The Real Reason for Easter

The Easter bunny, eggs, chocolate. That is what Easter is all about..... isn't it? Well, not really. We have Easter egg hunts, and we get something in our Easter basket every Easter morning. We eat robin eggs and jelly beans and talk about the Easter bunny, but that isn't why we celebrate the holiday. Jesus, His death, and His resurrection are the real reasons.

Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, is the day that Jesus was crucified on the cross. It is the day that He washed away all of our sin. He could have gotten down, but He didn't. He didn't because if He did, He couldn't have said the words, "It is finished". He knew that if He saved Himself, then we wouldn't be saved. He stayed on the cross for me and for you. He did it out of love.

After Jesus died, He was buried in a tomb. Three days later, Mary Magdalene, and two other women went to the tomb so that they could anoint Jesus' body with spices. When they got to the tomb, the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty. An angel appeared to the women and said, "He is not here; He has risen, just as He said." -Matthew 28:6. Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning. Our sins are washed away, we are saved, we have a 2nd chance! All because of Christ!

Vacation in the mountains

Earlier this week we got to go on a trip to the mountains!! My family and I LOVE the mountains!! We were there for 2 full days. We had a fabulous time. We got there on Monday. Then, on Tuesday, we got to visit the Biltmore. It was really exciting because we haven't been there since I was 18 months old and my mom was pregnant with one of brothers, Micah. We stayed at Fairhaven Ministries which is a ministry that anybody can stay at. It is basically a lot of small, cozy cabins in the mountains. Our friends told us about Fairhaven and we LOVE it!

This is my family and I eating in the stables at the Biltmore. Very fun and VERY yummy! They even served gluten free food which was perfect for Micah :)

After touring the Biltmore, we went to the flower garden which had lots and lots of tulips. I love flowers, they are SO beautiful... a wonderful part of God's creation!

On the Biltmore estate, they built the "Antler Village". It had fun shops, restaurants, and, of course, ice cream! Yumm!

Antler Village was built on the area of Biltmore estate that had the farm. They had fun games, shops, and videos about what it was like to work at the farm in the 1800's.

On Wednesday we visited River Elk falls. It is a 75 ft. waterfall in North Carolina. The pool underneath it is the largest pool of water underneath a waterfall in NC. We didn't go swimming... too cold and too dangerous, but we had fun seeing the waterfall and hiking down to it! :)

Finally!

This past Friday we finally tracked out. We were in school for 10 weeks and now we are finally off for 3. This track-out we are going to go the mountains in Tennessee/North Carolina. While we are there, we are going to go see the Biltmore. Yay! I haven't been there since I was 18 months old so I don't remember anything about it. We are really excited!

Blogger

I got blogger on my ipod! :)

The Lost Get Found by Britt Nicole

This is an AMAZING song by an AMAZING singer, Britt Nicole. It's about being bold and not being afraid to share you're faith! That's something that I know that I need to work on. Hope you enjoy!!! : )

So cute....

This was actually this past Saturday at a baby shower.... I love it! (:

:)

I haven't posted on here in just about forever.... well, really since the beginning of January. It has partly been because I wasn't sure what to write and partly because I haven't had much free time. Hopefully I will start posting more on my blog soon!

Francesca Battisteli- Free to be me

This is a music video by my favorite singer ever! :)

Happy New Year! I can't believe that it is 2012!!!

Christmas Story

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their florcks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been to born to you; he is Christ the Lord. this will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rest."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

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

Luke 2: 8-20

image from: lisa-snapshots.blogspot.com


Merry CHRISTmas!!!!

Jesus is the reason for the season!!!

Funny Story: Cousins :)

Lipstick. Isn't that what every 8 and 9 year old girl loves? I would say that I loved it then... to quite an extent actually.

I was 8 and my cousin Samantha was about 9 years old. We decided one day to play a prank that I found in an American Girl Doll magazine. A prank that we thought was hilarious then. :) We were going to take all of my stuffed animals and strap them into my car. Since my family was home and we didn't want them to see us, we wanted a disguise. The best disguise we could come up with involved lots and lots of lipstick.

We went to the Bonus room with some lipstick that I had gotten from a little makeup kit. We took turns doing eachother's "make-up". It wasn't quite the make-up that you probably think I'm talking about though. I am talking about a face covered in different shades of lipstick! We put as much on as we possibly could hoping that we would not get caught and we would not get in trouble. Then we added our final touches: wigs, skirts over our pants, another shirt, and a few accesories.

We tiptoed downstairs with an armload of stuffed animals. As soon as we made it, my mom sees us and asked the dreaded question, "What are you girls up to?" Of course we could not lie. So, we told her everything.

Since our little "scheme" had been ruined, we made the best out of our once in a lifetime chance to have a lipstick coated face. We danced and skipped around my house showing anybody that we could our "disguises".

What does this all mean? What did I learn from this?

That you should never expect to get away with something when your parents are right down stairs.



This is a picture of Samantha and I with our "disguises" on! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Happy Turkey Day!!!!
I'm thankful for. . . . . JESUS, my family, friends, and thanksgiving dinner.

Here in America many people pass away of obesity. In Africa, many people pass away because of hunger. There is hunger, poverty, AIDS, persecution, terrorism, and all of this to an extent that we cannot even possibly start to comprehend. All of what I just mentioned though is a blessing. Here in America we have things. Things that distract us from the real reason we are here. Things that, without meaning to, we put before GOD and His purpose for us: to love, worship and bring honor to Him. When you have nothing though, all you can do is trust in GOD and place your faith in Him. Many people there though don't know GOD. They don't know His love, and they don't know the hope that He gives. This is why we need to do something about that. Whether it is becoming a missionary to sponsoring a child to simply praying. There is an organization called Compassion where you can sponsor a child. Sponsoring children helps them learn about the LORD, gives them an education, keeps them healthy, and keeps them from being hungry. You can go to compassion.org to see more about it. There are many other ministries and organizations that help them also. One is Invisible Children. Another is Amazima Ministries that a young woman named Katie Davis started that helps children in Uganda. The ministry provides school, clothes, food, school supplies, and best of all, love for the children. In the sidebar there is an icon that says Amazima. If you click on it then it will take you to the website for Amazima. Katie also wrote a book called Kisses from Katie and has a blog: kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com. Right now though something that we all can do is pray and love!

:)

Remember Abby C from third grade and a couple posts ago? That is who I'm talking to right now on Skype!!!!!