pray for a friend?

As you all probably know..my friend Amanda is getting surgery tomorrow. She has scoliosis (which is very common) and you can go to this website if you want to learn more about scoliosis. I mean technically her back has a huge curve in it, and she needs surgery to fix it. She is getting her surgery at 7 am tomorrow morning.

Soo..prayers would be greatly appreciated, and I know Amanda would love it if you prayed for a safe and healthy surgery tomorrow!

Good luck tomorrow, Amanda! We will all miss you so much! 

xoxo

my life.

My life is snapping pictures of flowers whenever I see them. 

My life is having sleepovers every weekend.

My life is hanging out with my bestie. (ahem. haven.)

My life is church Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights.

My life is doing my chores and getting my homework done.

My life is chocolate chip pumpkin muffins and chocolate cupcakes.

My life is three crazy brothers and two awesome parents.

My life is a dog who is seventeen years old, and is getting deaf, but we still love her.

My life is never ending amounts of friends who are amazing if I do say so myself.

[havers.]

[i kinda love you. I LOVE YOU.]
My life is filled with happiness, sadness, craziness, busyness, awesomeness, and much more.

My life is crazy brown eyes, and brown hair.
My life is volleyball, volleyball, and more volleyball.

This is me and my friend Amanda. Amanda is getting surgery in 4 days. In 4 days she will be taller than me (probably). She has scoliosis. That means her spine is curved. Like really curved. Pray for her?

Me and my momma. :)

Soo..how's your life going? ;)

Duluth [part one]

Guess what? It's been a week since I got back from Duluth, and I still haven't posted the pictures yet! Well here's part one of our trip...

The nature there is so pretty, and I just couldn't help myself not to take pictures of the pretty leaves, and the very few flowers left.

My wonderful family.

This bridge was really scary. There was a sign that said only five people on at a time. What is that supposed to mean? And it rocked back and forth and made funny noises. Eeek! :P

We camped at a state park, and there were so many hiking trails, and things to see! So on Saturday morning we hiked to see some really pretty waterfalls! :)

These waterfalls were so pretty!

So there is part one! Stay tuned for parts 2 & 3!

How was your weekend?

garden

Let the songs I sing bring joy to you, let the words I say confess my love.

I want everything I do to bring joy to You, Jesus. 

You're the reason I'm here. You love me unconditionally. I pray that you will help me do everything in honor of You. 

Just recently my uncle came to Christ. He loves this band called NeedtoBreathe. I've come to really like this band too. Especially the song, Garden.

Listen to it. It's powerful. :)

Thank you Jesus, for everything. Help me to be one of a kind, and different than everyone else. 

I'm living this life to glorify you only. 

Have a wonderful week. :)

Garden.

eight things to be excited for

Today? August 29, Monday. What's so good about this coming week..I mean it's the end of August, early September. School's in a week. What can be so exciting about it? I'm pretty excited, wanna know why? ;]

volleyball starts.

School volleyball to be exact. Some of these girls that are doing volleyball with me, I haven't seen all summer. I'm so excited to get back on the court today, see my friends, and see if I've still got the skills. ;]

weather is cooling down.

What? I know, I'm weird..but I can not wait for the weather to cool down. And just yesterday I wore jeans. Yes, jeans. Yay! So exciting. :] You know what I just realized..this week is gonna be HOT. shoot nuggets. 

i'm packing up.

I'm packing up my room. Do you remember this post? Yes..my room had a flood in it, and so we had to move all of my stuff into the living room. We hung a curtain (so I could have some privacy), and moved everything in there. So guess what? I'm packing it all up, because I'm moving back in to my new and improved room. :]

bowling, trampolining, and grand slam. 

At my church they have this thing called Super Week. It's when all the middle schoolers do three pretty awesome things. This year we're going bowling, going to a really cool trampoline place, and going to grand slam. It's going to be fun! :]

fourteen? no way.

It's craziness..I'm turning fourteen on Friday, September 2nd. Fourteen. Holy buckets. And I thought thirteen was old. :]

celebrations.

Well..when a birthday comes, so does celebrations. Going over to grandma and grandpa's houses..lots of fun. Also celebrating with lots of my close friends. :] It's gonna be sweet. 

state fair.

My brother won 4 free tickets to the state fair, so all 6 of us are going. ;] It's also my mom's birthday on Saturday so it's kinda how we're celebrating her birthday. (P.S. Isn't it kinda cool how my birthday is September 2nd, and my mom's is the 3rd?)

school starting.

