A Night In Bethlehem 2011

Sometime in September or October I received a special assignment from my bishop to plan our ward/neighborhood Christmas party. I have referred to it as our "Christmas Event"... this was way more than a party. It has been a wonderful experience, and thanks to all of the many people that helped. I have been told repeatedly by those that attended, that "this was the best Christmas party my family has ever been to." That made all of the hard work and planning worth it!

This is what our posters looked like... we added our "ward" and the time of the event to them... and also our programs had this picture on the front... About 2 weeks prior to our event, Dan and his two counselors dressed in the Wise Men costumes we have and went and delivered a "decree" personally to each family living in our ward boundaries. (144 homes) It was probably the coldest night of the year...but they were such good sports and had a great time doing it!

One of the tasks that Dan took on... with all of his free time (ha ha!) was building the stable and the manger. He amazes me with his ability to do things like this...

This was the entrance into our "city"... I wish you could see it better, but there is a table on the left side that I had the programs on along with our "census scroll" I made. We also had boxes on the right side that those who entered, put their "taxes" into. (cans of food) We then had all of the food donated to the local food bank.

The biggest issue with being "in charge" is that there is little time to take a lot of great pictures. This is of the "meat market" as you walked into the city. On the other side of it was our "dairy" and "bakery". It was a great meal... "Cafe Rio" chicken I cooked all day in tortillas, a bag of chips, dessert, and milk or water bottles. Simple but it fit what we were trying to achieve.

A view of the gym... I mean city. We had a path down the middle leading to the front that "Mary and Joseph" walked down during our program. We had everyone bring blankets to sit on with their families.

The big surprise of the evening... Jenny Phillips graciously agreed to come and sing two musical numbers for us. We didn't tell everyone because we knew that the word would spread and we would have way more people show up from the Stake than we would have room/food for. She was AMAZING! If I can get the video on here later of her singing "Breath of Heaven" and "Silent Night", I will. It was breathtaking!

Our awesome narrator Brother Cameron Sorensen... He has the BEST narrator voice ever! He did such a great job.

Our achievement day girls singing "Picture a Stable". They were so cute!

Our primary kids singing "Away in a Manger." I love that it was truly a "ward/neighbor" event. Everyone was involved one way or another.! Now you can see the stable on the stage. Dan did a great job... and I am glad he took some pictures of the program, because I was back stage the entire time!

Our cast... The shepherds, Angels, Wise men, and Mary and Joseph...

It was a beautiful night and we all felt the Spirit so strongly! I am really grateful that I had the opportunity to plan this evening in Bethlehem for our ward and neighbors. Who knows... maybe bishop Dan can talk me into doing it again!

A Two Horse Open Sleigh...

I decided we need to do something different and new this year for Christmas... so for FHE I booked us a night with the "Snowed Inn Sleigh Company". I didn't tell my cute family where we were going until we were on our way. I just told Dan he had to be home and ready to go by 5:15. We drove to Park City and headed to the resort...

As soon as the sleigh pulled up we all jumped in and headed to the "Snowed Inn" restaurant. It was magical! Light snow falling, the jingle bells on the horses, and our family all snuggled up under a big blanket! Here is a view of the restaurant as we came up the hill...
And here is a view of Park City from up on the mountain looking down...

And here is view of our sleigh after we arrived. Sorry these shots aren't great... but you get the idea!

And here are our horses...

They let Courtney and Kenna both climb up for a picture. When Dan took the picture of Kenna the horse lifted her head so you can't see her... but Court's turned out really cute!

Inside the restaurant...

We had a wonderful dinner... first they give you hot apple cider when you arrive to warm you up... followed by a bowl of soup and some hot bread. Then you get salad, a main dish, I had chicken, and mashed potatoes. To top it all off...like anyone would need more food that this... you get a warm brownie with ice cream. There was also some entertainment. It was so much fun!!!!! Here are my cute girls...

Me and my sweetheart...

A view of us in front of one of the big fireplaces. You can't see it in this shot, but there was a real fire going in there. So warm and cozy!

