2011 According to Avery

I thought Avery would be the best one to wrap up 2011 for the Winston Family. No better perspective than the one of a 3 year old :-)

Whats your favorite thing that happened to us this year? "Being with my grandparents. I mean moving to Texas to see all my grandparents"- amen to that! Moving to Texas was such a great and wonderful, and unexpected surprise and one I thank God for each and every day!

What was your favorite movie in 2011: "lion king"

What was your favorite memory from 2011: "Being alice in wonderland for halloween, and getting candy with Campbell. She is my very best friend"

What was the best holiday you had in 2011? "halloween- why because i like halloween and i like being alice in wonderland"

Wha is something you want to happen in the next year? "i want to go on a trip- maybe to Livvys house"- Livvy lives in Florida

What was your best memory in 2011? "Going to see Lion King with Nana. I was so excited."

What was the most special thing you got to do over Christmas? "play with my big giant house. it was a special thing"

What was your favorite gift you got for Christmas? "Baby Belle"

Did anything make you sad in 2011? "no i was always happy" :-)

2011 was an amazing year for us! We are so grateful to all our family and friends and wish you all a happy and healthy 2012!

Christmas Pictures From the IPhone

OK this reallllly is the last Christmas post. I promise......

After Santa's visit


The dollhouse- which is awesome by the way. It is 4 stories and has an elevator, sunroom and garage! I heard a rumor that Santa and his elves were up until 1AM putting it together. But it was all worth it seeing the look on Avery and Gracyn's face.


I was a little shocked to see that Santa had ordered such a large house. I had thought that he had ordered one that was possibly a little smaller......... but we love this one and know the girls will be playing with it for years and years to come!

The first gift that Gracyn opened was from Mommy and Daddy- it was her new pink Tom's. Gracyn being the lover of shoes immediately insisted on putting on her new sparkly shoes. So I had to take her footie PJs off to put the shoes on, so then every single picture taken of G on Christmas morning she is naked with her pink shoes on. Priceless.


But then she let me dress her up like a real live baby doll in this precious dress that the Burgess girls let us borrow. She could not have looked any cuter.


And this girl was adorable in her Christmas duds as well. Such a cutie pie! And SO sweet! She was so patient and helpful with Gracyn during Christmas. We lucked out with this sweet girl.








Avery's new favorite thing is to "Take pictures together Mommy! Now do silly faces!"





Merry Christmas everyone! I promise this is the last X-mas post. Christmas is officially over, and we even took down our Christmas decor!

Home For The Holidays.....Finally

OK this is the last Christmas post....hopefully!

After College Station, and Houston, and the Walker Christmas we FINALLY made it home to our own house to celebrate Christmas Eve.

Avery and I immediately got to work Christmas Eve morning by putting together our gingerbread house, painting Christmas ornaments and watching all the holiday shows that we had recorded (Frosty the Snowman anyone?)


Then Nana, Papa and Aunt Alli came over to spend Christmas Eve afternoon with us, and help Avery make her special Christmas cookies for Santa.

Avery and her Nana

This picture may look like a normal scene to most of you but every time I look at it I tear up. Its everything I have ever dreamed of. Christmas Eve has always been a big deal at our house when I was growing up. We celebrate all day, with family and friends coming in and out, eating yummy food and sharing the excitement for Santa's arrival that night. In Florida we obviously didn't have any family around, and Matt often had to work until 4pm on Christmas Eve so a lot of times on the afternoon of Christmas Eve it was just me and Avery, so I relished spending Christmas Eve with family this year. It means so much to me to get to see my kids experience something that I think is so special and I am so grateful to be home.

OK enough sappiness. Aunt Alli was "helping" Gracyn cut out cookies.........

