Hansen Meadows Young Women

Be Still Our Hearts.....

2010-06-14T22:41:00.000-07:00

Our Dear Girls -

Two years ago, we knew this time would come. But what we didn't know, is just how hard it would be when it did. When we were first called to serve you all, we were overwhelmed with the responsibility we felt. Would we know what to do? Would we get to know each other quickly? Would you love us and welcome us? Where were we to begin, and what were all of the things we were supposed to do? Funny thing is....all of those fears were quickly put to rest. Yes, we learned what to do. Yes, we got to know each other. Yes, you loved and welcomed us. And where did we begin? By loving you immediately and the rest just fell into place. You captured our hearts from the very beginning - where now, you will hold a very special place....never to be forgotten, and never to be replaced. You have been such a bright spot in all our lives.We have accomplished great things together through service. We have made many happy memories together by laughing, dancing, singing, cheering and talking. We have felt the spirit together regularly and by doing so, have strengthened each others testimonies. We have bonded so tightly, that we will always be family. We want you to know, that though we are leaving - we are never very far. Our doors are always open and waiting for you to walk in. Our phones are always on and waiting for the call. We will continue to watch you and love you. We will pray for the best in your lives always. Stay close to your Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. You will find the greatest happiness by doing so. We love you with all our hearts. It has been a pleasure and complete honor to have served you. Such a gift. Thank you for letting us be a part of your lives and for touching ours in a way that no one else ever could. You will always be our Girls.
With love,

Your Young Women's LeadersYW's Presidency
Sis. Lindsey - 1st Counselor, Sis. Gardner - Secretary,
Sis. Burke - Pres., Sis Rodgers - 2nd Counselor

Sis. L., Sis. G., Sis. Watts - Mia Maid Advisor,
Sis. Sessions - Personal Progress, Sis. R.,
Sis. McDougal - Beehive Advisor, Sis. B.
Sis. Finch - Assist. to Pres, Sis. Harris - Beehive Advisor
Sis. Witt - Assist. to Pres./Sports Director
Sis. Shaw - Advisor/Camp Director
(Not Pictured, Sis. Smedley - Laurel Advisor)

Our Very First Day together - Sept. 4, 2008

Our Very Last Day together - June 9, 2010We love you! We Love you! We love you!
Thanks for all of the special times - they will never be forgotten!

Breakfast Time!!

2010-06-09T14:22:00.000-07:00

This morning we threw a big Breakfast before the girls leave on Trek! We all met at 9 at Sis. Rodger's house for Cinnamon French Toast with Strawberries and Buttermilk Syrup, sausage, bacon, delicious cake, fruit, and juice! It was so yummy and fun to hang out before the big trip! We love you all and hope you have a very special experience! Make it back to us safely!!

More Frosty's Anyone?!!

2010-06-07T12:08:00.001-07:00

We have kept Wendy's in business this week with the rest of our Ice Cream dates! We are so glad the inspiration came to do these! So much fun to be with you girls in small groups to learn more about each other.....makes us love you that much more!! Thanks for your willingness to hang with old ladies and eat some yummy treats! We love you and have so much fun doing this!!

Saturday, we took some of our Laurels!! 3 of them had graduated the night before, so it was fun to hear all about the Graduation party and details. The rest have fun and exciting things going on this summer as well. Thanks girls for coming with!! So Fun!!Today, we took the remaining girls for ice cream! These girls are so busy with softball, cheerleading, etc. that we have had a hard time scheduling with them. Now, with school out, we were finally able to get together. Again.....headed to Wendy's! (Can you tell the budget is getting tight with Trek and Girls Camp coming up?!!!) Thank heavens for $1.09 Frosty's!!Alyssa was hiding from the camera cause she didn't put on any make up!! We think she's beautiful either way she comes.....but alas, this was the best she would give us! :)And then.....there's McCall! She gave us all a good laugh with her cute little "Short Hairs" in the front of her head. They kept sliding down her forehead.....thanks McCall for providing the entertainment!! That was funny! Good thing McCall can laugh with us!! So cute!Oh wait.....gave McCall too much credit for providing the entertainment!! Sis. Burke helped a little in that department! Skylee dropped her napkin under Sis. Burke's chair. They both looked around for it.....when it wasn't found, Sis. Burke told Skylee not to worry about it! Skylee was laughing at this point and said, "it's in your shoe!" Due to her crazy MS body.....Sis. Burke couldn't feel it with her numb feet! We all laughed about that one!! Would have walked right out with it still there if Skylee wouldn't have pointed it out!! Oh Boy!We had a great time! We love you girls more than you'll ever know! Thanks for being our dates!

Back to our Ice Cream Dates!

2010-06-02T22:26:00.000-07:00

Tonight we didn't have an activity because it's the last week of school! So, instead.....we got back to our Ice Cream dates! Because things have been so crazy around here with Trek and all, we took last month off! We had so much fun tonight with Carrington, Jazmine, Sara, and Morgan! Thanks girls for coming with us for yummy frosty's and fries! So fun to sit and talk!!
Love you all!(As you can see, self timer wasn't working very well....

so we finally got up and asked for help!)

Thank you nice lady for letting us interrupt your dinner to take our picture!
It turned out great!

P.S. Wendy F....if you see this.....
your daughter would like us to talk you into
doing these Ice Cream Dates in your ward too! :)
We took her pic. as evidence!

Ensign Peak

2010-05-26T21:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight we took all of the Youth going on Trek to Ensign Peak. It was on this Peak that Brigham Young stood with other leaders of the church and picked the spot for the Salt Lake Temple. He had been shown this place by Joseph Smith in a vision. The Deseret News refers to it as "Utah's Mt. Sinai." It is a sacred and beautiful spot overlooking the whole Salt Lake Valley. We had a great time, and the kids hiked it in 12 minutes! Bro. Morris talked to them about the importance of the Peak and then after taking some pics, we made our way back down, loaded up the cars and headed to Brigham Young's grave. A group of some of our other girls helped out at the Utah Food Bank tonight, giving service there.

Trek Prep!

2010-05-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

It is a month of Trek around these here parts!! We are having a lot of fun getting ready! There is excitement all around for sure! Two weeks ago we got together and showed the girls the last Trek video, so they would have an idea of what takes place. We also cut out our names for our 5 gallon buckets.....even those have to be cute ya'll!! Last night was our Stake Trek "Hoe-down!" That was a great time! Morgan even won the pie-eating contest! Nice Job Morg!! Trek is less than a month away now! Can't wait!

Ultimate Frisbee

2010-05-06T23:09:00.000-07:00

The Young Men were in charge of our combined activity this month. They planned Ultimate Frisbee. Basically, we had a lot of fun and froze ourselves to death, and then went home! It was great! Thanks guys for a fun night.....we had to drag some of the girls away from the game to go home....the others? Well, we stood off to the side and snuggled to stay warm, while cheerleading of course! (Ok, and talking!)

....and Walked, and Walked, and Walked!!

2010-04-29T08:45:00.000-07:00

Last night was our Class Activities! The Mia Maids and Laurels got together to design and make our ward Flag for Trek. We knew just who to call on for help with that......KENDRA!! She has the most incredible art talent. She isn't able to come to Trek this year because of a family trip, but we were so happy that she was willing to come and make our Trek flag Amazing! She sat right down, and with only a picture in her mind, drew out a Wagon.....even down to the shading and knots in the wood! What's even more unbelievable is that within a matter of about 10 mins. she was finished! We were all in awe! The rest of us worked on cutting letters out of fabric to make our Ward name. We also made the flag for the Trek Medical Team. They both turned out great.....and such a relief to have them finished early!!The Beehives met for our opening and then headed off to Sis. McDougals to provide the service of the year to none-other than ME, Sis. Burke. What a sweet surprise and lift that was to my spirits! All of this medical stuff I have been going through hasn't been the most fun, but with the love and support from all of you girls, it has made all the difference! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the sweet cards of love and encouragement and for the yummy meals you made for me and my family! I love, Love, LOVE you all! Thank you! The Beehives also had their cute treats and posters for the two new Beehives we welcomed this week! Welcome Jazmine and Carrington. We are excited to have you join us!How fun is it that my taco soup came equipped with fun notes to Elizabeth Wellings?!!

Loved that! :) Thanks Liz!

Rumbly in Our Tumbly....

