lego stacking game

i had seen a couple of lego games on pinterest, but nothing that was printable or that was going to be long enough to keep my kids interested for more than 5 minutes.  so i made my own.

it's nothing super, but feel free to print it on cardstock and laminate if you choose.

all you need is one or two dice and some legos.  the person with the tallest stack when they reach "end" is the winner.

Lego Game by Wendy H

young women's "missed you" notes

came across this pin on pinterest the other day, but was super bummed to find out it wasn't anything printable :(

don't know who to give credit to...

so i made my own but i left off the "love the yw presidency" because i might want the girls in my class to sign it.

i also made various colors and a separate missed you note as well.

Missed by Wendy H

all you need to do is print this page on cardstock and cut out.  then use a corner rounder to round the corners.

if you want, use a hole punch to punch a couple of holes.  my hole punch is barely usable these days. :)  put a flower, sucker, or whatever you come up with through those holes.

so here's my version....

i'd love to see what you create with these and if you know where the original creative came from, let me know!

personal progress virtue value experience #1

i recently completed the first value experience for virtue.

Virtue is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards. It includes chastity and purity. The power to create mortal life is an exalted power God has given His children. He has commanded that this power be used only between a man and a woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife. Study the meaning and importance of chastity and virtue by reading Moroni 9:9; Jacob 2:28; “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”; and the section on sexual purity in For the Strength of Youth. Also read Article of Faith number thirteen and Proverbs 31:10–31. In your journal write the promised blessings of being sexually clean and pure and your commitment to be chaste.

 so, i pulled out my study journal and got to work.

the cute little "virtue" sticker that you can barely see in the top of the picture is from here.

all of the scriptures and references that i read for this value experience reminded me of a talk from our last general conference.  it's elder david a. bednar's talk, we believe in being chaste. 

some of the passages i read really struck a chord with me.  first, in for the strenfth of youth: sexual purity, it says, "physical intimacy between husband and wife is beautiful and sacred."  so often i hear people say that sex is dirty and bad and that the church teaches us it is dirty and bad.  right here, we find the exact opposite.  while it can be used as a dirty and secular thing, the LDS church does not view it that way when it is used as the Lord has commanded.  elder bednar explains how the world views sexual intimacy when he says,

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a single, undeviating standard of sexual morality: intimate relations are proper only between a man and a woman in the marriage relationship prescribed in God’s plan. Such relations are not merely a curiosity to be explored, an appetite to be satisfied, or a type of recreation or entertainment to be pursued selfishly. They are not a conquest to be achieved or simply an act to be performed. Rather, they are in mortality one of the ultimate expressions of our divine nature and potential and a way of strengthening emotional and spiritual bonds between husband and wife.

another thing that stuck out to me is from the reference i was asked to read in proverbs 31, verse 11.

"The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her..."

i was curious about this particular verse and so i did a search using this reference and found a talk given in general conference by barbara b. smith entitled, a safe place for marriages and families.   of this passage of scripture, sister smith says,

"This memorable line discloses, first, that the husband has entrusted his heart to his wife, and second, that she safeguards it. They seem to understand an important truth, that every man and woman who covenant to establish a family must create a safe place for their love."

i of course believe that this goes both ways.  meaning the husband and the wife both have the responsibility to entrust their hearts to the other and each in turn has a sacred responsibility to safeguard their partner's heart.  to me this means that we fully give ourselves to our spouse and to no one, or to nothing else in any way.

virtue experience #3 worksheet

for our mia maid activity this evening, we decided to work on personal progress - virtue experience #3.  to help guide the girls in our discussion, i made up this sheet for them to fill out.  we will still read the whole chapter, but this form will help guide our discussion.

it's two pages, so just print front and back on one sheet.

Virtue Value Experience 3 by Wendy Harwood

i know it doesn't include all of the verses that have questions, but some of the questions didn't really apply, in my opinion, so i didn't include them on this sheet.

i got the basic idea for this worksheet from here, but wanted to include more verses, so i tweaked it and made my own.

our summer bucket list and some summer rules

last monday for family home evening (fhe for short), we decided to make a summer bucket list.  these are wildly popular on blogs and pinterest, but we had never made one before.

so i pulled out an old piece of posterboard that i had used for a yw lesson, cut it in half and turned it over to use the unused side.

after our song and opening prayer, we talked about what a bucket list is and then what types of things we could put on our bucket list. i told the kids things like "go to disneyland" were not an option.

first we did a brainstorm session where everyone just threw out any idea.  then we decided which ones we would keep and i wrote them on our poster.  can you tell which one was my idea?  i got strange looks from the kids and possibly even the hubby when i insisted it go on the list.

and because all of the other bucket lists i see online are written cute, i attempted to do that as well :)  plus, i had to block out a few things because some of you might be creepers....

after we made our fun list, we talked about some of the not so fun things about summer.... rules.

these don't include our regular house rules, these are just rules for summer.  of course we still expect our children to stay inside and not answer the door when mom and dad are not home, but this just helps everyone be on the same page as to what is expected of the kids.

