Especially For Youth!!

Larisa had an amazing opportunity to go to EFY with year!!! We were able to go Ogden and stay at my sister's house and she went to the stay at home EFY with her cousins! They had such a great time!!! She misses her cousins and they had a blast together. Yep, she was the only girl, but that worked out fine, especially because a lot of the girls in her group had group had crushes on her cousins. The theme for the year was - "Courage to Stand Strong". What a great theme to help armor Larisa before she heads off to High School!! It was so fun to go and pick them up and hear them all talk at once about their adventures!! They felt the spirit so strong!! They had a lot of funny stories to tell and loved the things that they learned!! I loved that she was able to be around those with the same beliefs and that she was able to grow closer with her cousins!! We are already planning next year - our goal - EFY Nauvoo!!! I sure hope we can pull it off!!!

Tyler (Her cousin who is 2 days younger!), Larisa, Stetson (Tyler's Friend- another cousin for the week), Nicolas and Ryan

This picture is more their personalities!!

Stetson, Tyler, Ryan, Larisa and Nic!
First Day of EFY - I just love them all!!!!

Girl's Camp!!

Larisa was able to up to Girls Camp again this year!! She was so excited and she had a blast!!! She made new friends and strengthened old friendships!! She loves the spirit that she feels at camp and looks forward to it ever year!! The scripture for camp this year was, "...and they were exceedingly valiant for courage...true at all times." Alma 53:20 I love that she is not ashamed of the gospel and even wears her T-Shirt with the scripture on it to school! It is so fun to watch them come home and be on a spiritual high and giggle and laugh about all the things that happened while they were at camp!! We miss her so much at home, but we are thankful that she has the opportunity to go!!

This is Larisa with her friend McKenzie!! The only sad part about it was that McKenzie left early the last day to move back to Utah!! They shed a lot of tears at camp and we miss her a lot!!

A Million Meals for Haiti!!

We were able to participate in a really awesome advent sponsored by the Salvation Army. They were working with another corporation to send 1,000,000 to Haiti. We signed up as a s Relief Society to help and it was an amazing experience!! We spent our time measuring, weighing, filling and sealing bag of food. IT was so fun to work as a ward and community to help people miles and miles away!! My girls loved it and we stayed an extra shift! We tried hard to break records and get as much done as we could! We had such a great time that on Sunday after Stake Conference - we went back to do more!! This time we brought our friends the Storm brothers with us! They moved here from Haiti a few weeks before the earthquake and they were pleased to be able to help out some of their friends in Haiti! Thanks Chris - it was father's day and he was willing to skip out on having a nice dinner and head over and help!!

Tiana measuring out the Soy

Larisa Sealing the bags!

Tiana weighing the bags!

What an amazing experience!!

Cereal city

We went to the Worlds Largest Breakfast table again this year!! It was a lot of fun!!! WE had lots of cereal to choose from, bananas, juice, milk and Pop-Tarts. It is always fun to visit with our cereal friends!! Here is Tiana with the Keebler Elf!! See - she isn't very tall!!!!
How do you put a little pop into your morning- why with Snap, Crackle and Pop of course!!
And whats a morning without Tucan Sam????

They had a lot of various booths set up. Larisa was able to hold an alligator!! I am glad it decided not to go Snap, Crackle Pop!!!

They also had an injured owl that they rescued from the wild!

What a great way to start off your morning!!!!

Spring Soccer

This year both of the girl decided to play soccer!! I really do enjoy going to the games and watching my girls play!!

Tiana had an interesting year of soccer! Since I believe our memories are a gift we give ourselves - I will say that Tiana learned a lot this year!! She didn't learn much about soccer but she did learn patience, sticking with it, doing your personal best and accepting others. There team did not win a game all season. Tiana did great and was the only to score all season - I believe several of those goals were made when she was playing defense!! It was exciting to see her take the ball down the entire field to score!!! She has such strength and is having a great season this fall!!!

Team - Cotton Candy!!!

Larisa had an amazing coach this year! She learned SO much about soccer from him. She was able to make new friends and have a great time! There team won or tied every game!!

So much fun!!!

Duet and Choir Concert

This was Larisa's last concert for show choir. I LOVE going to the concerts and hearing my girls sing!! One of the requirements for show choir is to sing a duet or solo at a concert. The theme was show tunes this year. Larisa and her friend Emily Stewart decided to do a duet together. The sang a song from Little Mermaid! They were both nervous and really did not want to do it! These girls are so cute together. They laugh and giggle and the teacher loves the spirit that they bring to the choir!

Sadly, they had problems with their microphones. This video is of them starting to sing and Larisa's mic not working!!



I was so impressed with their confidence and grace in the way that she handled the situation. They didn't get frustrated, they just tried to figure it out!! They finally got Larisa's mic to work and then poor Emily's mic got lots of feedback!!! It was actually pretty funny! They were able to start over one more time an this time they made it through!!!

Here is one of the songs that the choir sang!

Can you believe how beautiful my Larisa is??? I am so lucky to her mom!!

Opps!!! There goes the mic!!

It is Show Choir - so they do a lot of acting in their song!!

Emily, Susanna and Larisa

Larisa and her teacher - yep the teacher is the one doing the bunny ears!!

Larisa decided not to choir in High school and I am really going to miss her concerts!!! Thankfully - Tia is still singing!!