Easter 2013

We had so much fun celebrating Easter with Kinley this year! 

 

We dyed eggs at my parents house a few days before:

 

Kinley woke up to a trail of Easter eggs leading to her basket.  Love this sleepy-eyed picture of my baby!

She really liked the treats in the eggs...

Checking out her basket:

 

After we hunted for a few eggs around our living room, we got ready and went to my parents for lunch.

I was obsessed with this chevron dress forever.  I thought she looked like a festive little Easter egg!  Kinley had to give cousin Ava some lovies:

Grandma bought her a little bonnet and she surprisingly wore it while she hunted for eggs!

This year was really fun because she actually understood the concept of looking for eggs.  We even had to re-hide some when she was done because she wanted more!

Clapping - yeah for Easter!

She had to squat down to see her goodies...

 

She got lots of sidewalk chalk so we changed clothes to go play!

I meant to get a family picture including my super pregnant self but forgot.  I still love this one of my two lovies!

What a fun Easter with our family of three!



Happy Valentine's Day!

I've been excited for Valentine's Day this year!  Not so much for the cards, candy, and flowers but to dress Kinley in all of her pink & red!

We started wearing our Valentine's finest last week...

I really need to start getting out my big camera instead of using all Instagram pictures...

Shirt, hair clip

I bought her onesie & elephant clip on Etsy. 

Side note - I would not recommend the shop that made her onesie, it wasn't very well made BUT Geneva Diva makes the cutest/cheapest hair clips & bows and hosts fun giveaways/contests on Facebook so I totally recommend them!  And no, I was not reimbursed - free advertising if you make good stuff! :)

Anyway, I was also determined to make a front door decoration that I saw on Pinterest.  Instead of reinventing the wheel and giving another step by step tutorial, I'll link to the one I used.  It was really simple but a little time consuming.

I changed it up a little based on what I could find at Michaels & Joann Fabrics.  The only paper mache letters were really small so found a big piece of styrofoam and traced my own letters onto it to cut out.  I also used felt instead of t-shirts & straight pins instead of hot glue.

I think I cut out 100 pink circles & 100 red circles so I did one set each night and then it took me under an hour to pin it all to the Styrofoam last weekend.

I was pretty happy with how it turned out and now I have a Valentine's decoration to use every year!

We had to get pictures this morning before we left the house!  Daddy's 3 girls on Valentine's Day.

This little sweetheart decided to get up at 5:30 and didn't really go back to sleep so pictures were a little difficult.  But lets talk about this face.  Yes, Kinley, you get whatever you want with those puppy dog eyes!

Then I asked her if she wanted to send a picture to Grandma and she perked right up with a pose and everything!  And for the record, she hated her skirt this morning and kept saying, off, off!  I'm a mean mommy & made her wear it to Aunt Sue's.  :)  Then I got a text from Sue at 8:17 saying that her skirt was already off and she gave a big "aaaah."

Love my little Valentine!

 

Later in the day I decided to compare her Valentine's Day picture from last year.  What a difference 1 year makes, wow.

And I got the best surprise of all when Sue brought Kinley up to my office for a visit and they brought me a Valentine & candy!  SO lucky to have an amazing sis-in-law/auntie-sitter for K.

More Christmas & Birthdays

We made the trip up to Rock Island to celebrate Christmas with my dad's family on January 5.  We also celebrate my Grandma & sister's birthdays that weekend, too!

I was a terrible photographer that day and didn't get many pictures of anything besides Kinley...imagine that.  Even though I take tons of pictures, I still feel annoying when I ask everyone to pose for pictures.  My cousin Kari also blogs and feels the same way but we both agreed that we are so happy when we actually have lots of pictures of everyone! (I'll try harder next time).

Kinley entertained us while we waited to eat.  She is SUCH a cheeseball & I love it!

Ryan & Kari's son, Tyler, got a hold of my camera at some point so I had lots of beautiful self portraits!  I think he's following in mommy's footsteps.

My brother, Andy, & Alicia (recently engaged!) and Cora.

Do we have a future gymnast in the making?  Kinley practicing her bridge on the table...maybe we need to start working on manners? Oops!

Here's big sister practicing on cousin Jake!  He's only 4 months younger than Kinley but is still a peanut so she thought she was big stuff playing with him.

Hhmmm...I'll take that bottle!  She was super sweet but laid on him a few times, ha!

Here's G-ma & G-pa opening their gifts. 

This post has been all over the place so I'm just going to wrap it up.  I love getting together with our family from up North but it's never long enough!  We had a great extended Christmas season and feel so blessed that we can make time to get together with everyone in our huge family.

After Christmas Fun!

Scott was off work for 2 whole weeks after Christmas so he & Kinley got to spend some much needed daddy-daughter time together.  Of course, I got to join in on some of the fun, too!

 

The week after Christmas we...

 

took an "all girls" nap one afternoon (that's 4 Tucker ladies in one chair!),

met Aunties & Uncles for lunch,

had an adults-only night while friends were in town,

 and met Scott's boss & his wife for dinner.

We also went to a friends wedding and got to party with a minor celebrity (or major celebrity depending on how much you like Nascar).  We couldn't ask for pictures or autographs so you can believe me...or not.  But his name started with "Ky" and ended with "le Busch."  Get it??

 

He walked by right after this picture but neither of us were gutsy enough to be "those people" and beg for a picture with our baby. :(

Someone wouldn't stop playing with their spoon for a quick pic with mommy...

Kinley partied with us for a while and grandma was so nice to come pick her up and have a sleepover so we could enjoy the evening and get a full nights sleep!  Here she is watching for Grandma:

"No autographs, please."  How stinkin' cute is this coat!?  Mackenzie & Mia got it for her for her birthday - a little big but too cute not to wear!

And we got snow on New Years Eve (day).  We had to run a few errands to get ready for our party and I got to take this little snow bunny along for the ride.

My little eskimo baby!