Family – Page 4

CONGRATULATIONS CONNOR!! | FEEDING PROGRAM GRADUATION

April 4, 2016 & Leave a Comment

Hi there! Happy Monday!

I hope that you had a fantastic weekend! Thank you for taking time out of your crazy Monday to read my little blog : )

On March 25th our middle son, Connor, graduated from his Intensive Feeding Program. Connor has major eating delays, and this program helped him tremendously. It was very hard. Connor, his little brother Logan, and I stayed 200 miles away from home every week and Connor and I attended clinic from 8a.m-4p.m Monday-Friday. It was emotional. It was exhausting. And it was worth it. If you’re interested in seeing what exactly he eats I discuss it in this daily vlog video, but today I just want to share a couple of pictures of Connor’s big graduation celebration! Miss Kaitlyn, if you’re reading this Connor misses you and this is your moment ; )

Connor,

We are so proud of you! You are a totally different kid than when you started the clinic in the beginning of February! We have a long journey ahead, but we are so thrilled with your hard work and progress! You did such a fantastic job and adapted fabulously! You are a champ! Always!

We love you so!

Mommy (and Daddy, Hailey, and Lo Lo!)

Note: Food pictured was for the parents and staff ; ) The kiddos at the feeding clinic can’t eat these donuts!

Thank you again for reading! Please subscribe to help support our journey! Thank you! xo

OUR EASTER 2016 IN PICTURES!

March 28, 2016 & Leave a Comment

Hi there! Happy Monday!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful weekend and a wonderful Easter if you celebrate! We had a wonderful day as a family. Today I want to keep it simple and share some pictures of the kids : ) You can watch the kids eyes light up with Easter magic in our Easter vlog! And watch our What’s in our Easter Baskets for 2016 here!

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Thank you, as always, for reading! I appreciate each of you!! Don’t forget to subscribe!! : )

EASTER BAKING + EASTER BASKETS! | WHAT ARE YOUR EASTER TRADITIONS?

March 23, 2016 & Leave a Comment

Hi there! Happy Wednesday!

Because of everything going on with our middle kiddo, Connor, Easter has snuck up on me a little bit this year. I had a lot of fun last week at Target with my mom (thanks Mama) and browsing Amazon.com (thanks for picking up the package Hubs!) gathering things for Hailey, Connor, and Logan for their Easter baskets. I had wanted to film a video for my LeahTackles YouTube channel, or at least do a blog post sharing what I got each kid and how I themed their baskets this year, but due to all the traveling lately I didn’t have the stuff in time. If you would still be interested in seeing a video or blog post on what they got, or think I should film one to post next year, let me know in the comments!

Anyways, long ramble over, today I want to share some past Easter related posts and list a few ideas I have for last minute basket ideas! And, I want to know: What are YOUR Easter traditions? If you know me, I am BIG into family traditions, but we don’t have as many for Easter as we do for Christmas. We enjoy doing the fun Easter things like the Easter Bunny, decorating and hunting for eggs, baking, and sharing with our children part of what Easter means to us as well.

PIC FOR CUTENESS:

PAST EASTER VIDEOS:

PAST EASTER POSTS:

Easter Basket Cupcakes-Hopping Into Spring Series Part 1

Simple 3 Ingredient Easter Candy-Hopping Into Spring Series Part 2

DIY Mickey and Minnie Easter Baskets!!

LAST MINUTE EASTER BASKET IDEAS:

THEMES:

Character

A Day At the Beach

Sports

Comics

Things That Go (cars, planes, trains)

Glamour Girl (makeup or Bath & Body Works minis for a tween or teen or me ;D )

Music (could be instrument toys for little kids or headphones for older kids)

Gardening

Crafting/Art

ANYTHING! Have fun with it! It’s so fun to make any Easter basket, but I love doing a theme.

OUR EASTER BASKET THEMES FOR 2016:

Hailey’s (4 years old almost 5) basket is “Let’s Make Something” with craft supplies, baking supplies, and gardening supplies being the main items!

Connor’s (3 years old) basket is “Things That Go” with cars and trains taking up most of his basket.

Logan’s (1 year old) basket is “Toddler Exploration” with new board books, bath toys, and other fun age-approriate fun.

PLACES TO SHOP FOR EASTER STUFF:

Target Dollar Spot (need I say more?!)

Dollar Tree

Don’t forget to tell me about your favorite family traditions! I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend! We might be spending ours with snow…which we didn’t have at Christmas! That’s crazy midwest weather for you : ) Wish me luck as we wrap up Connor’s clinic and attempt the Easter Bunny with 3 under 5!!