they got the first two weeks of summer off - they didn't have to do anything outside their normal chores, but now it's time for business.

for their worksheets, i created a board on pinterest and scoured the internet looking for printable worksheets that were grade appropriate.  printed out worksheets for reading and math and stapled 4-5 pages together as a set.

i also pinned a couple book report forms.  each friday they have to fill out a book report form about the part of a book or the book they read during that week.

i took their worksheets and their book report forms and put them into a 3 drawer organizer.  each drawer has one of their names on it so that they know exactly what is their stuff.

last year, i bought them books from costco and had them do 4-5 pages every day (kind of like this one).  they got burned out really fast.  this year i reminded myself that it is summer for crying out loud, so i settled on 2 days of worksheets and one day to do a little book report writing.  seemed like a happy medium to me.

do you have your children do worksheets during the summer?

personal progress - faith value project complete!

an update on my memorizing of "The Living Christ" for my faith value project

i am super excited to report that i am done!  i finished it!  i did it!  i memorized the entire thing!

youth pioneer trek - rock creek hollow

after packing up camp, we headed another hour or so west to rock creek hollow.  each of the places we visited has a special spirit about it and this was no exception.  rock creek hollow is such a quiet, peaceful, beautiful place.  i seriously could have stayed there forever.

our group listening to the missionaries at the common grave at rock creek hollow.

nathan standing in front of the common grave at rock creek hollow.  behind nathan, 13 people were buried in a common grave in 1856.  look it up here.

our fearless leaders talking to us

our whole group

kent, debbie, nathan and i

nathan and i

after visiting the common grave and a few people sharing their feelings, we walked back out to the campsites at rock creek to have lunch.

nathan spent about 4 years as the teacher's quorum advisor.  he got to know a bunch of the guys really well and it is apparent that they think as highly of him as he does of them.  they were messing around while waiting to eat and i snapped some pictures of them.

tyson and nathan

trevor, nathan and collin

nathan and caleb

collin and nathan

jake, caleb, trevor, bryce and nathan

eating lunch at rock creek hollow

sister colledge, brother demers and brother hillock at lunch

brother neel keeping an eye on things

sister walker and sister smith chatting over some lunch

sister peatross hides in her bonnet

sister walker, sister smith, sister morgan, sister lund, sister and brother harris sitting on the fence

me taking a picture of my reflection

meagan and sister black chatting

bishop lund, brother hillock and sister hillock chatting

sister hillock showing me her sloppy joe stain

bishop mansfield eating a sloppy joe

kyler cooling himself off

hanging out and waiting to head home

cooter and alicia larsen

some of "my girls"

sister smith just can't hold it any longer....

youth pioneer trek - willie center / 6th crossing

 after we left martin's cove, we traveled about an hour to the willie center where we set up camp.  the next morning, we got started.  first up was our water crossing.

nathan and i getting ready for the water crossing

the montgomery "family"  left to right: wyatt, rylie, tessa, dan, angella, lexy, and kynlie

 nathan and i again

brother allgaier and nathan checking out the water before our crossing

i went barefoot across the river and it was cold!  thankfully it wasn't too deep.  once i got to the other side, sister harris, brother allgaier and i played come, come ye saints on our harmonicas while everyone else crossed the river. so sorry, no pictures.

the wind was so bad!  my hair was a mess and full of dirt.

but we were all still smiling!

our committee cart - nathan and brother doel push the cart

brother demers, brother rowley and brother madsen pull the cart.

the rest of the committee walking behind the cart

at one of our bathroom stops, the larsen's decided to try on each other's hats.

 the willie meadow

after lunch came the woman's pull.  it was a lot longer than i had anticipated, but we had quite a few women to pull the committee handcart.  the committee cart was the first cart up the hill.  someday i may post my feelings about all of this but not today.

here is the video that nathan shot of us coming up the woman's pull at the willie center.  i am on the far left pulling the cart.

the mormon handcart facebook site also posted this picture of us.  sister kris colledge is pushing the handcart.  in the front pulling the hardcart from left to right is me, sister andrea peatross, sister anna black and sister stephanie walker.

before starting out for the day, we had given each family a "baby" and asked them to look after the baby.  it was just a cloth doll that sister harris had put together.  during the day, we watched to see which families were really bonding and looking after their babies.

later in the day, after the woman's pull, we separately pulled aside two families, waited for the rest of the group to move on and then told them that their babies had died.  the talley "family" took it pretty hard.  they didn't want to leave the baby, but i told them they had to.  they gathered rocks and sticks so that they could bury their baby along the trail.

after they had the baby buried, brother talley took a minute to talk to his family about how they would feel if the baby had been real and their sibling.  

 

sister talley gives her baby one last look before leaving.

it felt a little morbid taking a picture of their baby's grave, but i thought it was so neat how much time they took to bury their doll.

don't worry, we did pick up the babies after the families had moved on down the trail.

once we returned to our camp, we ate dinner and danced.  no pictures of that either.  i was too busy dancing!