2010-04-22T11:12:00.000-07:00

Last night we all came hungry and ready to eat! It was such a fun night at our Progressive dinner! We met at the church, had our opening exercises, and then headed off to Sis. Rodger's house for Appetizers. We ate a yummy strawberry salad (thanks to Sis. Rodgers), a veggie tray(thanks to Sis. Sessions), and drank from the cutest pitcher of lemon water you ever saw! (Thanks to Sis. McDougal.....and for sharing the secret of where she bought it,

so we can all go buy our own!!)
Don't worry, it will have a picture all to itself to prove it's cuteness!Sis. Rodgers shared with us Sis. Dalton's talk from the Gen. YW's Broadcast, reminding us to Remember Who We Are. It was great!
Next we drove in the pouring rain to Sis. Watts house for our main course. She and Sis. Lindsey made us us the most delicious homemade lasagna and garlic bread sticks.
It was amazing! Thank you!!
After dinner, Sis. Lindsey shared with us Sis. Mary N. Cook's talk about Never Giving Up. She then shared her testimony with us. She did a wonderful job.
Dessert was held at Sis. Burke's house. We devoured after school peanut butter snacks (from Sis. Burke), a yummy icecream/raspberry/rice crispy treat (thanks to Sis. Gardner), and a delicious chocolate, cream cheese, cookie crust dessert
(thanks to Sis. Finch).
Sis. Burke shared with us Pres. Uchtdorf's talk about finding Our Happily Ever After,
through trials and standing for what we believe.
She cried like a baby and apologizes profusely!
(Due to the excitement over the dessert, no pics. were taken while we were all here,
so these are the "After" pics.!!)

We had such a great night!
This is an activity we should do more often!

******Pics. were finally added in our post below
of our pillowcases, take a peek! *****

Trek Service Project

2010-04-19T10:04:00.000-07:00

I know.....I'm a slacker again. Behind by a couple of weeks....no excuse! I will do like I do every time though, and re-commit to doing better! :)

Two weeks ago for our Personal Progress night we had a couple of rotations. In one room Sis. Klaas taught us how to make Pillowcases in such a fun way. You simply fold the material into a long rectangle and sew! Next thing you know, it's all hooked together! Thank you Sis. Klaas for your willingness to share with us your secret! They turned out so cute! Our other rotation was the Sister Missionaries. They taught us some really fun ways to study our Scriptures, so that we're not just reading, but really learning and growing from the words on the page. They talked about using a red colored pencil and as you read, to underline every time the Savior is mentioned. They encouraged the girls to share a Book of Mormon with someone this year. It was a really fun night!Last week, the whole Stake was involved in Service as part of our Pioneer Trek Experience. Each ward was supposed to try and find a project in their own boundaries. We asked around and found a family in our ward who's Father is away for the next 5 mos. for military training, leaving Mom and 3 little one's at home to care for the yard along with everything else. We were so excited when she agreed to let us come and help. The youth did a great job! All of her garden beds were weeded, and sprayed. The lawn was edged and mowed. It looked amazing when we were finished, and she was so grateful. It was incredible!

Work it ladies.....work it!

2010-04-05T09:55:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, we hired our personal trainer, Sis. Witt, to come and run us through her "Boot Camp!" :) She is awesome! The workout lasted close to 45 mins, and then ended with a very healthy treat she had made!
The girls (and a few leaders) were amazing!

They stuck with it - sweat, red faces and all!! The rest of us worked out from the sidelines,
rocking a baby back and forth, back and forth.

Oh the muscle groups that toned!! It was a great night! Thank you Sis. Witt.
Can't wait to do that again!

St. Patty's Day Celebrations!

2010-03-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

Class activities last week (yes, I'm a little behind!!), were a blast! Seeing as it was also St. Patrick's Day, the classes went all out! The Beehives went on a scavenger hunt for things taht were green and then ate green treats. The Mia Maids went to Sis. Lindsey's house for a planning party for the rest of the year, and the Laurels? Well, they treated themselves to a movie at the one and only Kaysville Theater......home of the $2 movies! What a great night!!

(The following photos are of the Laurel Activity,
thanks to our Personal Photographer, Blaire!)

T.G.I.W. - Thank Goodness It's Wednesday!

2010-03-11T12:14:00.000-08:00

Last night our Stake YW's Presidency held a Stake YW Activity night! It was really fun and got us in the spirit for our Pioneer Trek this summer. They started off the evening with our ward teaching all the others the primary song "Nephi's Courage." We tried to make it fun and exciting by having the girls hold signs with key words from the song on them. As we learned each verse we would take some of the words out. Each run through, we would watch the wards, and which ever one was singing and having the most fun each time, got to come up and pick a costume piece out of a bag and dress up Sis. Sisneros our Stake YW's Pres.!! The wards seemed to enjoy this. They were standing up and dancing while singing, and doing all kinds of crazy things to get picked! Sis. Sisneros was a good sport! She looked great by the time the song was learned!After our song, the Spanish Branch talked about greeting each other with a hug. Each of us then hugged the people surrounding us!Each of the other wards shared Pioneer Stories from the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies. When they were finished, the Stake had each of the YW's Presidents come up to the front. We were each given a sealed bag with something pink inside. We were instructed, that on the count of 3, we were to race and open the bag, get the pink shirt open, and put it on. Little did we know, the shirt was frozen stiff and we had to pull it apart and then wear it! I came in second to last.....mine definitely WAS frozen! However, we all worked hard and got them open and on! And boy.....was it cold!! They told how some of the conditions for the Pioneers were such that their clothes would get wet and then freeze on their bodies. This was a great activity to relate that to. The t-shirts said, "I'm going on Trek, Are you?" Very Clever idea!Next, we sat in a circle and bags with fudge ingredients were placed in each ward. For the next ten minutes, we passed the bag around while squishing it together. Working together, it made fudge.President Robb had us play a game of "Who Wants to Be a Trekonaire!" He had it set up just like the T.V. Show, where we had to answer questions about Trek! It was great!Afterwards, we all got a little plate of fudge! It was a really fun activity! We have amazing Stake Leaders and are grateful for the time they spend, helping us feel the spirit and getting to know one another as a Stake. It was Great!!

Frisbie Golf ......

2010-03-03T21:03:00.000-08:00

Tonight was our combined activity with the Young Men. We met at 5:30 and headed to the Stake Center down the street to play a little game called Frisbie Golf. The YM leaders had set up a cool course for us......they even outlined areas meant to be water holes. Score cards were given and teams were set. It really was fun. After we played and ate cookies.....we headed home! Thanks for the fun night boys!

Making Sweet Lemonade

2010-02-25T08:56:00.001-08:00

What an incredible activity we had last night!! A couple weeks ago, Sis. Lindsey received some inspiration in Sacrament Meeting and approached us about having a special night for the YW about making Lemonade out of the Lemons life throws at us at times. We all thought it was a perfect idea! Sis. Lindsey asked 3 Sisters in the ward who are amazing Christ-like examples to come share their experiences and testimonies with the girls. Last Sunday after sharing what our activity would be with the girls, they asked if we could have an "All Yellow Night" along with the theme! Of course we said yes! And of course.....there would be prizes awarded to those decked out in the most yellow!We started off the night in the Relief Society Room, where Sis. Spencer spoke to us about the importance of service. When we are going through rough times in our lives, the best thing to do is to forget about ourselves and serve others. Sis. Spencer is the PERFECT example of this. She is always the first to respond when others in the ward are in need. She shared some wonderful stories and quotes with us about Service, and made each of us a cute bag of chocolates to remind us that when we are having "Truffles" to serve and love others to feel better!Next we headed to the Primary Room to listen to Sis. Edwards. She talked to the Young Women about how in High School, she had dreams of what her fairytale life would be like, that once she was married, life would be perfect and all would be well. She shared with us how she learned that the Lord has many things in store for us, and some of those things are trials, that force us to learn and grow. It is necessary for us to go through these things to come closer to Heavenly Father and to learn to trust in him and go to him in prayer for help. She talked about the day their oldest little girl was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, and how their family has had to adapt differently to certain situations. While it has been hard and trying at times, she has grown as a mother and has been able to recognize the blessings their family has been given, by having their daughter in their home. She talked about how to make lemonade, you need sour lemons, along with sweet sugar and water. She likened the water to our Savior and how he is the solution to make everything better.....to taste a little sweeter. Without the water, the lemons and the sugar wouldn't make sweet lemonade.Lastly, we moved into the Young Women's room, where Sis. Morris shared with us her experience with fighting cancer last year for the second time in her life. She has been such an amazing example to our ward. While she was struggling with the cancer and going through treatments, she was serving in the Primary Presidency, and still managed to make it to church, Primary and even attended all the baptisms that year. She definitely took the lemons that came at her and didn't let them stop her from making a difference in the lives of others. She shared with us a video she had made of her journey with cancer last year. It was very touching to see how as a Mom, she still had to do all the things that come with Motherhood, to stay strong for her family. She is wonderful!Afterwards, awards were given to those with the most yellow. Emily, Hailey, Samantha and Sis. Watts were the ever-so deserving winners! We spent the rest of the time devouring lemon treats of all kinds! Cake, Cupcakes, Cookies and even guacamole dip made with lemon juice.....topped off with lemon water and lemon head candy!
Thank you Sis. Lindsey for coming up with this incredible activity. Thank you Sis. Spencer, Sis. Edwards and Sis. Morris for sharing your amazing selves and testimonies with us! It was a very special night, and one that won't soon be forgotten!

