Lilly & Reid's Life

Matt's Birthday

2012-02-16T16:06:00.003-06:00

Well Matt's birthday is Valentine's Day--I always say that must be what makes him so sweet. (: Anyway the kids and I had a good time helping him celebrate his birthday! We brought him homemade chocolate chip & peanut butter muffins for breakfast. We grabbed lunch for him and met him at the house to eat. We hit Sonic happy hour (because really what birthday is complete without a cherry vanilla diet dr pepper??) and brought him some mini reeces (which is what Reid picked out to give him for his birthday).

My three Valentines! Since Matt's birthday falls on Valentine's Day the restaurants always have a wait and Matt said he would rather eat at home. I fixed his favorite meal...Chicken Parmesan. I also tried to fix a "sampler" appetizer because I wanted to give him the whole restaurant experience. So I made toasted ravioli (that I managed to burn), zucchini fries, and baked artichoke hearts. Our friends Brittany and Xander came over to help us celebrate and Brittany brought some yummy dessert. We were so glad they joined us in our celebration!

Before we did gifts we lit a musical candle I found at the dollar store. Everyone got a turn blowing out the candle because that is HUGE fun right now. Ha! Matt called Matt to wish him a Happy Birthday first thing that morning and asked, "May I please help you blow out your candles?" Lilly wanted to get Matt one of the yellow balloons at Wal-Mart that said "Clearance" on it. Ha. I had to say no since they aren't for sale. When I asked her what she wanted to give Daddy for his birthday she said, "A BIG birthday hug!" And she did. We also got him a ticket to an upcoming men's conference at our church, Courageous, Songs in the Key of Solomon (a couple's devotional book), and some clinique face soap. All gifts he requested because we are "practical" gift people. Ha!

Monday night Matt was so sweet. He said, "I think I should get Lilly some Valentine gifts and you should do the same for Reid." You see "Gifts" came in last place on both Matt and I's love language test BUT Matt has been reading Bringing up Girls by James Dobson and it talks about the relationship between a dad and his daughter. Anyway while I took the kids to do some last minute birthday shopping--Matt went and got the kids some Valentine presents from us. He got Lilly a giant rose balloon and a real rose and a Dora card.

We got both kids some glow sticks for more future glow stick baths. Those are big at our house right now. We also got a book and some jelly beans for them to share.

Reid got a giant McQueen balloon. Or "buh-queen" as he so cutely calls him.

And he got Toy Story. We are LOVING doing a weekly movie night with our kids. LOVING it. They snuggle us and we are just eating it up. So, we use just about any excuse to add a new movie to our collection! Matt said for his birthday he wanted to eat at home and then watch a movie with the kids so after dinner we watched Toy Story. Oh, and because Matt is awesome, he got me a bigger fancy CrockPot and tickets to go see Mary Poppins.

Matt we hope you had a great birthday! We are so thankful God chose us to be your family!! We love you!!

Weekend Recap

2012-02-09T16:57:00.000-06:00

Friday we had the day to stay at home. Lately we have been having stuff every single day so we were excited to stay at home. However, even if we would have had plans, we would have had to cancel them because Lilly woke up like this...

She just laid on me for the first couple of hours she was awake. Thankfully she started feeling better quickly but we had the most LAZY day and It. Was. Fabulous. We just laid around in bed watching movies. We even ate in bed. And Reid was willing to do it too! I view it as a precious gift from above because who knows if that will ever happen again.

Friday night was Friday Night Out so we dropped the kids off and went to Columbia Mex to eat and then did a little shopping and running around for our busy weekend. I love that Matt and I have a good time even when we are doing the mundane things like running errands.

We started Saturday morning off with an omelet breakfast at church to discuss some things for the Children's church (that is where we serve). It was yummy and fun!

Saturday was my sweet friend Candice's shower. Luke is coming soon and we can't wait to meet him!

Her hostesses did such a cute job on her shower. It was razorback themed. You can see all the details here!

Next up was Will's superhero birthday party! It started while I was at the shower so Matt took the kids and I met them there a little late. Everything was so cute! They had "Power Punch" and "Hero Sandwiches." The kids were supposed to dress in costume.

My sweet boy!

Will the birthday boy was so excited about each present. I just love that!

Lilly went as a princess. I am not responsible for that hair! Daddy does not do hair. ( :

We got to see lots of sweet friends like Cilla (above) and Hannah (below).

They had a photo area and took pictures with a Polaroid camera.

Then we came home and napped and woke up just in time to go to church. Our church did a Saturday night service since the Super Bowl was on Sunday. After church we went to dinner with our friends Brittany, James, and Xander.

Sunday morning Matt made breakfast and hung out with the kids and I went to help with Children's Church. After lunch we decided to let Lilly skip her nap and I surprised her and took her to the Razorback Gymnastics meet.

I enjoyed some "Mommy and Me" time with her! Our friend Natasha (or as Lilly calls her, "Ms. Matasha) met us there too.

Lilly loves "Gymnacstics"! She watched the girls on the uneven bars and said, "Ohhh! Maybe I can do that??!!" She also thinks that face painting is just part of the gymnastics experience.

I let her choose between popcorn, coke, or cotton candy and she chose cotton candy. She was a sticky mess at the end of it!

They handed out these "Perfect 10" signs to everybody and Lilly LOVED raising it up.

Lilly's new sticker chart incentive is the next Gymnastics meet. She has been talking about it ever since. So thankful for such a special time with my sweet girl!

Sunday night we went to our friend's Jason and Lacey's house to watch the Super Bowl. I didn't really watch any of it until the very end. We had so much fun and the kids had a blast. It was a super busy weekend but I am so thankful that we had so many fun things to do with our friends! God has really blessed us with some great friends to "do life" with.

Celebrate!

2012-02-08T15:33:00.001-06:00

Well I was totally caught up on the blog, then we did a million things in the last week, and now I am way behind again. Story of my life in this phase of life!! Ha! Anyway we have been doing lots of celebrating so I thought I would share some of that! It is always good to share the "Praises!" right??

Thursday morning our friends the Trumbo's had their third sweet baby boy Hayes!

Is he not PRESH??? He looks just like his brothers did as babies but with more hair! Funny fact: Matt has managed to hold EACH one of the Trumbo boys BEFORE me. This time I even beat him to the hospital but I was waiting because somebody else (like a grandma...baby hog. Ha! I am JUST joking!) was holding him and Matt called from the parking lot so I ran out to sit with the kids while he snuck in and got to Hayes first! Tricky tricky! I guess I am happy for him. ( ;

Here he is in all his cuteness. He was so alert that night! I just love this sweet boy already!

So as I mentioned earlier, Lilly entered a phase where she turned ~~crazy~~ into a fit thrower at bedtime. She had one great night and we celebrated and then started a sticker chart. Bed time has been glorious (for the most part) ever since and she filled up her sticker chart and earned her way to Chuck E Cheese (her choice, not ours). So Monday night we headed to Chuck E Cheese for her reward!

Of course we took Reid. Really, he always go to bed with no problems so he definitely deserves it too!

The kids enjoyed the rides but neither one of them ever stayed on a ride for the whole time which makes me feel like we are wasting money!

So then we just let them get in the ride and play in it. Free fun! Even better.

Lilly did enjoy playing some games!

And of course talking on the phone.

Sliding.

Playing skee ball. Kind of. They couldn't roll it hard enough to make it up so they just rolled one ball up and then it would come back to them. Then they would roll it back up and it would come right back to them.

Lilly tried throwing the ball. (Note that it is in the air.) Eventually I helped Lilly and Matt helped Reid and we ended the thirty minute skee ball game.

Reid played on this for a long time. He liked pulling that lever up and down.

The kids had fun and we were HAPPY to be able to be celebrating peaceful bedtimes.

When we celebrated Lilly going to bed the first time without a fit, our friends Mrs. Laura and Addy and Sam went with us. This time we went with them to the mall to play and have Chick-fil-A to celebrate Addy staying in her big girl bed for a week straight! Yay! We were so excited to celebrate with them!!

Our friends Rebekah and Cilla came to celebrate with them too! We were so glad they came. Our girls really are SO CUTE together! Here they are laughing and having fun.

LOVE this picture!!

And I would not want to leave out sweet Sam! Sam always gives me hugs and is just precious. He calls Reid "Deed". We have been so blessed to have so many things to celebrate lately!

They Crack Me Up!

2012-02-01T23:43:00.003-06:00

These two sweeties keep us laughing all of the time. I wanted to do a post that recorded a couple of the funny things they have said and done lately. And a few of the sweet things, too. ( :

They played together to put up our valentine window clings from the Target Dollar Spot. Lilly was very helpful to Reid!

When we were outside the other day this smarty tipped her car over to get all of the water out of it. Love that problem solving!

Every. Single. Time I tried to get a picture of Reid he would run to his car and say, "I can't (or cain't as he says it)! I have to go to town!!" Ha!

Update on Lilly's bedtime fits--Monday night she went to bed with NO tears. So Tuesday we went with Addy and Sam to the mall to play and eat Chick-fil-a to celebrate.

And then we had some ice cream, too! While she was napping Tuesday (also crying free) I made a sticker chart and she is working toward a Chuck E Cheese trip and she has had NO crying fits at bedtime (or naptime) since then! We are SO PROUD of her!!!

We got onion rings the other day and I just took a picture so that I would remember to talk about it. Ha! Anyway, Lilly takes the onion ring out of the shell and just eats the shell. Reid, on the other hand, takes the onion out of the shell and then eats them both separately. Either way they both LOVE onion rings!!

Today this was Lilly helping Reid take his shoes off. The funniest part is at one point his leg was above her head!

Listening to stories before bedtime. Usually they both sit in my lap or Matt's lap and we rock them but tonight they sat in their own chairs and put their feet up.

We recreated this moment but this is what it looked like while we were praying before bed.

Giving bedtime kisses!

Okay...here are some random funnies!

Reid has started saying, "Yoohoo! Yoohoo!" when he wants to get our attention. Don't know where he got it from.
I had already told Lilly no on something so she decided to ask Matt. So, naturally, I say, "Lilly-Mommy already said no." She replied, "Mommy--you are making my ears hurt!"
Reid has also started saying, "We don't have much time!" It is so funny. He says it at the most random times too. Like me telling him not to jump on the couch and him replying, "I have to. We don't have much time!" Ummm...no???
At dinner the other night Lilly said, "We never say no to boys." Matt almost choked on his dinner and said, "Lilly--we ALWAYS say no to boys!!" She replied, "But we don't say no to Bubby?" And Matt said, "Yes, say no to Bubby--it is good practice!" I buried my head and laughed so hard that tears rolled down my cheeks.
One Saturday morning Reid crawled up in bed with us. He told us to watch out for "the bear". We said okay and for him to watch out for him too. He was so serious! He then proceeded to tell us. "Watch out for the bear. And watch out for swiper. Watch out for bears, swiper, and foxes!" Don't worry. We kept our guard up. ( ;
I went to check on Lilly in the bathroom and found her standing up in front of the toilet trying to pee in it. When I told her that we had to SIT on the potty to pee she replied, "But Daddy does!"
This morning Lilly told me to watch out for the "Maw-ho" When I asked her what a "maw-ho" was she said, "I don't know but he is mean and happy."

Just a few of the funny things they have said and done lately. We are so blessed!

Today we met up with my friend Kerri and her boys Diesel and Duece. I had so much fun catching up with Kerri and Lilly and Reid loved playing with the boys. Seriously Reid laughed so hard with Diesel. He just loves having an older boy around!

And I enjoyed snuggling this little guy for a minute! ( :

Testimony Tuesday: He is AWESOME!

2012-01-31T07:00:00.000-06:00

The other day Lilly, Reid, and I were in the car on our way home. Obviously I was driving. ( : We were coming home the "back way" as we call it. Anyway, there is a big curve and we were coming up to it and there was a semi truck coming toward us on the other side of the curve. Now he was in his lane and he was going fairly slow. Logically there seemed to be no danger in us going around the curve at the same time. But ~~something~~ God told me to stop. So I stopped a little bit before the curve. I really was kind of rolling my eyes at myself for being so cautious because it appeared to be completely safe.

I am SO THANKFUL that I did because the semi took up both sides of the road in the curve and BARELY missed us. I am talking so "barely missed us" that he stopped because he was sure that he had hit us. Like within an inch folks. Y'all the PEACE of God that transcends understanding was IN THE CAR. My heart never even raced. As he squeaked by-I never got anxious. I was completely calm. God somehow let me know that He was protecting us and I knew I had no reason to fear. I can't explain it...even in my mind I was thinking...shouldn't I be a little worried?...but I wasn't.

After he passed us and we made our way around the curve and were completely out of harms way I felt the presence of the Lord just fill up the car. It was such a surreal moment. I remembered the night before as we were praying with the kids Matt prayed that God would guard the kids and my path tomorrow as we ran around town.

Here is the deal God is always with us and He is constantly answering our prayers but in THAT moment is was SO CLEAR that God was literally with us, keeping us safe, and answering our prayer. I am so thankful for that moment! How crazy is it that the God of the Universe took the time to speak to me, give me a calmness that in unexplainable, and then let me feel His complete presence???

Heavenly Father I love you and I praise you for you are most worthy of praise!!!

Hanging with the Fam

2012-01-30T19:48:00.000-06:00

Friday night after Matt got off work we headed to Benton. About 30 minutes away Lilly started saying, "I am SO ready to get out of this car!!" I felt her! It seemed like it took For. Ev. Er. to get there. But we made it! When we got to Mike and DeDe's they had pizza ready so we got to eat and let the kids run off all of the energy they had saved up from riding in the car. Bert and Becca came over and the kids were so happy to see them. We put the kids to bed and Mike and DeDe got to witness our newest drama...bedtime with Lilly. The past two weeks she thrown the CRAZIEST fits at bedtime. I think we have decided to just put her to bed and let her throw the fit because going in does NOT seem to help AT ALL. Anyway, I digressed. Then Matt, Mike, and I stayed up until 2 AM watching Sons of Guns. I think we may have lost our mind! But we love that show.

Saturday we did the Perryville thing (see last post) and then Saturday night we, once again, stayed up until 1:30 AM watching Sons of Guns. We are all caught up now. On the show. Not sleep. ( ;

Sunday everyone came over to Mike and DeDe's and we ate Whole Hog BBQ. I tried to get a picture of the cousins that were there. This was the best one I got.

And this (above) was the worst. Ha! NO ONE looks happy to be in this picture!

I hope this picture makes somebody else laugh because it cracks me up!!

The weather was wonderful Sunday afternoon so the kids got to get outside and play. They loved every second of it!

They laid out in the sun. Fully clothed.

They would pretend like they were asleep. I heard Lilly say, "I sleep very good."

Colt was awesome in some sunglasses.

Reid swabbed the deck. (Yes, I crack myself up, in case you were wondering.)

Lilly picked some of DeDe's flowers and then gave her one.

Since we have been home Lilly keeps saying, "But we love DeDe!" when I tell her that we aren't going to DeDe's house today.

