Easter

June 1st and getting the Easter post up. Finally.

Here it goes ladies and gents. I spent from right after Christmas until the weekend before Easter thinking up grand ideas of what we should put in our children's Easter baskets. I ordered swim suits on sale from Carter's right before Christmas and got candy the weekend before, everything else in between. Looking back, I obviously wouldn't suggest ordering clothes that far in advance. Last weekend we took our toddler's swimsuit back to Carter's and order a size bigger that should be here in a couple days. The baby's suit should fit just fine though!

Kinnley's Easter Basket (Age: 20 months)

So above is Kinnley's basket, or more appropriately bag. Kinnley's Mimi (my mom) hand painted bags for each of the girls (they also have hand painted trick-or-treat bags!). In the bag we put her swim suit from Carter's, sunglasses, color bath drops, a large set of crayons, a Frozen themed set with small markers and coloring pages, the I Wish You More book, and a dry erase marker board with markers. I got some things keeping in mind that we would be going on a road trip in early June and thought they would be great car activities. We tried to stay away from candy since we knew she would be receiving some from grandparents and inside eggs. 

Anniston's Easter Basket (Age: 2 months)

Above is Anniston's Easter bag! She also got a swim suit and sunglasses, along with a wubbabub, a Baltic amber necklace and two books, Duck & Goose Colors! and The Little Bunny in Kansas. Hers was obviously a little more difficult because of her age but great Easter ideas!

We had so much fun letting Kinnley participate in egg hunts this year! We took her to one in a neighboring community and also put one on for just her at our house!

Whenever I give books that have a theme related to when they were given, I liked to write a little note with a date inside. My mom did this when I was little and I enjoy reading the inscriptions. I don't usually write in board books, just the books with actual paper pages. Some books will have one inscription written to both girls, so they will have to fight over them when they want to have them for their own children :) 

Christmas 2014

Almost there folks. Over the next few days I am going to finish up the "Catch Up" series so that we can move on to the up to date stuff! Plus, the longer it takes me to finish catching up, the more behind I get! So let's dig in, Christmas 2014.

At Christmas time, Kinnley was 16 months old! It's hard to look over to my right and see my 20 month old little lady. She has grown so much in these short four months. ANYWAY.

Christmas time with a toddler is so much fun. So here are some ideas of what we gave our 16 month old for Christmas this year!

Stocking stuffers:

• Musical instruments, we gave Kinnley a harmonica. We have a bin that we keep various musical instruments in to explore with. So far she has a tamborine, maracas, a harmonica, and a little piano. 
• Anything artsy, we gave Color Wonder markers and washable Crayola crayons. Another thing we planned for was organization. I've found little containers at the Dollar Store and in the Dollar Spot at Target. We use them to keep all of our markers, Color Wonder Markers, crayons, and chalk separate. 
• Tooth brush and tooth paste. Even as adults, my parents still put these in my stocking :) 
• Christmas themed socks. These were another Target Dollar Spot find. 
• Toddler forks. I love gifts that are actually super useful in every day life. She has had toddler forks and spoons before Christmas, but we had been meaning to buy more forks. Instant, fabulous stocking stuffer. We love the Gerber brand forks and spoons.
• Sven plush animal. I actually found this little guy at Hobby Lobby, plus I was able to use a 40% off coupon for him. My little Frozen lover still carries him around.

Christmas gifts:

