Chillin' in Wisconsin (Pun Intended)

I babysat today, and decided to go capture some moments with the kids. Enjoy these pics. :)

Merry Christmas..

Hey everyone! It's 12:00 on the dot right now, and I am still awake...yes yes I know, Santa is waiiting for me to fall asleep. But- I wish everyone the most wonderful and memorable christmas. I love you all, and wish I could be with each of you to celebrate the birth of Jesus. <3

God with us.

We all enjoy Christmas. Who can blame us?! The copious amount of food, gifts, and family is wonderful. But is this really why we celebrate Christmas? No. Think about this for a moment; if Mary hadn't give birth to Jesus on that cold winter night in the manger, we wouldn't be here today. When Jesus was born, God knew he would encounter many struggles and give his life for each person on this planet. Because of Jesus, we are saved from our sins. It warms my heart when I think about the perpetual love God has for each of us. I have this insatiable desire to become closer to God, and during this Christmas season I am trying my hardest to keep focus on the real reason for Christmas. It's so easy to get distracted with all the materialistic aspects that our culture brought upon this holiday. This post doesn't really have anything to do with what is going on in my life right now, but it has to do with the beginning of Jesus' life, who without, we would be nonexistent. So all I can say is thank you God for the birth of your son, Jesus Christ. I love you.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us." Matthew 1:20-23

Watch out World..

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! I'M FREE AT LAST! I'M FREE AT LAST! I got my license today! Grreeeeeeaaaatest thing EVER! No more drive times, no more rude instructors, no more parents watching your every move, and best of all...SINGING AS LOUD AS I WANT WITH THE MUSIC BLASTING! :) I'm so happy.

Time for your close-up!

I had so much fun taking close up shots to put in the place of last years pictures. They were all so cooperative with it being 30 degrees outside and all. :) They all look so wonderful, soI thought I would share with you all.

Like Father like Daughter.

So I took this picture of myself when I was bored one day, and than I found this picture of my dad the same day..it was wierd when I realized how similar they were. It made me smile. :) I love my dad with all my heart. He does have the temerity of bull, but at the same time he can be sweeter then anybody I know. He has always been there for me whenever I needed him, and continues to be to this day. He's my dad, and I love him to death.

GRANDMA'S ENCHILADAS!

So guess what I did!? I made Grandma's Enchiladas all by myself! My mom talked me through it but that was about it. I looooooove mexican food with a fiery passion and Grandma's Enchiladas are about as authentic as it gets. :) Of course, I was setting my standards high, because her's are THE BEST EVER...but mine were pretty delicious if I do say so myself. :) If anybody has anymore recipes for me that are really good, I would be delighted to have them. I'm trying to expand my knowledge on cooking. I love to do it, but I'm not sure exactly what to try next. So please, feel free to give me any you come across, or already love! I love mexican..so yeah, thats all for now folks :)

OASC bootcamp.

So this past week was what us show choir people like to call "hell week." It all started last Wednesday when our choreographer from chicago came up to whip us back into shape. Wednesday we were supossed to have the day off...but not us OASC kids...we had show choir from 9am to 10pm...the next day we had school and RIGHT after school until 10pm we had show choir...same thing the next night...and Saturday from 9am to 6pm...it was a long week, but TOTALLY worth it. WE LOOK AMAZING AND ARE GOING TO KNOCK EVERYBODY'S socks of at COMPETITIONS! :) I love show choir. 'sigh' :D

OMGOMGOMGOMG!

SO...I just found out last night, that this woman from my mom's work wants me to take her pictures for her wedding! My mom said she thought I was really talented when she saw the family shots I took of Justin, Jenna, Ashtyn, Jake, and Ali, and would love for me to capture moments at her wedding, like I did with the kids. I am extremely excited. Please pray that this will be the launching pad for my career in photography! I'm nervous to do it, but once I get behind that camera all I see is oppurtunities to take a good picture. Soon I'm going to make buisness cards and a website, so I can start advertising what I do. I can't wait, and I hope everything works out. :)

God always has an Answer.

We all go through had times. There are times when all we want to do is give up. There are times when we feel guilty no matter how hard we try to feel better. There are times when we feel like we are worthless and nobody loves us. But the truth is, is that God has, does, and always will be there for us. I found this Chart and it just makes me so happy that God loves me and cares about me so much. I couldn't live without him.

Fall and Jenna..

I decided to go out and take some pictures of Jenna with the fall colors as her backdrop. Isn't she gorgeous!?

My Nick..

Yup.

He makes me the happiest girl on the planet.

end of story.

