Did someone say cookies?

I don't know if anyone who reads my blog (if anyone indeed reads my blog at all) likes cookies, but I do! I love cookies! And a week or so ago, a lady at our church gave me a new cookie recipe!

Now you have to understand that this lady is the cookie Queen at our church. She literally makes the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever tasted! So she gave me a recipe for Brown Sugar cookies. They are totally scrumptious, so I thought I'd share the recipe. Here it is! Enjoy!

P.S. Don't be alarmed that the recipe calls for 4 sticks of butter. It makes A LOT of cookies, so if you want sort of a normal sized batch you can just go ahead and half the recipe.


Brown Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups butter (softened)
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugars. Beat in eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Mix in flour. Roll walnut size balls in cinnamon and sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about three inches apart. Bake for 12 minutes. Cookies will be soft.

Tracts and a Kind Man

Today we went to the Anthem Outlet Mall solely for the purpose of handing out tracts. We had a good time, but the highlight of the day was when my brother Isaac and three of our friends handed a tract to a man in the Food Court. The man took a minute to look at the tract and then handed back to my brother and friends saying," I'm already a Christian. Give this to someone else." Isaac (my brother), and Joe, Mike, and Matt (our friends) took it back and were handing out tracts to other people in the Food Court. A little later, the same man came back to them and said something like, " You guys are doing a really good thing here. I want to buy you all sodas." So he did. Isaac, Joe, Mike, and Matt were blessed. It was just cool so I thought I'd share the story.

~Kiah b

The Government Can

Found this video on timhawkins.net the other day and laughed so hard that I thought I just had to put it on my blog. Enjoy.

My Junior High Graduation

This past month AFHE (Arizona Families for Home Education) held a homeschool convention in downtown Phoenix. They also held a Junior High Graduation. Myself and 4 of my good friends decided to be a part of this graduation as we were all graduating from Junior High this year. It was really cool. This is a pic of me and my brother, Isaac all dressed up before we left the house.



Once in the car, I started to feel very nervous. Isaac and I played a game that he made up. We would wave and smile at every car that went by. The winner would be the person that got someone to smile or wave back first. During the whole 45 minute drive to Phoenix, neither of us could get a single person to smile or wave back at us. I was still nervous.

The schedule for the night was:

*Rehearsal
*Go to dinner
*Ceremony

Once we got there, I was starting to feel extremely nervous. To make matters worse, after walking from the parking garage to the convention center, the skin on my heel started rubbing off from my new shoes. Now I was nervous, and in pain!

Well, I managed to get through the rehearsal despite my nervousness (it helped that all 4 of my friends sat pretty close to me) and then, surprisingly, I didn't feel quite as nervous. This is a picture of me during the rehearsal. Do I look nervous, do you think?

After the rehearsal, we took family pictures of me and two of my other graduate friends. This picture is of me and my family.



This picture is of my best friend Hannah and her family.



This picture is of my friend Sean and his family.



After this, we walked (by this time my feet were killing me) to a restaurant not too far away. Miraculously, I managed not to get any food on my dress during dinner. Believe me, I was praising God for that! This is a picture of my Dad and me during dinner.



After dinner, we walked back to the convention center. Mom, Dad, and Isaac went in the huge room where the ceremony would take place, and were seated. I waited in the lobby with all the other graduates for the ceremony to begin. At this point, I was a bit nervous, but not nearly as bad as I was during the rehearsal. Then we did the ceremony. The only unusual thing that happened during the program was that they said my friend's name was Joshua. His name is Joseph. I felt really bad for him, but he joked it off pretty lightly.

After the actual ceremony, we went to Swensen's for ice cream. Not all of my friends came but Joe and his family did. We ordered huge ice creams and it was so good. This pic was taken by my brother of the sundae that he ordered. Doesn't that look delicious?



Here's one of me eating my ice cream. Yummmmmm.....



This is Isaac starting to eat his ice cream.



This is Joshua..... I mean Joe eating his root beer float.



And finally, this is a picture of me and all 4 of my graduate friends. It's not a great picture, but it's the best we got.

