Father's Day Card

I used the GC talk Our Duty to God: The Mission of Parents and Leaders to the Rising Generation from Robert D. Hales, but I tried to keep it light in case those not LDS wondered what all the messages referred to and still wanted to use this card ;)

image found at www.jackshandsjillsheart.com (only have to buy the image once, then print out as many copies as you need - but please don't share or redistribute the file - thanks!)

DO NOT assign this chore to kids

You probably think a little less about some chores you assign to your children and feel it's very safe before you proceed to ask them to do it. We had a about 7 pieces of bread that was expired a week ago and I said - throw it out. Seems simple, right? Keaton thinking it was wasteful says 'let's at least put it out for the birds'. Barely thinking about it myself, sure I say - it seemed fine - not another thought. Carefully Keaton lays out the bread on the deck railing - oh so neat. Again I'm thinking that's great, it doesn't look so bad and hopefully it'll be eaten up in a day or so and not make too big of a mess - the birds, squirrels and raccoons will devour it, not a crumb left, right? Not so. Three days the bread has been outside and I come home from an errand today and look at what the bread did attract:

Oh yes, they're bees. Who knew that bees ate bread - sure they're always around at picnics, but for the bread? Yikes! But I guess white bread does have a lot of sugar - here's your proof ;)Yeah, I'm pretty annoyed now - I need to refill my bird feeders and water my plants. I do not dare to attempt going on my deck, they're swarming everywhere! I told Keaton he has to get it off my deck once it's around 10 pm TONIGHT and throw it all away, every last bit - sweep all the crumbs off the deck even! Maybe just water all the bread down with the hose. LoL Some ideas are not so great, eh? =)

VT Message June 2010

I designed a VT handout for June -

Renewing Covenants through the Sacrament:

The quote from Julie B. Beck is awesome and I'm glad I got to be reminded of this entire message! Most of her message is swirled around in a loop, I just took my favorite part and made it the biggest. The swirl says 'it is not possible to make real change all by ourselves, we must have the help of our Savior to get back on track; partaking of the sacrament each week shows our faith in His power to change us by confessing our sins and promising to forsake them.'
image found at www.jackshandsjillsheart.com (only have to buy the image once, then print out as many copies as you need - but please don't share or redistribute the file - thanks!)

Tag is a freebie:

I'm going to use the handout and attach this tag with a loaf of homemade bread (reminder of the sacrament bread).

Thanks so much for your comments =)

Is it a Canary?

Keaton spotted these huge birds (are they wild canaries?) on our feeder today (notice the Finch for size next to them) and informed me that they were just really big Golden Finches:
They were beautiful and I felt like I was in a rain forest or something ;) Oh, maybe that was just all the crazy rain we had off and on today!

There were 5 of them, but of course I couldn't get a picture of all of them before they were startled by me. Their beaks are so huge - I've never seen these in wild . . . and in Duvall, but the best part is they paid a visit at my house =) hehe

Since they were feeding with the finches, it must be in the same bird family. I filled up 3 feeders on Thursday and by Saturday night all the food was gone! Well, besides what was on the ground ;) The finches are feeding by the 3 dozen here the last few days!

Don't Count Sheep

I made a handout for our Invitation Sunday lesson on Prophets of God, but I stretched a bit and thought I could use the saying 'Don't count sheep, talk to the Shepherd' because how else will YOU KNOW a true prophet of God unless you ask in prayer? =) If you are a member of Stackable Crew, I can send you the handout (without the white lines through the image -hehe) for you to use. **Don't ask Stackable Crew for the handout - they only have the images. I am willing to share the handout if you've purchased Stackable Crew's right to use her artwork. Leave me a comment on the blog with your contact info and I'll pop the handout to you through email. TY

The team of 3 winners (we had to do teams because there are 12 girls) of the game I made up called Prophetland (tailored after Candyland which was Becca's idea - one of my Beehives) will get a wood block with the handout modged podged complete with a ribbon. The rest of em will just get the handout ;)

Here is the spinner I made for the game - we chose 5 colors and that's how they'll advance. The staff spins around if you flick it:

Here are the questions that I took mostly from Gospel Principles - Prophets of God lesson.

I let the girls spin if they could answer the question correctly, we had colored squares on the backs of the chairs.

Updo Update

Here's Melissa with the updo I did in her dress - love this picture - she's gorgeous!

Here's the group of girls she went with pictured without their dates - hehe
Couldn't resist snagging this photo from her FB either - LoL

Drastically different from the first pic by the waterfall, eh? ;)

3 up, 3 down

Cayden pitched a few innings in his 2nd game on Saturday and had the only 3 up, 3 down:Ethan pitched in his game on Saturday too:But I only got pictures of Ethan pitching to Keaton:

Keaton & Ethan played 2-man baseball for at least 2 hours!

Fry Guy

We were in Oak Harbor this weekend visiting my sister and her family. We watched baseball games on Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm.

This is Brady after using the blanket to just shield his already sunburned arms from the sun, obviously got tired and decided to nap:

He reminded me of McDonald's Fry Guy with his sneakers sticking out!

Here is Jonathan & Cannella napping too:
And here is Ava napping - she stayed asleep when we picked her up:
I didn't realize animals would stay sleeping like some kids can do!
And Canella and Ava playing . . . or more just Ava biting on Cannella's leash:
They had a ton of fun together!

