Looking for my photography website? Just click here!!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Happily Ever After Girls Camp 2012

I'm only ... 8 months late for this blog post...  :)

Although I am now serving in Young Womans, at the time of Girls Camp last summer, I was not.  I just went up for the day to bring girls to camp.  I had such a blast that first day, and was so excited for all these girls and the experience they were going to have!

I did not come up with ANY of these ideas.  I was just the photographer for the day ... but I loved all that was given to the girls, and put on display for the girls so they would have an enjoyable time.

The theme for the Girls Camp was "Happily Ever After".  Each ward had their take on the theme, and decorated their table.  This was how our wards table looked:

IMG_9394

I loved these fake diamonds in the middle!

IMG_9409

When they got to the camp, each girl had this at their place waiting for them (a bag, a crown and a bandanna for their head)
 
IMG_9326
 
Each girl had a place to sit each day, and for their placemat, it was this
 (the opposite side was scrapbook paper).  At the end of camp, each girl wrote a message on the back of the placemat for the girl.  It was an amazing item to have!
 
IMG_9388
 
I absolutely love that picture of Katie!
Their shirts for camp was this on the back.
The front basically said "Happily Ever After" Girls Camp 2012
 
IMG_9340
The YW Presidency at the time worked super hard on little gifts for the girls..
and these were the gifts for them
 
IMG_9365
 
IMG_9367
 
IMG_9369
 
IMG_9370
 
IMG_9370
 
  This was actually to be filled w/ candy at the table (like M&M's) each day...
 so they left it at the table
 
IMG_9373
 
Because camp was in the beginning of July in Texas, it was boiling hot.  The girls got these little fan that squirts out water (it was kind of useless since it didn't work well)
 
IMG_9374
 
Because they went to camp over the 4th of July, they got fun things for the 4th.  Including these glow in the dark necklaces to wear and these fantastic sunglasses!
 
IMG_9376
 
IMG_9380
 
This opened to a mirror ....
 
IMG_9377
 
This was a pin they could wear at church...
 
IMG_9381
 
IMG_9382
 
.... and a bag they could hold all their gifts (which most ended up broken or lost)
 
IMG_9383
 
IMG_9384
 
IMG_9386
 
I'm sure a lot of these were found at Oriental Trading, or the Dollar Store -- I know the 4th of July things were found at the $1 Target bin. 

Monday, February 11, 2013

San Antonio Robert Burns dinner 2013

Every year the last Saturday evening of the month of January, the girls are participating in the Robert Burns dinner for the Scottish Society.  They had a great evening, and all did a fantastic job in their dances! 

Katie warms up before going on stage

IMG_8530
 
Mom's gotta get in the pictures every once in awhile!
 

IMG_8548

The girls with their best friends ... they started dancing a year ago with the girls

IMG_8555

The entire dance group before the performance

IMG_8568

Katie & Christine (on the far left) both realized they have the EXACT same tartan for their kilt!

IMG_8581

This dance the girls learned in just two practices.  They all did amazing well for the Broadswords in such a short amount of time.  They are dancing with their teacher Miss Annette and her daughter Christine (also a teacher).

IMG_8584

IMG_8585

IMG_8586

IMG_8588

IMG_8593

IMG_8595

Katie & Christine both are dancing the Seann Triubhas  .... after they dance this, they have literally 5-8 minutes to change into their blue dress similar to what the other dancers are wearing

IMG_8603

IMG_8606

Look at those leaps!

IMG_8607

Maddie is dancing the Lilt

IMG_8616

IMG_8620

Here all the dancers are dancing the Highland Fling

IMG_8640

the last picture is of the girls & one of their current (and former) dance instructors, Mary Beth ... aka "Miss B".  She taught the girls' first dance instructor, Carla.  Miss B traveled to Kansas City to do workshops, so the girls have trained with her before.  Imagine our surprise when we found out she was moving to San Antonio.  They took up lessons with her, then Katie decided she wanted to quit.  She took a bit of time off, and is now back to dancing again and preparing for her first dance competition this April after being gone from the competition world in almost 5 years! Miss B is whipping her in shape!  The girls LOVE Miss B!

IMG_8646

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Katie + the mall

I'm obviously not blogging as much as I used to, so when I find pictures on our little point and shoot that I forgot we had... might as well document it especially when I love the pictures!