After making cookies, and watching the Dolphins (yikes), we all loaded up and went to see some Christmas lights. I love this tradition. Sadly Gracyn did not seem to love it nearly as much but she stuck it out and we got to see some pretty amazing lights (Deerfield for those of you who live locally)

Avery made magic reindeer food at school (oatmeal and glitter) that you were supposed to spread on your lawn so that the reindeer could find your house better so she was super excited to sprinkle it on the lawn before bedtime.

AND THEN SANTA CAME!!!!!!!!

And the girls must have been really good because they got some really great stuff, with the highlight being the gigantic wooden dollhouse.

Avery posing with her "giant Barbie house!" When we came done the stairs Avery immediately saw the house and screamed "Santa brought me a Barbie house. Ohhhh its what I always wanted!" It was precious

The aftermath. This is the picture of perfection to me.

It was a great Christmas morning for everyone. I made some make-ahead cinnamon french toast bake, so we snacked on that while opening presents. The girls are at such a great age that they didn't realize that anything was "mine" or "yours" and really just played with everything together and seemed genuinely excited about each and every present. It was honestly such an amazing Christmas morning and one I will never forget.

Then we got all dolled up in our Christmas dresses to head to the great-grandparents house for Christmas lunch.

It was such a great Christmas and like Matt said I think it's "going to be hard to top this one" because the innocence and age of the girls is perfect right now. Sharing our traditions and watching the magic of Christmas fill both Avery and Gracyn's eyes was so amazing and I am so grateful for all the blessings we have.

Walker Christmas

After Houston we came back home, unloaded our suitcases, them immediately packed them back up to go stay at my Mom's to celebrate the Walker Christmas with Mom, Steve, and both my sisters and their families, who were also all staying the night. Unfortunately I forgot my camera :-( so all I have are these crummy phone pics until Aunt Alli uploads hers...hint hint ;-)


The tree overloaded with gifts- mostly for all the kids since we draw names for everyone else


Gracyn sporting her holiday attire who nowadays is super eager to take pictures. She volutarily will plop herself down anywhere when she sees a camera and starts to yell "SHEEEES (aka Cheese)".

Aunt Alli and Gracyn taking a break to smile in between bouts of Jingle Bells, which Gracyn insisted we all sing 100 times

Emersyn, Gracyn and Avery- best friend cousins

Gracyn playing in her favorite gift- her hippo tent!

The girls modeling their matching Christmas nightgowns that Emersyn's Grandmomma got them. They looked so cute!








We were so glad that Pookie and Aunt Diane were there to celebrate with us too! Here is a pic of Pookie and all her grandbabies.

I hate that I forgot my camera for this day because it was so fun. Steve made his famous enchiladas and guacamole, we played games, laughed endlessly, and all just lounged all day long. It was terrific and truly what holidays are all about. Thanks mom and Steve for a perfect day!

Houston Aquarium

It was rainy and dreary while we were in Houston so we decided to make a day trip to the Aquarium and it was the perfect activity for us to do!

Gracyn had a blast scaring all the fish by beating on the glass and screaming "FEEEEESH" at all the fishes.

Cousin Julie helping Gracyn see the alligators

At the end of the day, after we had seen all there was to see and eaten a yummy meal I asked Avery what her favorite part of the aquarium was and she said "Ummmm the beautiful, sparkly treasure chest was my most favorite part." Ha! OF all the beautiful exotic fish, white tiger, etc- the fake treasure chest was her favorite! She is a sucker for anything sparkly!

The Winston girl cousins

Action Jackson seemed to love the aquarium. He looked all around at all the colors and them promptly fell asleep right as we sat down to eat and slept for an hour and a half! Seriously such a good baby!

Julie touching the stingrays

Daddy and Gracyn

Oddly enough inside the aquarium was a white tiger exhibit. The tiger was beautiful but Matt sat down with his back against the glass and the tiger charged at him! It was so scary! Otherwise they were really pretty to look at..........but we didn't stay too long after the whole charging my husband incident......... but its funny to think about now.

We had a great time at the aquarium and it was so fun to get to experience it with our cousins!