MAKING A HOTEL STAY EASY (EVEN WITH YOUNG KIDS) | 5 THINGS TO PACK! + PICTURES OF OUR ADVENTURES!

March 16, 2016 & Leave a Comment

Hi there! Happy Wednesday!

We have traveled about once a month with kids for years, but with the exception of our trip to Walt Disney World and a few longer weekends away, we usually only were gone for one night. Now that I have been away from home every week for the past 6 weeks, I feel like I have some really good tips for making hotel life easier. If you’re wondering why I have been away from home, you can check out our daily vlogs : )

1. PACK OUTFITS NOT CLOTHES

It saves me so much time to have my clothes and my kids clothes packed by outfit (shirt, pants, undies, socks) and I know what I have packed matches and isn’t excessive. I of course pack extras, but I pack an outfit for each day plus 1-2 extras because in most situations you could run to a store or do laundry if you ever needed more clothing than packed.

2. PACK A SOUND MACHINE

I absolutely LOVE our Dex Baby Sound Machine and we always pack it for even the shortest trips. Actually, we love it so much we own two of them. This helps to make the sleep environment as much like home as possible. It also helps if noises are different than home or the walls are thin.

3. BUY A SMALL PLASTIC DRYING RACK

I had never thought to purchase a small plastic dish drying rack until we started this long term stay, but it is so curtail! I found a small rack at Target for about $5 and it makes it easy to wash out sip cups, bottles, travel coffee mugs, and whatever else you might need to rinse out without overcrowding the sink area. Is it ideal? No, but it gets the job done.

4. GET HAMPERS FROM THE DOLLAR TREE

In my Walt Disney World Dollar Tree/Hobby Lobby Haul video I shared that I bought pop-up hampers to sort laundry when traveling. I will NEVER go on a trip again without doing this! I bought a couple pop-up hampers and a mesh laundry bag this time and it is so nice to not have to try to separate your dirty and clean clothing in the suitcase.

5. BUY A HANGING TOILETRY HOLDER

I have had one of these since my college spring break days, and it is the best! It holds all of my toiletry items (not counting my makeup, because let’s not get carried away!), and the toiletry items for the rest of my family perfectly. It is so nice to not have the bathroom counter cluttered with products, and you can see the items while it’s hanging so it makes things simple. I don’t like living out of a suitcase, I prefer to unpack somewhat, so having the toiletries like this helps a lot.

SOME PICTURES FROM OUR LATEST ADVENTURE:

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Have a wonderful rest of your week and weekend! Please subscribe!! xx

BLOGIVERSARY & MY FORGOTTEN BIRTHDAY (STORY TIME & BIRTHDAY GIFT)

March 14, 2016 & 2 Comments

Hi there! Happy Monday!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! On Saturday I turned 29(!!) and LeahTackles.com turned 2!!! I am so grateful to each and every reader out there!! I still get excited whenever I gain a new subscriber or whenever I get a new comment. If you are a KwapisFamilyTackles follower then you know that our life has been turned upside down the past few months, and because of that Stephan, my sweet hubs, completely forgot my birthday! I am talking Sixteen Candles style forgot my birthday until about 11a.m on Saturday. I could have “put him in the dog house” but he felt bad enough. I will admit it didn’t feel great, and when our daughter, Hailey, was crying because she didn’t get to put together a gift or bake me a cake or get balloons…THAT was super sad, but I know that it was an honest mistake. I did receive a LOT of birthday love on social media from sweet friends, family, and followers which always is so uplifting : )

*Housekeeping Note: The Chapstick Giveaway winner has been contacted! Thank you all for participating! I can’t wait for another giveaway soon : ) Remember, the more readers/followers I have, the more likely companies are to offer giveaway opportunities! : )

BIRTHDAY VLOG:

WHAT I GOT FOR MY BIRTHDAY:

FIRST EVER BLOG POST:

Hello World! First Post and Shower Favorites-drugstore edition

Thank you for reading! I hope you have a fantastic week! And please subscribe : ) It’s fun and free!! xx

OUR ADVENTURE | PERSONAL POST

February 8, 2016 & Leave a Comment

Hi there! Happy Monday!

I hope that you all had an amazing weekend! And if you watched Super Bowl 50 I hope you enjoyed the game, or at least the yummy snacks and the commercials. I didn’t watch the game because I am currently “on an adventure” as I’ve been calling it while my middle kiddo, Connor, attends a special clinic away from our home. I like to throw in a few personal posts, or picture posts once in awhile, but the main focus of LeahTackles.com is still beauty and lifestyle (the lifestyle includes my little loves!). However, if you’d like to follow along you can subscribe to Our Daily Vlog Channel: KwapisFamilyTackles to watch my husband, Stephan, my oldest, Hailey, Connor, and our baby (who is no longer a baby but will always be the baby), Logan, and myself living out our adventure each day.

