*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}

CHRISTmas!!

only a couple more days 'till CHRISTmas!! yeay! :) don't forget the real reason on CHRISTmas! Christ came down to be like us, sinful humans, even though He was God, just because He loved us enough. that's seriously amazing love. and then He died for us, talk about crazy amazing love! just so we could be with Him forever! that's just...wow...don't forget this amazing love among the other material gifts this Christmas season!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! I hope you all have a very blessed Christmas!! No snow here, but oh well!! We are having a great day, and I'll write more about it when I have more time!! Oh yea, I GOT SAMBAS!!!! Thank you so much Grandma Barb and Grandpa Charlie!! I love them!! Have a great rest of the day, and remember, Jesus is the reason for the season, and without Christ, there could be not Christmas!

3 DAYS!!

ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT!! WOOHOO!! I finnished the necklace that I keep telling everyone about!! lol! I came out pretty cool!! lol! Today we have a day off from school to finnish wrapping, and packing cookies!! Tonight the youth group is having a Christmas party! I think it's going to be fun!! See you tonight Sophie!!

ONLY 5 DAYS!!

Only 5 days left 'till Christmas!! YEA!! WE went Christmas shopping today, I was trying to find beads to finish off one of my presents. I guess I found them! I hope my friend will like the necklace that I'm making for her!! What is everyone doing for Christmas? We are staying home. We're having pasta for dinner!! I love pasta!! YEA! I guess that's all I have to say...for now...

1 WEEK!!

ONLY ONE WEEK 'TILL CHRISTMAS!!! YEA!!! Does everyone have all thier presents done?? I only have to make one more necklace for one of my friends, then I'm done!! I'm so impatient!! It's going to be so hard to wait the last 7 days out!! Always remember, JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!! And- DON'T LEAVE CHRIST OUT OF CHRISTMAS!!

10 DAYS!!

There's only 10 days till Christmas!!! Aren't you all so excited!! I am! Still no snow, though. :( That's o.k. Christmas isn't about the snow!! It all about Jesus! It's not about us, or the gifts, or getting the perfect present for everyone on your list. It's about celebrating Jesus, and glorifying Him!! I hope that everyone will take the time to think about the real reason for this season this Christmas!! Merry Christmas!! (not Happy Holidays)

Snow??

Where's all the snow???? I know I wrote a post about the snow falling, but it didn't stay very long! There wasn't even a little bit on the ground, it just kinda fell and disappeared! I'm very sad now. :( I want it to snow for Christmas, and I just looked on weather.com, and it said that it's supposed to rain for most of the next 10 days. :( Also, they have a map on it (here) that shows how much of a chance people all over the US have of getting snow. I think we have a 50-75% chance of getting snow for Christmas. That's pretty good. I guess. Anyways, we don't have any snow right now, and we'll probably have mud in a couple days, but I hope we'll get snow!

ITS SNOWING!!!!!!

IT'S SNOWING!!! YEA!!!!! I'm really excited {Just in case you didn't notice that!}! It's just snowing a little bit, but it's a start!! YEA!!! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Sort of...YEA!

It's almost the most wonderful time of the year!!

YEA!! I can't wait untill the most wonderful time of the year is here! We're almost there! I love the smells if winter...the Christmas trees, the peppermint, snow, candles, cookies (yum, yum!), food and everything else that goes with Christmas!! I love trying to think of presents to fit each of my friends and family's unique personalities (even though this is terribly hard!). I really love wrapping presents, and then seeing the person getting the present's face when they open it (that is one of the best things!). I love going to church on Christmas weekend, and singing Christmas carols, and seeing everyone's Christmas outfits! I love going sledding and going over big jumps, and then wiping out! I love going home after sledding with friends and having hot chocolate with giant marshmallows! I love opening presents. I love going shopping with Erika for gifts for my friends and family. I love making jewelry for presents. I love everything about Christmas! I love celebrating Jesus' birth! The only two things that I don't like is having to clean out Snoopy's cage in the snow, and how this world today always tries to take Jesus out of Christmas. It's quite sad how some store emploies aren't even allowed to say "Merry Christmas", they have to say "Happy Holidays." It is sad.

