Hey! What up? Thanks for stopping by my blog! I am 14, and absolutely LOVE photography and God :) I am the second oldest of 6 kiddos. I love hanging out with my friends and family. My family and I always have something we're doing. Whether its FCHM stuff or just homeschooling... we are always busy! Whenever I do get a chance to blog, I hope you enjoy it :) Leave me a comment, so I can check out your blog too! And check out my FCHM banners below! :D God Bless! -Sierra http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:53:00 -0500 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:53:00 -0500         Well we've had a pretty busy summer so far. But its definitely been a blast! My family and I had our "family vacation" 2 weeks ago. We went to CALIFORNIA--THE LAND OF SMOKE! lol. ROFL! Ok.. *pulling self back together* lol. No, seriously, there's alot of smoke there. I guess I should have taken people seriously when they said "theres half a million fires burning in Cali!" (That was a Lazy-Sierra-Number! I forgot how many are burning...:D)           Anywho, we stayed with some friends down there for a week. Which is kinda a funny story in itself, in a somewhat confusing way. We met these people back in April, but not their kids. Just Lewis and Marcia came up here for a  homeschool Marriage conference my parents were doing, and hung out with us and Steve and Jane Lambert (aka Boompa and Sweetie who were also doing the conference :) for a couple days.           So none of the kids had really met... at all! lol. And I won't lie, its probably the weirdest feeling going to someones house to stay there for a week when you don't really even know them! (and you're 9 hours away from your own house!) lol. But, believe it or not, we pretty much became best friends with their 4 kids within like 2 days! And we had a BLAST!           We went bowling, saw Lydias play, dropped by the capitol and stood right outside of ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER'S OFFICE! (Which I didn't think was THAT cool... it was just kinda weird to stand in front of the GOVERNATORS OFFICE!! lol.) we went and saw Get Smart, swam for hours, played Rock Band none stop, and to top it all off, we went to SIX FLAGS!!! We had an awesome time, and I wish we were BACK!! *cries*           But sadly, as usual, all fun has to come to an end at some point. But us 4 teens weren't about to stop there! lol. (I sound like I'm narrating a movie!) Levi (15) and Lydia (14) came back home with us! That doesn't happen very often... its usually a miracle if you can get just ONE parent to say yes... we got 4!! lol. haha.                              So we all crammed in our car for 9 hours back to Washington, and they got on a plane 6 days later and flew back home. We did some fun stuff while they were here. We went to Canon Beach, had 4th of July at some other friends house and watched a million movies (also equivalent to 4...or something like that) But probably the biggest thing we did was climb to the top of MULTNOMAH FALLS! (If you don't know what that is, you should go look it up. Its a beautiful waterfall in Oregon) Anyways, Levi, Lydia, Savannah, me and our friend Josh all did it together :D. It probably was the steepest mile I've ever walked in my life! (That sounds really wimpy... lol.. but it really is steep!)  It sure is reassuring when you get to the top! I'll have to get pictures of that from Lydia later :D             We had an awesome 2 weeks together! Its kinda weird... in a totally awesome way... how God can bring perfect strangers together and watch them become best of friends in a week! So heres some pix of our trip, and I also have other pix on my slide show thingy :D lol. L8er- Sierra  Here we are at SIX FLAGS! (left-right) Skylar, Savannah, Levi, me, Lydia and Abby :o) Lydia (half of her anyway! lol) Savannah, Me and Levi THE JELLY BELLY FACTORY! (I'm not a huge fan of Jelly Belly's.. but it was fun to go see how its done! lol) And here we are in San Fransisco (left-right) Levi, Spencer, Savannah, Anna, Abby, Skylar and I :) Little did we know... we were about to get DRENCHED! lol (Ok.. well maybe we DID know.. but it was just REALLY WET! lol) Ok.. That ride was SOO MUCH FUN!!! Heres Lydia and I at Canon Beach in Oregon.. it was SOOO COLD!!!! AHHHH!!! HAHA!! CANDID!!! lol. Ok.. thats enough pictures! I could go on forever :D lol. God Bless http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/562119/ Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:53:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/562119/         Sup peeps. I have some fun pix to share with you. :o)  And trust me when I say... My life has been CRAZY! It would probably take YEARS to fill you in on my life right now, so I'm just going to do it with pictures :D That seems to be my answer to everything! lol.        