Savannah's Winter

My lovely Savannah - what joy she brings into our lives!

As noted previously, Savannah has been doing quite well in middle school and loves being back in public school. She has made some new friends as well as kept close to ones she has known for a long time, like Celine and Jayna. She is working hard in all her classes and was able to earn a high enough GPA to place her on the Honor Roll. She was also recently nominated Student of the Month by her gym teachers; she was selected out of all the gym students in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades!

She and I have enjoyed some special Mother/Daughter dates in recent months, her favorite being our shopping trip to the mall followed by a yummy treat at Friendlys.

Savannah continues to love being a part of the Young Women organization at church and was recently called to serve as the Beehive Class Secretary. This year we have had some really fun activities, including the ones with the young men. In January the young men put on a great activity with games based on the youth theme for this year: "O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength."
In this game the youth had to split into pairs, roam throughout the church listing different items they saw, and then explain how each item related to our Savior, Jesus Christ. They got quite creative!

The good 'ole Faith Fall. Visions of Mean Girls danced in my head as I watched Savannah take her turn.

No need to worry...our youth are awesome!

Some game about helping and supporting each other as you do hard things. In this case the hard thing was keeping a balloon in the air as each youth carried their partner the length of the gym and back.

Another similar game but had to be hooked at the arms.

And finally, tug of war! I don't remember how they related this to the theme but it worked and the kids had a blast!

Earlier this year we met as a young womens group to plan out what activities the girls wanted to do this year. One idea that Savannah had was to make scripture pillowcases - each girl would write her favorite scripture on a pillowcase. What a fun idea that we quickly made happen! 

The girls picked out some beautiful scriptures and hopefully when they see their pillowcase each night they will be reminded to pull out their scriptures and do some reading!

Completing Personal Progress is a goal that Savannah continues to work on and she has already completed several of the values. One requirement that she is working on right now is cooking dinner for 2 weeks. It's been so nice having a helper in the kitchen!

Savannah has always been creative and loves to draw and paint. She gave me permission to include some of her recent sketches and paintings.

Not only does she paint and draw but she writes...a lot! She's also an avid reader and has recently fallen in love with the Cinder series. When she's allowed, she immerses herself in the TV series H2O but is extremely bummed that the series is coming to an end. Savannah recently discovered Pinterest and is quickly filling up her boards with all kinds of ideas involving fashion, hair styles, and crafts. She continues with piano and violin and has just started a spring soccer league. She recently headed off to the mall with just friends for the first time and was so excited to show me her new purse, shirt, and jewelry that she purchased with her own money. She's definitely becoming a teenager!