Connor Wanting a Monday Morning Caffeine Jolt:

Thank you for reading!! xo

PEACHES & PETALS SUBSCRIPTION BOX REVIEW! GET 50% OFF!

January 27, 2016 & Leave a Comment

Hi there! Happy Wednesday!

I hope that all of you are having a fabulous and productive week! My family has a lot going on currently, and if you watch our daily vlogs you’ll know a little about what I’m talking about, but I wanted to tell my readers that I will be continuing to upload every Monday and Wednesday as of now! In December I reviewed the Peaches & Petals box for the first time I was very impressed! The wonderful gals at Peaches & Petals asked if I would like to receive another box for consideration & review and I happily accepted. For the January box I decided to film an unboxing so that you could get my real first impressions and to make it a little bit more fun : ) I filmed this video a week ago and now have some thoughts on the items that I’ve been trying from the box, so I’ll also briefly share those below.

Peaches & Petals was kind enough to offer my followers 50% off their first box with the code LEAHPEACH so be sure to use that! This box is $19.99 a month, and I think that’s a very good deal if you’ll use these types of lifestyle items! I love this box because just like my beloved PopSugar Must Have Boxes, they can easily be made into gifts or passed along…not that I do that often because usually I want them myself ; )

PEACHES & PETALS

Fruit Infuser Water Bottle

I already LOVE this and think it’s amazing quality! I love that this is a glass bottle, because the infuser bottle I already have is plastic and now I have the option to use either depending on where I want to use it. I can’t wait to try more fruit waters with this.

Selfie Stick

I have had a blog for almost two years, and I have been on YouTube for almost one year, but I didn’t own a selfie stick until now! I had a little phone attachment, but never a selfie stick! I haven’t used this yet, but can’t wait to try it out! It is HARD to capture a family of five without one!

Adventure Jewelry

Okay, I thought this was adorable when I opened it, but I can’t get it to fit my wrist very well and the quality doesn’t seem as nice as the jewelry from last months box, however I will wear it when I stack my bracelets.

Healthy Cooking Cookbook

I love reading cookbooks and cooking magazines, so I was really happy to see this! I haven’t tried any of the recipes, but there are definitely a lot I would love to try out!

Inspirational Decal

How cute is this?! I gifted this to one of my best friends! Yay for Happy Mail!

What is your favorite subscription box? Do you have any you would like to see me review? Please let me know in the comments! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

MY EXPERIENCE WITH BREAST MILK JEWELRY! HOLLYDAY DESIGNS REVIEW & PROMO CODE!

January 20, 2016 & 4 Comments

Hi there! Happy Wednesday!

If you would have told me six years ago that I would own a piece of jewelry made out of my breast milk, and not just that I would own breast milk jewelry, but that I would would find peace and closure with it, and treasure it? I would have told you there was no way! But here I am today thrilled to be sharing my start to finish experience ordering breast milk jewelry.

When I found out I was pregnant in 2010 I did what I do for everything: research! I knew that I wanted to breastfeed, and that was on my “Must Do To Be The *Perfect* Mom” list. Now, breastfeeding is supposed to be the most natural thing ever, right? So I didn’t do any prep to breastfeed while I was busy researching and prepping for my first born. Fast forward to delivery day and the first week of Hailey’s life and I wished that I had! It took me SO LONG to be able to breastfeed Hailey well, and we both struggled with her latch, my nerves, but finally after ordering books, gadgets, and anything breastfeeding related I could off of Amazon we got the hang of it it. I went on to breastfeed Hailey for over 14 months and she had breastmilk for 18 months. Connor was unable to breastfeed due to medical reasons, but I did pump some breastmik for him. With my third, Logan, I was lucky because he latched perfectly immediately! My breastfeeding issues ended up coming later with him, so I fought to breastfeed him and turned to pumping most of his milk eventually. Logan stopped breastfeeding at around 11 months but thankfully I had pumped enough for him to have breast milk until his first birthday. Logan drank every single ounce I pumped except for about 1 tablespoons that I shipped to Holly Day Designs to have a charm made for my Pandora bracelet. My heart hurt so much when Logan wouldn’t nurse anymore, and any time I offered and he wouldn’t nurse I felt rejected and like our special bond had ended too soon. I was not able to let go of the sadness of my last little love ending his nursing journey until I ordered my breast milk jewelry and then as silly as it may sound a wave of peace washed over me and I felt the closure I had so needed.

