Merry Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas from me and my family to you! I hope your day is filled with many blessings and time well spent with family. 

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:6-7

For the four weeks of Advent, my church's focus was around those verses. Each name {Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace} was each talked about one Sunday of Advent. A question that was often raised was, "Who would have thought?" I really like that question now. Who would have thought that Jesus would come down as a baby and be born in a stable, a manger? Who would have thought that He would be born of a virgin? Who would of thought that an innocent little baby would soon save the whole world? Who would have thought? God knew how everything was going to happen. In the same way, He knows what's going to happen in our lives as well. We just have to let Him do His work. So this Christmas, I challenge you to dig a little deeper into God's Word and listen harder to what He is calling you do. 

Pinspiration {v. 1}

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I'm truly sorry for neglecting my blog for a long time again. I should have notified you all. Pictures are not uploading for me, therefore I have had nothing to post about... until I just realized I could copy and paste pictures. This seems like something that could become a series for me. Hopefully I can work out this whole blog problem. I've been doing my best to catch up on a few blogs. Thank you all for your patience. 

What's new? There's a lot new with me! Over the weekend the lovely Minnesota received about a foot of snow... almost out of nowhere. We didn't have snow one day, and the next... boom!, tons of snow. I can't wait to share pictures. I've also been enjoying life in high school. I am involved in band (I play the flute) and other after school activities. Being in a public school has strengthened my faith life like crazy! I can't go a day without thinking of Christ and praying to Him. I am also enjoying this Christmas season. :) 

How's your life going? 

Christmas 2011 | Family

Before church last night, my family and I got together for a little photo shoot! Of course we didn't get a lot of pictures, but we got enough to say we got a good one! :D I used my tripod, that I somehow got to work. I guess I'm a person that breaks things and then fixed them...yep, that me!

 I just love that one with my family! My mom didn't want the pictures to be really posed, she wanted them more relaxed, so that's what we did! Oh and this picture was taken when it was pitch dark out. I'm really impressed how well it turned out in terms of light.

 My mom and dad... they are SO cute, aren't they?

Now the picture above took a while to get... and even the other one took a while too. At one point I started recording. It was hilarious to see what we were doing in those short 10 seconds or so. My face looks really washed out and I edited it really poorly. :(

We had pancakes for breakfast this morning. I was going to wake up early to make them, but we all stayed up late last night, so I slept in. My dad ended up making them while I made two kinds of juices. 

Well there's the video... meet my awesome, yet weird family! And you're probably completely confused because you don't know what else went on before I pressed the "record" button.

 Yesterday, I finally had a chance to put up a few of my ornaments. I love this one because it represents what I used to love to do. I loved to dance. I'm not into dancing anymore, but I was! It's a glass ornament with a pink tint. I love it! And yes, it was almost too late to put up ornaments, but it wasn't!

 

I had my own little photo session yesterday, but the focus was a little off, so for this one, I didn't use my tripod and it turned out just fine!

 I love this picture! I'm sorry if you're tired of looking at pictures of me.. This one was actually in focus and it looks nice!

I hope you all had a great Christmas! It still doesn't seem like Christmas to me, but oh well. :/ It will come! I might have another post with some more pictures of us opening presents, but that's just a maybe. 

Do you have a favorite picture?

P.S. I got a new camera bag and I love it! It's a backpack that I can actually hold ALL of my camera stuff in. YES!

Lately

Merry Christmas Eve!

 Lately, I've been in a blog slump.

Lately, I've been stealing other people's idea for blog posts.

Recently, I've learned that teaching Kindergarten and 1st graders the game Sorry, is really hard.

Lately, I've loved bokeh shots... especially bokeh with many sides, not just circle bokeh.

Lately, I've been really wanting to show you all pictures, but I just don't feel like it's a good thing to. :/ It's complicated.

I would love it if any of you guys could think of something you want me to post about, and comment on this post what it is. I want my posts to bring inspiration and move you in some way, and with your help, I can strive to accomplish that.

Thank you!

Photo Dump

Well, last week was quite a busy one... with over 5 tests, two concerts, and days with volleyball practice, I was not able to have a nice quiet time to work on a post. I did take a lot of pictures though! Here are some random ones.

 Me before my concert... no makeup, no fancy hair. I showed this to my friend and she thought I looked even prettier this way.

 Last week consisted of cleaning around the fire place so we could make a fire! Yah! A fire is amazing on a cold Minnesota day, even though there is currently no snow on the ground.

 My Christmas tree bokeh. A lot of people are posting their Christmas tree bokeh. This is still just our little tree upstairs. Our actual tree that we decorate and put up is downstairs.

 Last week I got the focus fixed on my camera! Yah! And yes, it was broken because I messed with the settings again {yes...again} and turned the focus to automatically always we on manual. Woah, oxymoron going on there!

 Me singing during our concert. I let my mom use my camera. I put everything on the right setting and gave her a cheat sheet on how to put the lens on and what not. She said if I didn't make that cheat sheet for her, she wouldn't even know how to put the lens on. Haha! I love you, Mom! Anyways, 1/2 photo credit to my mom.