Katie had a Young Women activity at the mall one night... and this mall is an outdoor mall.  Very uber cool.  It was also right before Christmas time, so the lights were out and it was just gorgeous.

IMG_0459


IMG_0461

Saturday, February 9, 2013

and this little piggy ..... was shot

**** warning ****  dead hog pictures included!  Enter at own risk!!  *****

Back in November Mike took the girls to the cabin for a good 5-6 days.  Every night they went hunting ..... and one night they (aka ... Katie & Mike) was successful!

Hogs are wild down here in Texas, and they are EVERYWHERE.  They destroy so much, so typically property owners try to get an upperhand on reducing the amount of hogs that are wild.  Naturally... my family members do their part ... happily!

This one particular night, Katie managed to shoot a hog.  This is her second hog to shoot.  Notice I say the word "shoot".  She doesn't kill these animals.  I don't think she's ever killed an animal in her life (except for a cockroach or a spider, if you count those?).  She shot this hog in the butt.  THE BUTTOCKS. 

The hog squealed and squealed... and so naturally -- Daddy has to come to the rescue and put the poor hog out of his misery.  I mean.. his butt?  Poor hog!

IMG_0445
 
Mike said the first thing out of Katie's mouth was "Is it bigger than Papa Rod's hog?"  My dad shot a hog when he took the girls hunting back in August last year.  Is this girl competitive or what?  The answer was yes... the hog was bigger than Papa Rod's. 

IMG_0447


IMG_0448

However.... the hog was very very sick.  Very diseased.  The smell was so incredibly bad .... so Mike didn't bother skinning it or doing anything with it.

IMG_0449


Saturday, January 26, 2013

Happy Birthday Blondie!! 15 years!!

Miss Katie had her 15th birthday the other day, and she had such a great day!

Her seminary teacher made a cake for her .... one of her good friends brought a cake for her to school ... and I made a Dr Pepper cake for her. 

It was full of text messages wishing her Happy Birthday, her Young Woman leaders coming over to "kidnap" her and take her to Orange Leaf.  It was full of her birthday dinner of choice.. Bill Millers.  (I still can't believe we went there instead of eating steak like she normally does!).

For her birthday present, she picked out a Vera Bradley backpack... which had to be shipped to us because it was not in the stores.  Her other backpack broke ... so it was time for a new backpack!

IMG_8480

IMG_8484
 
She got an Oreo cake from her friend, and I made her a Dr Pepper cake (which she absolutely LOVES Dr Pepper... ), and I have to forewarn everyone that it does NOT taste anything like Dr Pepper!  It is just a glorified chocolate cake!

IMG_8485
 
WHOA!  15 candles to blow out now!!



IMG_8492
 
Katie is thinking about what she wants to wish for..
 

IMG_8510

She blows...
 

IMG_8515

..... and she blows...
 

IMG_8516
 
and that sneaky daddy of hers lights more candles after she blows them all out!

IMG_8523

Ahhh!  She's not done yet!  He lit up more!

IMG_8525

 
Her poster was very cute.... in the middle is a picture of bagpipes (b/c she is a Scottish dancer)
and the caption reads "Katie!  You put the air in our bagpipes!"
and her Mia Maid friends all signed it!

IMG_8528

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Very sad news about our cabin ....

In short... we were robbed at our cabin.  :(

Two weeks ago, Mike went to the cabin to do more work.  He arrived early early in the morning, and noticed our beautiful wrought iron was half laying down on the ground.  (no pictures.. Mike lost his camera too).  The fence was held together by someone else's lock (they removed our lock), and somehow... pulled one side of the fence in the direction it's not supposed to go (it only goes in one direction) so it bent/twisted the hinges on one side, and broke.  We're still not certain how they did it, but we're thinking they possibly lost the key to their lock?

Anyways, he drove up to the cabin, and the door was standing wide open.  The robbers cut the power to the place, so everything was dark.  Two puppies came out of the house when they arrived.  :(  It was very very cold, and one of the pups had ribs showing through its skin. They were sleeping on the bathroom rug to stay warm.  Mike stated that the ice cubes were still frozen, so the robbery must have just taken place.  Plus, the pups didn't leave any feces or urine spots anywhere on the carpet/wood in the cabin, so they weren't in there long either. (the puppies slept outside under the house that night, and followed Mike to our neighbors house who had food to feed them ... they stayed on this neighbors house the entire weekend after that.)

