Missionary Moments

Josh seeing Ben's bruised shoulder...

I believe it was this call that Andy and I both felt that Josh was just more mature...he seemed different.

He's always been great but we were extra pleased with him this night.

 

Abby's All State Art

This time I got to accompany Abby to the All State Art event!

Funny thing, I didn't realize it was "All State" until we went down that day.

I was just thinking it was some competition put on by Springville.

We met up with Karen, Aubrey and Mike.

That was the first time Abby had met Karen and Aubrey and visa versa.

They lined up in alphabetical order to receive their awards in the gold room...

Because of their last names she and Ellie got to stand right next to each other.

Pictures on the capitol steps...

I felt like a washer woman from the 1950's in my outfit :)

Abby met another bird friend from Sky View.

I actually know her mom...she worked out at Free Motion for a while.

This girl was super sweet!

And then of course, Ellie who is also extremely sweet!

For a couple of hourse we sat in the gold room and waited for representatives to come and meet the kids and speak with them.

A lot of pictures of the same thing but I just loved Abby's expressions!

I wish I knew the names of these men...

I was just so grateful for them and taking time out of their day to come and speak with these artists.

I tried to get these girls together as much as I could and involve Aubrey since she didn't have a friend with her like Abby did.

I enjoyed getting to know Ellie's mom and also spending time with Karen.

I was going back and forth between the two during this time and we eventually ended up all speaking together :)

After meeting with the representatives we went into the Senate.

We were there for a while as they introduced new judges...but then they recognized these young artists...pretty neat :)

Then we moved into the House where we spent much less time and had not as good of a view :)

This is another girl they met who had the same last name as Ellie so they talked and found out they're 3rd or 4th cousins.  She was great too!

 It truly was such a great day!

I loved being there with Abby and seeing her get recognized for her talent.

We went to Hatch Family Chocolates with Ellie and her mom afterward and got some treats and then headed home.

Sisters Craven & Craig

Andy had the opportunity to host two members of the Young Women General Presidency on day on campus.

They were coming to recruit male counselors for FSY.

Because. the Institute building is out of commission, daytime classes are being held all over campus.

Sister Becky Craven came up during the day and we walked around in the cold and visited approx. 15-18 institute classes where she took several minutes and explained her purpose of being there.

She was super sweet and down to earth.

We loved being with her and getting to know her a little bit.

It was wonderful watching the students interact with her and watching her minister to the one.

Several times, a student came up to her and wanted specific counsel or just the chance to meet her.

She was amazing!

She's such a cute, tiny, little thing.

This was just before she left at the married student stake where they have their temporary offices.

That evening Sister Craig arrived and we visited another 8 classes or so in the stake centers close by.

She too was a gem.  She's the one I sent the angel to in November.

We didn't have as much time with her but it was still lovely being in her presence!

Mom was so kind to watch Ben for me since the kids were involved in other things that night.

 

All State Art & Junior Prom

Abby's art teacher encouraged her to enter a piece into the Springville High School Art Show.

She sent in one of her bird pieces and found out a little while later that she had received an honorable mention award.

They had an awards ceremony down in Springville so Andy took her down while I held down the fort here and also did prom flowers at Laura's.

While doing flowers I noticed a bunch of texts from both Andy and Abby asking what my friend Karen's daughter's name is...

How cool is that, that out of 5 honorable mentions in our district, two of them were Abby and Aubrey!

Aubrey didn't go down that day because it was their girl's choice dance but when I texted Karen she said Aubrey was planning on going to the event at the capitol later in the month. (More on that later)

Abby receiving her award...

Abby and her friend Ellie who won a different award

The piece on the left is Ellie's and the one on the right is Aubrey's.

Very neat!  I'm so glad Abby and Andy went down and I wish I could have been there with them!

Meanwhile...back at the ranch...

Abby was going to be the chauffeur for Matt and Lindy for all their prom needs but because of her Art event Ben and I had the pleasure of driving them for their day date.  I had never met Lindy before.  She was super sweet.

We dropped them off at the bowling alley and then their friends brought them back here and Ben and I drove them back to Lindy's house.

Matt and his friend Gabe...

I was excited to do his first flowers for him but one of the other moms said she wanted to do everyone's flowers...so...what do ya do?

Abby was home in time to drive them to their pictures and then go to the dance herself. 

 

Matt's group's "professional pics"

Super cute!

I think they both had a lot of fun :)