"From the fullness of His grace we have received one blessing after another"
~John 1:16
Friday, December 28, 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
A White Christmas!
Ever since we moved back to Texas Avery has been praying to see snow since she obviously has never ever seen it since there is absolutely no snow in South Florida. We were crossing our finger that weather predictions were right for possible snow on Christmas and while we were at my grandparents house in Whitesboro for Christmas Day lunch it started to snow!!!!! We were in shock and immediately stopped our lunch to go see it for ourselves!
Avery loved it and could have stayed outside for hours, but Gracyn was over it after a few minutes declaring "Mommy I cold. Go inside to eat now!"
After lunch and gifts with my grandparents we headed home, which took about 45 minutes longer due to snow and ice, but right when we got home it was time to go play in the snow! We bundled up and headed out to check it out! Amazingly it had already snowed about 4-5 inches in just a few short hours.
The girls got to make snowballs, snowangels, run in the snow and have a fun time and I got to introduce my family to the wonderful-ness of snow ice cream! Its another winter tradition that my mom used to do and I was ecstatic to get to make it for my own family.
The white Christmas was an unexpected surprise and made a wonderful Christmas Day just a little more amazing. This is one Christmas we will never forget!!!
Avery loved it and could have stayed outside for hours, but Gracyn was over it after a few minutes declaring "Mommy I cold. Go inside to eat now!"
After lunch and gifts with my grandparents we headed home, which took about 45 minutes longer due to snow and ice, but right when we got home it was time to go play in the snow! We bundled up and headed out to check it out! Amazingly it had already snowed about 4-5 inches in just a few short hours.
The girls got to make snowballs, snowangels, run in the snow and have a fun time and I got to introduce my family to the wonderful-ness of snow ice cream! Its another winter tradition that my mom used to do and I was ecstatic to get to make it for my own family.
The white Christmas was an unexpected surprise and made a wonderful Christmas Day just a little more amazing. This is one Christmas we will never forget!!!
Christmas at Home
After our fun-filled pre-Christmas weekend at the lake we headed back home to prep for our own Christmas right at home. It's so fun starting our own traditions with our girls. We started off making Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve. It was flour-filled morning of fun!
Then while the girls were napping and the cookies were cooling off Nana & Papa came over to spend the rest of Christmas Eve with us. Right when the girls woke up they got straight to work to decorating their cookies for Santa
Then we rushed to get ready for Christmas Eve church service. The service was beautiful and even ended with a candlelight service which was completely gorgeous!
Winston Family Christmas 2012 (have I mentioned how blessed I am???!!!)
After church we hurried home to eat dinner (Drew's famous pot roast recipe), and when I asked Avery if we should say grace before the meal she said "I really just think we should sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, which is really what its all about, right Mommy??!!" Absolutely Avery! So we all sang a loud round of Happy Birthday to Jesus, which I think may just become another Winston Christmas tradition :-)
After dinner we changed into our jammies and went to look at Christmas light, which is another tradition for us- to see lights on Christmas Eve. We had a great time driving around looking at lights and listening to Christmas music but Avery kept saying she "needed to hurry home right away to wait for Santa!" I guess she was afraid she was going to miss him! Once we got home we sprinkled the lawn with Reindeer food (aka oatmeal and glitter), layed out the cookies and milk, then headed straight to bed.
And dont worry- Santa definitely did NOT forget our house. He came and spoiled the girls rotten with almost every thing they asked for...and MORE!
We woke up at 6:45AM to try to prep a little before the girls got up, and we had given Avery very strict instructions to not come out of her room before 7AM. Right at 7 on the dot we heard "Can I get up now?" on the monitor so we headed up to wake up Gracyn and let the girls see what Santa brought for them! It was so fun seeing their faces and watching their expressions as they opened gifts.
We took turns opening gifts this year (which is a tradition my family used to do) and the girls did a great job waiting on one another to open their presents. I think they made out like bandits....must've been pretty good girls. Here is Avery and her haul of presents:
After we played with all our new gifts we got dolled up to go to Christmas lunch with my grandparents in Whiteboro and while we were eating it started to snow!!!!!!! I was in such shock and the girls were overjoyed! It was so beautiful and amazing so I saved a whole other post just for our White Christmas details!
We had an amazing Christmas and I think this Christmas is one we will always talk about. We are so blessed with great friends and great family and we are so grateful for all our blessings.
Then while the girls were napping and the cookies were cooling off Nana & Papa came over to spend the rest of Christmas Eve with us. Right when the girls woke up they got straight to work to decorating their cookies for Santa
Then we rushed to get ready for Christmas Eve church service. The service was beautiful and even ended with a candlelight service which was completely gorgeous!
Winston Family Christmas 2012 (have I mentioned how blessed I am???!!!)
