The Singing Queen

Well, it's January. Christmas has come and gone, the holiday craziness has settled down a bit, and now it's time to share a couple of things from Christmas '09.

This was the first Christmas where Chad and I really had to think hard about what to get the kids. Up to this point it's been pretty easy to come up with a ton of things. We wanted to make sure we weren't buying things just to buy something, and after a lot of brainstorming we found the perfect gift - CD boomboxes for the kids rooms. If you haven't figured it out by now, music is a HUGE part of our every day life here in Libbyland. Probably the biggest thing that motivates Peyton with her speech is music, so really, it was a no-brainer. We did some searching around on-line and found one for Carson right away (can't go wrong with anything "Cars" these days). Finding one for Peyton was a bit more of a challenge, but after several days of searching, I found it - the motherload of all boomboxes...at least for Peyton. It didn't really matter what "theme" it was (Disney Princess), but it had a MICROPHONE with it. Lord Almighty, this product was MEANT for Peyton!!!

Another present we picked up for Peyton was a robe. The girl is OBSESSED with wearing my robe. So I found one in her favorite color and figured it might be a hit. Christmas morning we opened gifts with the kids. Peyton opened her robe first. She hadn't even fully opened it yet when she jumped up, started stripping her clothes off and was yelling "I wanna wear it!". So she opened the rest of her presents in her robe. Nothing else. Just her robe. Apparently the robe was a good choice. Once presents were opened we busted out the boomboxes and got them all set up in the kids rooms. Peyton spent most of Christmas break in her room, in her robe, singing with her new boombox/microphone.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! Hard to believe another holiday season has come and gone!

Here are a couple of videos of the kids singing and then a picture of Peyton in all her glory - wearing her robe and holding her microphone before her very first performance Christmas morning. :)

Merry Christmas!

Wow, can ya tell it's getting close to Christmas???? Sheesh, nothing like posting once every 45 days or so - sorry for the big gap in updates. There's just WAY too much stuff going on around here. Time to slow down and take a few minutes to brag on my sweet munchkins. This past week we had their Christmas programs (and yes, I did just say CHRISTMAS, not "holiday" programs). I was a little nervous how Peyton would do. We'd been talking her through all that was going to happen for several days and how we were so excited to hear her songs (even though she'd been singing them night and day "practicing" here at home). Well the big day came and she did AWESOME...better than many of the "typical" kids, so yay God for that!! I know this'll come as a shocker to many of you, but I took video (and a thousand pictures) of each of the kids' programs and they're absolutely LOVING being able to watch them over and over. Thankfully I've got a new computer set-up so I can plop them in the chair at the extra work station and they can push the space bar to their little hearts desire, playing the videos over and over.

Carson managed to score the part of Joseph (could it possibly have had something to do with his overly-animated-eat-up-the-spotlight personality??) and he did a great job. He led Mary into Bethlehem on her donkey and in to the stable. Unfortunately, after baby Jesus arrived Mary was showing signs of postpartum depression and sat in the corner of the stable wanting nothing to do with the baby. So Joseph stepped in and laid baby Jesus in the manger and watched over him while the angels and wise men arrived. What a sweet story to be able to tell him as he gets old! :) After the Christmas play came the Christmas music. Of course, Carson decided he needed to be front and center with his buddies Isaac and Colin. Those three did a great job carrying the group as they sang their whole slew of songs.

Here are a few videos of the kids at their programs -





We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!