Look Who's Scream'n for Ice Cream....

2010-02-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

As a Presidency, we wanted to do something special this year to get closer to you girls, and also for you to feel closer to us. So, we started "Ice Cream Girls Night!" Each month, we draw 3-4 names, give ice cream handouts, set a date and head out for a night of talking and eating! It has been so fun up to this point. We just had our second night out tonight! Last month, we took Megan, Hailey, Chalise and Emily M. We Pigged out on Iceberg shakes and talked about some of our most embarrassing moments! Somehow that darn camera didn't make it to our first "Girls Night" so we'll have to improvise! Tonight we loaded into the car, picked up Laura from tumbling and headed over to Farr's Ice Cream. It is new in the area and we all thought it was pretty cool! It is set up as a self serve. They have the option of custards, ice cream, or frozen yogurt. Just grab a cup, fill it up and then add whatever topping you desire..... they have a ton to choose from! We made some pretty yummy bowls! (After we taste tested to our hearts desire!) We grabbed the area by the fire to sit and talk! It turned out perfect! We talked for over an hour about all of our latest reads, movie picks, Emily's poor dead fish and tumbling classes! Thank you ladies for such fun "Girls Nights!" Can't wait to see who gets the "Ice Cream Tickets" next month!
I know you're all on the edge of your seats!
(Huge thanks to Sis. Rodger's and her awesome Cricuit Machine!!)

We Love, Love, Love you all!
Thanks for letting us hang out with you!

Hooray for Class Activities

2010-02-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

Last week the Laurels had a special night at the Temple with the Relief Society. It was amazing! We had a great turn-out and finished it off with Ice Cream at Farr's! (Of course....would we break tradition, just cause it was a school night?! NO!!) Unfortunately, no pics. were taken, but it was a wonderful night!The Beehives and Mia Maids had fun back at the church trying their hand at another diaper cake....only this time....they got to make it with Pink! Sis. Rodger's had sweet little Baby A. a couple weeks ago, and the girls wanted to make something special for her. The cake turned out absolutely adorable, and Sis. Rodger's was thrilled! They also enjoyed ice cream that night.....except they got AWESOME homemade ice cream, thanks to Sis. Watt's! It was a great night!

DODGEBALL!!!

2010-02-11T08:22:00.000-08:00

For our combined YM/YW activity tonight we made a quick, last minute decision! Due to a huge lack of snow (until THIS MORNING!!!), we threw together a game of Dodgeball! The kids had fun, and to our surprise.....played for about an hour straight, before coming into the kitchen for some Yummy Desserts, thanks to Sis. Gardner! We topped the night off with some reallly disgusting root beer. (Which, unknown to the youth, was pulled from the YW closet, and has been there for who knows how long!!) Gotta love 'em, they drank it anyway! Great night!

Purses, High Heels, and Red Velvet Cake....Oh My!

2010-02-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

New Beginnings 2010 went off without a hitch! We had such a fun, amazing night! We decided to spotlight the theme for the year, which is Joshua 1:9. The scripture talks about Being Strong and of Good Courage and recognizing that the Lord is always with us, no matter where we are or where we go. So, we thought about where we go and what we do everyday.....and ended up with a theme for the night of Purses and High Heels. Each girl was asked to bring a bag and a pair of shoes that best represents them! It was so fun to see what each brought.....we had everything from gigantic handbags and glittery/sparkly shoes, to slippers and spiderman back packs! It was so fun. The stage was the spot for them to display all of their shoes and bags, where we also had rod iron bodices dressed up to add to the decor!The major decoration/talk of the night was the RIDICULOUSLY CUTE AND AMAZING CAKE that Sis. Finch made! When we gave her the task of making us a Red Velvet cake for dessert, little did we know what would come of it! The picture will speak for itself!

And yes.....EVERY SINGLE part of it is edible!
(Ok, minus the beads)Is that the cutest thing you've ever seen or what?!!
Thank you so much Sis. Finch!

Our evening consisted of a fun video of all our activities last year, a special Personal Progress moment and thoughts by Sis. Sessions, a musical number by all the YW, an amazing talk by Sis. Heap in which she spoke about everything we pack physically in our purses everyday before leaving home and how they relate to the YW Values and how they represent the Spiritual items we should make sure we pack before leaving each day as well. Each of the YW took turns coming up after and sharing a thought they had been asked to share and placing it in a purse, then we had final remarks by Bro. McKinstry from our Bishopric.

Each YW was given a High Heel treat to take home with them.
It was such an amazing night and was so fun! We love these Young Women and feel so lucky to be with them every week! We hope that as they go throughout the year, they will be mindful of the places those beautiful shoes of theirs will stand. We truly hope they will walk in righteous places and that as they pack their bags each day, that they will be as particular about the Spiritual things they pack as they are the Physical Earthly possessions they carry. We have incredible YW and we recognize the honor it is to serve them at this time! Thanks to all who helped make this such a special night!

Where the Good Things Are...

2010-01-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

My new years resolution? To do better at this blog thing!! :) I'm so sorry I have been such a slacker! I promise to get back to my weekly routine and update this after each activity. There are some activities I don't have from Dec. However, I did want to blog about the Laurels 2nd Annual Outing to "Good Things Utah!" This is an activity we started just shortly after we were called to serve in YW's, and that is, that the monday after the Laurels are out of school for Christmas break, we go to the taping of Good Things Utah and then treat ourselves to a fun lunch somewhere! This year, as we were sitting in the parking lot waiting to see the show, the Graduating Laurels started to feel the saddness of leaving us and were already planning our outing in May before they graduate and then begging us to let them attend next Christmas as well! I think we just might let them! Ya know, we are kinda loyal to our Laurel Alumni's! This year we had a blast as Carly picked a lucky card and was invited to be part of an actual segment. She had to pack an Ogio bag faster than another contestant! She WON and we all cheered! She got a $100 Gift Certificate to Skymall and a 2 night stay at any Hilton. We then finished off with lunch at Robintinos. We had a great day....so much fun! Take a look! (These videos aren't the best, I had to video record them off the tv and it didn't work so red hot!! Sorry!)

It's beginning to look a lot like.....

2009-12-14T10:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, so what? Is it Christmas time and everyone is too busy to blog about the going's on at the Hansen Meadows Ward?! :) So sorry.....when I use Trav's camera, it takes a while for me to remind him to bring the cord home to upload pics! Which aren't ever even that good.....CAUSE HIS CAMERA IS ALWAYS BLURRY!! I guess I need to learn to deal with packing my big Nikon around, right ladies! On to the good stuff! Dec. 2nd we braved the Frigid cold Temps and headed down to see the lights at Temple Square with the Young Men! We only made it from the cars to the front doors of the visitor center before we were begging to get warm! We found the Sister Missionaries there, that took us to our own little room and turned on Mr. Kruger's Christmas for us to watch at warm our toes! Afterwards, we walked around the tabernacle, saw the lights, met back up with the YM and headed straight back to the cars! We ate cookies, drank hot chocolate.....and made it back to our warm homes by 9 pm! It was a great.....but absolutely cold night! May we remember the reason we celebrate......we are truly grateful for our Savior and his example in our lives! MERRY CHRISTMAS! We love you all!

YW in Excellence!

2009-11-19T13:01:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe we have just accomplished another Evening of Excellence program! Last night was incredible! We met at 4 pm to set up and decorate the gym.....which turned out pretty dang awesome, if we do say so ourselves! For the program, Sis. Piula from the Homestead ward came and spoke to us about Individual Worth. Afterwards, each YW leader took a minute spotlighting each girl. As each name was read, 2 YM escorted each YW on to the stage where she would stand as qualities and talents she possessed were read. Each girl received a rose and a copy of what was shared about them. They all sat on the stage and after all the girls had been spotlighted, the parents and the leaders gave them a Standing Ovation for their Excellence and for being incredible Young Women. Carly sang a beautiful song, "Light house in the Night," Bro. McKinstry and Bishop gave closing remarks, then all the YW sang "I Am a Child of God." We had really fun refreshments......Chocolate fountains with all kinds of fruit, cookies, rice crispie treats, candy, etc. to dip! It was such a fun night! The girls were beautiful and so were their table displays! It was PERFECT!! (Now for the sad part...Please forgive me.....I took pics. before you all showed up, and remembered to take more pics. after most of you had left! Duh!!! Sorry!)

