turtles and basketball (weekend)

Posted on February 24, 2016 by tara

Grandma Debbie came up for a visit this weekend! Kaya was so excited and just couldn’t wait for her to arrive. Grandma brought lots of hugs and surprises for everyone, including Valentine’s candy, Beanie Baby turtles for the girls, and a steamer stock pot for me. Because of spoiling us, she always has much fewer things to pack up when she leaves. We’re just helping lighten her load, right?
We spent a lot of time just relaxing and playing at home. Kaya loved pretending to tuck us in for a nap on the couch.

After Michael got off work on Friday night, we all went to look at another house. It was beautiful and in a great neighborhood… but there was a line of clients to get in and see it! Crazy! We waited in the car for quite a while before it was our turn.

We knew it would sell quickly, and I wasn’t ready to jump into anything yet, so we didn’t make an offer. It was sold by the next morning, after being on the market for only one day!

After seeing the house, we took my mom out to our favorite Chinese place for her first time ever. Kaya hid behind Michael for this picture and Kaelyn was too busy with her cup to turn around! Haha.

On Saturday morning, Michael headed off to a stake basketball tournament. It lasted about 4 hours, and his team made it to the championship! He was sore for days afterward, and sadly, there are no pictures from this event.

Since he was gone, I took Kaya to her gymnastics class. She is getting so comfortable with most of the activities and even told me that she loves her teachers!

Later, we decided to decorate some sugar cookies with Grandma. Michael decorated two cookies. And he ate two cookies. And that was all for him! “Cookie decorating” is actually code for “cookie eating”. Kaya got a little excited about covering her entire cookie with candy and sprinkles. She made this bunny on the top right, and she was worried because she “missed a spot”. Hahaha. I got a little snowman-happy.

We also enjoyed time with Karl and Kaitlyn, although I somehow didn’t get any pictures of their visit. We had church on Sunday, and finally took naps, after not having our regular nap routine for a few days. We were wiped out! Grandma left on Monday morning, and now, we are looking forward to our other set of grandparents visiting next weekend!

christmas cookie delivery 2015

Posted on December 31, 2015 by tara

Delivering Christmas goodies is quite possibly my very favorite holiday tradition. There is just nothing like gifting a homemade treat to your friends and neighbors! It takes me about two full days of baking, and it’s so worth it to see the joy on people’s faces.

I used a lot of the same recipes this year (why change something that’s already excellent?) and tried out a couple of new ones too. Here’s what we handed out:gingerbread cookies
Michigan fudge
candy cane cookies (mine ended up looking more like a mess instead of candy canes…)
no-peanut-butter kiss cookies
and buttery spritz cookies!

We delivered 15 plates again this year, same as last year.

However, this was the first year ever that it was almost too warm to wear our traditional festive hats! We were out there delivering cookies in short-sleeved t-shirts and no winter coats. We still wore our hats, although Kaya wanted to trade her reindeer for Daddy’s Santa one.

I already miss having a reason (excuse) to bake lots of cookies! Kaya is excited to decorate some again when Valentine’s Day rolls around. 🙂

christmas cookies 2015

Posted on December 22, 2015 by tara

As always, we made our favorite gingerbread cookies to give to friends and neighbors. This was Kaelyn’s first year being able to help! We started rolling and cutting cookies while Kaya was at preschool, so it was a special mommy-daughter time with just my littlest.

And really… with that smile and a smudge of flour on her cheek, she couldn’t be any cuter. She mostly just tried to scoop the dough out of the bowl and eat it, and when she wasn’t doing that, she was wearing the cookie cutters on her arm like bracelets.

When we picked Kaya up, she was super excited to help out, too.
I baked them all (and ended up with a total of 55 cookies!), and then Karl and Kaitlyn came over to help decorate them later that afternoon. I really like Karl’s “santa” made out of a stocking. We did pretty good work. (I also made a “bathing suit girl” on the top left that I found too funny… hey, gingerbread people go swimming too, right?) The kids napped through the first part of our activity, but Kaya was eager to jump into it as soon as we returned from visiting Santa. Kaya has been a sprinkler-extraordinaire this year. She’s always so willing to help me in the kitchen. I’m excited to see what she creates as she gets older!

3 more days!

halloween cookie-decorating party

Posted on October 29, 2015 by tara

On Tuesday morning, we hosted a mini (very mini) Halloween party for the kids. We invited both old and new friends, and kept it super simple. We basically just decorated some sugar cookies and then let the kids all play.

