New Year!

Well, here we are again at the end of another year. It's kinda hard to believe that it's already that time again!
It's been a busy last day of the year, but it has been good! Right now I am sitting in front of the fire listening to the Acquire The Fire "Live God Loud" CD that I used to listen to all the time! It is wonderful! I made some yummy scones today from the Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook. I usually am not one for scones, but these were good!!!

My family and I have stayed home on New Years Eve for the past 3 years. We play the wii, watch the ball drop on TV, spend time together...just have fun! Then Bee and I stay up really late and spend time with God and each other. We like the bring in the new year like that! :)
What do you do on New Years?
Do you stay home and spend it with your family?
Do you go out to have a party with friends and family?
Do you make a special dinner and play games?
I would love to hear about some of your traditions!

Happy New Year!!! I hope it's a blessed one!

(Must ask to use photos. All mine. Mine. MINE!)

Nikon D90!

© I love this camera!

(This is sorta fuzzy cause I didn't focus it well enough).

© Never before have I been able to get a sun picture without pink splotches! I am ecstatic!

© I took this last night (the 27th... it's the 28th even thought the date on this post says otherwise). The moon was brighter, but I adjusted some settings to tone it down so you could see the craters!

© These lights are on out outside Christmas tree decor! These are the last decorations (other than a table cloth) that we have up!

©This is Bee's music sheet for Violin!

I'll upload more pictures next post! I have more of the owners manual to read, and more pictures to take!

Much love and knee-slappin' laughs,

(© All pictures are mine. Must have permission to use.)

A Very Merry Christmas!

Hey Ya'll! (I know it should be spelled "y'all" but I like it better as "ya'll")
I hope everyone had a blessed and wonderful Christmas! I know that mine was great!
I can't post very much right now. Have lots to do! But I figured I could take a moment to post a little something!
On Christmas morning, after presents were opened, my mom read Luke 2 (the Christmas Story). It was awesome. We all had a cup of coffee, and then mom and I made a new breakfast recipe from "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" cookbook! Bee got it for me! It was very yummy! :)
I then proceeded to take almost 500 pictures with my new Nikon D90 camera!! WOOHOOO! I have pics I'll show ya later!
God is so good!
Merry Christmas a day late!!!

Merry Christmas Eve! :)

Merry Christmas Eve!!! I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas so far! It is very exciting around here.
But before we fully enter into Christmas let's remember the true meaning...

Luke 1:26-45

Christ’s Birth Announced to Mary

26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” 35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.” 38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Mary Visits Elizabeth

39 Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. 45 Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

Luke 2
Christ Born of Mary

1 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. 6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Glory in the Highest 8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 “ Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. 17 Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. 18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

Blessings and Merry Christmas!

Camp. Cold. Kids.

Monday morning was COLD! The picture below shows what the car windows looked like at 8:20-ish in the morning.

Ice. Cold. Blocking view. Mom about to scrape it. Me snapping this photo quickly.

All of the campers we had on Monday morning!

...and Goose. (the white dog to the left). He had to be apart of all of the lessons! His goal in life is to learn how to ride a horse without thumbs, and be a human... We try not to discourage him. We want him to dream big!

Six of eleven campers, Mrs. Jill, and me! It was after lunch so everyone was fueled up and ready to ride! It was a great day!My shadow (and RC's) says hello! It looks odd, but cool at the same time!
Billy Goat and Two Toes (he is the rooster...he only has 2 toes on one foot...) warming themselves in the sun! They look like best friends!

(Note: Billy Goat is NOT a girl... which means he's not pregnant. He has a weird stomach thing that he was born with... plus he's a little fat!)

Camp was fun! I helped Monday and Tuesday! Today I went to see my Grandma (or "Grandmommy" as she likes to be called). We had our Christmas with her! It was one of the best visits we've had with her! Now I am ready to go to sleep. These past three days have been extremely busy.

Consider this to be the Randomness Wednesday!

(Please note: the date this post is showing is wrong. You probably know that... I had started to post last night but didn't finish. So for some reason it is showing that it is the 22nd since it was saved as a draft...)

Much love and knee-slappin' laughs,

Winter!!!

Good morning!
It is a beautiful day for the first day of Winter!!!
Today and tomorrow I am helping at a Christmas horse camp! The camp isn't really for horses....we use them....but it's for the kids. I am actually about to leave my house. I won't be home until after dark. Same for tomorrow! We had week long camps through Summer. No doubt that the two day (three days actually... I'm just helping for the first two days) camp will be easier!

