i'm alive!

so, i think it's about time to resurrect this blog! my sisters have been nagging me for, oh, 1 and a 1/2 years now (whoopsie :P), so i think it's about time...school, soccer, family, friend, camp and other things *coughfacebookcough* have seemed to have stolen my time...but i'm alive! really and truly i am! i'm also updating my photography blog, as i'm getting more involved and immersed in photography (and more interested in doing it professionally), i thought it'd be a good idea to kinda re-think my "brand" or whatever you want to call it...i'm also contemplating (ooo big word ;]) combining this blog with my photography blog...but i'm still thinking about it...SO, go check out my new photography blog! hopefully i'll be more faithful to this one as well :/ but for now...goodbye tori dutt photograph and hello ria grace photography! :D

happy birthday punt!

happy birthday to you! happy birthday to you! happy birthday dear ashlee!! happy birthday to you!
have a wonderful day! i love you! :)

meg and soph's photoshoot!!

hey everyone!! go check out the rest of the pictures from meghan and sophie's photoshoot, and don't forget to let me know what you think!!













[click on the picture, as usual!]

happy birthday reuben!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR REUBEN!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!
i hope you had an awesome day! love ya! :)

:P

back to school again...and back to homework...whop-dee-doo...i'm so tired right now because we had an all-nighter at youth group on friday...and i only slept for around 2 1/2 hours. :P and i just got this weird craving for chocolate pie..mmmmm...that's sooo good! :) ahhhh!! so, the overnighter was fun!! ashlee and naomi invited hannah, so it was cool to have her there, too! :) we played polish pingpong, which was a lot of fun! random people sang and danced to random songs (which was soooo funny!!), we watched the princess bride and i fell asleep for the middle of it, which is surprising, because that was the first time i've ever (that i can remember) have fallen asleep during a movie. we hung out a lot, and i'm very proud of myself, because i only had a couple cookies instead of stuffing my face! :) i fell asleep from 5:30-7:30 sat. morning with bekah, ashlee, hannah and christa, which was pretty good, because i had wanted to sleep...everyone was sooo tired, though....i ran 11 laps around the auditorium with jessuly at 4:30 saturday morning...good times...and then i went home, took a shower, listen to my ipod for an hour, then fell asleep from 1-4 (during reuben's birthday party) (i know you all totally wanted to know that!). we went to ashlee and naomi's indoor soccer game at 4:30 (i love soccer!), and they lost 5-0, but for some reason it's being counted as a win. they had 4 tired persons on the field (ashlee, naomi, hannah and katelyn), and ashlee and katelyn looked like they were going to fall asleep. yea, so now i'm back in school...and really tired...only around 10 weeks left 'til the end of school!! :)

...i still want chocolate cream pie...

pennsylvania and interim

soooo, as most of you know, i had school vacation for the past 2 weeks, and my family and i went to pennsylvania to visit a family we haven't seen for a while. we were there for all of last week, and i had an awesome time! :) we went into philly 2 days, stayed overnight at gettysburg (with our pillows!), went to lancaster, a.k.a. amish country, got to see a family from our church who moved down there and got to meet their new daughter!, and had a lot of fun with our friends! it was so much fun, and i miss my friends so much, but i have a lot of awesome memories and a whole bunch (a.k.a. 100's!) of pictures to remember the trip!!
so, after the past 2 weeks of vacation (which were awesome!), we're back to school again. at my school, we're having a week of "interim" where we have a morning and afternoon class all this week that are different from regular classes (like this week we have fencing, medical specialties, ballroom dancing, hip hop, computer programing, scrapbooking, and a lot more!), and even though this is my very first one, it's been a lot of fun so far! :) i'm taking an all-day class called digital imaging, which is just awesome! i get to take pictures and play with photoshop all day, what could be more fun?! so far this week, we've photographed at my school, 2 town's centers, a church and library in boston, and we've been to a photography museum (which had a really cool exibit with photographs from ellis island by stephen wilkes). it has been so much fun!! it was kinda funny, because we went into boston today, and when we were walking back to the t, we passed a big group of people all with the big "pro" cameras, and we were like, woah, they're doing the same thing we are!! it was pretty cool! :) so, i've taken a couple 100 pictures...maybe i'll post a couple on my photoblog...idk...
anyways, just thought i'd give y'all a brief overview of the past couple of weeks for me! :)

pennsylvania

sooo, we're having an awesome time down here in PA. the family we're staying with are just so awesome and so much fun i don't want to leave, but i miss all of y'all back home!! we've been to philly, gettysburg and lancaster, and we'll be home soon. here are a couple pictures...
independance hall...








the liberty bell...








starbucks... :)








the hotel in gettysburg...








little round top...












it was really windy...








kitchen kettle shop...








