A growing girl and blogger issues

This week, I've had to put a couple of pairs of CJ's pants in the hand-me-down bag. We just bought these pants a month or so ago so I was very disappointed to have to get rid of them so quick. I can't believe how much she is growing! I measured her this morning and she has grown an inch since the last time I measured her a month ago. The pants I had to get rid of are size 2T, but the brand usually runs a little big. I now fully understand the term "growing like a weed!"

In other Chloe Jo news, a couple of weeks ago she decided she didn't want to wear a pull-up at nap time and hasn't since with no accidents. I'm so excited about this because potty training for nap time and night time has been hard. I finally accepted the fact that she just has to grow out of those two things and she is now officially nap time trained! She has also been waking up at night to go potty. She will usually get up once a couple of hours after she has gone to sleep, but then she won't wake up anymore until the morning. We are going to start limiting her fluid intake in the evenings and see what happens. Her pull-ups have definitely been getting lighter in the morning so I know she is getting close to trying to sleep without one. Our goal is to be night time trained by her 3rd birthday in April. Hopefully we will be able to do this!

One more thing before I sign off: I've been having issues with the newer blogs I am following. Within the last week, I have started following a few blogs and they keep disappearing. It is so frustrating because their posts are not showing up in my feed. I went to the Help Group and several other people are complaining about the same problem. Hopefully they will get this fixed soon because it is oh-so-annoying.

And that's the end.

Rocking Around The Christmas Tree!

Last week, we put up Chloe Jo's pink Christmas tree in her room. In order to do that, I had to get out the other Christmas decorations to find the ornaments I had bought last year for her tree. Of course, I probably would have gotten the Christmas decorations out anyway. I love putting everything up in the beginning of November! The rest of the Christmas stuff sat in our kitchen for a week until we finally got to putting everything out Monday evening. Chloe Jo thought this was great! She liked it last year, but she loved it this year!

This cracked me up so much! She got this little wooden tree out and put it where she thought it needed to go...
...and then stepped back to admire her work! HA!
We bought this Christmas tree last year and I'm so glad! It is the easiest thing to put together! Our last tree was the kind that you had to put each branch in the slot separately and then you had to string the lights. This one comes in just 3 parts and is pre-lit. Love!
One of our family traditions is going to pick out 1 new ornament each year. Russ and I started this our first Christmas as a married couple and have kept it up since. I write our initials and the year on them. I love going through and finding all of the ornaments we had previously picked out.

This year, Russ picked this adorable "Dad" ornament. I love it!
I picked this initial ornament
And Chloe Jo picked this ice cream cone. She wanted a football until I steered her to more girly ornaments...and then she ended up picking the ice cream. I'll take it. :)
Do you think she is excited about our Christmas decorations???
And our finished tree. I think it needs more ornaments and maybe some ribbon or something. And of course I love the top hat!

Virus Schmirus

Funny story this.

My computer contracted a virus a couple of weeks ago. Since then, it has contracted at least 4 more. I couldn't figure out why it kept getting these virus'. The scans were coming up clean. Russ switched my anti-virus program twice. Then I got a certain error message that led me to what I believe was the problem. After the first virus, Russ reformatted my hard drive and then renamed my computer. I hated the new name the second I saw it. The new name: True Hotie. For real, ya'll. He didn't even spell it right. 2 t's in hottie. 2. I asked him to rename it again. Preferably something that doesn't sound like a porn site. So far, I've had no more problems.

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

It's midweek again and that means it is time for another edition of What I'm Loving Wednesday! Link up {here}!

This week, I'm loving my amazing husband. Ya'll, he has put a ton of time in working on my computer. It has been having issues since we bought it back in August and then it was infected with a virus a couple of weeks back which just escalated all of the other problems we have been having with it. I think it is finally fixed. Russ has been so great about trying to get everything back to working order for me.

I'm loving the giveaway going on right here right now! You have until Tuesday to enter. Go {here} for details!

I'm loving that we put up our Christmas decorations Monday evening!

I'm loving Halloween clearance! I bought sevearl sword/shield combos for when I do the Christian Soldier series for Bible Class for very cheap! And I bought Chloe Jo these adorable fairy wings and skirt for $2.50! Can't beat that for a cute dress-up outfit!I'm loving that we knocked off 2 more Christmas gifts this week! We are close to being completely done!

What are you all loving this week?

The best part of putting up Christmas decorations...

...is finding the mistletoe. ;)

It's a Giveaway!

I recently hit 75 followers on this little ol' blog! As a way to thank all of you wonderful followers, I am hosting this giveaway!

It took me a while to decide what I wanted to give away, but I finally decided to make these great bags! I love the way they turned out and I hope you love them, too!
The winner of this giveaway will get to choose whichever bag they want. So if you like blues and browns, this is the bag for you:
And if you prefer greens and creams:
The bags are fully lined! They are 8x10x4 inches.

So, what do you have to do to enter this giveaway?

1. Follow me!

2. Leave me a comment telling me that you are a follower and you want to win! Be sure to add your e-mail address so I have a way to contact you if you do not have a blog.

And that is it! If you would like to blog about this giveaway, that would be nice, too. :)

This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

The winner will be chosen next Tuesday so you have a week to enter!

