Mormon Helping Hands

Hey! So my mom also did a post on her blog, but what's wrong with duplicates? So on May 8th Stake all over California went to help clean up parks all over California. I went with dad to Sanbourn Park. We helped get rid of a really invasive plant. Okay, I have NO IDEA what it's called. Believe me. But it's a pretty yellow plant(yeah we wiped out all the pretty stuff). Since the plants can be small with HUGE roots, we used this awesome root puller tool. It REALLY WORKS. Here are some pictures.

Hannah Power(me & Hannah S.)


Me & Audrey K. with our amazing mother plant.


My "Team" (Me, Audrey & Hannah)


The Whole Group

Disney land Part 1/2: Pictures

Beautiful Flower Covered Hills

Ever Heard of Mirror Kissing?

Above are pictures, from the hotel and drive that I forgot to post.

My favorite word

BIBLIOPHILE

Meaning: a person that loves and collects books!!!

M&M Heaven

This is the cake I made for the spaghetti dinner and Cake Auction(our stakes annual fundraiser for girls camp and scout/zions camp). I had meant to do a design, but...........well it just ended up this way.

Book List

It's time for some more books!

THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY
by
Trenton Lee Stewart

1) The Mysterious Benedict Society
2)The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
3)The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoners Dilemma

I really love these books. They are fun stories with lots of riddles and logic. It's great for age 9 and up. Even adults enjoy it! My dad read it.

Cheaper by the Dozen
by
Frank B. Gilbreth Jr, and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

This book if a very entertaining book! I really enjoyed reading this delightful masterpiece. The whole family(any age above 6) can enjoy this humorous book about the Gilbreth family with 12 children! The sequel is Belles on their Toes(by the same authors).

Princess Academy
Book of a Thousand Days
The Goose Girl (Book of Bayern #1)
Enna Burning (Book of Bayern #2)
River Secrets (Book of Bayern #3)
Forest Born (Book of Bayern #4)
Rapunzels Revenge
Calamity Jack (RR sequel)
by
Shannon Hale

I love all these books by Shannon Hale. Shannon Hale creates wonderful stories that are full of mystery, love and romance, and just fun stories and friendships. (BOATD and GG are wonderful retellings of two original brothers Grimm fairy tales) She also has two Adult novels: Austenland & The Actor and the Housewife. IF you haven't read Shannon Hale you must.


I recommend all of these books. They are fun reads that you are sure to enjoy. If you have any good book recommendations, drop a comment on this or any other posts. Thanks and enjoy!

The True Story of 'The Little Red Hen' - Part 2

I have finally decided to share the last part of 'The Little Red Hen'. So here it goes. Part 1 here.

Part 2

Little Red Hen finished grinding the wheat. Now it was time to mix the dough. She decided that maybe hwe friends would like helping with that. So Hen called up Pig.

"Hello Pig."
"Oh hi Hen."
" Pig, I was wondering if you would like to help me mix the dough for bread. I have a great......."
"No thanks Hen, I was, uh, just getting ready to go, uh, mudding with Piglet. Bye Hen!"
So Hen called Duck. "Hi Duck. I thought you might like to help me....."
"Uh, sorry Hen but I've got to study for my diving class. "
"Oh, okay. How do you do that?"
"Sorry, Hen but I've got to go."
So Hen tried to call Goose and Cat. But Goose was going to her quilt club, and Cat was going to the fair.
"Very well," said Hen, " I will do it myself." So Hen mixed and kneaded the dough herself. Now it was time to shape the loaves. She knew that Cat loved doing that, so she called up Cat.
"Hello Cat, back already? Must not have been very good."
"Yeah."
"Well I know that you enjoyed shaping the loaves, so I thought you could come and help me."
"Well thanks very much Hen! but, I've got quite a busy schedule, and I just dropped home to get something before my Fishing Frenzy class. So you see I can't help right now. I'm awfully sorry."
"Alright Cat." None of her other friends could help either. Hen didn't know why. They were NEVER this busy. Hen was so distracted with her thoughts that she accidentally shaped a loaf to big and didn't even notice. Hen set the bread on the stove to rise.
After half an hour of rising time, she returned to find a HUGE loaf that was starting to go over the edge! Oh no! thought Hen. But despite the large loaf, into the oven the bread went. The smell of the baking bread wafted out of Hens open window down to Pig, Duck, Goose and Cat. All of Hen's friends ran down to Hen's house. Hen saw them coming just as she was pulling the loaves out of the oven and said, "Now, who will help me eat the bread?"
"I will!" said Pig.
"I will!" said Cat.
"I will!" said Duck.
"I will!" said Goose.
"No thanks." said Hen. " I will eat it myself..
And she did.