horse @ kitchen kettle...








the outhouse...












so there's just a couple pictures from our week here...more to come later with stories!! :) have a great rest of the week, and happy Easter, everyone! :)

gum & vacation...

did you know that gum with dirt in it is kinda strange to chew??
sooo...last week and this week is my school vacation!! woop woop! so, this week (we're leaving like, now!), my family and i are going to pennsylvania! if you all could pray for safety and lots of fun, that would be awesome! :) so, if there happens to be a lack of posts in the next week, you'll know why! :) sooo, look forward to stories, pictures, pictures, pictures, and more pictures!! :) love y'all!

happy march 1st!!

happy march 1st everyone! :) hope y'all had an awesome february (with the extra day!), and have a great march!
at the moment, it's snowing here, so it doesn't feel too much like march, and yesterday the temperature was something 7 degrees F, anyways, it was cold, but we still hold onto the hope that warm weather will come in the next 2 months (hopefully...you never know with our insane NE weather!).
i also want to ask for prayer for ashlee today. she's taking the headmaster exam, just like i did, and she's probably really nervous (i know i was!). so if you could just pray that she's not nervous, has clear thinking and that God would guide her and my parents as they're looking for options for school next year (*tear*she's growing up:(*tear*), and that they'll know for certain exactly where God wants her to be! thanks so much! :)

prayer, please

ashlee's going to shadow someone at my school tomorrow, and she's also doing an interview, too. she's in the process of applying for my school, so if you could pray for her, that would be awesome! pray that she wouldn't be nervous, and that she and my parents would have peace about her education, and just calmness knowing God's in control of everything (we definitely learned that with my education!)!! so, i'll try to keep y'all updated with ashlee's education, but for now, just pray for her! God is totally in control! :)

photoshoot...

go check out some pictures from a "photoshoot" i did with erika, katelyn and ashlee after church today...they came out pretty cool...more to come! :)
{click on the picture to go to my photoblog}

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSHY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR JOSHY BOY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!
i hope you have a wonderful day!! i miss you! :)

*sigh*

my Christmas totally rocked the house!! how 'bout all of y'alls? we went to visit my dad's family all the way in ny (btw, i love new york! :])...yay for 7 hours sitting in the car.... :P it was so much fun, and totally worth the ride! :) we drove all Christmas day, and got there around 5, just in time for a lovely turkey dinner! it was really awesome to see my cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents again! the last time we saw our cousins was probably...oh...two springs ago, maybe more, so it's been a while. it was pretty cool to see how everyone changed so much! at various times during our trip, we saw all 4 of the families who are in new york, and also cousins from texas and ohio! :) it was so much fun! the day after Christmas (wednesday), we hung out at our cousin's house (the one we were staying at) all day. it was nice just to chill and have fun. we went for our 1 3/4 mile jog/walk thing, and play scene it! :) on thursday, we hung out at the church all day with 3 ny fams, the oh fam, and the tx fam came between lunch and dinner. it was lots of fun playing soccer, hockey, ultimate dodge ball, sardines, and all-church tag! you definitely get a workout when you're with cousins (especially dad's side! :D). friday, everyone was there and we went to ha (on the way there, we saw silos, whales and elephants :]) and played dodge ball, soccer and this kickball-ish game at the gym, had lunch there and took a ride on a bus (complete with gates and tickets! :D). we went roller skating (not blading, totally different), and that was a blast! sososososo much fun! :D i love my family so much! my knees are now sufficiently bruised, but it was totally worth it! it was only my 2nd time roller blading/skating, and it was a lot of fun! :) the guys there had a bunch of fun games, and they actually played contemporary Christian music for us! after, we took the bus back to ha, played more dodge ball, had dinner, and watched "monsters, inc." in the auditorium. at the moment, i was pretty sore, and have bruises all over (including, but not limited to, my knee, hip and arm), but it feels so good to have gotten some really good, hard exercise! on saturday, we hung out for the morning and grandma and grandpa and the tx fam came over for a little bit. we left at 12:30 for our drive home. :( it took us 10 hours to get home. it was ridiculous. we stopped something like 6 times, really different from our 1 stop on the way there. oh well, we're home safe and sound, thanks for all your prayers! we had a wonderful time, and i really miss my cousins now! :( it was great to see them, though, and i can't wait for the next time we're going to get together again! :) hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and happy new year to everyone if i don't get to it later! :D

merry CHRISTmas, everyone!

hope you all have a wonderful and blessed CHRISTmas! don't forget the real reason, Jesus came down to be like and one of us, to live a perfect life and to die, just so we could have a relationship with Him and be with Him forever!
oh if y'all could pray for my family and i, we're driving to see my dad's side of the family, it's about a 8+ hour drive, so just pray for safety, patience and a great time while we're there (we're coming back saturday). thanks! :)

"The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood."
[-john 1:14; the message]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
{not happy holidays. :P}

Happy Birthday Naomi!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR NAOMI!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!
{yes, i know it's late...my bad...}
hope you had an awesome birthday naomi!! love ya!
...
so...last friday-saturday (december 14-15), naomi had her birthday sleepover with a couple friends! it was fun! she got alex rider (if you've been reading ashlee's blog, too, you'll know what i'm talking about!). it's a pretty stinkin' awesome movie! :) anyways, her party was a lot of fun, and i got a couple pretty good shots...here are a few...
























