September Photo Challenge

This month I decided to do a photo challenge. The only problem is, I started today... half-way through the month. So instead of taking a picture today, I took a few that I'm going to share with you. Here are some of the topics in the challenge and pictures I took to go a long with them:

Self-portrait(s):

Instead I just taking a selfie, I got my siblings to have some fun with me!

Something that makes you smile:

This isn't technically a picture that I "took", but Bible verses always make me smile!

What you wore today:

Something, or in my case someone, that you miss:

This is a picture of some of my cousins, my siblings, and I with my grandpa.

Something orange:

Flowers:

Black and white:

This is a figurine that my dad got on a mission trip to Mexico to remind him to pray for the people there. He gave it to me so that I can remember to pray for the people of Central America since we just went on a mission trip there!

Here is the photo challenge that I used (that a friend of mine found) in case you all want to try it!

Another year under our belt!

A little over a week ago we finished yet another school year! I finished 9th grade, my first year of high school!! We learned a lot, worked hard, did our best (most of the time) and finally finished.  Even though it has been a challenging year, it has been a great one!

Here are some pictures looking over the school year:

Here is our "first" day of school picture. Well, we forgot to take one our very first day so we took one a few days later. (and yes, this is a rough picture but what more can you expect on a bad hair day at 7 in the morning with a brother who loves crazy faces!)

 This is a picture from after our Christmas dance recital.

 These pictures are from our Christmas Chorus concert.

 Here is a picture from one of my younger brothers, Luis's, chorus concert!

Getting awards for dance after our last number

 Getting ready to sing "Jar of Hearts"

 Getting awards for Chorus. Two other students and I got awards for good character!

Taking a final bow after the Showcase

                                   

These last few pictures are from our spring chorus concert/dance recital. Our last song was "You can't stop the beat" from Hairspray. Jazz band, Chorus, and Dance all performed. It was a ton of fun!

After our PE final we were bored and were snapchating people. 

Here is a picture of two of my friends and I after our English final. We were bored, again, and took over 200 crazy photos!

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters...

Colossians 3:23

Catchin' Up

Whew! We've up to A LOT lately so I've got lots of pictures and lots to talk about. I'll start with track-out. A couple of weeks ago my family and I visited Williamsburg, Virginia and then visited my grandma and great-grandma in New Jersey.

Here we are at the hotel pool!

at a tavern in Williamsburg

talking to Patrick Henry and learning a lot!

I wonder what they did now?!?

Oh Luis!

My sweet Oma Oma and I!

 The next week we celebrated Easter with our grandparents!

Easter egg time!

On a hunt for the eggs. . .

for those of you who watch Duck Dynasty ;)

 Here a couple pictures that I took of spring . . . my absolute favorite!!

And last but not least . . . this past weekend my mom and went to see Beth Moore, a motivational Christian speaker, with some other ladies from our church and 8,000 other women! It was absolutely amazing! It was all about secrets. The theme was "Secrets Manifest". She talked about the difference between good secrets, bad secrets, secrets in the Bible and the difference between being authentic, transparent, and intimate. "You don't have to be intimate with your entire social network" was one of her big points when talking about that. It was so cool seeing God move.

Jesus, midnight milkshakes, and more Jesus . . . I mean, what could be better?

 Well, that's all I have for now!

Pinterest Projects and Attempts

 I have always wanted to make cookie bowls. Basically, you take cookie dough and a muffin pan and then you turn the pan upside down. Now, spread the cookie dough on it. Make sure you use A LOT of spray!!! Then you bake it for however long. After it cools for a little you take the cookies off of the pan. Now you have a bowl that you can eat and put ice cream in! Well, that's how it is supposed to turn out . . . I didn't put enough spray, didn't use very good cookie dough, and put too much dough on the pan. As you can see, mine broke when I tried taking them off. We put them on the bottom of ice cream bowls and made yummy ice cream sundaes anyways!

The next day I had a few friends over and we decided to bake something. We looked on Pinterest and one of my friends found a sunflower cake made out of chocolate icing, peeps, and chocolate chips. We made the cake and then spread the icing on. Then, we placed the bunny peeps (the only ones we could find) a long the outside edges. After that, we sprinkled chocolate chips in the inside. Last but not least, we ate it! This project thankfully turned out REALLY GOOD!

Disciple Now 2013

Hey guys! So we just finished Disciple Now! The theme was Exchange. Exchanging our old life, our sinful ways, for a new life in Christ! It was an amazing reminder of the greatness of our God and our complete surrender to Him!
And... we  also got to Skype Abby, my sisterchick in Africa! All of the girls in our group absolutely loved getting to talk to her! Thank-you so much Abby!

Here the lyrics to a song that we sang that is one of my new favorites:

Christ alone, Cornerstone

Weak made strong, in the Savior's love

Through the storm, He is Lord

Lord of all.

Here is a picture of all the youth dancing during the worship services:

It was a great weekend and we are sad it is over, but now, our job is to carry what we learned and the changes that were made into our day-to-day life!

Hey guys!

We are tracked out!! Yay! Spring break is my absolute favorite! This week though, I have drivers ed . . . It's interesting, boring, exciting, and a little frightening all at the same time. Well, in the end it will be worth it. And, this weekend, we have Disciple Now, an in town youth retreat at my church, it is absolutely amazing! I can't wait to see what God has in store! yay! At DNow we are going to have worship services, a food scavenger hunt for our church's food pantry, and we are going to Skype one of the most amazing people ever, Abby! Can't wait! I'll talk more about it afterwards, but in the mean time, have a great week!

Lately we've been...

running 5k's in the snow . . . freezing!

making snowmen

going to National Dance Honors Society inductions

hanging out with family

getting gifts from Africa . . . the best kind! Thanks Abby!

and celebrating birthdays!!

8th grade!

Wow! Last Friday was the end of the school year for me!! I can't believe it! This year has been different than any other. . . . for me anyways. At our school we added a class to each grade so we had a lot of new students and teachers. I have been blessed with so many great friends, in school and out of school this year and have many fun memories ;) A lot has happened this year, good and bad, and God has led us through it every step of the way! Here are some pictures of some fun things that have happened this since last July:

This was the first day of school. . . which was also my birthday!

Our winter Chorus concert

and our Spring concert

At a chorus competition

After the competition, we went to Kings Dominion

What we do in Chorus after our last concert and we have nothing to sing :)

At the 8th grade Formal

After the formal some of us went to Goodberries :)

Instead of an 8th grade graduation we had a picnic. This is when the teachers were giving us awards. Mine was the "Silent Sweetheart" award.

These two pictures are from the last day of school... ahhh!!!

Celebrating the end of the school year!!!!