Candlelight 2008

Wow, what an amazing experience it all was. Such a great show and amazing reaction from those who watched as well.

Our day started off by arriving by 12:30pm. Then waited for the practice to start. We went through all of the songs with just the choir and then added the orchestra, hand bells, and heralding trumpeters. Wow, were they loud. Beautiful, but loud. Then we had a break to eat and after that we started getting ready to line up and for more instructions. Then we lined up into 6 huge rows and got our robes on and our little stoles (little collar things). We got to get our fake candles too. :)

Then we started walking. We had about a quarter to half mile walk to get to the right gate to start. We went under the train and everyone was waving their candles. It was awesome. 4 cast members started it and everyone followed. Then we started the procession down the parade route. The funny thing is that we didn't even know what songs we were going to be singing as we did the procession until we heard them playing and started singing them. We knew they were just random carols, but still. I think we should have at least known what songs they were. We sang the same like 3 songs over and over and over until we were finally all up in the risers. We ended at the beginning of Main Street (right in front of the train station).

John Stamos was the narrator this year. He read the Christmas story and it was so awesome to have this message being said to all of those people at Disneyland. It's the most "christian" day at Disneyland. He did a wonderful job of narrating and told of how he used to come to watch Candlelight and how he is a local and goes to Disneyland a lot. He was such a jokester when we were rehearsing. It was cool to see that fun side of him.

The performance went wonderful. Scott and the girls were there watching the first one. Then they went to go on rides. We got to hang out in the Lincoln Theater during our break. They even had a cool dance light on outside. We took a group picture with everyone we could find. Before we knew it, it was time to line up again.

My foot was already hurting before I even got to Disneyland. Let alone all of the walking and standing we did. At one point I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to walk off the risers. But then the pain would subside and I could move it again. I don't know what I did to it. It was hurting on the arch of my foot and radiating to the outside and up. I wasn't the only one who had some kind of thing happen. From what I heard, 3 people went down during the first performance. I didn't see it happen cuz they were all on the opposite side of where I was. We were crammed like sardines, so it's a miracle how they got them off.

The second performance in my opinion was the best. I was able to hit every high note and it felt very good. I was trying to conserve my voice in the first performance so I didn't attempt every one the first time. They told us to do this. Not go for every one if we feel our voice getting shaky. I didn't want to lose my voice. And I didn't...so I was glad I did that. What was awesome is that I could actually see my friends, Don and Amy in the audience. I couldn't believe it. I didn't think there was any chance of seeing anyone I knew in the audience. There were just so many masses of people there, that I thought it was impossible. But there they were cheering us on. I was trying so hard not to wave. hehe

We got to re-enter the park if we wanted to. Plus, they gave us 2 free tickets to come back anytime. So, I'm sure we'll be giving those to someone to use. We also go the opportunity before that night to purchase sweatshirts. And the only way you can get these sweatshirts is by being in the choir. So, of course I got one. I'll wear it proudly.

We caught up with some of the ladies we came with and hung out at Downtown Disney (DTD) a while. Scott and the girls were already at the car about to leave. We kept getting stopped by people telling us thank you and how beautiful it was. Or how much they love it. Or that they come every year. From what I hear, the seats that are reserved were sold out in 3 hours. It's a dining package plus a seat. (And NOT cheap.) Everyone else gets to stand. We kept our robes on for most of the night in DTD because it was so cold. It felt a little silly wearing them, but it was cool too. Cuz people kept stopping us.

We had a great night and it was so fun getting to know some of the ladies in choir better. We were such a huge choir that I was seeing people everywhere that were with us. We were the second largest choir (80). The largest was the Disneyland Employee Choir (125). Most of the choirs were high school choirs or college choirs. Only a couple church choirs. It really was a ministry because not everyone singing really believed in what they were singing. Not necessarily all people in a high school or college choir would be Christians. And of course the audience.

I really hope people were touched as much as I was by this experience. The ladies talked on our way home about whether we would do it again. We all said yes, because the benefits far outweigh the costs.

PLEASE leave a comment if you were there so I'll know. There really is no way of knowing unless you tell me. :) And of course, feel free to leave any comments. I love getting them.

