What an Amazing Week!!!

This week some teen girls from my church and a couple others from a church in Port Charlotte had the amazing pleasure of going to the Deep South Youth Conference in Gulfport, Mississippi. It was wonderful! The Lord worked on all of our hearts and many decisions were made. I thought I would share with you some of the pictures and memories we made all along the way.

           On our way! It was a seven and a half hour drive. There was definitely a lot of giggling!

                    We were scared that the luggage on the back would come loose and fall off. Thankfully we made it safely with all of our stuff!

       With a seven hour drive you have to stop along the way and get snacks, of course. Mcdonalds was one of our first stops for breakfast.

                                                         Finally in Mississippi!!!

                 I just love Linsey's face in this picture! (she is the girl all the way to the right)

          Thank you so much Mrs. Lydia (and mom!) for driving us crazy girls!

                We were able to stop at the Mississippi Welcome Center and stretch our legs. The welcome center was decorated really beautifully!

        I am so thankful for the wonderful friends that I have. They are amazing and such an encouragement to me! Love you Beth, Tricia, Tabitha, and Linsey!

            We were able to rent a house for a couple days and it was beautiful! A lot better than staying in a hotel. :) The view in the morning was great and it was so peaceful!

                                             Perfect for having morning devotions!

          This is the first night of the conference. We were all SOO excited to hear the preachers!

    The church there rented the water park. One day for the girls and one day for the boys. It was my first time going to a water park and it was so much fun! I loved all the slides and the lazy river too!

     This is the second night of the youth conference! So glad I got to share this memory with these wonderful friends.

    After seeing Grammy's Donuts on the drive home we knew we would have to get breakfast there the next morning!

    So I thought I would explain this picture to you.  While me and my family were in St.Barths, before we started the church, we would watch some preaching online. Bro.Bob Gray 2 became one of our favorites to listen to. When we found out that he would be one of the preachers at the conference, we were SOO excited!! We knew we would have to have him sign our Bibles and get a picture with him! :) All of us girls were really excited to finally meet him in person! (and thank you Bro Scott Gray for the photo bomb!) :) :)

           And in being in Mississippi we also knew we would have to get some sno-cones! We found a cute little place on the beach and ate some while listening to the waves.

 Umm.....does anyone notice the flavors Frog in the Blender and Fuzzy Navel???? I just stuck with a normal flavor!

    After eating our sno-cones we sang some hymns on the beach before we left. What a sweet memory!

              This is Bro Bob Gray 2. He was my favorite preacher at the conference!

                            I love it how Bro.Gray uses someone in the crowd as an example. It makes the message really stick in our minds!

                                     Someone took our picture and it got put on the wall!

  I know these pictures are kind of blurry....but! This is one of the games that they had. What I didn't realize is that I got volunteered to play in it! Thanks Mom.....  It was an Indian pillow fight and let's just say.......I got beat really bad. And I mean really bad! The other girl was really tough! That was kind of an embaressing moment, but now we look back and laugh at how horrible I did! :)



I plan on posting in the next few days about the messages that were preached and what kind of decisions were made! I am so thankful to be able to have gone with this wonderful group of girls! This week was amazing!

The Past Month

So much has happened since I last posted, I don't know where to start! :)  There has been birthdays, youth activities, traveling, baptisms, and so much more! I love the life that the Lord has given to me!

Me and Beth had the opportunity to spend a week at our grandparents. We were able to see cousins, aunts, and uncles, and laugh and have fun!

                                   I was glad to be able to go and see Grandpa at his carlot.

           And we were so happy to be able to see our younger cousins, Kaylie and Kiara! We were laughing and giggling the whole time with them. (and also planning their trip of when they are going to come up and see us) :)

    We were also able to go to our friend's Graduation. It was so fun to see her and her family! I enjoyed taking pictures during her ceremony. She is so sweet and I'm glad I was able to be apart of her Graduation!


     Last Saturday we had a youth activity. All of us teens went bowling. There were six teen girls and three adults. And.......I beat Josh in bowling!!!  Of course, that was my praise in Sunday School! (I just had to rub it in a little) :)

    Sunday was an amazing day! My Dad preached an awesome message Sunday Morning, and we were able to see one of the teen girls accept Christ as her Savior!  We also started our bus route two weeks ago and on the first Sunday we had ten kids ride! Our van is a 15 passenger van, so please pray for the Lord to provide us with a bus soon!

    I am so thankful for my family, friends, and church family! The Lord is really working in our church! I can't wait to see what else He has in store!