My parents were gone for 2 weeks in Missouri and Tennessee. They had (if I remember correctly.. which I usually don't!) four conferences they were doing over there. So us kiddos stayed here with some friends in our motor home on their property... catch any of that? lol. It was such a blessing to have people in our life so willing to do whatever for us! They ROCK! ;)        Then my aunt Haley came into town with her baby Addison (I posted her cute self a few months ago) and they stayed with us the last 3 days my parents were gone. (the 15th-18th) And that was also fun! I hadn't seen Addi yet, so it was fun to love on her for a while.  Here I am giving Addi bath time! I swear that girl sucked the LIFE out of my thumb! lol.        The other night my other cousin (You'll be hearing alot about alot of cousins!) Kendall had her 9th birthday party. So we all went to that at a pizza restaurant, had pizza (GO FIGURE), ate a few cup cakes here and there, sang happy birthday, you know.. the birthday thing! Lol. That was fun. Heres my cousin totally phsyched that we're all singing to her! lol.  My aunt Hilary and I... we're weird! lol. (From left to right) My cousin Lorelle, Aunt Hilary, Cuz Addison, Bro Skylar, and Sisto Savannah :o) Heres my Aunt Hope and her Fiance Michael        Then after our little partay, Lorelle came over and spent the night. Which was fun cause we never really get to spend much time with her. Lorelle and Baby Addi. (She looks a little creeped out!) BUT SHES SOOO DANG CUTE!  :o) And here we are entertaining after bath time. (You'd never know it, but right after that picture she wasn't too happy with us! lol) I love this picture! Skylar was feeding her her bottle, and she was SUPER interested in the big black thing in front of her face! Lol. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/550508/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:55:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/550508/ Hey All         Well today was fun. We had Friday School (OF COURSE). My friend Heidi came over last night, and we worked on our Chinese Lapbooks. Well, just like every Thursday night, we didn't get to bed till about 2 o'clock! Yeah, I know, "Call Me Irresponsible" As Michael Buble would say. ;) But, in our defence, we were working our tails off ALL night on our SCHOOL! So, we automatically get a "Get out of Jail" card. :D lol.        Usually on Friday mornings we get up early for Friday School. I generally like to get up at around... oh... say... around 5:45am/6ish. It probably wasn't the greatest idea to get to bed at 2 and then get up at 6am, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do :D And it turned out that Savannah didn't come and get Heidi and I up til 6:40 (cause she slept in too. lol)  so then we were running behind. For good reason though, I'm sure. That extra 40min. will probably give me JUST enough energy to finish this entry! lol.        Anyways, at Friday School, in mine and Savannahs Photography class, we had a really fun "assignment" I guess you can call it. Savannah, my friend Aaron and I all went out (cause they split us in groups of three) around the campus and took different pictures. We had to take seven different shots. #1. Perspective. #2. Over Exposure. #3. UNDER Exposure. #4. Something really random, like that doesn't have a subject.. something that makes you wonder why that person took the shot in the first place #5. Some of that same subject, but that HAS meaning. One that HAS a subject ;) #6. Depth of Field, which was personally my FAVORITE! #7. Something blurry. lol. (mostly just to mess with the shutter speed)               Perspective ;) Over Exposure! And Under Exposure.... although, I must say, it almost isn't dark enough, but its close enough. ;D This is our random NOTHINGNESS! Thats what we got out of it :D HAHA. Depth of Field.. and my personal FAVORITE! Shutter Speed Thats it :D TTYL! Sierra <><     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/514956/ Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:05:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/514956/ YAY! My friend JUST gave this picture to me today. He got the prints from our Masquerade dance we had last Saturday today at FS. So I brought it home and scanned it for y'all to see! :) Anyways.. Just thought I'd share! Kinda a glimps of all my Friday School