Mother's Day

How I enjoy Mother's Day! Life can't get any better than going to church, getting chocolate and brownies while at Sunday services, coming home to a nice dinner (that I got to enjoy with my Mom and Dad), not doing any dishes or cleaning the kitchen, opening presents, going to my Mom's for ice cream and doing some secret service for Mom while I was there. It was a fantastic day! Thanks Ron and my sweet girls for making my day so special, fun and enjoyable.


Ron and the girls cleaning the kitchen.


Some of my loot.



My awesome new patio furniture for lounging by the pool with my little women in training!

All Ready for Church!

Just a Few Pictures I Took of my Girls...

Someone Stole my Camera....I Wonder Who?

Tiffany did it!

Fine Arts Festival

Since Caitlin and Courtney chose Orchestra as their creative elective, they did not have any art in the festival. However, Victoria and Brianne did. Here are their creations.

Victoria had her entire sketch book entered. Wow! Nice job Tori!

Brianne had this checker board print entered.

And my favorite....Tori created this sign "Got Integrity?"

Brianne's Habitat Hat

This is Brianne's school project, called a Habitat Hat. I have to say, Brianne's hat turned out pretty cool! The kids had to think of an animal or insect's habitat that they could build on top of a newspaper hat. Brianne chose the Fire Ant. She then had to present it to the class and give a report on it. She was really excited that she got 100% and her teacher even asked her to go to the front office and to other classrooms to show off her hat. She was quite happy to say the least.

Uncle Greg Comes to Town!

There is never a dull moment when Uncle Greg comes to town! We had such a great time visiting with him for two evenings. Here are a few pictures of all the fun...

Girls and Uncle Greg playing "Ninja"

Courtney and Caitlin's Honor Orchestra Performance

I have been quite impressed with Caitlin and Courtney's Orchestra teacher. He is a new teacher (very young also) and has been able to take a group of 6th graders, most who have never touched a violin and create this...

The kids began learning how to play last September. Plucking the violin only, no bow. Then in November they began using the bow. To be able to go this far in such a short amount of time is incredible.

Caitlin and Courtney chose to audition for the Honor Orchestra. They were so excited when they found out that they had made it! The teachers gave the students two pieces of music and told them they had one week to learn them and then perform in front of a large group of parents. They had two rehearsals and that was it AND...the orchestra sounded so great!

The twins used this performance as part of their Young Women's Personal Progress. They learned a new talent and then performed. Yeah! Nice job ladies!

My New Calling

Alright everyone sing along... "I'm so excited, that I just can't hide it, I'm about to lose control and I think I like it!" That's how I feel about my new calling. :) :) :) Yeah, that's three smiley faces. Last Sunday I was sustained as the 2nd Counselor in the Stake Young Women's Presidency.

Before I was even sustained they put me to work! I was able to help wrap up loose ends for last weekends Youth Conference and attend the conference. What incredible youth I met. Their spirits were so pure and happy. I enjoyed being around them and enjoyed watching them interact with each other. The Youth Committee leaders really amazed me. During set up, they did almost everything. At times the adult leaders were just standing around watching the youth in action. I was so impressed and look forward to working with these youth again in the future. I am so excited to be a part of this program!

Easter and General Conference Weekend

Easter weekend and Conference weekend together just about knocked me out. We have so many traditions for each event and trying to tie them all together was a lot of work. However, we managed to thoroughly enjoy ourselves.

Saturday we made lasagna dinners (see post below), dyed eggs, made hot cross buns, watched conference and did a little home maintenance.

Sunday the Easter Bunny came early, Ron went to Bishopric meeting and then we had a huge buffet for Conference, watched Conference, and then had Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter over for a large Easter feast. It was a wonderful weekend! I enjoyed the fact that a lot of the conference talks were aimed at the youth and parents. It is so wonderful to be able to listen, learn and apply the things taught in the Conference and then watch things begin to fall into place as we obey wise counsel.

How special it was to listen to the many hymns about Christ performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, on Easter. It made the day even more special to be able to focus on the life of Christ, his Resurrection and to know how much he loves us and is there for us.

The girls looking for their baskets and lending Tiffany a helping hand.

Watching General Conference and enjoying the buffet. :)

I placed a link under the words General Conference (above) if any of you may be interested in what I am referring to.

Pool Fun?

So...it's April. Pool season hasn't really begun. However, Houston has had a few warm days (80's) that the kids wanted to swim. I have noticed that each time, they are getting more and more creative in their pool fun. An example of this is in the photo of Courtney (below). She and her sisters like to play "caterpillar". They put all of the float rings on and leap into the pool. I know it's silly, but they laugh and laugh and have such a great time.

So the question that is going through my mind is...if they are going to get more creative as the summer goes on...what in the world will they be up to come August? I hope the roof doesn't come to mind... (gasp!)



A few days ago Tiffany and I went out to clean the skimmer baskets and we found these dreaded creatures swimming in the pool. ACK! Thank goodness for Caitlin and Courtney. They got them out and killed them for me. (ya, I am a wuss.)

"I be Jammin'"...I know, lame title.

A few weeks ago while at Costco I saw from across the aisle strawberries....I just couldn't help myself...they had 4 lb boxes of bright red strawberries for $4.99. I knew that I just had to make jam!

All of my large jam jars are full of blackberry and raspberry jam. So, I had to use these dinky jars for the strawberry jam. I do not like dinky jars! Our family blows through these jars so quickly. I guess I should just quit complaining and just be grateful that I have delicious jam to

eat.

Weeks and Weeks of Lasagna Dinners!

Cooking, cleaning, cooking, cleaning...


The onions are a little hard on their eyes...so they've gotten creative over the past few weeks! heehee!

Ron and I decided a long time ago that we wanted our daughters to learn how to work. Each summer the girls in our church attend GIRLS CAMP. It is for young women ages 12-18. It is the highlight of the year for most of these girls. They bond with other kids of the same faith and they grow closer to God through many spiritual and uplifting activities.

My girls really enjoy camp. But, like with most things in life, girls camp is not free. Most parents simply write checks for their daughters to go to camp, but we make our daughters earn their way. Not only are they learning A LOT about organization, finances, cooking, time management, and being grateful, they are finding that camp means more to them when they have paid their own way.

It all begins in February...we send around a sign up sheet at church for people to sign up if they would like to buy a dinner. (1) 9 x 13 lasagna, a green salad and garlic bread. We only have to send the sign up around one Sunday...all 32 slots are quickly taken. (it seems the girl's lasagna has quite the reputation for being good OR maybe the ward members a re just being nice?)

Then the next eight Saturdays the girls are up and making their homemade sauce by 10am, let it simmer all morning and then begin building lasagnas by 1:30. They rotate jobs each week. One makes reminder calls, one makes lasagnas, one makes garlic bread, someone makes the salads, and writes the thank you cards. It is such a huge process and by the end of Saturday deliveries, we are all wiped out. However, they will have earned every penny for camp and we are so proud of them! Only two more weeks gals...hang in there!

End of Track Season

Victoria ended track season the last week of March. Here are a few pics of her last throws.

This photo was taken by Carrie Pearson. THANKS CARRIE!

Click on the next picture to enlarge and check out Tori's pinky...... (You go Tori...you show the world that even a beautiful girl can throw a shotput and you don't have to be some hefty manly looking thing to play in this sport! :) (Carol, I knew you'd love this picture!)