What Marriage is Really About

Yesterday was our 7 year wedding anniversary! What an amazing, wonderful, jam-packed 7 years it has been. I could not be more happy and more in love with my amazing husband.
Happy 7 years babe! You are my rock. My heart. My soul. I love you.



Sadly our anniversary was spent like this...



Yep we are still running like an infirmary over here but think we may finally be coming out of the fog. Matt is starting to eat semi-solid foods and I am starting to eat more than toast.
Needless to say we declared that we are going to have an anniversary date do-over once we are all feeling better but we did have a nice little dinner put on by two fancy dress wearing, flower picking, pink lemonade serving little cooks who made our day pretty special. If feeling crummy with you hubby, being waited on by your amazing kids isn't the true epitome of marriage then I do not know what is!
Happy 7 year Anniversary to us!

Prescriptions and Pulling Up

If anything could sum up the past week at the Winston house it would be this.....




Four out of the five of us are on prescription meds. It has been a doozy of a week but luckily things are starting to look up.

It started last Friday when the big guy got his tonsils taken out. Yeah I thought that surgery was only for little kids, apparently not...





Poor Matt has been sick with either strep throat or pharyngitis on and off for the past 9 months so the doctor took one look at his giant tonsils and said they had to go. And now they are gone! He did great during surgery and his recovery has been ok.

Unfortunately on what they said would be his hardest recovery days, Monday and Tuesday, both Avery and I started running fevers, having chills and feeling nauseous. So poor Matt had to care for Gracyn and Walker while we slept off our fevers and went to our respective doctors to eventually get diagnosed with strep throat. Avery was already on meds for a cough, congestion and allergies that have been lingering for about two weeks (she's been to the doctor every week for the past three weeks!) so hopefully the antibiotics will clear her up completely.

I think I should have a VIP card at the pediatrician because Saturday I had to take Walker for what I thought was a nasty diaper rash but turned out to be impetigo, which I think Avery had when she was little too.

Luckily he never seemed bothered with it and it most definitely has not slowed him down. He is full on pulling up on everything now, including pulling himself up in his crib, which makes naptime a little more eventful than normal.





He continues to be a busy little bee and crawls all over the place. I feel like all I do is vacuum our floor and we have officially reached the point when we just pushed all our furniture back to make space for him to safely roam and play. I shouldn't have to worry too much about his safety though because he is pretty well taken care of by his big sisters who are constantly checking on him and "helping" him.




Gracyn is the only one if us who is not on prescription meds but she has had a pretty tough week because {gasp} I put her in another week of swim lessons. Her first week went as predicted- lots of crying and protesting, fear, and a teensy, tiny small amount of swimming. So I had higher hopes for this second week since she knew the drill now. Nope. It's been worse. She is so anxious and has such a fear of the teacher letting go of her that she screams like a hyena throughout the whole class. It's hard to watch. The teacher is great but Gracyn sure is putting her through her paces. Luckily today (the next to last day of lessons) she practiced some of the "really scary things" with me at our neighborhood pool and did really well! She can swim about 10 feet independently, get a toy off the bottom of the pool, and jump into the water and swim to me. Hopefully she can calm down enough to actually participate in her (last day of) swim tomorrow.




And hopefully we are all on the upswing soon!

Fun for Mommy

 I've gotten to do some fun things for myself lately and wanted to make sure to document that Mommies do actually get to have some kid-free fun once in a while ;-)

My girlfriends in a did a color run recently and it was such a blast.  It was a 5K and not a single one us trained for it but we managed to make it through pretty easily and move on to the mimosas and brunch afterwards.  It was so much fun!

And then just last weekend a few of my girlfriends from high school and I got away for a girls trip to Vegas.  It was SOOO nice to get away, especially with girls who you've known long enough that they pretty much classify as family.

 I won a whole $1 on the blackjack game.

Also we caught the Michael Jackson ONE show and it was AMAZING!  It was honestly one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

I feel pretty lucky to not only get to do a few fun things but to have a sweet hubby who not only encourages me to do them, but also takes on all the kids solo without any hesitation.  He truly is such a blessing.