A {horrible} picture of me and my brother after the concert. I look really weird, but oh well, it's a picture.

P.S. The songs that we sang at our concert were Silent Night, Let's have a Christmas Celebration, and Halleluiah Chorus. For Halleluiah Chorus, we got a standing ovation. It was awesome. For our dress rehearsal we did... let's just say, not so great. So it was amazing that we did really well for our concert on Thursday night.

Holiday Kick-off

A few weeks ago during Thanksgiving break, that Friday to be exact, I went to my cousin's/aunt's and uncle's house. Not only did we celebrate Thanksgiving with them, but we went to a Holiday parade. I was so happy that I could go because it was their first time doing it in my home town. I only go back a few times a year and this was one of them. Here are some pictures of the parade.

 I'm sorry most of these pictures are kinda blurry. It was dark and cold.

 And remember this was only a few days after I had my camera, so I still had NO idea how to shoot in a manual mode. :D Oh and yes, that is a helicopter covered in Christmas lights.

 I happen to come from the 4th of July City of America. I'm not kidding. That's why they had that float.

Santa! Yep, that's him!

P.S. Thank you Emily for inspiring me to write this post! Go check her {better} pictures HERE.

P.P.S. I'm sorry if all of my Christmas posts are bugging you.

Signs of Christmas

Christmas is coming!!! {I sometimes love to state the obvious:)}

 We have lots of cold, snowy days, often dangerous (snow and cars don't meet), but kinda pretty.

 Icicles! Isn't that awesome?!

 These pictures were taken right after the first snow... with my camera. The actual first snow I didn't have my new camera, so this was the second big snow during the day. Sorry, I can be really confusing sometimes. So these pictures are all taken with my new camera!

 Bokeh!

 Christmas lights... Thank you Dad for putting them up so our house looks very jolly!

The "JOY" sign and the angel both light up at night. It's really pretty! 

What Christmas "signs" are you seeing?

Beginning of Christmas

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas by Bing Crosby

It really is starting to look like Christmas.. at my grandparent's house. We usually set our Christmas supplies out really late, but since we went down to my grandparents' house in Nebraska, we got a chance to help them put up their Christmas decorations.

At both of our houses {my grandparents' and my}, we set up a fake Christmas tree. Why? I don't exactly know. It is a lot less messy, but I don't care too much. 

I have to admit something: I love Christmas. Wait, I take that back. I like everything that happens leading up to Christmas; shopping, decorating, music, it's all so fun!

I took that picture and wanted to delete it, but then I thought about it, and look at it, and realized it's pretty cool! :D Thoughts?

How are you getting excited for Christmas?

Early Christmas

As some of you may already know, I celebrated early Christmas last weekend! :D It's true. For the last couple of years, we've been celebrating early Christmas because my grandparents go to Florida over the winter. I would too if I had the chance, it's cold in Minnesota! Oh and just an FYI, these pictures are almost all not posed. Yes, so they bring out real personalities.

 My amazing parents!!!

 That would be my older brother. :D He's in high school, and well, a little crazy sometimes, but I still love him! Oh and, my cousin is under him.

 This is my other older brother and his girlfriend. They both got these little pans, the size of my hand, that you can make sandwiches and eggs in. They're really cute.

 The next day, my family and I went to my cousin's Confirmation. It was really good! I kept thinking to myself, "I'm next!" Yep! I'm getting confirmed in April.

After the church service, we went to the "after party." This is my youngest cousin, Brooke, and I. Some more pictures of her are HERE, at the end of the post. 

Luke 2:16-20

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. 

 

Do you have any Christmas traditions?

Excited

I am excited about a lot of things.

1. My birthday: My birthday is in 18 days. Wow, I can't believe in 18 days, I will be fourteen! Crazy!

2. Early Christmas: Long story... You will {hopefully} find out in a blog post within the next week or two.

3. December 25th Christmas: Ah! I love the holidays in general. My favorite part is... spending time with family, church services practically every day, decorating, {presents :P}, and the list goes on.

Just a few years ago...

4. New camera: I am saving up for a new camera and I can't wait to get it. I am so close (in money). 

5. Thanksgiving: Wow! I totally forgot about Thanksgiving until right now. I LOVE Thanksgiving! Another fun opportunity to see family!

6. Grandparents'/VIP Day: This is the day before Thanksgiving at my school. It is a {half} day filled with fun with your grandparents and/or a very special (or important) person. 

7. Mail: I love mail and I know something is coming. Long story, short- I won some prints from a friend and they happened to drop on the way to the mailbox, and I was wondering what happened to them. Well, they're found and on their way! :D 

8. Confirmation: I get confirmed this March and I am SO excited! :D 

My oldest brother's confirmation.

A few things I'm not excited about:

-A spider on the ceiling next to me

-snow

Anybody recognize this picture?

-homework

-school tomorrow (I'm not a huge fan)

I hope you had a fantastic weekend!