Merry Christmas and a Happy New 2009!

This is a picture of 'us kids' in the elevator on our way to see the Christmas parade, two weekends ago. (See if you can spot Bridget.)

It was a different Christmas for my family this year, we didn't have our two older sisters, and brother is-laws, home for Christmas morning. But that did give us a fun weekend at Manda and Charlie's house, the weekend before Christmas. We went to the Holidazzle, a Christmas parade downtown Minneapolis. It has a bunch of floats covered in lights, and at the end Santa's sleigh comes riding through. It was exciting, and frigidly cold!

Anna and I, were sipping our yummy hot cocoa. Warm! Notice my hat I'm wearing in this picture, I get to brag on Manda! She knitted AND crocheted it. It's really sweet, (it also matches my coat.)
This picture is of the four sisters outside Charlie's law firm, watching the Holidazzle parade.

I hope you all had an awesome break from school, and work, and you're all rested and ready to get right back into it! Right? :)

more snowman pictures

These pictures were supposed to get on the last post... Blogger didn't get it! Here are some more pictures of our first real Iowa snow or the season!

First Snowman of the Season! A few pictures...

It snowed last night and most all of today, accumulating up to 31/2 - 4 inches of fresh, clean snow. My whole family got out in the snow and made snowmen this afternoon. It was a blast! Anna and I are rounding our first snowman, pictured above. Yes, there that much snow already on the ground to make that huge base! Awesome huh?

Chirstmas...

This is a fun Christmas questionnaire -at least I had fun answering the questions!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper!

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial (I wish it was real though!)

3. When do you put up the tree? The Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving!

4. When do you take the tree down? I don't remember, it's probably different every year! I know once year we left it up until Valentines Day and put Hearts on it!

5. Do you like eggnog? I like it- too much of it is.... Well, too much, it's really rich. LOL

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Girls of Many Lands dolls, by American Girl. (I don't know, that's all I can think of right now.)

7. Hardest person to buy for? My parents. :)

8. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, of course!

9. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail (I don't know of anyone that email Christmas cards...)

10. Favorite Christmas Movie? Oh boy movies again? I don't know I like Elf, I like the Nativity Story, I think that's what it's called...

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas? This year? Well, like October!

12. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Um.... I don't remember. It's possible!

13. What do you eat at Christmas? Cut out sugar cookies, walnuts (Crack 'em yourself!), Cinnamon rolls Christmas morning, egg nog, actually orange juice is a tradition Christmas morning....ect. the lunch and supper varies!

14. Lights on the tree? Yes! I seem to like white better than color, but I like both.

15. Favorite Christmas song? "What Child is this?," "Christmas Shoes," (it's sad and good); Christmas music by Mannheim Steam Roller, and pretty much all of the Classics.

16. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Well, most every year we stay at home, but every once in a while the family flies down to AZ to my Uncle's and Aunt's house. That doesn't happen very often though.

17. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Nope...

18. Angel on the tree top or a star? We have both, I like the star better though.

19. Open the presents Christmas eve or Christmas day? We open one present Christmas Eve and the rest Christmas day.

20. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? People and Busnesses saying "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" instead of "Merry Chirstmas."

21. Favorite ornament theme or color? Red- Ccomplementary color to the GREEN tree. LOL

22. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Spiral ham, deviled eggs, chocolate fudge, sugar cookies, star cookies.

23. What do you want for Christmas this year? Jewelry, card making stuff, cool yarn, clothes, Books, itunes gift card?...

24. Christmas Tradition? Driving around the Cedar Valley looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve, with Hot Chocolate, and Cookies.

Happy Thanksgiving, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Iowa's Bravest

Hello All! I have been quite busy lately-mostly with school-writing assignments, finishing reading a book, taking Algebra, and Government tests etc.

Iowa's Bravest sends boxes full of GOODIES, to soldiers stationed in Iraq, for Christmas. Me and my family love to go and help out most every year. It has become a tradition. Here's Anna (Above) of course she chose the CANDY station to work!

I had the popcorn station, YUMMY! It was Boy Scout popcorn. I really enjoy packing the boxes for the troops.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving & Christmas!

~Cally

Rejoice the Lord is King

Rejoice, the Lord is King!
Your Lord and King adore; mortals, give thanks and sing, and triumph evermore.
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice; rejoice; again I say, rejoice.

