Personal Progress

I only had two more projects to finish my Personal Progress. We needed some Personal Progress holders for the new Beehives coming in next year, so I volunteered to make them for my Good Works project. It was fun to make something again. I enjoyed using up some of my fabric and matching them together. I think they turned out really cute.
**Update: When I took these to the church to put in our closet, some of my Laurels saw them and loved them. They don't have any, so requested that I made some for them. I was pleased as punch to make some for them and was so glad they liked them!
I'm working on my Virtue project now. We were challenged to memorize The Living Christ. It's something I have always wanted to do, but seriously doubted my memorization capabilities. We are memorizing it as a family and have the first two paragraphs down all ready. It's so fun, especially to see how proud the kids are of themselves for knowing it! If you'd like to read it for yourself, here is the link: The Living Christ

Camping

PC and Bucko went camping with the Scouts. They had fun. I struggled a bit more than I thought I would. Baby Girl was pretty fussy and Shortcake wasn't getting the attention she needed, so it stressed me out a lot. But we survived. And we moved Tink down to her own room in the basement that weekend. It just works out better for everyone for her to have her own room. She wakes up at 5:20 to get ready for seminary and needs to get to sleep early. Minnie would talk to her at night and that would make it hard for her. So Shortcake is now sharing a room with Minnie and that has worked out much better.
Here are some pictures from the camp out:

 They went fishing up at Farish, but no one caught any fish. They did catch craw fish and cooked those up and ate them. Bucko liked them, he said. Eww.

August Fun

 The theme for our youth at church this year is from Doctrine and Covenants 4:2. It states, "Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day." So we have been trying to plan more service oriented activities for mutual night. The girls decided to host a dinner for the bishopric and their wives, but ;p our Laurel President shared the idea at Bishop's Youth Council, the bishop suggested to include the ward executive secretary and ward clerk as well. So, I had been planning on helping serve with the girls, but ended up being on the receiving end. I have to admit, though, it was so nice! The food was great and the girls even took the baby and held her the whole time.
Minnie was allowed to have a "late night" with some friends one night. PC and Tink were at the temple with the other youth from church, so it worked out to have her friends over that night. We ordered pizza and Minnie had the whole evening planned out for them. They ended with watching Disney's Descendants and braiding each others hair! It is so nice to have good friends!

For mutual one night, we were blessed to have a self-defense class. It was so good for the girls and I know it has helped many of them to feel more confident in themselves, knowing they at least know how to react if someone were to attack them.

I planted gladiolas in the front yard a couple months ago and they have been blooming for the past few weeks. Minnie gets especially excited each time a new color blooms.

Bucko received his Tenderfoot rank this month as well. We are proud of him working hard and enjoying the Scouting program.

Shortcake LOVES to play with her dolls and she is pretty OCD about how they line up. I was looking for my water bottle one day and found it in line with her dolls (above). She has branched out even more lately to include the Barbie dolls as well. If she has the match in the smaller doll, she puts that one in front. It is just too cute!

One Month Old

 Baby Girl is a month old! She is a great eater and sleeper.  We all still adore her and the kids all love to help out. I needed to go do something with the young women, so I pumped and Goofy loved feeding her! She didn't mind the bottle at all and drank it all up.
She got a shot at the doctor's which she did not like at all. She turned bright red and screamed louder than she ever has before.  Such a sweet girl! She now weighs ten pounds, thirteen ounces, and grew to 21 inches in length. She's already got her double chin and the rolls are starting to develop on her arms and legs. Amazing how quickly our babies put on the chubs, but it is so cute.

 We tried out the bumbo chair one day.

This is her classic "Superman" pose.

Back to School

 School started at the very beginning of August for us.  Tink is in ninth grade this year, so she started high school. Bucko is in sixth grade, so he started middle school. They both had orientation the first Monday of August. They are both enjoying the new schools with its change of scenery and more responsibility that comes with it. They are both doing cross country right now and are having a blast making friends and staying fit. I love how grown up they are becoming, even if it does happen so fast!

Minnie and Goofy started school the next day. Minnie is in fourth grade this year, and Goofy is in second. They both ended up with their friends from church who just moved to a house up the road from us. They have been having so much fun being in the same class, carpooling together, and getting together whenever they have a chance. It's so nice having good friends live close by!