Family Christmas....

Christmas part 2

My favorite part of Christmas is giving the kids their gifts.. 

This year we had done a name exchange and I helped each kiddoe buy their sibling a gift. The anticipation was almost unbearable for them. The delight of receiving the perfect gift AND the fun of giving gift doubled the fun for all of us. 

Lego horses (Ebay) and ripsticks (amazon deal) were fun gifts that both boys received. 

Fayth was very happy with Polly Pockets. I found several ziploc bags full of Polly Pockets for $40 on ebay!! 

This was 2 of the smaller bags full, this is maybe 1/4 of what was in her box. This was my favorite deal of all!! 

Lee was very happy with his Lego knight. 

Ripstick and Phillies Sweatshirt... 

She had one thing she wanted, Lego Friends Advent..  I searched and searched for a good deal. 

I could not find it on sale ANYWHERE! 

So finally I bought it at full price... it was worth it. 

Miss Nesiah.. she loved all her new clothes and her mani-pedi kit!

We had so much fun with doing the name exchange, I hope to do the same thing next year. The kids all really enjoyed giving as much as receiving.

We spend some of Christmas day with the in laws.. hanging out with out of town cousins etc...

Encouragement...

Once a week we gather with coffee and our bibles..

Inspiration and encouragement right here in my own living room. 

While my kids babysit the toddlers...

This has been  a huge answer to prayer for me. This gift of Godly friends who have much wisdom and encouragement, who work with my crazy life. 

Chickies

We love our eggs.. but our chickens were not laying enough. So we added 12 lil barred rock chickies to the farm.

I was not going to buy a heat lamp. So we had the chickies in a box in the bathroom. 

The kids had a total blast playing with these little guys! 

but they got big FAST and messy and stinky and annoying.

so we moved them to the basement where Elizabeth faithfully cared for them...

Then they got to stinky and big for the basement and I was concerned about chicken allergies. I finally broke down and bought a heatlamp.  Now the chickes are almost 2 months old and live in the barn. Where they can make  all the mess they want. Matia feeds them daily...