Jesus the Savior reigns, the God of truth and love;
when he had purged our stains, he took his seat above.
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice; rejoice,
again I say, rejoice.

His kingdom cannot fail; he rules o'er earth and heaven;
the keys of earth and hell are to our Jesus given.
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice; rejoice,
again I say, rejoice.

Rejoice in glorious hope! Jesus the Judge shall come,
and take his servants up to their eternal home.
We soon shall hear th'archangel's voice; the trump of God
shall sound, rejoice!

Done moving. (YIPEE!)

For some reason Blogger posted my pictures in reverse order; so I did my best to cope it it. Enjoy!

This is my very purple bedroom! Thanks to all of my siblings- I couldn't have done it this fast without all of your HELP! The IKEA furniture was a little tricky to set up but we have it all up and looking beautiful now. :)


Remember my huge closet that I was so excited about? Well- it's in use now, and I have PLENTY of leftover space LOL!


How many people does it take to put up IKEA curtain rods? FOUR people! Isn't it crazy? But I really love my curtains; thanks Charlie, Manda, Zach, and Bridget!


Setting up the first piece of furniture- my bed. Yay!


Anna and I are sorting- the theme of last weekend to be sure! It was OK because A.) we got to be outside for this one, and B.) The whole house looks great because we've got rid of SOOO much stuff! (but don't ask about the garage yet, we're still in the process) ;)

Manda's

 

The picture above is of Anna and I on the way to IKEA to pick out our amazing bedroom furniture. I CAN'T WAIT to get my bedroom set up at our new house! I have all-new black-brown furniture-a bed, mirrored dresser, desk, book-shelf, and a night stand. I'll post pictures of my room ASAP once we have everything in order. The closing for the house is on Tuesday, October 28. We'll move most of our house on Thursday the 30Th, after the carpets are dry, and painting is done. YAY!

Last weekend was fun because we were in Minnesota visiting my sister Amanda and her Husband Charlie; we shopped, went to the Guthrie Theater (Down-Town Minneapolis) to see a play called Prairie Girl (about Laura Ingals), shopped, decorated light switch covers with our colors for our bedrooms, ate ice-cream at McDonald's at 9:45 at night,and oh, did I forget to mention- we went SHOPPING!

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On the way home we watched this gorgeous sun-set for about 35 minutes. I couldn't resist taking a picture of it-even if we were still in the car.

Our family had a wonderful time in Minnesota; Thanks Charlie and Manda!<

Osborne and Pike's Peak

 

Last Sunday, we went on our annual Osborne Heritage Days trip, up in NE Iowa. Anna and some of her friends dressed up to the time period as Indians, or in 'little house on the prairie' outfits, as we like to call them. :) Every year Osborne puts on a tent church service set in the 1800s with a circuit rider preacher. The guys se on the right and the ladies sit on the left. It's pretty fun!

Another really fun thing we get to do at Osborne is have real Buffalo Stew! It has to be one of my favorite parts of Heritage Days. YUMMMMM!

 

 

After we were done at Heritage Days, we went to Pike's Peak./\ Had supper/lunch at a picnic spot that had a breath taking view! (See above picture.)


Here are the girls that were on the trip. (Left to Right) Elizabeth D., Katherine K., April H., Me, Joria W., (second row) Danae W., Deanna, Miranda W., and Kelly K.

 

We went on a hike to walk under a trickle of a waterfall, the water was ICY cold, and invigorating, for the temperature was warm.

Being with family and friends for a day was fun, and refreshing.

Thursday and Friday

On Thursday morning I went to my new house and took pictures and measurements for curtains and new furniture. This is my soon to be bedroom.


This is my huge closet, exciting!


After we were done at the house we went to see our kitties Jade and Chloe, at the Suttons home.


While we were visiting I stubbled upon these gorgeous mums.



Friday we babysat Drew Deeds, such a good boy, he hardly cried at all, and took good long naps! He also liked playing peek-a-boo with his blanket. :)

We're Moving! (At least I think we are) ;)

As some of you already know we put an offer on a house about a week and 1/2 ago; and it's going through! I get my own room! I need to go shopping and pick out some bedroom furniture soon. The house is about 6 minutes from our house right now, off of W 4Th street and Shaulis in Waterloo.

I only have one more week of volleyball, I'll be glad to be able to spend more time with my family and have a bit more down time. But on the other hand I'll miss the girls on the team, and the exercise! Varsity still hasn't won a game but we're looking forward to 2 more games this week, and looking for a W-I-N!

