Gratitude

Today we talked about Gratitude...

What is gratitude?

Why is gratitude important?

How do we show gratitude?

When we have gratitude, how do we feel and act?

These girls are amazing...I believe they truly understand what it means to  have gratitude.

The girls said, " We feel happy, kind, nice towards others...we feel the spirit"

Carra, "Gratitude stands for Great Attitude!".....WOW!

 The 10 Lepers video

We sang, "I Thank Thee, Dear Father"

The girls made their Gratitude Turkeys and watched a video from Mormon Messages

In The Spirit of Thanksgiving

They loved making sundaes...emptying the Reddi Whip can.

Pizza Making Halloween

 Today the girls made their own pizzas.

They thought this was great!

So easy and yummy.

 Every year I tell the girls to trick-or-treat at my house....but they don't,

so I made them treat bags to take home.

I have to say though, that one of the girls did come over I wasn't there and another was

going to but saw I wasn't home....darn it.

I was so excited to make the girls a Candy Corn Cheesecake Mouse cups....

but it wasn't a big hit with the girls and too much for them.

CANDY CORN CHEESECAKE MOUSE recipe

Then, of course the girls asked to paint their nails.

What happened to all 10 fingers painted one color...

these girls painted every finger a different color.

FHE: Joseph Smith and the First Vision

Today we had a Family Home Evening Lesson

"Joseph Smith and the First Vision"

I found this wonderful blog

The Golden Seven

An LDS mother shares her family "A Day at a Time", her recipes, FHE lessons and

parenting.  She shares her teenage son's fight with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Each of the girls are excited to give the FHE to their families.

It is so hard for the girls to settle down after being cooped up in school all day, 

they have so much to say and share so it can be a challenge getting them to settle down.

We talked about the importance of taking time to be reverent and quiet so that the 

spirit can testify to each of their hearts and minds the truth of all things.

I encouraged the girls to have a quiet time each day to listen and feel the spirit and 

they will learn to recognize the spirit of the Holy Ghost more in their lives.

****SPOT LIGHT****

Here Jade shares her VIP poster from school.

Dance

Flowers

Camping

Family

I loved the confetti on the corners.

Well done Jade.

Cake Decorating

When I was a little girl I took cake decorating in 4-H and then decorated all of my children's
birthday cakes, made a few wedding cakes and even worked as a cake decorater
in the Thomas Market Bakery, SO when I heard that Thomas Market would let
the girls decorate a cake I was EXCITED!!
The girls had soooo much fun, they could hardly contain themselves.

 They learned to use the air brush, use a bag of icing with tips for their borders.....

and then Cheri brought out the fun stuff sugar flowers & big confetti!!

 All of the girls designed beautifully creative cakes....we were all impressed.
They worked very hard, it wasn't easy squeezing the frosting out of the bags.
Their little hands were sore, but didn't care.

 Look at those darling, happy smiles!!!

 The gals at the bakery were so kind... thank you.

 The girls wanted to thank Mr. Dennie Thomas.

I think he truly was pleased to see these happy little girls show off their cakes.

 Aren't they ADORABLE!!!!

Friend

These girls have such a sweet spirit, I feel so blessed to be their leader and I hope

FRIEND!

With my daughter getting married this month I haven't been able to focus on my calling.

I have found the best way to get it together is just set a date, tell their mother's and 

and here they come weather I am ready or not, or I will just keep putting it off.

These girls are so good at getting me motivated and back into the swing of things.

They are so excited....

I think today didn't meet one of my girls expectations,

"I can't wait till we do something REALLY fun!"

I gave each of the girls their own FRIEND magazine. I was excited to hear that several

of them already had a subscription coming to their homes, but they were still excited to have their own.

They shared what they liked about the FRIEND.

They all said....

"The stories that teach me to be kind" 

and they each shared a story they remembered reading.

These girls truly shine with the light of Christ in their eyes.

Then, of course, they wished we could have another Spa Day.....

so we started painting their nails.
They all shared their nicknames from home; Toothless, Crash, Whitteroo, Whitt,
Muffin, Fuzzy, Trina, Hans but defiantly NOT Hannah Banana or Hannah Montana. 