Merry (late) Christmas

HI EVERYONE!!!!!
I'm SO sorry that I haven't posted in a while!! My family and I went to NY to visit my Dad's side of my family! We had alot of FUN!!! (I love my family!!!) There was alot of people there, my cousins from Africa, Texas, Ohio, Maine, and 3 families from New York (not including my Grandparents!!) It was really nice that we got to see my cousin from Africa before they go back!! I'm going to (and already am!!) miss them ALOT!!! I have two cousins in the family that lives in Africa, Caleb (he's 14 years old), and Jessica (she's 12 years old). I'm going to miss Jessica ALOT because she's the closest cousin to my age (she's 2 weeks older than me!!). They are ALOT of FUN!!! The next time we get to see them is when they come back to the U.S. in about 4 years (I think), so Caleb can go to collage. I'm going to miss all of my cousins ALOT!!! I had SO much FUN with all of them!!
One of the days we were in NY we played soccer!! It is alot of fun, first it started out that it was the girls against the boys, but the girls were out-numbered (that and we were sort of bad and needed some help!!), so some of the uncles played on the girls side!! It was alot of fun, but then we had to go have lunch. After lunch, we started to play again, but most of the girl lost interest pretty quickly. Soon I was the only girl left!! The teams were, me, my Dad, and 3 of my uncles against, 1 of my uncles, my little brother, my little cousin (he's around Reuben's age), and two of my older cousins (Caleb, and my cousin Philip, who's about 2 years older than Caleb. They are both really good!!). Anyways, it was REALLY fun!!!! I can't really explain it, but it was fun!! When we were done, everyone was really sweaty and was breathing hard. Reuben and Levi (my little cousin) didn't really play, they were both the goalies (the goal was just 2 cones about 3-5 feet apart, and Reuben and Levi were just standing in between them talking!! It was kind of funny!!) Anyways...I had ALOT of fun with all of my cousins!!
Could everyone please pray for my Grandpa?? He's having some physical problems, so please pray!! Thanks!!!
Well...I think that you all might be able to tell that I love my family!!! Oh, and if Josh is reading this-HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY!!!!!!
P.S. If anyone in my family is reading this-I love you all and miss you all, too!!!

DIGITAL CAMERA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night, my family, me, Ngiap, and Ariel went over to Grandma Barb and Grandpa Charlie's house to have Christmas with them! We ate dinner and then, we opened gifts!!! Dad got a pair of cowboy boots (he needed a new pair because his old ones were falling apart). My Mom got the computer program "Photo-shop 4" or something like that (Mom and Dad got The Chronicles of Narnia on CD from Ariel). Ashlee got a MP3 Player and a book(from Ariel, she got a cat necklace with a big charm on it, and Avalon's CD-"The Creed", she already has though, so she's going to exchange it for something else!!). Naomi got a GameBoy SP (and from Ariel, she got a very preety white necklace with a blue heart charm that Ariel made, and Jump5's CD-"Shining Star"). Reuben got the LEGO Star Wars GameBoy game, and Some LEGO kits (he got a necklace, and the Veggie Tales movie "Lord of the Beans" from Ariel). Ariel got alot of art supplies (and the book "Little Women" and a book mark from us). Ngiap got a mug and some other things (she got clothes from us). We gave Grandma Barb a sweater and a "Snow Baby" figure. We gave Grandpa Charlie 2 games, one of them was "Crainium", and I don't remember what the other one was. I got...(drum roll please!)...A DIGITAL CAMERA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you SO SO SO MUCH Grandma Barb and Grandpa Charlie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a Nikon Coolpix 5600 (it has 5.1 megapixles, 3x zoom, 16 scene modes, and a bunch of other things!!!!!!!!) I REALLY like it!!!!! I also got with it rechargeable battery thingies, and a 128 MB memory card (it holds about 88 pictures). I really like it!!!!! (Also, from Ariel I got Point of Grace's CD-"Winter Wonderland", and a necklace that Ariel made!!)
Yesterday, my family (not my Dad, because he was at work) and Ariel went to my Nana's house to open our gifts from her (we're going to NY for Christmas, so we won't see her). Ashlee got Tigger socks, Barlow Girl's CD-"Another Journal Entry", two toe rings, and three anklets. Naomi got Eeyore socks, The Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack, two toe rings, and an anklet. Reuben got a mini skateboard, a CD holder, and a LEGO Racer thing. Ariel got a address book, a pink heart shaped box, and a little box that looks like luggage. I got Natalie Grant's CD-Awaken, a watch, and two cool pens!!!
I have had an awesome Christmas so far, even though it's not even Christmas Day yet!!!
Just remember, Don't leave CHRIST out of CHRISTmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Snow Storm

Last Friday, we had a very bad snow storm. The snow piled up to about 15 in!!!!! Ariel was VERY excited, the day before she asked Ngiap if she could "go to the snow storm?"!!! Ngiap told her to wait and the snow storm would come to her. I think that she enjoyed going outside during the storm. The snow was so high that Awana was canceled!!!
On a different subject...
Last night Ashlee, Naomi, and I had our piano recital. We take piano lessons at Music Works, I think that it's really fun, and our teacher, Miss. Kathy, is AWESOME!!!!!! Ashlee, Naomi and I played an ensomble of "Carol of the Bells", and Ashlee played "The Twelve Days of Christmas". Anyways...the recital started at 4:30 p.m. and didn't end untill 6:00 p.m.. That wasn't to great, because we had our Youth Group Christmas party to go to that started at 5:00 p.m. and we knew that we were going to be late, but we got to the party around 6:20 p.m. so we only had about 40 minutes there, but after, we got to go out for pizza, so I guess it's o.k. (there was only about 10 people there, but about 20 people said that they would go :( ).
Anyways................................