Serving all over the place!!

2009-11-13T13:19:00.000-08:00

Spiritually Serving -

The past couple of weeks we have been working on a special Thanksgiving Service Project. Our ward is amazing.....so many incredible people willing to donate and give to others! We received enough money to purchase turkeys, along with a bunch of food items. The girls went around this last Wednesday to collect the food donations from those who had signed up to help. With all that was donated, we will be able to provide FOUR families in our area with a FULL Thanksgiving meal! We were so thrilled and so grateful to all who so willingly gave to this amazing project!Physically Serving -
We just played our first set of Region Games for Volleyball. We were undefeated and took first in the Stake.......we weren't so lucky at Region....but no one can say we didn't play our hearts out! The girls did awesome winning the first round of games, but by the end (after 2 more full games).....we were 10 points away from being able to continue on! While they were disappointed, they all handled it well and were good sports! Sis. Witt did an amazing job as coach and even came dressed to TRULY support the girls! It was a great night.....we were proud of you "WHOPPERS!!" (Loads of pics. I know,....but the girls like to copy them!)

Combined with the Young Men...

2009-11-07T16:18:00.000-08:00

Tonight's activity was so fun! Food was involved, so you know it was gonna be good! The Young Men were in charge and they had some of their leaders bring food from their missions for us to try and then they each took a moment to talk about their missions. We had food from: Korea, Mexico, Germany, England, and Georgia (USA). (Raise your hand if you liked the squid from Korea!!!) We all tried things we never had before, and learned that we might have to do that as missionaries in the field! We enjoyed hearing about mission life and it really got us excited about missionary work and serving the Lord in that capacity. Thank you to the Young Men leaders for such a great activity! It was wonderful.

p.s.
Sister Rodgers' camera is in the dog house for not working that night. So sorry. Maybe Santa knows that is on her wish list..........

We love you all!

Invites, Donation Boxes, and Chatter - Oh My!

2009-10-28T21:03:00.001-07:00

Shoot!! Brought the camera.....but forgot to take the pics!! We were busy tonight making some visits to girls in our ward who need a little lift, making invites to our YW in Excellence program, and decorating boxes for our Thanksgiving Meal Donations. Thanks to all who came and helped! The invites turned out adorable!

Sharing our Talents....

2009-10-21T21:55:00.000-07:00

Tonight was Amazing! The girls put on a talent show for the residents of Apple Tree Retirement Home. They sang songs, played instruments, danced and showed art work. The Elderly sisters that came to our program seemed to really enjoy it. We even had spots in our program where we had them join in singing hymns with us. It was so fun to see them tap their feet and sing along as the girls were performing. What a special spirit they have. It was a great evening spent sharing the talents and gifts the Lord has given these girls with those who really appreciated and enjoyed having us share! Hopefully we spread a little sunshine and brightened spirits tonight! Great job girls....you were incredible! Thanks to all who came and participated!

Out for a little "Fresh Air...."

2009-10-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had an awesome activity! We were lucky enough to be able to tour Channel 2 News and then stand right in the room and watch the 6 o'clock news broadcast live! The 10 o'clock producer Milissa Gibbs took us on a tour of the studio and then in to the Control room for the first few minutes of the broadcast. After a few minutes we got to be right in the room while Sterling Poulson did the weather report, Dave Fox talked Sports, Brian Mullahy did something else :), and Mark Koelbel finished the news. After wards, thanks to Alyssa, we were able to take pictures with some of them! It was really neat to learn about some of the things they do to prepare for the broadcasts and then to watch it happen. Thanks Channel 2.....it really was a breath of "Fresh Air" just being with you all!! (Click on the collages to see them bigger!)

Nightmare on 13th -

2009-10-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

Every year the Barber's invite our Youth to their Haunted House for an activity. The kids love this night.....and if we're being honest.....so do the leaders! They are so generous in allowing us all to come and have fun....we are so grateful! Afterwards, we meet in the parking lot for doughnuts and milk! We had a great turn-out and had a wonderful time! Thanks Barber family!

Volleyball, volleyball, volleyball

2009-09-25T18:18:00.000-07:00

Seeing as volleyball started a couple of weeks ago, we decided to practice for our activity this week and to plan some of our personal progress while we were at it! The YM joined us - after playing, we had popcicles, talked, and headed home!

Cards and Treats.....

2009-09-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

Our activity this week was great! We decided to make treats and cards for girls in the ward that we have missed seeing at our activities!!

The girls split up into two different groups:

One group helped in the kitchen making the yummiest treat ever!

They melted white chocolate chips and poured it over

popped popcorn, then spread it out on wax paper to cool. Then they

put the treat into bags, tied them with a ribbon and

sent them to the card room........

This group was in charge of making some cards to put with the treat!

The cricut machine came in handy as they cut out things like:

"We Miss You", and "Thinking of You". The cards turned out

D-A-R-L-I-N-G!

The night ended with the girls splitting up and delivering them! Thanks for

all that came and made this a great service activity! Love ya!

Hard work pays off.....!!

2009-09-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

Hi Ladies! I sure missed not being with you last night! VERY weird being home on a Wednesday night! Didn't want to pass a bug....so I sat that one out! Missed you and Love you! Just wanted to share with you how AWESOME our Stake Parade float turned out! Don't know how many of you actually got to see the final thing, but had to show you how all the work you did paid off! Sis. Hadley asked Ty to sit on it for the "Peach Day's" parade last Saturday, so I took some pics! It is AMAZING!! "Peach Days" parade Committee gave it FIRST PLACE for the parade.....there were over 150 float entries! Fun, huh?! Take a look!

Mia Maid/Teacher - Laurel/Priest Activity!

2009-09-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

So sorry this is a few days behind......
FOOTBALL SEASON, ya know? :)

Very awesome activity this week. Sis. Lindsey had a wonderful idea to have the Mia Maids/Teachers write their testimonies in Books of Mormon and then give them to the Sister Missionaries serving in our area to hand out to investigators! Due to the fact that the Priests hadn't had a planning meeting yet to plan an activity with the Laurels.....Sis. Lindsey was kind enough to let everyone get involved! The Sisters loved the idea so much, they donated a box of books for us to use! There were even enough for all of the leaders to share their testimonies! Each of us also highlighted our favorite scripture and also Moroni's Promise (Moroni 10:3-5). Afterwards, we realized there were still some extras, so we delivered them to the Beehive activity so they would have the opportunity as well. Awesome!!Afterwards, we headed over to Sis. Lindsey's house to chat and make smores around her incredible firepit! Great night and wonderful experience! Thanks Sis. Lindsey for your inspiration and hospitality! :)

Beehive Activity...Making fresh salsa!!!

2009-09-09T19:36:00.000-07:00

YUMMY! We got together at Sister Rodgers' house and made some fresh salsa! The girls will be adding the recipes to their ever-growing recipe book! Most of the ingredients came from Sister McDougal's garden, too! We all took turns using the amazing food chopper, which is a great way to vent your frustrations, we decided! We made two different kinds and sat back and enjoyed ourselves! The night ended with us writing our testimonies in some Books of Mormon to give back to the sister missionaires. What a great ending to our activity!

Yes, it was as delicious as it looked!

Love your silly faces, Alyssa!!

Hailee and Lisa chopping some cilantro!!!

Sarah, Morgan and Sister McDougal eating, chopping and having a great time!! Yay!

Back to School Barbeque

2009-09-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

For our combined YM/YW activity this week, the Young Men were in charge and they planned an awesome barbeque. We had really great food, volleyball, and some off the wall stretchy band game that Bro. Rhodes brought, that can only be related to the "Scrambler" at Lagoon! It was so fun, the kids had a blast with it.....along with a couple of leaders!!! The night was spent talking, laughing and just having a fun time! So many of the Youth brought friends with them last night, to share the gospel with. It turned out wonderful! Thanks Watt's family for letting us completely invade your home! Great Activity!