I just looked out of my window and saw that Jack Frost visited! there is a bunch of frost on everything outside! So purty!

Well I gotta be going!

Happy first day of Winter!

Excuse me while I admire some trains...

Oh the beauty....look past the graffiti...look past the fact that it is a ton of steel...

Oh just look at it! Ain't is purty?!

This time when I saw the train I got even closer than before! As you can see from the picture above I was quite close!!! The vibration from it is soooo awesome! I am still amazed at the wonderful-ness of it! And guess what!!! There were two trains that went by within ten minutes!!! I was thrilled!

See this bridge? It's pretty right? Yeah... I got on it. It was neat!

This is front and center on the bridge. The train blew its whistle when it got to right about there... I felt it vibrate! Soooo awesome!

No zoom here. This was extremely exciting!

This shot was the only one I was able to catch of between the cars. If you look closely you can see the actually train tracks....they look tiny! I was only a few feet above this beast!!!!

This is looking in the direction the train was going.....

This is looking in the direction the train came from!

Anyone else love trains like I do???

Much love and knee-slappin' laughs,

A quick little note!

Hey ya'll!
I hope you enjoyed the post from yesterday! I sure did! Riah needs to do that more often... (no pressure there, Ri, just an idea...that I have to strongly encourage... :D)
I was going to blog earlier but I have been so busy. This is the only moment I have really been able to just...be. ha! I am actually about to go to sleep. Soo...I will post tomorrow (if I happen to get a chance...we have lots to do) about another train experience! This one is better than the first one! I have pictures to prove it!
Can you believe that we are just a week away from Christmas?!?! Wow.
Hahaa. Have a wonderful night! I will close with a scripture. :)

Romans 8:28 (NKJV)
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Much love and knee-slappin' laughs,

Randomness Wednesday

Ok, this is not Lys.  Is that random enough for you?  No?  Well ya'll are some picky readers.  Lys was not able to blog tonight so I offered to take care of it for her.  Hey, what are best friends for?  So guess what, this is Riah...

Ok random things on my mind right now...

1.  Lys
2. Christmas
3. History

Now for the explanations:

1. I am currently texting Lys, so she is foremost on my mind right now.  Plus this is her blog I'm blogging on, so it just makes sense that I'd be thinking about her.
2. Our house is all Christmas"y" right now, so every where I look there is a reminder that Christmas is nine days away.
3. I have a history quiz to take tomorrow.  Why am I thinking about this?  Because I happened to look over and my history book is sitting on the table next to me, thats why.  Otherwise, it wouldn't even cross my mind.

Here is our Christmas house (well, part of it anyway).  

My lil sis took these pictures, not me.  Mine are currently

on my camera because I have been to lazy busy to up-load them.

I personally love this purple ball.  The bright thing in the corner is

popcorn strung on the tree.  The flash caught it wrong, but Beenie

did a good job for being only ten and not used to using cameras.

There you go, Randomness Wednesday Riah style!

-Riah Friah

What better thing to blog about?

Here are more amazing, anointed, touching lyrics. These kind of posts are going to happen more often than not. :)

Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit.

Comforter, Counsellor here.

Holy Spirit, sent from Heaven.

The God of all Glory is here!

*Rise up within me Living Water; Spirit of God in me!

You are welcome in this place; You are welcome in this place.

God of Power, Love, and Grace, saturate my soul!*

Closest Friend, here in Your presence is fullness of Joy overflowing!

-Fall afresh on me....fall afresh on me...

*Rise up within me Living Water; Spirit of God in me!
You are welcome in this place; You are welcome in this place.
God of Power, Love, and Grace, saturate my soul!*

God is soooo wonderful! I can't even begin to describe it!

Amazing Lyrics.

Beholding Your beauty is all that I long for.

To worship you Jesus is my sole desire.

For this very heart You have shaped for Your pleasure. Purposed to life Your name higher.

Here is surrender, in pure adoration, I enter Your courts with an offering of praise.

I am Your servant come to bring You glory, as is fit for the work of Your hands.

Now unto the Lamb who sits on the throne, be glory and honor and praise.

All of creation resounds with the song.

Worship and praise Him, the Lord of lords.

Spirit now living and dwelling within me, keep my eyes fixed ever on Jesus' face.

Let not the things of this world ever sway me. I'll run 'til I finish the race!

Now unto the Lamb who sits on the throne, be glory and honor and praise.

All of creation resounds with the song.
Worship and praise Him, the Lord of lords.

Holy, Lord, You are Holy! Jesus Christ is Lord!