They discovered the hammock. Don't they look like they are hanging out discussing something good in this picture??

Grandma Betty and Matt.

DeDe has a rolling chair and the kids think it is so fun to go for rides on it!

Weeeeee!

After lunch with the family we stopped by to see MamMa on our way out of town.

We were so blessed to get to see so many loved ones this weekend!!

Then we headed home and got back just in time to drop Tank off and go to the night service at our church. I really loved that we got to go out of town but still get to go to our church!

This morning started out being a major MONDAY. I got up kind of late and was rushing around and went to get Lilly up. It was pajama day so all I had to do was brush her teeth and put her hair in a pony tail. Apparently I didn't put it up properly and she had the biggest fit I have ever witnessed from her. I didn't help the situation at all (AT ALL)-I was completely annoyed that she was upset about something so trivial especially when we were already running late. It snowballed and by the time we got to KDO we had both been crying. Thankfully the Lord got hold of my heart (with the help of my sweet husband) and we were able to get back on track, have good days separately, and we have had a wonderful evening together. The kids got to play outside for a little while tonight and Matt and I ate dinner while they were playing. It was almost like a date. Almost. (Oh, on a side note, we ate the Chicken Tortilla Soup I made the other day for the food swap but hadn't tried yet. Super yummy! Phew!) Then we gave the kids a bath (you would be disgusted if you knew the things they got into while they were playing in the backyard!) and now we are watching Beauty and the Beast. The other day I said to Matt, "Later we may watch B. and B." And Lilly goes, "YES! I want to watch Beauty and the Beast!!!" Smart girl! Hope you all have a great week. I have to go make popcorn because Lilly and Reid think that it is impossible to watch a movie without popcorn. They may get that from me. ( ;

Perryville Lunch

2012-01-30T08:00:00.000-06:00

Every January we have a big family get together with Matt's dad's side of the family. His aunt, uncle, and cousin come in from Louisiana. His other cousins come in from Kansas City and we all get together for lunch in the house that Matt's Granddaddy grew up in.

We love getting to see all of the family!

Lilly and Reid kept things exciting as always! (: I said from the beginning if we left without breaking anything--I was going to consider it a successful trip. And, ladies and gents, it was successful! Ha!

Lilly loves this chair/stepstool. She plays in it every time we go! And if she isn't in it Reid is!

You may be able to tell by the chocolate face that Reid enjoyed some brownies!

There was lots of visiting with family!

Bert and Matt watched the basketball game.

Lilly and Jan read some books.

Reid went through some pictures.

They attacked Uncle Bert.

Then they tried to ride him. Ha!

They played with the legos...and then they wore the bucket.

And then Karl taught them how to play the drums on the bucket.

Aunt Thelma and Granddaddy

Matt, Grandaddy, and Bert. I can't tell you how much they ~~loathe~~ appreciate me taking pictures of them all the time. (:

Jessica and Daryl.

Becca, Me, and DeDe. Mike cooked a yummy lunch and we enjoyed getting to see everyone--we look forward to it every year!

That night "the cousins" all went out for dinner at YaYa's. We hadn't been there before and it was pretty tasty! We had a fun time. Lynn we missed you!!

Lilly Room-Before & After

2012-01-29T12:00:00.000-06:00

Okay so on the left is the before and on the right is the after. I took the fabric part in the middle out and then sanded the frame and painted it white.

The back just unscrewed and the middle part just came out so I was able to just recover the fabric part with a new fabric and pop it back in!

I saw this idea on here on Pinterest. I went to Wal-Mart and bought this 11x14 frame. Acutally I bought 4 of them. I had planned on going to a thrift store to find cheap ones since I was going to paint them anyway...but I just didn't have time! These worked perfect. I repainted the frame and covered the glass with burlap and hot glue. Then I put them together and used my measuring tape so I could hot glue the clips (which I got in the Wal-Mart office supply section...a pack of 4 was $1.88) in the middle. Out of all the things I did for the room--this was the one that Matt was most impressed by and I do love seeing her art hanging in her room. I plan on doing these for Reid's room too! Oh, and one tip I have for this is to get the right type of paint. I was so concerned with getting the right color purple that I didn't realize it was glass paint so I had to do like 20 coats of paint! Oops!

The vanity before and after! All I did was sand and paint it! I bought the paint that has the primer in it and HIGHLY recommend this! I will tell you about my primer fiasco when I get to the bookshelf.

Handprint tutus. I got this idea off of...whereelse...Pinterest. (I can NOT find the original source.)The photos are crooked-not the actual canvases. We had fun making these and I love that those are her sweet little handprints. Lilly is very proud of these too!

The bookshelf. I decided to repaint Lilly's bookshelf and since I was going from dark to white I bought a primer. At this point I was painting everything with a brush and the primer was too thick to apply evenly with a brush. At some point I was talking to my sister-in-law about it and she said that I should be using a roller so I went out and bought one but it was too late--it already had brush marks and was uneven. I sanded the parts that mattered (I just didn't have it in me to start completely over!) I will say the genious of the little roller made life SO MUCH EASIER! So if you are painting--buy a little roller!

My mom came in town just as I had finished all of my little projects and wanted to do a craft day. The LAST thing I wanted to do that day was do anything else crafty...but I love my mom so I agreeed to go with it. I am glad I did because my sister, my mom, and I made this cross. We just bought the plain wooden stackable crosses at Hobby Lobby. We painted them (there were two) and then added a scrapbook paper cross to the top so it looks like there is a third cross. We hot glued it all together and added some accessories and viola!

And I can't leave out my sister-in-law Becca who made the tutu bedskirt and the tutu to attach to the bottom of the curtains! My sister redid Lilly's nursery letters to match her big girl room too. I am so thankful for such crafty and helpful family!! (: You can see the completed room and her reaction here!

All About Food

2012-01-28T12:00:00.000-06:00

Okay so we are spending the weekend with lots of family so I thought I might blog about something other than the kids. Because, you know, they are seeing them in person so I can get away with it. (: I did A LOT of cooking this week. I cooked dinner for our small group on Wednesday and we did a food swap this week so I have been a domestic diva in the kitchen! Ha!

For small group I made these chicken tacos--OH. MY. WORD. This is the EASIEST recipe and it is SO YUMMY!! Seriously Matt has raved about this recipe all week long and is now demanding that we always have these on hand ready to go in the freezer. I used great value chicken, taco seasoning, and salsa (medium) and they turned out fabulous. My friend Sydney recommended these from Pinterest and we are so happy that she did. Oh, and just a heads up, they are messy...but so worth it!

I also made Caramel Cake. This recipe is from my great Aunt Lois.

This is one of those recipes where you here the ingredients and think, "Okay...that HAS to be good!" You need a german chocolate cake mix, a 16oz jar of Caramel topping, an 8oz thing of cool whip and a bag of Heath bits (found in baking aisle next to chocolate chips).

You start by baking the cake as directed. While it is hot (I did this as soon as I took it out of the oven), poke big holes in the cake and pour the entire jar of caramel over the top.

Then, let that cool completely. Once it is cool mix the cool whip and the heath bites together and spread it over the top. Put in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve!

This is a bad phone picture of our very last little piece. This cake is delicious!

We did a last minute food swap today since my friend Lisa is having her 3rd baby boy Hayes next Friday! Woohoo!

I made Broccoli, Cheese, Chicken, and Rice Casserole. I originally got the recipe for this from allrecipes I think but it was several years ago and I just added chicken to make it an entree. Here is the recipe:

1 lb chopped frozen broccoli
2 (10.75oz) cans of Cream of Mushroom soup
2 cups instant rice
1/4 cup of butter
15oz jar of cheese whiz
2 cups shredded chicken

Cook chicken and shred. Cook rice as directed on box. Cook broccoli as directed on package and drain.
Mix all the ingredients together and put it in a 9 x 13 baking dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

It is funny this (minus the chicken) was the first potluck-type-of-side-dish that I learned to make and for a couple of years I made it for e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g! Ha!

I also made this Chicken Tortilla Soup. I haven't made it before so I hope it is good! Ha! That recipe fills an up the entire 4 quart Crockpot so it makes a lot! Next time I make it I will probably omit the extra water and drain the corn because I like my soup to be thick! That is just a personal preference. I did taste one little bite to make sure it wasn't gross and it tasted pretty good but I didn't have enough to give you a good review of it yet. It definitely makes enough where you could eat half and freeze half and have plenty. Also, I added an extra chicken breast.

Now my freezer is completely stocked and I am so thankful. I think I am going to make a menu for the entire month of February and possibly not cook at all! LOVE it!

Oh and I have had several friends ask about this and for more details so there is this blog that has their rules and stuff. We don't get THAT detailed with ours. My friend Jenna wrote this post that explains ours but those are two options that you can look at. I broke two of the first links rules today by making two dishes with the same kind of meat and making a recipe I hadn't tried yet. Ha! We are pretty flexible with ours! I just send an email out to the people that have wanted to be a part of it. They respond if they want to. Once we have the number of people participating, we determine the number of meals (usually two but if we were to have 10 people than we would just make one recipe times 10). We pick a swap date and email what we are making so we don't end up with duplicates or something we just won't eat. Then on the date we all bring our food (already cooked and usually frozen) and swap and end up with a stocked freezer full of meals. My tip would be to pick one labor intensive recipe and one easy recipe. Also make sure that you make enough for the largest family in the swap.

And then as a treat for all of the cooking I ended the week with a butterfinger blast from Sonic to celebrate. (:

Birthdays!

2012-01-27T14:25:00.004-06:00

Last Saturday we headed over to our friends the Dalmut's house to help Sam celebrate his 2nd birthday.

I think this is the cutest picture of them.

Sam got some boy dress up clothes for his birthday because he was really loving all the dress up stuff that Addy (his sister) got for Christmas. Reid and Sam are good buddies. Sam calls Reid "Deed" and I think it is just precious! Reid ran straight to the present in the corner wrapped in Cars paper and started trying to open it. He thinks anything Cars must be his. Ha!

Blowing out the candles on his Thomas the Train birthday cake. He was also very excited about some Thomas the Train toys that he opened as well.

Having some cake!

Lilly just eats the icing on cake!

Reid devours the whole thing. He used his fork and his hands. (:

This is Addy. Funny thing--we were in birthing classes with Matt and Laura when they were pregnant with Addy and we were pregnant with Lilly. The girls were born just one day apart! The other day as I was filing a bunch of stuff I came across an interview that we did with them in birthing class! Ha!! So random. We didn't become friends until about a year ago and we just love them. It is great having friends that have a girl Lilly's age and a boy Reid's age! Addy was also in my KDO class last year and she is such a doll!

Sunday we went to Lawson's (above) superhero party. We are in small group with his parents and they are such a fun couple too. Lawson's party was at the Little Gym and they had super hero capes and masks for all the kids to wear. It was so adorable and the kids had SO MUCH FUN!

Lilly wore her mask as a headband for about 5 minutes and then she just ran around in the cape.

Reid wore his mask just like this for almost the entire party. It was hysterical! I forgot my camera so all the pictures are instagram from my phone. I think it turned out great for an official super hero look. (:

My funny boy!

They loved to swing on these...

and to hang on this!

And walking across the balance beam over and over. And over. (:

This was the cute cookies and cake. We are so blessed with sweet friends and love celebrating life with them!

Sweet Kiddos

2012-01-25T22:20:00.003-06:00

Okay so last Tuesday I spent a couple hours on Testimony Tuesday but the words just never felt right. I thought I would come back and finish but instead I just didn't blog at all. Ha! We really had a great week. The past couple of months the kids have been challenging all of the boundaries and last week we finally got some relief! I have been savoring every moment! (:

Lilly and Reid were giggling and I walked in her room to check on them and she was putting him to bed. I ran to get the camera and when I came back she was in there with him.

Lilly has insisted on dressing herself lately and she now says, "It matches!" (: This is what she wore to a birthday party Saturday. She is wearing two tutus and one of them is tucked in the other one. I actually look forward to seeing what she is going to pick out.

Saturday night we did breakfast for dinner. Matt bought some cinnamon rolls with chocolate icing and I had been craving biscuits and gravy. It was funny-Matt ate cinnamon rolls, I ate biscuits and gravy, and Lilly and Reid ate cheese biscuits.

I said, "Lilly show Mommy your eyes!" and this is what she did. Hysterical!

And this is what Reid did. (:

We had movie night with Kung Fu Panda. The kids weren't that into it but we enjoy all the snuggle-and-watch-movie-time we can get with our sweet littles!

When we put those PJs on them, Reid said, "No these are for the train!!" Ha! Those were the "special pajamas" we wore on the pajama train. (:

One morning they were watching tv on opposite sides of the couch while I was getting ready. When I came out they were snuggled up next to each other. Reid also snuck a paci. He has become a paci ninja lately! Ha!

Today I had one of those moments where you realize how much you have changed. I had one of those today as we were on our way home. We saw a train so we went out of our way to take the long way home so that we could catch up to it and GET TO be stopped at the railroad tracks and watch the train go by. Ha! The kids love trains and I now get so excited when the train is coming because they get so excited to see it.

Marriage Retreat & Movies

2012-01-16T16:40:00.000-06:00

Well as I mentioned at the end of the last post, MoMo and PaPa Ray came to town Friday night to stay with the kids so that we could go to a marriage conference.

The kids were VERY excited to see them.

Mom said Reid was attached PaPa Ray's side the whole time. She said Ray went to the car and Reid said, "I want him back in here now." Ha!

This happened right before I left. In case you can't tell Reid had unravelled a good portion of the roll of toilet paper into the toilet. Ahhhh...kisses to the sweet littles...and then we were off.

The retreat was in Branson so we stopped to have dinner in Harrison at our favorite DeVito's. Their chicken parm is amazing! We enjoyed dinner just the two of us and then drove the rest of the way, checked in, and then met some friends at IHOP for dessert. It was so fun to have a date night AND a night with friends, too. (: We were the only couple that ended up with a King sized bed and the funniest part is we are probably the only couple that would have slept great together in a double bed. We normally take up half of our queen size bed.

Saturday was the marriage conference and we had a really good time. I was a little worried at the beginning but it ended up being really good and we laughed a lot. It was so good for us to be away together without the kids. We were really only gone for about 24 hours but it was so refreshing! We headed home after the conference and then decided at the last minute to go ahead and eat dinner before we got home. We went to a local place called Table Mesa. It is SO good.

We were so glad to get home to these two cuties and gave them lots of hugs and kisses. They were excited to see us, too, but I could tell they had so much fun with MoMo and PaPa Ray.

This is how MoMo looked when we got home. They had been playing with stickers. Ha! We played with the kids for a little while and then after they went to bed we watched Grumpy Old Men. Cracks me up! Sunday we celebrated the one year anniversary of our church. I am going to do a separate post on all of that but it has been an incredible year!

Reid is wearing his red Cars shirt in this picture. He was talking about his shirt and he said, "I love it. So much!" Just like that. He paused after "love it" and then decided to add "so much". This boy is into cars!

