Favorite things to do at sleep-overs

Favorite things to do at sleep-overs:
I love sleep-overs because it gives you fun memories with your friends, and tons of time to hang out, talk, and get to know the person better.
Here are some of my favorite things to do at sleep-overs:
-Go shopping! (although it can be hard to get out sometimes!)
-I love playing sardines in the dark. It's sort-of scary, but also loads of fun, (especilly if you're in a giggly mood!)
-One of my favorite things to do, also, is roast mini marshmallows over a candle, and put them in between chex cereal with a chocolate chip! Walla! Mini smores!  Yummmmmm!
-I also enjoy baking, whether it's supper, or a fun desert, it always makes it more fun to do it with friends!
-Another fun  thing to do is pop some popcorn and watch a movie!
-Just hanging out is fun too!
-Play a fun game (ever played the game quelf? It can be hilarious! How about dutch blitz, or spot it? fishbowl, psychiatrist, and signs are also fun games=)
-paint nails
-Do hair!!!! (so much fun!)
-Star gaze...
-Make hot coco, (it the winter)  sit by the fire, and tell jokes/funney stories!
-Giggle, laugh and talk!

Christmas tree memories

  Hi there everyone! Here are some of my favorite Christmas tree memories:

One year, we picked out a really CROOKED Christmas tree. When we got it home, it wouldn’t stay upright. My dad rigged up a thing where he attached the top of the Christmas tree to a string, and then the string to the wall. =)

We used to put up candy canes on our tree…but the tradition sort-of stopped for a while.  It turned out my little sugar loving  brother (about four then) had been taking them off, licking them, then sticking them back on.

Another time we got a pretty nice tree…until mom decided the bottom of it was “uneven.” It was kind-of a vicious cycle. She would cut off one branch and say “hmm…now this one is uneven.” Then cut off another and say, “now this one is uneven.” When I came out of my room and walked past, about a third of the tree was gone (I’m not exaggerating! Ask my dad!) It looked absolutely awful. We had a pretty ugly tree that year!=)

Another time, the star for the top of tree broke. Mom went out and bought this angelic sort-of girly angel.  My dad came home and was not very happy. He doesn’t like angels on top of the Christmas tree, I guess because apparently he had this “awful, hideous angel growing up.” (I just leaned this!) Mom said it looked kind of like a “goofy sort-of joker in a kings court with wings.”  Anyway, after that, we haven’t bought another angel. Besides they aren’t very realistic. They don’t say “Don’t be afraid” for no reason!

One year after Christmas, mom decided the best way to get rid of the Christmas tree was to “throw it over the deck, over the hill and into the woods/ brush beside our house. Except…it didn’t go that far. It stopped in our yard…then sat there for about a month until my dad told my brother to drag it over to the brush pile.

Introvert Survivel: How I Survive in an Insanely Extroverted Family.

Being the only introvert in an all extroverted family, it can be hard sometimes to find space, or quiet, especially when my younger brother and dad have Nerf gun wars, your older sister is playing piano, or when your mom is singing in the kitchen. It’s also especially hard to focus on school work when all these things are happening simultaneously. The good thing about it is I have learned to block everyone out so I can focus, which is especially
helpful in classroom study settings, where people are talking. The bad part about that is, I sometimes don't here my mom calling...okay, let me rephrase that. I usually don't here her calling, or my little brother trying to get my attention, even though he is yelling in my ear ...whoops.  But despite all that,  I usually find time to myself, walking alone on our trails, listening to the radio up in my room, or reading. It also really hard sharing a room with someone who is the exact opposite of you. For example: I'm introverted, she's extroverted. My side of the room is fairly (you might say a bit messy) organized (basically, I know where most stuff is) and Hannah likes her's spotless, where as I don't really care. I love games, she doesn't. She loves to cook (especially experimenting) I don't LOVE baking...I like it. Okay...so you get the point. We were driving each other crazy for a while, when mom came up with the idea that we should split the room in half and each one get's one side. That worked out a lot better. Thankfully, I have a somewhat understanding family, who knows when I need space, and will leave me alone when I need my "alone time." But despite all our differences, I love my loud, crazy, playful  family, and wouldn't trade them for anything.