Happy Fall!

It's fall again, and it really starting to feel like it-at night anyways. :)

Volleyball tournament today in Denver, IA varsity beat the record this season of 17 points and made it an even 18. That was pretty exciting! School is going well, I like my Government class the best right now.

That's my latest happenings. What about yours?

I finally tried to make a slide show!

Hey guys!

Yesterday I sat down at the computer and went on my cousin Amy's blog (Price's Press) and watched one of her movies and decided that I'm going to make a video for my blog. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be! One True Media made it so simple!

The Picture at the beginning of the movie is of Amy and Brianna G., Maggie (neighbor)and of course me and Anna. We had a total blast dressing up really goofy. ;)

And the crazy movie is a 'brainstorming' session for a production that we were going to perform just for the parents. OH, it was at the Wheeler's house a couple weeks ago when we ate supper at their house. Good Times, Good Times... :)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Walnut Ridge won (Jr. Varsity) Volleyball

Hey Guys!

Tonight's games were all won-by Walnut Ridge; Jr. High and Jr. Varsity (Varsity didn't play)! I played both of the Jr. Vartsity games, it was very exciting to finally win. Although I enjoy the girls' company and it's fun to play even when we lose-everyone likes to win some of the time; right? The rest of this week we have 2 more games, plus a tournament on Saturday.

Anyway, school is going well, and I have 2 tests in Science, and 1 test in Algebra, and a quiz in English/World Literature. Pray for me that I study hard, and recall what I studied when I need to. :)

I'll talk to you soon!
~Cally

Volleyball

Volleyball is the word now a days... Speaking of, in about 20 minutes I'm leaving to go to Vinton, Iowa (of course), for the first game of the season! Well, it's actually a tournament, but that's just as good. I really get along well with the girls on the team (at Walnut Ridge) there are 11 of us in all. :) It's lots harder than it looks to play a "simple" game of volley ball, all of the positions and everything that need to be remembered! I'm still working on the rotations and positions. I'm a front-row right side hitter. Oh and I'm one of the starters for today's game, we'll see how it goes...

~Cally

Iowa State Fair and Clear Lake

Hello! My family went to the Iowa State Fair two weeks ago. Anna kept her tradition up without even realizing it! (See previos post)

We found Anna a new dress, I think it's a little small and she got an ice cream cone! A cute picture though for sure!

We saw a ice carving show and after the show was done the artist said if you wanted your name carved into a scrap of ice then grab a scrap off of the floor and take it up to him. So, that just what Anna and I did. We took a ton of pictures of them, but this one have both of our names in one picture.

After we were done at the fair we went to see Bridget and had supper with her at a park. It was a great day. :)

This was just last Friday, Liza Lichty invited me to go to her Grandparents cabin in Clear Lake IA, because her parents were going to Florida to see Liza's sister Livia. It was a very relaxing lazy weekend. We walked, ran, went to the beach, made bracelets, and went swimming!
So that's what I've been doing the past 3 weeks, besides school, and Volley ball. Which are both going pretty well. I need to work on my over-hand serving - allot. But I'll get it eventually.

Buh-bye!

Bed Heads are the Best!

Hello All!

I just got back yesterday from the last week of camp for this summer, sad bananas! But this week was a blast! (As you can clearly see) :) Here are the 1st and 2nd place winners of the bed head competition: 1st went to Katherine and 2nd went to Deanna! I had the privilege of being the hair dresser for Deanna the 2nd place winner. I t was such a kick! I think the competition was Wednesday morning, if i remember right. This was one favorite part of Family camp 4 for me.

More later! ~Cally

Riding at Beck's...

Yesterday I went to the Beck's house for lunch, swimming, having a great time with Hannah, ridding horses, and climbing trees. The high light was the horse backriding though! That's me and Blue boy.

Hannah giving instruction on how to turn, walk, trot, ect.

Anna and me all cowgirled up!

Blog is a little confuzzling...

Sorry Guys about the mess around the blog. I forgot to put the pictures in before I started typing so I tried to get it right... Bear with me!

Thanks!

#5

Pictures for Summer Time

#1

#2

#3

#4

Summer Time!

Hello!

Sorry I haven't written in a while but I've been so busy with camp two weeks, Derek's wedding, and playing at the pool! Oh yeah did I mention that I got my hair cut for locks of love?