Scott told me when we got home that they announced what choirs were singing in the performance and when they mentioned Whittier Area Community Church, we got a huge roar of clapping and yelling. That was cool. I wish we could have heard it. There must have been lots of supporters out there from church or fellow Whittierites. Another choir from Whittier sang with us too. The Pioneer High School choir.

Christmas Is Upon Us

What a wonderful time of year. And the running around has already begun. One thing we have as a fairly new tradition (this is the 3rd year). Is that we are doing an Advent calendar. Each day we do something special together as a family. For the first day of Advent I was able to go to the movies with my friend, Monica. We had a great girly time watching "4 Christmases". Then we all (both families) went to dinner at Round Table. Oh...such good pizza. I hadn't been there in so long. It just happened to turn into a celebration dinner too. Because while Monica and I were in the theater, she got an amazingly good phone call from her doctor telling her that her bone scan was good. Benign tumor and no cancer in her bones. What huge news!!!! So we had a good ol' celebration with pizza.

Today is our 14 year dating anniversary (this time). We decided to keep celebrating this anniversary by exchanging ornaments. So, when our kids arrived we started making it a family thing. So Scott and I find an ornament for each other and Courtney and Skyler find an ornament for each other. So that will be our Advent thing for today.

The kids keep saying all of these cute things and I keep forgetting to write them down or get them on here. So, I'll try to be better at that.

Today I have the joy of putting all of the loose ends together for MOPS tomorrow. So many last minute things to get or think about. It's the last MOPS of the semester, so it's a special day. I'll be at church later tonight decorating for it. I'm sooo looking forward to tomorrow. It's always such a special day.

Tomorrow night I have one last choir performance before Candlelight that is on Sunday. Disneyland actually has 2 nights of Candlelight (Sat and Sun), but I will only be performing at the one on Sunday. Not that I would see you, but it would be wonderful if anyone wants to come. I have heard that it is quite the experience and as a bonus, John Stamos is the narrator. From what I have heard, we start at Small World and have a procession (while singing) down the parade route all the way to the end of main street. Then we sing the rest there. The performance times are 5:30pm and 8pm.

Friday is Courtney's musical for school at 7pm. The performance is at First Love Calvary Chapel on Hadley Street and Milton Avenue. And that's after a choir practice at church right before that for her other choir (from church).

Saturday is the Dress Rehearsal for the Choir performances on the weekend. At 5pm on Sat. Courtney has one and Sun she has 2 at 9:30am and 11:10am. Then I'm on my way to Candlelight.

As I said, Christmas is upon us. I think this will be one of our busiest weekends of the season.

A little shout out to Kristy and Jason Rosander for being the first people to send us a Christmas card. You guys are on top of it!! A picture and letter. So fun. We are still waiting for our proofs to send ours out. Not to mention not writing the letter yet either. lol

I can't believe I haven't mentioned this. TWILIGHT came out!!!!!!!!!!! And boy was it good. I have already seen it 3 times. Isn't that a little crazy?! It is to me, but it's so good. I don't think I have ever seen a movie that many times in the theater. We hardly ever go to the movies (even though I love it). So seeing a movie 3 times in 1 week is out of the norm. I saw it once with Heidi, once with my mom, and once with Scott, Bryan, and Shauna. It was so fun to see it through the guy's eyes the last time. But at least they kind of can get it a little bit when we talk about it.

We have all of the Christmas decorations up and the lights. It's so much fun. The girls love looking at lights as we drive anywhere. They have a new and bigger appreciation of them this year. That was very evident when we first saw them. They get super excited. Ooh, a snowman, ooh a tree, etc...

Ok, I hope you liked the "Elf Yourself" below. It was fun making it. It's so much better than the one that was out last year. I'm glad they updated it.

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Updates

There are always a million things going on in the Steinman house, but sometimes are more than others. So, I thought I would do a few updates.

Choir is going well. We had our huge choir practice with a lot of the choirs that are going to sing at Candlelight. It was a very interesting practice. So many people.

