New Years Eve 2012

We decided to host the NYE party this year for the simple fact that I'm pregnant and wanted to be able to go to bed whenever I wanted.  (I think you get a pass when it comes to being a brat when you're preggo so I use it when I can).

 

We had fun celebrating the last day of 2012 with our peanut.  I mentioned to Scott that I wanted Kinley to stay & hang out for a while before I took her to my parents & he looked confused.  He thought that all the kids were coming over to celebrate, too, and looked a little bummed that they weren't.  I mean, seriously, how would we have got 4 kids under 4 years old to go to sleep while the parents partied?  Yeah.right.  But it was still really sweet that he wanted them there.  (Brownie points for daddy!)

 

'Miss Thang' really wanted to wear her sassy leopard dress that night to go to G-ma & G-pa's!

We took advantage of my DIY photo booth before we left.  She's already working on her model poses...or trying to rip her bow out.  ;)

We had a couple close friends over to celebrate the new year with lots of food, drinks, and games.  How cute is this "shrimp boat" that Julie brought?!  I found out that Scott's parents bought it as a wedding gift so now I'm jealous that we don't have one!

The girls hung out in the dining room and played cards (ie:  whatever drinking games we could remember from college) while blasting music from our phones.  The guys watched football and gambled - always up for something new...not!

And because these were SO good...

 

After the other ladies had a few drinks, we took our turn in the "photo booth."  I found some printables on Groop Dealz and knew they'd be a hit at the party!  That also meant that I had to make some kind of backdrop (Party City to the resuce!)  Ashley & Julie were the first up:

Jill, Jules, & Becca

Cheese!

We had a little too much fun and for some reason the guys didn't want to join...

Happy New Year!

We missed the NYC countdown but made sure to get our smooches at midnight!

 

A few of the gentlemen finally humored us and posed for a picture.

 

I actually made it until 2am when the party started winding down - only about 4 hours past my bedtime!  Even though we missed our babydoll, we had such a fun adult night with our friends!  Cheers to a new year!

Celebrating 10 years and more...

Labor day weekend brought many reasons to celebrate so Kinley & I had a busy day!

 

We started at Katie's baby shower and gender reveal party.  It was so awesome that she came up from Texas so her Illinois family and friends could celebrate with her and Joe.

 

They had so many cute personalized touches!  We voted for the sex baby Albs at this table and drank punch and wore colored beads that corresponded to our guess.  Kinley and I picked pink of course!

 

Gift table and some of the girls talking (sorry Becky!)

 

Amazing sweets table!

 

Finally after they opened gifts it was time to find out what they are having!  Side note:  they went to the doctor a month ago and never found out, I don't know how they did it!

 

Cutting the cake...

 It's a boy!!!

I am SO excited for them to welcome a baby boy in December.  It will be here before we know it!  My high school girls will always have a special place in my heart. :)

 

After the shower we went to the Firefighters club for the picnic part of our reunion.  There was 100% chance of rain that day so we moved it from the park in Rochester but it turned out to be a great idea!  I didn't want to be the annoying blog lady to my classmates that I hadn't seen in years so I didn't get any photos. :(

 

After lunch we met at the high school for a tour since SO much has changed since we were there 10 YEARS AGO.  Seriously, how has it been that long?!

 

We were most impressed with the RAC (Rochester Athletic Complex).  The new gym is gigantic and the weight room upstairs overlooks the ball fields and the gym.

Treadmills in gym class!?  All we had was the track or running circles in the gym.  Not to mention, our weight room was in an old bus garage! Kids these days are so spoiled... ;)  We found ourselves saying that a lot during the tour and it just proved how old-ish we are getting, ha!

 

We stopped for a picture in the library which hadn't changed a bit.  Except that there were hardly any books there, darn those computers!

 

 That evening before our reunion at the bar we went to Island Bay to celebrate Ron's birthday.

Lovely Tucker ladies

I love these girls!

and my little family!

We were Ron's presents, hence the bows on everyone.

Make a wish!

Next, it was on to Capital City for the evening part of the reunion.  It was awesome to catch up with a few people that I hadn't seen in years but I was kind of disapointed with the turn out.  Most of my girls were there so that's all that mattered. :)

Again, I was an awful photographer and didn't get pics of anyone else.  What an exhausting and FUN day!

Sunday Funday

Our niece, Delaney, had a gymnastics meet in town on Sunday so we went to support her.  She is an awesome little gymnast and we love to watch her!   Our little "chipmunk" did really good even though she had an off day, but who doesn't?  I still think she did awesome!

I'm so amazed at how good she's become in the past few years and wish I could watch her more often.  Maybe she'll be teaching Kinley in a couple years :)

I feel like I brag about my nieces and nephews a lot but they're so talented AND it's my blog so I can if I want, right!? 

I know my niece Kylie (our soccer star) is an avid blog reader so I promise I'll get a soccer blog up for you sometime soon! :)

Anyway, we took a chance and took Kinley with us and she did a lot better than I expected.  She hasn't done well when there are lots of people cheering and clapping but I think she's finally getting used to it, thank goodness!

After the meet, we swung by Ryan & Courtney's house to hang out since we hadn't seen them in a while.  (It sure is hard to keep up with friends when you have a new baby but we're trying our hardest).

 

We also introduced Kinley to their super cute dog, Bentley.  Of course, K was excited to see the puppy and wanted to pull on his ears & pull his hair but Bentley was a little skeptical so he kept his distance most of the time.  haha

We ended up going to the Creek to watch the Blackhawks game and for an early dinner.  I was amazed that Kinley was still doing good but then we had a small meltdown but it's kind of expected when we've been gone for 5 hours with hardly any naps.  We enjoyed a few drinks and ate lots of good food - "our diets start tomorrow!"  Isn't that always the case!?

What a great Sunday Funday!  It might not have been as crazy as 'pre-baby' Sunday Fundays, but nonetheless, it was great to get out of the house with friends and relax!  And we learned that Kinley is becoming a lot more adaptable and easy going, hooray!

Girls Wine Night!

The Friday before Christmas Eve some of my girlfriends arrived in town so we HAD to get together and catch up over wine & good food!  I had everyone over & we munched on appetizers, white chicken chili, fruit pizza, & oreo balls, yumm!  Everyone got some much needed Kinley time, too!  She had a blast at her first girls night.



We missed a couple of you that couldn't make it but it was great catching up.  I feel so lucky to still be so close to my high school girlfriends even though they now live in Dallas, Chicago, St. Louis, Michigan, etc.  We can always pick up right where we left off and never run out of things to talk about!

Kinley had enough chatting so she passed out with Karen.

Karen & my sweet sleeper

Wine night turned into a photography lesson from Becky.  I still haven't had time to dig into all that my new camera can do so Beck showed me a few things.  Who would have thought that a wine bottle & baby monitor could be kind of artsy? haha  Love you girls & can't wait to do it again!