I Like Dance At Christmastime

I swore I would never do a Christmas show. They always seem so cliche, and with so many other competing events during the holidays, there was no way we could ever get an audience for it. Right?

Foot. In. Mouth.

I really felt called to direct a Christmas show, even though Royal Stage's next production should have performed sometime in February 2012. So off we went, and a Christmas production was born.

12 Daze of Christmas was performed 3 times this weekend, and it was a hoot! I didn't dare write the script this time around - not with a 6 month old, an ever-potty training 3 year old, and having to write more for an actual paycheck again. Instead, this great play was found online, written to parody the 12 days of Christmas. Complete with a swan a swimmin' who can't swim, 4 gossipy Southern telephone operators (calling birds), and Turtle & Dove, attorneys at law....it was just super fun. We just added dances to it, and the result was just a lot of fun.

And yes, we had a good crowd all three shows, and prayers were majorly answered! We saw a lot of restoration and healing in the lives of both audience members and dancers. So grateful for that!

Royal Stage's theme for our 2nd season is "Joy." Everything we do on stage we are aiming to do to get people to smile, laugh or think about how blessed they are. Ministry through encouragement and God's beauty shining through ordinary people.

Dance has never been so fun.

Here are my favorite shots from the show:


This is everybody, minus about 8 drummers drumming. I thought my bossiness was productive during the cast photo, but as you can see, I am the only one not doing what I should be. Oops. That'll teach me.

Winter Song dance


Maryn is one of our new dancers. She is adorable, has a great attitude, and really is a blessing!

The "grown ups."


Numbers were haphazardly slapped onto a board until the big hoopla 12 came into position. As always, Brandi is brilliant.

Mary Did You Know dance....hey that baby looks familiar ;) Charlotte's debut! :)

Winter Song ladies, with the tutus that arrived THREE HOURS before the show. Phew.

8 Maids a' Milkin....on strike.

Sam was the littlest of the 12 drummers drumming :)

7 swans a swimming - 5 that could swim, one that could not...and then Jake the Olympian swan.


What Child Is This ...another new dancer with great talent, heart and choreography - first time out!
Sam hung out backstage as much as possible.


Winter Song dance

More attempts at a shot of the adult cast members.

And some of the teens give it a try.

Everybody :) <3

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy Hip Hop Remix

We had a Christmas candy art contest. This was my favorite entry. The little ice skating guys look so happy!

My favorite little drummer boy :)


A partridge, her pear tree, and a swan.




Sing We Now of Christmas dance. Thank you Kermit!!!!!!


More of Brandi's brilliance. Cutest cast list ever!!!


We never got this right....



Little Caitlyn Camacho! Remember her name!

Sam teaching dance backstage.

And now, I get a week off :) Merry Early Christmas, everybody! <3

New Little Space

I've been meaning to blog forever about how we changed the kids' room. I wanted to change Sam's for awhile, give him something more "grown up", but then when the kid's room because the KIDS' room, and especially when #2 turned out to be a GIRL...it was just time.

Beautiful, amazing Brandi helped me again. She did Sam's room when he was born, and I would never think to decorate a space without her fabulousness! She came up with the chalkboard idea and inspired me to make the room BLUE, which I never thought I would do for a girl! But I love it, and so does Sam :)

The room before:



Ahhhh look at tiny little Sam!!!!!

The room now:

Little sister's side -







Big brother's side -

6 Months Already!

How is she 6 months old already? I cannot believe how fast this year is going! She continues to bring us such joy and love, and she is Sam's favorite thing in the universe.

In other news, it is getting more and more difficult to take her monthly photo. I thought it would get easier...but I thought wrong. I will let this morning's attempt tell the story.

The Thankfulness Twig

So I've found a million projects on Pinterest I want to do. The first one was a thankfulness tree, taken from Emily's Pinterest. Go visit her blog (Masterpiece Mothering on my blogroll), because her tree came out EXACTLY like the example. That jerk ;)

Below, is our attempt. I would like to refer to it from now on as the Thankfulness TWIG because we didn't use nearly enough branches, but the point was to not buy anything and just be thankful for what we have, expressing that by ALSO doing a craft where we didn't have to buy anything. So, we had a few branches, some paper and ribbon, and a lot of fun.


Sam helped cut out the circles


Sam was thankful for a lot! Here are my 3 favorites.


All our thanks to God.


Then we stuck them on the branches.


Thankfulness Twigs! :)

Big Thing On My Heart

Please let me know via Facebook or my blog if you can help. Please do not think someone else will do it. Because they don't. It's up to you. 

Okay blog readers, when did it become okay to put up Christmas decorations right after Halloween? I am really feeling the pressure to get going with holiday things between producing a Christmas production, trying to budget for gifts, etc. Before we know it, Christmas is gonna start right after 4th of July!

So many of you have seen my pleas to get involved before, and I thank you so much for always taking note of it. It is refreshing to hear encouragement, prayers and stories about how you are going to help Royal Stage, or even better, how Royal Stage has helped you.

We are currently at our maximum capacity. We have the funds to function, but like many other great groups right now, it is a struggle to meet our demand with what we have. This is mainly because so many participants need scholarships, and we don't want to turn anyone away. However, we also do not want to compromise the quality of our acting, singing and dance coaches or the outreaches we take on.

 I suppose you could say the ultimate dream of Royal Stage is to sustain what we have, and to rejoice as we continue to outgrow - which we definitely are starting to!

I will be totally straight with you here - I have 800 facebook friends, and I know every single one of them personally. I've been blessed to have wonderful friendships at each season of life, and I cherish the memories and current happenings of each one of them. So, as a friend, I am confiding in you that I am going to have to step down from ministry fully if I am unable to both work hard to meet all the demands of this group and support my family.

You have all been such joyful givers, but now we really need to push through this holiday season to get enough funds to scholarship dancers, pay our staff, plan our shows and outreaches, and most importantly - continue to tithe to the two other causes we believe in:

• Clean water for Africa
• A new life for those being imprisoned by human sex trafficking. (Sacramento is one of the cities in the United States with the biggest occurrence of child prostitution. Imagine the increase of joy in lives as they are caught up in dance and drama classes at an early age in the inner city, rather than wandering around and feeling useless. Good self worth can prevent such heartbreaking situations).

Our goal is to raise $1000 monthly support for this amazing group. God has provided for us in so many ways, He has never let us down. But we are also fully aware He uses people to get this done. Royal Stage has been just a phenomenal part of my life, as well as many, many others. We would love to share those amazing stories with you.

Please consider looking into your heart and committing to donate just $5 or $10 per month to help keep everything not only going, but growing. We can thank you through regular newsletters, advertising spots if you own a business, and other ways you will be blessed.

If you are a Christian, you know you are partnering with us in something incredible and eternal. Changing girls' lives one at a time. If you are not really all about the Jesus thing, you can still be an amazing friend and support because it is important to me. I will commit to do my best in encouraging you in the things that are important to you!

Thank you so, so much for reading this. I love your heart <3

You Can Help Right Here! Scroll to bottom of linked page.