Christmas! And other things!

Yeah....so....it's been a while since I've posted (besides the journal posts that are scheduled).

Sorry about that, ya'll.

We've been crazy busy around here.

First off, we received some very sad news last week. My precious unborn niece or nephew went to Heaven. Please stop by Anything But Grey and give my sister and her family a little love.

Secondly, my husband and dad were in Mexico for a week for a mission trip. Everything went great and I went to pick them up at the airport yesterday evening. I'm so glad Russ is home. Chloe Jo has been a bit of a monster and I'm sure it is because Daddy hasn't been here. She was very upset when he went to work today, but I'm hoping things will get back to normal now.

This is a picture of Chloe Jo and the dolly Daddy brought her from Mexico. We named the dolly Antonia Maria Rios. :)

The rest of this post is going to be about Christmas festivities. It's pretty long, but I'm really going to try to get caught up during the next two weeks (and then hopefully not take another long hiatus).

These are a couple of Christmas pictures I took of Chloe Jo one afternoon. I haven't always loved the smocked bishop dresses, but they have really grown on me the last couple of years. Then I really didn't love the prices for them! Ouch! I found this one on eBay and am so glad I got it. We used it as CJ's Christmas dress and she loved wearing it! Yeah, none of the ones that were full length (so you could actually see what I'm talking about) came out very well. I heart this one, though!

 The Thursday before Christmas we had movie night! I saw this idea on Pinterest and am happily adding it to our list of Holiday traditions!

I wrapped up a large box and let Chloe Jo open it after supper! I have to say, Russ didn't know about this and he was just as excited as she was!

Inside the box was a new Christmas movie (How the Grinch Stole Christmas), a new pair of pajamas for CJ, popcorn, CJ and my favorite candy (gummy bears), apple cider and hot chocolate!

Chloe Jo quickly changed into her new pajamas and we spent the rest of the evening watching Christmas movies, eating popcorn and gummy bears and having a fun family time. It was great!

We went to my parents house on the Monday before Christmas to celebrate with family so we did our family Christmas on the Saturday before. I knew we wouldn't have much time on Sunday and I wanted Chloe Jo to be able to play with her toys a bit before going out of town.

Stockings! As a side note, the stockings I made were so impractical! They were too small to even hold a dvd. Next year I will use them to display and keep our other stockings to stuff...erm, I mean for Santa to stuff. :)

I handed out the presents and everyone dove right in!

Chloe Jo was soooo fun this year! She was fun last year, but this year, she just got it. She was so excited for every present she opened. I. LOVED. IT. This was one of those times that it really hit me about why we went through what we did to get her here. So. Fun.

Russ really loved his Oklahoma City Thunder shirt. His favorite gift was an electric tie rack. He told everyone about it!

I loved this waffle maker! I have used it several times and it is so great! I also got a set of stemware that I have been loving. We don't drink alcohol so I use them for milk, tea, ice water, grape juice...whatever floats my fancy!

Here is Chloe Jo with the last gift she opened. She loves her new Ariel doll!

The aftermath. She was so happy. Love this picture and love her so much!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a good new year. We went to bed early on the 31st. We had to be up very early the next morning to drop Russ and Dad off at the airport.

Stay tuned for my New Year's Resolutions post!