• Octolight Night Light. We are obsessed with subscription boxes and I religiously follow mom groups on Facebook. I am part of a Citrus Lane Mommies group and when Citrus Lane started to put Octolights in boxes, people were going NUTS. Anyhow, in November, Barnes and Noble put a bunch of their Octolights in the bargain bins at their stores (another tip I got from other moms on the group). We grabbed ours for over 50% off. I think Barnes and Noble is seriously overlooked when it comes to their children's toys sections. They have great brands like Melissa and Doug and Green Toys and Habe to name a few!
• Boon Bath Toys. We gave the stacking boats, but Boon is another great brand to check out! (We also found them through Citrus Lane!)
• Clothes. This is another one of those that is a DUH! thing. Children grow at light speed, therefore they are forever needing clothes. We checked out Old Navy a few weeks before Christmas. We ended up getting Kinnley 4 shirts, 2 pajama sets, a full outfit for Christmas day, and some odds and ends for baby sister for about $70!
• Disney Books. I love gifting books, even if they are a little advanced for my kiddo. They can sit on the shelf until she is ready but its another gift she can open Christmas morning! We found these huge Disney books that have multiple different stories in each book at Walmart after Black Friday. They were about $10 a piece. Walmart is a great place to check out the day or so after Black Friday!
• Finger Paint and Paint Paper. We love the Melissa and Doug Finger Paint Paper and Crayola's finger paint set. We bought both off of Amazon. 
• Play Doh and accessories. We bought a 24 pack of Play Doh off of Amazon along with the Melissa and Doug Model and Mould set. My little lady will go on periods of time when she is obsessed with Play Doh and will sit in her high chair for a couple hours playing with it! She asks me to help her mold things like hearts and spheres. Its such a great learning tool! Plus, if you follow me on Pinterest, you probably saw that awhile back I pinned a blog post for printable Play Doh mats! They are the cutest! I printed ours off a couple weeks ago and laminated them! 
• Bristle Blocks. I read on a blog post about Bristle Blocks being a great "frustration free" block for toddlers. They fit together basically any which way! While I was looking at gift ideas for Kinnley this year, I was looking for items that would be fun for her to play with and would keep her busy while I would be busy with little sister a few months after. So far these blocks have been a hit! 
• Olivia Helps with Christmas board book. This is another self explanatory gift. 
• Trampoline. This was her BIG gift :) She really enjoys it! We ordered it off of Amazon for about $80 if I remember right! I don't have a picture of her on it unfortunately, but its for indoor use only and has a net and handle bar all the way around it for protection.

Me, my sister Taylor, and my sister Jordan in our Christmas Eve Pajamas.

Another thing I wanted to plan for was the fact that kids always want to open gifts before Christmas. Kinnley isn't quite there yet, but even I get a little anxious for gift giving! So a couple weeks before Christmas we gave her the Little People Nativity Set. She loved playing with all the little animals and setting up the scene and it was a great way for us to talk to her about the birth of baby Jesus and the meaning of Christmas. She also got to unwrap a book on Christmas Eve, we found The Night Before Christmas in a board book version. 

So, its a month (ish) before Christmas and EVERYONE is asking you what they should get your little one for Christmas. You are looking around your house and you are thinking "I've got a stash of presents for my kid in the closet and she already has WAY TOO MANY toys and now all of her grandparents are calling asking what THEY should get her?!" Solution? Experience gifts. We gave my parents the idea of getting Kinnley a Discovery Center annual pass. Its a great little place for kids of all ages and if you are a pass holder you get to be part of special events! Most larger cities have places like it. Zoo passes are another great idea. We gave my grandparents the idea of getting her a Bluum box subscription, its still material items, but they show up in a box at a later date and there are usually other things besides toys in them. Even if you don't have places for experiences near you or close enough to have an annual pass, you can still do one time experiences. 

There you have it! Now looking back at Christmas my little lady was very blessed and we were MORE blessed to be able to spend it with our entire family!

Our last Christmas as a family of three!

Gender Reveal with Paint!

Another post in our series about getting back on track! 

When I got pregnant, I immediately started to think about revealing the gender in a fun way. I wish I was the type to not know the gender until their birth day, but I am just not that patient. I do, however, find great pleasure in finding out the gender and making others wait to find out ;). Obviously, I got my inspiration from Pinterest. I saw a picture where they included their first born and the mom painted the child's hand and the child pressed their hand against her white shirt and left the appropriate colored hand print. I loved how it was a series of photos and the first few were black and white, and the very last was in color, at last revealing the gender to others. 

I immediately started to be concerned, after I had already booked the photo session and bought the appropriate materials and purchased 4 three picture photo frames, that maybe Kinnley was too young (13 months) to be able to put a hand print on my shirt. I told my weary mind that it would all work out, stop worrying, and just let things be. And they did! I was right about her not wanting to flatten her hand out for a hand print. BUT, we handed her the paint brush loaded with the appropriate colored paint and let her paint the color onto my shirt. The photos turned out great, Kinnley did an awesome job (and looked cute while doing it :) ), and we got our reveal photos!

After we got them printed we decided on three of the shots, two black and white and one color, to use in the frames to give to family members. When we presented them, we had the last photo covered. Every one loved them :) 

Please check out Andee Rettele Photography! She is great!

So now that its official on my blog, I can start using SHE instead of "Baby #2" :) !!!

