Other Christmas's Part 3 and 4

So after a early morning of opening presents at our house on Christmas day, we did the Marshall family tradition and headed to Taylorsville.  We have always gotten to see both sides of my family on Christmas day.

We didn't take too many pictures as we were busy being stuffed with food from my grandmothers but the few good ones where I don't have cheesecake in the frame are posted below.  

Nanny trying to get Avery to wear a bow on her hair while opening presents.

 Avery suggesting that Anna Kate should play with her piano and stop sitting on the presents that she was trying to open.

 NANNY'S LUNCH! (aka Chex Mix, both me and Avery's favorite)

 After opening gifts at Nanny and Pa's we headed over to Grandma Marshall's house for more family and most importantly more food.

Anna Kate was pretty sweet despite not having taken a nap.

 Avery loved being the center of attention.  The best part was when she did her "Magic Show."  She would turn to someone and say, "Stand up!  Now say "Abracadabra!"  Now sit down!  Who's next?"

 Playing with her cousins.

Other Christmas's Part 2

So after spending Saturday with the Gentry's we headed to Greensboro to do Christmas with my parents and siblings.  

Playing with goofy Uncle David.

 Laura had a good time playing with little Anna.  Anna seemed pretty proud of herself for standing on the top of the slide.

 Gigi's cooking is twice as good as what Daddy makes, so both of the grandchildren ate pretty well at Gigi's house.

 After naps, it was time to open presents.  Avery was getting the hang of it and she knew that Gigi would spoil her pretty good.

 Surrounded by presents....

 Wait.......WARDROBE CHANGE!!

 Avery did a good job playing with Anna and they shared Avery's new electric keyboard.  They took turns pressing buttons and making noises until I found the volume switch.

 Such a cutie...

 This is just a funny picture.  She got tape stuck on her hand and was waving it around like a cat does when you put tape on its paws.

Other Christmas's Part 1

Other than the one our house Avery participated in quite a few Christmas's.

The first (according to a calendar) was the Gentry Family Christmas.  We had dinner with the large family and Avery got to run around and play with her little cousins.  Avery was just getting over a cold so she wasn't at her smiliest, but did a good job putting up with all the requests for hugs and conversation.

Loving on her mommy...

 Running laps in the background.  Not pictured, her cousin Wren out in front of Avery.

 Goofing off with her cousin Wren on the fence trying to get out on the golf course with the boys.

 Focused on opening packages with a "bow" in her hair thanks to Aunt Steph-a-me.

Playing cars with her cousin Wren.

Christmas Morning

Since we will have so many Christmas celebrations with our family over the past week and the next week, I am going to start with Christmas morning at our house and share the rest of the pictures in separate posts.

We had talked up the whole Santa Claus thing over the past week or so, but we really weren't sure if she got the whole idea.  I know she loves presents, but she was pretty excited Christmas morning to see what Santa brought her.

A pretty big grin rounding the corner to see what was in front of the fireplace.  She stood patiently behind the steps until I told her she could come around and see.

 Pretty excited and pretty crazy hair.

 The first present she opened turned out to be the ONLY present she requested from Santa.  A purple backpack just like the one Dora has.  Santa even made her a pretend map to go in the side pocket just like Dora.

 A PUZZLE!!!

 New running shoes, just like Daddy's.  (Mine aren't pink)

 She also enjoyed all the little Dora pieces inside her stocking.

 And she had to start using them straight away.  She began with painting a picture of Dora to go in her room.

Christmas Card

"Daddy...what's wrong with that light?" I replied, "It's burned out."  She added, "Like the light where I brush my teeth? (a light above Laura's sink that I have been excessively negligent on replacing) That's two lights you need to fix Daddy! Dos!"  - Avery, effective at nagging in 2 languages, one upping her mother.

So everyone that wanted one should have received a Christmas card from us by now unless you live in a far away place like Alabama or Oregon.  If you didn't get one, see the below picture and imagine it in a physical form.  *BAM* instant Christmas card.

I know I am biased, but I think this toddler is about the cutest/happiest thing ever.

