Summer projects

I love this color of lime green the black and grays calm it  

While The kids were home I couldn't pass up the opportunity to work on a few projects.  I'm not sure how the children feel about my painting  projects but I feel they are a way to update and beautify our home.  I have this mind set that projects are like puzzles lots of little pieces but when it's all completed its amazing.  One problem with this mindset is that I have a hard time thinking of anything else until its completed.
 The two big projects I worked on mainly with Jessica's help were painting and decorating the master bedroom and the kids bathroom.  Neither of which have been changed since we have moved here. There are tons of details and cleaning when it comes to a bathroom especially.
The bedroom still needs new flooring and some night stands.   I love the colors.  My favorite thing in my bedroom is the new headboard I made!  I also love the wainscoting on two walls it adds some nice texture!    I had a lot of fun adding vinyl messages to the walls.  They add a lot of character and interest to the rooms.

I love this Dr Seuss quote "We are all a little weird and life is a little weird and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love."

Love the new headboard and quilt!

Willy and I cleaned and organized the garage.  It's so nice to be able to park the car in the garage!

Summer happenings

Boy the summer slipped away.  However there were some memorable moments that I would like to highlight.

  Emily shared her experience at youth conference.  It was one of those moments that help to build our youth and give back to the Northern Virginia area by performing for full crowds.  Willy and Emily will never forget dancing the swing dance together.  You can see the joy in their eyes.

Lydia and Emily loved doing chalk drawing all over the drive way.  The kids loved playing four square and basketball.   But the biggest hit of the summer was the swing Willy made in the big tree in the back yard.  I even took my chances and went on it.   When I could find Lydia in the house I knew she was out on the swing.

 We hiked Bull Run mountain several times this summer.  It's a great hike up the mountain to a wonderful view of hill and valleys.

We floated the Shenandoah river.  It's a nice slow moving river, with a few rapids which weren't all that rapid we just ended up bottoming out in the rafts.  We had some great water fights.  Bill pulled the kids in and kids pulled Bill in. Lydia said that was the best time ever!  It was a soaking good time for all of us!  

Eating our packed lunches at the zoo

Riding the metro!

We enjoyed a ride on the Metro to the zoo.   Lydia could n't remember ever being there before so we took a day and enjoyed seeing flamingos, Pandas, cheetahs, elephants, snakes monkeys and so much more.  We did have some problems with the metro on the way back home but all in all it was a great adventure.  We did so much more.  I always feel sad when it's time to head back to school.

day???? Youth dance celebration MORE!

Hey everybody, its EM.

The Sunday after the three day youth conference each Stake gathered for their own testimony meeting.  The testimony meeting was very nice, with words from out Stake President, Brother Toma: another major organizer, and our youth conference representatives for our stake.  We were also privileged to hear a bunch of wonderful testimonies of the youth.     It was a wonderful evening.

Since we did not take any pictures of the testimony meeting, I am going to take this opportunity to share pictures of the performance. :)

The pictures are all out of order, maybe one day I will arrange them accordingly

Theme of the week!

Brother Gerard of the 70 and sister Cook of the General young women presidency, with our stake president who organized the entire event (Left).

One of the opening numbers honoring the Military.

Teacher's hip-hop dance!

Teachers dance, there is Willy front and center!

Swing Dance!

Laurels

Laurels and Priest  dance, I'm not in this photograph, but imagine me in one of the blue dresses.

One gentleman was left partner-less, so the main choreographer stepped in. 

FLASH MOB!!!!!

Opposition dance, thats me in the middle.  I Die in the end, because we represented the Lamanites. Same dance as the dance with Captain Moroni.

Captain Moroni!

Captain Moroni and a (Future) Missionary

Final number all 1300 youth singing True to the Faith, with the missionaries, and a standing ovation.

Hello world, its is me again!

 At church today I received my Young Women medallion.  I have really enjoyed the young women program and have grown so much through out it.  I have had so many great leaders and have been surrounded by so many beautiful and inspiring young women. I did not realize until recently how much influence that I can have on these girls and the amount of influence they have had on me.  I will miss them dearly, and am so excited to see where they go in this world.  There is no other group of young women that I know of that can make as much of a difference in the world as these girls will.

This church is so unbelievably amazing.  I cannot in words describe the joy that it makes me feel.  I know that the only way to truly be happy in this life is to stick to the teachings of the Gospel.

My friend also received her medallion today as well.  It is her last Sunday in our ward before she heads off to BYU.  I will miss her dearly. She has one of the strongest testimonies that I have ever seen, and will definitely do amazing things with her life.  I am sad to see her leave this week, but I know she will do amazingly.

-Emily Ward

DAy ??? Youth conference day 3!!!

Day three!

Aloha, Hola, and Hello....

Its me again!