"Got It's" vs. "Angels"

2009-08-20T20:46:00.000-07:00

And the winner is......."Got-It's!!" If we're being honest though.....it was a close game! For our activity last night, Sis. Sessions made a list of questions pertaining to Personal Progress. The girls were divided up into two groups.....those that had their medallions and those still working towards it. As the questions were asked, whatever team answered correctly first....got the point! We played that for a few minutes and then had "Chat" time. We all just sat around enjoying one another's company. It was a fun night! Great job to both teams for a game well played!Reciting the theme in hopes of another point!! Which was done flawlessly, might we add!

Yes....there were more than 3 questions....just never got a shot of the final score! :)

Thanks to all who came! It was a fun night!

Swim - Snack - Sit

2009-08-12T21:52:00.000-07:00

FINALLY we were able to swim this summer! Each time we've planned a swim activity....the heavens have opened up and changed our minds! Tonight we had a fun time swimming, playing, snacking and chatting! Thanks so much to the Gardner's for their generosity in letting us use their pool! We had a blast!

"When ye are in the service of your fellow beings.....Ye are only in the Service of your God."

2009-08-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

Last night was incredible! For our Combined YM/YW activity, we had planned to go ice blocking over at the High School. We got word that a family in our ward was in need of some help with their yard, due to the Mom having a broken foot. The decision was made to take all of the youth to their home and provide some service and help where they could. It was awesome to see that not one of them complained at the canceled activity swapped for service! Our youth are amazing.....truly! Everyone pitched in and got the job done in just about an hour! The yard was so full of weeds, and looked beautiful by the time we left! The family was so grateful for the help and the kids learned how good it feels to serve! A few of them even commented about how good it felt and how much they love to serve!......and it helped that there were ice cream sandwiches to finish off the night!

More from the temple open house.....

2009-07-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

2009-07-30T11:31:00.000-07:00

We had a very neat combined YW\YM activity touring the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was truly beautiful! There was quite a crowd there, so it took us awhile to get through, but it was so worth the wait! The rooms were so beautiful and there is always such a peaceful feeling at the temple. We finished the tour with some cookies and water! So glad so many of you were there!!

Survivor.......YW's Camp!

2009-07-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

They're finally here! Our camp pics! Camp was awesome....thanks to Sis. Witt, Sis. Shaw, and Sis. Watts....as well as all of the leaders who helped before hand and also all of those who came to camp! And...most importantly....to all of you amazing Young Women who came and united together to make it the best camp ever! Our theme was "Survivor." We learned about all of the things in this life that help us be "Survivors" on this Earth and lead us back home to our Heavenly Father. Each Young Woman was given a bag at the first of camp with lotions, headbands, journals and other fun items. Secret Sister gifts were placed in the bags each day, as well as a fun thought from each leader. We had a box where each girl wrote two nice things about their secret sister throughout the day, and then at our nightly tribal councils, each nice thing was read aloud for everyone to hear and learn about each girl. There were challenges each day for all 3 tribes, we made a fleece blanket, glittered our toes,made an adorable canvas craft with the 2009 Mutual Theme on it, kareokeed, and Tie Dyed T-shirts using permanent markers! We had worked hard to read the Book of Mormon together and set a goal to finish it at camp. Wednesday Morning, we hiked to a peak above our cabin, read the Book of Moroni and finished the Book of Mormon. Each girl was given a letter from their parents, as well as each leader from their spouse, and everyone went to a quiet, secluded spot to read the letter, write in their journal, and ponder on their testimony. It was a very emotional, spiritual experience. Later that night each leader and member of the Bishopric were spread out along a path and the YW went in pairs of 2 on a Faith Walk to each station and learned about a different topic at each. At the end of the Faith Walk, our Bishop was at the fire pit waiting for each group to come and then when everyone had made it there, Testimony Meeting was started. It was an amazing day! The Last day at camp was spent at Pineview resevoir playing in the water and boating on Bro. and Sis. Witt's boat! Camp was so amazing and we are so thankful as leaders for the time we were all able to have together! Can't wait for next year already!

Laurels Camp

2009-07-23T11:29:00.000-07:00

So, yes......we are behind on our blogging. Laurels Camp was amazing this year. We had just a small group of us, but the experience was incredible! The Stake had arranged awesome workshops, wonderful food, and fun activities! Each of us had a great time! The proof is in the pics!

Stay Tuned........and a little Sneek Peek!

2009-07-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I know! You wanna see those awesome camp pics! Sis. Burke has had one of "Those" weeks, so please be patient with me! I will post them very soon! I am in the process of editing....so hang in there with me! Shortly Ladies, shortly!

Camp was awesome - so many amazing experiences, memories and spiritually uplifting events! I love you all so much and am so grateful to have shared all of that with each of you!

Loves!

We love to see the Temple.....

2009-07-02T09:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our turn to do Baptisms for the Dead in the Ogden Temple. What a fun experience. We started reading the Book of Mormon together, last month. We are reading 13 pages/day in order to finished together at Camp in a couple of weeks. All of us got to the temple about an hour early, laid out some blankets, and read our pages for the day together on the lawn of the temple. That was awesome! After we did Baptisms, Bishop took us over to Farrs for ice cream! It was the perfect day! Thanks to all who came!

Celebrating Pioneer Heritage!

2009-06-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy month....so we are a little behind on posting our activities! Laurels Camp Pics. will be posted next week, but just wanted to add that we had an awesome time! More on that later!

This week we were asked to help Sis. Hadley and Sis. Lindhardt with the Stake 24th of July Ogden Parade Float. Many of the girls have been busy cutting leaves out of foam at home, which has helped them with their Personal Progress goals. Once they were all cut out, we met at the Chadbourne's, where we dipped all of the leaves in paint and hung them from string in the yard to dry. We also helped make flowers out of tissue paper. Our Sweet Bishop showed up with cold drinks and candy bars! They were yummy! The next morning we came back and dipped all of the leaves in glitter! It was a lot of work, but we had fun doing it! Can't wait to see the final product! Thanks to all of the Young Women who came and helped, there were a lot of you and it was SO appreciated!

Welcome to the hive!!

2009-06-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

For our activity, we got together and made a cute poster and some cookies for our incoming beehive! It was fun and we hope she feels welcome in the "hive".

Purple Personal Progress

2009-05-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

We had our monthly personal progress activity and it was a very purple night! The value we worked on was Integrity, whose color is purple! We all came in as much purple as we owned, hoping to win the prize! (Will we ever forget that Sister Burke's dress was so perfectly purple??!!) We had a great night prepared by Sister Sessions! She invited some very special ladies in our ward to come and talk to us about Integrity: Sister Ellen Hackbarth and Sister Amy Spalding. How we love these sisters and how thankful we are that they came and spoke to us. The night ended with awards for the person dressed in the most purple and a treat: Fudge Pops! YUM!

We want you girls to know that we as your leaders love the Personal Progress program and that we all testify that it will strengthen you and prepare you for your life. You are such special girls and we love being with you!

Oh Baby!!!

2009-05-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

Sis. McDougal had her baby boy!! So......we wanted to do something fun for her! We collected some cute baby items and made her a diaper cake! It turned out adorable....if we do say so ourselves!(Can you tell they love it when I pull out the camera!)

Alyssa had an "Ah-ha" moment when she finally realized what a diaper cake was all about.....and it got even better when she realized that the diapers would actually be used!! AWESOME!We also made a bag for each of her other little ones, so they would have something fun. There were treats, bubbles and drinks for each for when mom needs to be with the baby! Thanks for the yummy cookies Sis. Wilde!
Congrats Sis. McDougal.....we can't wait to meet your little guy!

Beehive Activity...

2009-05-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

Again no picture. Sorry, cute girls. (Will somebody please text me next time and remind to bring my camera??) Anyways, after we passed out the fliers for the ward party, we drove to Ross for our activity. The girls split into two teams and then had to find 2 modest outfits and keep it under $30. One outfit had to be for school and the other for church AND they had to do it all in 15 minutes. It was a ton of fun to show off the outfits at the end. Ross is such a crazy store and we found all kinds of very interesting items there. But, in the end the girls chose great outfits and proved they are very savy shoppers. We all got a kick out of the purple zebra pants one team found.......Wahoo! We finished the night with yummy treats from Sonic! Sure love you girls...... :)

Class Activities!!

2009-05-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

This week we had our Individual class activities! They turned out great!

