Un Teatro de Navidad... Featuring Nathan and Jonathan White!

As many of you know, we are part of a church plant in Picassent, Spain.  We love our little church!  We meet in a little cafe on Sunday mornings, and we are growing so much that we are now looking for a larger place to meet!  It's exciting times, seeing the Lord moving and changing lives! 

This is the at the Town Hall in Torrente

We are a church plant off of a larger church in a nearby town.  They were doing a Christmas outreach in their town hall the Saturday before Christmas and invited our kids to do a little skit as part of the evening program.  The boys worked hard.  Nathan was Joseph and Jonathan was a visitor who came to visit baby Jesus. We initially tried it with Carolina as Mary, but we soon found out that it was a bit too difficult for her.  I think if it had been in English, it would've been fine.  But being in Spanish, she was having to learn new words and new word order, on top of memorizing so many lines.  So, we decided to hand it off to one of the older girls. :)  Maybe Carolina will make her debut next year... :)

It's all in Spanish, but for those who'd like to see it, here's the video!  We missed the first couple lines, but close enough... haha... :)

Jonathan's 9th birthday

Jonathan turned 9 on December 14th.  It was in the midst of all of us being sick, so it was a little crazy.  Thankfully, Jonathan wasn't sick, so we went ahead with our celebration. :)

He chose french toast for his birthday breakfast

The first thing Jonathan wanted to do on his birthday was open presents!  He wanted all day to be able to play with them...and how could we argue with that? :)

His last gift had to be hidden under a blanket, because the from would have given it away. :)

The guitar was a gift from my mom and dad... it's a 3/4 size (or a 'Spanish guitar'), and it was actually made in Valencia!  Jonathan LOVES music!

 By the time the afternoon came around, Carolina was sick.  It was a little crazy how the kids kinda fell like dominos.  Carolina wanted to sleep, so she went to bed super early without even eating dinner! So... it was a bit of a strange birthday celebration without our girlie.  All the boys commented on it.  It was a little sad without the joy and energy of Carolina, but we did what we could... :)

Of course, the cake is ALWAYS a big deal with our kids.  They tell me their theme, and mom figures out a way to make it.  Jonathan loves monster trucks.  This one was fun and easy to make... we kind of improvised as we went, and it turned out ok!

He liked it so much, it ended up all over his face. :)

Happy Birthday to my sweet boy!

Underground River Expedition

I'm super behind in my posts, but I guess it's just that time of year... between Thanksgiving, Jonathan's birthday, Christmas programs and outreaches, and Christmas itself, it sure is busy!! :)  Here are a couple pics of our outing with Mom and Dad to the underground river just half hour away from us.

It was a pretty drive a short way into the mountains... it was a cold day, but beautiful!

on the drive there...

We never get family pictures, so we decided to try a couple while we were waiting.

 This was right at the beginning of the cavern. 

There were some places on the river where we all had to put our heads down into the boat in order to pass through the tight places.  It was incredible.  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside on the river itself, so we just have a few from the beginning.

It was definitely off season, so it was a bit cold and some of the restaurants right there were closed down, but it was perfect for us!  It was quiet and calm.  No lines.  Room for the kids to run around and play while we were waiting for our tour.  It was definitely a worth-while experience!  When you come to visit us, we'll have to take you there! ;)

Pics from Thanksgiving!

Getting the turkey in the oven

We always have to use turkey bags because we don't have a pan big enough... and this turkey took up every inch of our oven!!

A simple breakfast... gluten free muffins and napolitanas with coffee!

Just before eating... not sure why we didn't get a pic with all of us sitting down!!  haha...

After eating an entire plate of food, Carolina begged and begged for the turkey leg.  I really didn't think she's eat it, but...

she sure did!... every last little bit!

Gulliver's Park

In the center of the city is a park called Gulliver's Park.  It's a HUGE likeness of Gulliver (from Gulliver's Travels) laying on the ground, tied down with ropes... and out of that form, they created a gigantic park!... slides galore... and lots more!  It's free to get into, and it's definitely one of the kids favorite places to play.

Can you see Gulliver?  You are looking at him from the side and seeing his arm and leg.  We're missing the head from this angle, but you get the idea.  There are a million different slides all throughout his clothes and his hair.  His sword is sitting in the rocks to the right of the pic... you can see the handle of it.

So, now that you have the big picture, I'm just going to share a ton of pics.  They are definitely worth more than words in this instance. :)

Ready?

heading up to the top of the big slide

Don't their faces just say it all??? :)

I know this is a ton of pics, but there were just so many good, fun ones!!  I couldn't resist.  :)

Weston, sitting on the handle of the sword

She's got to be one of the coolest Grandmommy's around!

As you can see, we had a blast riding all the different slides.  Oh and... Dad was here with us.  haha... he took care of our stuff on the bench! :)  Somebody's got to do it, right???