Autumn Awesomness..

The leaves are changing, the trees are starting to become bare, and night comes much quicker than it did only a few months ago.. winter is coming, so within the last few days of wisconsin's beautiful fall, I had to grab my camera and capture some of the breathtaking sunsets, and the vivid colors of the leaves...I't snowed for the first time today...I love winter, but fall is definitely the most beautiful season there is.

Our new President...

BARACK OBAMA!
America is ready for change.
We made the right choice.
I LOVE OBAMA! :)

VOTE OBAMA.

VOTE OBAMA or VOTE McCAN'T.
It's your choice. Are you looking forward to a huge change in this country, or do you want another 4 years of Bush's nonsense lead by McCain/Palin? Obama is the man for the job. I know that I am a bit byased being a total liberal and all, but I have researched and done my homework on the two canidates, and Obama is the ONLY correct choice for more reasons than one. Here is a Haiku I had to write for my civics class on the election and my views...

Barack Obama
Repairing our country's wounds
The change that we need

sums it up. VOTE OBAMA or prepare yourselves for failure.

HAIR CUT!!!

OH MY GOOOOSH! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT! I CUT MY HAIR!!! IT WAS SOO SCARY, AND SHE CUT IT A LITTLE SHORTER THAN I WANTED BUT, YA KNOW, WHAT ARE YA GONNA DO? i REALLY LIKE IT A LOT NOW. IT DOESN'T FEEL LIKE A HAVE A HEAVY WEIGHT ATTACHED TO MY HEAD ANY MORE. HAHA. I GOT A WHOLE 7.5 INCHES OFF! IT'S A BIG CHANGE FOR ME..MY HAIR WAS KINDA MY SECURITY BLANKET..BUT IT WAS TIME FOR CHANGE. :) NEW PRESIDENT, NEW HAIR CUT RIGHT? ;)

HONORS CHOIR 2008

If any of you know me, you know that my passion in life is music. There is nothing I love more than singing my heart out whether I all alone or in front of a huge audience. It's been my life for as long as I can remember. This year I was blessed enough to make it into the state honors choir. Only 80 highschool students in the whole state make it into the choir, and I was one of them! I remember last year when I tried out, I had to sing my solo, sight read, test my range, and sing back 3-7 notes played at random on the piano. I was so nervous, but in the end it all payed off. We had a camp in green bay at the beginning of the summer where all of us met sang together for the first time. As soon as we started warming up, I got shivers down my spine. It was crazy because EVERY single person there were ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE MUSICIANS! Not on of them was ever sharp, flat, too loud or too soft. Everyone there was so talented, and even better they all had the same drive and passion for singing as I did/do! the rehearsals were each about 5 hours long with lunch breaks and dinner breaks and we usually started somewhere from 8AM-10:30PM every day for four days. To some, that may sound like tortue, but to me it was HEAVEN! Oh my gosh, did I loooooooove singing for days on end. Seriously, I never thought I would have such an awesome time. Anyways, months past and we all anticipated the BIG concert in Madison that I just got back from two days ago. We sang in this beautiful theater. The whole entire wall on the stage where we sang was a pipe organ. It was stunning. The acoustics in the theater were phenominal, and all of us musicians were in our choir heaven. That night when we performed it hit me that I have to go on with music in my life. There is no way that I can quit performing, and quit singing once I get to college. It is what I love to do most, and if I had to give it up I don't think I would survive. I'm not sure exactly where I want to go with it, but I know I have to follow what my heart is telling me, and it's telling me to stick with what I love. Music is what keeps me sane. Without it, I wouldn't be half the person I am today. There is nothing more self rewarding than a wonderful performance. There is nothing more satisfying than singing with people who know what they are doing! There is nothing more amazing than singing. God gave me this gift, and I intend to use it to it's full potential. Watch out world, I'm coming full speed ahead. :)

CHOIR NERDS UNITE!

Yaaay! Our track jackets and t-shirtws FINALLY came in for OASC! :D This year show choir is going so well for everyone! We are all becoming closer and becoming a better team! It is a lot of extra work though. After school rehearsals, and late night rehearsals can get pretty old....but we all stay on task by remembering how awesome we are going to do once COMPETITION SEASON rolls around! I cannot wait! :)

Homecoming 08

Homecoming as such a great dance this year! I don't think I have smiled as much as I did that night in a while.I have the greatest friends/boyfriend ever!!! I don't have much to say, other than the fact that I am the luckiest girl in the world, and God couldn't have blessed me with a more perfect guy. Life is so good. :)

Turnabout.

