YW handout

 I taught the YW lesson today on Strengthening our families. Click here for the lesson.

 As I was studying for this I came across this blog called Hands Free Mama and was so touched by one of her stories that I shared it with the girls.  I also used some of her words in my handout.  She talked about how she was dealing with her oldest daughter being mean to the younger one.  She shared something with her daughter that happened to her when she was little.
She told her that when she was in grade school she was a mess.  She has a bad bowl cut, too many freckles, and wore the same awful blue sweater every day.  Her hair held the unbecoming shine of ultra quick showers minus the shampoo. She had horrible smelling feet and she gained so much weight before middle school that she got stretch marks.  She was ashamed.  While her parents worked, her sister took her to the neighborhood pool.  She said her sister never said a word about my body. She only said, "I love your bathing suit." She remembered.  It meant everything that she chose to look beyond the unsightly marks.  In high school she said her sister would wave her over as she walked down the halls.  She would introduce me the awkward freshman to her senior high friends.  "She was proud of who I was.  She believed in me. She never told me I was not capable even if she thought there we no way I could make the volleyball team or move up a chair in orchestra.  As an adult she showed me the same support. She was adamant that I should start a blog. She helped me. I would not be a published author today had it not been for the unconditional love and encouragement I received from my sister."
This mom asked her daughter to pay attention to her tone of voice, notice when her sister is stressed out or struggling and say, "how can I help? instead of "just deal with it."
Weeks later her daughters began riding the bus for the first time.  On the second night of school she overhead them talking. "When the teacher says walk to the bus, you need to go as fast as you can, okay? I was worried you were going to miss it.  I kept praying you were coming.  Walk real fast tomorrow. I know you can do it." said the big one.
"Okay, I will" promised the little one.  "Thanks for letting nothing bad happen to me."
"I won't," said her protector.
*I love this story and wanted to have it on here since I went back to link it and it's no longer on there.
I told the YW don't you want to be that kind of sister!!! The one who always looks at the positive and protects. I want to be!!

 Hands Free Mama says"We all need someone in our corner, to have our back... to believe in us when we don't believe in ourselves.  We can do that! We can do that for our sisters...our brothers... and for each other.  We can be their Lifesavers (I added this sentence as part of the handout) We can do that for the people who are learning how to treat others by watching us live. "

I filled the boxes with Lifesavers.  I found these boxes at Dollar Tree during Easter time.

Back to School Treat!

 My kids love to do a Back to School treat to share with friends and teachers but this year we had to go simple.  I have pretty bad morning sickness and don't want to spend all day in the kitchen so simple is my new best friend.

 I ordered these giant Smarties on Amazon which my kids thought we're pretty awesome.  I copied the tag from some I had found online- Good luck on your first day Smartie Pants.  I used a 2" scalloped punch to cut them out.

 This is how big the Smarties were.  I wish I had a smaller one to compare it to.

For Lucy's class we just used regular sized Smarties and put them in a cellophane bag with this simple tag. Hopefully you get the idea with this terrible picture!

Happy Father's Day!

 This is what my kids and I did for Father's Day gifts for Dad and Grandpa's.

 I found the jars at Hobby Lobby for 50% off and I used the vintage labels again from this website. I used a 2 1/2" punch to cut the labels out.  It cut them off a little but they fit the jars perfect.

 Jar #1-Good and Plenties- You deserve "Good & Plenty" hugs and kisses!
Jar #2-Pistacios- We're "Nuts" about you!

 Jar #3-cash-Dad's secret "stash"

Jar #4-Reese's Pieces-We love you to "Pieces"
Jar #5-Cinnamon Bears(I wanted to cover these in chocolate but ran out of time)-You're our "Beary" favorite! Happy Father's Day!

Girls Camp goodies!

 We just finished a super fun and spiritual week at Girls Camp.  The Lord loves Girls Camp!!! Our leaders are amazing and so inspired!
This year the theme was Mission Possible.  Each ward was assigned a country.  We were given Ukraine.  They did a really cool thing where we made videos before camp to send to the Young Women in whatever country we were assigned (they chose countries where people had ties to the people there) and in return they sent us a video.  Each country talked about what it was like to be a youth where they are growing up.  They showed us all the videos at camp and it was so awesome to see what sacrifices some of the youth make to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

 We all decorated our camp sites with our country flags and colors. In the above picture you will see that we used lots of eggs to decorate with.  One of the traditions in Ukraine is called Pysanky where they decorate eggs and keep them for years in their homes as protection from evil. They also will exchange them with friends to celebrate Easter.  We thought this would be a fun thing to have the girls do as part of our decorations and our secret sisters.

As a ward we were asked to perform small acts of service anonymously and this is what we decided to do.  We filled lots of plastic Easter eggs with treats and threw them in other wards tents and camps.  We left this fun sign for them too!

We decided it would be fun to give a handout to each of our YW every night of camp to help inspire them for the next day.  We had a hard time narrowing them down so we gave them this blow dryer on the Sunday before to help them with their packing. ;) 

We found the tag here at All the Quiet Things

 We gave them the 7-UP to enjoy with their packed lunches on the way to camp.

We found this cute tag at A Little Crafting.  The original idea was from Marci Coombs who created a Back to School one which will be fun to use also.

 Pillow Treat #1- We wanted to do something that went along with our Mission Possible Theme. We ordered mustache sunglasses, finger tattoos, and mustache whistles.

 Sara came up with this fabulous tag.

 Pillow Treat #2- Found this tag here on Marci Coombs' website.  Have I mentioned how awesome and talented she is?

 Pillow Treat #3- This was also on Marci Coombs.  She is now offering hers as a free download but at the time we needed it we had to create our own version.  Her's is much cuter!

 Pillow Treat #4  We found this idea here at CdotLove Design. Her version is available on Etsy.  We didn't want to pay so we created our own version which is not as cute as hers.

 They got this final treat on Saturday before packing up and leaving.  This was originally from Marci Coombs as well.  We had to create our own version but she now has it available for a free download.  She just asks that you follow her before downloading.

 We gave these to the Stake YW leaders as a thank you.

 We gave these to the amazing cooks and camp certification people.

Desert Hills Ward-Mission Possible 2014

 I can't get enough of these cute girls.  I had such a wonderful time with them.  So many fun memories!

 This was right after a really amazing object lesson/obstacle course involving mud.

 I got to go on the hike with these beauties.  What a trip they are! We found wild onions growing on our path and they couldn't stop eating them!

Coach Appreciation gifts

 We did these for Ethan's soccer coaches.

 I got the idea from this website.  To go along with the "cool" theme we included sparkling "ice" lemonades, "cool" ranch Doritos, and Dentyne "ice" gum.

We also added a "Cold" Stone Gift card.

Graduation gifts

 Sara and I made these for some of our YW who are graduating this year.

 We found the jars at Hobby Lobby and used these labels/tags from here.

 Congratulations "smartie" pants.  Your hard work finally "paid" off!

 I found these cute lightbulb bottles at Hobby Lobby too! Jared and I made this for Kelton.  I used another vintage label from this website.

Congrats, Class of 2014!

Teacher thank you's

 I decided last minute to do a quick thank you for the teachers on the last day of school. I found this tag here.  I also love the tator tots and jello website.

She included a Jamba Juice gift card which is super cute but since we have so many teachers and I just did a gift card a couple weeks ago we decided to include a few single serving drink mixes and candy in each mason cup.