february catch up

I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since I last blogged. For shame!

February pretty much flew by! It's been somewhat busy and most of it has been spent sick! Seriously...3 of the 4 weekends this month I have been sick! I'm not sure if it's the same cold that just won't go away or if it's been 3 different colds. Either way...it sucks! They seem to come full force right when the weekend rolls around..which is equally convenient, since I don't have to miss work (although I did take this last Friday off because of it) but also inconvenient because it's the weekend and I want to have fun!

This month I conquered a big project! Our stake Valentine's Dance! I am officially done with that calling! This year turned out really cute! I was so sick the day day we set up and most of the day of the actual dance. I am super grateful that I had a great committee who stepped up and a great assistant who also stepped up! I went to the dance, didn't eat and hardly danced (which is SO unlike me!). I felt terrible but I would have felt even worse if I just abandoned everyone! I basically sat on a chair and sweated my guts off. HA! I sound so pathetic...don't feel sorry for me! It's all good!

Anywho...our theme this year was kind of Southern Louisiana/Bluegrass/Bayou feel. I think it turned out great! We had mason jars, love shacks, Spanish moss wreaths, lace...we even had crickets playing over the speakers while people ate! Also...we made this giant chandelier! I was SO happy with the way it turned out. It had been stressing me out big time and I literally had no game plan for it when we started making it. I'm telling you...my committee really pulled through this year!

I also LOVED the stage set up! My assistant from the other ward took charge of this and she ROCKED IT! I mean...how adorable is that love shack!? This is also where we had people take their picture! I was so out of it, I wish I would have taken more pictures with my committee. Please remember...I was not feeling well so don't be alarmed with how terrible I look in the last picture!

I am really happy with how it turned out and even happier that it's over with! It's a really big job...fun..but lots of work! This year we set up 60 tables and had about 500 people turn out! Not too bad!

The dance was the weekend of Valentine's day and since both Daren and I were sick...well let's just say there wasn't much celebrating! Nothing says romantic like handing each other tissues and cough drops, right??! We did slow dance at the dance...while we slow danced Daren was feeding me cough drops! HA! We were such a hot mess! 

Last week our ward had New Beginnings and welcomed in 3 new beehives we will be getting this year. Our theme was "WHOOO do you want to be?" Using owls as the decorations. We kept it pretty simple and it turned out darling. We have some incredibly talented leaders in YW's. We had the YW do the majority of the program. The older girls talked about a Personal Progress experience that had a big impact of them and the younger girls talked about their favorite thing about Young Women's. Lots of girls said girls camp and talked about how much they were looking forward to this year girls camp...No pressure or anything! We also showed a little slideshow/video that Daren put together with pictures of some of the fun things we did last year. It turned out really cute! Daren is great at those types of things! Super grateful for him!

I am really excited to have 3 more girls join us for girls camp this year! And in YW's in general! We have an amazing group of girls! I love being in YW's with them!

Here are a few random pictures from the month...

Puppy loves this toy from Grandma Tibbitts. As you can see...he loves ripping the stuffing out of it AND taking it with him when we go for rides in the truck. He is seriously just like a child! Too funny!

 We went out to dinner with Susi and the kids one night when James was out of town. It was family night at Texas Roadhouse. The mascot was there (didn't even know they had one), free ice cream for the kids, and a guy making balloon hats. Man, Adi was in heaven! Her balloon hat was HUGE! She couldn't even wear it at the table because it kept hitting the people behind us! I swear it was as tall as she was!

Daren has been busy coaching the YM in basketball AND helping the YW. The kids just love him! At the beginning of this  coaching adventure he would maybe have 4  guys show up to practice and the girls would have 3? Now since they have starting combining the practices, he has got about 9 guys showing up and about 6 girls. He works them hard and yet they still keep coming back! It's fun to watch them practice and play! The boys went undefeated in their regular season. The stake tournament starts this week and then regions next week. The girls won 2 games I believe...they have improved a ton! They put so much effort into their games! It's awesome!

Daren has been playing with the Elders too. He has been doing pretty good! Not too many knee and back issues! He had to stop playing a couple games because of his knee but after a couple trips to physical therapy, he is back on the court!

Our youth are amazing! This is most of Sunday School class! Big class...lots of chatter but lots of love!

That's all for us! Lately our life as consisted of Dayquil and church basketball! Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday nights we are at the church for it! And we love it!