Now unto the Lamb who sits on the throne, be glory and honor and praise.

Call all the sinners' to join in the song.

Worship and praise Him, the Lord of lords.

(If you want to hear the song, here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFkY5-Xp710&NR=1 )

Blessings!

A mess beyond your wildest dreams!

Today I cleaned my closet!
Need I say more?
I don't like to have a messy closet...or room for that matter. It bugs me. Sometimes you can't help it when things look like a tornado hit it though!
It took me most of the afternoon to clean out my tiny, almost non-existent closet. Of course, I had breaks for dinner, building a fire, and helping my parentals, but it still took a while!
I talked to Riah for a good amount of time while I cleaned. We had a great conversation, and honestly, I don't think I could tell you one specific topic we talked about. We talked about everything! Not really everything. Just a bunch of stuff. It would probably make your ears ring if I told you everything we said. I am not a big talker, but when Riah and I talk it's like an FM radio you can't turn off! HAHA! jk. Ignore the rambling that just happened.
Anyways, back to the story.
(I listened to music too.)
NOW back to the story!
I took pictures of my room. My closet took over my room today. I didn't have much walking space. Today my room turned into a walk-in closet. I thought about posting the pictures on here so you could see the mess beyond your wildest dreams, but I thought it might frighten you. (and I didn't feel like uploading them from my camera tonight.... I never said that. hehe)
Now my room is, in fact, my room again. Not a walk-in closet. I found an enormous amount a socks I had been missing. Hallelujah!
I found some clothes to give away. I found a little plug-in-analog-tv that my grandma (or "grandmommy" as she likes to be called) gave me a few years ago. It doesn't work...since it is analog...
I found a bunch of receipts, a few pencils, socks that are Bee's.... just a bunch of stuff.
I shan't continue! **dramatically putting hand to head and closing eyes**
I will leave it at this: it was a mess beyond your wildest dreams, and I hope I will never encounter it again!
Much love and knee slappin' laughs,

(ps. I don't think I did a Randomness Wednesday this week! SORRY! I have been busy!)

Cold. Cold. Cold.

Did I mention cold?

It's cold outside. C-O-L-D.

Winter is the worst season in my opinion. Yes, the snow is pretty. Yes, the crispness in the air is delightfully refreshing. Yes, the fire in the fireplace is nice. And YES, wrapping up in a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate (or coffee :) ) with a good book is really nice. But the cold. It's just too cold.

That's just me being me. Weird. Opinionated. Nothing wrong with that.

Here's something to warm you up!

All of the little streaks in the fire are sparks!

Mmmmm.... I'm feeling all warm and cozy!

Ain't this nice?!

I still don't like cold weather...

Oops.

I haven't blogged about the "surprise" yet. Sorry.

I have been busy.

The surprise blog is that on Tuesday Riah came over and we decorated my Christmas tree together! (there was something else I was going to put in... but I can't remember...so this isn't really a surprise) It was soooooooooooo fun! We got pictures...but I can't post them right now. I don't have time. I have too much to do!

We got all of the tree done before Riah, Becky, and Bree had to leave! Or....so we thought. I found three, yes three, more small boxes of ornaments after the trio went down to get milk! Wow. Our tree has probably over 1,000 glass ornaments on it.

Ok.....I will post a picture or two...as long as I do it quickly!

Riah and I would move our camera's some to get this kind of effect. This on shot is my favorite because it looks like horse hoof prints!!!

This is Tuesday evening after all of the decorations were put up!!! I didn't edit these pics...but it still is purty! (Note: the dark spot on the bottom right of the tree isn't really that dark. From the side it looks like it... but it isn't.)

FIRE!!!! Ain't it purty! Thought I'd add it just 'cause.

Well...that's all I have time for.
Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of my page because right above my play list I now have a book shelf. It shows what books I am reading, have read, want to read, or recommend! It's awesome! Just scroll over the books and you will see my review of them!
Blessings!
Much love and knee-slappin' laughs,

Sad thing...

Hey ya'll!
I am sure you already saw this, but Riah from Purity and Petticoats deleted her blog this morning. She is so busy she can't keep up with the blog and do all of her other things. SO, we have decided that she will become an author for my blog too. Just whenever she wants to blog she can do so on this one!
Riah said she might re-make her blog when her life settles down some. It could be spring, or it could be a year from now... who knows.
I thought you would be wondering where she went....so there ya have it.
Do not worry, my friends, Riah will still be around!
I will post the "surprise" post later on. Right now I have more decorating (and cleaning) to do!
Blessings,

We Finished Decorating...

