hey!! for all you that don't know....

I made a new blog called: www.gracie-livelaughlove.blogspot.com! it will replace this one :P thanks

EUROPE 2009!! = AMAZING!!

Fun fun trip!! Went to: Amsterdam, switzerland, Germany, and France! more pics to come later..

Good quotes and sayings that I discovered during efy... also other things... :)

-Scriptures are like a map
-The central object of our existence is charity
-.18% of the people on Earth are members of the church of Jesus Christ of Ladder Day Saints... NOT even 1 percent!!!
-Do Not ever take the things that we have in the church for granted. Ex: The priesthood, the holy ghost, missionaries, home teachers, a close temple... etc.
- All SIN is addicting
-TRUE happiness is KNOWing Christ and DOing his work.
-Music itself, has been corrupted. Tempo, beat, and intensity will harm you.
-Become a missionary long before you go on a mission.
-Memorize hymns for when temptation might come.
-If you want to talk to God, PRAY. If you want him to talk to you, STUDY the scriptures.
-Don't be the person who goes to heaven and you see one of your friends and have them say to you, "You knew... Why didn't you tell me before?" share the gospel to everyone!!
-NOBODY can force you to be angry.. YOU choose to be angry. It is also impossible for someone to "offend" you. You take what they say and make yourself think that you are offended. Choose to be happy instead.
-Satan becomes your father when you are angry.
-The natural man tempts us to blame others. (Moses 4:14) Adam blames Eve.
-Prayers will be answered according to your faith.
-The greatest miracle that can happen to you, is the change in your heart.
-You should only be afraid to die if you are not worthy.
-When you need healing, seek to heal others first.
-DO NOT turn inward.
-You become happy when you worry about other people being happy.
-At EFY, I had a lesson on the scriptures... and I discovered and realized that there is an answer on EVERY page of the scriptures for you! Just have a question in your heart, then turn to a random page in the Book of Mormon, and you WILL find your answer on that page. He works in mysterious ways and he always will answer any questions. It's so cool! Try it!
-"He who reads it oftenest will like it best" -Joseph Smith
-Search the scriptures! Do not just simply read them.
-Every problem you will ever have can be solved by SEARCHING through the scriptures.
-So, there was a kid in the class I was in that asked a question about his dad and how to be strengthened because he was worried about his dad cause he was serving in Iraq.. So he asked for comfort and turned to a random page and found the perfect answer! It was a verse from: Alma 62:50... search that! It's so creepy how true the question was answered...
-If you have enough faith to believe in Christ, you never know when your influence will stop.
-Faith comes from obedience.
-The Stripling warriors were never too tired to read their scriptures.. you have no excuse not to.
-When you feel the spirit, you will have a peaceful re-assurance that what you are thinking AND feeling is true. It has to be both in your heart and mind that it is true, or else you are not feeling the spirit. D&C 11:11 (I never thought of recognizing the spirit like this. Brother Boyle said that people make feeling the spirit harder than it actually is.)
-It's not enough just to believe in God, Satan does too... It's what you DO with it. Faith is so much more than believing.
-There is no greater replacement than having a testimony of Jesus Christ

Is she seriously almost 1?!? Oh my goodness!!

My sweet little niece, Abigail is almost one year old!! It's insane how fast life goes by! I remember just waiting for the phone call from my mother when she was born and receiving pictures on my dad's phone of her and thinking she was perfect. Abby is truly one of the biggest blessings in my life! She is so perfect! She teaches me to enjoy life and always smile. I love you Abby!

EFY!!! 2009!! Redlands, CA

This past week I went to EFY!!! It was such a blast and I truly gained a stronger testimony mostly of the scriptures and of Christ's atonement. I now realize how much pain he actually went through for each and every one of us! I am so glad I went!!! Kara Sheffield (Guac) was my roommate which was a blast! My counselors were pretty good too! It took a while to adjust to all the girl's but after the first 2 days, I became friends with most of them! GO EFY!! :) now off to Europe on Tuesday! :)

The whole company!! :-)!! our name was, "suffereth long"
Our service project maps!! we made them for little kids who are less fortunate to play with!
Shayla and I... We hung out together a lot! she was so nice!
We had 11 boys and 20 girls!
Guac's side of the room!! The wall poster is of HSM and it was 5 ft. wide!! ha ha crazy. we know! :)
My side of the room! :) Our counselors voted Guac and I as: "the most likely to have their room on teen choice awards!" It was funny!
Guac, Shyla, and I.. Shyla was a ball of energy!! Her name doesn't even apply to her personality!! she is not "shy" at all!! :)
Hanging with Ashley and Samantha! they were both so hilarious and scarcastic like me so it was fun! I wish I would of met them earlier that week. :(
Me, Alyssa, and Pax!! At the service project!
Sarah, Guac, Me, and Shayla on the last day! :)
All the girls from my counselor group! They were all so unique! It was hard to warm up to them all at first, but by the end of the week; I was friends with all of them!
Kids from my ward!! Not even half of them!! There were like 13 kids from my ward that went to the same EFY as me. It was fun to hang out with them during break and during meals. I had a chance to get to know everyone better!

My silly councelors... :) They were all very cool and fun to be with! Fred was hilarious!!! :) Jess (the one on the left) was my main counselor. She was so sweet.

EFY TOMORROW!! WOOT WOOT!!

So tomorrow, I am going to "Redlands" for EFY with Kara Sheffield! It's going to be a blast! then after I get home, I am going to Europe for 2 weeks! :) I am stoked!!! After that, I go to a basketball camp called "point guard college" !!!! see ya! more pics to come l8r!

