My brother Wesley is 5. He has a knack for saying funny things. Here are a few of his quotes.

"Daddy, we should put up our Christmas decorations, so that when people come for small group they will say, "Look! Baby Jesus was born in the manger in their yard!"

Wesley: (to mommy) "How did you ever get your name?"
Mommy: "Grandma and Papa named me."
Wesley: "Oh. I thought buttercup named you."
Mommy: "Is buttercup your nickname for grandma?"
Wesley: "Yeah. Buttercup, Buttercup, baker's man." 

Me: "Wesley, it's time to get up!"
Wesley: "Not a chance, Katie - not a chance!"

"Pigeons aren't mammals - they're reptiles!"

Hello, everyone!

​Hanna tagged me in the Infinity Dream Tag on her blog. It looks fun! Here are the rules:

• Thank the blogger that tagged you.
• Share eleven random facts about yourself. 
• Answer the eleven random questions given to you.
• Tag eleven other bloggers

All right! Thanks for tagging me, Hanna! 

Random facts coming right up...

1. I love to read.
2. I love doing spelling bees. I don't know why, but I do. :-)
3. I used to have a pet snake. 
4. I was an only child for nine years, until my brother came along. I still wonder how I survived nine years without him for entertainment!
5. I love roller coasters.
6. I do not like to swim in deep, cloudy water. (That may seem kinda random, but take a look at rule number two. It does​ say random) ;-)
7. I love birds. 
8. And klipspringers. (I had to make you google something!)
9. I have a manual typewriter, and I used to type fake newspapers for my mom and dad on it.
10. My cousins and I invented a sport called broom ball. It's sort of a mix between soccer, hockey, and basketball.
11. I really like to play ping pong. I'm not very good, but I like playing.

Now to answer the questions.

What is your dream job?
Umm... I don't know. I like writing, so maybe an author or blogger. 

What is your favorite food?
I love fruit, and my dad's pork chops. They are amazing.

What is your favorite season?
Spring for flowers and breeze
Winter for sledding and blankets
Summer for swimming
Fall for the weather
And... that's all four. I think I failed at answering that question!

What is your favorite genre of book to read?
Fiction and classics. Can I say classics? Is that a genre? I'm thinking stuff like Anne of Green Gables, and Narnia.

Do you prefer to be inside or outside?
​I have no clue. I depends on the weather, and what I'm doing.

Does it bother you more to be hot or cold?
Hot.

What was the last book to make you cry? (If you've cried over a book)
I don't remember. I usually cry more easily over movies than books.

What was the last movie?
Try not to laugh too hard at me, but it was Zootopia. Anyway, I hardly had enough time to start crying before comic relief stepped in. :-)

Who is your favorite author?
C.S. Lewis

If you could publish a book, would it be fiction or nonfiction? 
Probably fiction. 

What's your favorite song?
Come Alive and O'Lord from Lauren Daigle.


Well, that was fun!
For this next part, I'm supposed to tag eleven other bloggers. I'm not sure I know that many bloggers, so I'll just open this up to any bloggers who would like to participate. If you do it, please put a link to it in the comments!

For anyone who chooses to do it, here are my questions for you:

1. If you could have any pet, what would it be?
2. Would you rather live in the mountains or on the beach?
3. Road trip or airplane?
4. Would you rather go scuba diving or bungee jumping?
5. What are your top 5 favorite movies?
6. Do you have a nickname? If so, what is it?
7. What are your five favorite book characters?
8. Would you rather live for a week in an igloo or a hut in the jungle? 
9. What are some of your favorite hobbies?
10. If you had to choose between salty, crunchy candy or sweet gummy candy, which would you choose?
11. If you could travel to any country, where would you go? 

Thanks for reading! I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

This post has been a long time coming, so here it is!

Starting at the end of May, our family went on vacation for almost three weeks. For their 50th anniversary, my grandparents decided to take all of their children and grandchildren on an Alaskan cruise. My family drove to Seattle, along with my uncle, aunt, and four cousins. We had so much fun! On the way out, we drove through Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. 

We spent a day in Seattle, and then met up with the rest of the family on the cruise boat, the MS Westerdam. 
The boat's destinations were Juneau, Glacier Bay, Sitka, Ketchikan, and Victoria, British Columbia.
The cruise was a week long, and on one of the nights, we reserved a room, and celebrated Grandma and Papa's anniversary. When we docked in Seattle again, we got off, and started driving again. On the way back, we took a different route through Utah. This route took us through some mountains, so we stopped and had a snowball fight!

I really enjoyed the trip, and I am very grateful for the godly example Grandma and Papa have set before us. Fifty years of marriage just aren't that common any more. 

