25 Days of Christmas & Lately

I didn't mean to leave you all hanging after such a "downer" post but I haven't felt well and we have been super busy!  Funny story, the night I wrote that post I had a dream that I was in some sort of fighting Satan bootcamp.  It was pretty comical!  Ha! 

Lilly said something funny today and I want to write out before I forget.  Today Lilly was doing something and I said, "Lilly what are you doing?"  She said, "Ohhhh, just getting into stuff I'm not supposed to!"  It was so funny!  At least the honesty is there. 

Okay now for a recap of some of the 25 days of Christmas we have been doing and a few other random things we have been up to. 

 One of the things was to do a cheap, favorite dinner and drive around and look at lights.  Of course we went to our favorite--Sam's Club for pizza.  Then we drove around nearby neighborhoods and looked at lights. 

 We drove by our favorite house from last year!  Last year we had to drive by this house pretty much every single night.  In fact this very house is the reason that we got a blow up Mickey and the reason that said Mickey was up in our kitchen last Christmas.  

 Then we came home to our house!  There is Mickey and you can't really see her that well but Dora is out there too.  They are now on our back patio so that the kids can see them better and more.  I found the kids behind the blinds in Lilly's room trying to be invisible so they didn't have to go down for naps today.  Ha!  Lilly was sneaking her candy cane that was supposed to be her after-nap treat and Reid was sneaking two pacis. 

We had our last women's bible study for my discipleship class Tuesday morning.  I loved it and going to miss it!  We also had our last neighborhood bible study on Tuesday night.  We finished the Power of a Praying Woman.  That book has been awesome and I highly recommend it!  I am so thankful for both of these groups of women and being able to grow in the Lord with them! 

 We had our small group Christmas party Wednesday night.  These are the ladies! 

 And these are the men.  Again, so thankful for these couples that Matt and I get to do "life" with! 

 Okay so we covered like 3 days worth of activities tonight.  (:  We went to a dollar-type store called Deals to let the kids pick out gifts for each other and the other parent.  Matt and Reid went shopping for Lilly and I.

 And Lilly and I went shopping for Reid and Matt.  Lilly got to pick out the presents and I am pretty sure they will be surprised!  She was so funny.  At first she kept saying, "But I think I should find mine first!"  I had to explain that we weren't shopping for us...a few times.  Once shoe got into it, though, she was on a roll and so sweet.  Then she told everybody, "Shhhhhhhhhhh it is a secret."  We had to cover our stuff to hide it, too.  She was serious about not letting them into it.  I can't wait for them to see (and to show you guys) what she picked out.  And, of course, I can't wait to see what Reid picked out for us. 

 Then we came home and decorated some wrapping paper. 

 I set out some red, green, and white paint as well as some paintbrushes and red bingo markers.  I knew from KDO that the kids love dot markers but I couldn't find any so we found these bingo markers at the dollar tree.  They were a hit! 

 They painted for awhile and then started doing their own handprints. 

 At some point they even did a little face painting.  It was great because they LOVED this and I was able to do some dishes. 

 LOVE these kids.

 Here are a couple of our finished pieces.  And, as you can tell by their faces, they needed a bath! 

So we did our glow stick bath.  A twitter friend found this on Pinterest and when I saw it I decided to do this instead of the candlelight bath.  It was a hit.  Lilly kept calling them candles.  At first Reid was afraid to get in but as soon as he got in he started laughing and giggling.  They stayed in there until the water was ice cold!  Lilly kept saying this was her "special bath" and then somehow she turned it into a birthday party for Jesus and proceeded to sing, "Happy Birthday Jesus" no less than 23 times.