My birthday.

Yesterday, Dec the 5th, was my birthday. Because I am going to Israel for my birthday, we didn't really do much but it was still a fun and lovely day. A little family tradition is that dad always takes the birthday child out to breakfast on his/her birthday so we went out to Deny's for breakfast. Before that though, I opened my presents. I got a basketball from Matthew, a little horse ornament from Rachel, some lip gloss from Joel (Mum actually brought it of course), and the airplane tickets to Israel and 100 shekels, which is Israeli money. I also got 50 dollars from my Aunt. Anyway, Dad and I had a wonderful time at Deny's, and ate way too much. Then Mum and I went to the mall, and I brought some slippers because it is freezing! We also went to a horse tack shop to buy me some riding gloves. Then we came back and went to Rock Creek, where I had a riding lesson. We had shifted the lesson to Wednesday so that Dad could come and watch since my lesson which is usually on Tuesday and he works that day. We came back home and watched National Treasure and had my favorite dinner and dessert. During that time, a friend from church, came over and gave me a MP3 player, which I was very happy with, because now the 12 and a half hour flight to Israel won't be quite so boring. So my birthday was a very enjoyable day. I am having a few friends over on Friday to sleepover and watch a movie with me as well. Here is a video that Mum took of me riding on my favorite horse Kramer.

Christmas Message.

Watch this Christmas message from our family to yours.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1161453335

Today

Okay, so we had an interesting day today. We went to church in the morning, got home at about 1:15, then had lunch. Rock Creek Stables, where I volunteer at, was having a dinner at one of the ladies homes. This lady and her husband is the owner of the stables, so she lives way out, out on a horse farm. So any way, we were going to go so we got ready and then Yahoo'd directions. We found out it takes about half an hour to get there. Anyway, being New Zealanders and not really knowing our way around, we misread the directions and went completely the wrong way. So we had to come right back, and by now we were late, had to get petrol, which was a problem, because dad wasn't with us and mum hasn't really done it before. Then we finally got onto the highway, the right one this time. It took us ages to get there, and then when we got there, well, we couldn't see anyone. So we double checked the date, and realized that the dinner was next Sunday, not this Sunday. So we had to go all the way back home. So here we are now, eating lots of salad, because mum had made two huge salads for the dinner which didn't exist. So, we have had an interesting day.

I'm going to Israel!!!!!!!!

As some of you probably already know, Dad is going to Israel at the end of December. And, what I didn't know was that I am going with him! I had my pacemaker check on Wednesday and because dad needed a medical report, all the doctors knew. Mum had called the day before, and said to not say anything, but I had two new doctors and so they did and I found out. I am really excited! Dad gets credits from the trip so its like a class. Dr Fuller it leading it. There are about twenty two other people from seminary going. We leave on the 31st of December and stay there for three weeks. I am really looking forward to it.

Golden Corral.

On the way back home from Red River Gorge we ate at Golden Corral. We all really enjoyed it and ate way to much. Here is a video of us at Golden Corral.

Red River Gorge

Last Monday we drove two hours to Red River Gorge. We stayed there all day and then drove back at night. It was a beautiful day and since it is autumn it was really beautiful.



This is us hiking up to the bridge. Because we don't have snakes is New Zealand we were all a bit worried about snakes, but thankfully we didn't see any. Afterwards we read this sign about snakes and then realized that they also have bears!

This is us sitting on the natural bridge. It was a three-quarter of a mile hike to get there.

This is me at another lookout. The natural bridge is in the distance.

Matthew.

Matthew is going through a phase, and the phase is that he likes to dress up. So we found him a suit jacket and a tie. Now, all throughout the week he goes on and on about how he is going to wear his suit to church. He even hopes that it will be cold enough so that he can wear it.

Horse Riding.

I have started volunteering at this horse stable down the road. We get the horses ready for the lessons, like tacking them up and cooling them down afterwards. We are there from about three to around eight. I am really enjoying it. They are also giving me free lessons in return. Here is a photo from my lesson.

This is a video of me riding Africa

Family Photo.

This is a photo outside a building at the seminary.