 Charger wanted to participate in the photo.  By participate, I mean love on Avery and not sit still.  This was the best we got.  For whatever reason, Charger doesn't understand where to look when he is getting his picture taken.

I think this picture makes her look so old compared to the little baby that I have in my mind.

And of course, our goofy toddler had to take a couple of goofy pictures.

 What a nutball...

Easton's Birthday Party

"I only play with the girls at school.  Boys are sticky" - Avery after me asking who she played with at school that day

Sorry for the long layoff between blogs.  We really haven't been taking many pictures other than the Christmas card pictures in the last week or so. (Check your mailbox today!)  However, this past weekend we went to Easton's 2nd birthday party minus his gift and minus the camera.  (Double Fail)  Anyways we all had a lot of fun hanging out with our friends and Avery had a blast.

5 toddlers excited about a flaming cupcake headed in their direction.

 Avery was less than excited once she got her hands on her cupcake.  For whatever reason, she only took one bite and focused on stealing someone else's goldfish.

 A goofy grin for a goofy girl.

 After the noise settled down, she sat down with her homey Easton and finally ate an applesauce pouch.  Finally... A healthy snack that can stay in the diaper bag.  We have tried to get her to eat these forever and would not try them until she saw Easton eat one.

 She managed to get a balloon loose and run around with it.

 As well as dunk a basketball.  She didn't want to shoot shots.  She only wanted to dunk.

By breakfast time the next morning, Easton and Avery were bestest friends again.

 They even played trucks together.

 And Easton let her open a couple of his presents.  Probably another truck in there...

Tree Decoration

We asked Avery if she wanted to convert her crib into a big girl bed.  She said, "No I like my crib.  I want it to be cozy."

We have been a bit lazy over Thanksgiving taking pictures, but we did take a few decorating the tree.  As frequent readers of the blog know, Avery has a bit of OCD around certain things.  She likes things to be in perfect places exactly how she wants.  Decorating a Christmas tree is like a giant puzzle that cannot be solved.  If you'll notice the ornament she is hanging in these pictures is the same ornament.  She tried many times to find the perfect place for it.  Meanwhile, Laura was able to decorate the rest of the tree.

Anyways, it was a perfectly lazy Thanksgiving as the girls decorated a tree and I cooked them a ton of food.

Our Lil Cheerleader

So Avery definately had fun at the NC State game, but it was a blast to watch her have fun.  As the crowd thinned out during the second half she had a little more room to be able to see and to stand up on her own.  She took this opportunity to do some cheering and dancing with the band.

Grins from ear to ear!

She would take her hands like this and say "GO WOLFPACK!"  The great part about it is that we weren't encouraging her to do it.  She just started to do it.  I am sure we had brainwashed her at a previous time, but it was still cool to see.

Clapping and stomping trying to get everyone to cheer.  Notice the score in the background.  No one really felt like cheering at that point.

First NC State Game

This past weekend with a lot of help from Mimi and Papa, Avery was able to come to her first NC State game.  We have watched a lot of them on tv, been to a few high school games, but never been to one in person.  When it looked like the weather was going to clear up on Friday to make it work, we started talking about it and she got real happy, real quick.  I think this led to her not sleeping very well and getting up around 4:30~5am.  After that we thought the day might not go very well, but we were very wrong.  Avery ended up having a blast and we had a ton of fun watching her have fun.

Laura, Stephanie, and I went up a little before Avery, Mimi, and Papa to set up the tailgating spot.  When Avery got there it was pretty hard to get the grin off of her face.  She loved being around all the people wearing red and was doing the wolf symbol pretty good.

 Thanks to Mimi and Papa for driving her up to the game and home afterwards. (and spoiling her as ususal)

 She had a great time leading Papa and Mimi through the parking lot looking at all the NC State stuff.  A few cars down from us there was a stuffed Mr. Wolf on top of a car that she had to check out.

 You can't have tailgating without food.  She pigged out on pretzels and hotdogs (her usual diet) before the game.

 Once we were inside the stadium, it took a while for things to sink in.

 Our happy family at Avery's first NC State game.

 After a while the grin came back despite how the game went.

 Some goofy pictures with Daddy-bo.

A picture from the ride home after the game.