Kaya was truly the happiest little girl as she sat there and decorated cookie after cookie. I think she made more cookies than anyone else did (and actually only ate one… the very first one she made, of course)! I helped her out with the frosting, and she did an excellent job of loading them up with as many m&ms, Resse’s Pieces, marshmallows, chocolate chips, and sprinkles as possible. Would you like some cookie to go with your toppings? (this is my favorite sugar cookie recipe, by the way 😉 )

We played some Halloween music, and Mia and Kaya started dancing. I’ve said it over and over again, but I just love that my baby has a best friend. I put together some super simple goody bags for the older girls- pumpkin bubbles, glowsticks, a kaleidoscope, and some homemade pumpkin play dough. Kaya was so excited to hand them out and even more excited to open hers up. Kaelyn tried her first sugar cookie at lunchtime, after the party. She had woken up around 5:30 am that day, and so sadly, she was cranky and cried for the majority of the cookie-decorating activity.We had a great time with friends, and this little party was a great way to kick off our Halloween festivities! 🙂

cookies with grandma

Posted on March 17, 2015 by tara

My mom came up to visit us this past weekend! She originally wanted to come see us just after my birthday, but then a massive snowstorm squashed that plan. Kaya was more excited than ever for “gwam-ma” to arrive!For every precious pose, there are at least 3 more goofy ones behind the scenes.
My mom is always up for baking something, so I thought it’d be fun to make sugar cookies for Kaya could decorate with her! I originally wanted to go crazy with shamrocks and green frosting for St. Patrick’s Day… but then I realized that I don’t have a shamrock cookie cutter! And this is coming from the girl who has well over 100 different cookie cutter shapes to choose from… go figure! We made springtime cookies instead. 🙂 _MG_6771 As usual, we also made a pretty big mess……and Michael made a “doggy doo” cookie. I have no idea why, but he insisted I take a picture, so here it is.My mom also brought me some belated birthday presents- earrings and new converses! YAY! My littlest was in such a good mood all weekend long. This is her insanely-happy smiley face before church on Sunday! As usual, there isn’t much napping that goes on when we have visitors (and there’s never any napping on Sundays with afternoon church now), so by Sunday night, everyone was exhausted. My little bug just couldn’t stay awake!My mom left yesterday morning, and Kaya has already been asking for her to come back. Soon, we hope! 🙂

mini cookie-decorating party

Posted on February 13, 2015 by tara

Valentine’s Day is a lot of my favorite things all rolled into one: sweets, treats, and PINK everywhere! So naturally, we had to put together a little play date for our friends. I made some sugar cookies and stocked up on all sorts of sprinkles and toppings! Kaya got really into decorating this time and didn’t even want to stop to go play. She was enthusiastic about the chocolate chips… … very enthusiastic. Everyone looked so cute in their little Valentine’s outfits! I just can’t get over how sweet Kaya and Mia are together. They really are such great buddies! Brittany took this one of Kaelyn and Caroline. Cuties! (until they grabbed each other’s faces…)The cookies turned out delicious… and adorable! I love doing things like this with my big girl.
And I just have to include a picture of this spunky monkey in one of her many festive outfits. You can’t go wrong with pink, puppies and hearts!
Happy Valentine’s Day!

christmas 2014

Posted on December 31, 2014 by tara

This is a super photo-heavy post, but there were just so many great moments from our Christmas day that I couldn’t leave out! I loved everything about our holiday at home together as a little family of FOUR, so every one of these photos is a favorite for me.

Michael and I stayed up late on Christmas Eve. I was so excited for morning because I knew Kaya’s reaction to her cozy coupe car would be priceless. We basically stayed awake until we couldn’t anymore (around 2 am). I kept wishing it was time to wake up!
We haven’t really told Kaya too much about Santa… but as soon as she saw the tree, she kept saying “a Santa!”

Kaya grabbed her gifts and was ready to start unwrapping right away. (Also, her expressions just crack me up sometimes!) She started reading this book to Baba (that’s Kaelyn’s main nickname if you don’t know… given to her by Kaya, of course)!Just keep watching Kaelyn in these next few photos… I was cracking up over her falling-backward/trying-to-eat-wrapping-paper antics.“My clock!”Kaya loves this little puppy that walks and does flips! He actually lands most of his jumps, so I’m pretty impressed. We hid the cozy coupe under a blanket, and she was pretty unsure of uncovering it. She kept saying, “a Santa!”, so we almost think that she expected a living, breathing Santa Claus to be hiding under there. She doesn’t love seeing Santa, so that would explain her uncertainty! She got in and started turning the steering wheel right away! And this is why I love Christmas morning.She decided she had to wear her coat to drive, obviously, since she always wears it in the real car!Two of the gifts I had for Michael weren’t here by Christmas morning, but he was excited for a new Hokie sweatshirt and some homemade chocolate peanut butter fudge under the tree! _MG_5924 My favorite gift this year was delivered 6 months ago 🙂 But Michael did surprise me with a TomTom Runner (GPS watch) that I am absolutely loving so far, and a new computer monitor… I’m one spoiled girl! _MG_5890 I stacked some mini donuts into snowman and reindeer shapes for a fun, festive breakfast!
I think she was counting them all here… (and this was the plate for all of us, not just her, haha!) I cooked some pot roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, broccoli, and homemade rolls for our Christmas dinner. My gingerbread obsession continued on, so I whipped up another half batch of cookies for us to enjoy (especially since we gave away almost all of the batch I made before)! I got crazy and dipped these in chocolate candy coating. Mmm.Our friends, Katherine, Matt, Mia, and brand-new Baby Luke came over to enjoy dinner with us! We had a great time (Kaya and Mia especially)!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day! I’m always sad to see it end… let the countdown begin to next year!