friends! :) L8er! Sierra P.S. Just for the record... I had to make the picture alot smaller... so some people look kinda funky!!! lol. Hmmmm... :D http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/498645/ Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:29:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/498645/ Hey Guys!! WOW! I haven't been on HSB in forever!! I'm not sure if my life is full of  "craziness" or "laziness"!!!! lol. I'm pretty sure its a little of both! HA. Anyways, I thought I'd blog about something fun that just happened this last Saturday. My First Class Co-op (teens) just had our first Masquerade Ball... but it was our 3rd dance. Anyways, I have some fun pictures of that. My friend Aaron and I were the "DJers" But I kinda have to give the credit to his dad, cause we danced for a while... and I think his dad did most of the Djing! He rocks at it... so bravo Aarons Dad!! :D The event was kinda a formal, everyone came in different things. But they were all fun! There were fun dresses, (or suites! lol) fancy dresses, some people came dressed up. We had some pirates,  and cowboys.. yeah :D Fun stuff fun stuff!! So here are the pix! I don't have very many, cause we spent the majority of our time DANCING than we did taking PICTURES! I should give ANOTHER round of applause do my dad for taking all the GROUP pictures!! (Too bad I didn't get a picture of my dad.. he wasn't lookin' so bad himself with his tuxedo and red tie!!) So BRAVO DADDY!!!  lol. *round of applause*. Here we are ALL dancing to the CHA CHA SLIDE!! FUN STUFF!!! I think that might be the Macaranna :D idk! (Starting from the Left) Savannah, Maegen, Aaron, Heidi and I Maegen and I :D Heidi and I! ;) I can't explain either of those pictures!! Just watch in great CONFUSION!!!  lol. (Ryan, your the only normal one!!! BRAVO!)   Alright... well thats about it!!! lol. Stay tight with Jesus and stuff!! L8er Sierra http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/498116/ Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:17:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/498116/ I love this! It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside! lol!   Read it and TAKE IT IN! 1.  Falling in love. 2.  Laughing so hard your face hurts. 3.  A hot shower. 4.  No lines at the supermarket. 5.  A special glance. 6.  Getting mail. 7.  Taking a drive on a pretty road. 8.  Hearing your favorite song on the radio. 9.  Lying in bed listening to the rain outside. 10.  Hot towels fresh out of the dryer. 11.  Chocolate milkshake (vanilla or strawberry). 12. A bubble bath. 13. Giggling. 15. The beach. 16. Finding a 20 dollar bill in your coat from last winter. 17. Laughing at yourself. 18. Looking into their eyes and knowing they Love you 19.  Midnight phone calls that last for hours. 20.  Running through sprinklers. 21.  Laughing for absolutely no reason at all. 22.  Having someone tell you that you're beautiful. 23.  Laughing at an inside joke with FRIENDS 24.  Accidentally overhearing someone say something nice about you. 25.  Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep. 26.  Walking into a clean bedroom 27.  Making new friends or spending time with old ones. 28.  Playing with a new puppy. 29.  Having someone play with your hair. 30.  Sweet dreams. 31.  Hot chocolate. 32.  Road trips with friends. 33.  Swinging on swings. 34.  Making eye contact with a cute stranger. 35.  Making chocolate chip cookies. 36.  Having your friends send you homemade cookies. 37.  Holding hands with someone you care about. 38.  Running into an old friend and realizing that some things (good or bad) never change. 39.  Watching the expression on someone's face as they open a much desired present from you. 40.  Watching the sunrise. 41. Getting out of bed every morning and being grateful for another beautiful day. 42.  Knowing that somebody misses you. 43.  Getting a hug from someone you care about deeply. 44.  Knowing you've done the right thing, no matter what other people think. God Bless!!! Sierra http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/471253/ Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:16:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/471253/ Hey Guys, I know, its been FOREVER! It seems like life and time never really want to cooperate. HEAVEN FORBID anyone should have extra TIME on their hands! lol. But I do have AWESOME news for you! My Aunt Haley and Uncle Ryan had their first baby girl as of January 20th 2008 at 11:24pm! Addison Hope was 6lbs 6oz and 19.5in!!! Such a sweetheart :) NEW BABY COUSIN! YAY! CUTIE ADDI! One day old :) Daddy's Girly :) Kisses! I put a picture of my lil' Sis on the side bar. If you click on it, it'll send you to a contest thing where I added it. I really need more votes! Thnx :) God Bless -Sierra http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/469035/ Sat, 26 Jan 2008 22:58:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/469035/ Alrighty, I've been tagged by: Cylonofpeace Here 'goes! Personals Name: Sierra Sj Age: 14 Birthday: December 13 Number of siblings: 5 Number of pets: 2 an African Grey, and a Gecko...