World of Play

I was checking the base newsletter about a month ago and saw that they were going to have a Nickelodeon World of Play day, which happened yesterday. PC and Bucko were camping with the 11-year-old Scouts, so I took the rest of the kids for about an hour. It was a blast! I wish we could have stayed longer, but I had promised one of my YW that I would do her hair for Homecoming, so we had to hurry back.
Goofy had the most fun, I think. He would just try anything and run to stand in line for whatever he wanted to do next. My favorite was watching him jump across the "big balls."

Tink really wanted to do the Hampster Ball, so she and Minnie stood in that line for a long time. They said it was worth it.

I didn't get a really good one of Minnie inside, but that is her pushing that big ball around!

They even had free food and samples from lots of different vendors. Goofy stood in line for the rock climbing wall while we ate.

And FINALLY, at the end Shortcake went onto one of the jumpy castles. This is the entire reason we all wanted to go. She talks about jumpy castles all.the.time. But lately she has been too scared to get on one! She finally got the courage and went on right before we left. Of course, it was a chore trying to get her off, but she finally came.

It really was a lot of fun, and I hope we can go again next year.
And here is the finished hair of my young woman. :)

Backsplash DONE

PC finished the backsplash in our kitchen. It looks amazing! We are so happy with it. If you would like to see a "before" picture, click here.
It took several months to finish, due to life, weather, etc. Once the backsplash was all finished and caulked, we took off the old faucet because Nana and Papa had given us a brand new one to put in. However, the rubber gasket that should go on it was not in the box. After two wrong parts were sent, we finally had luck on the the third time. I think it is beautiful.

We were really wanting to put in some lighting underneath the cabinets as well, so we looked at some rope lighting, but while we were at Costco one day we found these awesome LED lights that were peel and stick, came with a remote, and has sixteen different colors. I love them! The kids love them even more and are always asking for the "rainbow lights." Here is a picture with the lights set on purple. (The lights look much cooler at night, but I took this picture during the day.)

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!