2013 Review

Silver Pines Young Women got off to a great start with a stake fireside with Elder Ballard on January 12th.  Later that week, the Young Women also started the year off great with a night (January 16th) of planning for New Beginnings.  They decided to go with this year's mutual theme, Stand in Holy Places.  For New Beginnings, the leaders will give mini talks on the theme, and theme of the night will center around shoes.  The Young Women will bring many different shoes that will be displayed with a quote.  Here are a few examples.

When it comes to Personal Progress- "Just Do It" (Nike's)

Don't Flip Flop with your standards. Have integrity and always stand for truth and righteousness. (flip flops)

Always set your standards and goals high. Make a commitment to "dig in your heels" to attain them. (high heels- spikes!)

Always keep on your toes and dance through your life with confidence and grace. (ballet slippers)

Prepare now so that when you marry you can walk hand in hand with the righteous young man who will be a part of your eternal destination. (temple slippers)

The following Saturday was an amazing event for the Priests and Laurels, the Priest/Laurel Conference.  The youth had the opportunity to hear three different sets of speakers in rotation.  Each of the speakers spoke about standing in Holy Places.  One very memorable part was when they handed out a red bracelet that said, "BE YE THE HOLY PLACE."  Another speaker emphasized how important it is to document our life lessons, so that we could see what we learned throughout our lives.  He gave a technique of jotting down three words to help you remember a specific life lesson.  You can keep these three words in a small notebook that will allow you to go back and elaborate, when you have more time.  There were so many great suggestions!  Everyone had a great time with the different service projects, and the dance that followed was a ton of fun!  The leaders did a flash mob that started of the dance to the song called, "You Don't Know You're Beautiful."  It was great!

The Young Women had a great night of making homemade pizzas.  Sister Rudolph brought all the ingredients, and we made pizzas and enjoyed eating them, afterwards!  It really is easy to make your own pizzas, and they taste so much better!

February was kicked off with a Tri-Stake Dance at the the Katy Stake Center on Saturday, February 9th.  The following night, the stake youth fireside at the Cypress Stake Center was a great kickoff for youth conference.  Our very own, Haydin Rudolph, was part of the program.  It was very inspiring!  

Now, the Young Women were ready for their New Beginnings Program on February 13th.  Sister Ekstrand, Sister Solgere, Sister Nelson, and Sister Rudolph gave wonderful talks on standing in Holy places, and Bishop Bardo gave wonderful closing remarks.  We had a great time looking at everyone's shoes with the quotes, while we enjoyed lots of delicious treats that tied in with the theme.  Sister Aitken made delicious shoe cookies with yummy icing!  We also had donut holes for stand in "HOLE-y" places, along with "be not MOOOved juice" (milk).    Everyone had a geat time and got to take a pair of socks home!  Oh, and the girls were going to give each other pedicures to go along with the theme, but they all decided to give each other manicures.  They had a blast!

On February 20th, the advisors, Sister Nelson and Sister Ekstrand were in charge. Together, they worked with Sister Buhanan and the young women on the posters for the upcoming Girls Camp fundraiser, the Chili Cook-Off. The posters turned out great and were displayed the following Sunday.



The Girls Camp Fundraiser, on March 2nd was a great success!  Sister Buhanan pulled out all the stops with her organizing skills, and planned an amazing event!  We even had a jail, which the kids LOVED!  As always, the chili and cornbread was delicious.  Our very own, Sierra Noyce won best cornbread, while our very own Delynn Buhanan won best chili!  The dessert and live auction was so much fun!  There were so many great desserts and great items auctioned!  We were so grateful to all those who donated items and that came to participate!  We were able to earn enough money to cover all the girls for Girls Camp!

March 6th was a fun activity with Sister Aitken.  She helped us passed off one of our Personal Progress experiences through a game and activity!  We had a blast playing the game, and we even got to eat trail mix at the end!  It was delicious!  The young women are off to a great start with their Personal Progress! We also discussed goals for 2013. This was a great start to March, and the next Wednesday we spent with our families for Spring Break.  We resumed activities with a great activity planned by the Young Men!  They had several stations set up, where we had to build the highest tower/sculpture from several objects (raw spaghetti, marshmallow, tape, a string, etc).  They showed a video that incorporated a Gospel Principle, and then they served spaghetti and meatballs and s'mores.  The Young Men did a super job!

March 28 - 30 (Thursday - Saturday) several of the Silver Pines youth attended youth conference.  

The theme for the 2013 Stake Youth Conference was STAND - Stand True And Never Deviate. 

Thee youth traveled to San Antonio and New Braunfels. The youth were assigned to small groups and traveled with host families from the stake. The youth started the event at the stake center for dinner 
and an evening of activities.  Then, the youth left the stake center to travel to their host 
families to spend the night. After breakfast with their host family, they departed Houston 
for San Antonio.  They all met at the stake center to go to the temple, where the youth rotated
through three group activities that include temple baptisms, a service project and classes. 
Afterwards, the  host families transported the youth to the TbarM Ranch in New Braunfels for an evening of fun activities.  The next morning, included breakfast, a special fireside,  and a testimony 
meeting at the local chapel. The youth talked about what an awesome, testimony building experience they had!  They said it was the BEST youth conference they had ever had!

April started with a fun night at Sister Aitken's home.  She hosted a banana split party for Vivien Solgere, our newest Beehive!!  We met at the church and then headed over to capture Vivian.  Half of the girls stayed behind to decorate Vivien's door with balloons and sticky note messages.  Then, everyone met back over at Sister Aitken's for delicious banana splits!

April 17th was Advisor Night, and Sister Ekstrand put together an amazing craft activity.  The craft turned out so great!  The Young Women had a great time!!  The young women also planned the combined activity schedule for the following Wednesday.  They came up with the idea to do a Minute to Win it activity with the Young Men.  Katie Solgere, Beehive President, took the lead with planning.  The activity turned out so great, and everyone enjoyed fruit kabobs and fruit dip, afterwards!  April 27th was the Quad-Stake Dance at the Cypress Stake Center.  A couple of our "Laurel Ladies" went and had a great time!!  

It's hard to believe we are already into May!  We started off the month of May with a wonderful activity planned by our Personal Progress Leader, Sister Aitken.  She had the young women color code the Family Proclamation with the value colors.  It really helped show how the Young Women values coincide with the Family Proclamation.  It was really cool to see that!  After the activity, we worked on a no-sew baby quilt for Sister Nelson, the Beehive Advisor.  She is expecting her first baby this summer!  We also discussed activities for the rest of the month.  We planned to go to Sister Bardo's ballet performance of Madame Butterfly.  Then, the following week we will be tie-dying socks for camp and choosing a t-shirt design.  

The Ballet activity was such a great success!  So many people were able to come!  The chicken picnic provided by Sister Solgere was really yummy, and one of the Young Women (Aiyana Gressens)  brought delicious homemade cheesecake!  Sister Bardo was absolutely amazing.  Words cannot describe!  The activity was a huge success!!!