Daughters of a King

We had a beautiful New Beginnings program for our Young Women last night. Our theme was 'Daughters of a King.' To lead up to the night, we had a mutual activity where the girls got all dressed up, and we took pictures. It was such a fun activity! The girls had so much fun, and they would have stayed there all night trying on dresses if we had let them. They all looked so beautiful! Abby put the pictures into a slide show for our  New Beginnings program. It turned out so great! I love my calling. I love all the ladies I serve with, and I love all of our girls!

Esther had so many beautiful dresses for them to try on!

The girls either came all done up, or they helped each other get ready at the church.

We had two photo shoot areas set up. The girls had fun getting their pictures taken.

While all this was going on, I was going around getting some candid shots with my phone. It was weird seeing Bailey all dressed up, and realizing she has less than a year left until she can actually go to dances!

So pretty!

One of my favorite pictures of the night! Check our my awesome photo bombers in the back! I seriously love those two girls! 

Hahaha, they were being Barbies!

 Here are a few of Bailey's final pictures!

This one is my favorite!

Bailey told me she could never be a model, because she couldn't be serious enough. She laughed through most of the photo shoot! I love this though, because it totally shows her personality.

Vocal Point!

We went and saw Vocal Point at BYU-I. They were so good! It was such a great show! We sent their latest CD to Elder Varvel for Christmas, but now we want to get another one for ourselves. Bailey and Emily wanted to marry them all by the time the night was over! :)

Emily and Bailey 

Vocal Point

Snow Shoeing!

We rented snow shoes for the day so Bailey could try it out. We're going to buy some, but wanted to see if she liked it enough for us to get her a pair too. She loved it! We spent a few hours at Kelly Canyon. The first part of the trail was a mile straight up a ski run! She didn't love that, but once we got on the actual trail in the woods, she thought it was super fun! I love hiking, and this is just hiking in the snow. I think it's so fun! I can't wait to go again!

A picture for Elder Varvel! 

He's cute!

I can't believe she's so much taller than me!

She fell a lot! She tried to step over that little bush that was across the trail. The next thing I know, she's sprawled on the ground. She definitely keeps things entertaining! 

Watching her try to get back up was so great! :)

We had a beautiful clear day.

Snow shoeing selfie!

Having fun with our shadows. 

She did it! She survived her first snow shoeing adventure!

We sure miss Sawyer when we do stuff like this! 4 more months!

Happy Birthday Mark!

Happy birthday to this cute guy! He got a new racquetball racket, and a drone. He's seriously just like a big kid! His drone is really fun, but he hasn't been able to fly it outside yet, because it's too wet. He's been practicing in the house, and the dogs think it's so fun! They LOVE when he gets it out. So far they've been good and they seem to know not to bite it when it gets too close. It has a camera on it, so he wants to get good enough at flying it to be able to fly it at a cross country race in the fall and film Bailey. Me and Bailey actually ran a half marathon last summer and the race organizers filmed the start with a drone. I'm glad he's having fun with his new toy! I'm glad he found something he can enjoy with his furry friends.

Happy Birthday Mark!

It's nice to get a present that everyone gets excited about! :)

Book of Mormon Challenge

The Bonneville Seminary program issues a Book of Mormon Challenge each winter to the students. If you accept the challenge, you try to read the Book of Mormon in 29 days. They start the week before Christmas break, and finish the week after the break. Bailey took and completed the challenge! It wasn't easy! She got behind right from the start. To finish, she had to pull an all nighter, and then the last night, she finished with about an hour to spare! Good job Bailey! We're proud that it's something she wanted to do, and proud that she saw it through to the end.

LASIK

I had LASIK done on my eyes. Actually, I had LASIK on the left eye, but I had a big scar on my right eye, so they had to do the old fashion PRK for that one.  It's so nice to be able to see! My left eye is great, and I could see really good out of that one right from the start. My right eye will take longer to heal. It's still a little blurry, but it gets better each day. I'm so glad I had it done!

Hahahaha! I had to wear these cute things the first day, and then at night for the next five days!

Much to his dismay, Mark was able to watch the whole process on a TV screen from the next room. He didn't really want to, but I wanted him to film it for me, so I could see what they did. He thinks it's so disgusting, and I think it's so cool! 

WARNING: Don't go any further if you're squimish! :)

This is a video of the PRK eye. Mark edited and mostly just shows the good stuff. He thinks it's crazy when they pry my eye open. They put a ring on part of my eye where they want the liquid to stay. Then they basically just scrape the top layer of my eyeball off! No wonder that one is a longer recovery! My eye was numb, so I didn't feel a thing.

This is the one they could use the laser on. They use a laser to create a flap. Then they lift up the flap of my eye, fix what they need to fix, and then put the flap down again.  Fascinating!

Snow Boarding!

Bailey went snow boarding one last time before the break ended. She had tons of fun! There was a lot more people there to help her this time, and she felt like she did a lot better. She went with Tanner, Mason, Savannah, Brian, and Cami. I hope she can go one or two more times before the season ends. 

Tanner, Mason, Bailey, and Savannah

We wish Savannah didn't have to go back to college!

Happy New Year!

Happy New year!

Bailey spent New Years Eve at the Stake activity they always have to introduce the new 2015 mutual theme. I LOVE the theme! 

"O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all  your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day."

-D&C 4:2

First they watched a movie at the Paramount, and then they went back to the stake center for the introduction of the theme and lunch. 

All the youth wrote down what they would do this year to embark in the service of God. 

The cute girls from our ward! I love these girls!
Taeloni, Sophie, Hannah, Makenna, Bailey, Madi, Dacee, Savanna, Brooklyn, and Julie

 That night we had our own little party to ring in the new year. Savannah came over, and we watched a movie, ate lots of food, and played games until midnight. Then at midnight we made lots of noise, toasted the new year, and called it good!

Happy New year!

Yay! Elder Varvel will be with us to celebrate next year! 

Ringing in the new year with her best friend!

Hahahaha! She looks sad, but I promise she was having a great time!

WARNING....this happened!

It's official, she's a licensed driver! As scary as that is, it's actually been pretty nice. She keeps asking me if there's any errands I need her to run for me. I guess I should take advantage of that while it lasts!

Good job Bailey Rae!