(but their both my sister's!) lol. What state do you live in: Washington Favorites Favorite thing to say online: L8er Favorite Smilies: ;) Favorite animals: I'm not a huge animal fan, but if I HAVE to choose.... It would have to be a  Gecko :D Favorite Person: I love my family ;)... sorry, I can't pick ONE! lol. Favorite personal animal: I thought we already went over this! Favorite place: In the country on a clear night when you can see the STARS! Wishes Where do you wish to live: Wherever God puts me :) What animal do you have: Okay... whats up with these animal questions? Where do you want to live: .....hmmmm.... its as if I didn't already say! lol. jk :D This or That Car or Horse: CAR! Cat or dog: I'm going to HAVE to say CAT! (Sorry Boompa :) Chiwawa or Persian cat: Ugh Braces or dentures: Braces Classic or Country: Country! (But I'm not very picky, so either one!) Rubber or Steal: Rubber! Its not as painful if you get smacked by it!!! Tag at least 5 people: OKAY! lol. Curufinwe, babyrach91, theimmortals, runner4christ & lynx357.... 1,2,3 GO! lol. God Bless Sierra   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/460566/ Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:12:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/460566/ Hey All! Well, I don't really have anything to report. So I 'm just going to show you some pictures I took of my brother the other day while he was doing his school. One BUMMER thing about it is I had the ISO on HIGH!!!! I was sooooo bummed. But just pretend like the pictures not painfully grainy, ok? lol. L8er! -Sierra http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/458551/ Wed, 9 Jan 2008 20:53:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/458551/ Wow! Its been a long time, and there is ALOT to tell! Where to begin.. where to begin? Lets go back a little, we'll start there :) Dec. 5th  Savannah and I flew out to Missouri at 10am.  We had a pretty hilarious Air port adventure! My dad took us at 8:30, and when we left my mom was saying that she DID NOT want Savannah and I going by ourselves (just through security and stuff, she wanted us to be w/ someone). So we get to the airport, and there is NO parking, and I mean NO parking! The only thing they had was valet, and dad didn't want to pay for that. ($5 for 10 minutes!? Come on!) So he parks on the "Drop of only" section and we all run inside. Well it was only about 3 minutes that we were standing in line for baggage claim (or drop off, or whatever! lol.) and dad panics and goes back outside to find a parking spot, because it would NOT be good if the van was towed. Basically, judging by the line, he figured it would be another 10min. So he left, and the line went a WHOLE lot faster than 10min. And Savannah and I were in a hurry, so we just carried on checked our baggage in (after all, we've done this 3 times before! lol.) and headed off for security. While I stood in line for security, Savannah went out to look for Dad because we would feel REALLY bad getting on a plane for Missouri without saying good bye to dad!!! He would have a PANIC ATTACK!!!!!! She comes back, no dad. We didn't know what was taking him so long... and we didn't exactly have enough time to wait. Although, we wished we did. Anyways, after security we waited anxiously HOPING that dad figured that we made it and we were ok. (And also thinking how having a cell phone handy would have been AWESOME! LOL) But me being 14, and Savannah 16, we knew that he knew that we were ok! Well, obviously... we got on the plane and SURVIVED! (LOL) We had an awesome flight, awesome landing, it was great! And afterwards, we called dad from Kansas City and he said that after searching for a parking spot, he gave up and paid for valet parking, RUSHED inside, looked for us, didn't find us, gave up, and on his way home he said that he knew that we would make it ok. But I still felt SO BAD! He paid for VALET PARKING! But we still made it :) It was only 3 hours of them panicking! Savannah and I really felt bad. But it got worked out and such... you know.... all that fun stuff!! Missouri was AWESOME!!! We had an incredible time hanging out with Boompa and Sweetie. We did COUNTLESS things! I highly doubt I could say EVERYTHING let alone IN ORDER.... but I can give you an idea.....  