Charlie Brown Christmas

Madalyn loves, loves, loves her teacher, Mrs. Hogan, the school play director. Since some of the kids in the class didn't make it into the King Arthur's Quest, Mrs. Hogan, had a readers theater that turned into a play.

A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Our Maddy Moe was given the saucy, sassy part of Lucy.

Perfect Casting.

She only had a few days to learn all her lines.

Once again, her mental steel shone and she recited her parts with feeling and stage presence.

I think a little actress has been born.

Some of the cast -

Maple Valley Creche

Our stake puts on a creche exhibit of over 400 hundred nativities from around the world for the community to see. There is also a range of musical performances held during the event.

This year Cayden's friend asked him if he wanted to join the children's choir. He did. His favorite was "Christmas Lullaby Calypso."

Pretty authentic!

We invited our friends Mark and Kathy to come. Mark had just gotten home from an 12 hour flight from Japan and he still came. Thanks so much. We loved going with you guys!

Princess Makenzy

Randy left the decision up to me.

If I wanted, I could go back and get my masters degree.

If I wanted, I could have another baby.

Bibbity, bobbity, boo look who just turned 2!

For Kenzy girl, it is all about pink, dolls, and dancing.

She was so excited to get another baby.

Since she had so much fun opening her presents, Cayden tested her mental aptitude, and patience by grabbing some old toys from the play room, and stuffing them in a gift bag.

"She won't even notice."

She did.

That's how I like 'em, SMART!

I've been heavy with child at Christmas.

Madalyn.

and

Had a "Baby Jesus" at Christmas.

Makenzy.

We laid her in a wooden doll rocker.

But there was and is definitely room for her in our inn.

We were crazy at our dance off party, playing ring around the rosies, swinging her, playing chase, hide and go seek, loving on her babies, watching Barbie movies.

"More." In other words, she felt jipped it all had to end.

Love you Kenzy girl!

Around the House...

Trying to think of a way to put Christ back in Christmas, I put out these "gifts" as a way for us to remember the gifts we can give our Savior at Christmas.

The mom tree-

If you look close, Baby Jesus is missing from the picture. Makenzy likes to play with the "baby." The "baby" on our advent calendar also went missing this year. Again, Makenzy had taken the baby to play with.

Christmas dresses. We love your style. Thank you Grandma!

The girls couldn't wait to get their dresses on for a picture.

More Christmas clothes. We all have coordinating outfits thanks to Grandma B.

When Randy lunches down by Pike's Place, he picks me up flowers.

Love the dried swag you picked
up Randge. Beautiful. Thank you!

Madalyn designed this. She was just doodling on the back of some spider man paper and decided to see how it looked in the frame. I love it!

It is formed like a snowflake, but looks like a bare winter branch.

Simple and sweet. A perfect fit for the "kid tree". Kid tree kid art.

The mail box is a treasure lock box this time of year. We quickly sort through the bills, the solicitations, to find square envelopes, red envelopes, envelopes with Christmas stamps, and familiar addresses. Christmas cards are a mini gift we look forward to getting. Thanks to everyone that sends them out, even the "e-mail attachments".

Other things we always find around the house, no matter what season.

Neighbor gifts. I bagged on cooking this year. In fact, I usually avert baking up mass plates of cookies, fudge, and holiday yummies almost every year, except for our family.

But, we sure love to get them.

This year I simplified, again. We went simple. I went just a bit beyond slapping a bow on the bottles and made them look like waiters.

The menu was Madalyn's idea...she is so clever. It reads...

Menu

One Christmas well done

and a

side order of New Year's Cheer.

Merry Christmas, The Whites.

We went caroling to our neighbors and delivered them. The kids loved it. I am so glad I married a singer, Randy and the kids definitely drown out my out of tune voice.

Gingerbread Houses

Fresh baked homemade gingerbread. Colorful, bright color coordinated candy. That's how my mom makes gingerbread houses. I am working up to that. This year we settled for a box of graham crackers and candy left over from Halloween. Either way, the creativity wasn't curbed a bit. Our one of a kind creations.

Around the holidays, I look for pre-made gingerbread men. This year I discovered Pepperidge makes the whole gingerbread family! So cute.

Some Pretty Amazing People

Thanks Knowles for hosting a great going away/Christmas dinner party.

One of the many benefits Randy has at work, is working with some amazing people. Missionary couples, missionaries, stake presidents, etc.

In this picture are some people that I truly admire because...

amazing testimonies

marathon runners

marathon winners

author of the scriptural text books the institute teachers use

marathon coach (do you see a pattern?)

the real deal Iron Man participants (who do you think is training for the upcoming St. George Iron Man?)

half marathon runners

amazing, loving parents with kids that love them too!

successful business owners, lawyer, accountant, doctor

bi-lingual

missionaries

airforce pilot

incredible testimonies

way, way, way positive happy people

bike to work people

church history tour guides

way, way, impressive grounded, spiritual, priority right people

fiscally responsible people

and. and. and.

the list goes on.

As far as co-workers go, it doesn't get better than this!

Thank you everyone for being so wonderful. We love your positive impact on our lives.

Lady of the Lake

Miss Madalyn as Lady of the Lake.

The main characters cast -

Madalyn was Lady of the Lake in King Arthur's Quest, a production put on by Madalyn's school and the Missoula Children's Theater, http://www.mctinc.org/.

She told me she wasn't nervous for tryouts. She was ecstatic when she got the part of Lady of the Lake. A magical wizard that lives in the lake and gave King Arthur Excalibur. She had 24 lines and several songs to memorize.

- The entire cast.

Our smiling drama mama. This was taken one night when she came home from a practice. She just radiated happiness and confidence. She practiced her lines primarily on her own. They had a school performance and two public performances. She did sooo well. In fact, when I showed up for the Saturday performance, not having attended the Friday because of a dinner party Randy and I had, several people came up to me and commented on how natural, confident, and good she was. They asked if she had taken acting lessons. Nope! She's just a natural drama queen.

No quivering. No quavering. Just good delivery, line execution, vocal, and facials.

One of her favorite parts of the play was when the dragon and the mini cast were dancing on stage, she and other cast members were dancing back stage.

Lights at the Lodge

Our little city has an annual celebration at the lodge. All the lights come on, Santa visits via the fire truck, hot chocolate, cookies, little crafts, carolers, and train rides. We were minus Madalyn this year because she was committed to her play practice.

We look forward to going each year. However, this year, Randy had to head back for a church meeting, so we didn't have time for the train ride. Cayleb was so bummed. I thought about being a good mommy and heading back but by the time we got home and had to pick up Madalyn it just wasn't going to work. We were probably all being punished for an unamed grown man taking 1 more cookie than he was supposed to, hmmm You better watch out, 'cause he knows if you've been bad or good.

The Live Tree

This is a newer family tradition. Searching and hunting for the perfect family tree.

We have two types of trees at our house.

The real tree. The smell good tree. The family tree. The decorate any way you want tree. The personality tree. The kinda strong branch tree. The one with all the mismatched and story laden ornaments.

Then we have the fake tree. The mom tree. The balanced and color coordinated. The don't touch tree. The super, sturdy, bendy branches that can move anywhere for any ornament tree. The white lights only tree.

No debate at our house. We please both tree camps; real and fake.

Last year we learned about the Christmas tree permit program. Through the National Forest Service, $5 lands you a permit to cut your own tree.

The selection committee-