Lilly played little momma while we were gone and tried to put Reid in time out. She is so funny. And so bossy. Ha!

This morning Lilly and Reid played in Reid's crib while I got ready. I thought it was really sweet of them to let me get ready with no drama this morning. Thanks kids!

Unfortunately the Lion King book was not so lucky. I walked in and said, "Oh no! What happened to our book??" Reid said, "I just break it apart Mommy!" Sigh. No, son, we do not break our books apart.

Today we were going to see Beauty and the Beast at the movie theater. Which is kind of funny because we watch it every day at home. But that is not the same. I let Lilly pick out whatever princess attire she wanted to and this is what she wanted to wear. She also LOVES to have her hair braided. These are the only braids I know how to do so this is what we went with.

She twirled around and told me to take a picture of the back too. Ha!

Such a sweet girl!

Reid wanted in the picture too.

We met some friends there and checked out Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Usually we take the car seats in but I knew I wasn't going to be able to do that without Matt so I was a little nervous.

They did great!

Two princesses!

Brody wasn't there yet for all the before movie pictures but I didn't want to leave him out! He joined in on the fun! The kids had so much fun and so did I! I love that Lilly can see the same movies that I did when I was little. I did have to really fight myself so that I wouldn't sing along with every song like I do at home. ( ;

What a Day!

2012-01-13T14:43:00.001-06:00

Whew! Yesterday was one of the days that at the end of it you look back on the day and just think, "Yessssss. We survived it." It started Wednesday night with Reid throwing a major fit at bedtime. That boy usually asks to go to bed so this was unusual. Then I started not feeling well. Lilly got up all through the night so I thought, "Oh great! We are all getting something." So Thursday I called in to school to say we should probably just stay home.

Shortly after Reid woke up as happy as could be. I text to see if they had found a sub for me and they hadn't so I said I would just come in when Lilly woke up if she seemed to be feeling as good as Reid. So I got ready...if you can even call it that. I guess it would be more accurate to say "I got clean" because other than getting clean I really didn't do anything to get ready.

Lilly woke up happy so we all went in. Them feeling great. Me looking like death. I am glad we ended up going because I felt better as the day went along. And, honestly, I think handling 10 four year olds turned out easier than if I would've tried to take care of my two stuck inside yesterday.

My hair appointment was originally scheduled for Wednesday at noon but I found out Wednesday morning that it had been cancelled. I frantically explained that we were going on our first marriage retreat this weekend and I COULD NOT go with my current hair style (think long roots and only goes in a pony tail but isn't really long enough for it all to go nicely in a pony tail). So they squeezed me in yesterday at 2:00. Let me tell you about 2:00. One-it is nap time. (Don't just breeze by that sentence. Take it in. Nap time is VITAL.) Two-it is too late for Matt to take lunch and help like he was going to be able to do at noon on the previous day. Three-it was too late notice to find someone to watch them. So this meant that I would be taking BOTH children by MYSELF to get my hair colored and cut.

(This has nothing to do with this story but Reid loves to have a wipe or a wet wash cloth and just put it on his cheek or his feet. That is what is happening in the above picture.) Let me just say that about 90 percent of the time my kids were wonderful. They sat in the stroller, they colored, they put blocks on a string, and they looked at some magazines. But that remaining 10 % was baaaaaaad. While I was getting my hair washed (and, in my defense, could not see my children), Lilly went to the back room. I noticed she was there and called for her. She came out and set a remote control down. I decided to go ahead and put them back in the stroller since I was done processing and wasn't going to be able to fully watch them. So I did...but we started to smell burnt plastic. We couldn't figure out why but when we checked the back room we saw that the microwave door was open. I walked over to the remote Lilly had sat down and picked it up and smelled it. It was the thing causing the burnt plastic smell. She had microwaved the remote. I don't know for how long. I don't know if any permanent damage is done. The girls at the salon were not even sure where the remote came from.

As I was getting my hair cut Lilly unsnapped her buckle in the stroller and then got out and unsnapped Reid's buckle too. Now, had I stopped my hair cut and disciplined here...the remainder of the story probably would be totally different. But we were almost done and I just wanted to get them out of there. So I let them empty out the busy bag...I figured I will just clean it up in a minute and it will keep them from destroying anything else. Finally my hair is done and I am cleaning up the mess and while I am cleaning up Reid find one of the bottles of styling products, opens the lid, and proceeds to begin pouring it out. We apologized, loaded up, paid, and then left. I was already exhausted. And ready to be home.

But Tank had a vet appointment. So we rushed home, picked him up, and we went to the vet. Me, two kids, AND now a dog. Thankfully the appointment was at 5 and Matt was able to meet us at the vet's office right before we went in to see the doctor. Tank got his shots and overall clean bill of health. Except that he has a tumor growing on his eyelid. The doctor said it isn't a big deal and that he will just need to have it removed. That was a huge relief because I was pretty worried about him. We came home and had dinner. Then I locked myself in (or really locked the children out of ) the bathroom and took a relaxing bath. Matt must have been worn out because when I came out, he went in. Ha! I put the kids to bed and then didn't move for the rest of the night.

This morning has been back to just our usual crazy. Ha! Reid dumped his cheerios on the ground. It would have been a million times faster and less frustrating to just sweep them up myself BUT I know it is more important to teach him not to do such things. So, I made him clean them all up himself. It took about 20 minutes. MoMo and PaPa Ray are on their way here to watch the kids so that Matt and I can go on our first marriage retreat. We are so excited and I think yesterday was God's way of quenching any guilt I had about leaving them. They are going to be fine and this night away (with them in good hands and covered in prayer) is going to make me a better wife and mother.

Catch Up

2012-01-11T15:38:00.000-06:00

Okay so I just realized that I haven't taken many pictures this week so bear with me as the pictures and topics will be fairly random.

The kids both got umbrellas recently and yesterday was the first time that it rained AND I remembered to put the umbrellas in the car. The kids were BEYOND excited to get to use their umbrellas and have talked about it 537 times since then.

Last night I was putting Lilly to bed and I usually sing to her and rub her back and at some point I generally kiss her and say her sweet girl. Well, last night, as I was putting her to bed she started rubbing MY back and giggled and said, "Sweet girl" to me. It was PRESH!

Also, the other day we walked in the house and Lilly peeked her head in the door and said, "Hellooooo! Is anybody home? I've lost my horse in the woods and need a place to stay!" If you don't recognize that--it is from Beauty and the Beast and we are currently obsessed with that movie.

Yesterday Reid was doing something he wasn't supposed to and I told him if he didn't stop I was going to discipline him and he stopped and looked at me and said, "Mommy-only use kind words!" Ha!

Lilly had dance yesterday and Reid wanted to try it again so we let him try it again. I am still not sure. He listens but he doesn't really do a lot of the dancing. Yesterday was a hard day to tell from too since all of the kids had some extra energy.

Lilly was complaining that her ears were hurting so I took these two to the doctor to see if she had an ear infection. The doctor said no...and I am not one to argue with a doctor...but I am not convinced.

This weekend I helped host a baby shower for my friend Lisa. Although, I say I helped host...we met at a restaurant and all I did was pick up...

these bad boys from my friend Holly. She makes the cutest cookies! (Local friends--her email is Thedoughmestichousewife@gmail.com). Since Lisa is having her 3rd boy, we had a diaper shower for her. I went rebel and bought wipes. Because that is how I roll. Matt ALWAYS has me buy wipes for a baby shower because "that is the item he has used most in parenting". Ha!

We had MOPS today and it was a really great one that talked about raising your children to know that they need a savior. I will not do it justice by trying to explain it because I am still wrapping my brain around it. She showed a Paul Tripp interview that I hope to be able to link to at some point. I added three books to my "to read" list today: Shepherding the Heart of Your Child by Paul Tripp. Give them Grace by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jesus Plus Nothing Equals Everything by Tullian Tchividjian. I also got Crazy Love by Francis Chan for Christmas so I need to get reading!! Ha! Anyway, our MOPS craft today was a rosette book mark that will go perfectly with all of this reading. (:

I put this book in Matt's stocking for Christmas but have been reading it myself. You all--if you haven't read this--you need to. It is a great daily devotional. Each day is just one page but it is deep and it has the verses if you want to go deeper into it. I read this with my daily reading and it is awesome.

This picture is out of order but my friend Lisa gave us these as hostess gifts--it is a leopard insulated cup. I am really into these cups right now because my kids can't spill them everywhere (or me, for that matter, because I can be a little clumsy) and they can't take the straw out.

And at Christmas Matt's cousin Melissa made these pretzels and we brought them home and stuck them in the pantry. I discovered them this week and we have been loving them. She said something about red pepper flakes and a ranch seasoning packet but I need to get the recipe and share it because they are delish!

Testimony Tuesday

2012-01-10T14:51:00.001-06:00

This past Sunday our pastor was preaching and teaching from Hebrews 6:13-20 and he summed it up at the end like this, "God will do what he wants to do, He will do what He has said He will do and He will ultimately bring GOOD from EVERYTHING." I just think that is a great word and so encouraging no matter where you are in life-especially if you are in the middle of a "storm". God is faithful. His word and promises are true. And He works it all together (even the bad situations) for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them (Romans 8:28). Like I said in this post--if you are going through a trial know that God knows about it, there is a purpose for it, and He will ultimately bring good from it.

The other thing I am going to talk about is that I mentioned in Lilly's room post about "wrapping my house in scripture"--I thought I would just explain that a little more here. How this idea came about is actually funny. Reid was probably a month or two old and I was sitting on the couch feeding him. Lilly came in and stole the remote switched it to some hokey evangelist and ran out of the room. I was stuck on the couch watching this guy as he was trying to sell all kinds of products using the verse, "Tie them (them being scripture) to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (Deuteronomy 6:8-9) to sell his products. Anyway, I thought (and still think) the guy was a fraud...but it sparked the idea of having scripture all around the house.

Now I know that this verse means to make your house all about the Lord--to use Him and His Word as your "filter" for your actions and to turn to Him and seek Him in all that you do. Furthermore, I know that if I were just to have scripture on the walls of my home but not in my heart that I would be missing the point of this passage all together. But I am telling you, for me, it has been very helpful to remind me (especially in a moment when I am tempted) to stop and look to Him and what His word says. So, without further adieu, here are some of the scriptures that I have around the house along with some examples of what seeing it reminds me of.

This is in our bedroom. "What God has brought together let no man separate." Mark 10:9 I pray this for our marriage. Matt is my partner. We are in this together. I will not treat Him like the enemy because he left His clothes on the ground (that is totally hypothetical...I am just giving an example)--we are on the same team. Always.

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" Joshua 24:15. I pray this for our family. It is not about me. It is about Him. I am not doing whatever it is for me or for someone else to notice. I am doing it for Him. I will set my standards by Him and not the things or people of this world.

Lilly and Reid's doors are next to one another so half of this verse hangs over Lilly's room and half hangs over Reid's room.

"Children are a gift from God, they are His reward." Psalm 127:3 Let me tell you sometimes, in a frustrating moment, I need to be reminded of this! Ha! Don't misunderstand that I ALWAYS know that my children are a blessing and I love being their Mommy. This being on their doors so I see it when I walk in really has reminded me to just take a break from housework and play with them. It has also helped remind me to not try and rush them into bed but to take the time to rock with them and read that extra story and sing those songs and rub their backs before bedtime.

I have some others around the house and I am not finished yet...I am still looking for the perfect one for above the front door. I am thinking one that blesses those who enter?? Any suggestions?? I need some ideas! Also, just in case anyone is interested to know, I got the signs for our bedroom and above the door from http://personalpizazz.blogspot.com/ --she is great and can do anything (we got our razorback door sign from her too).

Also, just to clarify, I do not think you have to have scripture on your walls to love the Lord or be a good Christian. I was just sharing why we put it on our walls. ( :

Lilly's Room & Her Reaction

2012-01-08T23:55:00.000-06:00

Well I am VERY excited to show you Lilly's new room. I refuse to call it a big girl room because she is still a little girl. ( ; (We all know I really wanted to keep her in her crib until kindergarten but that just didn't work out for me.)

Shall we enter?

I will show each whole wall and then go into close-ups and details. Also I did a lot of projects for this room and I will *probably* do a post tomorrow with before and after photos as long as tips and details. With all of that being said, this is the view when you walk into Lilly's room. I think since I took these pictures at night there are some shadows and some of the colors are a little off but you will get a picture of what it looks like. The bedding is really hot pink and purple but the hot pink looks a little funny in these pics.

The side wall.

And the other wall. Mrs. Potts and the sound machine really aren't supposed to be in the picture...but, oh well, this is real life, right?

This is a close up of the bed. I painted and recovered the headboard (more on that later) and then I bought the bedding at Target and my sister-in-law sewed a tutu bedskirt for me. I wanted this room to be a "dress-up" room.

Here is a close up of Becca's handiwork.

We made those tutu canvases. The tutus are Lilly's handprints.

Here is a close up of them. I have some better photos--the middle one's color is really bad in this photo. I was (am) very proud of our art project!

My sister-in-law attached the tutu to the bottom of the curtains too. I LOVE this detail in the room. My sister redid the letters in Lilly's name to match her new room. She did the ones for her nursery so I love that she did them for her new room too.

She used some left over fabric from the headboard and covered the letters and used lots of cute ribbon. Adorable!!

I repainted Matt's MamMa's vanity to match her room. I love that we were able to use something of hers.

I found these two canvases at Hobby Lobby (actually my sister pointed them out). Then my mom, my sister, and I made the cross in the middle.

One of my ongoing projects in the house is to wrap our house in scripture. So when I saw these I knew I wanted them for her room.

A close up of the cross. These were just plain unpainted wooden crosses when we bought them.

I LOVE that this says "Princess and Daughter of the King" because that is the kind of "princess" I want Lilly to know that she is. In fact, I really just love every word this says!

I repainted Lilly's bookshelf white and found those pink baskets on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $3.50. Score! I can't decide if I am going to paint the green baskets yet or not. At this point the thought of doing another project makes me tense up a bit.

This is the cube thing from Target and bins to go in it. Then above it are some frames that I painted, covered in burlap, and attached a clip to so we can display all of Lilly's artwork.

All ready for some art! Since I have been painting for almost two weeks, she has been BEGGING to paint so maybe this week she will be able to create some masterpieces.

I am using the cube to hold all of her dress-up stuff.

You know you need a place for all of your dress-up clothes (3 of the bins are devoted to this), sunglasses, dress shoes, tiaras, and more.

My mom made Lilly this bag for her dance stuff. I hang it on her door to show it off! Lilly LOVES it! Now I think the room turned out great! It is super cute and girly just like my sweet Lilly! But what really matters is whether or not Lilly likes it...

First seeing it!

Climbing in to try it out.

Jumping on the bed! You know that is the only real way to test a bed!

Laying on it. She said, "I love it! I love it! I love it!"

Ready for bed!!