Pink Guitar

Rachel is learning the guitar at the moment, and last night she was teaching dad a song. I thought it would make a good picture since it was quite a little guitar and pink, so here it is.

House Sitting

We house sat a really big house for about ten days. It was a great house, it had a pool table and a huge t.v. They also had two dogs that we looked after, and of course Matthew was really scared of them at first but got better after a while. This is a photo of him finally patting one of the dogs after a lot of coaxing. We were going to stay to Friday but the air conditioning broke and so we moved out on Thursday. We still had a lot of fun though.

You will all love this. I just love it how the herd came back to get their baby back.

Matthew.

Unfortunately Matthew has had Strep throat. Here are a few photos I took of him.

World Fair.

On Saturday I went with some other girls from our church to a World Fair. It had stalls of crafts and objects from different areas of the world, like Thailand, the Middle East and India. Also it had lots of food from around the world. There was also Spanish dancing and singing and lots of other music. We met some other people from Immanuel (our church) there as well. It was a very fun and interesting night and it was great to hang out with friends from Immanuel.


This is looking out over the Ohio River. The big boat on the right is the Belle of Louisville, a big steam boat.

The music for the night was Reggae.

Look closely and see how long both guys

dreadlocks are.

These are some of the people from our church that we met there.

Point of Grace Concert

Last night we went to a free Point of Grace concert. I have one of their albums already and really like them, and this concert was for the release of their new album. It was held at a church near us we one one of the group fellowships there. I took a friend and we met two other friends there. They had got their early and had seats in the front row so we joined them. It was a great night, as we all really like Point of Grace. They sung some new songs from their new album and some older, more well known songs. We brought their new CD and lined up to get it signed by them all. At the bottom of this blog is a video bar with some of their songs. Michael Passons from Avalon is now their piano player and he sung a song as well. That song is on the video bar.

Kentucky State Fair.

These were all
the tigers
in the show.




This is a
tiger walking
across a rope.

On Friday we went to the Kentucky State Fair. It was a neat experience since the fairs in New Zealand are heaps smaller than this one. They had the World Championship Horse Show that we watched for a while and lots of other small booths. We were there from about 9:00 to 4:00 and we didn't get to see even half of everything that was there. They had alligator wrestling and trick dogs doing amazing tricks. They also had a tiger show that we watched and all loved. We would have stayed longer, but the temperature was over 100, about 43 Celsius. So it was really hot and we had to leave after a while. But it was a great day and we all enjoyed it.

Kentucky Kingdom, a really big amusement park was open for all the people at the fair. I had been before with a friend but the family hadn't gone before. We walked around it and went on some rides. There was nobody else there either which was really cool. I managed to persuade Dad to go on a roller coaster with me. I had been on it before and enjoyed it but Dad really didn't like it.

Mississippi Trip.

We are on a newly built pier that goes out into the Gulf.

If you can remember on the news, this is the Superbowl that all the people lived in for a while. We all went into New Orleans and had dinner there. It was a great time but was quite sad to see all the devastation that is still there.

This is the team from Immanuel Baptist Church that we went with to Mississippi.

While Rachel and I were asleep in the van a friend took this.

As some of you probably know, Rachel and I went to Mississippi in May. We went with a group from our church and went to help another church. It was a great time and a great experience. It was also a great time to get to know the people that went with us and we also met some people there that we made quite good friends with.

Baby Sitting.

Here are the two boys we babysat. David, is the little one on the left, and Daniel is the bigger one on the right.

Today Rachel and I babysat two boys, a 1 year old and a 3 year old. It was fun and I think we both enjoyed it. After, there was a cookout (BBQ).

Working with Horses.

As many of you probably already know, I love horses. I rode a bit in New Zealand and had a few lessons. So coming here I have wanted to find someplace that I could maybe volunteer and I would get a few lessons. Dad and I went to a stable this afternoon, and asked if I could volunteer and have lessons. They said it would probably work out and so I am going soon to have a lesson and volunteer for a while. I am very thankful that God worked it out, I have been praying for a while that it would work out, and it has now. So I am very excited about it, as I love horses a lot. It is a very good riding school, the grounds are really big and tidy, and the people are quite nice.