GO HERE FOR YOUR OWN SUBSCRIPTION OR VIEW THE 

FRIEND MAGAZINE ONLINE

Summer Day

 Summer is hard for us to get together for our Achievement Days but we did manage one day

of just playing in the pool.....ICE COLD POOL!!!

I wanted the water to be warm and easily should have been with the hottest summer,

but the pool was leaking and was fixed at the last minute.

(livestock water troughs make the best "pools" till they loose their seal)

 The girls did their best to take a dip in the pool....

they were determined....and they did it.

I couldn't do it, it was freezing....no, ICY!

 I finally put the sprinkler under the tramp, they enjoyed that a lot better.

 They can't stay away from the pond, that isn't finished, but they love to see if the 

fish will nibble their toes.

 However, the fish can't get close enough because they pull their feet in a squeal. 

Just a good summer day with the girls.

Summer Fun At The Pool

 I promised the girls that we would go to the pool.....and we did!

One of my previous girls was able to join us, it was wonderful to have her.

What was to be an hour swim turned into 3, we were having too much fun.

Who can swim for only an hour anyway?

New Girls

 We have two new girls and I am so excited to get to know them.

I love this calling, these girls are so sweet and fun.

Spa Day

 What girl doesn't like to be pampered?!!!!

and these girls are no exception.

They could have kept their feet in the foot spa forever.

As they sat there you could see them relax and "awwwww"

After I cleaned the old polish off their fingers and toes

I would give their hands a sugar scrub and then apply some soothing oils.

Then I painted their fingers and toes.

What happened to picking ONE color?

"How do I paint your nails with 5 colors?"

"This one for this finger, this one for this finger, this one for this finger, this one

for this finger and this one for this finger"

"SERIOUS!"

 Before long they starting taking over and helping each other paint their nails.

Stephi and I played a mean game of Parchezee while waiting for her ride.

She won, of course.

Malad Cemetery For Memorial Day

 All of the Achievement Girls met at the Malad City Cemetery with their garden 

gloves and hand shovels to plant flowers for Memorial Day.

The girls "dug" right in to plant pretty pink flowers.

The caretaker of the grounds had sprinklers going on the area we were to plant,

so it was too muddy to plant the bushes.

 Rhonda Neal told us how her mother was asked to be in charge of beautifying
the cemetery many years ago.

Her organization had raised money to plant 1000 trees.

Rhonda now carries on that responsibility of beautifying the cemetery.

Her mother loved the color pink and that is why Rhonda plants pink flowers.

 Rhonda shared so much history of the cemetery,
I think the girls really enjoyed it, I know I did.

The girls were intrigued with many different headstones, specially the ones for little 

babies. They wanted to know why that child had died.

They would get down to read and touch the headstones.

 While there a women asked for help in finding her ancestors, so Rhonda showed

the girls where the map of the cemetery was and how to read it.

The girls were quick to find the women's family headstones.

They sat and listened to stories of her family and then she asked who each

of the girls families were. She then let the girls help her place her flowers.

Today was a wonderful opportunity to give service and learn the importance of

family history.

Juice Carton Purse

 My cousin's daughter made a small purse out of a juice carton and

I thought it was so cute and that my little girls would like to make one.

They didn't turn out as well and were not the easiest thing for the 

girls to make. If they would like to try it again go to the link below

Juice Carton Coin Purse

 What I love about these cute little girls,

it doesn't matter what we are doing, they still have a great time.

I do not always take all of the pictures......

Pie Making

 I have been wanting to make pies with the girls, it went pretty good...

other than a HUGE MESS!

You can't have fun cooking if you can't get messy.

I taped the measurements for each ingredient on the cupboard,

"There you go, now make your crust"

"Take your time, double check yourself, because your crust will not taste good 

if you make a mistake"

 Some of them didn't like Apple pie and wanted to make something else or just the crust,

"You don't have to eat it, but this is what we are making today so that

you can learn how to make a pie"

 Hannah showing how you toss your dough from one hand to the other, "Like this"

Interesting pie crust making skills, I just smiled and let her share her knowledge.

 CHECK THESE GIRLS OUT, HARD AT WORK!!!!

How they knew what was going on....I will not know.

 They did an excellent job assembling their pies.

I hope those they shared their pies with enjoyed them.

 Sweet precious girls!!!

Well done girls.