I had a huge inventory clearance sale (open house)for PartyLite at my house on Friday. It was so insane to see how much I was willing to part with and how much I still had after doing that too. Lots of people showed up. PartyLite was also doing an awesome guest special so lots of people decided to order from the catalog too just to get those awesome deals. Need some Christmas presents??? I still have sooo much stuff that I am willing to sell. Most of it is straight from the box and never used. A few things have been used at some shows and others have been used a bunch at shows or in my house (so those are 75% off). Let me know if you want to see what I have. It's always nice to get a good deal.

Ahh Twilight. I went to the movies to see Twilight, of course! It came out this weekend. It was soooooooo good. I wasn't disappointed at all. It was very true to the first book. Some things they elaborated on that weren't talked about much in the book. It definitely made it interesting to say the least. It was suspenseful and left you with a feeling that you knew it wasn't over. (Of course not, there are 3 other books.) Ahh that Edward high feeling. lol You Twilight peeps will know what I mean.

Courtney has a possible print job. She's on the short list for one job. They're still deciding though, so it might not happen, but it's fun to think she has a chance. They asked for more recent pics of the kids in the running. So I sent a few. I'll post the ones I sent so you can see.





We got our Christmas pictures done yesterday. It was fun to see my friend, Lia again. Courtney wasn't feeling all that great though because she still had a fever from an ear infection. On Sunday early morning Courtney couldn't sleep. She kept waking up in pain and crying because her ear hurt. She kept begging me to take her to the hospital to get an "anbiotic shot" as she calls it. So, I took her to the hospital at 3 something in the morning. They gave her some meds. Thankfully, not a shot. We got home at about 5:30am and then went to sleep finally. She got the fever to go along with her infection on Sunday morning after she woke up. But that's already gone.

I have lots of new pics to share but I will have to upload them first.

Biggest Loser

Ok, so who watched it last night???? I love this show. It is so motivational. Ok, so I was watching it instead of going to Step class and taping it. lol But I'm letting my neck recover for one more week before going back to Step.

And all of America cheers as Amy votes off Brady! The only thing that would have been better would be if Vicky or Heba was voted off. But that wasn't going to happen this week. I have hope.

So, what does everyone think of Vicky? Seriously, she is bordering on insane. Does she not realize how obvious she is being? She treats Phil and Amy so bad. She's horrible. I'm glad Phil didn't get back so that he didn't have to endure Heba or Vicky. Even though Phil was really the only one who deserved to come back (most weight loss over all of those who got kicked off already). Oh, and I love how Bob totally sees right through everything she does and knows what she's all about.

Video

Please watch this video. It's so sweet. It made me cry.

Only 2 days yet so much happened

So, let's start with Friday. Friday was so much fun as it was Halloween. The girls were very excited to put their costumes on and go. Courtney got her 1st hair cut ever. She just got a trim of about 2 1/2 inches. But now it looks healthier at the bottom. I had only ever cut a tiny piece off of one side because it was so much longer than the rest of her hair when she was tiny. So, this was the first real cut. Aww.

Shawn, Rani, Steven, Willow, and Autumn (my brother, sister in law, nephew and nieces) came down to spend Halloween with us. The kids couldn't have been happier to spend the night with them. We started the night off going to Scott's parent's house so we could trick or treat them really early. And they could see their costumes and all. Then we headed over to the Guthrie's house. The kids got to hang out for a tiny bit and we got to lend a crown to Kate to enhance her cute costume. The kids had a blast. We then headed over to my Grandparents house (5:30). We were meeting my mom, my brother's family and my grandparents there. We always go to trick or treat them because I remember always doing that when we were little. So, I wanted to keep up with that tradition. Then we headed home to eat some food. We had to wait for the pizza to arrive, which we weren't anticipating taking so long. Apparently everyone wanted pizza. My Aunt Maureen came over to hang out with us too. Then Rani and the kids came over and we all went trick or treating on our block. We have never actually trick or treated that much. It was fun and the kids had so much energy. They would have lasted a lot longer, but we all decided we were done. They already had a ton of candy. We then went over to my mom's house to see my dad and brother. They were working on his moterhome since he would be leaving the following day for Colorado. We had fun hanging out and spending time with them. It was sad to say goodbye to Shawn. Last I heard, he was heading into Utah, so I'm assuming he's to Colorado by now. (Sunday) So, that was our eventful Halloween.

