4 Busy Whites

Well, it's finally happened.....boy/girl birthday party at our house! Chelcie had about 30 friends over. We set up the front yard with tiki torches and a couple of fire pits that we borrowed. Once everyone arrived, they were divided into 6 groups. I had 6 AMAZING FRIENDS (including Lolo!) volunteer to drive for a La Quinta scavenger hunt! Each team had 10 places to go. Some places required a photo be taken with a camera phone and other places required an item be brought back: a napkin from Chipotle, take out menu from Lamp Post Pizza, a cup sleeve from Starbucks, a golden spoon from Golden Spoon Yogurt, a picture at the Middle school, a picture at Mc Donald's playland, a picture at the skatepark with a random skater, etc. The first team made it back in about 22 minutes. Chelcie's team came in last place. It was hilarious and the kids all had a great time. About 8:30 a drizzle started and then the rain came. We all headed to our back yard where there is a covering. The party ended about 10 and Chelcie had 6 friends stay the night. She is so blessed to be surrounded by amazing friends. It was awesome having Nick here hanging out too!

Chelcie had a great start to her birthday when at 6:50 in the morning her friends Mackenzie and Ashley came by our house and surprised her and brought her favorite Starbucks drink...Cinnamon Dolce Latte. They all headed off to school and she had a great day! When Doug got home from work he and I sat down with Chelcie and gave her a purity ring. She has been asking for one and was hoping she would get one for her birthday. Doug was amazing as he spent several days praying and considering how he might present this gift to her. He gave her the ring, which has a large heart and a smaller one. He explained to her that the large one represents her heavenly father and the smaller one represents us, her parents. We wanted to give her a symbol of the committment she has made to herself and the Lord that she would remain pure until marriage. What a wonderful gift that ring would be to give her future husband on her wedding day! I pray she will continue to have a heart with this desire.

We met up with Mark, Sandy, Louise and Bob at Chelcie's fave place: Lamp Post Pizza. Afterward we headed to our house for cake and presents. Madison and I made a cake for Chelcie (chocolate, of course!) and she loved it.

Stuff to decorate her room is what she was wanting. Madison got her a great picture of the Eiffel Tower and we got her a message board for her room. She has been buying bedding, a nightstand, picture frames and all kinds of stuff to re-decorate her room so it will be fun for her to put it all together.

Chelcie is such a blessing to us and God has used her in my life in amazing ways.

Love this blanket with Orange Blossom!

Showered with birthday goodies! Love those M&Ms and canned peas!

Friday night was the Winter Ball at Chelcie's school. It was quite fun getting a dress (Madison picked it out actually!), shoes, etc. Our friend Andrea came over to help out with Chelcie's make-up while I curled her hair. She looked absolutely beautiful! Just about brought her dad to tears seeing his "little girl". Lots of friends met up at our house for pictures and then off to the dance. They all headed to another friend's house for the "after party" then Chelcie got home. She had a great time but suffered from sore feet for the next day! Ahh the price we women pay to look good.....

For Christmas, "Santa" brought our family the gift of tickets to the production of Hairspray at the McCallum Theatre. We have been counting down the days until our big night finally arrived. First, we headed to a wonderful restaurant called Hibachi. The have a sushi bar and cook at teppan tables right in front of you. The girls love Japanese food and we thought it would be a nice treat and a great way to spend our Christmas money (thank you Grammy!)Madison and Kym had steak, Chelcie had chicken and shrimp (yep, she loves shrimp!) and Doug had steak and scallops. They were the best scallops I think we have ever tasted! They all did great catching shrimp in their mouths.....Chelcie says it's from all those years in the outfield! From dinner we headed to the theatre. Madison kept hoping that Zac Efron would be in the crowd but no such luck! We had a good time despite the production being a bit more racy than the movie version. Madison's comment at the end when asked if she liked it "well that was awkward!" For the most part we had fun singing along with our favorite songs, laughing and appreciating the talents of the actors. The girls said they will remember this for their whole lives! It was a great Christmas present.