We'll start out with Jr. Girls camp. Working at IRBC is: fun, hard work, fellowship with good Christian friends, and a week of growing in Christ, building character. I appreciate the workers so much more now that I know what they have to do even to prep. for just one meal (not to mention the clean-up)! There were around 30 girls that prayed to accept Jesus into their hearts! So exciting! I don't have any pictures of this week because I had so little time...

Jr. High camp. I went to Jr. High camp with the group from Walnut Ridge; on Monday the 14th at 8 a.m. and arivied back on the 19th at 10:30ish a.m. (Photo #1)

Liza and Krista were in this cabin and I had a blast especially on Thursday afternoon, because it started to rain and they set up a slip-n-slide covered in soap bubbles! Krista, Aliza and I went into the barn and wrote our names on the wall and then on the ceiling. I have a picture of these. We also found Daysha's (Aliza's older sister) name on the wall too! That was pretty sweet! (Photo #2 & 3)

On Friday I was going to spot for the Jumbo Dog ride for Krista and there was going to be another girl going too but she couldn't make it, and Katie Kline (one of the Faith Baptist Bible College contenders) was the driver of the bout so she said that if I wanted to jump back there I could ride with them. It was 40 minutes before chapel started and I didn't have my swimming suit on but it sounded like fun so I said yes and hopped on, clothes and all! (Photo # 4)

Derek and Jammie's wedding on July 19th, 2008. The ceremony was so worship inspired, the wedding march was replaced by a Christian contemporary song-so kool! The reception was beautiful and the food was amazing!

Ahh, finally I get to today! At 12 noon today Elizabeth Deeds, Danae Wheeler, Miranda Wheeler, and myself at Jiva salon Down Town Cedar Falls. Locks of Love is an organisation that makes wigs for little kids that went thrugh cancer and had to have cemo theripy and lost thier hair and locks of love makes wigs so that the kids can have hair too. I got 10 inches cut off and it's really short, but I'm getting used to it now, I like my hair cut. I think the other girls do too! (Photo # 5)




I can't wait to see ya'll again! Talk to you soon!

Back From Camp!

Hi everybody!

On Saturday I got back from applying for a job at camp IRBC. I got a job, well, it's one week- for a first timer that's pretty good! I'll be a 'Dining Hall Girl' I will bring food out to the campers every meal, and clean up after them including sweeping the floors, wiping the chairs and tables. I get to work Jr. Girls camp (That's the week that I REALLY wanted) that's the one that my little Sissy Anna camps at so I can keep an eye on her. Plus I get to see allot of my younger friends! ;) So I'm very excited!

Last week was pretty hard because you'd get up at 6:15 or so and clean up then 7 was devos, 7:30 breakfast, then around 8:00 you start working (serving), 12:00 lunch, back to work, you are supposed to get a hour before supper but usually you'd get 20 min., supper was at 5 and then back to work until around 7, 7:30 was chapel, 10ish was cabin devos, 10:30 lights out. That was my normal day last week... Work included: sodding grass, washing/waxing/vacuuming/detailing cars, pulling weeds, 'hugging' toilets, cleaning bathrooms, cleaning one of the parks, picking up sticks, getting the rocks out of the ground and where they're supposed to be... etc.

Jr. Girls starts next week as some of you know. June 23-28. Thanks for praying for me!

June Girls

Yay! Amanda made this movie of our fun time here. It's been kind of difficult to get it up and running on the computer. But we finally got it! Enjoy!

More fun in Minnesota!

On Friday morning Amanda took Anna and I to the Como Zoo. It was SOooOO fun! We saw giraffes, zebras, flamingos, monkeys, gorillas, seals, and my favorite was the orangutans because one of them had a baby hanging on to it's mama! There were more animals than I expected at a free zoo.  I like the Como Zoo, it's great.  

After the zoo we went and checked out Minnehaha Park, and found a rental place with all different types of bikes, we decided to get one for an hour and tool around the grounds.  Look out Anna's driving!! ;)

Amanda, Anna, and I stopped a few times around the park and took pictures with our sweet rig. We even have matching helmets to coordinate with our bike (they are in the basket)!

My first real canvas painting was finished on Friday night. I love painting I discovered it was very fun planing and all. The colors used on this painting are the colors that I'm going to be using when I get my own room. :)