I am the Activity Days leader in the ward, and I honestly haven't been doing a good job at it at all.  I finally determined I needed to get my act together and start actually holding activities.  This last Thursday we made bread for the Sacrament, which was really exciting for the girls.  They were thrilled to see the bread they had made passed around to the congregation.

 This afternoon I got to the point where I could visualize what the skirt portion of Mac's dress is going to look like.  I laid out all the ruffle portions and the bits of colored fabrics and I am so excited to get an idea of what it is going to look like.  I think this dress will be perfect for Mac.

I am very pleased with the floral fabric I found.  It forms a ruffle, as well as being the main fabric for her jacket.  I can't wait!

It snowed, again, today.  I got out there and shoveled several inches off by the time the storm tapered off.  Who needs the gym when you can do your heavy lifting in the driveway?!  Excellent workout!

Science Fair

Leiden informed me last minute that she had a science project due.  I mean it was due Monday, and she told me Friday.  And she was headed to her dad's for the weekend.  I marched to the school and rounded up everything I could find about the assignment with her teacher.  Then I talked to Brad about the project and he agreed to help her do what was needed.  They did an awesome job!

Leiden came up with the question and the steps to determine if her hypothesis was correct.

Brad helped her take lots of pictures of the process.

As well as put together the whole display board.

Today we went to the science fair, and hers looked really great.  I'm so glad it turned out well!

Planning Ahead

Super excited about this chicken stock!  I often get very domestic and feel like doing things like this.  So I scoured Pinterest for a recipe that seemed as wholesome as possible, and got to it this morning.  I plan on making some amazing chicken soup with it, and freezing any that's left over.  My biggest problem these days with cooking is thinking ahead.  Dinner time sneaks up on me, so this is pretty groundbreaking for this time in my life!

Leiden is headed to middle school next fall, which is frightening beyond measure as far as I'm concerned!  Today was an orientation field trip to the school (Union Middle) to check out their elective options.  I was hoping Leiden would want to take orchestra or something, but her first choices were art and ceramics type options.  I guess the point is for her to enjoy her classes, so that's fine.

LONG overdue chore in the storage/laundry room.  There is a lot of storage under the stairs, but the insulation was just open to the room.  I bought some plastic sheeting and a staple gun a million years ago, and just haven't gotten to it.  Until today!!

I finally got it all out, and stapled the plastic up so the space can now be used as intended!

In other accomplishments, I've got the bodice for Mac's baptism dress done!  Super pretty with its pink arm bands!

I really like the style and fabrics I have chosen for her dress...I think it will be very 'Mac'.  There will be ruffles galore, as she requested, and splashes of pink throughout.  I can't wait to see how it comes together!

Filled up the gas tank at Costco, today...and it was amazing, at $1.73/gallon!  I love this car's gas mileage.  It would be even better in a smaller sedan, but compared to the Tahoe, it's lovely!

Got Mac's baptism invitations printed today, and I LOVE them!  They are perfect, and go so well with my vision of the day.  It's coming up fast. 

Provo City Center Temple

This afternoon we headed down to Provo to go to the open house for the new City Center Temple.  What a gorgeous building.  I don't think it means what it could to the girls, but the exposure is important, nonetheless.  This really is a beautiful temple.  The style of interior design has changed a lot.  The wood and colors in this temple are darker and warmer, instead of only the whites and very light colors of some of the older temples.

We had a great time.

Sweet girls.

I truly hope to go to one of these buildings again someday with a good man, but even more so I hope to accompany each of these girls there someday.

Jr. Achievement City!

Today was the most awesome field trip for Leiden's grade.  They headed down to Junior Achievement City, which is on the top level of the Children's Discovery Museum at Gateway.  The kids have been preparing for this for months.  It's a day long activity where the students literally run a city.  Each has a job, that they have had to apply for, and each job has very clearly mapped out descriptions of what will be required of the student.  These jobs are at various businesses in the little city.  Each student gets money in a bank account, debit cards, and checks that they can spend their paychecks with.  I volunteered to go, and was the adult supervisor at the WCF!  They have done an amazing job setting it all up, going so far as to use real logos and decor in each business.  These were my workers.  One was the CEO, one was the CFO, and the third was a support worker.  They actually did all the work, with me just looking on if they needed help or got stuck.

It really is phenomenally put together.

Leiden's position for the day was a Savings Account Officer at Zion's Bank.  She got to sit behind the computer and help people open up accounts.

The day was very fast paced, and fun for the kids to see how much work really goes in to various jobs and positions.

Went shooting with a friend this morning.  He's an instructor, so it was fun to get some tips and pointers to shoot better.  He also has an assault rifle, so I got to try my hand at shooting that.

I was way off target with the AR, but I was shooting at 48 yards.  That's 30 rounds from the AR.  The head shots are from a .357 Magnum revolver at 10 yards, which was SO fun to shoot, and MUCH easier to aim correctly!

Busy day, as I headed out with another friend to the Midway Ice Castles!  It was snowing, and wet, and cold, but we bundled up and it was really cool to go see.  The ice formations are really cool.

As night fell, the ice sculptures are lit colorfully.

I will need to try and get the girls here before the winter is over!  It's definitely worth seeing!

Have been gathering fabrics and rethinking design for Mac's baptism dress for a couple weeks, now.  Today I finally started cutting pattern pieces!  It's always a little nerve wracking, especially with nice fabrics, and I have full pages of notes and calculations in my notebook so I can measure multiple times, cut once, and not get it wrong!

Today was a Star Wars kind of day for lunch.  It's amazing how much more appealing these little shapes are to the kids.  I hope whoever thought up the idea of shapes got an amazing pay raise!

Tonight was Activity Days!  I haven't been as diligent as I ought to be with this aspect of my calling, and I am resolved to do much better.  Tonight is the turning over of a new Activity Day Leader leaf!  We talked about setting goals.  What successful goal setting entails, how to set goals you'll be able to measure progress on, and different areas they can work on.  The girls made little banners to put in their rooms that have their goals on them.  They seemed to enjoy themselves, which is always the best part.  They are sweet little girls.  Mac isn't quite 8, yet, but she participated with us tonight, anyway.

Went bowling again!  Headed up to a really nice alley in Park City, which kind of cracked me up.  There are tons of alleys down here, but it's always fun to head up there.  I didn't do nearly as well there tonight, so the other night must have been a fluke!