Working in the Vineyard

The LDS Church has a vineyard close by.  Every year, members of our church here locally work in the vineyard to help harvest all the grapes.  Last year was our family's first year in Fresno for the harvest and I was pregnant and tired, so I volunteered to stay home with the kids while Aaron worked in the vineyard.  This year though was my turn (Aaron actually still went too and put in way more hours then me in the end but I was there opening night and felt pretty cool about it :)).  My church assignment recently changed to working with the 12-13 year old girls in our ward and my first mutual activity with them was the vineyard.  Exciting stuff.  I brought my grape knife and working gloves and joined everyone who turned out to work.   We cut down grapes as quickly as we could before the sun went down.  I really enjoyed my time out there and was happy to be able to serve.

There's just something so picturesque about rows and rows of grapes, not to mention the good people in the midst of those rows and rows who give up their weeknights to "labor in the vineyard."

And here's a video of a church vineyard that a friend shared on Facebook.  I don't know if it's of our Madera vineyard or not but it sure is pretty and mesmerizing to watch.

Youth Conference 2016

Youth Conference came again and I loved it just as I did last year.  After months of planning and coordinating you get to see all your hard work pay off as you watch all the youth have fun and spiritually grow over the course of three days.

I was in charge of the All Camp Activity again this year along with two awesome youth leaders.  We had weekly planning meetings the two months prior to conference as we pulled together our ideas and resources for our "Armor of God" activity.  I've never considered myself an activity planner so it feels like a stretch for me to be overseeing an event for 100+ youth that lasts for an hour and a half, and yet somehow we pulled it off (with a lot of help from Heavenly Father, I have no doubt).

Here are some photos that show some of our prep work for the activity as well some of our Youth Conference happenings.

 ^^Gathering up "armor" from all sorts of generous people.

 ^^I have lots of random photos on my phone like this, taken at the dollar to ask our stake YW presidency if we needed glow sticks for the dance.  

 ^^My overloaded car all ready to drive the 2.5 hours to Youth Conference

 ^^The kiddos were good sports about it all.

 ^^It will take too long to explain this inside joke, but sufficeth to say that I receive lots of hilarious texts like this throughout the week.

 ^^Youth taking part in the awesome service project of re-staining cabins at a local kids camp.

 ^^Coordinating six stations during my All Camp Activity, making sure that everyone went to the right places.  Thankfully it all worked out!
^^The dance on the beach was definitely a highlight.  I dusted off my high school dance skills and jumped in for a bit.  

The whole Youth Conference experience was made a little more complicated this year because I am still nursing Ford and can only be away from him for a couple hours at a time.  Thankfully my saintly mother agreed to come along for the ride so I could multitask my Youth Conference responsibilities with nursing Ford.  I stayed close by with her and the kids and traveled back and forth to the conference.

My mom did SO much and was seriously the unsung hero of the week.  I so appreciate her clothing, feeding, napping and entertaining my children. Eleanor LOVES her Grandma so Eleanor was more than happy to spend her days without me :)

 ^^Eleanor outside the place we stayed when we first arrived.  She had just thrown up in the car only minutes before arriving at our destination so that's why she is pants-less here...

 ^^My mom helped me bring the kids so I could hang out with them and the youth at the same time on the beach. 

 ^^Eleanor on the swings during the Youth Conference BBQ.

 ^^Those cheeks!

And another behind the scenes hero was Aaron who stayed home and worked to support our family by day and painted our front room by night.  He's the greatest.

It was a crazy, wonderful week and I came home exhausted but I'm so grateful I got to be apart of it all. Our stake does so much to lift and inspire our youth through their tough teenage years.  I'm proud to be apart of a program where so many adults sacrifice their time and talents to ensure that these youth grow firm testimonies of Jesus Christ.  I was just recently released from my stake calling but I'm so happy to still be in our ward YW's.  I'm very much looking forward to attending future Youth Conferences!

A day at Girls Camp

I loved Girls Camp growing up and was excited for the opportunity to go this year with our young women.  I am still in the midst of nursing Ford so I could only manage going to Girls Camp for one day but it was so worth all the pumping and prep just to be there for the afternoon.  My saintly mom came for the day and watched Eleanor and Ford (and even started sleep training Ford for me!) so that I could go.

I loved seeing the girls at the end of the week.  They seemed to have grown so much in that week!  I jumped into crafts and skits and singing.  Man, those camp songs are so nostalgic for me!  The highlight was definitely the testimony meeting at night as I got to hear each of the girls in my ward share what they know about God.  I am so in awe of these young girls who face so many challenges at school with friends, peer pressure, school pressure, etc. etc.  They are strong and brave and resilient.  I can't wait til next year when I can hopefully participate even more!

 ^^Aaron texted me this chubby photo of Ford and it made me miss him so much!

 ^^pumping breaks in the car, feeling classy

 ^^all ready for my part in the leaders skit 

^^Love these ladies I work with!

Halloween 2015 Weekend (and our first house guests!)

We were so excited to have Aaron's parents, Adam, Christy and baby Molly come stay with us over Halloween weekend.  They were our first official house guests and thus guinea pigs on how this new house functioned with so many people.

Highlights of their trip included going to the pumpkin patch and our ward's Trunk or Treat as well as taking a neighborhood walk/bike ride.  We also took advantage of Aaron's parents' home/yard/decor knowledge.  Aaron picked Mark's brain about yard work while Susan and I headed to the paint store to finalize new paint colors for our house.  We also managed to grab lunch at Jacks in Fig Garden, which is one of favorite local restaurants.

I managed to pull out my camera more than I had in a while and looking back on these photos makes me really glad I did.  And be prepared for pumpkin patch overload, it's like a perfect photo opportunity at every turn.

 ^^This bike ride bonded Eleanor to her Papa like nothing else.  Can you see how excited she is in that trailer?

 ^^We went to the same pumpkin patch as last year and while I was taking this shot I was having major flashbacks to a baby Eleanor who couldn't walk and didn't like sitting on cold pumpkins (see those pictures here).  How things have changed!

 ^^She stood here for a good 5 minutes watching the ponies. 

^^Such a little cheeser.

I couldn't narrow down the following photos.  I hardly ever seem to get pictures of me and Eleanor and she was really hamming it up for the camera with lots of unprompted kisses and laughter.  So so cute.

"Okay now Eleanor blow a kiss..."

 ^^Twirling :)

^^Do you see the love in Eleanor's eyes?? She couldn't get enough of Molly let alone her super awesome aunt and uncle.

 ^^Our little lion headed to the Trunk or Treat

Mark, Susan, Adam, Christy and Molly had to pack up and leave Halloween afternoon.  We wish they could come every weekend because it's so fun to have a full house of people you love but alas we know life has to keep happening.  Can't wait for the next time they visit though!

We continue Halloween festivities by grabbing soup at the Balogh's (so good!) and then joining the Marcums in their trick-or-treating adventures.

Eleanor was into trick-or-treating for the first few doors until one door spooked her (why do people have the creepy noises and scary decorations??) and then she was over it.  We let her dive into her candy prematurely and she chose a tootsie roll lollipop as her first victim.  In seconds the lollipop was running down her face, arms and costume.  I held her as we walked to a couple more doors but then we decided to call it in a night.

We put Eleanor to bed and then proceeded to dive into her candy like the good parents that we are.  And then we laughed about this video being real life for us now :)