It was a snowy wonderland outside today! I woke up to a few fresh inches (totally unexspected!) and our wonderful houseguest (who loves driving around on country roads) took me and my sister out for some pictures. We went around the township, it was a load of fun! We've got a lot of diversity in scenics around here, I like it. Have a happy New Year everyone!
My sister made a lovely cake today for the New Years Party we'll be having tomorrow with some church friends coming over. I believe it's made out of fondant. I'm not sure, she's the expert! Last cake of 2009!
Since my family has trains in my brothers room, our basement, and even tracks running outside..how could we not have trains under the Christmas tree?
Philadelphia, otherwise known as 'The City of Brotherly Love.' Today, our houseguest (a missionary) needed to renew her passport, so we went with her into the city. We stopped over at Penn's Landing (first shot), during the winter there's an ice rink along the river. It's pretty cool! After we got her passport, we headed over to Geno's. Which has the best cheesesteaks in the world. I kid you not, they're amazing. Lastely, we stopped by the Philadelphia Art Museum and I went up the stairs (there's quite a few, not really bad at all though) to shoot the city from up there. It was a fun day!
It's my little boys birthday today! Well, actually it's just the day we call it, we adopted him three years ago from today! 2006..hard to believe. I feel so old! Today he turns seven. They get old so fast! Still a little booger though! (this is from my cell phone, bad quality. Sorry!)
Klazane sent me a link to an article on making your own bokeh a few weeks ago, and I finally decided it was about time to try it out! Instead of making hearts I did a snowflake, using my Mom's scrapbook punch. It's not perfect, so maybe I'll try again another time! - If you try it, be sure to post and tell me about it!
It's our tradition to make snowman pancakes on Christmas morning. Three pancakes (with chips for eyes & buttons) are the body, ice cream is the snow underneath him, bacon (or sausage, depends on your preference) are the arms, whipped cream is the hair, and some powdered sugar around him/her as snow! Merry Christmas!
This year my church did Advent candles for the month of December. Each week different families would light another candle, and give the meaning behind it. Tonight we lit the last one, signifying Christ's birth, the fulfillment of the prophecy.
Tonight my friend's Mother brought me along to their family gathering. All sixteen of them were in the same state, at the same table, and this was cause for a photographer! They celebrated one of the boys birthday, and I enjoyed taking some various shots through-out the night and doing group shots later on. It was a lot of fun!
The rest of my siblings choose to hit the hills again this afternoon. Personally, I decided to stay dry for this round (I'm lacking snow pants at the moment!). New blog layout & banner! Very wintery, I like it!
Our back door is a little beat up, to say the least. But it provides some nice differing tones in B/W. Have I mentioned I love snow?
Today wasn't really a snow day (in fact, even though we got about 3 inches and 75% of churches in the county canceled their services, we had ours!), but it was a sledding day! We had family over to celebrate my brother's birthday, and we couldn't help but having some snow fun. The pictures above of are my cousin going off the small ramp we built. Funny faces!
Snow! I woke up and it was snowing, and it's still snowing. Although it's been off and on all day, we should have a few inches tomorrow morning. I could hardly get this dog in today, he just loves it!
Tonight my youth group had a Christmas Formal, with a Masquerade theme! It was a super fun night. I even wore -gasp- a dress! Yes, see I'm not sure much of a dress type. I haven't worn one in years. - But it was fun! We had a lovely time.
Tonight my younger sibling's homeschool group had a Christmas program. They played chimes, had a few skits by their drama team, and a short Christmas musical. It was quite cute!
Today we decked out tree out with holiday ornaments and such. We had a wonderful time together. Although no snow is on the ground yet, - we're hoping for a white Christmas!
On Monday or Tuesday I'm free of school for almost two weeks! Only one more week, - but it's a pretty packed one. Working, and last minute shopping doesn't leave a whole lot of room for schoolwork. I'll fit it in somewhere!
Tonight my sister & I set up the lights on the tree while the rest of our family while they were out. This year we went with twisted white and red lights instead of our typically multi-colored. I like them a lot more!
Tonight the Sr. High girls small group made Christmas cookies! We used simple glaze and snazzed them up with some sprinkles. It was fun fellowship together!
Today we went to a local tree farm right up the road to pick our Christmas tree. Yes, we're live, go cut down the tree people! The first one is of the man working their cutting it down (my Dad didn't want to, and neither did I, haha), the second is of it loaded on our mini-van. We didn't actually put it up in the house yet, but pictures to come as soon as we do! - Oh and yes, there was still a bit of snow on the ground where we got the tree. Sadly none down in the valley where I am!
Two friends & I got together tonight to make bowling shirts (we enjoy midnight bowling, and bowling in general, even though we're terrible!). We used green glow in the dark paint, so they should look awesome in the dark! To see my logo, click HERE.
The city park system has an annual holiday lights display, and my Grandpa & little brother help run the indoor miniature train display. I took a few shots inside at the display before going outside, but sadly my tripod broke and fell (bringing my camera with it). - Thank goodness, only the filter was cracked! So sadly, I didn't get any pictures of the lights. Hope this is okay!
We had a very cloudy day in the valley, no snow though! These clouds rolled around late in the afternoon and I was hoping we'd get some snow. But nothing was falling except some rain this morning.
This little guy has been hanging around my Grandparent's bird feeder for a while, but I hadn't been able to snap a good one of him until today. He stood there for quite some time, plus I had an advantage. - I was hiding behind the Christmas tree!
Every year the greenhouse has a Poinsettia show, and we've never actually made it out. This year we did, and it was a lot of fun! The flowers were very pretty, and my little sister had fun picking one out for my Grandma and putting sparkles on it. We also got a blue one, and a pink one. - I'm sure they'll pop up in my pictures soon!
The trip home from North Carolina had to be one of the most gorgeous car rides I've ever taken. We drove up through the mountains in Virginia and they were covered in snow, it was spectacular! I'm typically against shooting out car windows, but I couldn't help it. Just too pretty. The roads however were great, which was a huge blessing for the end of an awesome trip!
This is our rubber band ball of awesomeness! With each shoebox, came 1-3 rubber bands holding it shut. It was my job to take the rubber bands off, and do whatever with them. I decided to make a rubber band ball! It's actually bigger now, and I used the colored rubber bands to make it pretty. I'll take a picture of it someday.
Today after working in the morning, we went to the Billy Graham Library/Museum. It was pretty awesome, if you're ever in Charlotte I highly suggest it. Afterwords we headed back to the warehouse for more shoebox processing!
This is the Operation Christmas Child warehouse from the second floor. It was media day, so they had a group singing, testimonies, and Franklin Graham got up and spoke as well. Chickfila gave out sandwhiches, and we ate some yummy chicken!
On the car ride down we had two 12-seat passenger vans for the 20+ people that came along. Ours had a table, and we played the card game Apples to Apples for good two or three hours! Made the time go much faster. This was taken at the hotel during another round of the game, I was getting slightly desperate for a picture around 11pm! (Pictures to come, it was a fantastic trip!)
Today my pictures were featured in the weekly teen section of the paper. It was pretty exciting, and they looked pretty awesome! Most of the pictures were ones I've posted through this very year! Thanks for the support everyone!
