One of my girls from Youth Group (Sarah) had a artical done on her in our local paper. She has worked really hard to earn the highest honor in Girl Scoots, the Gold AWARD. She has done so much and worked so hard and deserves all the recongition she is getting.
Well today she came over to suprise me with a copy of the paper, and to my surprise the paper used a photo that I had taken of her! That is extremly AWESOME! I just can't believe one of my photo's was in the news paper. It's a big deal to me, so i thought you guys might like to know about it!
I just love being a photographer, I have two bookings already for next month. I am super Excited about all my work!
I was so excited to be invited to help decorate the Rose Parade Floats! I have always wanted to do this, but have never had the opportunity. So I drove on Down to Pasadena with a group of girls from my Youth Group and we got to have a AWESOME time working on these flouts. I got to work on the Western Assets Float, which was the "Leonardo Da Vinci" Float. Once we got there we were asked if anyone wasn't afraid of heights, so i spoke up and got to work high up on the third story of scaffolding at the very top of the float. It was AWESOME! I had so much fun gluing bark paper, sesame seed, walnut shells and tons of other seeds all over the float. It was one of the best memories of my life. The time flew by so fast we got there at 3:00pm and left around 11:00pm. Although i was covered in glue and had walnut shells in my shoes, it was a blast. I only wish i could have gone back today to help finish the float.
However I am for sure doing this again and agian. Next Year here we come, this is going to be a new tradtion! So make sure you watch the Rose Parade tomorrow morning and look for my float!
We so enjoyed every minute we spent away. It was a great little vacation, plus it was amazing to experiance the snow with Sienna. She makes everything so much more fun. I hope you had a wonderful weekend, and hey, make sure you go visit the snow this winter, it's worth it!
Today Daniel and I got to help his cousin Brian throw a surprise 30th birthday party for his wife Kathy. Daniel helped by bringing and setting up a HUG screen so people could play Wii life size! While all the men were working outside on a awesome structure to hold all the party goes, I worked inside with Daniel's Aunt Kathy and my friend's Christie and Rachelle, getting all the food ready. And decorating the house. Everyone come together to make this party happen. Brian did such a good job, planning and preparing for this day. You could tell how excited he was to do something for his wife. How sweet is that?!
Once Kathy arrived she was stunned and surprised at the 50+ people who had come out to celebrate her birthday. It was a great night of dancing, eating, laughing and getting to catch up with old friends. I hope Kathy had a wonderful time. She is such a sweet and wonderful person, and she deserves all the love her family has for her. Happy Birthday Kathy, I'm so glad we are family, however i praise God that you are my friend! Love you!
I received a wonderful Christmas card from dear friends in North Carolina and this is what it said on the front:
In an ordinary stable, He had an extraordinary birth.
And that ordinary baby grew into an extraordinary man.
With ordinary words, He shared an extraordinary message.
And on an ordinary cross, He died an extraordinary death.
But an ordinary, empty tomb proved His extraordinary miracle...
So that ordinary people can have extraordinary Life!
I so enjoyed this card. My tag line on this blog is "I don't want to be normal, I want to be extraordinary!". It is because of my relationship with Jesus Christ and He living in me that i have any chance of living an extraordinary life. So this card encompass, why i believe what i believe and why i live my life the way i do. I hope this Christmas you remember who is the reason for the season. Praise the Lord for sending His son to die so i could live!
This morning we all got to sleep in and then Daniel and I got to enjoy Sienna's excitement for Christmas morning. We had a yummy breakfast and listened to a wonderful devotion, then Sienna got to open her gifts. She was so excited about everything, pure joy of the bounty that our family had given her. She so loved getting play with new things, and we had fun watching her play interments, cuddle with her baby doll and beg us to put together her art table. It was a gift to just watch her being happy.
Once we had finished our morning festivities we headed over to Daniel's parents house for a big family Christmas. This year we got to spend Christmas with the Wright Family (Rissa's family). We so enjoyed everyone. There was great food provided by Daniel's mom Rissa and his Aunt Cindy. The made the whole house smell delightful. The we spent the rest of the day playing games and hanging out. It was a wonderful relaxed Christmas. I loved it so much. There was no pressure or feeling stressed. We just spent time together as a family, and worshiped our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Daniel and I have really worked out how we spend the holiday's. Every year we spend Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas day with his. This was we never have to think about who's years who's and disappoint people. This way we have a wonderful family tradition with both sides of our family. Well this year Christmas Eve was at our house! My sister Dawn has so graciously hosted it every year. And since we just moved into a bigger place, we had wanted to host it.
Daniel and I were so happy to have everyone over at our house. I made the turkey, appetizers and roasted mushrooms. Then between my mom and three sisters they covered all the side dishes and desserts. We had so much food, and it was all good! It felt so good to be all together. I was remembering all the years that I celebrated Christmas with just my mom and little sister Cameo. And now I am in awe of how big our family has grown. We went from just being a mom with four daughters to a group of twelve! I am so happy that my daughter gets to grow up with aunts, uncles, and cousins.
My best friend Jessie and her husband Andy sent Daniel, Sienna and I a wonderful surprise package for Christmas. Sienna was so excited to get a quilt that was just her size. Jessie did a great job sewing a wonderfully sweet quilt for Sienna and sent her a cute bear. It's so hard to live so far away from such close friends. But the Lord is good and always seems to make them feel closer then they are. Thank you Jessie for being so sweet and for thinking of us at Christmas. We all love you and miss you dearly, and can't wait until you guys move out to Arizona!
Tonight was our Youth Group Christmas Party. I just can't believe it's a fifth one! Every year i let the kids help to pick a theme for the party, this years theme was "Black and White". Last week I had the teens help me cut out tons of snowflakes and black circles to decorate the Youth Room. The Youth Center is a HUGE room and even though the kids cut a ton of snowflakes, I spent the better part of last week cutting tons more. Even though it was a lot of work, it was so worth it. The room was stunning and it looked like w white Christmas! Which was perfect and everyone loved it. Plus I spent about 6 dollars on paper and had the entire room decorated. I love saving money!
This year was the 7th Annual Ginger Bread House Decorating Competition at my sister Cristal's house. She hosted a awesome event every year at Christmas time. She and her husband Jeff open their home to family and friends for food and fun. It's one of my most favorite things about Christmas time, I look forward to it all year!
There were a lot of people and tons of great food. Cristal out did herself again with a amazing taco bar and a yummy chocolate fountain for dessert. After everyone was done eating, we broke up into teams and had one hour to create a amazing Ginger Bread House. I was on a team with my sister's friend Anna and my two nieces. We worked really hard and made a great house. I loved my team and we worked together great. However we didn't win... bummertastic. I have competed every year and have never won, there is so something going on in the judging, hehe! However Daniel's team did win! I think this is the third time he has won, whats up with that? Nonetheless I had a great time, with friends and family and loved every minute of this awesome family tradition.