The other big secret we choose to keep is the name! We did the same with Kinnley. Friends and family learn the name on the big day :) just another fun thing we like to do!

This little lady was due on February 8, 2015 and arrived on February 8, 2015 at 9:48 a.m.! My girls like to be on time, both were born on their due dates!

Her birth story is only a few more "catch up" posts away! But next up will be our Christmas post with what we got Kinnley and a few traditions and of course pictures!

Kinnley's Lady Bug First Birthday!

Alright, so let's just go back in time and reminisce!

I had so much fun planning Kinnley's first birthday party! I actually started buying and prepping in February 2014 for her party in August! When you settle on a theme that early it makes planning fairly easy and laid back. Since I had settled on a theme, I started with (of course) Pinterest. Secret boards are my friends.

With my pregnancy in full swing and not feeling my best, I was so thankful to have some great help from my mom (and my sisters!).

"Oh Happy Day" banner and mantle decor.

We hosted the party out at my parents' house. We just don't have the room currently to throw parties. Both the K and the 1 are from Hobby Lobby that I painted black. I sent Zach out for the flowers the morning of the party (thanks babe :) ). I got the cutest little bedazzled red clothes pins on sale at Hobby Lobby after Valentine's Day for 70% off (see what I mean about settling on a theme early?). We used the clothes pins to hang photos of Kinnley from her first year!

Kinnley with her smash cake!

Kinnley's smash cake was just a simple box cake with white buttercream frosting, courtesy of her Mimi. Plus the cutest little lady bug sugar cookie for decoration! My mom, Kinnley's Mimi, also made the paper decor toppers that say 'Kinnley' and '1'. It was decided that we should do the smash cake outside. Best. Decision, Ever. Her cake was served on the famous "It's your special day" plate. As kids, we were always served special meals on this plate. Like first days of school, birthdays, so on and so forth :) .

Birthday cupcakes with decorative toppers.

Once again a big thanks to Kinnley's Mimi! She made the cupcake toppers with her Cricut. I actually did contribute a little, by making these from-scratch red velvet cupcakes! Everything else served at the party was fairly simple. A simple red punch, a veggie tray, a meat and cheese tray, and of course the sugar cookies!

Here you can see that the cookies were packaged to go! Also, the cupcake stands from Pick Your Plum.

Another purchase I made way before the party was these cute little cupcake stands from Pick Your Plum! They always have the cutest things and for super cheap! The side that is showing is just plain gray, but if they are flipped it's chevron! (I'm thinking I'll be able to use them again for Baby #2's First Birthday!) You can also kind of see the lady bug cookies in this photo! My mom made them and then packaged them all separately so they would be easy to take to go! Perfect for keeping fresh and also sending multiples home with party go-ers so you aren't stuck with 37 sugar cookies :)

The party was a huge success and I cannot wait for her next party. For those of you wondering, YES I have already chosen a theme and created a secret Pinterest board...duh!

Missing In Action

Ah. So here I am.
My last post was the end of July!?! I'm awful.

This is just an "I'm back" post. Hopefully now we can get back to business. At the end of July I was planning a first birthday party and not feeling my best with pregnancy #2. Thankfully, I was able to share our big beach reveal before I took my hiatus from the interwebs.

I'll work my way in chronological order, catching you up in my life. I'll start with Kinnley's birthday party, show you pictures from our gender reveal, throw in some random posts, share the birth story of baby #2(and include some never before seen birth photos!)  and catch up to Easter and show you what the Easter Bunny put in our Easter Baskets!! Not to mention the obvious cloth diaper and breast feeding and co sleeping and baby wearing posts 😉

Then! Once we are all caught up, I'll start sharing our next big adventure! Disney vacation planning! Plus, Kinnley's second birthday is coming up before we know it and then it will be time to start planning another first birthday party!

Can't wait to share it all!

Our Big Beach Reveal!

We have super great big beautiful news! We are expecting! Kinnley is going to be a big sister in early 2015! My due date is January 31, but my doctor changed it to February 8 at my June appointment, hence why I am not being specific on the month. I think the first due date is more correct and I expect it to change back but it doesn't matter much to me since baby will come when baby is ready :)
I am always envious of women who get to have perfect timing with their big announcements, like around Christmas time or Father's Day or whatever. We are traditional when it comes to announcing, we like to wait until the first trimester is over to share. Then before we make it "Facebook Official" we like to make sure immediate family and close friends are in on the big news. AND THEN we make the announcement. So before we left on vacation, we told a handful of friends and family and packed up a special sign I had made, and then near the end of our vacation we took Kinnley out to the beach and captured (with special thanks to my mom) some amazing photos. The pictures turned out way better than I could have ever imagined!