Saturday had much more in store for us. First of all we were getting ready for a Halloween party at our house for our Sunday school class that would start at 5. Then we had Courtney's audition before that. It's her first print audition (modeling). It was for H&M (a clothing company). Anyway...as we are headed there we get in a car accident. Less then half a mile from our house. We were headed east on Lambert and had just accelerated after our green light turned crossing Colima. It had just been sprinkling so the ground was slick. All of a sudden all of the cars in front of us were stopped. So we slammed on our breaks just barely NOT hitting the car in front of us. The reason why everyone was stopped was because a cop was coming towards oncoming traffic (on our side) with his lights on and siren. So we barely miss hitting the car in front of us. But the car behind us slammed on their brakes and according to him the car kept sliding towards us anyway like his brakes locked or something. It was a hard hit. And by some miracle, we don't hit the car in front of us. (Even though he did end up pulling over to check his car. He must have heard the loud crunching noise.) So, we pull over to make sure every one's ok. Then decide to pull over on Mills (the next street) so we won't be blocking traffic. Everyone seemed fine and I was SHOCKED that the back end of our car wasn't crunched. I was expecting it. There were 2 tiny little puncture marks from the screws of his license plate frame on our car. That's it! His car however lost some paint in the front. They had a small car though so it probably went partially under our car. (We were in the van.) They were so nice and apologetic too. He even said that he had never been in an accident before. So we exchanged information and went on our way. As we got out of the car the second time my neck started hurting a little bit. And by the time we were on the freeway to go to LA, my head and neck were hurting.

So, we get to Courtney's audition. Skyler was asleep so Scott stayed with her in the car. We walked up 4 flights of stairs to the place and there were several people there already waiting. We all were getting a little agitated that the doors weren't open yet. We got there at 1 and the auditions were supposed to go from 1-3. (Show up any time between there.) So, we wait. Thankfully I had stuff with me for Courtney to do. Then this guy comes up the stairs with boxes of food in his hands and goes in the door. We're like, oh great. Then the same guys comes back out without saying a word and takes off the sign on the door that says "the doors will be open at 1"...to "the doors will be open at 2". All of the parents are getting livid at this point. Come on. Don't tell us to come between 1-3 if you aren't opening the doors until 2. Ug! But you drive all this way, so I didn't want to leave without actually auditioning. And the kids were all doing really great. Playing games and coloring and stuff like that. So, one of the moms calls our agent (we have the same one). Then the agent calls the lady in charge of the audition (who was inside). Apparently it worked because she came out apologizing and letting us in. Thankfully we came when we did because there were now a lot of people there. When the sign went up that it wasn't going to open until 2 we started making our own sign in sheet. Everyone was getting worried with the amount of people who were there that no one would remember. So, we created our own to be fair. We were 8th on the list. So, when the lady came out, she took the first 15. Woho! We're in. Once we were in, it didn't take long at all. They asked for her info, measured her to see how tall she is, and took a few pictures of her. Done. So, thankfully all of the drama was a good distraction from my neck hurting. On the way home, however, I started feeling it again.

We had a few hours to play with the kids and get ready for the party. We had a wonderful Halloween party. The Lang, Mrla, Rodriguez, Canada, Wilson, Joel, and Rubio families joined us for a great night of gaming. We played Mafia a couple times and Monica dominated one game. We also played Catch Phrase and Cranium. It was so much fun. My neck and head was hurting during the party. And how sweet of Amy to give me a little massage. :)

So, that was the 2 days and a crazy 2 days it was. Mainly compounded by the accident and major adrenaline rush from that. So, it's Sunday after church now and my neck is still hurting. My head isn't so bad right now. But my neck is more stiff and sore. I'm going to go to urgent care at least to have it looked at to be sure and to have it documented and all of that. Just in case. Scott's on his way to Disneyland right now to renew his pass and come back and then I'll be going to urgent care. We would just go with him to Disneyland later, but there is no way I would go there right now. Any major bump would just aggravate it. Ok, I'm going to post this and then post pictures of all of the events later.