*Note: I was provided my breast milk charm from Holly Day Designs in exchange for my honest review and consideration. I never accept payment in exchange for a positive review. I have a promo code below, but do not earn money if you order! The promo code is to pass on this wonderful treasure to my readers!!

What IS Breast Milk Jewelry?

It is a piece of jewelry of your choice (rings, necklaces, charms, bracelets, etc) where she will plasticize your milk and then encase it in a clear resin. There are TONS of choices! Check out the Holly Day Design Website or the Holly Day Design Facebook Page!

What is the process like?

Once you order you will get her shipping address on both the confirmation screen and via email! She has a great F.A.Q page, but I promise it isn’t scary! I wondered how in the world I would send milk, but it was as simple as sending my milk (fresh or thawed is fine but don’t send more than 1 ounce) that I double bagged in my breast milk storage bags and put inside a piece of thick cardstock in a bubble envelope! She has an awesome system where you can log in to your account and check the status to know when she has received your milk and when she has shipped your jewelry among other messages that I loved! My breast milk charm came a lot faster than I imagined, and I am absolutely in love with it! be sure to check her website for her current turnaround times.

What I ordered:

I picked out the European Bracelet Breast Milk Pearl in Solid

I knew that I wanted a subtle piece that I could easily wear. I love that this is something where nobody would know that it’s breast milk without me telling them (well all of you will know! haha!). I picked the solid option, but she also offers a beautiful swirled option for this pearl as well.

Get Your Own:

I have a unique coupon code just for my LeahTackles readers!! If you would like to order your own breast milk jewelry be sure to do so by February 15th using the code below to get 15% off your order of $50 or more!

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I hope that you enjoyed this! If you know a breastfeeding mama, please consider passing this blog post along! I couldn’t be happier with my decision to order, and know it will be something I treasure for years to come. My breastfeeding journey is over, and all of my milk is gone, but now thanks to Holly Day Designs I have a little keepsake to remember the struggles, the work, the labor of love, the pride I felt sustaining life with my body, and all of the special moments with my babies that I experienced nursing them.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY LOGAN SULLIVAN!

January 11, 2016 & Leave a Comment

Hi there! Happy Monday!

Today my youngest, my baby, is one! I cannot believe that our youngest is already a whole year old! I am so grateful that we started daily vlogging so that we have so much footage of the second half of his first year! And let’s be real, he was well documented his entire first year : )

Logan,

Happy Birthday LoLo! You amaze & entertain us every day! We are so grateful that we had a change of heart, and that our forever plan of two kids changed to three. You are determined, sweet, serious, and tough! And then out of nowhere you’ll do something that cracks us up. We cannot wait to keep watching you grow, and we know you’ll do amazing things! But don’t grow up *too* fast, okay? <3

We love you so,

Mommy (and Daddy, Hailey, and Connor)

*Note: Picture credit to Brooke Ashley Snow Photography!

Thank you for reading!! Have a beautiful week! And if you have snow like we do, STAY SAFE!! xx

P.S Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and help me stay accountable!! I promised to up my Instagram game this year!

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS ACCOUNTABILITY! TIPS + MY OWN GOALS!

January 6, 2016 & 3 Comments

Hi there! Happy Wednesday!

My scheduled post decided to somehow unschedule itself, so if Monday’s post got to your email late I apologize! I have yet to miss a blog post in almost two years, but now I’ve officially had a late one…for those of you who know me know admitting this makes me *cringe*. But hey, it’s 2016, and one of my goals that you’ll read about below is patience, so that should include with myself? RIGHT?! For the past 5+ years I have written out my New Year’s resolutions and they have been lofty, but I haven’t stuck to them like I would like. So, this year I decided to share my three New Year’s resolutions, or as I’ve decided I’m going to call them “goals”, with you to hold myself accountable. If you’d like to leave yours in the comments or send them to me via social media, please feel free to do so!

Leah’s New Year’s Goals 2016:

*Image from XNSpy.com

1. Instagram More Regularly

This may seem like a silly goal to a lot of you, but as someone who has a blog and YouTube channels, I want to be better about sharing on Instagram because I know that is a hugely popular social media forum. I love Instagram, but I want my feed to reflect myself, my blog, my message, and have a theme.

2. Blog and YouTube Improvements/Learning/Love/Growth

I want to continue to create reliable, consistent, and quality work for all of you on both this blog, as well as my YouTube channel, and my family Daily Vlog channel.

3. Have More Patience

I want to have more patience with my children, my husband, and myself. And just patience in general.

If you’d like me to check in or follow up with my progress, I would be more than happy to do so! This post is for me to make myself stay accountable, and for you to see some raw honest real-life resolution/goal setting. If I can do it, you totally can do it!! I hope your 2016 is THE BEST year yet!

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