About the sign:
I bought black foam board from Hobby Lobby, but I was unsure what I should use to write with. I remembered seeing a tutorial on Pinterest but wouldn't you know, I couldn't find it and couldn't remember what it called for. So I spent (and wasted) some money on different types of Sharpies. Just so you know, oil based Sharpies do NOT work, ha. I did finally find the tutorial I had in mind and the correct Sharpies to use are the metallics. . I am obsessed with fonts on the internet, and its so easy to go onto dafont.com and download free fonts. In Word, I typed out what I wanted on the board and got it sized out and in the cute fonts, printed them out, cut them down, and carefully taped the paper to the board. Since I was using foam board, I just traced the words with a pen and it left a small indentation in the board. I went slowly, tracing one word at a time and then using whatever color to trace the indentation. I only did one word at a time so I didn't get confused with all the little lines :). It really didn't take long to do, I think I got mine done in the span of two, one hour blocks. Once all the wording was done, with the help of Zach and an X-acto knife, we trimmed it down to less than half its size so it would fit in a suitcase.

Anna Maria Island

We are back! I am still in the post vacation depression, trying to catch up on laundry and house work, plus trying to make sure everything is set for Kinnley's FIRST birthday in a few weeks! BUSY!

I wanted to share all of our awesome (and not so awesome) vacation adventures. Anna Maria Island is such an awesome place, plus it holds a very special place in my family's heart. My mom and step dad were married on the beach there 10 years ago! They go back almost every summer, depending on what is going on. Last summer, since Kinnley's arrival was during the summer, they didn't go far :)

Eating on the Island
When we travel to Anna Maria, we stay in a condo. Most condos have a washer and dryer and FULL kitchens. I'm talkin' pots, pans, silverware, blender, toaster, the whole nine yards. **Not every condo is the same, so be sure to ask or check!** So since we had a full kitchen, our first stop on the island is the grocery store. Lunch and snack items, plus things for a few dinners. Popcorn, chips and salsa, watermelon, lunch meats and condiments, tacos, steak night, grouper--just a few of the items we had and prepared ourselves in our condo.
On our way to the island, on the Bradenton Beach Pier, we ate at Cast and Cage. Its right at the end of the little pier and its beautiful. If you are a regular down there, you may be more familiar with Rotten Ralphs. Well, Rotten Ralphs is no more. I ordered the crab cake sandwich with creole mustard, and it was DELICIOUS!
Sign of the Mermaid. Oh boy, I wish I had nicer things to say. My step dad said that the past few times they had visited the island that this place was going down hill and that it had changed ownership a couple times. The Sign of the Mermaid is in this cute little yellow house and the inside is really just as cute as the outside. However, that is really where my compliments end. We were sat at a table all the way in what appeared to be an addition to the original house and it was HOT in there. Our waiter was less than professional. We had to ask for drinks other than water and he was not helpful when it came to answering questions about the menu. I asked a question about the Caesar salad dressing, whether it was homemade or bottled "EVERYthing here is homemade". My mom asked what the portion size difference was in the meal she was interested in, since you choose between a small and a large size. He replied that there were about 4-5 shrimp in the small portion and 6-7 shrimp in the large, so she ordered the large and my sister and I followed by ordering larges in our pasta dishes. When he sat my dish in front of me (nearly an hour and a half later) all I could think about was Chef Gordon Ramsey and what he would say about the portion size. I mean, HUGE. There was so much pasta. Endless pasta. Enough pasta to feed our entire party of five and have leftovers. My mom's dish did not have 6-7 shrimp, if I remember correctly she counted 12. Just plain ridiculous. Like I mentioned above, the wait time for dinner was out of control. Luckily, Kinnley was such a good girl the entire time. When  our ticket came, we noticed that our waiter had typed our total in wrong. After alllllllll of that, we entered out the back door which led to a ramp. We had watched an elderly man with a walker come in this way just before we left, so you can imagine my surprise when we opened the door to see this ramp. It quite obviously needs replaced. The ramp up to the back door is the only way for wheelchairs/walkers/disabled to make it in to the restaurant, the front door has stairs, so please keep this in mind if you have read my little review and still want to chance it.
Oma's Pizza. Again, just don't. We ordered it for delivery one night and we ended up throwing out all of the leftovers (which was almost everything we ordered since we didn't enjoy it). We were told 45 minutes and after waiting an hour and a half, we gave the restaurant a call. We weren't rude, we weren't even upset. Mostly we just wanted to make sure the delivery hadn't gotten lost, since we were in a condo. The lady on the phone was less than pleasant and not helpful, stating that the order wasn't at the restaurant anymore and that they were really busy.
Both Lobstahs and The Waterfront Restaurant were impressive. The Waterfront Restaurant is down by the City Pier. We ended up driving down on a separate day to go swimming there. The water was so clear, we found many beautiful shells, there were dolphins swimming around not far from us, and we found tons of sand dollars. Please pay attention and know the difference between live and dead sand dollars, don't take a live sand dollar from its home! Check all shells for anything that may be living in it! We had no complaints at either of these two restaurants. The food was great and the service matched!
Speaking of sand dollars, not far from Lobstahs, is my moms favorite little place to shop. The Sand Dollar has so many cute home decor items, some clothing, jewelry, lotions, candles...and I'm sure more! Everything is so cute and very reasonably priced.
Lastly, a couple places for those of you with a sweet tooth! Joe's Eats and Sweets for homemade ice cream. I had strawberry cheesecake (and shared some with Kinnley), so tasty. There are so many flavor options and different sundaes to try. There was a homemade brownie sundae that sounded so yummy, but unfortunately I was just not hungry enough. My advice: come here hungry! Anna Maria Island Donuts is another must. Zach traveled from the condo to the cute little donut shop by the free trolley service one morning. He said that you put in your order and they fry up and put the toppings on your order right then and there, no donuts in a display. AMAZING, FRESH donuts! My fave was the maple topped donut, but we also had oreo topped donuts, peanut butter and chocolate topped, and vanilla frosting with sprinkles. There are other toppings/flavors to choose from as well, its a must stop!