...the top of the tree...

This picture only shows a portion of the top. I'm sure you figured that out!

These little ornaments seem to never end. We must have a thousand of them! Minimum.

This is only 1/10th of our ornaments! Believe it.

This is cool! It's the Christmas tree lights...

I will update our tree progress as we go!!!

Tomorrow I will have a special update for ya'll. For now it will remain a surprise!

RAhahahhaha!
Much love and knee-slappin' laughs,

The last post was not real. You imagined it.

****IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE LAST POST PLEASE DO BEFORE READING THIS ONE****
It's true. You did, in fact, imagine it.

Okay, so it was real. Just ignore all of the boring talk. That was my boring self speaking. Well, don't ignore the boring talk. Just try to think of it as my way of saying "I have nothing to blog about." (and nothing to do).
After I finished the last post my family and I went tree shopping with our barn friends (as I said before). We found the tree in literally ten or fifteen minutes. It was a nine foot tall, very full tree. It was to fit into a house with eight foot ceilings. Hm. Can we get a chain-saw please? They got the tree. (Miss A. bought herself a tree that was like a Charlie Brown tree. funny). We got the guys who worked at the tree lot to cut off almost a whole foot of the tree.
I really miss having a real tree. It's so sad. It was what we used to do every year. Get gigantor Christmas trees, cut off about a foot of it so we could actually stand it up inside, and enjoy the smells of it.
Now we have candles to put the smell in the house. **sniff sniff** Why did fake trees have to be invented?! WHY?! WHHHYYYYYY?!?!?!?!?
**clearing throat**
Pardon the outburst. It never happened.
Back to what I was saying bout tonight....
After we (they) got the tree... we all went to the great chocolate/fudge/yummy-ness-ful shop and got the best hot chocolate in the world! That is the honest truth. Not exaggerating one bit! We were told that there was a horse and buggy ride thing happening only for tonight. AND it was FREE. So awesome. We missed it though. When we finally found it, the old couple was loading everything up.
Even though we didn't get to ride in the carriage, we got to see the huge Percheron horse. He was white with the biggest hooves I have ever seen! His name is Ted. He was soo cute, and not afraid of anything!

The guy already lowered the top. That's why it looks like you'd hit your head...

These pictured were taken with my phone camera. They aren't the best, but you get the general idea. It was awesome.
Now it is late and I am going to go finish up my nightly routine and get in bed!
Thanks for forgetting the last post. You're a pal!

Much love and knee-slappin' laughs,

Bored With Nothing To Do.

Okay, so maybe there are things I could do. I could switch out my laundry from the washer to the dryer...but right now I wanna do somethin' fun. There isn't really anything to do. I would talk to Riah, but she has company over. I would watch TV but there isn't really anything good to watch right now. I would read a book, but I don't have anything new to read. There is nothing to do online except to blog. Sigh. So, my dear readers, I am going to write about nothing at all. I hope you don't mind my ramblings too much!
Today I FINALLY finished "fluffing" our Christmas tree. I would post pictures, but my camera batteries decided to die (how horrible. they chose the worst possible time to die). I will try to get some pictures tomorrow.
It took me awhile to fluff that whole tree by myself. I am so glad to have it done! Tomorrow we have to fix up the lights and such. Then on to decorating!

My family and I rented some movies yesterday. We might watch one (I hope it will be "Four Christmases") tonight! Maybe then I won't be so bored.
Have you ever noticed how boring being bored is?! I know that totally made no sense whatsoever. I mean c'mon already. Why is there such a thing as bored? You don't really have to answer that.

I was listening to Hillsong United again today (no surprise there).

I was praying that it wouldn't snow. We were supposed to get a little bit, but it hasn't done anything yet. The sun was even shining late in the day. Not that it doesn't always shine...because it does, but it just shined through the clouds.

I didn't go to sleep until late last night.

I had country ham and a biscuit for breakfast. It was yummy!

My little puppy is sleeping next to me. My big puppy is sleeping on my giant bean-bag a few feet away.

I am actually about to go get ready to go. My family and I are going to go Christmas tree shopping with the people who own the barn (who also happen to be our friends. hehehe). The tree is for them. Not us. We have the fake tree. Remember?
Last year we did get a little one foot tall tree. That was so exciting! Maybe we will again this year. :)

Guess what! I'm not so bored anymore!
Ya'll are probably going to read this and think I am weird. But that's ok!

I am going to end this random weirdness now. Thank you for "listening" to by ramblings.
G'night and happy weekend!