For our Sunday School class, I had to write a paragraph on what the gospel is. I found that doing so required more thought than I had expected. You see, we say the word 'gospel' a lot. If we were asked what it meant, I'm pretty sure most of us would give a one sentence summary, such as, "The gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ." I'm not saying this is a wrong way to think of the gospel. However, I would encourage us to try to expand on it a little more. What do you think of when someone talks about the gospel? Here's the paragraph that I ended up writing for the class:

God has always been, and will always exist. He created man to be with Him and to glorify Him. In rebellion Man sinned, choosing to live in darkness and separation from God. Because God is holy, sin cannot be in His presence. Because all men sin, they cannot be with God. The only way for humans to be allowed in God’s presence was for a perfect man to be sacrificed. God came to earth in the flesh, through his son Jesus Christ. Christ lived a sinless life, then was crucified by evil men. Being guiltless and fully God, death could not hold Him. On the third day after His crucifixion, He rose again, conquering death. After forty more days, Christ ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God. He was the perfect sacrifice. If we believe that His sacrifice has saved us from death, we will have eternal life with Him in God’s presence.

​What are your thoughts? Do you have any feedback? I'd love to know, so please comment!

Just thought I'd post a few things that have been going on this past week. We have a bunch of cousins staying at our house and my grandma's house for a while. We invented a game called "broom ball", which we like to play when it is warm outside. Broom ball is a mixture of hockey, and soccer, with a few rules from basketball thrown in for good measure!

Friday was April Fool's day, and I did not let the opportunity slip by! Jesse, Seth and I planned lots of pranks, and managed to pull off most of them. For starters, we switched around the cereal bags, taped a light switch shut, and made ping pong balls pour out of the kitchen cupboard! That's not all, but I think I'll stop with that. What did you do for April Fool's Day? Did anyone "get" you?

On Saturday we worked outside for most of the day. After weeding the flower beds, we went out to the shed. My dad had just gotten some old wood from a friend, and I helped take the nails out of the boards. While I'm on the subject of woodworking, I might as well post some pictures of the patio table my dad made. I think you will agree with me when I say he is very good at woodworking. However, I will just let the pictures speak for themselves. :-)

I’ve been thinking about the word empty. In my mind at least, it sort of has a negative connotation. I don’t like to have nothing left. It makes me feel helpless and less valued. I tend to believe that God can’t love me when I am empty, with nothing to offer. When I realize I've messed up, I can sort of be surprised because God is still loving me. God’s love is sometimes hard to accept - I want to be loved because I am something special. When I come face-to-face with the fact that God’s love is not dependent on my works, it can sting a little. God doesn’t love me because of who I am - he loves me because He is perfect! 

“Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds."
Psalm 36:5

Hello, internet world! Just thought I’d give a brief update on what we’ve been doing lately. Yesterday I worked on fixing the dollhouse I found at Goodwill. It was only ten dollars. That might sound like an amazing bargain - unless you saw what it looked like pre-renovation. 😃 It was painted a very ugly shade of greeny-yellowyness, with purple accents. To top it all off, there was a wooden goose pasted by the front door! In one corner, the floor was starting to fall in. Yesterday I glued the floor back in place, which was the last thing that needed to be done. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty pleased with the result! 

This morning, Wesley and I made some doll food out of clay. He also made a campfire for them, so that they could go camping. He’s my favorite brother. 😃 (And my only brother, for those of you who out there who are worried that I’m showing favoritism.) Wesley and I like playing with the house, even though he prefers making his lego mini figures attack it. He's also partial to dropping the baby down the roof. 😃

We just got back on Sunday night from a ten day trip to Florida. We went to Disney World, the beach, Legoland, and SeaWorld. It was so much fun! 
Our first day there, we drove to Magic Kingdom. It was raining a little. Here's our first picture in Magic Kingdom:

Evidently rain ponchos aren't Wesley's idea of fun. :-) He didn't have to wear it for very long, since the rain cleared up pretty quickly. We got to cross the lagoon on the monorail. After that, we went on some rides. We tried to take a picture in front of the castle, but it didn't turn out very well.

That night we headed to Epcot, another one of the Disney parks. The centerpiece of Epcot is "the ball". This attraction towers over the rest of the park, and is eighteen stories tall! Just before this picture was taken, Wesley yelled, "Silly face," and here's what happened:

Here are some pictures I took at sunset.

One of my favorite parts about Disney is the world showcase in Epcot. As you walk around the lagoon, there are clusters of buildings and attractions, and each cluster is made to look like it is from a certain country. There are different restaurants in each country, and that evening we ate at the German restaurant. They had a live polka band that played while we ate. 

The next day, we met Donald Duck. We met up with some new friends, the Pleasants, who happened to be at Disney. (You can read Mrs. Pleasants' blog post on helpful Disney tips here.) At lunch, Mommy fed a squirrel who was very intent on getting into our stroller! In the afternoon, we went to Animal Kingdom, and went on the "Kilimanjaro Safari", which Wesley loved. 

We went to the beach with some good friends of ours who happened to be in Florida around the same time. I waded and looked for seashells, and Wesley chased seagulls.

Wesley was not very concerned that I was being eaten by a T-rex!

Me driving a car? Yes, you have reason to be scared. 

Wesley's favorite ride was "It's a Small World." Lucky us. 

It was a wonderful trip, and we had so much fun being together as a family!