I know a lot of you (including myself) are really bummed about school starting in just 8 days. But I mean it's gonna happen, so why not be excited for it? ;]

So I'm pretty excited right now, but what about you? ;]

vacationing|part two & giveaway winners

One day on our vacation Haven and I headed up this big hill and came to this hill. It was really pretty, and the sky that day was super blue. It was beautiful. 

I love these pictures. The color is just amazing, and the lighting I'm very proud of. It's so exciting to look back on the pictures you take and realize how good they are. Then you edit them..and well..it's hard not to share with you guys! Let me know what you think of these pictures. ;] 

These mini flowers were so pretty, and they were everywhere..I would have been crazy if I didn't snap a few shots of them! :]

After being there for a while we got told that we weren't supposed to be up there because it was off the campground's land. woops! At least we got some good pictures! 

Their ice cream there was so good. We got two vanilla ice cream cones the days we were there. We had to lick them fast though because they would melt quickly! 

We made a few trips to the gas station up the road and got some candy. :] That included gummy worms, Apple-O's, and Charlseton Chews. Very yummy! The next morning we realized that somebody or something ate the rest of them. Ew! We hope it was one of the little kids. :]

There was so many times when we would ride our bikes past these beautiful flowers..and I never had my camera along. So as we were driving out of the parking lot to head home I ran from the van and took two pictures of these gorgeous flowers. 

And now for the giveaway winners.....

The winner of the 2 5x7 prints of your choice by Ashlyn is: Rachel at Rachel Photography!
The winner of a pair of earrings of your choice by Madie is: Fransesca at Sunshine + Moonlight!
The winner of 4 4x6 pictures of your choice by Gracie is: Mary Ann at Shutter happy :)!
The winner of a custom made header made by Kiley is: Gloria A. at A Place In This World!
The winner of a pink flower headband made by Rachel is: Ellie at Just My Imperfections!

Congrats to all winners! Now here's some info you need to know if you won!

If you won the 2 5x7 prints by Ashlyn..please email me your address and I will send it to Ashlyn. Also send me two of your favorite pics on her photo page.

If you won the pair of earrings by Madie..please email me and tell me which one you want, and your address..and I will forward that on to Madie.

If you won the 4 4x6 prints by Gracie..please email me 4 of the ones you like best from her photo page. Also send me your address and I will forward that onto Gracie.

If you won the custom header made by Kiley..please email me and I will give you Kiley's email!

If you won the pink flower for your hair made by Rachel..please email me your address, and I will send it on to Rachel!

Please email me at alilovesvb97(at)gmail(dot)com!

If you don't understand this, and you won, please just email me and I will explain to you! 

Have a lovely Sunday!

a life filled with happiness

Life is like a big balloon. Every time something good happens, you let a little air out. Every time something bad happens, you blow it up a little bigger. Your balloon will never wear out, and your balloon will never pop, because life is up and downs. It's not just one straight line of happiness, or one straight line of sadness. It's all over the place.

Sometimes our lives are as colorful as this picture, sometimes our lives are like a black and white picture of rain. But, all I know is that, my life? It's wonderful. It's amazing, and I love it, and I never want it to go. I want to savor this life that God gave me. I want to live for Him, and make my life be the best. I want to live as a girl who encourages people, loves people, serves people, and most importantly lives it all for Jesus.

I want my life to be full of smiles, and laughter. Not frowns and sadness. I want to enjoy my life. So guess what? I'm going to. No more sad, grumpy Ali. More of a happy, cheerful Ali.

Okay, friends. Do you want to do this with me? Live the most of the life we have, and be cheerful and happy? Who wants to continue to let air go out of our balloons, and be free of stress? I surely do.

What is your life filled with?

photos & words

I walked outside yesterday-to seeing ants, ants, and ants. We must have spilled something sweet. ;]

Summer is so awesome. Just walking outside and seeing the clear blue sky, and the bright summer sun! It's amazing-and I never want summer to end!

Bike rides are always fun! Not so much though when you're stuck going up hill the whole way there..but then on the way back you get all the down hills! ;]

I love to wear summery outfits. :] Especially when there's flowers on it.

Here's Kiley-my best friend, in a field, with ticks, risking it for a good picture, and half laughing. I love her. ;]

I loved these flowers in this field. It was a perfect place for picture takin'. ;]

Kiley begged me to go with her in the field..so I ran out there and ducked in the weeds so I wouldn't be in the picture. So I took a picture of her getting her picture taken.

Happy Wednesday!

love,
Ali
P.S. Happy Birthday dad! ♥