Kenna and Courtney with our real cowboys! The bigger one drove our sleigh... he was the real deal for sure!

Dan and Kenna goofing off while warming up by the fire.

This was such a fun night! On the ride down our "cowboy" let Courtney drive the sleigh. She thought that was the coolest thing ever! I think we found a new Christmas tradition!

Our Family Photo Shoot: November 2011

Here are some of our favorites of our recent photo shoot with Jill Witt. It was so much fun!!!

Isn't this one cool?

Don't tell us to attack each other with leaves if you don't mean it!!!! Me and my sweetheart...

This was so much fun... Thanks Jill! You are amazing!

Kenna's Sweet Sixteen: Day 3 ( Her Actual Birthday)

I forgot to take a picture of this at the end of the night... we will hang this in Kenna's room... This morning she woke up to this on the front door. Her Young Woman leaders came over at 1 am to hang these up so they would be sure she wasn't still awake!

Tonight we gave her the final gifts... a key chain with her car key on it... this cute hat she wanted... and a beautiful "key holder dish" that Courtney made for her at school...

We invited the Davis family over as a thank you for all their hard work the day before, to have some cake and watch the Christmas Devotional...

Hope she picked a great wish...

Kenna's birthday weeked has come to a close... it was amazing and she loved every minute of it!

Kenna Sweet Sixteen: Day 2 (December 3rd)

We wanted to throw McKenna an awesome Sweet Sixteen party... here is the announcement. She could hardly wait!On Saturday, December 3rd we headed up to the church while the girls left for the movies and lunch with Grandma and Grandpa King... Shane and Jennifer Davis were life-savers and spent their entire day helping us set up... We strung lights across the gym like starlight and hung snowflakes from them...

We got one of those frames with the huge mat for all of the kids to sign as they came in...We had a "candy bar"....We also served hot cocoa, punch, and water bottles... and this beautiful cake was made by Sara Grant. We didn't serve it at the party... but saved it for Sunday on her actual birthday. Isn't it beautiful!!!

And here is the birthday girl... Alona Reynolds did her hair special for the evening.... These are the cupcakes we served... Jennifer Davis made them to match the cake... aren't they gorgeous?! The snowflakes are made out of frosting! Just beautiful! I am so lucky to have so many taleted friends!

Once the kids started to arrive... we ended up with about 30. It was perfect!

We had Dave Bentley come and DJ the dance. He does a lot of the Stake dances, so we knew the music would be appropriate and that he would be used to hanging out with a bunch of teenagers! We had him start with some games just to get the kids interacting...

More of the kids...

And more....

One of the games... they had to get a gingerbread cookie from their forehead to their mouth without using their hands... McKenna and Heber...

Carly Calder was such a great sport with this game... it was hilarious!

Mckenna, Courtney, and Camilla got the evening started and within seconds all of the kids joined in...

Dancing...

Dan dancing with his little girl... So many great kids!

Doing some line dancing...

I love this one with Trent Benham and his sister Riley dancing....

Jennifer took this one of Dan and I... wish you could see our faces... we were probably watching to see who was slow dancing with Kenna....

Some more line dancing... they had a blast!

Cody Enslow leading some kind of "ring around the rosies" dance...

McKenna and Heber dancing....

Here they are toasting Kenna with cupcakes and singing happy birthday!

If you notice... Courtney and Camilla in this shot... how many 16 year olds would invite their little sister and her best friend to their birthday party? And actually dance with them and include them in everything?

Another Dan with her dad...

Aubrey, Carly, and Kimball trying to eat cupcakes in one bite...

Playing some kind of "tag" game... called "missionary".... I think??? They loved this game!

They could have played this one for hours!

As the evening started winding down there was a lot more of this....

Seriously... we must have wore these kids out!

Andrew Thompson helping himself to a little whip cream....

Making sure everyone had signed her picture....

It was a really fun night... I think we had as much fun as the kids did! We love all of her friends so much and we are so grateful to live in a neighborhood and area like we do, where our kids can grow up with such wonderful examples! Thanks to all of you parents of McKenna's wonderful friends... now time to go to bed!