BFF part 2 & 3

It has been a long standing fact that Avery and Campbell are BFFs but I think the big girls may have a run for their money pretty soon with BFF part 2 and 3.






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Avery's Last Day of Kindergarden

Well we survived Kindergarden. It has been such a great experience and has gone so incredibly fast.  The growth that these kids go through in one year just blows my mind.  They grow not only in size, but academically and socially.  We are so proud of you Avery!

Now on to 1st grade............ yikes!

Happy 8 Months Walker Man!

Walker is 8 months old!

What You Did This Month- 8 months old

Weight: ?

Length/Height: ?

Head Circumference: ?

Diaper Size: Size 3

Clothing Size: all 6-9 and 6-12 month clothing now

Sleeping Habits: Sleep 6ish PM- 7AM almost every night. You still take 2, and some days 3, naps a day but your naps are pretty negotiable and are rarely consistent due to the crazy and hectic schedule we have been keeping lately and you usually tolerate it all pretty well BUT you insist on being in a bed by no later than 6:30PM every night, or else you have the mother of all meltdowns.

Eating Habits: You are fully weaned and have been on Infamil for a little less than a month and you have been tolerating it pretty easily. You take 4 6oz. bottles a day and I just started giving you lunch, which means you are now eating 3 full meals a day! Such a big guy. You seem to like everything but I think you favorites are squash, carrots and sweet potatoes. You love any table foods and have tried a fair amount of "regular" food.  

Milestones: You are SO mobile now! You are full on crawling EVERYWHERE now and you are fast! You have pulled up a few times and I think you may be standing and cruising within the next week or two. Also I think you are teething right now. I am not totally sure but you have been crabbier than normal, and you have a pretty yucky diaper rash, which was always a sign when your sister was teething, so I have my eyes peeled for some teeth to pop through any day now.  

Likes/Dislikes:

- You can get pretty vocal when you are waiting to eat and often start to scream if I don't get you food as quickly as you like. I think you get this from your Daddy :-)

- The girls make you smile constantly.  You look for them immediately when we start coming down the stairs and get so excited the minute you make eye contact with them.  

Walker was lucky enough to be born into an intstant set of friends because SO many of our friends had babies at the same time.  This guy is set when it comes to buddies (and cute girlfriends) later on.

- You are in a standard car seat now and your crib is officially on its lowest level.  

Walker- you are just the sweetest little guy and I just can not get enough of you.  You make me laugh all day long and I am so lucky to be your Momma.  Happy 8 months big guy.  We love you.  

This Guy

He just melts me










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Kindergarden Awards Ceremony

We are nearing the end of Avery's kindergarden year and it has been so amazing. It has been a definite transition for all of us but definitely one for the better.  It is phenomenal how much they learn in kindergarden- not only academic, but social, emotional, and so much more.  It is truly astonishing.

Avery is a full-on reader now and LOVES to read.  She just started the world of chapter books in a series called Junie B Jones and has been plowing through those at record speed.  It is so wonderful to see how much she enjoys reading.  She has made a lot of really great friends and seems to have a great relationship with everyone in her class.  When I had an end-of-year conference with her teacher she told me Avery is very kind and helpful to everyone at school and called her a "mother hen" and said she must be the best big sister, which she it ;-)
Ms. Mac also said Avery was doing great in school and had no areas of weakness other than she needed to slow down from time to time to avoid making small mistakes.  I have been hearing that same exact thing my whole life.  She said Avery makes friends easily, is kind to others, listens well at school and is an active participant in the classroom.  We could not be more proud of the amazing kid that we have raised.  We love you Avery girl!

Today we attended the Celebration of Learning Awards for the Kindergarden and Avery got the Award for Responsibility.  Way to go Avery!

We feel so extremely blessed that Avery had an amazing teacher this year.  Kindergarden is important for so many reason but most of all it introduces you to school and Ms. Mac ensured that Avery knew school was a fun place to be!  We are so grateful to her for all her help and love she showed all the kiddos each and every day.

Only 4 more days left and then we have a 1st grader! Ah!!!!!!!

Gracyn's Last Day

Gracyn finished another great year at her school. We just love it there and she had an awesome year with awesome teachers. It seems like she has grown up so much this year and I can not believe how fast the school year flew by!