Happy Shower Card

My friend Heather is having a baby girl (6th child for her!) and I made the group gift card and we'll be giving her a certificate for a day at the spa:I was going to add the name to the bib, but they're waiting to see if the baby has brown or blonde hair - it's between Wynn or Lila - cute! Hopefully she doesn't come out bald . . . she couldn't go unnamed until she grew hair, could she? LoL Whoops - the baby on the card has brown hair - maybe the real baby will have dark hair too . . .

Here's the inside of the card, it has a place to hold a gift card and a gift certificate:The other side says 'It is the nature of babies to be in bliss' and the swirly words says that too. I had to cover up the names with just the image before posting - that's why it looks a bit funny =)

Built on a Rock

Redmond Stake's youth conference was a Book of Mormon musical - script & lyrics were written by Karen Bryce who lives in New York and her sister, Dana Cardon wrote the music who lives in Redmond Stake. Very talented ladies!

The costumes and props were amazing!Some of youth had solos and there are many talented YM & YW just in our stake!They both loved it all - so many practices, which started in the Fall! Even though they didn't want a speaking part and they don't particularly like singing, Brady & Keaton are both sad it's over =( They still got asked to do a small part - Brady was Captain Moroni who was known for raising the Title of Liberty and Keaton was the prophet Moroni who was the last Nephite prophet who buried the golden plates (which is where the Book of Mormon was translated from).

http://builtontherockjourney.com 

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Cut 4 raw chicken breasts into big chunks, salt & pepper them, coat them with cornstarch and mix around with your hands and then coat with 1 beaten egg. Fry in a bit of olive oil until lightly browned. Drain on paper towels.

Sauce:

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup ketchup

1 tbsp soy sauce

Cook this all together and bring to a simmer on medium heat, add chicken to sauce and let it cook together until rice is done (of course start the rice first).

Serve over rice, I boil Jasmine rice with a 1:1 ratio and then pan fry it in a bit of olive oil.

Guess What? chicken butt

Nah, not really - but it is a hummingbird butt:

Still is oh so cuteness! LoL

Here Birdie, Birdie, Birdie

Since it was SO nice out, I sat on my deck and waited for some birds to do a fly by so I could take their picture ;) I was only out for about 15 minutes and I saw some golden finches:
This guy refused to eat out of the feeder while I was on the deck and would not let me photograph it either. Is it a red finch?

Then a very cool looking black bird landed on the suet for 1 second but it was a scaredy bird and flew away fast and never did come back =( I don't even know what kind of bird it was, nor do I recall ever seeing one before. I love the variety of birds we have here in Washington!

But, it's true, I really just wanted pictures of all the hummingbirds that are constantly flying around. I did get a couple of different species visiting in 15 minutes, so I thought that was pretty cool =)

I love this one - one: because it is a ruby red throat and two: because my camera cooperated ;)

There were 2 woodpeckers at the same time that landed on our railing, but they were scared of me too - and lots of opportunities to photograph the blue jays . . . but yeah, they're not exciting enough ;)

Duvall Days Primary Banner

Solange and I created a banner for our new Big Rock Ward for Duvall Days. There's 3 banners in all:

Solange drew the pictures of the kids and then I scanned them into my computer and colored them using PhotoDraw:

We are actually going to make some hair bows for the girl's hair for dimension.

So, the drawings went from the outlined faces to the colored ones:

This is the banner I made 2 years ago.

Updo

It was an 11 stake LDS Prom on Saturday night and I did Melissa's hair for it:
Fun updo for a beautiful girl!

I'll sneak some pictures off her facebook and put on here so we can see what her dress looked like with her hair =)

Love at first bite

Here's a popsicle shaped card that one one my Beehives, Cassaundra, and I made for our mother/daughter activity: It says 'love at first bite' on the front and 'or first sight when it came to your daughter' on the inside:

We made 3 of each color:

To quote Cassaundra because she said it more than 10 times in an hour and a half, 'these are so cute'! =)

We played a game like the Newlywed Game and here are the questions we asked the moms:

Who says 'I forgot' more, you or your daughter?

When was the last time you were up past midnight together?

What tool is your daughter most handy with?

If your daughter was packing for a vacation, what is the one item she would most likely take with her?

What is your daughter's favorite room in the house?

If your daughter could give up 1 chore, what would it be?

If your daughter got to choose an outing for the family, what would she most likely pick?

What is your daughter's favorite way to eat potatoes: Mashed, Fried or Baked

Your daughter loses points for: Hogging the Bathroom, Hogging the phone, Hogging the computer or calling 'Shot Gun'.

If your daughter could be a famous person, who would she choose?

And the questions we asked the girls:

What was your mom's favorite gift you ever gave her?

What is the most your mom has ever paid for a pair of shoes?

What would be on the menu if you were going to make your mom her favorite meal?

What earrings was your mom wearing on Mother's Day?

Would you say your mom is: always on time, mostly on time, or usually late?

You give your mom the most points for: being a great cook, being your taxi driver, her great advice, or passing along a personality trait?

What is your mom's least favorite topic for discussion?

Would you say your mom's personality is: predictable, spontaneous, hit & miss or fussy?

What does your mom eat on her hot dog?

What is your mom's dream car?