Blanket Project is a go!

I've been wanting to make a blanket for quite some time now. I'm love making tie blankets. I guess you could call it an obsession. But, I think the only reason I like making them is because it involves no sewing machine, whatsoever! So, today I went to Joann's with my mom and picked out some really cute fabric. The only thing is that my fabric isn't exactly fabric that you use for a tie blanket, so I'm actually going to dig out the old sewing machine that's been hibernating in our cabinet for quite some years now. Yes, yes. Feel free to applaud. I'm going to go start pinning it together and when it's all finished I'll take pictures and post them on here! If i still have fingers left....

Cute names that I like...as of now....

• Bethany (girl)
• Austin (boy)
• Luke (boy)
• Beckham (boy)
• Alyse (girl)
• Paige (girl)
• Logan (boy)
• Olivia (girl)

One of my favorite quotes of all time.

Give me a young woman who loves home and family, who reads and ponders the scriptures daily, who has a burning testimony of the Book of Mormon. Give me a young woman who faithfully attends her Church meetings, who is a seminary graduate, who has earned her Young Womanhood Recognition award and wears it with pride! Give me a young woman who is virtuous and who has maintained her personal purity, who will not settle for less than a temple marriage, and I will give you a young woman who will perform miracles for the Lord now and throughout eternity. - President Ezra Taft Benson

Family Home Evening.

So I figured because it is Sunday, after all, that I should be doing something church related. So I found a really good Family Home Evening lesson. I hope I get to keep all of these lessons to share with a family of my own someday. Oh, by the way, so you know how I said that my names change a lot for my kids? Well, I was wondering what I would name my daughter if I had one. And the name Bethany came to my mind. I thought it over and figured it was okay, but I tried to think of other options. But for some reason, BETHANY just came into my mind. And then I went to my dance and a lady was walking around with her new baby. When I went up to ask if I could hold her, guess what I found out her name was? That's right, audience. You guessed it. Bethany. I'm taking this as a sign? Bethany it is. : )

Anyways, here's the lesson:

Overcoming Challenges 
1. Collect pearls, a ping pong ball, and a jar filled with rice.
2. Gather pencils and paper.
3. Scriptures.
4. Purchase pre-made/refrigerated cookie dough

Opening song: Nephi's Courage

Activity: Pass out paper and pencil and have each family member list 5 things that happened in his/her lifetime. these can be happy, sad, thought-provoking, funny, or serious. Allow anyone who wishes to share their list with the family. Show the pearls: Pearls come from oysters. An oyster is a shell fish that lives in the ocean. They have a very hard shell that protects them, but sometimes a grain of sand can get inside the shell and it causes a lot of pain and discomfort to the oyster. God has given the oyster a way to ease that pain. When a grain of sand gets in there, the oyster oozes out a liquid that coats the grain of sand and then it hardens. The oyster keeps doing this over and over again until the grain of sand no longer causes pain. This is how a pearl is made. Something that started out being painful turned into something very beautiful and valuable. In that same way, we can make something negative turn into something positive by having the right attitude.

Place a ping pong ball inside a jar and discuss challenges we might face in our lives. As each person mentions one, allow them to put a smell scoop of rice in the jar. Continue this until the rice is about 2 inches from the top of the jar. The rice will eventually cover the ball. Then read D&C 63:47. Put a lid on the jar and gently shake it. The ping pong ball will rise to the top. Just as this ball "overcame" the rice, we can overcome the world.

Go back to the list of experiences your family made. Name at least one blessing that came from each experience. (Children may need help identifying what is a blessing). Brainstorm with your kids and husband/wife on ways to turn a negative into a positive.

Write these down on  a piece of paper and hang them up somewhere they will be seen on a daily basis:
1. Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire. If you did, what would you  have to look forward to?
2. Be thankful when you don't know something. It gives you can opportunity to learn.
3. Be thankful for difficult times. During those times, you grow.
4. Be thankful for your limitations. They give you an opportunity to grow.
5. Be thankful for each new challenge. It will build your strength and character.
6. Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you a valuable lesson.
7. Be thankful when you're tired and weary. It means you've made a difference.
8. Be thankful for your troubles. They can become your blessings.

Activity: Think of someone you know who could use a "lift" in spirit. Make cookies using the pre-made cookie dough. Let your children make a card to go with the plate of cookies and deliver them.

Treat: Eat the remaining cookies as a family.

Sports Day and the Dance!