In short... they took everything (our leather couch, comfy leather chair with an ottoman), all of our kitchen stuff, all of the food in the fridge (except the Coke Zero.. they didn't take that), in the freezer, and the rest of the food that was not in the fridge.  Took our plates, our dishes, pans, silverware.  Spices, DVD player ... everything.

Took all the clothes we left there (girls jackets for hunting, Mike's hunting clothes, Mike's jeans & shirts he left there), laundry detergent.  They took small tools he had there, our friends hunting gear he left there.  They took our brand new Crock pot we hadn't even taken out of the package. Gone.  Stolen.

They took some blankets off of the bed on our loft, but thankfully, left the beds.  They did leave all the appliances, so that was a blessing.  We were thinking they probably would come back for the appliances.  They took our brand new grill we had (it went on the picnic table outside).. GRR!  Mike was given my grandpa's bow, and he left it there to use at the cabin when he went hunting w/ a bow.  Gone.  :(

Outside the cabin, they took the riding lawnmower, all the stuff we stored in our popup camper (TV/DVD player, Bug Zapper ... I'm going to miss that like crazy b/c mosquitoes are so bad out there! and other little odds & ends Mike had out there to finish the cabin).

They took the ladder that we climbed to get onto our loft. 

So ... we were robbed.  Badly.  Jerks (that's just the mild version of the name I orginally called them).

They tried to take Mike's trailer.  Mike realized that we were robbed at least twice.  Once when they rolled the lawnmower out around the fence, and probably unloaded all the outside stuff.  Then another time at least, to open the door and grab.

However.. they did leave a very important piece of evidence.  A little kids Little League shirt with initials in the tag.  The police did snap that picture and bagged it for evidence.

SO... Mike spent that weekend ensuring the house was double protected... enhancing the locks, the frames around the door, putting up plywood around the windows when we're gone, so it would make it SO much harder to get inside.  He placed cameras all around the property, in hopes we'll see if anyone has been there.  Someone even tried to drive through to our property from our power line -- and ran over our dead pine tree.  So, we need to put in concrete pillars in that section.  Great.

People suck.  Then we also found out the storage unit place where we have been keeping our extras (like our four wheelers.. which we have since brought home), has been having break ins as well.  Double GREAT.  (at this time of writing, I'm not sure if we were broken into or not, but Mike just went up there and had to go there first to get a ladder, and he said "all is well", so I'm assuming we didn't get broken into).

Unfortunately, our neighbor across the street who also beefed up his place when he heard about our robbery ... was robbed after we were.  Thankfully they did not get into his place, but they did do damage, and took all his cameras that he had around his property.

Again.. people suck.

A week after this happened, I came to work on a Monday.  Someone stole my owl picture from my wall.  I had three pictures printed that I took of the owls that were outside our house in June.... one of them is gone.  SERIOUSLY people?!!  Argh!

That's the update.  Now begins the process of getting ADT, replacing all the stolen items (little by little.. have to search garage sales for stuff now) -- and mending my "I no longer trust people" feelings.  Ugh. 

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Miss Katie earns her YW Medallion!

Katie made a realization this summer ... that she was within reach of the end of her Personal Progress!  She made a goal to finish her Personal Progress by the end of the year!

The last project she had to complete was to read the Book of Mormon.  She finished it Sunday morning.  Talk about a close call!

Last Sunday she had an interview with our Bishop, who knew of this goal of hers, but still interviewed her ... knowing she may or may not complete her goal .....   She was to give him a nod or shake her head no at church to let him know if he would proceed and give her the award or not.

The medallion represents the work of 8 different values:  Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice & Accountability, Good Works, Integrity & Virtue.  With each value, she does 6 different assignments (like reading a few scriptures and writing her thoughts, or working on prayer morning & night for 3 weeks, etc).  At the end of each value, she does a 10 hour project.  This entire work took her almost 3 years to do.  It differs for each girl on the length of time they work on their Personal Progress... some take 6 years, some take 4 years, etc.  It is up to them, but Katie wanted to get hers done before high school took up a lot of her time.


IMG_7806

The medallion necklace has the Salt Lake Temple in the background, with a beehinve at the bottom, with a ruby in the bottom center.  It's very beautiful!

We are so proud of Katie!  Way to go!!
Related Posts with Thumbnails