We went to a Christmas Carol play, which was VERY cool... and definitely gets you in the Christmas spirit. I had SUSHI for the first, and afterwards got to have my picture taken with the SUSHI CHEF! lol. I'll never forget that :) Good memories! We explored the Crown Center, the Plaza all lit up and beautiful! We saw some amazing houses... allow me to refraise that.... AMAZING HUGE GIGANTOR houses!!! lol. It snowed THE day we arrived, then it...er... rained sleet?? Sleeted?? lol. w/e you get it!!!! So there was ice everywhere... fun! lol. No... really... it was fun :) Lets see.... we visited awesome museums, and ate at one of them. OH! We had DIM SUM! That was fun! Savannah and I have officially been introduced to Bubble-Tea. Its very..er... bubbly!!!! Boompa took Savannah and I out to the mac store, and got us each 8GB IPOD NANOS!!!!! YAY!!!!! (Yeah, we love him.. ALOT!!!) That was SOOOO COOOOLL!!!!!!! And I introduced Boompa and Sweetie to Michael Buble... because you haven't lived until you've heard this guy sing. (Well, thats second to knowing God :) OF COURSE! We decorated Boompa and Sweeties tree with lights... LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF LIGHTS!!!! To be precise, we went to wal-mart and got 15 boxes of the large LED lights, then got about 6 of the smaller LED lights. It was alot! And yet... it was PERFECT!!! Sweetie and I stayed up till either 2:30 or 3am and read her chapter book that she wrote, which I LOVED!!!! You all have to read it :) It was SO FUN! All the Grandkiddos are so sweet! Their all so cute, and SOCIAL!!! And to think, they're HOMESCHOOLED!!! lol. They each have a very fun bubbly personality. It was a delight to meet them :) WOW! And to think we crammed that into ONE WEEK!!!! And thats not even EVERYTHING we did! WHEW! I think that was the most fun I've had in one week in a LONG  TIME!!!! I have fun pics from our trip on my Photo album. Alright, moving on.... Dec 13th I had my 14th birthday (the day after Sana and I got back from MO) We were pretty exhausted from our trip, with time difference and such, so we both just had a friend over, we watched the Lakehouse, ate tons of junk food and stayed up late! It was fun. :) Dec 24th. You all know what day that is... CHRISTMAS!!! Well, heres our Christmas story. (I'll try and make this one short... but as well all know, I ROCK at taking a short story and making it EXTREMELY boring and long! So CAUTION!! LOL) Ok, so Christmas DAY was the day we were supposed to go up to Mount Vernon and see my dads side of the family, our Grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles you name it! AND this is my Grandparents last Christmas in their house of 36 years! They just sold this past Summer :( So this was supposed to be a very special Christmas. Well.... now that I've probably confused you with my "was's" and my "supposed-to's" Let me explain... Savannah got SICK on Christmas Eve!! She got like a cold/flu/well just SICK! Not good. It was the same sickness that we got LAST year that kept us from having our Christmas there too!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!! So we never did go up to MV, instead... we stayed home and...er.... played with our presents we got here :) Which was fine, it was just a bummer not being able to hang with the fam. And now we go on to...... Jan 1st. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! So, TODAYS THE DAY!!! We go to Mount Vernon and have the Christmas party that we never got on Christmas!!! We all get in the car, our bags are packed, and no one's sick! Well.... get this.... we're an hour out, we have three more to go.... and yes... you got it... the CAR BREAKS DOWN!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Just one more thing.... so to make that LONG story short... We waited at the nearest gas station for 3 hours for my grandpa (my moms dad) and the tow truck to get there! THEN we had to GO HOME!!!! So, there goes our second attempt for a Christmas party.... down the drain. Ugh. And there you have it! Those are basically the BIG  things that we've been doing. And now you know :) No more guilt trips. :) lol. I hope all y'all had an awesome Christmas and that you HAVE a FANTABULOUS New Year!!! God Bless Sierra http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/455147/ Thu, 3 Jan 2008 22:24:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HeavenlyImages/455147/