Day three was great!

The sign outside of the School!!

The night between day 2 and day 3 consisted of a giant storm, thank goodness it was while we were sleeping not performing.

We got our own sign!!!!

Before I get any further I thought I would give you some facts about the event:

The stakes at this event were from all over Northern Virginia: Ashburn, Woodbridge, Centreville (Our stake), Annandale, Fredricksburg, Mclean, and Mount Vernon. Some stakes (ours) had a 20-30 minute drive to the event while others had a 2 or more hour drive.

The event took place at a brand new high school, Patriot High School in our stake that is huge and beautiful!  There was plenty of room for everyone and a great facility to work in.

During each performance sister Cook read a letter from THE PROPHET, saying that he wished he could be there! HOW COOL IS THAT!!!!!!?????!!!!!!!  No question about that coolness!!

The following contains facts, but is part of the story too.

They day started off with rain, so we moved into the school for the opening devotional. It continued to drizzle and mist throughout the day, but cleared up for the performances (Mostly).  The temperature was probably in the 60s- 80 range. (that is really precise)

Rainy Morning

Brother Toma started off by reminding us to look for miracles each day as sister Cook had told us to the first day.  He told us of some amazing miracles that had occurred with and without us knowing:

The Fire Marshal did not approve of the stage that was built or many of the other plans that the stakes had so there had to be a lot of rearranging and the stage had to be completely rebuilt.  The stage builders worked right up to the first performance, and the stage looked amazing!

Back of stage. AWESOME!   plus even more stage components not pictured. 

We were also informed that minutes before the first performance permits came through that allowed the performance to happen.  It was a MIRACLE!!!


We were also amazed to find out that the storm parted and went around the school during our performance the first night.

All of the youth gathering in the morning 

After hearing from brother Toma we hear from Brother Gerard.  He talked to us about how the Prophet wants us to listen to him and his word will help us.  He also told us a story of a young man who was out of money so he robbed a bank, leading to a car chase through rural Idaho. When he was caught he pulled a gun on the officer and he ended up dead.  He pointed out how this young man made poor decisions and let them define who he was.  He told us to only let good moments define us and to Say No, Stand out/up, and Stand for what's right.  The still small voice will teach you and lead you to good defining moments.   It was wonderful!

We also had wonderful devotional from our stake leaders:

President Lowe: We all need to Arise Stand and Shine and will have many opportunities to do so.
President Dionne: Men and Women are different,  husbands are soul mates, not just friends, a woman's beauty is damaging like the sun at noon, but beautiful at sunset and the sunrise.  Smiling is the way to be beautiful, men's natural strength gives them many responsibilities.  Everyone should always:
Look up
Lift up
Rise up
Stand up

Bishop Goodfellow

and this one shouldn't be needed, but show up.
Bishop Goodfellow: To listen to the Spirit you have to listen with your heart, by paying attention to how something effects you and recognizing and remembering the spirit from every experience.

Later we had another devotional from Sister Cook
There were many great points that she made:
Exceedingly great Joy means that it is good.
The word of God reminds us of what to do.
Tell the devil not to bother our minds with unrighteousness.
Conversion is consistency to act on revelation.
And lastly to put down your weapons of rebellion to give way to faith, testimony and conversion.


After a spiritually uplifting portion of the day we prepared to preform. Our first performance of the day was at 5.  We got ready and sat in the stands, the mood for the performance, just did not seem to feel right.  I think that all I should really tell you is that the performance did not go too well. There were mistakes in a few places (it was still presentable, but disappointing), which left me very doubtful that I would be able to perform well in the final performance.  I was in a crappy mood, low on blood sugar, and disappointed in myself.  I told my friends to tell me jokes to cheer me up, but only my best friend Ibrahim Kargbo could cheer me up, and it was through beating me up. My buddy Regan helped too, with countless hugs!

It is probably sufficient to tell you that after eating and once I started performing again my mood greatly improved!

The final performance was to say the least, the best performance ever!  Willy and I did the swing perfectly, which rarely happened during practices, but went well in each performance.  I had originally had a different partner, but I am so glad that Willy was my partner instead, he was the most trusting person for the lifts, and the funnest person to practice with.  It was a blast dancing the swing with Willy Ward. He is my Favorite!

Oh here are the dances we did:

Our stake did a crazy swing dance with lifts and such.
The laurels and priests did a waltz to Moon River.
The teachers did a hip hop dance
and the Mia Maids did a hip hop dance as well!
Each stake had a different dance.
I also participated in a specialty dance, where I DIED as well as all the boys. (It was the opposition dance, representing the Lamanites and Nephites, I was a Lamanite.)
We also did a flash mob.
The opening dance was to the song 'Youth all Over the World'
and the closing dance/ song was to a specially made rendition of 'True to the Faith.'