After church we hurried home to eat dinner (Drew's famous pot roast recipe), and when I asked Avery if we should say grace before the meal she said "I really just think we should sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, which is really what its all about, right Mommy??!!" Absolutely Avery! So we all sang a loud round of Happy Birthday to Jesus, which I think may just become another Winston Christmas tradition :-)
After dinner we changed into our jammies and went to look at Christmas light, which is another tradition for us- to see lights on Christmas Eve. We had a great time driving around looking at lights and listening to Christmas music but Avery kept saying she "needed to hurry home right away to wait for Santa!" I guess she was afraid she was going to miss him! Once we got home we sprinkled the lawn with Reindeer food (aka oatmeal and glitter), layed out the cookies and milk, then headed straight to bed.
And dont worry- Santa definitely did NOT forget our house. He came and spoiled the girls rotten with almost every thing they asked for...and MORE!
We woke up at 6:45AM to try to prep a little before the girls got up, and we had given Avery very strict instructions to not come out of her room before 7AM. Right at 7 on the dot we heard "Can I get up now?" on the monitor so we headed up to wake up Gracyn and let the girls see what Santa brought for them! It was so fun seeing their faces and watching their expressions as they opened gifts.
We took turns opening gifts this year (which is a tradition my family used to do) and the girls did a great job waiting on one another to open their presents. I think they made out like bandits....must've been pretty good girls. Here is Avery and her haul of presents:
And Gracyn and her haul:
After we played with all our new gifts we got dolled up to go to Christmas lunch with my grandparents in Whiteboro and while we were eating it started to snow!!!!!!! I was in such shock and the girls were overjoyed! It was so beautiful and amazing so I saved a whole other post just for our White Christmas details!
We had an amazing Christmas and I think this Christmas is one we will always talk about. We are so blessed with great friends and great family and we are so grateful for all our blessings.
Kicking Christmas off at the Lake!
Christmas is finally here! We finally got all our shopping done...thankfully I had my two little elves there to help me get it all done..... it cost me lots of money in holiday candy to keep them quiet and occupied while we whipped around from store to store... "Mommy my hands berry berry 'ticky. I 'eed 'ipey right now!" But we got it all done!
And Avery sent out her letter to Santa just in the nick of time. My favorite part is that she wrote she was 'FOR' years old. LOVE this age! Isn't her writing getting so good?!!!
This year to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family we all met up at my parent's lakehouse in Brownwood TX a few days before Christmas so we could all celebrate together. I have to say that I was slightly anxious about the thought of 8 adults and 4 kiddos all packed into our lakehouse, but it was SUCH a blast! The weather was perfect so we could bundle up and sit outside, play with all our new toys, and hang out.
The kiddos had a great time spending a few days together and it was really fun to wake up and all be together for a few days.
A HUGE thanks to Mom and Steve who worked really hard to put this weekend together. Of course we kept with tradition and made Mexican food for 'Christmas' dinner, but we added some fun new traditions, like playing Just Dance on the XBox and a pretty aggressive Scattegories tournament (which Jessica and I won- wahooo!)
We had a great time and it did not feel cramped at all. Plus being at the lake is one of my favorite places to be....so what's better than spending Christmas there? Probably nothing :-)
I feel so blessed to have got to spend time with my wonderful, amazing sisters, hugged on my niece and nephew, had lots of laughs, ate lots of yummy food, drank lots of yummy drinks, and relaxed with my family for 2 days.
It was such a perfect way to kick off Christmas!!!! Can't wait until next year!
Then we headed home on Sunday to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at our own house......stay tuned for more posts!
And Avery sent out her letter to Santa just in the nick of time. My favorite part is that she wrote she was 'FOR' years old. LOVE this age! Isn't her writing getting so good?!!!
This year to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family we all met up at my parent's lakehouse in Brownwood TX a few days before Christmas so we could all celebrate together. I have to say that I was slightly anxious about the thought of 8 adults and 4 kiddos all packed into our lakehouse, but it was SUCH a blast! The weather was perfect so we could bundle up and sit outside, play with all our new toys, and hang out.
The kiddos had a great time spending a few days together and it was really fun to wake up and all be together for a few days.
A HUGE thanks to Mom and Steve who worked really hard to put this weekend together. Of course we kept with tradition and made Mexican food for 'Christmas' dinner, but we added some fun new traditions, like playing Just Dance on the XBox and a pretty aggressive Scattegories tournament (which Jessica and I won- wahooo!)
We had a great time and it did not feel cramped at all. Plus being at the lake is one of my favorite places to be....so what's better than spending Christmas there? Probably nothing :-)
I feel so blessed to have got to spend time with my wonderful, amazing sisters, hugged on my niece and nephew, had lots of laughs, ate lots of yummy food, drank lots of yummy drinks, and relaxed with my family for 2 days.
It was such a perfect way to kick off Christmas!!!! Can't wait until next year!
Then we headed home on Sunday to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at our own house......stay tuned for more posts!
Allison and Matts Wedding Shower
This past weekend we headed to Midland for Matt & Allison's Winter Wedding Shower! Jessica and Chase hosted at their gorgeous home and everything turned out perfectly!
The future Mr & Mrs
I dont know what I would do without my sisters!
We stayed at Kiki's house and the girls had a fun time playing with Mia and Abbye....and I think Matt ate up all the extra attention!
Lastly we stopped by Grandpa & Gigi's house to celebrate an early Christmas with them.
It was a quick action-packed weekend but we had a blast!
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