Callie Grace's Birthday

My sweet sister is now 6! I love this spunky, fun little girl so much! Today for her birthday she wanted to have a tea party and for dinner she wanted to have a picnic in the woods by our house. (I'll post pictures of that later)  I had so much fun taking her birthday pictures. It was harder than I thought trying to get her to smile! The bugs were really bad in the flowers and she didn't really care for that! :)

In late April to the beginning of May, we have beautiful wildflowers everywhere, and I thought that would be a perfect spot to take her pictures. (Having little siblings is great for practicing photography too!)

   I love it how the flowers are mostly yellow with a few white ones spread throughout it!  I also love the look on Callie's face in the picture above! She was SO excited to smell all the flowers! ;)

                               Don't you just love her smile with her two missing front teeth?

                             I think this one is my favorite! I like how the sun is shining on her hair!

        It was funny trying to get her to blow the dandelion. She kept putting her lips really weird. And me and mom were trying to show her how to blow. She was getting the giggles because she couldn't get it! ;)

                   I can't believe you are already six Callie! You are such a pretty girl! I love you more than words can say!

Desire

     I am the "standby" for nursery on Wednesday night, in case we have more kids than one lady can handle. :) But being in nursery means that you miss out on a great message. I will get in the car and hear my family talk about what an amazing message it was that night, and wish that I could have been there. Don't get me wrong! I absolutely LOVE being in nursery and helping out with the little kids. I wouldn't trade that for anything! But sometimes I do miss a really good message. And I know that I need the preaching just as much as anybody else. So I knew I needed to do something so that I could be in nursery but still get to hear another message sometime that week. This is where the internet comes in......I decided that whenever I was out of a service and in nursery, that sometime later that week I would go on Youtube and listen/watch a sermon online. This week I chose to listen to Scott Pauley, one of my favorite preachers! (I know I say that a lot) :) His message title was "Desire". I thought I would share with you some quotes that really stuck out to me.


    Nothing ever stays stationary in the Christian life. You are either moving forward or backward. 


   Your feelings will always change. The real test of the Christian life is when the emotions end. What will you do then?


   Am I separating myself from all distractions so that I can have wisdom?


     If I want God to listen when I speak.....I must first listen to God when He speaks.

Those quotes really stuck out to me. I am so glad that I was able to listen to this message. The Lord has really spoken to my heart about keeping the desire for God's plan in my life. I hope this was a blessing to you too! :)

Micah is 4! (Part 2)

Every birthday, Mom normally takes the kids pictures. But for the past couple of birthdays she has let me take them. I really enjoy it! I love it when I tell them they can make a silly face!  I love capturing all the joy that these little ones bring! :)

                                         Our yard makes a perfect picture-taking spot!

                             Yep...you guessed it! I told him that he could make a silly face! :)

                                                 I think this one might be my favorite!

      I asked Micah to show me his muscles, but then a plane flew by and he got distracted. I think this might be my second favorite!

    I asked him the other day if I could come over to his house when he gets married. He said "Yes!" Then I asked if I was going to like his wife. And then he said, "Of course, you are going to be best friends!"
                              Four years old! Don't grow up to fast little man! :)

Micah is 4! (Part 1)

Micah turned four yesterday! He was excited and a little sad at the same time. The night before he started crying saying that he wanted to stay little forever. Aww!! How cute!

       Of course....that feeling didn't last long as soon as he saw all his presents. :) I was woken up by this little man jumping on me saying, "I'm ready to open my presents!!"

     

    He told Dad and Mom that for his birthday he wanted a big boy Bible. Not a small one. So he was super excited when he got a big Bible with his name on the cover.

        For all of our birthdays we get to choose the cake, the food, and what we want to do. Micah decided on a strawberry shortcake. And.....(he wouldn't let mom forget).....he wanted to help make it. Who knows what ended up in the cake, but we all enjoyed it! :)

    In the afternoon Micah wanted to go on a hike through the woods. So while Dad and Josh were at Bible Study, the rest of us went to the river and "hiked" on the trail. The river is so gorgeous!
    It was a wonderful day and I am so glad that I got to spend it with him!  I love you Micah!

Marine Corps-Vette

This week we had the pleasure of having Bro. David Sommerdorf come to our church and preach for us! It was awesome! He brought his corvette out for everybody to see. The whole church was excited about Wednesday night and couldn't wait to see the car and hear Bro. Sommerdorf preach.

     This car is really amazing to see. It is a memorial to those who died in the 9-11 attack.

     Bro. Sommerdorf left the car set up from 5:30 to 6:30 and gave tours and told about all the hidden secrets of the corvette.

   We had a snack table set up and the kids loved it! But of course....who wouldn't want cookies and a cold glass of sweet tea on a hot day? :)

   Afterwards we went inside to start our normal service and Bro. Sommerdorf preached for us. He is one of my favorite preachers! His message was on prayer. I believe it touched every body's heart, including mine. It was a wonderful Sunday and I am so thankful I was able to be apart of it!