Look who came to my ward today!!!! :)

So Elder Holland and his wife came to our ward today!! I was singing with the rest of the girl's in my young women... we sang during sacrament meeting. A way good song! It's called, "The Maker's Touch." We made Sister Holland cry!!! :) Anyway, he spoke in our ward and he talked directly to the youth about how we are the rising generation. He bore his testimony of how he KNOWS that this church is true. It was so spiritual and it was by far the greatest sacrament meeting in my life! He also talked about how the youth need to read the scriptures more and stick to the right course cause it's so easy to get off-track in this life. After it was over, I waited in the long line of people and I shook both elder and sister holland's hands... He smiled at me and told me that his talk was for me. Sister Holland told me that it was so nice to be here and listen to us sing.. I awkwardly told Elder Holland that I enjoyed his talk. It was pretty sweet!! :)


Holland and his sweet wife... she was so cute!

WhAt ThE hEcK!!!!?!?

Jon from, "Jon and Kate + 8" is engaged!! ofcourse not to kate :( it's really tragic and sad!!! :( The girl is a smoker and she has a crazy past... ugghh.. I don't think this would of happened if they didn't have that show to begin with!!! so so tragic!

My BiRtHdAy!!! :)

dang balloon followed me everywhere that day! :)

My birthday was pretty fun this year!!! I woke up around 9 and came out of my room and saw decorations everywhere!! Annie and Meredith sang to me as I came out of my room! It was the perfect start to a good day. Then, Annie, Meredith, and my madre and padre went and saw Harry Potter @ the Sheffields theatre. (they are good friends of ours from church, they own the theatre.) after that, we went home and had homemade pizza which was the bomb!! After that, I opened presents. I received: money for Europe, clothes, and itunes gift card, and some cute scrapbooking stuff. It was the best! Shortly after, I had a basketball game and we won! The team was not very good. When we got home, I blew out the candles as I made a wish. Then scooped up some cookies n' cream, icecream. To the side of it, I had my favorite funfetti cake with vanilla frosting... mmm... it topped of my fun 15th birthday!!!!

Fun Suprise Party with Kids from church!! :)

So today I went to a surprise party for my friend from church Ty Holmes. It was sooo much fun!! we had a food fight, swam in the water for probably 3 hours, and also ate yummy food! I am so lucky to have such good friends from church here!
fun times!
ha ha! :)
Our result from the food fight... ha ha we were the only ones who were serious about it and got intensely messy

ha ha ha.. so we forgot candles.. we just stuck forks in the cake and still made him blow out the "candles" so funny!!

HaPpY bIrThDaY MiKkI!!!

I hope it's amazing!!!! You are such a good sister-in-law and we are so lucky to have you in our family!!! :) can't wait to see ya in Europe!

I love my family!! :)

stolen from jenna's blog! :) thanks jenna!

Soooo funny!! :)

First video of Abby... she is getting way too old now!

One of the very first videos taken when we first saw Abby, two weeks after she was born! :)

I haven't really talked to much about Abby on here, but she is truly one of the greatest people in my life! She makes everyone so happy and you can't help but smile when you are around her. Her smile and laugh is contagious. She is very very smart beyond her years. She knows so many words already at 10 months!! She can say, "uh oh", "dodger" (she knows who dodger is too! whenever we say, "where's dodger" she points over to him and says his name :). she can also say, "ball", "mama", "dada", "bottle"!!! I cannot believe how fast she is learning. Her first tooth is growing in on the bottom. She loves playing with cell-phone chargers.. she thinks they are so fascinating for some reason! :P She also loves playing with her laptop, balls, car keys, books, and her new walker that she can push along. She never seems to cry either. I have shared my room with her and when I wake up in the morning.. I hear her either breathing really loud or just making cute little noises.. she wakes up and just plays with her toys or stands up in her little crib without even crying. It's amazing! anyway.. I know I should probably be blogging more about her cause she is growing up so fast! :) (Here's some recent pics of her!)
Abby stole mere's phone and copied annie on the bed.. She acted like she was texting.. abby LOVES to copy people! she is so smart!

Summer days @ the park... Good times... :)

Today, Marie and I went to the park!! It was a blast! we scrapbooked and then took pics. Today was a good day :) (I got these pics to be so cool from: picnik.com it's a way cool website :))

What my friends and I do on the last day of school... :)

So last night... Livy, Marie, and I met @ Marie's house and dressed up like boys and walked to the grocery store.. Everyone was staring at us all weird because they probably knew we were girls :) it was funny though.. It didn't last that long because Marie got scared when we went in the grocery store because we thought that maybe the workers at the store would think we were bad... It was quite an adventure though! :) ha ha we took off the sunglasses and hat right before we went into the store. We bought carrot-cake and brought it over to Marie's house then ate it and watched the movie, "penelope" it was pretty funny, but kind of a confusing movie. That night was HILARIOUS! :) Good summer so far!

Rachel and I signing the song, "You Belong With Me" by taylor swift in asl for the last time... we did it for our song presentation

MARIE and I

This is from such a long time ago.. we were so bored.. you don't have to watch the whole thing.. It is pretty much for my pleasure.. :)

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!! AH YEA!!

My substitution for my yearbook... :)
Kenya.. I have known her since 1st grade, this year was the first year I saw her again.. Don't you just love her hair? It's so so so amazing!
Meet my friend Blaire... I guess you could say she is pretty cool... :)
sara and I.. buddies!
oh gosh.. rachel and I
In ASL with Ashley
shelly, morgan, and I
Holly and I in ASL
Amanda and Shelly during break
softball buddies.. annalyssa and michelle
HOw sarah and sara feel about the school year being over...
ahahaha.. madisen and I she is 6 foot 3... enough said.

karlee fuller and I.. I love her!