake Conference with Daddy.  We were nervous about how Brooke would do during the two hour conference, and Kevin actually expressed that he would rather just start out in the Primary Room rather than going there halfway through the meeting.  I, on the other hand, wanted to see how Brooke would do, and we could always resort to the halls if needed.  Well, to our pleasant surprise, she did great for the full two hours.  I mean, I brought her favorite book, stickers, snacks, etc...so she had plenty to entertain her.

The night before, Kevin and I went to the adult session, and G + G Meador came to watch Brooke.  They sent us this picture while we were gone :)  I think they both loved the time together.

I babysat a few little boys one day, which was entertaining.  My friend has asked me to watch her son (Brooks), who is about 6 weeks older than Brooke.  She was going to be gone about 4 hours, but part of the time he would be napping, so I knew it would be no problem.  Then, another friend asked me to watch her son (pictured at the piano with Brooke) while she went to the Doctor.  I definitely wanted to help, but I admit I was a little nervous about watching all three of these toddlers!  Thankfully the boys only overlapped about 45 minutes, and it honestly was not that bad.  It did make me appreciate Brooke's calm demeanor though!

Enjoying some post-nap snuggles...

I was putting laundry away one afternoon, and I literally turned around to put clothes in my dresser for MAYBE 30 seconds.  When I turned back around, Brooke had flipped the basket over, and was standing up with the biggest grin on her face, like she knew she was going to surprise me.  I just burst out laughing, so of course, she did it over and over again.

Just taking an important call during snack time...

She wanted to carry her blanket around, but kept slipping on it and falling down.  I decided to wrap it around her shoulders, which looks ridiculous, but she was happy.

And all her babies (and Minnie) get swaddled these days.  She brought Minnie to me one day, and said "Mimmie" "Wrap".  I asked her if she wanted me to wrap Minnie in a blanket, to which she said "Yes".  She is talking SO much these days.  It really amazes me to see her little mind working.  I am not sure if this is weird, but I have been keeping track of all Brooke's words since about 12 months.  It is probably partially due to my speech pathology background, but I was just curious to see how quickly she learned words, and I wanted to remember when she started saying them.  I just added the lists to her baby book, and I think I will stop keeping track now because she has almost 90 words.  Makes a speech mama proud :)

Loves the hooded towel I made her.  I also look like a freak in this picture, but Brooke looks cute, and that's what counts, right?

She is a silly girl, but I love all her antics and the personality that continues to evolve every day.

Let's also note that Brooke turns 2 in less than 4 months!!  I cannot believe it. On one hand, I feel like she is much different than when she was one, but I just can't accept that almost a whole year has passed by.  It really makes me want to savor every moment and as cheesy as it sounds, to not take a single day for granted.