Saying Goodbye

Wardenburgs

Sunday was Joel's last day in Oklahoma.  We closed on our home in Kansas and he is officially a Kansan.  The Jenkins hosted a Farewell Get Together at their home Sunday afternoon before Joel left.  It was so fun to see friends and chat.  I didn't think to get any pictures until the very end, so I only have pictures of the last 3 remaining families.  I'm going to really miss these guys.  The best thing about Oklahoma is definitely the people.

Tharps (my sweet Beehive Ari)

Jenkins

Michelle knows I collect ornaments, so she decided to give me a very special reminder of Oklahoma!  She found these at a random gas station and turned them into ornaments for me.  The scorpion will always remind me of the one I found in my closet.  It scared me half to death!

 And ya, they glow in the dark- so creepy!  Joel thinks I should turn them into earrings and a necklace.

Next Generation

It's always fun to pass on knowledge to the next generation.  I taught this awesome young lady how to make a pillow for her mom for Mother's Day.  Her mom's favorite color is turquoise/sea foam.  She used her own sewing machine, and after figuring out her sewing machine a little better it only took her an hour to make it.  I was so proud of her!

The Temple is Finally Reopening!

The Oklahoma City Temple has been closed for renovations for a year and a half.  We've really missed it, because we've had to travel to Dallas or Kansas City to go to a LDS temple.  They reduced it basically down to its studs and redid the entire temple.  Monday and Tuesday was a special dignitaries reception for local politicians and other religious leaders.  I had the opportunity to play piano in the reception area on Tuesday and it was such a lovely experience.  It's not every day you have the view of a Christus when playing the piano!

 Wednesday night we took our youth group through the temple open house.  It was fun to see the changes they made to the temple to make it more personalized to the area.  The instructional room has a beautiful mural of Oklahoma landscape in it, and I love the Native American touches in the stain glass.  It's very Oklahoma!

 I really love working with these young ladies on a weekly basis.

Daughters of a King

I work the with 12 year old girls at church and they are seriously so much fun to be around.  They are enthusiastic about life and love coming to church and they love each other.  We had a Beehive presidency meeting last week and they got all excited, because they wanted to do an activity for the younger girls at church.  The group of girls range from 7 to 11, and there are 18 of them.  It's a lot of girls to plan for, but that didn't even deter my Beehives.  They planned everything down to the invitations and spiritual thought.  It was so fun to watch their enthusiasm.  If only we all put that much effort into things!

 The girls all got dressed up as princesses.  They made crowns, learned table etiquette, learned how to curtsy, and had to walk across the room with a hymn book on their head.  

It was topped off with punch and princess cupcakes. 

 My Beehives taught all of the girls how to do everything and shared a video about crowns reminding us that we're all children of God and daughters of a King. 

 It was such a fun night!

Palm Sunday

On Sunday we had a special Easter lesson with the Young Women all together.  I love these ladies.  Their smile can brighten any day. 

For the lesson we had 7 items along the table that the girls had to research in the scriptures and hymns, and we also provided some quotes from apostles about some of the symbolism of each item.  The girls studied it and then presented what they learned.  It was such a wonderful Sunday together. 

Holiday YW Fun

I work with ladies at church who know how to decorate and throw a party like no other.  I'm serious!  I do not have the decorating gene at all, but they've got it in spades! We had a Galentine's Party for the Young Women.  We combined with the other ward that the girls are close to, and ended up with almost 40 girls there!

 Papa Murphy's does heart-shaped pizzas for Valentines.

 If there's ever a time to have pink fluff then Valentine's Dad would be it!

 I love our girls so much!  We were only missing 2 that night.

Meanwhile, later that week my adorable Beehive Presidency went and heart attacked a family's door that needed a little cheer in their life.  These two make me smile every single time I'm with them.  Their enthusiasm for life is contagious!

While I was partying with the young ladies, Joel was holding down the fort with the kiddos at Little Man's Blue and Gold Banquet.  He got a couple more merit badges, and he's super close to completing his Bear.

Christmas Stories

For our last Sunday together with the Young Women this year, all of the leaders shared a Christmas story or poem.  I shared "The Legend of the Candy Cane." 

 At the end, each girl was given a personalized journal to use in class.  It has this upcoming year's theme on each of them: If ye love me, keep my commandments (John 14:15)

Beehive Love

I have one of the best callings at church.  I get to work with the youth.  I'm over the 12 and 13 girls and I have the best girls!  They're wonderful.  We've had a girl turn 12 each month for the last three months in a row, so right before they turn 12 we "kidnap" them for our class activity. 

We also make a big deal of pulling them out of Primary.  I may have had a bit too much fun with glitter glue when making that crown, but it was worth the look on her face as all of the Young Women and their leaders entered the Primary room to get Evie.

Ari turns 12 at the end of the month, but we kidnapped her tonight and made spray drip art.

Even Sister Wade tried her hand at some art.

These girls are seriously adorable!

 Last week we had our White Elephant Christmas party.  We served the girls dinner while we planned next year's activities and lesson topics.  For the White Elephant gift that had to make something or re-gift something that was already in their home.  They weren't allowed to go buy anything.  Some of the gifts were really creative.

Gratitude Pies

I have the sweetest Beehives.  I love these girls!  Sadly, one turned 14, so I'm down to 3.  I want to keep them from turning 14 forever!  For our class activity the girls wanted to make Gratitude Ice Cream Pies.  They each chose their favorite flavor of ice cream and then I researched a recipe for each of them.  They wrote a thank you card to go with the pie, and then we delivered them that evening.  These girls are so fun and thoughtful, and I love being around them.

"P" Night

This week we had so much with the Young Women getting them excited about finishing their Personal Progress.  Tracy did an awesome presentation on the value of personal progress.  She had the YW values and little envelopes hanging from the ceiling as a visual of Personal Progress hanging over our heads.  She had 8 activities in the envelopes that can be done in under an hour, so that they can feel like they're making progress. 

Everyone dressed in as many things starting with "P" as possible.  There was a trophy for the winner and I believe Ashley Confer won with 19 things.  We ate snacks that all started with "P."  It was such a fun night!  These girls are seriously awesome!