Hi everyone!

Last Sunday, July 20th 2008 - Anna and I got baptized!  We got baptized by our probaly (we really like the church) new pastor and new church!  First we had Sunday School at the church, then we went to a church member's house, had the service, then the six of us kids getting baptized (it was really neat, all of us kids were homeschoolers!) read/recited our testimonies and answered the question "Why do you want to be baptized".  Here's mine.

 I grew up in a Christian home and always believed in Jesus. But at an AWANA meeting on December 8^th, 1999 I heard a lesson to be ready when Jesus comes. When I got home I told mom I wanted to ask Jesus into my heart. We went through "God’s Only Way to Heaven" and prayed ~ and I became a Christian at 5 ½ years old. I am now growing in Christ and learning about Him each.

 Amber Swanson

Why do you want to be baptized?   To show that I'm a Christian and to obey God.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Romans 6:23

But God demostrates his onw love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8

Here I am saying my testimonie.

And then we went down into the water and got baptized!  Here's a short video of it.

 

And here are some extra questions we had to answer before Sunday.

Who is God?

He is my Savior, Creator, and Friend - always with me.  He lovingly created me and planned my life.  Then He loved us so much that He took the punishment for our sins and died on the cross.  He is our Heavenly Father.

Why do you need to be saved?

"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).  All have sinned and that deserves death, but God went on the cross and took the punishment for us.  So if we accept Jesus as our Savior, then we can live with Him forever in Heaven.  But else we will be in hell with eternal death and suffering.

How do you become a Christian?

If you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior - saying that He died for you and He will be Lord of your life.  And ask Him to forgive you of all your sins then you will be part of Christ's family and live eternally with Him!

Well, that's it.  It was a wonderful day!!!  How many of you been baptized?

God Bless,

        Amber

Hi Everyone,

  How are you all doing!  I'm enjoying summer but it seems to be going by WAY to quickly! 

  I finally got a new advetare (how every you spell it)!  Last time I played with Annie (before I got that cold) I got on her back!  Now if you don't know, this year I'm really working on doing alot of riding, she is 7 - it's time to do alot of it!!  So that night I wasn't really planning to get on her back or anything, but she was standing so nicely next to the fence I couldn't resist!  If you can tell I wasn't at all prepared for this, I don't have any good riding tack on and I have a skirt on so I road sidesaddle!  But she did really well and I got up there 4 times!  Anna also got on Kitty (her horse), go Anna!!!   So that's my new advetare picture for now.

I got a new bike!  My old one I got on my 10th birthday, so it was getting alittle small!  I really like this one, it looks like a older kind but has all the good stuff that a regular mountain bike has (I need that because we don't any paved area close enough, except for the sidewalk and I can't fit on that!). 


Anna and I were in the parade for theatre!  It was lots of fun, we sang along with the songs, handed out flyers, and talked about the show!  I had never been in a parade before.

Well, everyone have a great week!  Right now I'm having fun with Webkinz, do you have WK?

God Bless,

   Amber  

Hello,

How are you all?  I'm good (but I have a cold!).  I think my body is saying that I have been to busy! 

How was everyone's 4th Of July?  Mine was good!  Our Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner and then we went in to town to watch fireworks.  Then on Saturday we met with Grands again and also with our Aunt, Uncle, and little cousin at a park.  We had KFC for dinner, yum!!

Two other things that we did on Saturday was I got a new bike!!  My old bike was getting WAY to small for me - I've had it for 4 years!  I got it on my 10th birthday.  My new one is gold and white.  It looks more like an older bike, but it still has all the modern moutian bike things on it - it is really cute!  I hope to show pictures of it soon!  And we also went strawberrie picking and mom's preserving them for the first time!!  She also froze alot of them - it's WAY cheaper than buying them at the store!!!


Everyone have a great week!

~ Amber ~

Hi everybody!!!! 

I want to post one thing that happend this week....