Comments

Ok, so I didn't realize that just anyone couldn't post a comment. So, I fixed that and anyone can comment on my blog. Just click the "name" option and you can put your name there so I know who is commentiing. Or you can use your blogger id or google id if you prefer that. Thank you Susie for telling me you couldn't comment. :)

So many updates

Warning! There will be lots of pictures to follow. I figured I might as well make this one long post instead of several small ones.

We had a harvest festival at Courtney's preschool (Whittier Christian). The following pics were from that.

Shauna and I

The family dressed up for the pic.

Some of Courtney's friends from school. We found out her best friend from school (Charis) will be moving out of country. Her family is becoming a missionary family. Courtney, Sami, Charis, and Kaitlyn


This one is from school on the harvest party day.

Ms. Taylor at the Harvest Family night.

Saturday night the 11th we went to Corona to see Susie and Adam one last time before they go home to Colorado. We met at Tom's Farms.

Isn't this starting a little young? Courtney and Zachary sitting by themselves behind the tree.

We went to the park on the 14th with Randi, Madi, Joshua, my mom, Court and Sky. The kids had so much fun. This is not a very well known park. There was no one there for a while, then only like 2 other kids later.

Madi and Court playing on the playground.

All of the kids on the tire swing. (Yes, there is a little lake in the background.)

I kept trying to get this shot. Courtney flying in the air on that swing.

CHEESE!!!

Having a picnic at the park.

The girls also learned how to fly a kite too. They both did a great job.

On the 18th we went to Allie, Matt, Emma, and Daylen's Halloween party. The kids loved playing in the bouncer in the garage and all of the play stuff too. And of course sneaking lots of candy upstairs.

This year Courtney is Jasmine and Skyler is a Pirate.

Love this picture of Matt and Allie. It was so great to hang out with my bud.

Several of the kids posing for a picture on the stairs. Funny face pic.

On the 20th we had a very exciting day. First of all, Courtney had her second audition. This one was for a Hasbro commercial. There were a bunch of kids at this one. But still was a very fast experience. Once we got registered on their computer with their casting place we were called right away and left about 5 minutes later. lol She said she did everything they told her to do. She had to say her name and age. She had to hold a doll and pretend that the doll was sick. Then she had to say that it was all better. Then she had to pretend she was surprised. When she was telling us this it was so hilarious. She shows us her surprised face (which was very good), then she says, "And here is another one." Then she proceeds to show us a different surprised face (also good). It was soooo funny. We were laughing so hard. Like, see, I know how to do it, mom. And here is another way to do it. lol

Then we got home just as Scott was getting home from work so we ate dinner and left for Disneyland. We were meeting the Guthries there. AKA...all of the best friends. Jack and Skyler call each other best friends now. And Kate and Courtney are best buds too. It's so cute because they were Skyler and Jack's age when they became best friends too. So adorable. Anyway, after a while of trying to find them among the midst of the millions watching the parade, we finally found them. We had a great time.

Now starts our camping trip. At 4 AM on Wednesday morning we were picked up to head up to Antioch, CA. We were heading up to Doug and Jody's house (cousins) to stay for a couple days for Jamie's wedding.

Wednesday night we went over to Jim and Georgia's (cousins) house for dinner. This is Katie and the girls. They love their cousin Katie.

This is at the wedding on Thursday the 23rd. Jamie and Kory were married in the mountains. It was beautiful scenery.

The kids waiting for the wedding to start.

The girls from the bridal party. The bride and the 2 on the bride's left are my cousins. (Jamie, Summer, and Christy)

In hindsight not the best one to pick, but this was their first dance.

So sweet. During the father daughter dance Jamie danced with her father (Doug) and Kory danced with his daughter Hannah.

The next day we went to Jamie's house to return her car (I got to drive it there.) and see her beautiful new house. It was amazing. Then we drove to the campgrounds. The next day we went to the apple farms to check them out. So many kids, so many things to do. Ok, so I realized I don't know one of the names of the kids. Oh well.

Kailyn, ____, Eric, Kade (Kaden), Hannah, Katie, Courtney, and Skyler

The kids got to ride on horses. Courtney got to ride one of the big ones. She was so excited to ride a horse.

Skyler got to ride a pony and I had to go around with her. She liked it too and held on so well. She was almost falling off of it though. I'm glad they had me go with her.

