#FlashBackFriday - Sanibel Part II

Another rough day on the island.  Kinley loved jumping in her ring!

The girls had quite the entertainment crew.. 

Beach babies

Building more castles 

Our "spot"

Another morning on the lanai...I could get use to that! 

Later in the week we drove to Captiva for a quick visit to the Mucky Duck. 

A few action shots of the girls playing in the waves... 

I think this was after a visit to Casa Ybel for a tropical drink! 

I'm totally okay with being up with the sun if it's this beautiful! 

Laiken helped me shell on our last morning. 

Daddy and Kinley joined us after a run to the Sanibel Bean (our favorite!) 

Our last day at the pool with Uncle RoRo  

Daddy and Kinley fun! 

Family pool pic 

Saturday morning we loaded up the car after a full week in paradise.  We always have to say "see ya next time" to the beach before we leave! 

Pit stop on the way home.  I've kind of blocked out the memories of the drive home but I know it was bad.  Both girls ended up being sick when we got home so I'm sure they felt bad the whole way.  Needless to say we had some crabby, needy girls who did NOT want to sleep. 

Oh well, the memories were more than worth it and we survived! 

Now that I'm way behind on blogging, I can say that our condo is booked again for this year and we cannot wait to get back!  One year is way too long in between.

Welcome 2015!

We rang in the new year with a few close friends and changed it up a bit this year.  Normally we host the NYE party but this year we decided to go out to dinner and to a concert at a bar.  Turns out, we're going to stick to our normal NYE plans from now on...

The girls had a sleepover party at my parents house and they had to wear their sassy cardigans!  Kinley found my heals and LOVES walking around in them which is pretty comical.

Here are the girls with their party hats - my mom bought fun noise makers and they thought it was the coolest!

We had an awesome dinner at Coopers Hawk and had lots of fun but the bar was packed with 21 year olds and Sam Hunt quit playing at 11:30...did I mention it was new years eve?  How lame is that?  We still made the most of it and had a fun time!

This happenend last week when the girls were playing in their new Frozen tent/castle and Kinley fell into the coffee table, ouch!

The girls gave me quite a run for my money last Sunday so we took a drive to Sonic and I had just about lost my mind.  Then I looked back and saw this.  Heart melted and everything was good in my world...until the next fight started when we got home.

Kinley's bedtime was totally out of wake from the holidays so this was 8:30 one evening.  Two things to note:  1.  She's sassy and 2. She goes through 5 outfits per day and none of them usually include normal pants or a shirt - she loves leos and dress up clothes all.day.long.  But you're only a 3 year old princess once right?!

and 8:45...

Welcome to winter in Illinois - the snow has begun!  The girls LOVE it!  It has been so darn cold that I hadn't let them play outside much but I finally gave in one evening after work.

 

We lasted approximately 7 minutes until I started worrying about wind chill.  The weather man said that the weekly forecast looked like a phone number - 8579786 (all single digits, brrr!)

We had a super lazy (but productive) weekend last weekend and Tiki wanted to play hide-and-seek.  The girls think she's pretty cool and Kinley calls Tiki "her girl." ha!

We also practiced our gymnastics!

This girl can be a picky eater but one thing she loves is meatballs.  She asked me not to cut it up so she could eat it like this - what a goof! 

And happy Monday - someone came down with the flu.  :(  

Happy New Year 2015!

Happy new year blog buddies (if anyone is still out there?)!

I finally decided to let the past go and just start fresh for the new year and I'll see how long I can keep up this time.  Trying to go back and recreate everything was a daunting task and I think that's why I totally quit for a while.

I also might try to do some "Flashback Fridays" and hit a few major events from last year that were blog worthy.

Cheers!

Celebrating the Holidays 2014

We kicked off Thanksgiving weekend with a get together at our house with high school friends.  We had such a fun time catching up & watching the kids play - 9 kids all between 18 & 20 months (except Kinley), so fun (and crazy)!

We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at Clayvillle with the extended Tucker clan.  Lots of gorgeous girls in this family.

We went to the Festival of Trees that weekend & the girls loved it!  Train ride first...

Santa success!!  Our first picture with no tears!  I was so proud!

Then we went to lunch at Public House 29 & Kinley got a belated birthday present for the O'Connors.  She already has a "kin-tar" (guitar) so she was super pumped!

I hosted thanksgiving dinner with my family that evening.

We ended the night with some beauty parlor...

We continued our Christmas traditions by picking out our tree from the Apple Bar the next day.  Kinley got sick that morning but I thought she was on the mend.  Apparently not - tears at the Apple Barn & puke on the car ride home, yuck!

Laiken also got hit with sickness & ended up having a double ear infection, poor girl.

Random trip to La Fiesta with these sweet girls.

Brayden after his indoor game!

Our elf, Snowflake, came after thanksgiving and brought the girls a Hello Kitty gingerbread house one day.  They loved it!

And she also did snow angels in the powdered sugar!

My mom & Cora came over for a huge day of cookie baking & candy making.  Kinley was an Oreo thief...

The Friday before Christmas we put on the girls Christmas PJ's and went to Chatham park to drive through the Festival of Lights.  Laiken fell asleep on the way but Kinley loved it!

Silly girl in daddy's Blackhawks hat...

Gorgeous sunset the night before Christmas Eve at Scott's parents house.

We went to my aunt & uncle's house at 4:00 on Christmas Eve and my cousin Ashley made a craft area for the girls, bought them aprons & had sugar cookies for them to ice.  They had a blast! 

Our last stop before Santa came was my sister-in-laws.  We love our cousins!

I guess the girls were good this year..

Kinley was so fun to watch!  She said that every present was all she ever wanted & hugged them! Ha!  She was just so thrilled & thanked us (and Santa) for every.single.gift.  (Along with lots of sweet hugs - melt my heart).  Laiken was also impressed & loved her dolly & car ramp toy.  Kinley's only major requests were Snow Glow Elsa (from Frozen) and roller skates.  The roller skate idea made me laugh but she was set on it.  She's already been (slowly) cruising around the house and becoming a pro!

Can't forget our first "babies."

Christmas Eve and Christmas day is always back and forth between families  but I'm thankful that it's only around town and not hours away.  The girls usually catch a few Zzz's in between.

We ended our night at Scott's parents house for dinner.  Always an exhausting few days but lots of fun memories were made!