Last Monday I think it was, we were getting ready to play with our horses and we heard a loud noise and squawking in the barn.  We run inside and find that two of the three chicks (that were hatched out by Milkshake, not Brownie) were hurt.  We blamed it on our roosters and start to figure out how to make there cage safer, but just then Milkshake starts attaching her chicks!!!!!!  So we quickly get them out of there and bring little chickies indoors, and set up a empty grain bin for them to stay in .  But one was pretty hurt and we weren't sure if she would make it through the night!  But the next morning all three of them were healthy and happy, I was soooo happy!  They have now come to know us very well, they squawk when we leave them and still aren't just happy when are there, we actually have to hold them!!  So far I have made one comment with three chicks on my lap!!  Both Milkshake and Chippy (the rooster that has attached me before) are going to be banished from the farm!  But Brownie - who only has one chick - is a very good mother and is nice to us.  Ideas for chick names so far are Tweety, Ole, Lena, and Snuggles (she's the sweetest chick).  After Chippy and Milkshake leave, we will just have 4 chicks, one hen, and one rooster.

Anna and I are getting baptized on July 20th!!!  I'm very excited!!!  We are doing it in a lake by the pastor of the church we have been going to and have been liking alot.  Afterwards will be a picinic.  We have read through the book "God..... Should I Be Baptized" by Laurie Donahue.  It will be a wonderful day!!  Have any of you been baptized?

We've been having lots of fun at theatre.  Our days have been full of singing, dancing, acting, pretending I don't know my 5 times table, and fainting (for a song).    I can now sell you tickets if you would like to come for a visit!

Got to go, have a great day!!!

God Bless,

         Amber

Hi everyone,

So it's S&T time again, and I'm actually going to do it!

Last week was One - room Schoolhouse.  One - room Schoolhouse is and old school fixed up just how it would be 100 years ago.  You dress up and bring an authentic lunch in a pail or basket and pretty much do a week as what it would be like back in 1904.  The begining of the day starts out with some school.  But it's easy and fun, if it's to hard you can do a younger grades school work (you also get a reader to take home, mine was really old - from 1897!!!!).  Then it's recess, lunch, singing, and crafts.  One day we go into a real, old, cabin to look around.  And the older kids get to make pancakes on the woodburning stove.  And on Friday we have races, a program (with skits, musical instruments, and poems), and a picinic that all the parents are invited to.  It's a really fun time!  It's for kids that just finished 1st - 8th grade (because back then you graduated after 8th grade, wouldn't that be weird!!!).  I'm sad that this is my last year, but next year I can be a teacher's helper and at 18 you can become a teacher.  All in all it's a really fun time, I've been part of it since 3rd grade!

Here we are after our first day of One - room Schoolhouse. 




Here's our class photo.  Anna's sort of in the middle and I'm more in the back.  That's our teacher on the side.


Here's us 7th and 8th graders lining up for a race.


Here we are doing our play.  There was 4 plays and I was the leader of the one.  The leader sort of directs when and where they should move and stuff like that (it was fun!).  I was the narrator.


And here's my graduation photo.  I really am sad to graduate!



Some other things that have been going on.......


Yesterday was share day for theatre (go here to read about theatre).  Share day is when all of us preform one of the songs for our parents.  It was really fun, I have a very small speaking part in the middle of it!  But I'm very glad I have something!

You know we got one chick that was hatched out here - we usually buy them a day old.  Well, last week 3 more hatched from a different hen (then she stopped laying on the other two she had).  We didn't get to see them hatch, but it's exciting anyways!   


Tonight we are going to Chuck E. Cheeses to celebrate being all done with school.  I've been done for awhile, but Anna still had some to go and she didn't do any school during One - room Schoolhouse.



Thanks for reading!  If you would like to join us on "Show & Tell Friday", we would love to have you.  Just post a photo(s) and tell about anything you wish.  The only rules are to keep it wholesome; leave a link to Mary (who started Show & Tell Friday); and then let Mary know you did one and sign Mr. Linky so others might see your S&T and comment.

God Bless,

        Amber

Hi everyone,

Well, I haven't posted since a LONG time (the one below dosen't really count)!  I'm sorry, but I'll try not to do it again.  But like I warned you before, now that it is summer (my favorite season) and with how busy we are - I won't be on quite as much.  But anyways....

So last week was One - room Schoolhouse and Summer Youth Theatre.  If you don't know what they are, scroll down just a little - I posted about them there.