Turnabout. You might be wondering, what in the world is that? Well, it is an event that our Youth Group Worship leaders, aka Me, Nick, Andrea, Zak, Tyler, and our fellow adult leaders put together once a month. We have our typical youth group on Sunday nights but once out of those for youth groups a month we have what we call Turnabout. This is when we turn the gym into our youth room. We set up couches and comfy chairs, games, pool, basketball, Gloria Jean's Coffee!, and much much more. But that is just the fun stuff. Us worship Leaders are so blessed to be the ones who get to thank God through the wonderful gift of music. Our band plays at every turnabout event, and I always feel God is in the room when we are all there, singing together. What I love most about Turnabout, is that everyone around you is there for one sole purpose. We are all there to praise God. It is an amazing feeling to have people around you who love God and are following his word, and are going through the same struggles at school that we all have to face as christians everyday. Every turnabout when Pastor Adam speaks to us, I can't help but get emotional, when we watch the video clips, or when he is talking to us. God is amazing, and if you don't know him already, I'll pray for each and everyone of you that you will grow to know him and understand his everlasting love for you. No matter what you go through in life God will always be there holding your hand. God is my strength, my best friend, my life.

-Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. - Proverbs 3:5-6

Junior Year...

School Started today. What a joy. I already know I am going to have to work extremely hard this year. The good news is I have all my really tough classes are in the beginning of the day, making the second half of my day a breeze... I'm sad that summer is over, but I am also excited to get into this year. Especially our show choir season! We are gonna rock all of your socks off! Lunch is the best part of the day, of course. The weather is so nice out latley, around the high 60's so it is the perfect temperature. Andrea, Nick, Alex, Sam,Alex R., Mike, Dani, Abbie, and myself, have great times out on the soccer fields where we eat everyday. I'm actually looking forward to this year. It will be difficult, but also very very fun. :) With only two more years before graduation, I'm planning on making this year as awesome and as fun as I possibly can.

Fun in the Sun all day long!

We had a great day at the lake today. We miss mama and wish she could have came with us but we still had a wonderful time. Great final Friday of summer.:)

Farm Fest 2008

Farm Fest is one of the most fun weekends of the whole entire summer. It is an annual trip our youth group takes to one of our leaders farms waaaaay out in the boondocks! And no, it isn't your typical farm, where you go watch cows eat grass and see chickens flying about. This is WAY BETTER! You get to go four wheeling, paint balling, jump on trampolines, go swimming in rivers, listening to live bands who play awesome christian music, watch the amazing fire work show they put on every year because Charles (one of our youth leaders) is a professional firework person, and sooo much more! The best part for me was after the firework show around ten a clock, Andrea, Zak, Nick, and myself went away from where everyone was camping out and climbed up this giant hill, that once you got high enough was flat land, and nobody could see you! So it was like our secret place. It is tradition to stay up all night long at farm fest every year, so that is exactly what we did. We star gazed, laughed our butts off, ate yummy snacks, played games, and we're sooo cold! But it was so worth it. It was my first night EVER to see a shooting star. I had the best night of summer with my best friends in the whole world... I am truly blessed. :)

See ya later Summer...

So our Summer is coming to an end, much faster than any of us want. For one final blow out up at Andrea's cabin, Me, Nick, Dani, Zak, and Andrea, had a blast! Our days consisted of tubing, floating in the middle of the lake for hours, hanging out on the lake in the boat playing cards, and eating good food of course. We watched the olympics at night, and laughed so much I think our faces were dead from all the smiling. Those three days had to be the best three days of summer. We had now worries, none of us were stressed about anything, and we were all together, making it perfect. Ya know, there is nothing better then being with your best friends, under the sun, and not having a care in the world. That's what summer is all about. See ya later Summer...

Fun at Khols!

So Andrea, Abbie, and I went to Khols before Show Choir the other day because Andrea need to buy new mascara....well, we ended up staying there for like 2 hours doing absolutly nothing. It was the greatest. We tried on ugly clothing, and played with the great selection of makeup you could try on...it was a really fun day. :)

OASC 08-09

This week was OASC (Old Abe Show Choir) Choreo Camp, and man was it intense. It was 10-9 everyday for a whole week. We would start the day by doind conditioning, which consisted of 30 minutes of ab workout and about 45 minutes of other exercises. Our show is so freakin awesome this year! Our show goes as the following: Carry On My Wayward Son, I'm Still Standin, The Luckiest, Right Now, This is how a Heart Breaks, We Got It Goin On. Be prepared because OASC is comin and we'ree gonna be NUMBER ONE!