christmas cookie delivery 2014

Posted on December 23, 2014 by tara

I love cookies. If eating cookie dough counted as a sport (a girl can dream, can’t she?), I’m pretty sure I’d be an Olympic champion.

Imagine, then, how excited I am each Christmas to make gingerbread cookies with my family! Here are a few of my 2014 favorites: snowmen, colorful candy canes, an American star, a hippie girl (any excuse to put Twizzlers on a cookie, am I right?), and Lelia’s most adorable Mrs. Claus (in green). I think they just get cuter every year!

I’m already sad to think that Jeff and Lelia won’t be here next year to decorate with us. Jeff is off to med school!

I thought Kaya might actually decorate some… but she was really into eating her lollipop instead.

As always, we made up plates of goodies to deliver to friends and neighbors. I just love that we can combine my childhood tradition of decorating cookies with Michael’s childhood tradition of delivering them.I felt like we really had a great assortment of sweets this year! We made:

gingerbread cookies
Michigan fudge
the best chocolate-chip cookies ever
and some buttery spritz cookies!

Kaya saw me scooping out the chocolate-chip cookie dough and was SO very excited to help!

Making cookies takes serious concentration. Obviously.

We made up 15 plates this year, which sure felt like the most we’ve ever done, but I didn’t keep count the last couple years, so I don’t actually know. We gave away all but one (our neighbors left town sooner than we realized so they missed out on these)!

Kaelyn was quite patient through this whole process. I love having a little buddy who can just sit and watch, but I know she’ll be into making a big mess with the rest of us next year!Just 2 more days!

friday favorites: christmas edition

Posted on December 19, 2014 by tara

These are a few of my favorite [Christmas-y] things…

… sitting by the Christmas tree at night (and of course, taking a bokeh picture. #photographynerdalert)!
… festive sprinkles on cupcakes for the church Christmas party! … how this little girl watched and waited all day long while I made the cupcakes. She was so happy when she finally got her treat at the party!… my two peas in a pod, enjoying some “Feliz Navidad”-themed dinner.
… the giant Christmas tree at the mall! … decorating gingerbread cookies! I am so completely obsessed with gingerbread this year and my sweet tooth has been making that extremely obvious. … gingerbread playdough! Seriously. It smells heavenly and was so much fun to play with! … two cute baby friends in matching polkadot reindeer pajamas!6 more days!

currently…

Posted on November 25, 2014 by tara

Feeling… physically so much better this week than last! I had either a stomach bug or food poisoning that brought on the worst abdominal pain I’ve ever experienced in my lifetime. I seriously wondered if one of my organs was about to explode… but all I could worry about was how I was going to feed my baby when I could hardly sit down! We ended up going to the urgent care office covered by our insurance to get checked out. Thankfully, it was nothing serious!

Kaya got to spend the morning with her BFF Mia while we were there! They had a pajama party and Katherine sent me all sorts of adorable pictures and videos of them together. 🙂

Getting ready… to visit with family for Thanksgiving in just two days!!! I seriously don’t even know how the holiday season is already upon us. I’m definitely looking forward to my mom’s home-cooked turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Mmmm.

Feeling (the good kind of) busy… with all the amazing family photoshoots I’ve done in the past month! I’ve had about one per week and it’s just the right amount of work to balance with family time. Fall is just so beautiful, and I’m glad I’m able to capture these memories for so many of my dear friends!

Dreaming… about Christmas morning! I know there’s still an entire month left to wait, and I don’t want to wish away all the festive family time we’re sure to enjoy between now and then… but Kaya’s “big” gift has been ordered and I just keep imagining her excitement!

Planning… my Christmas cookie delivery for this year! And by planning, I really mean that I’ve pinned about a million adorably delicious ideas on Pinterest and haven’t made any decisions yet. It’s one of my favorite traditions for sure!

Wishing… you a Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂

Michael and Tara

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