She has done really great in her new room. The first night she went to sleep right away. We had two rough nap days which resulted in her being over tired. Before bed that night she started crying and throwing a fit for her crib. I want to tell you I was a great mom and went in and rubbed her back and talked about great her new room is and soothed her to sleep...but that would be a lie. See, I too was really tired from working on the room and I responded with more of an unsympathetic, "You asked for it, I worked hard on it, now go in there and love it!" Ha! Anyway, other than that night, she has loved it!

Lately

2012-01-06T16:26:00.000-06:00

Ever since we got back from Christmas--we have been busy working away on projects. You will get to see said projects this weekend after we hang the stuff on Lilly's walls and it is officially finished. (: So here are a few random things that we have done in between.

We hired our FIRST babysitter ever! The main word in there is hired because our family has watched Lilly and Reid before and our church watches them frequently during Friday Night Out. In fact, Miss Natasha is from church and she is regularly in the kids' rooms so they were immediately comfortable with her and had a great time!

Matt and I went on an official date. We went to dinner at a new Japanese style place and then, because we are wild and crazy, we went to several furniture stores. After that we went to Copelands and shared a Banana's Foster. Holy Moly that thing is divine!

We spent a week in below freezing temperatures (with no snow...I firmly believe if we are below freezing then there needs to be snow) and then we had a really NICE 60 degree day so we took advantage and had a picnic in the park.

After being home so much this week--we ALL needed to get out of the house and go play, play, play!

Okay so back in December my sweet friend Melissa came to visit us and we all met at Starbucks and got to catch up! It was so good to see her!

We miss her and her family so much! This picture is from October. Sadly I also have pictures from July that haven't been blogged yet either. Melissa-even though I have blog neglected you-know that we love you guys!

Oh, the drama of the band-aid! In case it is hard to tell in this photo, Lilly has a band-aid (a Dora band-aid to be more specific) on her big toe. While putting her socks on the other day I noticed that her toenail had split half way down and I showed Matt and said we needed to put a band-aid on it. She had not noticed it yet and when she heard me--she freaked out. "Oh my toe! I need a band-aid! It hurts! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Anyway, we have been keeping a band-aid on it and it is healing nicely. And while it has been rough on her, she is surviving. (I hope you pick up on the combination of sympathetic and sarcastic tone there.)

Of course because Lilly has a band-aid, Reid needs a band-aid. Monkey see, monkey do. At first he wanted it on his toe like Lilly. But he immediately decided he didn't like that and wanted it on his nose. Matt had a cut on his nose and had to wear a band-aid on it a couple of weeks ago...but it wasn't zebra striped. Ha! He played all morning with that loud band-aid across his nose. It is those little things that make me LOVE my job. ( :

2011--Lilly and Reid Style

2012-01-05T17:02:00.001-06:00

January 2011

In January, Matt and I got to be part of the Core group to open a new campus of our Church. It has been such a blessing and we have pretty much stayed in complete awe at what God has been doing at Cross Church Fayetteville.

Reid got to play in snow for the first time! It was pretty funny watching him learn to walk in the snow.

Matt went to the bowl game and MoMo came and stayed with the kids and I and we organized and organized!

We had our annual get together with Matt's side of the family in Perryville.

Lilly got over her fear of bouncy houses and both Lilly and Reid discovered their love for all things bouncy.

February

I started teaching Kid's Day Out (also known as Mother's Day Out elsewhere). The kids love their classes and I love teaching it.

We got LOTS of snow and had several snow days. We built our first snowman!

We made snow ice cream for the first time! And, play-doh too.

March

We went to our first Razorback "nastics" meet.

Reid got his second hair cut. His first haircut in the actual salon. And Lilly discovered "princess hair".

We also had a nice relaxing spring break at home.

April

We discovered the Airport Cafe...a place to eat breakfast and watch planes take off.

We celebrated Easter.

Matt and I had a weekend getaway without children. We stayed at a bed and breakfast and it was delightful. (:

We went to an event called Farm Friends and learned that Reid has a little bit of country boy in him.

May

We took both kids to the movies for the first time. We had a strike of genius and thought to bring the carseats into the theater. Combine that with popcorn and a drink and they were thrilled!

We also spent lots of time at parks with lots of friends.

June

We went to the Gentry Safari

We took Lilly and Reid bowling for the first time.

We did the swim ranch swimming lessons.

July

We celebrated the 4th of July!

I just realized I have NEVER blogged about this...but Lilly was POTTY TRAINED!!! I am going to have to do an official post and back-date it! This picture is actually from March. A post is coming. But my big girl potty trained and she was SO EASY.

August

Matt and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary!

Lilly gave up the paci! To celebrate we went to build-a-bear and she made "Pink".

We made our annual trip to the beach! (Also realized I haven't finished blogging about that too. On the list to catch up on!)

We found out that Uncle Bert and Aunt Becca were going to have a baby!

This sweet boy turned 2!!!

September

This little sweetie turned 3!!! I can't believe it!

We had a beach-themed birthday party for Lilly and Reid.

We went to the fair and discovered how much fun a stick horse can be.

October

We rooted on our Razorbacks. We also went to our first Volleyball match.

We went to Chick-fil-a princess night. LOVED it.

I spent a week at the hospital with my uncle before he passed away that I will never forget.

We took the kids trick-or-treating for the first time ever!

November

Lilly started dance class!

Lilly got her first hair cut (trim) EVER.

We went to the annual lighting of the square.

We spent Thanksgiving with family and did a couple of Thanksgiving crafts.

December

This was our first year to do an advent calendar with the 25 days of Christmas. We did our first train ride when we went on the pajama train. We did lots of Christmas activities.

Lilly approached Santa on her own this year. We never push him but she wanted to go talk to him and write him a letter. By Christmas Reid was on Santa's lap too.

We celebrated with lots of family: Christmas with my side of the family, our family Christmas, and Christmas with Matt's side of the family,

But most importantly--we celebrated the birth of Jesus!!

We had a great year and I am SURE that I have left off some important things but I think that is a pretty good recap for now. 2011 was a great year for us and we can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us. I will be praying that all of you have a blessed year, too!

Testimony Tuesday: Restored

2012-01-04T15:20:00.001-06:00

I had been reading about praying and BELIEVING that God is going to answer that prayer. Having the faith to know that He WILL answer it. Matthew 21:22 says, "You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it." (NLT version)

Have you ever been praying for something for a long time and then when God answers your prayer you are surprised? That happens to me sometimes and then I laugh at myself because I had been praying for it the whole time. Or a lot of the time when I pray I give God an out. Instead of just praying a "big" prayer and leaving it at that...I squeeze in a "unless that doesn't work for you"-type-of-clause.

Well as I was reading about praying and believing and pondering all of the ways I don't do that (right before Thanksgiving), I lost my IPhone. My. Beloved. Iphone. I prayed (yes, I prayed about a phone. Yes, furthermore, Testimony Tuesday is about a phone. Hang with me. I have a point that is not about a phone.) I prayed that God would somehow get my phone back to me. We couldn't buy a new one--Christmas was the next month and I would have been guilt-ridden if we would have used our Christmas money to buy a phone that I had lost. When I prayed I said, "God this is a prayer that I am sending to you that I am BELIEVING you are going to answer."

Now in my mind I had already figured out ways that he could answer my prayers. I thought I would either (A) find it or (B) someone would call and say they found it. I even went so far as to sending my sweet little phone text messages saying things like, "If you find this phone and return it to the owner you will be helping God in answering my prayer!"

That is not how he chose to answer it. As God does, he provided a few phones for me to use in the meantime. I used my Mother-in-Law's old Razor phone for a couple of days. Then my mom gave me her old IPhone 3. Which was nice but the software hadn't ever been updated so I couldn't download any apps or really do anything other than make calls and text. I did appreciate having a phone, though!

Matt's brother said he had an old 3GS (which is the phone I had before I lost it) that I could have and he would bring it at Christmas. Also, Matt mentioned that he found an old Otter Box that someone had left in their car. So Bert (Matt's brother) brought his phone at Christmas but Matt hung on to it until he could put the Otter Box on it (since during the 3 weeks I had my mom's IPhone I managed to drop it and crack the screen. This, incidentally, led me to a crying meltdown in the middle of Charming Charlies over my irresponsibility. I apologize to any witnesses.) When we got home Matt did some kind of magic because he hooked it up to the computer and managed to retrieve all of my contact information AND previous apps. I never even saw it until he walked in the room with this...

You guys...This is EXACTLY like my old phone. Exactly! It is the EXACT same Otter Box. It has ALL of the information (contacts, apps, notes, everything) that my lost phone had. It is the EXACT same type of phone. Except one thing. It has more storage so it is actually a little better! Isn't that how God does things?? Not only does he answer prayers...but he does more than we ask! Now God didn't answer my prayer in the way I thought He would or in the timing I thought He would...but He was faithful to answer my prayer!!

Happy New Year!!

2012-01-01T16:10:00.000-06:00

We had a great New Year's Eve. Hopefully I will get around to doing a 2011 year in review post because I just love those posts! But today I thought I would share our New Year's Eve and my New Year's resolutions.

Let me just start by saying that New Year's Eve started with Matt letting me sleep in, him cooking breakfast, AND cleaning the kitchen afterward. Ladies and Gents--he is amazing!

For our New Year's Eve dinner we drove through and got Chinese for Matt and I and then cheese pizza for Lilly and Reid. While the kids were napping I ran to Bliss Cupcake and got our favorite cupcakes from there. We figured last day of the year...let's go all out! (; We came home and ate and everything was yummy!

Matt and I love to watch movies over the New Year's holiday...it is kind of becoming our tradition. And we love it. We wanted to take the kids to see a movie last night but there just really isn't anything out right now. So, instead, we made a big pallet on the floor with lots of blankets and pillows and we watched Beauty and the Beast. Out of our crew I was the only one that had watched this movie before! Gasp!! It is one of my favorites!! Anyway, to our shock and delight, the kids watched the entire movie laying on the pallet. I am still just giddy thinking about it! The last 15 minutes Reid got up and jumped around on the pallet for a few minutes and then settled back down. Still, it was pretty much awesome! After we put the kids to bed Matt and I watched a couple more movies and we didn't end up going to sleep until 2 a.m. I don't know how we did it or what we were thinking. Ha!

Ah, now for the New Year's Resolutions! Had I had time this week to write Testimony Tuesday I would have written about this. Last year I made a couple of NYR (New Year's Resolutions) that as we got into the year I could tell were really things that God had laid on my heart and not things that I had really thought of on my own. Since I found that the ones he laid on my heart were the ones that I stuck with and the ones that really changed me for the better, I decided this year I would ask him BEFORE the New Year what areas he would like me to grown in. After asking him and praying about it I will share the ones that he revealed to me. I will warn you...apparently, I have multiple areas to grow in. (:

1. Be a better listener. Yes, friends, I am aware that I talk way more than I listen. I will go ahead and confess that I am an interrupter. Please know that I am NEVER meaning to be rude...although I know sometimes it may come across that way or like I don't really care about what the other person is talking about. Really, that is not true. The reality is that if I don't say it when I think it, I will NOT remember it! And, another reality is that I will be chanting it in my mind so that I won't forget it and therefore will not really be listening and so I will not even realize that I am interrupting. Hang in there with me friends because I am working on it!! So if I am quiet...know there is nothing wrong...I am just really going to be trying to develop my listening skills which may mean that I have to talk less.

2. Budget and Stick to It. And the husband said Amen! Ha! Okay so this is one of the things that Lord has been consistently telling me is a "growth area"...and I have been consistently putting off. You see, Matt and I are not "bad" with our money. But the Lord has shown me that we are not being the BEST stewards of our money that we could be. During the discipleship study there was a guest speaker from a financial planning company and he went over some budgeting sheets and information with us. Some of the "new things" he covered were to make goals for what you want to do (date night twice a month, a new piece of furniture, paying off debt, more charity, etc.) and then work them into your budget like they are a regular bill. He also said when making your budget-in addition to your regular bills add your "once a year bill" (i.e. property tax)or every few month bills (i.e. oil change) and break them down into your monthly budget as well. Then as our preacher talked one day he talked about how Rockefeller always tithed 10%, saved 10%, and lived off of 80% of his income. So we combined all of that information, created our own goals, and made our entire budget for 2012. Whew. Now please pray with us that I can be focused!

3. Be an Encourager. I would LOVE to send every person in my address book random cards in the mail to encourage them. Let me just go ahead and confess that this was one of my goals last year and I did it exactly ZERO times. Fail! So this year...I am going to try so hard to fit this in!!! I send texts and some stuff like that but I would really like to make intentional encouraging a much bigger part of my life this year!

And here are the spiritual growth goals.
1. Move quiet time to first thing in the morning. Oiy! That one hurts to type. I am not a morning person, friends. I always do quiet time during the kids' nap time. But lately we have been talking in church about giving God the FIRST of everything. Including our day. Also, if the kids nap at KDO they don't nap at home which means on those days it is a bit of a challenge to do my quiet time. So with both of those in mind I am going to move my quiet time to the morning. This will be a huge challenge for me because this will mean I have to get up even earlier than I already do so that I can do my quiet time AND be showered and ready for the day when they get up. But I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13), right? Right!
2. Fast regularly. I would like to regularly fast this year so that I can intentionally sacrifice something for the purpose of seeking Him more.
3. Read the bible this year. I am ALMOST done reading the bible through for the first time in my entire life. I LOVE it. It has literally changed my life, how I live, and who I am as a person. Our church is going to try and read the bible in one year together this year so I am going to try and do that with them too.

And then, of course, like every other person making New Year's Resolutions I want to lose some weight and be more organized. Organizationally speaking I have made great strides since last year and would like to keep on the same path. I want to use a planner ALL YEAR long this year and keep up with it. I am notorious for starting strong and then abandoning ship in, like, February. I have already cleaned out and reorganized the kids' toys and playroom. My next big project is to organize all of the "paper" in this house including a system that covers all of the new stuff the kids bring home or the mailman delivers. I hope at the end of 2012 I can look back at this list and see that I have made improvements and grown in each of the above goals/resolutions! I hope you all had a Happy New Year and I would love to know what some of your resolutions are!

Oh, and PS, if you don't spend daily time with God in prayer and in His word, I encourage you to make that New Year's Resolution. I promise if you are faithful to it--it will NOT be one you regret! (:

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

2011-12-30T16:17:00.001-06:00

On Christmas Eve night we get together at DeDe and Mike's house with the family to have dinner and open presents. Lilly is a professional gift un-wrapper this year. She loved to open all of hers and then help others open theirs. What is Christmas without a helpful spirit, right? She got a Melissa & Doug magnetic princess doll from Melissa and Danny and the cousins. She got the ballerina one from Aunt Shelly. She had them both out playing yesterday and asked which one was from who so I was telling her and when I said that the princess one was from Melissa and Danny, she said, "Danny! I Looove that Danny!" Ha!

She also got this princess pillow that she loves to sleep on. I have been transforming her room into a big room this week...but more on that later.

Reid opened his Cars shirt and had to put it on immediately! That boy is loving anything Cars right now. It is a good thing since he now has a lot of it.