The dance last night was so much fun! It was dressy casual, and it was my first dressy casual dance. : ) I love stake dances. Love them, love them, love them. You know why? Because it is seriously the only place I know of where there is no drama. None. We all push aside our differences and we all have fun! The gym was so pretty last night. There were white and blue lights strung all around the gym and little lanterns hanging off of them. I've never seen a dance so pretty before. Not even my eighth grade dance. Sports day is where you go and play sports and have fun! Taylor Dossett, one of my best friends, was there and we played in the volleyball tournament and ping pong. I think Elizabeth Hampll is the best girl at volleyball. She's been playing for about 5 years and she's just as good as any professional volleyball player. Also, Taylor's been playing for about 4 years and she's awesome, too. They are the only reasons that we won! haha and they get so into it. You can tell they really love what they do. Anyways, back to the dance. The very first guy I slow danced with was him. Yes, that guy that I've liked for forever! And he wanted to dance with me! And we were just laughing and being ourselves. It seemed so natural. We danced to Daughters by John Mayer, which is one of my favorite songs! I kind of held his hand without knowing it though haha because I was trying to find a spot for us to dance (there's a lot of people), and I was holding his hand and dragging him with me. As soon as I realized I was holding his hand I dropped it! It was kind of awkward haha. But we danced and had fun. That's all that really matters. And then he texted me after the dance we talked for a while. Yay!
Here are some pictures from the dance:

On the left is Taylor, I'm in the middle, and on my right is Klea Dust. I love Klea! She's so funny and she makes me laugh and she even told me at the dance that she trusts me and that we're very close. I wouldn't want to do anything to ruin that! In the background you can see some of the pretty lights!

This is Conner! He's such a stud! He's one of my best friends too! He's such a gentlemen. Whenever everyone was sitting down, I walked over and stood by them and one of my friends was like, "Do you want to sit?" I just said, "No, I'm fine." But then Conner kindly gives up his seat and goes to find another one. He's such a sweetheart and he's so funny! : ) I hope we stay close friends! P.S. - all of the girls have the biggest crush on him hahaha.

Overall, it was a good night and I'm glad I have no school tomorrow! Go Presidents Day! WOO!

Valentine's Day and Swing Choir.

So I'm not a huge Valentine's Day fan, which if you read one of my last posts you should already know. But it went pretty great! I got cards and candy from my friends and my other friend, Nikki Denbow, gave me a cookie! So I was pretty happy. Not going to lie. Not to mention that for the past couple days, the weather has been fantastic! It's not longer 30 degrees out. : ) It's nice. It's at least in the 50's, maybe? I don't know, but it's warm and there's an amazing blue sky! On from Valentine's Day: I had my Swing Choir tryouts today! Oh my goodness, at first my friend was going to drop out of it and not do the routine at all with me because she was so nervous. But she calmed down a little bit. When we went to sing our song ("A Whole New World" from Aladdin), she messed up because her voice was so shaky. It sounded like she was going to cry! And I accidentally sang one part wrong from not thinking about it. But our monologue and dance went great and Mrs. Stamps just laughed when we messed up. She's so nice! She reminds me of Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast. I reallllyyyyyyyy hope I make Mixed Choir with the boys and the girls. If I make Treble Choir, I guess that's better than nothing, but I really want Mixed Choir. I'm praying that I'll make it. We didn't do horrible, but I'm not sure if we did that great. I have faith in us though! To anyone who's reading, pray for us and hope we make it! I went to piano again today for the first time in 3 weeks. Cami and I always have plans so we hardly have time for piano. And today, I didn't even do piano. It was just all voice lessons. Sister McClain gave me really good songs to practice though. I got Tomorrow from Annie, A Change In Me from Beauty and the Beast (Broadway), and Walk With Him. Now I just need a binder to keep all of my songs in. And I also need a calculator for math.
Other than that, life is peachy keen jelly bean! Stay strapped in for the ride.
Bye!

Fun Ways to Spell.

I know that when I was little, I loved to read, write, and spell. They were my favorite. My nephew Liam is already so good at saying some of his letters and he's not even 2 yet. By the way, you know how I said I change the names I  like a lot for my kids? Well, I was thinking about my friend Annie, because she has a cute little niece named Airlia. Isn't that so pretty? I love it. Airlia and Evelyn are names I really like as of now. Anyways, to prepare for teaching my nephew how to spell (because I know that most of it will be my teaching and some of it will be my sister, Jennifer's), I was blog surfing one day and came across some pretty cool ways to spell and have fun with the letters of the alphabet (aside from watching Sesame Street). : )

Flash Cards: My mom did this to me when I was little and I loved it. Nonetheless, I am a flash card fan - not to endlessly flip them in front of a kid's face - but to use in games and activities.

Stairsteps: Write the words as if they are stairs, adding one letter at a time. S, Sp, Spe, Spel, Spell.

Tic-Tac-Toe: Make a larger-sized board. Have each player use an 'X' or an 'O' but in order to mark on the board, they have to spell a word correctly.

Word Scramble: Scramble up the letters of each word and have the kids put them in the correct order.

Water Paint: Use water and a paintbrush to water paint the spelling words. On a hot, sunny day, words disappear quickly -- so the speller has to move fast!

Spelling Word Hunt: Look for the words in other spelling lists, the newspaper, books, and magazines.

Word Train: Use the letters to have your child create a 'word train' by using the first and last letter of the first word to begin the second word and so on: cat/tap/pan.