{My Mom}

Today was my mom's birthday!!! I am very thankful for my mom, and I love her very much. She has been such an encouragement in my life. God has been working in incredible ways in her life, and I see the wonderful progress. She has been a wonderful friend as well as my mom.

During these past two years, since my dad started his own business, it has been incredible to see the way she and my dad have trusted God when we might not even know where the next meal is coming from!! It has been inspiring to see her grow deeper in her relationship with the Lord these past few years as well. She loves to study the Word of God. To see that in her, encourages me to be more diligent about being in the Word of God, and studying it from cover to cover.

We have had conversations over the past few years (more than I can count) where I will be completely discouraged, and she will talk it through with me, and reminds me that God never will give up on us. Don't look back and worry about all the things you've done wrong (not that we should ignore the fact that we have sinned), but to pray (and if need be, repent) and ask the
Lord for mercy and forgiveness, and then get right back up and lean on Him!!!!! The thing that I am most thankful for, is her encouraging us kids to learn to love the scriptures, and to STUDY, not just briefly skim over a few verses every morning, but to study the Word of God, so that we will be able to discern right from wrong.

The book of Proverbs is one of my favorite books of the Bible, and there are underlined verses everywhere!! There is so much wisdom hidden in this wonderful book, and I realize how sinful and wretched I really am! This verse in Proverbs 5:21, has been a big help in realizing that I am not in control of my life. GOD IS!!!!

Sorry if these pictures aren't very clear!! I hope you can still make out what the verses are. This one, I believe, is Isaiah 40:7.

This picture is of my foot. ;) Trust me, I had to get in a very awkward position to capture this shot. ;)

She has also encouraged me in my pursuit of dance, and has been an enormous help with my passion for photography as well.

I L.O.V.E you mom and it was really fun to go shopping with you today!! Thank you for all you do for our family!!

Matt

So, I'm finally posting something!!!! This is one of my younger brothers, Matt. He is really awesome and is an AMAAAAAAAZING artist!!!!! He would like to be a graphic designer, and he is working on designing my photography website!!! He is 15!!! Wow, I can't believe that he'll be sixteen in a few months! He is slowly passing me up in height, and is actually able to wrestle Phil without completely being demolished! ;P and he almost can beat me in an arm wrestle now too! ;) Ok, anyways....he is an amazingly talented artist and has his own business with his best friend Josh. I think he has a blog so when I find out the address, I'll have to tell you.

Isn't he such a good lookin' guy? :) He's the quiet type like me, and is a Civil War buff, does Martial arts, likes things that have to do with explosions :P, etc. ALL boy! Oh, and he also enjoys eating!! ;)

Posting soon!!

Will be posting soon!!!!! :)

Here is a completely random picture that I thought I'd put because blog posts are always more interesting with pictures!! ;-)

{Wedding Pictures}

Last summer we went to a friend's wedding, and of course I brought my camera!! :) These are just a few that I took. She's from a family of nine kids, and we've known them since I was born. They are a wonderful family!!!

Here are most of the bridesmaids. All of them are her sisters, except for the girl third from the left (although, I guess now she is her sister-in-law) :)

Then there are two more bridesmaids further to the right and one of them is her sister, and the other is her sister-in-law. Aren't they all such a gorgeous bunch!!!!! The girl on the far left is one of my best friends, and she is so gorgeous, and just a fun person to be around!

This is her adorable neice!!

These are her brothers, and just so y'all know, my mom took this one. ;)

I absolutely L.O.V.E.D her dress!!!!!

STUNNING!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaaaand, to finish it off, here's one of them dancing. Aren't they just soooo cute?!!!

{Bitty}

The other day, I decided to count how many outfits bitty bumpkins (one of my nicknames for Gabi) would change into before lunch. She only changed two times, which I was very surprised about. Usually we will walk by her one minute, and then the next time we see her she's in a different outfit!! My mom said I used to do that so maybe that's where she got it from. ;) Or maybe it's just that little girls like to play dress-up.

So here's bugaboo (another of my many nicknames for her) in the outfit that I gave her to put on, at the start of the day.

I don't know what it is about this picture, but I really like it.

Gabi and big bro Phil (otherwise known as Bobo, or Philly)

A VERY rare moment of stillness!!

Here's the second outfit. :-)
Don't worry!!!! We do not promote violence at our house!! Honest! We have five boys around the house so there are plenty of nerf guns lying around. ;-) I guess she gets it from them. There are a couple more, but since she was pointing the gun straight at the camera, I figured, I'd better not risk it.

Her third outfit before lunch, and here's big brother Jon helping put her headband back on.

You know, one would think that you should wear winter clothing in the winter, but this little person wears all sorts of combinations of things, and she doesn't seem to get cold at all!!! At least now she actually wears clothing!!!! When she was really little, she would be running around in a diaper when it was below freezing outside.

Eatin' a very large carrot!!

Oh, and don't worry. We make sure that she is properly dressed before we go anywhere or if we are having guests!!!! ;-)

An Inspirational Quote

This week has been pretty busy so I haven't had much time for posting. Here is an inspirational quote I found on the back of a magazine, which I thought was very good advice, so I cut it out and taped it up on my wall. :) This is definitely a good quote for me, because I need to learn how to use my time more wisely than I have been in the past. I tend to be a daydreamer and I have a brain full of ideas, which doesn't help me when I need to focus on certain subjects. ;)

This also reminds me of Ecclesiastes 3 where it says that there is a time for everything under the sun. There are specific times for doing various things, but you need to make sure that you are doing them at the right time. So, when it's time to study, write a paper, or work, that's no time to be staring into space, or thinking about putting a new post on my blog, etc.

Ok, well I'd bettter get going!!! Speaking of doing things at the right times!!! ;) Just joking, I really am using my time wisely at this moment. Don't worry!! Hopefully, I'll have more pictures to post soon. Nobody really wants to do photoshoots when it's below freezing! Although.....I do have a few pictures from a couple weeks ago, when I went for a walk in the early morning. (Maybe I'll post them in a few days) MMmmmm, I just LOVE early morning light. It's deliciously....hmm...I can't think of a word to describe it!!!! Let's see, how about, well I guess I can only think of DELICIOUS. If any of you have a word that you have to describe early morning sunlight, please share!! I seem to be lacking in my vocabulary at the moment.

I'm very sorry that this post is so long, and I hope you don't mind, since this is technically my photography blog. Hope you enjoy this quote as much as I did!!!!

{Valentines Day}

Sooooooo, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY, EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aaaaand, just because, here's a picture of your's truly. ;-) It's a little scary looking, but hey! This morning, I bundled up and went to try to take some pictures of the sunrise (which by the way did NOT turn out, way too many trees), so here is a picture of me all bundled up. In my brother's sweatshirt, and my mom's hat. :P
The rest are some pictures from the kids making valentines for their friends






So, I tried sprinkling hearts all over the piano and it sort of worked, but some of the hearts went down in between the keys. :( I sure hope they don't cause too much damage!

Here's bitty girl makin' some valentines too.

Stephen, and Cassia had made some really cute valentines for a couple of their neighborhood pals, and when they gave them out they were so excited. I was pretty disappointed to find out that the boys that they gave them to, were laughing at them, and saying "who cares about valentines"!!!!!! They had been so excited about it, and were being very thoughtful and then were made fun of. Well, I certainly think that valentines do matter, because they show that someone cares about you, especially homemade valentines!!!! I think I'm going to make them some cookies or go get them a special treat to make up for what happened! :)