Aunt Kay gave Lilly 3 dresses to play dress-up with. MamMa made all 3 of them for Melissa when she was little and was a flower girl in several weddings. I LOVE them. I love that MamMa made them and that Melissa wore them when she was little and I love that Lilly is wearing them now. It is just special to me! And, so does Lilly. She wore all 3 of them that night!

Ray asked for cash money...and he wanted it all in one dollar bills. Hysterical. No--he didn't want them for "the club"--he just wanted "a big wad of money". Ha! We asked him if he was going to spread it on his bed and roll in it. (:

Reid had so much fun playing with his cousins!

And, of course his Uncle Bert (and Aunt Becca). We talk about Bert and Becca daily. When we were at lunch one day Lilly asked Reid, "Bubby what do you want for Christmas?" and he said, "Bert and Becca". How stinking sweet is that?

Later Christmas Eve the kids opened their gifts from Bert and Becca. Lilly was super excited about Ariel. The Little Mermaid was in her stocking for Christmas this year. Luckily I had bought it when she was a baby and it was still out because she asked for it and it isn't being sold in stores right now!

Reid LOVES his Cars tent. We wouldn't open it for him so he carried it around like a briefcase ALL weekend long. Christmas morning he opened gifts one-handed because he wouldn't let go of it.

Oh, and I am pretty sure I spotted a reindeer Christmas Eve, too! (:

On Christmas morning MamMa got to come over! This really was the best Christmas present ever! She is in a rehabilitation home and while we know that she needs to be there--it just wouldn't have been Christmas without her celebrating with us!

We LOVE our sweet MamMa!

Christmas day Reid played some more with his cousins!

Lilly and Melissa put a puzzle together. And then took it apart. And then put it back together.

Grandma Betty was there Christmas day, too, and we enjoyed seeing her as well! Later that evening we went to see Granddaddy and MeeMaw but I was just too tired to get the camera out there. We had such a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with lots of family!

25 Days of Christmas Activities

2011-12-28T23:42:00.001-06:00

We were so busy making memories that I haven't had a chance to blog it...so here it goes.

We made a fort (out of our dining room table and a sheet) and read Christmas books in it.

Lilly read a book.

Then Reid read a book. It is all about "sharing is caring" in this house. Ha! That is Lilly's favorite saying these days. I haven't figured out where she picked it up at.

Then I made ~~cookies from a bag~~ my secret recipe cookies for us to decorate!

This was the setup.

At the store Reid wanted blue icing. I didn't realize it didn't have a tip so it came out kind of thick. Oops.

Decorating! At first Lilly was focused on decorating.

Then she got distracted by eating the icing...

and then it took a turn for the worst and she started sucking the icing right out of the bag.

This was Lilly's cookie.

And this was Reid's cookie. Matt put on the face.

Matt shocked me with his gingerbread cookie skills! This is his cookie.

One of the things we had planned to do was to make dinner and a treat and take it to my Aunt Jan but when I talked to her it worked out best for us to just go to lunch. So we met her for some pizza and brought her some of my homemade-from-a-bag cookies.

We had such a good time visiting with Aunt Jan. Both of the kids wanted to sit next to Jan and talked her ear off.

We made ornaments. I had actually planned on having an ornament party and making several ornaments but it just didn't fit in the schedule.

We put paint in a clear plastic ornament and shook it up.

Shake, shake, shake. Once the paint covered it all, they put their handprint on it. I have rubbed off on my children because they LOVE to do their handprints.

Then I sprayed them with a sealer.

This wasn't on our calendar but we went to lunch with Grandma Odie. Or as the kids call her, "Grammy Odie".

We went to the Golden Coral. We love our Grammy Odie! Reid had chocolate covered strawberries for the first time.

They were a hit!

Before we left for Benton we had a dance party to get out all of that energy before the car ride. We danced to Jingle Bell Rock at least five times because that is Lilly's FAVORITE Christmas song. Every time it would come on the radio she would say, "I love that song!" and when it was over she would say, "Play it again!" Luckily I had a CD with it on there.

We had so much fun dancing our wiggles out!

Then we watched Polar Express and ate popcorn on our way to Benton.

I loved doing the 25 days of Christmas. We didn't get to everything and we definitely didn't get to it every single day but we had so much fun doing what we could when we could and I loved that it was in our schedule to have some family fun.

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-27T00:40:00.003-06:00

Well I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! I am, of course, way behind on posting our 25 days of Christmas activities and our Christmas celebrations. I will catch up on all of that this week but I wanted to post our "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake.

We have talked about Christmas being Jesus' birthday. And Lilly has been singing "Happy Birthday Jesus" for a couple of weeks and talking about his birthday party. We have been talking about making him a cake on his birthday because Lilly really associates cake and cupcakes with birthdays. Ha! And when it comes to cake, she totally gets that you should share.

She was so excited to help make the cake! She dumped all of the ingredients into the bowl and helped stir.

Reid helped stir some too!

After we baked it, we spread on some chocolate fudge icing (daddy's choice!).

Again Reid got to help too!

We put a red heart (for God's love) and then put LOTS of sprinkles on top.

Said "cheese" with it.

Then Reid kept sneaking icing while we were waiting on Daddy.

I read the Happy Birthday Jesus book. Then we sang (that is what Lilly is doing in both the above and below picture) "Happy Birthday Jesus".

We put a candle on the cake for each of the kids to blow out but Reid said, "I don't want the fire". Ha!

Lilly was happy to blow his out for him too. In fact she said, "It's okay bubby! I got it for you."

Then we dug in! Reid ate his entire piece of cake!

Lilly ate just a couple of bites.

This is a picture of the inside of the cake. Just because I thought it was cute and festive. (: I loved doing this with the kids and I think it is just an easy and simple way to help the kids understand the real meaning of Christmas.

These are just a couple of the things I wanted to remember about this year. One-everything above the kids made at church at some point. There are the "one-foot" Christmas trees, the angels, the wisemen, and their letters to Santa that they made on "Polar Express" Friday night out.

We laughed out loud when we read Lilly's. It says, "I would like a barbie house and pain. Also, I would like a baby boy and girl named Becka and Burt." Over Thanksgiving we were at DeDe's house and Eli asked Lilly what she wanted from Santa and Lilly said, "I don't know." So he took her to the computer to show her things she could ask for and one of them was a barbie house. For whatever reason it stuck with her. She doesn't even really know what a barbie house is yet! But that is what she told Santa every time we saw him. Then, of course, Uncle Bert and Aunt Becca are having a baby. I guess she would like us to have a baby boy and girl and name them Bert and Becca.

Reid's says, "I would really like some toys for Christmas. Also, I would like to be with Mommy and Daddy for Christmas." When I read this I had to ask if he said it and she said she asked him if he wanted to toys for Christmas and he said, "yes!" Then she asked him if he wanted anything else and he said, "I want Mommy and Daddy." Melt my heart!

I have just enjoyed this Christmas season so much. We have made so many fun memories with our little cuties and have loved getting to see so many family and friends!

Pajama Train

2011-12-24T17:33:00.000-06:00

One of the 25 days of Christmas activities I have been SO excited about was the Pajama Train! I booked it at the beginning of November but didn't tell the kids until that day.

So Thursday night was the night! We all hopped into our pajamas and loaded the train. Lilly said, "Mommy the train is waiting just for us!" The kids were SO EXCITED!

The conductor put his hat on Lilly. Before we left Lilly and Reid kept saying, "We don't hear the train!" Or, really in Lilly's southern accent, "the tray-yen". Ha. I love it. When we started going and the train whistle blew...

we were ready to, "Choo! Choo!" right along with them.

"Choo! Choo!"

Matt and Reid sat on one side of the table. We decided to go "first class" since they had tables and we just didn't think we could handle the kids on a bench for 3 hours. And it was supposed to be a great deal.

Lilly sat next to me! They did so good staying in their seats.

They served a yummy dinner. There was some kind of stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon. Right up my alley! (:

The kids enjoyed the rolls the most.

They served pumpkin pie or pecan pie cobbler for dessert. Lilly ate a whole piece of pumpkin pie by herself. I had the pecan pie cobbler and it was delicious.

Lilly was most excited about her CAN of Sprite. She thought she was so big with her own can. And of Sprite no less.

Santa came through the train too. He gave the kids a candy cane and took a picture with them. Lilly was hysterical yelling, "Santa! Hey Santa! Santa!"

He also tickled Reid.

Lilly made friends with the little boy behind us.

And they loved pointing out all of the things outside as we passed by them...like the Christmas lights...or counting the cars that went by.

To be honest, this wasn't all that it was advertised to be. It was supposed to be 3 hours and 15 minutes and it was only an hour and a half. They made a mistake with our ticket and we ended up having to pay for it. There was also supposed to be "caroling and many fun surprises" and there wasn't. However, the kids didn't know about any of that and they LOVED every second of it. They had a blast and I am so glad that we went. Either way, I just love making memories with these two little cuties!

Our Christmas!

2011-12-22T09:40:00.000-06:00

We did our little family Christmas this past Sunday.

The kids woke up to this. They both got up at the same time so that worked out nicely. We try to go by the whole 3 present thing...but we just really aren't that good at it. We got both kids dress up clothes in the trunkie suitcases, Melissa & Doug pizza, band in a box, puppets, and puzzles (we wrapped these as "one" gift), and they each got an Innotab. They got lots of little goodies in their stockings too.

Reid got up, walked in the living room, saw the trunkie and started riding it around. He didn't need to open any presents. Ha! He was happy just riding that around.

Matt opening his present from Lilly that she picked out here.

She got him so candy in a robot container. When she saw it she said, "Oh my Daddy would loovvee that!" She also got him a ball that you throw and it comes back to you. She insisted that he needed a RED flashlight. And then as we passed the Dora stickers she said, "OH MOMMY--Daddy loves Dora!!!" Matt and I talked about how much fun that night was going and letting them pick out gifts and we will definitely be doing this again.

For Bubby she picked out a football night light (I may have pointed that out b/c he needs one). The story with the Cars Poprocks is really cute. We had been at the dollar tree a couple of weeks ago and I let the kids pick out a treat to carry around but they had to be on good behavior for us to get it. Reid picked out the above Cars candy but he wasn't listening and he lost his treat. When Lilly saw it she said, "Oh Bubby can have his treat!!!" She was so excited to give it to them and they have enjoyed it together. She also thought he needed a green flashlight and that ball.

Reid got Lilly princess shampoo and a barbie ice pack.

And he got me the oven mitt, some Christmas candy cups, and some chapstick that is already in my purse. After we opened gifts Matt cooked some cinnamon pancakes from a mix that one of my sweet KDO kids gave us for Christmas. Then we got ready and went to church. After church we met MoMo and Papa Ray for lunch at Logans (as well as Uncle Larry, Aunt Becky, and Amber) before they left to go back home. Then we came home and napped so we would have energy for our annual Christmas night at the square!

Every year since Reid's first Christmas we go eat dinner on the square. This year we met our friends the Trumbo's. They met us for pizza our first year so we decided to meet up for pizza with them again/ We met at Tiny Tim's and then walked around the square. It had been so cold lately but it was really nice out Sunday night.

After the Trumbo's went home we hit up the square like tourists. (:

The kids rode ponies. Both kids wanted to ride and had a good time.

Lilly was so excited...

because we were waiting our turn for...

Bobby!! The horse that gave us our carriage ride last year. We talked about Bobby for MONTHS last year.

Eventually we are going to get a good family picture of us on the carriage ride, but really, why break tradition this year right??

We rode the carriage ride around the square looking at the lights.

We tried to get a picture of each one of us with the kids but as you tell they were too busy looking at the lights.

The beautiful lights!

After we left the square we drove around to look at a couple of favorites. The place above is some business but they have TONS of blow-ups. I couldn't get a picture of half of them!

Then we drove to this house. It is one of those houses that the lights are set to music. I didn't get any great photos but it is pretty cool!

Then we went back home to play with our toys. Lilly busted out her new fingernail polish. I painted her nails and then she painted mine. This is my first manicure from her. Also--let me just say that my husband spoiled me rotten for Christmas!! That outfit is one of my Christmas presents (including the matching red and white TOMS you can't see) and he got me another super cute outfit. I love it all and am so thankful!!

The finished product. Lilly showing off her handy work like Vanna White.

This is from DeDe. A local place was having a warehouse sale and everything was half off. I saw this and wanted to get it for the kids but we had already bought their Christmas. The next day we went back with DeDe and she got it for them. (Local friends--that is Acumen--and they are having another sale January 5th!) We went to put it together Saturday night so the kids would see it Sunday morning but we realized we had only grabbed one of the two boxes! Oops! So we went and got the other one Monday and put it together Tuesday night. This was waiting for them Wednesday morning.

To say they LOVE IT would be an understatement. They haven't played with anything else since! I bet they have spent several hours just opening and closing the cabinets.

They do keep putting their stuffed animals in the microwave and stove, though, so we are working on that. Ha!

Thanks DeDe (and Daddy for putting it together)! We LOVE it!

All in all we had a WONDERFUL Christmas day as our little family!

Testimony Tuesday

2011-12-20T15:57:00.002-06:00

Well I will tell you that I have been so impressed at how much of the details that Lilly has picked up about the birth of Jesus. We have talked about it while we played with our Little People Nativity and when we talk about our upcoming Christmas celebrations and we have learned a little song. Reid loves to sing the song, too. I just thought I would share it. It is actually a combination of two songs that were in my KDO resources and one verse that we made up because my kids were concerned about the donkey. Ha! (It is the one about the donkey.)

You sing it to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb"

Mary rode a donkey

A donkey, A donkey

Mary rode a donkey

Going to Bethlehem

Joseph walked beside her

Beside her, Beside her

Joseph walked beside her

Going to Bethlehem

The donkey went clippity-clop

clippity-clop, clippity-clop

The donkey went clippity-clop

Going to Bethlehem

Mary had a baby boy

Baby boy, Baby boy

Mary had a baby boy

And Jesus was His name

They wrapped him up in swaddling clothes

Swaddling clothes, Swaddling clothes

They wrapped him up in swaddling clothes

And laid him in the hay

He came to show us God's great love

God's great love, God's great love

He came to show us God's great love

On that first Christmas Day

Anyway, I have been shocked at the amount of stuff the kids have picked up on and the questions Lilly has asked have kept us laughing. (I.e. Mommy, Mary fell off that donkey??) We never sat the kids down and did a "lesson" on it--we just used teachable opportunities. We got the nativity set and then told the story as we played. We sang the song (it is a favorite-they want to sing it all the time). If we see something and the kids point it out (i.e. baby Jesus in the nativity or an angel made of Christmas lights) we will just reinforce what we have talked about (or their part in the story).

Hope you all are having a Merry Christmas season!

Friday & Christmas #1

2011-12-18T23:13:00.001-06:00

Friday we got up and went to do a little shopping with MoMo. Lilly got all dressed up and was ready to take pictures. Of course, I was willing to take them. (:

We went to the mall and Lilly spotted Santa and told me, "There's Santa! I need to go talk to him!" There was no line so we went up and talked to him. Reid went up and ended up getting in his lap and we got a really cute picture that I will have to figure out how to scan on here at a later date.