16 different reasons why I love winter!!!!!!

Here are 16 different reasons why I love winter...

No allergys!

Snow! You can go sledding!  I love it when it snows, then melts just a little bit, and then freezes over...unfortunately, we have a bunch of thorny locusts trees at the bottom of our hill…so we have to fall off before we reach the bottom!   

Homemade hot chocolate, with a bunch of stale marshmallows left over from last year! (Okay, not really left over from then…but I do love stale marshmallows!) - you can’t have that in the summer!

Sitting by the fire on a cold evening, and playing games as a family.

Getting snowed in. (as long as you don’t have any fun activity’s that you have to cancel.)

Christmas Break!!!!!!

Ice skating

Putting up the Christmas tree…it seems like the lights always break though….=) Decorating, and seeing how many different ways you can set up the manger scene.

Playing sibling tournaments of volleyball two square in the garage.

Going Tuba caroling (my dad plays the tuba) and watching people’s surprised faces when they come to the door!

Watching “A Christmas Carol,” and “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

You can wear scarves!

Being in the angel choir in Bethlehem revisited, and (remember that time we ran into a barbed wire fence on the way to the bathroom?)=)=)

Getting assigned Christmas songs for piano!!!

Baking Caramels, Buckeyes, and Toffee for Christmas!

Most importantly, remembering what Jesus did for us on Christmas.

It was extremely gorgeous outside yesterday! Wow! 72 degree's! I was excited when I found out we (my sister Hannah and our friend) were going on a walk to the cove. The cove is a place about a mile from where we live, that we can walk to very easily. I was also thrilled that the weather permitted me to wear shorts, and flip-flops in NOVEMBER! Anyway, once we reached the cove, we walked along the very dry, very cracked ground (it hasn't rained in a while.) until we reached the water's edge. Hannah pointed to a fallen tree, and explained that she had come here a few days ago with another one of her friends, and had gone out to the log (To climb onto it) and had gotten muddy. The log was only a few feet out , and it didn't look very muddy to me...so I decided to go out to it and climb onto it. Besides, it looked like fun, and I had flip-flops on, not close-toe shoes. So I took off my flip-flops, and cautiously climbed into the mud and onto the log.
“See!" I yelled back. "It's not THAT muddy!" I only had mud up to my ankles. I stepped down back into the "not very deep mud." Only...my feet didn't stop sinking in at my ankles I kept sinking until it was half way up to my knees. I gasped, and then tried franticly to stumble back to shore. I succeeded, but not without getting really muddy.
Hannah smiled.
“You know Natalie,” she said “It would have been more exciting if you had fallen in.”

Hi there!
 I decided to write about what I learned in photography class this week. (I'll see if I can get it right!)
This week I learned about aperture (depth of field) and shutter speed (how fast the camara takes the picture).

We started out experimenting with the different shutter speeds. We found it worked out better to use a faster shutter speed when we were holding the camera in the daytime,( because we couldn't hold the camara completely still) and to use the slower shuttter speed at night, when taking pictures of fireworks, flashlights etc.(basically things with light.) It looked really cool with a slower shutter speed because it blurred the lights together,  Also, we needed to use as a tripod when taking pictures at night. We did one experiment with the camera where one person waved a flashlight that turned on at the camara. The second person turned their shutter speed to 10 seconds and took a picture. The flashlight in the picture looked like blurred, curling streams of light. It was really cool. After that we tried writing different word with light... though it didn't work very well=)

Next, we played around with the aperture. When you have a smaller aperture, the depth of field is shorter, and when you have a larger one you get a wider depth of field. So this meant when my depth of field was shorter, the object I was taking the picture of was focused, but my background was blurred. Also, when it was larger, everything in the photo was focused. It was really fun to experiment--especially with friends!