All of the kids loved the play room at Doug and Jody's house. They were watching a movie.

Courtney trying on Hannah's flower girl dress. It fit her perfect. Ok, now take it off.

On Saturday we had all of the kids try on random costumes so we could do a trick or treating with them. We thought they were doing it camp wide, so we all bought candy for it. But turns out they weren't doing it. So, we just did our own. The kids went around the campfire saying trick or treat to all of the adults.

Courtney picked Ariel and Skyler picked Jasmine

Some of the costumes

The next day we had a small baby shower for Joey and Liz. They figured since we all were going to be up there that we might as well take the opportunity to do it. Joey is my cousin (Jamie's brother) It was a nice surprise that Jamie and Kory came camping with us too after their wedding. I thought they would be immediately leaving for their honeymoon, but they weren't leaving until Tuesday so decided to go camping with us all. It was so fun.

So, we're home now and I'm so glad. Because we went further away to camp it made our drive home be even longer. We were driving practically all day on Sunday. But we finally got home.

One other thing. Courtney's performance for her school is NOT going to be the same day as Candlelight. WOHO!!! I'm so excited. It's going to be on Friday December 5th at 7pm at First Love Calvary Chapel in Uptown Whittier.

Wow, that was huge. Serves me right for waiting so long to blog.

Soccer Girl

A cute video for you to watch. We were playing soccer outside just kicking the ball back and forth. Then Skyler just starts dribbling the ball all around the yard. We were shocked. No one showed her how to do this. She's 2! It's crazy. She really has a natural physical ability for soccer. Well, for many sports actually. Then Courtney learned how to kick a ball as it was coming to her (while running to it to kick). I was proud. She is also learning how to drop kick a ball too.

Candlelight

We made it!!!!!!!!!!!!! David's going to get the exact stats for this year, but he says that usually about 220 choirs try out for it and only about 20 make it. I'm so excited.

Don't Marry Uncle Adam. He Stinks.

Yes, that's one of the lessons the kids have learned since Susie and Adam came down from Colorado. Courtney felt a little bad for Aunt Susie, because she said it was too late for her. She already married him. lol We have had a great time spending time with them. We got to be in on the surprise that they were coming early. It was fun to hear their parent's reactions that they were here early. Unfortunately, that meant that they weren't exactly ready, though, so we all helped with the cleaning process for the shower the next day. The baby shower went well. It was lots of fun. Then they came over Monday and we all played Wii for a while in the morning. The girls got to hang out with them a little bit. Then we went back over to Linda and Dave's (my in laws) for dinner. Scott and Susie's Grandma and Uncle were there too. So fun having them here. Now they're at the Shoemaker's house until Sunday morning. We're hoping to see them one more time before they head back up to home.

Baby Shower Pictures

Skyler rolling the hula hoop around.

Courtney and Zachary jumping rope. She can do it 2 times in a row now.

Skyler and I at the shower

Scott and I at the shower

Susie and I

Courtney and I

Heidi and Susie

Heidi with her broken foot.

Beka and Susie
(Beka brought all of the beautiful balloons.)

Kathy (Adam's Mom) and I

My Aunt Maureen and Mom

Monica and I..this one looks a little funny cuz I was trying to sharpen a very blurry picture.

The kids in Linda and Dave's bedroom hanging out and watching a mini DVD player.

Amy and I

It was so fun because Monica, Amy and I kept passing the ribbons back and forth to each other when we caught the other saying one of the words we weren't supposed to say. Monica ended up the winner.

The huge line of towels and clothes and things for Susie from Hilary.

Shauna and I

Sky rolling the hula hoop again.

The day after

Courtney, Me, Skyler, Scott, Grandma, Uncle Bob

Susie and Adam with Grandma and Uncle Bob

Susie and Courtney

Susie and Skyler

Susie and her neices

Harvest Week

This week is Harvest week at school and they all are encouraged to dress up like farmers, cowgirls/boys or scarecrows. She actually wore the scarf all day at school. Very surprising since she wanted to take it off before we even got to school. They had a Harvest party today too.

Skyler wanted her hair like Courtney's so I did double french braids for both of them this morning.