LAURELS - After running around the neighborhood handing out flyers for the ward Picnic this Saturday, we went back to Sis. Wilde's house where we learned how to take care of our toes!! Sis. Burke quickly became the example of "what not to do!" But she is greatful to help these girls learn anyway that she can! :) Sis. Wilde painted us up all cute and then added some fancy glitter! We looked great, if we do say so ourselves! Of course we had snacks and plenty of conversation and good laughs to go along with our cute toes! It was awesome....thanks to those who came and especially to Sis. Wilde for opening her home to us and sharing her talents! (cell phone pics. again.....sorry!!)

Oh, what to be when we grow up........?

2009-05-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

For our Combined YM/YW activity this week we were lucky to be able to go to the new hospital in Salt Lake. Bro. Morris is a PA and also works with Life Flight there. He gave us a tour of the Life Flight helicopter, and while we were learning about it, a call came through, so we were able to watch it take off! We watched a slide show about Life Flight, saw some pretty gruesome pics!!, and then went down to the ER and learned about what he does there in the Trauma Unit.
Unfortunately, the camera battery was dead and we weren't able to take any pics. But, we had an awesome time and many of the youth were talking about having similar jobs when they grow up! Some were turned off after learning how many years of school it takes! It will be fun to see who really ends up in the medical field!! Thanks for a great night and for taking the time to show us around, Bro. Morris! It was awesome!

Dancing part 2......

2009-04-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

They didn't want to dance........but in the end they did! Yay! :)

Building their SUNDAES!! Thanks, Sister Watts for getting all the stuff! :)

It was a fun night! So glad you all came! :)

Dancing......

2009-04-30T06:45:00.000-07:00

Here we are dancing the night away! Carly and her friend came and taught some steps and then turned on the music!! Everyone was a different topping for an ice cream sundae and you had to dance with a lot of people to make sure yours was going to be a good one! It was really fun!!

"Rock, step, step behind, rock step...."

The pros showing us how it is done!

Talking themselves into it......

Beehive Activity...

2009-04-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

The Beehives came over to my (Sister Rodgers), house for a night of yummy Filippino food and mission talk. We ate: Adobo (the one with chicken in a brown sauce), Pancit (the one with noodles) and Singagong na Baboy (the kinda sour one with green beans). Sister McDougal brought the rice and we were set! We looked at mission pictures and I told them some things about the Philippines and the people there. It was fun to get out my pictures and other things I brought home and share them! Thanks for coming! We ended the night with running around the backyard, jumping on the tramp, and swinging on the swingset......well the girls did, neither I nor Sister McDougal joined in.... :)

p.s.
Sorry my camera did not make it out to take pictures. Guess we'll have to do it all over again! Yay!

Radium Girls

2009-04-23T06:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight was individual class activities! The Laurels went to support Shirelle in her High School play - "Radium Girls." But, seeing as the Laurels almost always have work or are extremely busy, we invited the Mia Maids to come along.....and that gave us some extra numbers! We were glad to have Chalise represent the Laurels!! It was such a good play.....Shirelle did a wonderful job......she was cast as a few different people, which kept it fun for us to wait to see what she would come out as next! We had a great time! The Beehives were at Sis. Rodger's home learning about her mission to the Philippines and tasting the food. (She will post about this separately). It was a fun night....thanks Shirelle for the invite.....we LOVED it!

Evening of Elegance

2009-04-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

For our Personal Progress night we met at the church and worked towards passing off #3 Achievement of Virtue. We made a list of the things we need to be doing in order to prepare ourselves to enter the doors of the temple. We made a card and flowers to say good-bye to Sister Hawker, delivered them to her home, and then drove to Centerville to White Elegance.
White Elegance is a store that sells white temple dresses. Sister Shepard, a White Elegance instructor, taught us about the temple and shared some neat personal experiences of her own conversion to the church. Afterwards, the girls were allowed to pick a dress and try it on. We had a wonderful evening, learning about the temple and preparing to go there someday!
(You will need to pause our music play list in order to listen to the video)

Stay-at-Home-Spring-Breakers

2009-04-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

So, we had canceled Young Women's for the week because of Spring Break. But, then we realized, "Hey......some of us are still here.....let's go do something!" The texts were sent out and plans were made to go for Ice Cream! It didn't matter that it was raining and freezing outside......we wanted our Cold Stone Ice Cream!! Here we thought we wouldn't have enough home for an activity.....and ended up having a full house of 9, plus 2 leaders! It was great!!We ate, talked and then out of no where,......Little Sara says, "Hey, the red light is on at Krispy Kreme.....let's go get a free doughnut!" "What?" Sis. Burke says......"there is no such thing as a free doughnut cause of some little red light!" The mocking began, like the "Where have you been, Sis. Burke?" and the "You never knew that?" Off we ran to get our "Free Doughnut" when what to our wondering eyes should appear - THERE ARE NO FREE DOUGHNUTS!!!... unless you make a purchase first! The girls still swear up and down that has not always been the case and decided to boycott Krispy Kreme over the whole issue! Needless to say, we found ourselves without a doughnut back in the pouring rain, running for the mini-vans! On the way home, we decided we hadn't had enough fun and ended up back at Sis. Rodger's house playing Bladerdash till 8:45! It was a wonderful night.....who needs St. George or California for Spring Break? Not us!

Touring the Bishop's Storehouse!!

2009-04-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

This week we had a great combined YW\YM activity! We met at the church at 5:00pm, and off we went to tour the Bishop's Storehouse in Salt Lake City! We watched a very well-done video showing us all the wonderful things our fast offering do to help others. Then we split off into two groups to start the tour.

We were able to see the different buildings where they make things like: cheese, milk, bread and we saw were they do the canning. We toured the actual storehouse and saw the shelves and shelves of food that are there for those that are in need. They also took us "behind the scenes" of the DI and we could see what happens when donations come it! The church is so very organized! The tour also included a sample of chocolate milk and cheese that they make on sight! YUM!

We finished up the night with yummy cookies and milk: thanks Sister MacDougal!! Bishop Hansen, Brother Hackbarth, and Brother McKinstry came with us that night and it was wonderful!!

Our testimonies were surely strengthened by what wonderful things our funds do to help.

Personal Progress Night.....and then some!!

2009-03-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

We just survived our first Personal Progress night without our favorite.....Sis. Hodson! She was taken from us this last week to serve as the Relief Society President..... and we're not happy! But, we managed to pull off a great activity in which we provided a lot of service and passed off some of our Achievements! Two of the girls went with Sis. Rodgers to help the Morris family. The rest of us stayed at the church and decorated Baby Onesies for the Church Humanitarian Center. The onesies will be sent to countries where parents don't have any clothing for their newborns and for that reason, the newborns are not allowed to leave the hospital until they do. Now because of our YW, there will be many happy parents and babies! Afterwards, we ate yummy treats, thanks to Sis. Rodgers, and then headed over to say our "Good-byes" to Sis. Hodson. She wasn't home, so we left some tulips and an adorable card to let her know we love and will miss her!It was a great night!

Now for the "....and then some's!"
These are pics. from some of our recent activities. We went sleigh riding in Feb. with the YM and then we had a wonderful activity last week at Sis. Watts home where she gave us the follow-up portion of our Color Tests.

Games - Games - and More Games

2009-03-09T08:07:00.000-07:00

This last Wednesday was our Combined activity with the YM. They had planned to play Capture the Flag....but due to Freezing Wind....we ended up back at the church and played a few rounds of Uno, Twister, Lightning and a Monkey Game (not sure of the name!) We pigged out on Doughnuts and Drinks afterwards!

Blessings of Service....

2009-02-26T15:01:00.000-08:00

Last night was our Personal Progress activity. Sis. Hodson helped us towards passing off a few more goals, it was great! We talked about service and took turns sharing acts of service we have witnessed or are grateful for in our lives. Prizes were handed out and Scriptures were read! Afterwards, we all worked together to prepare a "Service" bag. There is a sister in our ward who is battling cancer and starting Chemotherapy on Friday. We got a cute patchwork bag and placed items in it that she can take with her to her treatments. We also tied a fleece lap quilt and put it in the bag. We quickly felt the blessings of service as we went to her home and talked with her and felt of her sweet spirit. She has been amazingly strong through this process and an example to us all. She was very grateful for the gift and we all felt a wonderful feeling as we left her home. Each girl will be working over the next two weeks to finish passing of their goals! Thank you Sister Hodson for a wonderful evening and the opportunity to serve!Sis Morris, we hope you feel "Wrapped" in our love, and know that our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

"Light Keepers"

2009-02-19T14:57:00.001-08:00

Last night we had our New Beginnings Program. It turned out wonderful. We decorated the room with lanterns the girls had made, along with lighthouses and pictures of the Savior. Our program went along with our Theme for the year found in Timothy...."Be Thou an Example of the Believers..." We talked about how our lives are like Lighthouses.....we shine for all to see our examples and we bring others in, unto Christ. We used the Jenny Phillips program and music. We topped the night off with yummy cheesecake treats and lots of talking! Thank you to all of the Leaders who helped to make the night wonderful, but especially to all of the Young Women and their parents for their support and participation! It was a wonderful night....not much time for pictures....but of course, we got a few!

