Alpine Village

A nearby church puts on an amazing event every year called the Alpine Village. They transform there entire church into a winter wonderland. They make little shops and the kids get to go into each one and participate in an activity of some kind. Two things make this event fantastic....number one....it's free! and number two...they require reservations so the gym is not overly crowded. This was the first year we've ever gone. I got brave and took all three kids, even though Rayden was in Ohio. We had a blast all night long.
We saw Santa and sat on his lap...

We told him what we wanted for Christmas....Kaleb wants Bakugan, Nathan wants a Wii and a Wii Star Wars game, and Aubri wants a kitchen.

We made candy cane crafts and heard the story of the candy cane...

we watched a train go round and round....and round and round....and round and round (they might have stayed at that thing all night if I didn't pry them away)

We played in the artificial snow that they had falling from the sky in their gym (how stinkin cool is that!?)

We posed as snowmen....

We made tops in the toy shop...

We watched a puppet show about a department store manager who learned the true meaning of Christmas...

We put sprinkles....scratch that....LOTS of sprinkles on gingerbread cookies (and later ate them with lemonade to drink before we left)
It was so much fun. What a fantastic outreach this must be. I pray that many many people heard about the good news of Jesus coming to earth through this event.

Our 7th production

I have now done my 7th program with the kids at our church preschool. We just had our Christmas show and it went awesome! I could not have been more proud. Teaching music at KDO is truly such a joy to me. There is nothing like watching the faces of little children as they belt out praises to our God. So many moments I am overcome to the point of tears over the genuine nature of their worship.

This program was filled with lots of laughs. We kicked off the show with the Monkey class (Nathan's class) rapping. We wore sunglasses and shocked the whole crowd with our "whoop whoops" and our "gangsta" poses at the end. It was priceless!
The Monkeys were joined by the other classes for songs like, "Santa Claus is coming to town," "Jingle Bells," and "In a manger."

Aubri got her moment to shine too. I was so happy to see that she sang almost every word and did the motions too. That is, until....

she lifted her dress and flashed the entire crowd. Of course....it HAD to happen on a night when I forgot to put bloomers on her. What was I thinking? I know, I know....I wasn't thinking at all. It was cute, though!

This is Lindsey and me after the program is over (notice the look of sheer relief on our faces!) She is not only the director of KDO, a fantastic mom, wife, workout barbie, and cleaning maniac....she is also a dear, sweet friend to me. God truly has blessed me with her and her family.

Family Church

Forest Hill has started doing something new that I simply love....it's called Family Church. On the first Wednesday of every month we cancel every church acticity and come together as an entire body of believers.....ages 0-well....however old you are! We have active worhsip led by the "kidz in Motion singers" (of which my two boys are a part) and then we have a video, skit, game, and a short (yet amazingly inspiring and hilarious) message from a fantastic preacher....in case you haven't guessed it yet....Rayden delivers the message.

I love this concept because I am a huge believer in the fact that generations can learn from one another. I believe that the older generations have wisdom that I (and my children) lack....and need! I also think that children can teach adults a thing or two about freedom in worship and confidence in who you are made to be.

It is so cool to dance and sing WITH my kids and then teach them how to respect and honor the Word of God as it is delivered through the pastor. It's not a quiet and formal service, as you can imagine. It's more of a....well....training ground. Life's a journey. We all have things to learn. I need to learn to forget about the person beside me and worship freely and openly and lavishly. And my kids need to learn to be still and be respectful in their worship.

Family church....it's so cool!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care and the tree has been trimmed by three very anxious and excited little children (and to be honest....their equally thrilled parents). And our house is officially ready for Christmas.

Oh, wait. I take that back. We were ready for Christmas until the boys informed us that only the inside of our house was ready. They claimed that our poor, undecorated, plain ole boring outside was the saddest house on the street. They went so far as to claim that Santa may not even like our house enough to stop by on Christmas Eve. My, oh, my. We could not have that. Leave it to Memphis weather to provide us with a 64 degree day this week....perfect for hanging lights outside. Of course, out of the 12 strands of light we had only 5 of them worked. We made due and now 4 of the bushes in our front year bear twinkling lights. Now we're good to go.

Hold up a minute. Not so fast. Our boys have not let us off the hook just yet. They are now claiming that lights are not decorations....they are just, well....lights. A Christmas tree has lights AND decorations. And that is in fact what the outside of our house needs....at least according to Kaleb and Nathan. I don't really know what we're going to do to remedy this problem....any suggestions?