We enjoyed spending the morning with MoMo.

That night was Friday Night Out and Matt and I were pretty excited for some kid free time. We LOVE LOVE LOVE our time with out children but sometimes it is so nice to just eat and talk at a leisurely pace. The church did Polar Express night so they wore their pajamas, watched Polar Express, and got to drink some hot chocolate with marshmallows.

Matt and I went to dinner with our friends Flint and Rebekah. I forgot to get a group photo so we took this picture while the guys were getting the cars (it was FREEZING outside). We went to a Thai restaurant and then to Bliss Cupcake for dessert. It was so good to catch up with friends!

Then Saturday evening we did Christmas #1. My celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family.

We opened presents. We were all spoiled beyond rotten.

This is my sister Michelle and my brother Mike and me.

My sister, my mom, and me.

We played games. Lots of games.

Hung out with family. This is Matt and my nephew Blayne. I can NOT believe he is 15!!!

It was a fun night! This is my nephew Ethan, Grandma Berti, me, and my niece Emma.

I thought I would share a couple of gifts with you. My mom got Matt and I a laptop for my birthday and Christmas. I just wanted you all to know that she is the reason you have been reading blog posts for the past couple of months. (:

My sister Michelle made these coasters for me. I LOVE them.

My mom also got me this planner that is AWESOME. It has a plan for reading the bible in a year, a monthly budget, a day planner (with time slots for every 30 minutes), encouraging verses/devotions. And then my sister also made me the charm bracelet.

The presents were wonderful but of course the best part was spending the evening laughing with our sweet family!

25 Days of Christmas & Lately

2011-12-16T00:32:00.001-06:00

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.

Testimony Tuesday: Under Attack

2011-12-13T15:43:00.003-06:00

Okay so the good news is God gave me the victory over the attitude problem. Praise the Lord! The bad news is that Satan immediately blind-sided me by attacking me in another area. The truth is Satan has been attacking full force for a few months. He will attack one area and I will pray and God will give the victory and then Satan goes for somewhere else. Lately I have felt a little weary just because it has not let up. On my good days I KNOW that this means that I am on the right path and that God is going to use me for something great. I am able to speak scripture to combat Satan's lies, resist temptations, and act in ways that are pleasing to the Lord. On my bad days Satan wears me down and sometimes I get down and just sit and cry for a moment until the Lord can whisper scripture in my ear or bring something to mind that snaps me out of it and gives me enough strength to keep fighting. Praise the Lord that He is always willing to do this when I need it. Praise the Lord for when I am weak He becomes my strength!

Usually when I am feeling weary and Satan has worn me down, I find that it has happened because Satan has been able to distract me. This week what God has really been telling me is to focus on Him. Keep my eyes on Him and set my heart on Him. Use Him as my filter. Not the world, not other people, not things, not situations. HIM. If I can keep in my focus that He is God (the one, the only, the true, never changing God) and I am here to serve Him then I won't get sidetracked by all of the other garbage and distractions that Satan throws at me. For example, if I do something for somebody else with the purpose of pleasing God then it doesn't matter how they react or what they do in return. My goal will not be to get recognition or reward from them anyway, it will be to do something because I know it pleases my Heavenly Father. So, dear friends, pray that I am able to do that please and I will pray it for you. (:

Day 9 & Bible Study Dinner

2011-12-10T22:03:00.001-06:00

Day 9 was make a Christmas snack and watch a Christmas movie. We ended up making plans with my table at bible study for dinner so I made us a Christmas snack while the kids were sleeping.

This recipe was in Parenting magazine and was called Reindeer Munch. Lilly was so excited when we went to the store to buy pretzels. I guess we hadn't bought any in a while. Anyway the recipe is as follows:

2 cups of square rice cereal (I used Chex)
2 cups of pretzels
1 cup of cocktail peanuts
1 cup of dried cranberries
1 cup of chocolate candies (like m&ms)
12 ounces melting white chocolate (I used almond bark)

Mix everything but the almond bark together, set aside, melt almond bark, mix in with the rest of the stuff and spread out on foil for and leave it for about 30 minutes.

Break it apart into bite size pieces and enjoy. We really liked this!

I also made these little cuties because I had chocolate almond bark and left over pretzels and m&ms. I just dipped some nutter butters in melted chocolate and added the m&ms for the eyes and nose and the pretzel for the ears. I was going to break the pretzels so the antlers looked more antler-ish but they stayed better and it was easier this way. (: The kids loved these! I haven't tasted one yet.

We packed up our goodies and went to have dinner at Mary Ellen's house. (In the picture me, Laura, Mary Ellen, and Whitney).

Mary Ellen did such a wonderful job! Everything was set up so nice and the food was delicious. Her and her husband made the best Chicken Parmesan! That is Matt's favorite so he was a happy guy!

The kids had their own table with chicken nuggets and fries.

Lilly managed to find a Christmas movie on tv so I am totally marking that as "check" on the day's plan. Ha! We had so much fun getting to hang out with these sweet and fun families!

Today I went shopping with my mom and my sister and I came home to some beautiful Christmas lights. It was so nice and festive. I just love it!! We owe a special thanks to Preston for putting them up for us. OH and I will post a picture but Matt worked in the garage today and I am SO PROUD to announce that BOTH of our cars are parked in the garage!!!!

Day 5-8, Lately, and Food Swap

2011-12-09T16:44:00.001-06:00

Day 5--Monday night we brought out the Little People nativity set and before they could play with it I used the people to tell the story. I was so proud of how well they both listened and Lilly is really getting good at helping me tell the story!

Showing me baby Jesus. She is very excited for his birthday.

She also has learned the word "stable". Random fact but now you know. (:

I just think this picture is funny.

Now let me just level with you right now and tell you that we did days 6, 7, and 8 all on day 8. Anyway, "Day 6"--We made these handprint/footprint angels to put with our Christmas card to a soldier and our Christmas card to Aunt Jan (my uncle Tom's who passed away--his wife). They saw "God will command His angels to protect you wherever you go. Psalm 90:11." I explained to Lilly who we were making our angels for and why. Reid was excited because they were blue. (This idea came from a combination of the advent book we are reading and the angel I saw on Pinterest.)

"Day 7"--you know all of that artwork that comes home that looks like this? They are so proud of it! But other than hanging on the fridge for a couple weeks, what are you supposed to do with it?? Make Christmas cards!!! I used cookie cutters to trace shapes on them and cut them out.

Then we assembled some cards. We are still working on these but I think they are adorable. (This idea came from Parent's magazine.)

Day 8--A Christmas craft. Making a banner.

We used the kids hands and feet, the bottom of a water bottle, and some bubble wrap to decorate some craft paper squares I cut out.

Some of the work.

Then I assembled them to make this banner. I tried hanging it with tape last night but it fell down so I am going to hang it with some nails tonight.

Some other things that have been going on this week...

We got our first snow.

My sweet friend Trina brought Lilly this Barbie doll from when she was little. I thought that was so sweet and thoughtful. Lilly loves it and that is really her first Barbie doll.

It is food swap time again. There were 6 of us this time and we each made 2 meals (times 6) so we all ended up with 12 yummy meals. There is something about having a stocked freezer that makes me more productive!! Ha! My awesome hubby met me at Wal-Mart Tuesday during his lunch and we rushed and shopped. I was still not full energy after being sick so this was SO helpful. He also got up early and put it in the crock pot for me (we had it going in two different crock pots).

We made pulled pork. The recipe is below.

INGREDIENTS: 1 tablespoon butter 2 pounds boneless pork roast 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning 1 medium onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic, crushed 4 cups water 1 tablespoon liquid smoke flavoring
DIRECTIONS: Cut the pork roast into large chunks. Season generously with the Cajun seasoning. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork, and brown on all sides. Remove from the skillet, and transfer to a slow cooker. Add the onion and garlic to the skillet, and cook for a few minutes until tender. Stir in the water scraping the bottom to include all of the browned pork bits from the bottom of the pan, then pour the whole mixture into the slow cooker with the pork. Stir in liquid smoke flavoring. Cover, and cook on High for 6 hours, or until meat is falling apart when pierced with a fork. Remove pieces of pork from the slow cooker, and shred. Return to the slow cooker to keep warm while serving. Mix with favorite bar-b-que sauce and enjoy!

I also made Oven-Baked Chimichangas. I pretty much followed the recipe except I used shredded chicken and didn't add green onions. These are SO good and taste just as good as fried ones. I will try to link the rest of the girl's recipes on here tomorrow.

Then, apparently Reid is training for minute to win it because he was able to do this is under 5 seconds. Hope you all are having a great week!

Testimony Tuesday

2011-12-06T23:33:00.001-06:00

Philippians 4:8 "And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."

Philippians 2:14 "Do everything without complaining and arguing."

I have had an attitude issue the past couple of weeks. It has been lacking. The funny thing is Philippians 4:8 is a verse that I love and pray daily but today God just used it to show me that I was not focused on the positive...in fact I had a critical spirit that was ignoring parts that were praiseworthy to focus on the negative things. I was also complaining a lot these past few days and I would just catch myself saying something negative regularly. So, like only God can do, he used a verse I know and love to show me the problem/solution that I was praying about. Watch out good mood because here I come again. (: Ha!

Day 2, 3, and 4--Weekend in Branson

2011-12-05T16:09:00.001-06:00

On Friday DeDe came to visit and when Matt got off work we loaded up and headed to Branson. We stopped at Harrison to eat at one of our favorite places to eat, DeVito's. It is so good. My great Aunt and Uncle have a condo in Branson so we stayed there. We got to Branson and went to the Landing. (These pictures are from when we went back Sunday because it was dark, cold, and a little rainy Friday night.) We walked around and looked at the lights and the fountains there.

We are thankful and very blessed to have good sleepers when we travel because they slept in Saturday (after going to bed late) and we barely made it to McDonald's in time for breakfast. We ate light because we knew we were going to the Dixie Stampede for lunch. We headed to the Dixie Stampede early to see the horses (the stables are where you can walk by and see the animals), get our picture made, and watch the pre-show. There was a part where the man juggled with his mouth and Reid thought that was hysterical. There was also an amazing teenage juggler.

(I included this picture because I thought it was hilarious.) Then we went into the show. They don't allow pictures there so I didn't even take my camera in. It was great, though. My two and three year old were totally captivated which is something to be said for two kids that don't stay in one spot hardly ever. The adults loved the food but Lilly and Reid ate the popcorn we bought at the preshow. During the show they did a living nativity that was really good. After the show Matt dropped DeDe and I off at the outlet malls while the kids napped. I spent a whopping $4. Big spender. (; We were hoping to go to Silver Dollar City but the weather had other plans and it rained all night. Don't worry about us Scott's, though, because we still managed to have fun and see some lights! We went back to the landing to eat at Joe's Crabshack and see the fountain show. (Again, it was pouring so I didn't have my camera so no pictures.)

Then we drove through the Branson Festival of Lights. This one was only $10 for the whole car and had some great lights. It had a big light thing for each one of the 12 days of Christmas. I thought these "4 calling birds" were pretty funny! The festival of lights was good and a bargain but I wanted to see some more lights so we decided to go through the Shepard of the Hills drive-thru lights as well.

This one was more costly but it was also a LOT longer. Like it took us probably an hour to get through. About 15 minutes into the drive Lilly informed us that she had to go potty...and there is no way out!! Note to self and others-stop and take a potty break before you enter this one! Ha! Praise the Lord she made it through! This drive-thru had all sorts of scenes like the one above as well as lots of lights. The tower has lights going all the way up and down it and Reid keeps calling it the "volcano", or really as he says it, "ball-cane-o". They also had all types of light figures including dinosaurs, frogs, waterfalls, sliding gingerbread men, etc.

And they also had all kinds of religious signs like this one as well. I love that everything we saw in Branson included some Jesus, you know, since He is the reason for the season.

On Sunday Reid slept until 11 (he didn't go to bed until almost midnight...we are not great parents when it comes to food or bedtime on vacation), so we ended up having an early lunch for breakfast at McFarland's. I was so excited about fried green tomatoes. Love them! After lunch we attempted to shop for our angel on our angel tree (which was Day 4 on the advent calendar) but we are still looking for the right gift. We went to the Bass Pro Shop. Santa was there and Lilly said she wanted to go talk to him. I could NOT believe it. She has never wanted to be within touching distance of Santa!! She went right up to him and talked to him and sat in his lap and smiled for a picture with him. Bass Pro Shop was awesome they gave us a free picture and let us snap pictures with our own cameras too.

And they had a kid craft area where the kids made these cute little foam ornaments and colored pictures.

Lilly saying, "Cheeeeeesssseeee". They had blank letters to Santa and Lilly wanted to write him a letter. So she did.

And then she hand-delivered it to him.

This was a picture of her letter. (: This just makes me smile.

She was explaining it to him.

Reid wanted no part of being close to Santa but he did want to give him a (blank) letter.

Then we went outside to take the pictures with the deer (at the beginning of the post) and I got this picture. I think this is my FAVORITE picture yet!!!!

Sitting on some rides. Matt and I are not very, what's the word, outdoorsy, but we enjoy looking around the Bass Pro Shop. I don't think we have ever found anything to purchase but it is just a fun shop. Reid loved the aquarium and I think at one point he was trying to get in the tank.

After that we loaded up and headed home. The kids slept almost the whole way home which never happens because my kids ~~do not ever~~ don't usually sleep in the car. When we got back to town we decided to take DeDe to see a local house that goes all out for Christmas. I guess we hadn't gotten enough Christmas lights because after that we decided to go the square and eat dinner and see more lights. I think by that time we were just crazy exhausted and not thinking

This is the only picture I got of the four of us. Photo fail.

DeDe and the kids. After two weekends in a row with the grandkids I think DeDe is worn out. I actually stayed home sick today but am starting to feel better. However, I can tell you that tonight's activity of "Christmas Photo" will be traded out with something else.

2011-12-01T23:13:00.001-06:00

Day 1 of our 25 days of Christmas was decorating the Christmas tree.

While the kids were napping I set up our tree, Lilly's tree, and Reid's tree. I set them up in the living room so we could all decorate them together. Once we were done decorating them the kids' trees went in their rooms.

I also went ahead and set out our stockings.

The kids were waking up from their naps right as Matt was on his way home and I wanted him to be here when they went into the living room so I went into Reid's room to keep him in there for a few minutes. When I got him out of his crib he saw his Cars pajamas and insisted on putting them on. And, even though we hadn't eaten dinner I just went with it. Ha! When Matt got home (Lilly was still asleep), we went into the living room and Reid was so excited about all of the different color trees. He had asked for a "blue tree" specifically so DeDe got him one. Blessed boy! He kept saying, "A blue one! A purple one! A greeeen one!"