Crab Soccer and Dodge Ball.....

2009-02-12T09:22:00.000-08:00

Can you hear the screaming? Look at our awesome girls, playing dodge ball with the those Young Men! Awesome, is all I can say!

Crab soccer was hilarious to watch and equally funny to play, right? What made it even funnier, was both exercise balls provided by Brother Watts broke pretty early on! One got popped on the side of a chalk board and another got popped on the air vent. Sorry, Bro. Watts! We owe ya, big time! :)

Here We are......2009!!

2009-01-12T12:05:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year! We are off to a great start! We had our first combined YM/YW activity of 2009. ......A Wii Bowling Tourney! We had a great time....with T.V's hooked up all over the gym! I realized that I was only getting pictures from behind, so I stopped. These are the best I got! Sorry!One last note......we had 8 Young Women receive their Young Women Medallions in 2008!! WAHHOOOO!! That is a huge number and we are so proud of all of you! Can't wait to see our numbers in 2009....we have several more who are close and working on them! Keep up the good work!

The Christmas Celebrations Continue!

2008-12-22T14:30:00.000-08:00

So, I have been a slacker....but I have found it hard to be one of Santa's Elves and a blogger! Also, our computer got a virus and I haven't been able to use it! I will try and do the last few weeks justice!

December 10 those that were 14 and older combined with the Young Men at the Morris' home, where we had pizza and treats. The Moss family provided at Marriage Panel of 3 couples and the youth all asked them questions! It was so fun to hear their answers and to learn more about dating and marriage. A big thank you to the Morris Family for opening your home to our large crowd and also to the Moss Family for providing all of the entertainment! It was a really great evening.The Beehives had a fun Christmas Party at the Hawker's home. I heard everyone had fun and that they all enjoyed themselves!

December 16th we had a Christmas Movie/Pig Out/Come in your "comfies" party at Sis. Burke's house. We watched the latest version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Well, let's just say the movie was going, but mostly we talked, ate, had fun and ate some more! What are the holidays for?!!Chalise got her top Braces off - Lookin Good Chalise! :)

And as if that wasn't enough fun for the month....the Laurels went to GOOD THINGS UTAH!
We were part of the studio audience! Along with the fun of watching the taping of the show and all that goes with that...we got gift certificates to a couple of places and containers of lip balm! Afterwards we went to lunch at a fun Italian place in Salt Lake....just for future reference....don't let Shirelle lead you there! Ha, Ha! We got lost in the avenues, but sure had fun doing it! Talk about a fun girls day out!

(Here we are waiting in the cold to enter the studio!)
(Front Row Seats BABY!!)
(Getting Ready to Start the show)

(All of the "Good Things" Ladies! After the taping!)

We had an Awesome time....can't wait til our next girls day out! Hmmmm....we gotta plan one!
We are off for Christmas and New Years Breaks, but look forward to being back together in January!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Hansen Meadows Young Women!

(Push Pause on our music play list in order to hear the video clip!

Holly Jolly Christmas!

2008-12-03T23:02:00.001-08:00

Temple Square was beautiful tonight....and very CROWDED! Apparently we weren't the only youth group to have that idea! The weather was awesome and only a little cold! Everyone had a great time. The proof is in the pics!That is probably more than enough "Proof!" It was a great time had by all, finished off with Hot chocolate and Christmas Hershey Kiss cookies! (And a 1/2 hour drive home!) Merry Christmas! Bring on the SNOW!!

Attitude of Gratitude

2008-11-23T19:05:00.000-08:00

This past week we were invited to join the Relief Society for their Enrichment night. They fed us a yummy potato bar and then we were all blessed to hear Brecklyn speak and share her story about losing her leg. We were in awe as she spoke about the journey of this trial that taught her who she truly was and why she was here. She shared her amazing testimony with us about her relationship with our Savior and Heavenly Father. It was a wonderful night.

Which leads me to my thoughts of this upcoming week.....Thanksgiving! As I ponder the things I am most grateful for....high on the top of my list is all of you sweet Young Women. I am blown away at what you have meant in my life in these short 4 months that we have been together. You are true Christ-like examples to me, and for that I am grateful. You lighten all of our lives as we meet each week. You're awesome! Being the only girl in my family, I never had a sister. How grateful I am that Heavenly Father just sent me 30 of you...."Little Sisters!" I'm grateful to all of the leaders that serve with me. What amazing women they are! We are so lucky to live in this ward, to be surrounded by so many good people.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday....We will miss getting together this week, but look forward to seeing the lights next week. Happy Thanksgiving.....Loves to all!

Sis. Burke

Young Women in Excellence

2008-11-14T11:37:00.000-08:00

This last Wednesday, November 12, we had our Young Women in Excellence Program. Our theme for the night was "S.T.A.R. - Stand for Truth and Righteousness." We talked about how each of us has the Light of Christ in our lives and as we work on our Personal Progress, we gain a greater testimony of the Savior, and can share that light with others. All of the Young Women who earned their medallions in the last few months, shared some of their experiences along with their testimonies. It was wonderful! The leaders made necklaces for each of the girls along with our scripture for the night - 3Nephi 18:24, to remind each of them to hold up their light and follow the example the Savior had set for them. We finished the night off sharing all of the girls displays of talents and things they are working on this year with our Parents, Bishopric and Stake Leaders. Sugar cookies sprinkled with all of the value colors and punch were served! It definitely was an evening filled with Excellence. Our Young Women are awesome and we learn so much from them each week. There is great talent among our group! Thank you to all who came and supported us and to all who participated in the program. It couldn't have been better!

Popperini 3000's

2008-11-07T07:47:00.000-08:00

This last Wednesday we all joined the Beehives in their monthly cooking class. Thanks to Sis. George for hosting and teaching us how to make a yummy "no name" treat that the girls so intelligently named "Popperini 3000!" Not sure how that came about, but we all thought it was hilarious! They wrote the recipe down on really cute cards and we all sat around "pigging out" and talking. It was a really fun night being together! (I decided to give them all a break from being in the light of the camera at EVERY activity, so unfortunately, there aren't any pics. of our fun, Pig Out session!) Thanks to all of the leaders and girls!

* * * * * * *

Also, I neglected to mention a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Megan and Mccall for earning their Young Women Medallions. They are a great example to the rest of us and we know they put in a lot of hard work and dedication to reach this tremendous goal. We are so proud of you both. Because they earned it quite early, they will be on our Personal Progress Committee and will help plan and follow through on the Personal Progress activities each month, in order to stay involved and help the other girls reach this point also! WAY TO GO MEGAN AND MCCALL!! We love you!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T21:40:00.000-07:00

Our Young Women are so awesome....they even render service on Halloween! We met at the church at 3:30 today to help set up, cover, and decorate all the tables for the Ward Halloween Party and Trunk-or-Treat! Then they all ran home to deck themselves out for the occasion! Some were quite interesting. We had everything from Beauty Queens and psyche ward patients, to hippie chicks and twister games! Oh, how the creativity in this group flows!! Thanks to all of you who came and helped....it was a great time had by all! BOOOOO!!

Night of Integrity

2008-10-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Personal Progress activity last night....thanks to Sis. Hodson. She chose a goal from the Integrity portion of our Personal Progress book pertaining to fasting. She spoke to us about the importance of fasting with a purpose and a prayer. We learned that it is just "dieting" if we don't open and close our fast with prayer. She shared with us some personal experiences where her life was blessed through fasting. We all committed to fast in the proper way this next coming Fast Sunday and we were given a paper to help us decide on our own personal purpose. We are going to text and call everyone the Saturday before to remind them and then we will have the opportunity to share our experiences in Young Women's that Sunday. Thank you Sis. Hodson for a wonderful Personal Progress night!We finished off the evening with Rootbeer floats from our Awesome Bishop, sugar cookies and caramel popcorn. After filling our stomachs, we ran flyers around the neighborhood to remind everyone about Stake Conference this weekend. We had a great night! We even had some visitors...one from another ward and one that isn't a member! It's exciting to have new Young Women join us!

Here it is....