We had a rental vehicle while on vacation, but the island does have a free trolley service. We went out adventuring one day and took it from our condo, all the way to the south end of the island, and then all the way north to the City Pier. It was nice. Trolleys come to the stop every 20 minutes, so not too terrible of a wait.

Last but definitely not least, our condo. It was awesome. My mom's only complaint is that she wished we could have watched the sunset from the balcony. We could see a lot of ocean from our room's balcony, just not the sunrise/sunset. We were also right next door to the public beach, which I didn't mind, but some people may want more of a private beach. I liked being next to the public beach because there was a little restaurant that served breakfast/lunch/dinner and also a stand that looked like it served yummy margaritas and beers (we never tried them out though). The breakfast Zach and I had one morning was pretty yummy. Anyhow, we stayed at the Gulf Sands condos, our condo (201) is listed through Island Vacation Properties, LLC. It was so clean, well stocked, and we happened to meet the owner of the condo as we were arriving. He was so nice and explained some things about the condo, there was a storage room near our parking spot that had sand toys/pool toys/beach chairs and such that we could use. Plus, there were cold drinks and some snacks waiting for us in the kitchen, such a sweet touch. Overall, our stay was awesome.

Cloth Diapering while on Vacation
Since our unit had a washer and dryer, we were able to easily continue on with cloth diapering. We did choose to buy disposable wipes for use on the trip. It made traveling by plane and packing my carry on much simpler. And we did use disposables on the way home and the flight home, I didn't get around to doing diaper laundry on the last day there. Other than that, life carried on as usual :)

Odds & Ends
My step dad, sister, and mom did go para-sailing while there. They all enjoyed it! My mom needed a little talking into, but she conquered her fears! They used the YOLO Adventures company. We traveled to Clearwater (about an hour and a half drive north) to visit Winter the dolphin at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. I have been once before, but for everyone else it was their first time. If you're not familiar with Winter, maybe you'd be more familiar with the movie Dolphin Tale? About the dolphin who loses her tail and they take her in and try to make her a prosthetic tale? Anyhow, its well worth the visit. There are also turtles, otters, pelicans, sharks, and other dolphins at the aquarium. Plus, if you have watched the movie (and if you haven't, you should before you visit) you'll recognize places at the aquarium that were used as scenes in the movie. It is well worth an hour or so of your time!

We are happy to be home but we are definitely missing the beach already, can't wait to go back!