Lilly woke up a few minutes later and came into the living room and she just smiled from ear to ear. We had bought her tree after Christmas last year on clearance and it is a light purple. At the store she had asked for a pink one but I told her we already had a purple one and she was excited about it. This was the first time she had seen it. She ran right up to the tree, hugged it, and said, "I LOVE IT!!"

Decorating. She wanted to put the ornaments on the lights. I let her decorate it however she wanted too. Well, except I wouldn't let her put more than one ornament per limb because she would put three on the same limb and then they would all slide off and we just weren't making any progress. (: After a while she would just hand me the ornament and then point to exactly where she wanted it.

Reid enjoyed hanging some on and would ask for help but then when Matt would try to help he would say, "No Daddy! I do it myself!!" Ha. He had some help from Daddy decorating his tree because he lost some focus.

Here is Lilly's tree! It looks pretty good. However, the other side has NO ornaments. Either way, I think she did pretty awesome.

The front of Reid's tree...

The back.

Matt and I have decorated most of the living room tree. I still have to go to Hobby Lobby and get a star for the top and have a few more ornaments to hang but I needed a break so I decided to blog and then finish.

My favorite of all of our trees, though, are these "1 foot" Christmas trees that Lilly and Reid made at church while we were watching the AWESOME Christmas program last night. They are so adorable. The lady in their class said that while Lilly was making hers she said, "My Mommy is going to loooove this!" She was right!! Happy December everyone!

25 Days of Christmas!!!

2011-11-30T16:23:00.001-06:00

Okay so I know it so out of character for me to post 3 times in one day but I have been trying to get all caught up because starting tomorrow we are going to be doing 25 days of Christmas. Ahhhh. Can you feel my excitement??? I got the idea for this from Pinterest (my most favorite idea I have gotten from there yet!!). I was going to make one of the super adorable advent calendars that I saw on Pinterest but then I found this one (picture below) at Target in the dollar spot (the $2.50 section of the "dollar" spot) and picked it up instead.

I had seen on Pinterest the idea of putting a Christmas-type activity in each day of the advent calendar and l-o-v-e-d it. I just love Christmas and love making memories with my family and know that this will be a tradition we will all look forward to and remember fondly. I also found this great blog post on 50 things to do at Christmas-time.

So I used some of those, put it in what I already had planned, and came up with a few more ideas until I had our 25 activities (will post the list at the end). I cut up some Christmas scrapbook paper I already had and wrote them on there, got out our schedule so I could plan what activity for which day. (You know, I didn't want to plan a long activity on a night when we have small group and won't have the time to do it.)

Then, viola! Also, at TJ Maxx-I found the perfect book! I am convinced God placed it there just for me! It is called My First Read and Learn Countdown to Christmas by Mary Manz Simon.

For each night of December 1-25, there is a page, a scripture, a prayer, and something you can do (sometimes it is a craft, sometimes it is a dance, all are pretty short). We will do this before bed each night. I love it!

Our 25 activities (in no particular order) are...

Decorate Tree--Lilly and Reid both have their own small tree with ornaments that they will freely decorate.
Read Christmas story and play with Little People Nativity set.
Take Christmas Photos.
Pick an angel from the angel tree and shop for him/her as a family.
Go to Branson to look at lights and go to see Dixie Stampede show.
Make Christmas Cards--we will be turning the kids artwork into Christmas cards.
Make a Christmas card for soldier. (If you don't know a soldier you can mail a Christmas card to Holiday Mail for Heroes, P.O. Box 5456, Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456)
Christmas Craft--we are making a banner for the fireplace mantle
Make a treat (Snowflake mix or Reindeer munch) and watch a Christmas movie in our sleeping bags in the living room.
Ornament Party--we are making all kinds of ornaments!
Shop for sibling and parent. We will split up and go to somewhere like the dollar store and let each child pick out a gift for their sibling and the other parent. Then we will meet together and pick out a special ornament for the year.
Cheap dinner and drive around looking at Christmas lights.
Gingerbread nativity and/or village.
Candlelight dinner with chicken nuggets and fries along with a candlelight bath (for the kids and obviously the candles would be away from the tub) or glowstick bath.
Decorate wrapping paper. The kids are making their own wrapping this year. (:
Dance party to Christmas music.
Cookie decorating party.
Special breakfast and night on the square.
Make a fort and read Christmas books in it.
Make candy and take to neighbors.
Bake dinner and a treat and take it to my Aunt.
Pajama Express Train!
Watch Polor Express on our way to visit family.
Make Jesus's birthday cake!!
Read, "It's Jesus's Birthday!", sing happy birthday Jesus, and have some cake!

We may not get to everything, I know "life" can happen but I am so looking forward to a month full of special times with my family! I plan on blogging each day so you will be able to see how it is going! (:

Our Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-11-30T15:56:00.001-06:00

The pictures are all willy-nilly ordered but that is okay. Wednesday after Matt got off work we headed to B-town to see some family.

The kids were so excited to go to Mike and DeDe's house but Lilly kept saying, "DeDe lives SO FAR away." Ha! On Thursday we had our Thanksgiving meal for lunch (and snack and dinner). I did not take a single picture on Thanksgiving day. I slacked. It is becoming a pattern and the grandparents are concerned that our sweet children will not have enough photos. I did just laugh. Anyway, I do hate that I didn't get any pictures of Grandma Betty or Lilly and Reid's sweet cousins!

(In this picture is MeMaw). Thursday night DeDe and I went to Wal-Mart for some black Friday shopping fun. I wanted a marble comic dress up trunk for Reid. I am glad I went because I really didn't think it would be a hot ticket item but since there were only 6 of them total I was thrilled to get it. Lilly is getting some dress up clothes (shhh) and I am hoping him having some boy dress up clothes will keep him out of princess dresses. On Friday we did some more shopping and watched our Razorbacks lose. I would still rather be 10 and 2 with Petrino than 12 and 0 with any other coach! Still proud to be a Razorback fan! After the loss, though, we did do some retail therapy to help. Ha!

Mike and Granddaddy with Reid and Lilly. We went by and saw them on our way out of town Sunday.

The kids were WILD this weekend. They didn't stop for one second. I am pretty sure it was because they ate candy for the entire 5 days we were there. Lilly laid on these two ottomans and told Reid to get on for a piggy back ride. Ha! He did. And then they switched spots.

And of course Lilly and Reid love spending the weekend with Uncle Bert and Aunt Becca. We are so excited they are having a girl, Breanna Katherine, in March!!!

Playing with Bert.

DeDe got Reid these Christmas Cars pajamas and I thought he was just the cutest stinking thing in them. He calls the shirt his "jacket". He thinks if it buttons up, it is a jacket. If you could see his feet in this picture you would see his blue crocs on. He is insisting on wearing his shoes at all waking moments of the day now. Weirdo. Ha!

I forgot to show this in the last post but Reid made this for me at KDO. Love it!

On Saturday we went by and saw MamMa.

One funny story--DeDe turned the tv on downstairs for the kids to watch and Lilly was messing with the buttons and either turned the channel or turned it off. So she came upstairs to tell DeDe that the tv was off and DeDe asked her, "Why were you touching the tv? You aren't supposed to touch it." And Lilly looked at her and said, "I think we need to go downstairs and talk about it." It was so funny!

Kid's Crafting. (:

2011-11-30T10:03:00.001-06:00

Well Lilly and Reid LOVE to do some crafting. ESPECIALLY painting and doing handprints and footprints. So the week before Thanksgiving, we did some fun crafts!

This is Lilly's new "cheese" face.

I love that Reid always gets really serious when it is craft time. Focused!

At first we painted coffee filters with just a mix of water and food coloring but the colors just weren't vibrant enough so we brought out the real paint.

Then I did their footprint and we made these darling little turkeys. The above is Reid's and below is Lilly's. I don't know if I have mentioned this yet, but his foot is bigger than hers.

Then I traced each one of our handprints and made this family handprint turkey. Matt's is obviously the red one. Mine is green. Lilly's is orange and Reid's is yellow. I think this is the last yellow Reid will be the top layer. We made these in my KDO class and they were a big hit. SOO cute. I am going to frame mine and hang it. I don't care if thanksgiving is over. (:

Lilly and I made a Thanksgiving book. Reid painted a few pages when Lilly was on the painting part but he didn't really want to put the rest together. I got the entire book idea from here off of pinterest.

Lilly was insistent that the rock be placed there and since it is her book--I said okay. I did try and show her where things were supposed to go but I let her put them wherever she placed them.

I thought it was so funny because she insisted on putting the leaves next to one another. She said they were sister and brother and needed to be right next to each other. I don't know where she is coming up with half of the stuff she is saying lately but she is cracking us up!

There is also one more page that says, "They had a wonderful feast to celebrate all that God had provided for them." We left our book in Benton on accident. But on that page all we are doing is cutting out some pictures of yummy food and sticking them on. LOVE this book!

And our last crafting project was making DeDe and MoMo a handprint Christmas tree canvas with thumbprint ornaments.

They were a big hit!

Testimony Tuesday: Thankful

2011-11-29T14:50:00.001-06:00

In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I would do a "thankful" version of Testimony Tuesday.

I am thankful that God made me and knows me (Psalms 139). I am so thankful for a God who made and designed me with a purpose specifically tailored for me and my abilities. I am thankful for a God who knows me and wants me to know Him. I am thankful that if I carve out time to spend with God in my schedule that He, God the Creator, Lord of everything, will meet me and speak personally to me. (Again, I always feel the need to clarify, not in a burning bush or anything like that but through a specific verse, a random thought that could only come from him, a song, a little thing that happens that just verifies or clarifies something, etc.)
I am thankful that even though I daily sin and fall short of the Glory of God (Romans 6:23), His grace and mercy are sufficient for me! I am thankful that He sent His one and only son to be a savior for me (John 3:16) and for everyone that calls on His name (Romans 10:13). For a little old testament humor--I am also thankful that because of Jesus I do not have to sacrifice a goat every time that I sin...I would single-handily be responsible for goat extinction if that were the case...thankful all I have to do is ask forgiveness and it is given.
I am SO thankful that I am saved TO DO good works and not because of good works (as it is impossible to earn salvation--see Romans 6:23). I am thankful that anyone who asks Jesus to be Lord of their lives and believes in their heart that God raised Him from the dead will be saved (Romans 10:9). I love that God is not exclusive! He wants everyone!! Everything above that I am thankful for is available for anyone.

I am also thankful looking at my life and seeing how faithful God was to me even when I wasn't walking closely with Him and the things he saved me from that I didn't even know about. I look back at my life and see (theoretical) doors he closed that at the time I was so upset about...but that I see now were(huge) blessings in disguise. Had some of those doors not closed I wouldn't be where I am now, who I am now, married to the awesome Godly man I am now, or have the two beautiful sweet children we have together. Praise the Lord for His plans are always better than mine!

And I am so thankful for Matt, Lilly, and Reid. I am also thankful that God has given our family a wonderful support system including our (extended) family, our friends,and our awesome church family and that he has allowed us to be part of their lives, too.

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving and found much to be thankful for too!

Testimony Tuesday: Praying

2011-11-22T23:15:00.003-06:00

Okay before I start with the whole testimony thing, I have a story that I find hysterical!

As we were pulling into the garage we were listening to The Revelation Song (you know, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come"). We turned off the car and as I was getting out I was still singing the "Holy, Holy, Holy" part and as soon as I finished the last "Holy" Reid sang in the exact same tune, "Holy Moly". Hahaha! I think I laughed until I cried.

So at the beginning of the year one of my New Year's Resolutions was to "pray better". I had no idea what that even meant at the time but it was clearly one that God had put on my heart and one area that he has grown in me far beyond my expectations. I talked previously about my prayer box. I can not tell you how much that has helped me more thoroughly cover family, friends, and requests in prayer consistently.

Another thing the Lord has been teaching me about prayer is not to just pray about things or for things but to ALSO pray to see whether or not He wants me to take any kind of action to make that prayer happen. (For example if I am praying for encouragement for someone or for someone to be surrounded with love and support during a difficult time...he is teaching me to also ask if there is any way that I can encourage that person or if there is a way that I can help surround them with love and support.)

I thought I would end by adding one of my FAVORITE prayer resources. It is 31 different Godly characteristics to pray for your children. The idea being that you pray for one every day of the month. You can look at it and print it here. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this. I pray these for my children, their future spouses, and Matt and I. And if I miss a day or if the month is short I just pray for more than one on whatever day that is. I love having the confidence of knowing that I have covered these areas in prayer!

Dance, Nails, & Lights

2011-11-22T17:09:00.006-06:00

Well since Lilly was sick last Monday we had to skip dance but thankfully they let us make up the class on Saturday morning. Since we don't have dance this week due to Thanksgiving that would have been a long time to not go with a certain tiny dancer asking daily if it is dance class day.
So we got all dressed in our dance "costume" (as Lilly calls it) for the first time and I almost died at the cuteness.

Oh my soul the cuteness abounds just looking at the photos--you should see it in person.

MoMo is in town and she got to witness the dance class. Lilly does such a good job in there. And she LOVES it. Today as she was talking to herself in her crib before nap she was saying, "I just love my dance class." I have loved every stage of her life (even the high-maintenance baby she was phase) but I LOVE LOVE LOVE this phase of watching her get excited over something, look forward to it, and then enjoy it so much AND listen to her telling other people about it.

The back view.

The "ballerina hair" she insists on having for class. (c; MoMo got some pictures of her dance class so I will post those when I get them.

After dance MoMo wanted to take Lilly and her cousin Emma to get their nails done. This is Lilly's second time to get her nails done and she didn't forget a thing from the first time! (Both times, by the way, were with the grandparents.)

Having fun!

Lilly already loves to be pampered. It was so funny-the lady came around and was going to paint her toenails in the chair she was sitting in and Lilly said, "No, I want to sit in THAT chair!"

Ha! Last time she had her toenails painted she was sitting in my lap in one of these chairs. She was barely able to reach her legs to the lady for her to paint her toenails but she managed. Ha! She also asked where her water was (the water that you usually soak your feet in)...I tell you she forgets nothing!

The girls drying their nails.

Saturday night we loaded up the kids for one of my favorite annual traditions! The lighting of the Ozarks! Our local square has thousands and thousands of lights and we go there each year to watch them turn them all on and then they have a parade.

This was the look on the kids faces when they turned the lights on. Lilly was really more interested in her cotton candy. We don't get cotton candy very often so I think she was most excited about it!

Reid got excited and started pointing out the lights.

Meanwhile, Lilly polished off her cotton candy. (:

Then we watched the parade!

Reid loved every blow up but especially the Mickey Mouse one.

He waved and waved at Mickey and every one that waved at him. He kept saying, "Bye" really loud to each person/character.

All in all I would say it was a pretty awesome Saturday. The rest of our week has been hanging out with MoMo and Papa Ray and trying to get things in order before Thanksgiving. I have been so thankful for the week at home!

Oh, and Testimony Tuesday is still coming! It will be up tonight!

Top 5 Finds!

2011-11-18T17:05:00.003-06:00

I went to grab something before putting Lilly and Reid down for their naps and walked into this sweet sight. SO SWEET.