Family Trip Tradition

One of our favorite traditions is that at one of our last stops we get 'Dibs'. Dibs are really yummy treats. They are little bite-sized vanilla ice cream balls with a crunch coating. They are nice treats for when it's hot and you don't have time to stop for ice-cream. They are also not very messy(except on a 2-year old who is also my partner in the car, and you know what that means). But overall, they are delicious! I suggest that if you ever find yourself of family in hot place and in need of refreshment, you might just want to try some Dibs!

Disney Land Part 1: Monday

Yes, Disneyland! See my Pruning post for more information. Anyway, so we left around 9am. We were So excited, you have no idea. We had a nice drive. I read like the whole trip. We finally got there and checked into our hotel. We stayed at Best Western. It's just across the street from Disneyland, so that's why mom chose it. After checking in, we headed to Downtown Disney, to explore. We also got our tickets for the next day( we only had to buy 1 ticket, the link above explains why). Adam, Sammie and Dad headed off to the Lego store and us girls went to explore the World of Disney store. We each brought money, but we didn't spend money that day, just browsed. We met up and then we went to take a peek in The Grand California Hotel. We heard the the Lobby was gorgeous and had a really HIGH ceiling. It was true. Beautiful. After that, we walked down the street to Mimi's Cafe to meet Eddie and Liz Ogle, who we haven't seen in a few years. They are my great-great aunt and uncle. We had a lovely time. They even walked back with us to our hotel because they wanted to see our van! After all the kids were in bed(we have a two room(adjoining) suite so the kids who go to bed first won't be disturbed by those who stay up later) I went down to the swimming pool with Dad and Adam. We met two great girls(Jessica and Rachel) who I later found out were LDS(it's not hard to figure out, when they have 4 kids in fam. and are from Utah. We had a nice time. Then we returned to the Hotel Room to sleep, before an exciting day at Disneyland.

Downtown Disney Sign!


Jamie


Adorable!

family w/the Ogles, can you tell who is missing?


me and the Ogles


Dad and Eddie just couldn't stop talking!

to be continued..............

Homeschool Friends

During Proposititon 8 (about gay marriage), a lady in my ward* came across this amazing Christian homeschooling family with 6 kids . Our moms decided we would like to meet each other. Many ages met up with us, so we would have fun together. We met for the first time at Creekside park. Since then we have been great friends. The moved to North San Jose like 8-11 months ago. Because of the distance we have had a harder time getting together. WE kept in touch through email and blogs but not been able to get together for a play date. Fortunately, we have the same orthodontist who is down on the corner of Miller and Wolfe. So today, when they had to come down for an appointment, we got to see them again. We met at Creekside again, and had a blast. They had their 7th in December so we got to see her for the first time, and they saw Katie for the first time. They have 7 kids like us! Here are their names in order of age. Lauren, the oldest, is 15; Thomas is 13; Pierce is next, he is 11; Zoe is 6; Lucas is 4; Stephen is 2 and adorable Xiana( zee-ah-nuh) is 5 months old( she is two months younger than Katie to the day). Below are some pictures of our park date!

Adorable Xiana!


The Moms


Stephen and Laurel pushing the babies


Sweet Stephen

Lauren, the babies and Me


Lauren and I


Our matching Chevy vans!

* In our church we are divided into Wards or Branches by where we live. 6-8 of these wards make up a stake. I am in the Stevens Creek Ward, and in the Saratoga stake.

My Awesome Beehive Leader

Hello!!! My awesome Beehive leader, Sarah Smith, recently moved to Oregon( like yesterday). She has been an awesome leader. I will miss her so much. I got together with the Beehives and we made a nice(surprise) gift basket for her. When we were babysitting at Enrichment we decorated the basket. We thought, that surely S. Smith would not come into the Nursery. She never did before. Alas, she did come after it ended! Luckily, we had hid the basket under the little playhouse and could just turnover cards. We said we were working on Personal Progress(we did, well only one girl was using it). She bought it! Yes. We had to work our way out of a couple tough situations(she would have asked many unanswerable questions), but other than that it was great. The Beehive card was SO good. And oh so cute! I will miss Sister Smith so much, and I hope she has a great time in Oregon.

Gift Basket

Beehive Card


Me with Sister Smith; Me w/ S. Smith & Hannah Sanford

P.S. Bro. Smith was my home teacher :( He is also a foot and ankle doctor/surgeon so that's why the moved to Oregon.