The 4th of July

To be honest with you, before Saturday, my family hadn't gone out and evangelized in a pretty long time. So we thought, what better day to preach the gospel than on the 4th of July! There was a huge parade planned for Independence Day at the Prescott Courthouse. They were expecting about 2,000 people to show up for it. So we decided to go! Some people from Prescott and from Phoenix came with us. All in all we had about 20 people. We handed out hundreds of tracts, and then some of the people in our group open-aired on the steps of the courthouse. It was an exhausting, but awesome day.

This is a pic of our group. However, some of the people that came with us are not in this picture, because we hadn't met up with them yet.

This is a pic of my Dad and brother passing out tracts.


This is my Dad open airing. He started off by giving away money for trivia questions about the United States Declaration of Independence and Constitution.






This is a pic of a lady named Linda Essary preaching.


This is Sean preaching.



This is Sheri. She looks like she was singing but she was really preaching and pleading with the lost.


This is Edwin Lo open-airing.

God bless you! As Todd Friel would say, "Until next time, Go Serve Your King!"

~Kiah

Do these verses remind you of a particular person?

We were reading Proverbs 24 today as a family and we came across some verses that reminded me of someone. Just thought I would share them.

Verse 21-22 of chapter 24:
My son, fear the Lord and the king; Do not associate with those who are given to change, [are you thinking of the same person I'm thinking of?] For their calamity will rise suddenly, And who knows the ruin that comes from both of them?



Okay, here's another one:
Verse 24-25 of chapter 24:
He who says to the wicked, "You are righteous," Peoples will curse him, nations will abhor him; But to those who rebuke the wicked will be delight, and a good blessing will come upon them.

I don't know if you thought of the same person that I did, but when we read those verses this morning, my dad and I both gasped and blurted out, "Barack Obama!" Maybe Obama hasn't yet been cursed by peoples, or been abhorred by nations, but his calamity will rise suddenly, and who knows what ruin will befall him?

A Graduation that would please the Lord

Last week, my cousin Josh graduated from high school. His parents have homeschooled him since about fifth grade, I think. We went to his graduation ceremony, and it was so special! But more importantly, it honored God!

Josh opened the ceremony in prayer. He is such a good example of a Godly young leader!


Each of the graduates (there were nine in all) performed in some way, whether they played the piano, or the guitar, or the mandolin, or sang! Josh sang and played a song that he wrote. Some of his friends backed him up.


Then the graduates were presented with their certificates. Their parents spoke a little and said how proud they were of their son or daughter.



There was a reception afterward, where we talked, and laughed, and ate cake! Josh plans to go to the Community College in Prescott next year. I thank God for the fine young man he has become, and I pray that he will continue to follow after the Lord and seek him always!


Psalm 119:9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word.

It's been forever!

So, I haven't blogged for a VERY long time, and I'm sorry about that. I don't really have any excuses either, which makes it worse. I wish I could say that I've been really busy, or something like that, but the truth is...... I've been lazy!

My family is reading through The Pilgrim's Progress right now! We are reading it together as a family (almost) every night. I can't wait to see what happens to Christian as he travels on his journey!

We are starting to get ready for VBS at our church! This is the time when my life truly does start to get busy! During the month of June, I usually feel like I practically live at church! It is an exciting time though, and I can't wait to see what God is going to do through Vacation Bible School this year. Please pray that it would be awesome, and that God would use it greatly to bring not only kids, but their parents also, to Christ.

Well, I guess that's all I have to say for now! Hopefully I'll write again soon, and won't wait for three months like last time!

God bless you!

~Kiah B.

Save Hollywood!

My friend, Natalie, has a heart to save the lost. And lately, God has been laying Hollywood on her heart. So she has decided to start what she calls "Save Hollywood". It's very simple. Anyone that wants to be a part of it simply picks at least one actor or actress and commits to pray for their salvation daily.

If you want to be a part of this, please leave a comment including your name and the people you are committing to pray for. Thank you so much! I think that if we all commit to praying for the people in Hollywood everyday, that they might eventually come to Salvation! Our God can do mighty things!

To see a list of the people already being prayed for go to: http://sites.google.com/site/savehollywoodcorp/

A speech on Abortion by a 12 year old....... WOW!

Wow!!! This is amazing. This 12 year old girl entered a speech contest at her school in Canada. At first, she was disqualified because her topic was Abortion and because she mentioned the Creator. I guess her parents fought it, because she was allowed to enter..... and then she won! You go, Girl!