Today was the NWA Boutique show (or the start of it--it goes all weekend). Thanks to my friend Sydney I had 2 VIP passes so my sister and I headed out to do some shopping. Matt kept the kids for a little while and then took them to my Grandma's house so I could shop without the kids. It was so nice to be able to look and shop leisurely. When I got there to pick them up the kids had made quite the mess. My grandma said, "I don't know how you ever keep your house clean!" Ummmm...I am not very good at it? Ha! The kids helped clean up their mess. When I asked how they had been she said, "Okay, they just have a lot of ambition!" I think they may have worn her out. They were worn out too so we came home and Lilly "read" Reid a book and they went down for a late nap. It felt really weird to shop by myself and then come home and have them nap too. I wasn't really sure what to do with myself so I decided to blog my top 5 favorite finds. I only bought 5 things, so really I am just blogging "my finds". (:

5. This owl necklace. I had a certificate to this shop (Define Your Own Design) and they had LOTS of cute stuff. What I really liked that I bought from there I can't show you because it is a present for someone. But with my leftover money I got this cute little owl necklace for Lilly. She is really into jewelry and I think she will like it. Shhhh. It is a Christmas present. (: They had lots of custom shirts at this store but I am too impatient to wait for something to come in.

4. "Ho Ho Ho Go Hogs Go" Any razorback fan would like this and for only $4 from a booth called Classy Trash, I had to have it! Ha!

3. Flash Cape. I saw this booth had capes and I wanted to look through them because Chick-fil-A has superhero night sometimes and we haven't made it to a superhero phase yet. When I saw this "Flash" cape I just had to have it because Matt's nickname growing up (and still to this day) is Flash. (No, he wasn't really into The Flash comic book.)

2. Pendant Necklace--Okay so this necklace was just $5 but I was more excited about this vendor because they will make any photo into a pendant for cheap!! SOOOO HAPPY to find this.

www.teapartypendants.etsy.com (No, I am not getting paid by them in any way-I am just really excited. I think this will be my new "thing".) #1--Cars tool belt WITH tools for just $8!!!! Reid is so into tools and Cars right now that I have just smiled all afternoon with this fun find!! I found this at the Redhead Designs booth. LOVE.

Lilly's First Haircut!!!

2011-11-16T15:20:00.004-06:00

Well even though she is three, Lilly has never had a haircut. Scissors have never touched her hair. Not even to trim it.
I just LOVE her curls and was afraid if we cut her hair, her curls would be gone. Lately, Lilly has been asking to get her hair cut. Her hair has gotten so long and it becomes a tangled mess. She is also so tender-headed and hates having her hair brushed out Sooo we decided it was time. (When I told Matt I was ready, he said, "It is about time." Ha! Apparently he was just waiting for me to be ready.)
We didn't really know that today was the day, though, because I had forgotten that I had a hair appointment. So I didn't really have time to brace myself or grab my camera because we had just gotten to the mall to play when my friend Brittney (she does my hair) called to remind me of my appointment. I am so irritated that I didn't have my camera with me and I had to use my IPhone to take pictures but at least I got some cute ones! I just hate that I wasn't "Mommarazzi ready" for this! Our sweet little girl before--she was so excited! She had just started playing in the play area when I said, "Lilly, wanna go get your hair cut?" She said, "Yes!!!" and ran to the stroller and then she told everyone we passed on our way out that she was going to get her hair cut.

Those long sweet curls. (Before you get to the end...we just trimmed some off...don't expect drastic changes.)

The tangled mess I was referring to.

Being so good while Mrs. Brittney brushed it out.

Look at how long it is...ahem...was...all brushed out!! Down to the booty!

She thought it was so funny that her hair was up in the clippy. She just grinned from ear to ear and I could tell she felt So. Big!

The first cut!

Her first little curl cut off. Sad face. Tear.

Getting her hair blow-dried. This girl likes to be pampered! Having her hair fixed, nails done--she is all girly girl!

Having so much fun!

All done enjoying her PINK sucker. If you ask Lilly and Reid which sucker they want, they don't respond with a flavor, they respond with a color. Lilly-pink, Reid-blue.

We decided to just trim it today so she took a couple of inches off. If it is still super-tangly then we will have to go shorter but I just love her long pretty hair!!!

Giving some sassy pose! (:

The back! So really this is a big dramatic post about her first hair cut and there isn't a huge difference.

When we got home I steam-mopped the entry tile and bathroom tile so I put the little potty on the big potty while I was mopping and forgot about it. I told Lilly to go potty before naps and I walked into the bathroom to this. Ha!! LOVE this girl!

Testimony Tuesday: New Day

2011-11-16T08:38:00.002-06:00

Well yesterday I was not really a poster child for Gospel living. I was a bit of crab. I started the day with good intentions. We were having a surprise day at home because Lilly hadn't been symptom free for 24 hours. She woke up back to normal saying, "Mommy I not sick anymore!" Somehow though the day she spent resting just seemed to store up double the energy. And it rubbed off on Reid. And even though it had the adverse affect on me and I seemed to only be working with half energy, I got the crazy idea to clean our house. It was in need. For those of you that have children, you probably realize that this was a recipe for disaster. For every one area I cleaned, the children destroyed two. Now, they are at the stage where I can have them clean up but I still have to be right there or they lose focus. And they are slow with the clean up. Faster than lightening with the dumping of an entire bucket of toys...slower than molasses in winter cleaning it up. It was SO frustrating. And exhausting. I ended up yelling. More than once. Okay, a lot. The truth was I was trying to get stuff done and was so tired that instead of stopping what I was doing and taking the time to, you know, parent--I just got louder. It was completely ineffective if you are wondering how that worked out for me.

In fact, it was disastrous. You know the saying, "If momma isn't happy, nobody's happy." Yeah, that rang true yesterday. By the end of the day we were all fussy.

So I pretty much chalk yesterday up as "FAIL", But I am SO THANKFUL that today is a new day and that "His mercies begin afresh each morning!" (Lamentations 3:23)

WINNER!

2011-11-14T23:00:00.002-06:00

Well I had planned on posting some super cute dance photos tonight but my tiny dancer is sick. :(
To choose a winner, we went old school style. We numbered 1-11 (one for each comment) onto pieces of paper.

Put them in a cute container. Because cuteness matters.

Found a place where Lilly could draw a name and I could take pictures without piles of laundry in the background (clean, folded laundry--in my defense. After today I am siding with Meatloaf and singing "2 out of 3 ain't bad". Ha!)

So excited to pick a winner. The WINNER of the VIP tickets is lucky #7--The Coleman Family!! CONGRATULATIONS Emily!!!

That isn't all the good news, though! As a thank you for entering the contest the NWA Boutique Show is giving EACH ONE of you a FREE general admission ticket to the show! To claim your ticket, email Julie at julie.nwaboutiqueshow@gmail.com and reference the contest. She'll email you the ticket!

And for a bonus chance to win 2 VIP tickets visit the NWA Boutique Show on facebook, like their page, and comment on their contest.

And just so this little cutie didn't get left out.

Lilly seemed to be feeling better this evening so hopefully she is on the mend! Hope you all have a great week.

Weekend Wrap-Up

2011-11-13T23:03:00.003-06:00

Thursday the kids had "school" pictures. I just had their pictures taken together since it is so expensive! Plus I was hoping the photographer would have better luck getting a picture of them together. However, they were so excited to get their picture taken because we had went to Target the day before and picked out special outfits and talked about it all morning that they let me snap a couple of cute ones!! I am excited to see the ones she took but the one above is pretty great! A little bit of loving! This weekend Mike and DeDe and Bert and Becca came into town. Somehow I managed to not take a single picture!! Ahhh! I don't know how I did that, but I did. Sorry guys!

Let me just sum up the weekend for you. The girls ate and shopped. And shopped. And shopped. I think I found the stuff to decorate Lilly's big girl room. I am both excited and a little sad...but I have had a serious talk with myself and decided I have to let her grow up a little...to a toddler room at least. Ha!

The guys ate and went to the basketball game and football game. Seriously y'all--in 2 1/2 days we ate at every great local restaurant there is for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The kids, well, they hung out with us girls. Lilly asked Becca about a thousand questions about the baby in her belly. She also assured her that she wanted to hold her but that she wouldn't throw her. I thought that was nice. Ha! At one point she insisted on giving the baby a hug. This is the first time she has ever kind of understood and she is being pretty sweet and is so excited. Reid, that boy just loves his uncle Bert. We had a great time seeing everyone and Lilly and Reid are already asking to see them again. Good thing Thanksgiving is just around the corner!

Local friends--don't forget to enter the NWA Boutique Show giveaway in the post below. We will draw a winner tomorrow night and post it (along with some dance photos).

Fun Giveaway!!

2011-11-09T16:40:00.003-06:00

Hey Northwest Arkansas ladies!! I have an exciting giveaway for you!! I have two VIP tickets to the Northwest Arkansas Boutique Show!! VIP ticket winners will be able to shop first BEFORE the sale opens for general admission, receive a swag bag, enjoy a savory treat from My Brother's Salsa and Catering Concepts, a delicious pastry from Briar Rose Bakery, and coffee or cocoa from Mama Carmen's! PLUS the lucky winner will free return admission ALL weekend long! There will be lots of amazing door prizes and over 150 booths to shop at! (The VIP event is November 18 and the sale runs November 18-19.)

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment with your email address so I can notify you if you are the winner!! I will pick a winner Monday night. Good luck! (:

Testimony Tuesday

2011-11-08T15:27:00.002-06:00

Okay so I know the past couple of posts have been about perspective and priorities and it seems like no matter where I go that is what is being talked about whether it be church (we are in a sermon series that is literally called "Priorities"), bible study (a woman's discipleship program that is all about having the right priorities and how to best live those out), or just day to day stuff (i.e. the hospital, a conversation with a friend, etc). You know how when all of the sudden you are inundated with information on a certain subject for a lengthy period of time you stop and say, "God...are you trying to tell me something?" (As Beth Moore said, if God put it in the bible more than once-it is probably something you should pay attention to!) I was thinking of how often perspective and priorities had been brought to my attention lately and then all of the sudden it hit me...

I am reading The Power of Praying Woman and a couple of months ago was the topic of putting your life in the right order in which I wrote out the following prayer in my work book, "Lord please show me what my priorities should be and the order they should be in. Please reveal anything that needs to be changed and give me the wisdom, discipline, and obedience to change it." I also remember praying it for a couple of days in a row and thinking, "Lord I am never going to remember to keep praying this so please just show me."

Now when I prayed that I probably thought I had all the right priorities to begin with but little did I know that long after I had forgotten all about that prayer God was still going to be answering my prayer and teaching me in every avenue possible! Ha!

That same week I prayed, "Lord please give me the discipline and energy to accomplish..." and I wrote out an extensive to do list. As I am reading over that list right now--I have been working on almost every single one and can cross most of them out. Again, a prayer that I had totally forgot I had prayed and he is still coming through! God is faithful! Even when your memory doesn't last for more than a day! (; Haha!

Catch Up

2011-11-07T22:24:00.005-06:00

Okay so I was on a streak and then had a little break again...but it was for good reasons! (:I think I started cleaning out the pantry Tuesday and got it all put together Wednesday some time. I have been meaning to do this for a while so I am glad to have it done!

I bought this broom hanger contraption in January and we finally hung it last week. It is about time, you think ?? Ha!

Thursday night the kids and I went to Wal-Mart and Target to browse the Halloween costume clearance because we are getting some dress up stuff for Lilly for Christmas and I scored a couple of good deals.

We also got the stuff to make these little cuties.

Of course since I let Lilly and Reid actually make them, this is what they looked like. Hehehe. They still tasted really good. Like a smore. One of my KDO kid's mom made these and I just thought they were too cute and super easy. You just cut a big marshmallow in half (or you don't have to, the first picture is two whole marshmallows), add melting chips on top, microwave for 10 seconds, and add the candy corn. Easy and yummy.

Friday morning we met some friends at the mall for a little lunch and play time.

Reid was most interested in buckling the stroller safety belts.

Friday night we went to this little cutie's birthday party. Which, by the way, I totally know where I am having Lilly and Reid's party next year! LOVE this place.

Reid loved that he got to see some farm animals. All he talks about lately is the farm and every time we leave the house he asks, "We go see the farmer?" And almost always I have to tell him no because we just really don't know any farmers to go see. But Friday night I got to say yes!

Checking each other out.

A Zonkey! That is right, a mix between a donkey and a zebra. Crazy, right? I had to take a picture and put it on here because this could be the only time some of you will ever see a Zonkey. (:

There was a lamb that was only 3 days old. He brought it out so the kids could pet it and Lilly said, "Oh! It is SO cute!!"

Lilly rode a pony!!! This is the first time she has ever happily been on a pony!

Reid and Lilly both loved this corn pit. Genius! That is what I think of this idea! At one point two of the baby pigs got out of the pin and you saw at least 20 toddlers squeal and take off after them. It was hilarious and those pigs were FAST!

Lilly and Cilla. Sweet girls!

On Saturday we cleaned out the garage. It feels so good to be getting things in order and organized. Aaannnnd, it was Matt's idea to clean out the garage Saturday morning. Awesomeness!

Saturday night I felt my first earthquake. The kids slept right through it but it rattled the house for at least 10 seconds. Strange. (There was apparently an aftershock tonight but I didn't feel it.)

Sunday we went to church and finished working in the garage. I parked in there and we are just a couple hours away from Matt being able to park in there. I think that will be the first time in our marriage where we will both be able to park in the garage. Then tonight Lilly and Reid had their first dance class! I can tell you that this is officially my new favorite time of the week! Lilly did so good! She listened and did the moves the teacher did. She was so excited to go and asked 30 times tonight to go back to dance class. Reid was also well behaved and really enjoyed the jumping moves but for the most part he just stood on his little green circle. Lilly is going to start going and we are going to wait on Reid. Lilly was so excited that we had to go get her dance outfit from Target RIGHT AFTER dance class. They were also measuring for recital costumes and Lilly could hardly contain her excitement over just being measured! It is SO PRECIOUS!! And now we are just relaxing, eating some cookies, and I am on Pinterest looking for ideas for Lilly's big girl room. Gulp! (:

Testimony Tuesday

2011-11-01T23:03:00.002-05:00

Well today has been a full day of bible study, a mini playdate, my uncle's funeral, and a banquet for Loving Choices (a crisis pregnancy center). God has taught me a ton this week. An overwhelming amount really, so it is difficult to pick what to share but I think I will keep it short and simple.

One thing being with someone in the final days of life does is hit you straight in the face with a perspective/priority check. Because in those last days the only things that really mattered were whether or not my uncle had a relationship with Christ and the loving relationships he had formed with family and friends. When I look at my life through that perspective I can very clearly see that 90% of the stuff I worry about or focus on or get irritated by...in the end...really won't matter. It causes me to wonder if I am investing my life in the right things or am I wasting time on things that just aren't important in the grand scheme of things.