Turks and Caicos - Spring Break 2017

We are on our last day of our beach vacation in Turks & Caicos with the Kirchner family. We stayed at the Beaches resort and had a great time.

Some highlights include:

• Beautiful blue water and white sand beaches


• Big condo with 3 bedrooms that we shared with Scott, Morgan and Payton. We spent a lot of time in the unit with all of the napping babies. But we had concierge service that refilled the drinks in the fridge every day so it wasn't so bad when we needed to stay in for naps or put the kids to bed right after dinner


• Family pictures on the beach with our photographer, Rocky


• Sesame Street character breakfast - Maeve's favorite was Zoe (and Abby Cadabby and Elmo) but she didn't like Cookie Monster because he's "not her friend" and the Count was scary too so Steve shooed him away while holding a frightened Maeve. Cecilia also thought the characters were a little scary but was entertained by dancing and breakfast food. They both got a balloon when we left but Grandpa Steve let Cecilia's fly away accidentally so Maeve has been concerned about that balloon ever since!


• Maeve and Cecilia also enjoyed their first Japanese Steakhouse and Maeve thought it was so funny that they throw food in your mouth but that "it's only for Mommy, Daddy, and Jon (meaning Uncle Jon.' Overall, we really enjoyed that it was all-inclusive and we could eat and drink whatever and whenever we wanted to. Very helpful with young kids.


• On the last day, Cecilia took her first step. She wants to let go and mostly just stands there but she did take a step as she toppled over into Mom's arms. 

The trip also had some stories that were funny (and sometimes annoying...) as Cecilia is currently in the stage of only wanting Mommy so we had tons of help but if I was nearby then I had to be holding her! Mommy had so much going on sometimes that one night I forgot to put a diaper on Maeve and she peed all over herself (and it just so happened that Dad was sharing the bed with her that night so that he could get some sleep since Cecilia only slept through the night on the very first night). You can tell that I was sometimes doing things in a rush as I put some new contact solution in my eyes the first night and it burned my eye!! Guess you aren't supposed to use Clean & Clear directly on your eyes - I should have read the big red label! No long-term damage though - just had to buy solution at the resort. And I should've known not to let Maeve play with glass in the bathtub. They don't have any plastic cups and she needed something to wash her own hair so she was being careful but it fell and broke into 3 pieces so I screamed and grabbed her out but of course she screamed and cried since she thought she was being yelled at. No scratches though so that was good.

Maeve is such a great traveler. She didn't eat as much food as she normally does but she had a great time on the airplane and at the pool. She didn't like the beach that much but we finally got her in it and then she enjoyed floating on her own with her swim floaties. This is one of my favorite pictures since I love the beach and ocean so much!!!

As Cecilia is almost 1 years old, Mommy wanted to take lots of pictures of her. One morning when we were up at 5:30am we went to get coffee and pastries and take pictures on the beach. Cecilia did not like the sand on her feet....who are these children?!....but when she finally went in the water during the day she had a great time and would sit in the shallow part and smile and splash. She also enjoyed the pool. Pictures didn't come out the best since that picture excursion included crying on the beach and then pooping by the pool. I managed to get a few but it was just my luck. I'm sure Aunt Anne will get fabulous pictures when she visits in a few weeks for Cecilia's birthday.

We head out tomorrow and hopefully won't have as much of a problem with the infant in arms disaster like we did on the way here. Apparently airlines like to charge you for international travel for infants but make it impossible to have a seamless check-in process when you fly with them. It's ridiculous and we experienced the same thing on the way to Ireland. Very annoying!

Saying Goodbye to Grandma Joanne

We're so sad to have to say "Goodbye" to our last living Grandparent on March 16, 2017. We celebrated Grandma Joanne in a beautiful service of which she planned mostly before she left us. Here's a copy of the program and thanks to Grandma Jan we get to read "What a Wonderful World" each night to the girls. Maeve wondered why I sung it tonight like a princess :)

We're so grateful that our girls were able to meet their Great-Grandma and have several visits and create memories and pictures for us to cherish. Here are a few of our favorites:

We also look fondly back on the times that we shared with her together including the trip we took to Lake City a few months before we were married to see her hometown. She took this picture out of the car window that we used for one of our Wedding Centerpieces to show all of the places that we'd visited together. We learned a lot about her life during that trip and got to hear many of those stories yesterday at the funeral, during the luncheon, and afterwards at Jan and Steve's house.


We'll miss you, Grandma Joanne!

Cecilia's 1st St. Patrick's Day

Cecilia enjoyed her 1st St. Patrick's Day. She is babbling so much and won't sit still. You can tell by her picture when she wasn't putting up with my crazy photo props! Maeve had a party at school and enjoyed painting and playing outside. She let me do her hair this morning and it doesn't usually come out very good but I think this time it doesn't look too bad!

The only way I could get both girls to sit for a picture was to give them each a camera so we have one picture of them together and they are wearing authentic Irish sweaters given to them by Geraldine McHugh. We miss our time in Ireland and can't wait to go back. Happy St. Patrick's Day!! I hope the Luck of the Irish hold true for my March Madness bracket since I have them going all the way :)

11 Months Old

We have had quite a month of sickness! We are ready for the winter to be over. Cecilia has had an ear infection, pink eye, viral exanthem (rash), vomiting and strep in the last 2 weeks and gave strep to all of us in the family. If she makes it to school tomorrow (knock on wood...) then this will be one of the first weeks since the beginning of the year that she'll be there all 5 days! She is a happy girl now. She is waving and walking behind the walker and pulling up on everything. Maeve is also very excited to see her sister do new things. We'd like a healthy 6 weeks because Mom has 3 works trips, a big presentation at work, and we have a family vacation in 3 weeks, and Dad has to manage a lot of the household work!

Movie of Cecilia Walking: