Wordless Wednesday...

Introducing....

Our newest member to the Barrios clan...

CHRISTMAS CAROL

 

We started the whole elf on the shelf tradition this year.  Except, since we have girly girls, we did an elf fairy.  The girls love that she has wings and is a girl. 

 

Christmas Carol showed up with gifts and some fun breakfast...

Each of the girls received a card personally written to them from Christmas Carol and lots of other fun stuff, a new ornament, a game, and coloring placemats.  And of course, you can't forget the doughnuts for breakfast and Christmas Carol's favorite - white chocolate chips.  Lots of candy canes too!

And can you believe it, she even climbed into our closet and brought out my feathers for decorations!!

The girls have had so much fun with this!  And I love seeing their reaction every time she gets into something!  Here's a little sample of what all she's been doing:

(This is where we had the stockings hung and she switched it out for panties!)

 

(She had the light on was sunbathing in our sink)

 

I forgot to take pictures of the first few days, so there are some other things she's done as well!

 

Elaina has had a hard time with the whole no touch rule, but all in all this has been so much fun!

 

Christmas 2009 Wrap Up...

I can't believe it's already over! It seems every year it goes by quicker and quicker!

I've already blogged about the 1st Annual Tacky Christmas Sweater Party, which was SO much fun. The next night we had the Singles Ministry over for their Christmas party. Sorry, I didn't get my camera out, so no pictures. It was a really good time. We had lots of food & fellowship. We played the traditional dirty Santa game. And then we finished the night off with a fun night of Mad Gab. That game is HARD! Especially if your spokesperson for your team has just had 1 cup of coffee & 3 Red Bulls in about a matter of 5 minutes! Yes, Kendall Bell is no longer allowed that much caffiene at one time.

Then it was time to get ready for Christmas Eve. This year we had Christmas Eve with Steve's family and we decided to do it at our house. I was so excited! We've never done anything during the holidays with our family at our house. So, I got off work early to get started, but of course God had a different plan! There was a horrendous wind storm & it knocked a power line down! Perfect! Just as I was getting started, our power went out. So, I did what I could, and we were going to pack everything up to go to his parent's instead. But then God smiled on us & the power came back on.

It was great having them here! It gave his mom a break and I think it was a nice change.

This was our table for the night. I think we need a bigger table! It was packed!!!!

The girls gave us a new camera for Christmas. I started realizing I wasn't taking as many pictures now that Elaina was around. I started thinking about it and realized it's because with 2 girls I don't want to lug a BIG camera around. And we have 2 pretty big trips planned for 2010 and I don't want to be lugging a big carry on bag around to have pictures.

Steve and I have never been good at waiting to give each other our gifts so we opened ours before his family came over. I had a hard time getting the camera to focus, so the pictures didn't turn out as good as I wanted. But I'm getting much better.

Once we finished with gifts, we pulled out the Wii and played a little bit. Then it was time for everyone to go home so we could get ready for Santa.

Emily helped me put out the reindeer food she had made at school and lay out the cookies for Santa. She was so excited!

Santa was really good to the girls! Emily got a dollhouse & some clothes. Elaina got some sort of keyboard toy thingy and some clothes.

They had so much playing with their new toys! Although I think Elaina had more fun playing with the tissue paper the gifts were wrapped in.

After we opened our gifts, we had some breakfast. Our sweet neighbors gave us Apple Barn pancake mix for Christmas, so I fixed those. They were AWESOME!!!

Once we ate, we headed to my parents for Christmas.

We hung out for a little while and had some snacks.

Then it was time to start unwrapping more gifts. This was Elaina's first gift she opened. It's a stuffed animal that turns into a pillow.

As soon as she saw it, she laid her head down. This picture is her in action!

My sister got Emily a Cake Bakery. It's kind of like Easy Bake Oven meets Ace of Cakes. I'll blog more about it later.

We took Sampson (our new puppy - I don't think I've mentioned him yet so more on him later). Here's him and Steve.

My dad told the grandkids how when he was their age his favorite thing he got was a goody bag from the church. It had fruit, mixed nuts, peppermint sticks, orange slices, and chocolate covered raisins. So, he had a bag for each of the kids. And I have to say, all us big kids were sneaking in the bags for the orange slices! Always a favorite around the Mckinney house!

I know I've lost most of you after all this. Thanks for sticking around if not. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Tacky Christmas Sweaters...

We had our 1st annual tacky Christmas sweater party this weekend. It was som much fun! Our plan was for a stress free party - just come dressed in a tacky sweater and bring a little something to eat. No gift exchange, no stressing about anything. It was perfect! To see what everyone came up with was so funny! We voted at the end of the night and Sam was the winner, but I think Steve's was the funniest!

This is what the guys did all night:

We are definitely doing it again next year - but I'm going to start my search for the perfect tacky sweater much earlier!

Needless to say, we have been so busy we haven't been able to breathe because we've been so busy. But we have a very long weekend coming up, so maybe I'll be able to catch you up on all the doings of Casa de Barrios!

Christmas 2008...

I have finally gotten all the pictures downloaded from all the Christmas festivities. It really takes a while when you are so backed up on blogging! 2008 has been probably the hardest year for my family. There has been so much negativity and bad circumstances, it seemed hard for my family to get into the Christmas spirit. But when it came down to it, everyone really rejoiced the reason for the season and being able to celebrate the fact that the bad stuff this year has drawn us closer together. Here's some pictures, hope you enjoy!

These two are from Christmas with my sister and family at my parent's house. It was the Saturday night before Christmas. By the end of the night, my feet were so swollen they were red. So, Emily and I just ended up spending the night. Steve had to go home because he had to go to a basketball tournament the next day. By he was concerned about me driving at 10 o'clock at night and feeling as bad as I did, so he told me just to stay. It really helped, and Emily and I just made a weekend of it and stayed all day Sunday. This is from Christmas Eve night, we went back to my parent's house. My aunt Bonnie Jo came into town for Christmas and we wanted to be able to see her and mom open their presents. With the passing of my Grandad this summer, I knew this Christmas would be difficult for them both. My sister and I decided to give them a sentimental gift this year in honor of Grandaddy. I put together a shadow box for each of them with different pictures of Grandaddy and them throughout the years. They really turned out great, in fact, I'm a little jealous. I'm thinking about making one for myself. Here's a picture of Bonnie Jo with her shadow box (somehow, I didn't get a picture of Mom with hers) Okay, so the next picture is not really my favorite, but I have to share just how huge I'm getting. I can't believe how big my belly is!

Emily got a new jewlery box from Me-maw and Pe-paw. She absolutely loves it. We've already filled it with all her jewlery.

This was the scene on Christmas morning. I've never seen so much stuff!

Seeing Christmas through a child's eyes is so amazing! Emily has really enjoyed this Christmas, and she actually sat on Santa's lap without crying! This is the first year - I couldn't believe it.

After Christmas morning at our house, we went to Steve's parents house.

Steve's grandparents sent this table for Emily. It is so cute! It came with 2 chairs and a bench.

This is Steve's dad's reaction to our gift. We had a great day at their house. After opening gifts, his mom sat out some amazing snack food and then Steve and I took about a 3 hour nap on the couch. Somehow, every time we go over there we end up asleep. Then we woke up in time for dinner, prime rib and ham. After dinner, Steve went and got our Wii and we played it for a long time. The girl's loved playing it! Emily played and actually knocked a guy out boxing! It was a great day and the best thing was being able to spend time with both of our families!