(so much fun to shoot in the snow!!...even though it's a little cold...)

(i like the cake ones...)

yea,...my bad...

sorry i haven't posted in such a long time...i've been kinda busy with school (i have 2 projects to work on and another one that we just learned about...good times...) and the stinkin' awesome conference that we just had this weekend (which hopefully i'll be able to post about soon...) and just life in general...hopefully i'll have some pretty cool changes to the blog soon...our laptop is acting up, so once we figure out what's wrong and get it working again, i might be able to work on it and post some more pictures (i just took some pretty cool ones from ashlee and meghan's fencing class that i visited today!). so, just a brief random note about the conference, so we had it this weekend, friday night, all day saturday and sunday morning. on friday, lamar did a concert which was fun, and our "band" played a couple songs. we only had one church (other than us) and 2 people show up, but it was a lot of fun anyways. so saturday, we had more music, food and our speaker, dwight knight (he's awesome!) did a couple sessions. we still only had us, the other church and a couple random people. but it was fun anyways! the other church was a lot of fun, and they just rock (without going into much detail!). we also had some game time at LCA where there was a basketball tournament and a big soccer game (which is always fun!! :]) and a lot of fun and interesting experiences. sunday we had regular church, but dwight talked for sunday school and for the praise and worship service. he was great!! so, that's the reader's digest version of our weekend, hopefully i'll be able to go into detail and tell you all all the funny and just regular stories that came with it (and you'll get a big long post, too! such a deal!!). so, anyways, sorry i haven't been posting as much, hopefully you haven't totally deserted me, :( and stay tuned for posts, pictures, and changes!! have a great night! :]

more pictures...

here are a couple more pictures i've taken since the last time i posted...


































































































































more to come....i have to go to bed....

I GOT TO MEET BARLOW GIRL!!

the concert was just stinkin' AWESOME!!! tfk was pretty good, they're pretty hard rock, and i couldn't really understand a thing they were saying, but it was awesome anyways!! barlow girl, man, they TOTALLY ROCKED MY SOCKS OFF!! they were awesome!! they're my favoritest band ever, and i was soooo excited to see them!! they were really awesome in concert!! during one of their songs, sophie and i went up to the front, and i took a couple pictures. when we first got up there and security guy told we could take a couple pictures, but then we had to go back to our seats. i was just like, "THANK YOU!!" it was a great concert! toby mac played after them, and he totally rocked, too!! it's so hard to describe concerts, other than they totally rocked...ashlee and i took a lot of movies, so we might be able to post some of them on our blogs...that would be awesome! the lights and music were awesome!! after toby mac was "done," everyone cheered for something like a whole minute +, and he came back out and did something like 4 more songs!! it was awesome!! the last song was "Jesus freak," and during the last chorus, he went out and rand through the audience, and he was literally 2 feet beside me, and i didn't see him until he was in the middle of the chairs in the middle. :( oh well, he was awesome!! i went up to maine with caleb, joel, their parents and caleb u, and it was pretty fun! we listened to veggie tales, toby mac and switchfoot, and it was funn!! :) anyways, after the concert, we actually got to meet the barlows!! they are awesome!! they're really nice! lauren shook everyone (except for my) hands! dad told them that we played for our youth group and becca wanted to know what instruments we played!! they were really cool and down to earth! they signed a big poster i had and the book i had, too! they thought reuben was really cute, and they really liked him!! :) oh, at the beginning of the concert, i discovered that i didn't have any batteries!! so, ashlee kindly lent my some of hers, and she and i shared them for the whole concert. i got them for barlow girl, and she got them for toby mac. so i only have pictures of tfk and barlow girl, and ashlee has pictures of toby mac. anyways, here are some of them...

thousand foot krutch

barlow girl!!!

i had so much fun, and praise God that we got there and back safely!! oh, lauren talked about how we are a "chosen generation" (-1 peter 2:9), and how we are called to shake the world up and not just wait for someone else to do it for us (i taped half of her speech, so hopefully, i can share it soon). it was a really good message!! praise God for people like the barlows and toby mac who are willing to shake things up for Him! :D