2008-10-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

I just got the pictures from Sis. Lindsey from the night we went to the Haunted House and a few stayed back and decorated sugar cookies! The cookies turned out really cute and they were delivered to some deserving people! Thanks to all who helped with this activity!

Norwegian Waffles......YUM!!

2008-10-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

A night with the Beehives is not truly complete until they have done a cute, crazy, silly pose.

Emily is diggin in! It takes a lot of concentration to butter them waffles, huh Alyssa? They were both totally posing in this picture. (Can you say "Silly girls"?)

The girls wrote down the ingredients as Sister Houskeeper gave them out. The cookbooks they are making are awesome and have so many great recipes so far! A big, huge "THANK YOU" to Sister Houskeeper for having us into her home and for showing us how to make these yummy things!

A Night in Sleepy Hollow!

2008-10-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

We have a very talented Actress among us! Shirelle was one of the stars of her high school play "Sleepy Hollow." It was so fun for the Laurels and Mia Maids to be there to support her. We started the night out eating dinner at a local Chinese restaurant, where we thoroughly enjoyed our orange chicken, sesame chicken and Ham fried rice! Thank you, thank you Sis. Watts! Dinner was delicious and we loved it!After dinner we went straight to Maverik and loaded up on insane amounts of candy to tide us over through the play! (Thanks to Sis. Lindsey & Sis. Burke's Mary Poppins Bag!)Meet our Lovely Chauffeur.....:)

Shirelle was beautiful and an absolute natural in the play. The whole cast did a fantastic job and we all really enjoyed it! There were parts that had us laughing out loud!
We ended the night picking up a couple of stragglers off the street! (Watts and Barber were walking home from their choir concert...so we shoved everyone in and drove on home!)
It was a wonderful night and as always....so fun to be together!

Again.....Awesome job Shirelle!

(to be continued.....with the Beehive activity update!!)

Workin' hard for the Money!!

2008-10-20T14:41:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday was our Lawn Aerating Fundraiser. We started at 8 am with the Young Women flagging sprinklers in every yard and collecting the donations, while the Young Men did the aerating and clean up. We made quite a bit of money, which will help us with our budgets! Thank you so much to everyone in the ward who supported us! We hope that in the Spring....when the water turns on....you'll still be grateful we came!! :) Thank you to all the youth who pitched in and helped...you all did a fantastic job!

Surf's Up!!

2008-10-15T22:59:00.000-07:00

Who can resist "Dollar Night" at Surf n' Swim? Not us!! Seeing as it was UEA weekend, we decided it would be fun to go swimming, since we could stay out a little later! We loaded up a mini van and one car and headed off to the FREEZING cold water! They must turn the hot water heater off on dollar night to recoupe some of the costs! None-the-less....we had a great time playing Marco Polo, (Which I, Sis. Burke, Won... as usual!! :), fruit, and then two other games that I can't remember the names of, but one was a dance move game and the other a "cross your hands and hope you don't get out" game. I need the girls with me while writing these posts, as I can't remember a thing after we get home! The waves would come on and we'd find ourselves making games out of that too!! We all lasted a couple of hours, and then it was off to Little Cesars to purchase two "Hot and Readies" to devour on the way home. Six girls had two boxes of pizzas gone before we made it half way down Gentile! Surfing makes one hungry, I guess!! It was a great time had by all....thank you Surf n' Swim for providing $ night, so that even the "low on budget" girls can have a fun, and entertaining activity!I have to finish by adding that our girls are AWESOME!! Tonight they invited a sweet girl in our neighborhood, who isn't a member, to come to the activity. They all included her while she was there and then invited her over to another house after to watch a movie. When I asked them about her, their reply was that her family has spoken to the missionaries and that they hoped she'd want to learn more after being with us. We told her she was welcome any time to come join us....let's hope she does! Great example to us all....little Sisters! Can't wait to see you Sunday!

Nightmare on 13th

2008-10-08T22:37:00.000-07:00

We found ourselves tonight....hoping to get out safely from a nightmare we were in!! The Barber family in our ward owns and operates the "Nightmare on 13th" Haunted House. They are very generous in allowing us to take our Youth there each year. The youth love it and so do the leaders. We laughed and screamed our way through and proud to say we all made it out alive and well. What a great time we had!! Doughnuts and Chocolate Milk were devoured in the parking lot afterward....before our trek home! Thank you Barber family for an awesome night...we are truly grateful!There were more of our group who stayed back at the church and made ghost sugar cookies (thanks to Sis. Lindsey and Sis. McDougal). They spread some cheer to others in need and also gave some to the Barber family. After Sis. Lindsey takes a class on how to import digital pictures on to her computer...we will post pictures of the cute sugar cookies! :)
Thanks to all who came and supported our night! We had a wonderful turnout!

Lil' Pumpkins

2008-10-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight we gave Martha Stewart a run for her money, as we got a little crafty and made adorable sets of decorative pumpkins. We had a great turn out and the girls seemed to really enjoy talking together and being creative! All of the pumpkins turned out Great!!We finished off the night with Awesome Pumpkin Bars thanks to Sis. Lindsey...and then, for some odd reason....this was our finale...(I know, we're not sure either!!) It was a wonderful night and we are all looking forward to many great Fall/Halloween activities this month!

Depleated Funds!!

2008-09-24T21:12:00.000-07:00

Seeing as we are extremely low on money in our YW/YM accounts...we headed out tonight in search of more. The youth are going to aerate lawns in our neighborhood, and we're hoping for enough support to get us through the end of the year. The YM and YW went door to door asking for donations and signing people up for the lawn project. We had a few people who were willing to help tonight, and a few others who will get back to us. Hopefully this will be a successful venture! A big thanks to Bro. Morris for all the time he spent making the flyers to hand out, and all of the leaders for helping! Great job everyone on getting the message out tonight. (I found a few of you!) P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN J.!!!

Red, Blue, White, Yellow - Which are you?

2008-09-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Sis. Watts....we had a great time finding out a little bit more about each other and ourselves tonight, by taking personality tests.
We learned that as a group, (of those who were there), we had 2 dominant red personalities, a large number of blues, and an equal amount of whites and yellows. So all in all....what does that make? One terrific Young Women's group. We all have so many different gifts, talents and annoyances to offer! We fit well together!
Thanks to Sis. Rodgers for providing the yummy snacks for the evening!

We had so much fun hearing about ourselves and each other, that we are hoping to have Part II later on down the road to find out more!

Thanks to all who participated, it was a great evening! See you next week!

Game Faces!!

2008-09-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

Volleyball was the game of the night! Our season starts this week, so we had a warm up game tonight....Laurels/Leaders vs. Beehives/Mia Maids (and a couple of leaders!!) The first set went to the Laurels and Leaders finishing off 25-23. However, the second set went to the Beehives and Mia Maids with a score of 25-19. (We're wondering if there was some rigging going on at the score table!!) The night only got sweeter with Gatorade, doughnuts and eclairs from Dicks!! Girls, if tonight is any indicator....we will rock in Stake!! Ra-Ra-Ra!!

Making New Memories!

2008-09-04T09:23:00.001-07:00

Our first activity together was a great success! We had a lot of fun getting to know one another. We started the night off with each girl picking a piece of yarn out of a bag....they were cut in to all different sizes. The object of the game was to wrap the yarn around your finger and for each wrap, you had to tell the rest, something about yourself. Those that had the long pieces, had a lot to share!! It was surprising how often other girls would step in and share things about the other to help them out! These girls really know and love each other. Each leader brought 5 things about themselves in a brown bag, and the girls had to decide which leader they belonged too. We had a great time learning new things about each other! We ended the night by writing thank you cards to the outgoing Presidency and then we delivered the cards and a candle to each, to thank them for sharing their "light" with all of us! It was a wonderful evening and we are so grateful the girls are so accepting of all us leaders!! You're wonderful!

New Presidency

2008-08-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

As a new Young Women's Presidency, we are excited to get to know all of you sweet Young Women. We look forward to making many memories, developing lasting relationships, and most importantly....enjoying the journey together of building our testimonies and doing those things that will lead each of us back to our Heavenly Father. We are extremely grateful for the wonderful opportunity to serve each of you and pray that you will always feel comfortable to come to us for anything. We love you and can't wait to see what lies ahead!

President: Sarah Burke
1st Counselor: Tracy Lindsey
2nd Counselor: Sheri Hawker
Secretary: Megan Rodgers

Laurel Adviser: Angela Wilde
Mia Maid Adviser: Lynette Watts
Beehive Adviser: Christi McDougal
Personal Progress Instructor: Wendy Hodson
Sports Director: Melissa Witt