LOVING OUR YSAs

Scott and I are blessed to serve in the YSA branch!  I truly love these "kids!"  I always joke about adopting kids and creating families... and I would love to adopt all of these young adults!
Tonight the Elders Quorum organized an activity for our branch.  We went ice-skating at Iceland.  And afterwards we had hot chocolate and yummies at the Reasor's home.  It was so much fun!

The Ice Skaters

I tried to take pictures of EVERYBODY!

Soooo....

This is my gorgeous Eternal Companion on the ice!

He's so much fun!

And Katia joined us!  Which made me so happy!

I LOVE her smile!

The Gnome joined our group...

And the Sisters make me laugh!

- Joseph, the Gnome, and Rachelle -

- Gary, the Gnome, and Susan -

- Kiera, the Gnome, and Matt -

- Sister Morris, the Gnome, and Sister McEvoy -

- Lisa, the Gnome, and Jeremy -

We also love spending time with Matt and Kiera.  She is visiting from Chicago.  She is definitely a kindred spirit!  (She loves musicals, books and kids!)  She and Matt are AMAZING!  Katia says Matt is a like the older brother she never had!

The Gnome joined us at Claudia Sanders for dinner!

YUMMMMM!

Kiera and Matt tried to replicate the famous photo of Claudia and Colonel Sanders.

We got to play games afterwards!

I LOVE double dates!

Also...  look what I made for my YSA girls two weeks ago when I taught Relief Society about Shepherding and Ministering:

LIFE'S POTPOURRI

Life is fun.  And we sometimes remember the random moments with arbitrary photos.  Enjoy!

I love my job!

Posing for the photo booth is always fun!

And sometimes we get to take pictures at Father/Daughter Dances with a Wakanda theme!

I have great team members!

Nathan - Bethanie - Me - Will

and Aaron

Scott loves his job too!

And they hired Cody!

Don't they all look so happy eating out a Milanos?!

Scott took this picture on the way to work this week....

He has marvelous conversations with these two employees - sometimes.

What is cuter than Raisin putting together a puzzle?

Raisin showing me her finished project a posing for a picture!

I'm a temple worker now!  I volunteer every Tuesday night!

I'm LOVING it!  And Scott is a patron every Tuesday night!

We are blessed!

Yes... we buy ice-cream and eat it out of the buckets!

We are cool like that!

And it's awesome to unwind with these crazies after a busy week!

SENSATIONAL SISTERS

We have amazing sisters in our YSA branch!  I really love them!  They are both totally inspirational, but still keep their youthful exuberance while teaching about Christ!  We are blessed to have gotten to know these great ladies!  We took them to Claudia Sanders on Wednesday so they could experience this fun, Kentucky, restaurant filled with southern charm.  I think they really loved it!  And so did my family!  We love any excuse to eat hot browns, Sander's fried chicken, and sweet tomato soup!

Sister McEvoy and Sister Morris

Scott

Katia - Cody - Kiara - Sister Morris - Sister McEvoy - Me

I love "my people!"

These two rock being missionaries!

 

SPENDING TIME WITH OUR VALENTINES!

I LOVE Valentine's Day!  It's wonderful that for one day out of 365, on a random February day, we can forget about all of our problems and trials, and difficult things to celebrate and truly love the people around us.  We can love our spouses, our children, our friends, etc.  And we can love them anyway we can!  This year I said, "I love you" with socks!  (The quote:  You are "TOE"tally terrific!  I love you!  Life without you would "SOCK!")

When Jellybean donned his socks, he really rocked his wardrobe:

And we also saved the world on Valentine's evening...  Y'all are welcome.  (We are loving this weekly Thursday activity!  It's stressful and fun!)

The day after Valentine's Day was the stake Valentine's dance.  We love this tradition.  (Although we do miss the live music.)

Dinner with friends first:

Then the dance:

I have funny kids!

I sure love 'em!

I especially love my Eternal Valentine!

These two are so in love!

And baby Lillywhite is also one of my future Valentines!

This girl cracks me up!

A couple of my YSAs were at the dance!

Me and My Girls!

There is nothing better than group dancing with a lama...  Look close!

Valentine's Day remains a constant way to share and express how I feel.  And to remind my friends  and family that I really do love them!  (And I also love the discounted Russell Stover's heart chocolates on February 15th!)  Valentine's Day sometimes receives a lot of negative attention and is called a "fake holiday" but in reality the day holds a large amount of potential to love and be loved, no matter your relationship status.

LIFE IS AWESOME!

I love my life!  And good things are happening!
We got to spend last Sunday with some of our favorite people (Matt and Kiera) playing strategy games!  I loved learning to play Seven Wonders and I think they enjoyed playing Instanbul too!  And the Derby pie they made was divine!  Thanks for the recipe, Matt!  Let's double date again!

Aren't they adorable!

And we love hanging out with them!

I'm working on my selfie-game!

Guess who moved to Kentucky this weekend?  My DAUGHTER AND SON!  They left Thursday night and drove  until Saturday morning!  We are sooooooooooo glad they are here safely!  It's a joy to have them back with us!

On their way....

Hats and the Sun and my Son

Enjoying Qdoba together after a loooong trip.

AND We had another Blue Party!  This time with all of our YSA branch!  I REALLY love "MY" kids!  And I'm blessed to call them all mine!  I could tell a story about each one... and shout praises and talents and things I love about each person in these photos:

I truly love our sister missionaries!  And Alexis and wearing blue!

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Table 4

Table 5 - or as I call them, our future boy band.

(Not sure if they can sing... but they got looks and personality!)

Guess who's going home?  One of our all time favorite missionaries: Elder Iglinski!  He ROCKS!

Watch out world!  He's going to be amazing!

And my dad is channeling his dad by growing a small mustache!  WHAT?!  It really looks like my grandpa... what a disconcerting picture?!

Grandpa Mac, the second!

I also finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.  It was truly joyful to read!  And I definitely recommend it!  I loved reading all the letters and enjoyed how each letter was so full of personality and spunk.  I miss letter writing days.  (Perhaps that is why I write so many letters to people STILL...) 
I love how this story connects history and the German occupation during World War II with a good old fashioned love story.  I also loved how books and literature came into the story.  The characters are vivid and easy to love.  And my favorite line in the whole book was "Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books."  This is truly a good book!  I love it and will be placing it among my favorites on my bookshelf.