In each performance the final number brought tears to my eyes. The standing ovation and beauty of the moment was overwhelming and touching.  I hope that the viewers felt the same spirit that we did.
Jessy says it did! so score!
The final performance was viewed by members of the Senate, governors, government officials, preachers, Nuns, and other religious leaders.  It was AMAZING!!!!!

The stands filling for the final performance, all but the 5 o'clock showing was practically sold out!!!
Just thought I would note, that I was performing, so thus i don't have pictures of the performance, but my Mommy does and I will either steal them from her and put them on my long lost blog, or she will post them.  

 This program was truly inspired. It provided a new sense of confidence, and indescribably improved my testimony! I am very glad that I had the opportunity to participate in this event and I wouldn't give it up for the world.  I recommend it to EVERYONE who ever has the opportunity to participate in it!  The Spirit was everywhere and so strong!!  The event ended with a testimony meeting on the following Sunday, that was also very spiritual.

We truly did ARISE STAND and SHINE!

I have been told I will receive a recording of the performance, which I will share.
Thanks for listening!

  -Em

Day?? Youth dance celebration day 2

Youth conference day two:

Howdy guys its me again:

Here is the low down about the up down of day 2 of NOVA Youth Dance celebration.

My Mom was a chaperon for half of this day! Making it more fun!!

Day two started with different weather then the first day.  The sky was filled with clouds and a sprinkle was on the brink, but the temperature was in the 80s so not bad.

The first part of the day was a devotional from the wonderful sister Cook.  She talked about Arising Standing, and Shining, and how we will be recognized for doing so.  WONDERFUL TALK!

After this devotional we did a costume check to make sure everyone had everything.   The boys and girls broke off and the gentlemen received a devotional from Brother Gerard of the the 6th quorum of the 70.  and then the girls heard again from the beautiful Sister Cook who talked about how we truly Glow and that to be
Spiritually
Minded
Is
Life
Eternal.

It was great!!!

The girls ate lunch while the boys had thier devotional.  

They didn't let us eat watermelon inside the fancy new school we were using, so we ate it outside in the rain.  

Shilo and Regan's huddle

Regan and Shilos dry spot!

The spot with the bag is my Mom's and mine! 

After lunch we had a hectic dress rehearsal that left me hopeless and doubting the performance would ever come together.  I was in a pretty depressed mood about everything.  Eating dinner sure improved my mood though!




 Later in the day we got ready to perform!
All of the youth sat in the visitors stands behind the field.  Just to let you know that is 1300 youth, 1500 people including all the adult leaders.

Each stake had different color shirts including Green. light blue, dark blue, red, yellow, purple, and orange.  Our stake was the light blue one!

While waiting for the performance to begin we watched through the giant signs that spelled out
ARISE, STAND, and SHINE, as the audience filled the stands.  

As we waited for the performance to begin, we watched the sky fill with clouds the forecast was a giant storm.  We prayed continually for the rain to hold back.  It started to rain just as the performance began, but slowed to a mist a few numbers in, right after the dance to the song dancing in the rain.  The mist/drizzle continued through the performance, but no storm.  This was jsut one of the many miracles that we experienced!

The performance went amazing! It was such a rush to participate in such an event! It was amazing to see how a chaotic dress rehearsal could result in and amazing performance!!! I loved every minute of it!. 

Day # ? Youth conference day one

Hey ladies and Gents, this is Emily.

Im here to fill you in on Youth conference this year.

This year our stake president got together with 6 other stake presidents and put together a youth dance celebration as recommended by the Prophet.

We practiced our dances for months and were finally ready for the performances.  The event was a three day event with devotionals, singing, a dance, and three performances.  The first day was learning about the performances, devotionals, and a 7 stake dance.  Day two was a devotional from sister Cook a member of the General Young Women presidency, a super long dress rehearsal, and an evening performance. Day three was more devotionals a fix-up-the-mistakes rehearsal, and two performances.

All three days were awesome!!!!

Since it was three days long I will cover the days in three posts,  hehe see what I did there.

Everyday we prayed for great weather, there was even a 7 stake fast for great weather.



This was the weather for day one:
Nice and warm and humid, but not as bad as the average July day.









This is Brother Toma and another sister from a different stake.  They taught us the military songs that we sang in each performance.

This is my buddy Ibrahim Kargbo, probably during lunch.

This is WILLY! My best buddy and dance partner!

Brother Toma again for a wonderful devotional!!!!  Brother Toma is a member from our stake who I have had the opportunity to work with in our stake youth committee.  He is an amazing man! He also works for the CES and is an amazing story teller.  He is a real inspiration and I respect him a lot!  He talked about really talking to God and not just speaking.  AWESOME!

Thats all for day one folks,  Don't worry day two is still to come.