Year in Review 2012 part 1

Hello, everyone!

I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving and Christmas with your families this year. I know I did! (I'll get to that later, probably in part 2)

 Thank you to Kendal who has kept up with my blog in my negligence. I have been reading all of y'all's posts, but haven't gotten around to posting any myself, as you have seen.

 I've been fairly busy with my junior year of high school, which I'm enjoying.  I'm excited about two new jobs that I'll be starting in early 2013. I'm still playing around with photography, and I'm looking forward to buying a SLR camera of some sort soon. The camera that I have been using is almost useless now, and I decided to save my money, and buy the best camera I could as a replacement, instead of buying one in between. I've been enjoying practicing taking photos of people, instead of only animals and up close flowers, though I enjoy both. Taking pictures of people definitely requires much more patience though! :)

I have numerous pictures I wish to share, so I'm going to organize them into categories.

My Photography

 (note, some of these were taken in 2011, but never shared, or just favorites)

                                   I got the idea for this cool photo from Matthew Walker, he had taken a picture in a similar way and shared it on his blog, so I had to try it out!

 I love cooking, and photography, and the two go together well, don't you think? I've actually entertained the idea of being a food stylist. By the way, this desert I made was FABULOUS!

 I thought this picture was so funny! The female kept stretching up to grab a sunflower seed.

 I had the picture below printed and framed and it's on my dresser.

 This summer I set up a hummingbird feeder, and these beautiful bees were the first to find it. Eventually hummingbirds did come, and I enjoyed many hours watching them. I even got a video of a female hummingbird cleaning her feathers way up in our tree!

 This is Jimmy, the bird we nursed for a week until he died. You can find the whole story on this blog.

Friends

These pictures were at one of my friend's surprise room makeover party, in February

 Needless to say, she was VERY surprised! :) 

 We shared a few trips to Busch Gardens with the Larums this year, and had a blast!

 We also discovered we are the perfect size for making pyramids, almost pain-free. As you can see in this photo, we were a little worried about Katie. :)

 We had a fun time at the Pollards house one summer evening. ( I stepped out in the rain to watch the boys try to catch a chicken, and got soaked. I had read that a chicken could be hypnotized by laying it on it's side, and drawing a line with your finger from it's beak about a foot long repeatedly, and wanted to try it out. Unfortunately, the boys couldn't even get to the chickens because of all the water, but we had fun anyway)

 This was my friend Cailin's first ever roller-coaster ride, and she loved it!

 The Larums came over one afternoon sometime around the Fourth of July I believe.

 OK, let me just say I wasn't even sure if I should post these pictures. But I had great fun and you can go ahead and have a good laugh. :) This was mine and Cailin's surprise '50's themed 17th birthday party. I've wanted to have a '50's party for a while now, so I was thrilled!

We had hamburgers and coke in glass bottles ( I saved mine, and it's on my dresser) painted our nails (red was a favorite) watched "I Love Lucy" did each other's hair, and attempted to do '50's makeup. (I think we got the red lipstick down) I did Cailin (the girl in the middle) and Rachel's hair. (the girl in the turquoise shirt)

 My friend Olivia made two of these delicious cakes. Isn't it cute?

 This is before the activities began, and our somewhat scary transformation! ;)

Thanks to Olivia, who was the main planner of this event, Mom, Kendal,  and Morgan for also doing much of the planning, and the Mitchell family for offering your home and everything else you did behind the scenes. Love you girls, you're the best!

Things with Family

This was at a Romney rally, which was a neat experience. Dad was able to take off work to come last minute, and got to talk to Governor Romney and shake his hand. Although I was greatly disappointed in the outcome of the election, the future of our country is in Gods hands, not whoever gets elected.

 This year our family was greatly blessed by the arrival of a precious little cousin, Matilda Evelyn, born in early October. As we only have one other cousin whom we rarely see, we are super excited about little Matilda. (she is my mom's sister's baby, and named after her two great- grandmothers)

 This is the day of the barn dance at the Alexanders, and the first time we met Matilda.

 

I have many pictures of Joshua asleep in funny places around the house. This was  after a day swimming at the YMCA.

This is Kendal in the "uniform" she made for Chick-fil-A cow appreciation day.

These are the shoes the little girl is wearing in the photograph. They are around 100 years old! (I love stuff like this)

Old food processor:

 

New food processor: thanks you, Dad!

 

Chris Tomlin at Glory in the Gardens. This was a truly amazing experience. It was something like I imagine heaven will be like, only in heaven we will be able to see the One we are worshiping.  

 

I hope everyone has a blessed New Year!
I'll have the second part posted soon!
~Kelsey