Viva~La Salsa

We had such a fun time with the dads and daughter Salsa Night. Yes, another successful YW activity planned by US the Mia Maids.
Of course, Nef got to do all the kitchen duty in the garage of the Nokes. He was the head cook, and kitchen director-he loved every minute of it.








At the end we had all the girls pose with their dads in this great scenery that our girls created to be somewhat "Mexicano" It was sooo much fun!

Church-YW in Excellence

The last couple of weeks have been very busy with our Mia Maid class at church. We were in charge of YWIE on Wednesday night. This is a once a year event so it was a pretty big deal. We (me and the other leader, Emily) had meetings with the girls 2 to 3 times a week planning this event and I'm so glad that it is over. The program started at 7pm so we got to the church at 5:30 thinking we'd have plenty of time. By 6:45pm we are running around the church trying to get everything done. We didn't realize we could have turned on the AC in the Chapel, so by this time we are all dying-especially Emily and I- sweating and feeling like we just wanted to go home and come back all redressed ready to go! Ugh! I just felt gross!! Then I had to sit on the stand in the chapel because I was a part of the Mia Maids and we were put in charge. I purposely did not put myself on the program; but Emily had to sit on the stage so she made me too. Okay...so here I am typing away whining about this activity but I'm actually really glad for these opportunities to grow personally and spiritually through these experiences and I'm eternally grateful to be in the Young Women's program. I work with some great women who I have grown to love and have developed great relationships with. The girls in my class are so fun and willing to take on huge projects like this to put in the time and effort to make them great. Overall, it turned out so good and we got a ton of compliments about what a great job we did. I'm so proud of all the hard work that the girls put into it - especially the refreshments which turned out awesome!! With all the planning and time and money that it spent to do it, each girl definitely passed off one of their 7 big value projects-which has to be 10 hours of service-and I'm sure we could count it for a few other things too. Carol Ferguson gave a great talk! She was just amazing. I could look out and see each of the YW really listening. Leslie Pett and Jessica Willmore sang. Both of them did a beautiful job. It could not have gone any smoother! Life is good when you have the gospel and these young girls to make you stronger in it!
This is one of the cute posters the girls made to display each week and remind all the girls in YW about our night. Turned out cute!
Look at all the cookies we decorated the night before-102 of them to be exact! They had fun doing them-I think. . .

We displayed them on two tables and everyone LOVED them. I think they were the hit of the night.
Each table {16 of them all together} had a cute card like this with a mathing pair of shoes! All done in the different value colors.
Ash showed her trip to Mexico where she gave and did service for 5 days straight over the Holidays-sometimes working 15 hours in a day to give and hand out items, gifts, etc to those in need. She also is very musically talented-oboe, piano and flute.
This really gives you a glimpse of what the whole back of the room looked like and the girls did all the work. Of course, I did have to have them come over to our house 2 Saturdays for about 3-4 hours each time and then we worked on it 2 Wed. nights and also last night we spent 4 hours decorating cookies. Lots of hard work that really did pay off.

"Let the GAMES Begin!"

The Olympic Torch is lit-LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

This was pretty funny. The YM/YW had a Spring Olympics for their activity on Wednesday night. They had each of the different groups come up with one Olympic game and everyone had to do it. Then they gave out gold, silver and bronze medals for those who placed. We were in charge of the javelin throw and did it with brooms. They had to run to the end of the sand pit and then try and throw their broom the farthest. I was surprised at how far some of them threw the brooms. The other events were the shot put {potatoes in a bag with a rope tied on them}, balloon stomp, brain teasers, and 4-legged race. What a night. I think the kids all had fun. We always moan about the time and effort it takes to do the planning and preparing for an event and then when the girls or guys love it-we are okay with it. Makes for a better story if you can whine a little, I guess. As I tell the kids all the time: Attitude is everything...and it really is. That can make life good!


These girls took 1st place in the 4-legged race. Carly Parsell, Ashleigh, and Elizabeth Quigley. Way to go!



It's Emily and the javelin throw! She got to participate even though she isn't actually in YW yet. She gave it her best shot.














Christian and Emily doing the shot put event! It was really a bag with a few potatoes in it to wiegh them down. Very creative.


This is the girls getting their medals placed around their necks just like at the real Olympics.


Don't they all look official?