So I had lots of fun at both of them!  I'm sad to be graduated from One - room Schoolhouse, but I had REALLY fun and next year I can be a teacher's helper.  And Theatre is really fun also.  Auditions was scary and I'm not that great of a singer, but I have a tiny, little line in the middle of one of the songs.  The actions to the songs are really fun too, lots of moving around!  It's hard to sing and dance at the same time though!  Today we are preforming one of the songs for the parents, I hope that goes well - we're still sort of rusty on it!   The only problem is that there is this one song that we had to sing with the highschool theatre, but it has bad wording totally going against God!!!!  But we can still be part of the regular play , we just have to sit in the hallway while they're practicing that song - I'm just alittle upset that they had to choose that song, they didn't need too!  

Well, I hope to post pictures tomorrow for Show & Tell Friday!  Got to go, my time's up!  How many of you have a certain computer time each day?  We get 45min..

God Bless,

        Amber 

Hi everyone,

I know I need to post again, but my computer time is up.  So I'll post tomorrow, I promise!!!

God Bless,

Amber

Hi everyone,

If you look at my tickers it's only one day away from One - room Schoolhouse and Summer Theater!!  I'm soooooooooo excited and I talk about it all the time here at our house!  But it's also going to be very busy, so I probaly won't be on here so much this week.  And also now that it is almost summer, I'll want to spend more time outside and with our horses.  But yes, both theater and school start on the same day!  So we're going going to be at school until after lunch, mom picks us up early, we go to theater, and then we finally get home after 4:00.  And that's going to happen 4 days in a row!!!  If your wondering what all the excitment about these things are, here's alittle about them.....

One - room Schoolhouse is and old school fixed up just how it would be 100 years ago.  You dress up and bring a authentic lunch in a pail or basket and pretty much do a week as what it would be like back then.  The begining of the day starts out with some school.  But it's easy and fun, if it's to hard you can do a younger grades school work (you also get a reader to take home).  Then it's recess, lunch, singing, and crafts.  One day we go into a real, old, cabin to look around.  And the older kids get to make pancakes on the woodburning stove.  And on Friday we have races, a program (with skits, musical instruments, and poems), and a picinic that all the parents are invited to.  It's a really fun time!  It's for kids that just finished 1st - 8th grade (because back then you graduated after 8th grade, wouldn't that be weird!!!).  I'm sad that this is my last year, but next year I can be a teacher's helper and at 18 you can become a teacher.  All in all it's a really fun time!!!

And Summer Theater is a regular play/musical that kids can be in, and people actually pay to see!!!  This is my first time being in this theater (and the first time being in a not church play).  My friends say it's alot of work but alot of fun!  They are doing "Schoolhouse Rock" (don't know what that is?  It's an old kids television show, ask your parents about it!).  I DO NOT want a solo, anything else, just not that!!!!  Auditions is this Wednesday, if you think of it please pray that it will go well and that we won't be to nervous!!! 

Well, that's about it.  So if your wondering why I'm not around, that's why!!!

Hope you have a wonderful week!  Happy Father's Day!!!!  I love you Daddy!!

God Bless,

        Amber 

We are very excited today!!!  One of our little chickens - brownie, was sitting on a egg.  And last night it hatched!!!  This is the first time that actually happened, we usually buy them at a day old.  We're not sure if it is a boy or a girl, it's really hard to tell when they are this young!!!  I hope it dosen't get to lonely, brownie was only sitting on one egg.  One of our other hens is sitting on three eggs, but it should be a couple more weeks before they hatch.

On a little bit more sadder note, about Peanut's eye (our dog).  She still runs to the barn, and even plays some.  But that eye still hurts her.  To read all about it you can go to my mom's blog.

God Bless,

         Amber

Hi everyone,

Two days ago we went to Menards and we bought some stones and a fire pit liner thingy.  Awhile ago mom saw a fire pit in a magazine that looked easy to make yourself, and dad said yes, we can do it.  So dad made it up and we just cooked our first dinner over it tonight.  We had brats and toasted marshmallows/s'mores!!!  It was really yummy!!!  I had alot of dessert!!  But the only problem was that the mesquitoes got really bad in the end.  Now it is raining.



So that's about it right now, the goats got sheared yesterday - so now there alot happier and cooler!!  But it's going to be sad to sell them!!!  Mom still plans to spin the wool we have though.

Only 8 more days until One - room schoolhouse and Summer Theater!!!  I'll tell you more about them later!


God Bless,

        Amber