Thanks for following and good luck!

Creation Seminar

Earlier this year I read a book by Brad Harrub called "Convicted." It is a book about how our worldview (whether or not God exists) is an important factor in how we act while on earth. I really enjoyed reading the book and grew a lot as a Christian because of it.
A few months ago Brad Harrub was in Columbia doing a seminar and we had planned to go. For whatever reason we were not able to attend and I was super bummed. A few weeks ago we found out that he was going to be in South Carolina again doing another origins seminar. I was so happy that I would get a second chance to go see him so we immediately put it on the calendar.

I have to say that Brad did not disappoint! His book was a very interesting read so I was hoping he would be as interesting in person and he was! I'm so thankful for the opportunity to have read his book and to see him speak in person.

If you are someone who is wondering about the origin of the universe or are just wanting to strengthen your Christianity, check out his book. It can be purchased here.

Winter is on the way!

We are beginning to have more cool days than warm so a few weeks ago I took Chloe Jo to pick out a coat, hat and gloves. She chose this sweet purple coat and adorable heart hat!
Once we put it on to show it to Daddy we realized something was missing. Her poor little neck will get cold! So back to Wal-Mart we went where Chloe Jo picked out some purple yarn and I crocheted her this scarf.
It's not much, but I think it looks very sweet with her winter ensemble.
And now I won't have to worry about her precious little neck getting cold!

A Pink Tree for Candyland!

So last year I wanted to get Chloe Jo a pink Christmas tree after the holidays. I was hoping to snag one that was clearanced. Well, apparently pink is a hot color and I couldn't find one anywhere! So this year when I saw the pink Christmas trees at Wal-Mart, I was sure to get one as soon as they were on the shelves! Which meant that I bought it about a week before Halloween. It has been leaned up against the kitchen wall since then and Chloe Jo has asked to put it up every. single. day. So today, we took a trip to Wal-Mart to get a tree skirt and a topper and went to town!

She was so excited when we took it out of the box!
We strung garland around it and decorated it with cupcake ornaments.
She is thrilled with her tree! I think it turned out so cute and girly!
The cupcake ornaments are from last years Christmas clearance. I bought several of them for 75% off *I think...it may have been 50%*.
It's a perfect pink tree for Candyland (Chloe Jo's room)!
The glitter that got everywhere was sure annoying to clean up, but it was worth it!

ABC 123!

As of late, Chloe Jo has been super obsessed with letters. If she gets a book out the first thing she wants to do is point to each letter on the cover and say "pees?" asking me to tell her what the letter is. Her favorite letter is O. She argues with me about the zero in the number puzzle being an O. One day last week we had a book from the library called "Boo." She pointed the an O and said "O!" I knew she knew that letter so I pointed to the B and asked her what it was and she promptly said "B." I was so excited that she knew B because we hadn't been working on that letter at all! She knows a few other letters and several numbers. In order to help her learn her letters (which she is all for at this point), I have been working on cutting letters out of felt.
I got several done last night and Chloe Jo was so excited about them when she saw them this morning! I think she is going to have a great time learning her letters and numbers! Now if I could only get her interested in learning colors...

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

It's midweek and you know what that means! It's time for What I'm Loving Wednesday!
Link up {here} to tell us what you are loving!

First of all, I'm loving my followers! I hit 75 last week! As promised, I'm going to be hosting a giveaway to say thanks! I know what I'm going to give away. I just need to get it made so stay tuned!

I'm loving passing out candy on Halloween! It is my favorite holiday!

I'm loving this cutie patootie! She was an adorable Little Red Riding Hood!

I'm loving that it's November which means we only have two months until Christmas! I'm ready to start decorating!

I'm loving this pink Christmas tree that will be going in Chloe Jo's room! Candy Land (what my sister calls her room) isn't complete without a pink Christmas tree during the holiday season!

I'm loving this Christmas banner I made Monday! I didn't mean for it to be so long so the original idea for it isn't going to work. I went ahead and hung it on the wall instead. Now to get the rest of the decorations out...

Last, but definitely not least, I'm loving my family!

Happy Wendesday, Ya'll!

Trick-or-Treat!

Yesterday was cold and rainy so Trick-or-treating wasn't nearly as fun as we were all hoping it would be. We planned to go to a few people's houses that we knew and then one of us would take Chloe Jo trick-or-treating in our neighborhood while the other passed out candy. Since it was so cold and wet we decided to just go to a few houses of people we knew and skip the neighborhood trick-or-treating. It's not like our waistlines need candy anyway, right!?! Chloe Jo went into shy mode at each home we visited but she eventually came around and enjoyed getting candy from everyone!
I couldn't believe how many trick-or-treaters we had! I bought 1 large bag of candy thinking we wouldn't have many kids come to the door. I was wrong! Our Trick-or-treat was from 6 to 8 and I was out of candy by 7! I had a line at the door when I ran out and so I had to grab a few pieces from Chloe Jo's basket to finish with the kids that were already at the door. Then I promptly turned off the light and closed our front door! When we lived in Missouri we didn't have a single trick-or-treater the 4 years we lived there so I wasn't expecting all those kids! Halloween is my favorite holiday! I just love handing out candy and seeing all the kids and their costumes!