five on friday (10/09)

Happy Friday! Our week felt busy and flew by. Here are my favorite little moments:

ONE. Every morning when I get her out of her crib, she always has the biggest grin, and sleepy, happy eyes. Β I love lifting her up into a big hug and planting a bunch of smooches on those soft baby cheeks of hers._MG_9465_MG_9467

TWO. Michael’s parents were here at the beginning of the week, and took us out to Cracker Barrel one night! I had my fill of my favorite mac and cheese, and Kaya actually ate a TON of food. Win win. She also loved playing the littleΒ peg puzzle game.

THREE. If you go to Cracker Barrel, you are required to goof around in their store before and/or after the meal. Kaya had fun trying on a Halloween witch’s hat! (photocredit to my Dad-in-law, obviously, because I was too busy photobombing this with my legs…) πŸ™‚

FOUR. Someone figured out how to ride the rocking horse on her own (although she still needs help getting on and off), and she’s in love. One more horse girl for the family! πŸ˜‰_MG_9471 FIVE. Because guinea pigs and burlap and fall flowers all together are pretty much an explosion of cute._MG_9480

Happy weekend!

Linking up here today!

five on friday (09/11)

Happy Friday! πŸ™‚ Here we go…

ONE. Big, big, big news- my baby is walking!!! She took her first steps on Wednesday, and I’m so proud. She uses something to support herself (usually the toy shopping cart), but hey, she’s moving, and I think she isn’t far from doing it all on her own._MG_9204TWO. Of course, I can’t tell you she’s walking without showing you a video, too. She’s surprisingly quick!

A video posted by Tara (@tarairwin) on

THREE. Our new favorite spot to hang out lately is in the den with the guinea pigs! Both girls can sit in there for long periods of time (long by toddler standards, anyway), just watching them. Kaya loves to read them books and is even sure to show them the pictures._MG_9226Kaya’s got a heart like her mama, no doubt about it. Animals are so special to her.collage09112015_1

FOUR. We have one more week until Kaya’s birthday! It’s been so much fun to see her get so excited about it this year. She talks about it every day and just can’t wait for family to come celebrated with us. We picked up some party supplies this morning… can you tell what the theme is? πŸ™‚

FIVE. This little girl was totally a no-nap ninja yesterday… but she’s still so cute, even when she’s sad and cries big crocodile tears. Just look at that lip! At least I got cuddles. πŸ™‚Happy Friday!

Linking up here today!

five on friday (09/04)

Happy Labor Day weekend! We are soaking up the last of these summer days πŸ™‚ Here’s our top five from this week:

ONE. Kaya is suddenly obsessed with rainbows, so much so that she keeps telling me she wants a rainbow birthday cake… with a cat on top. Of course. She became a crazy cat lady at the record age of 2.

We’ve been playing with sidewalk chalk a lot lately, so this week, we made a rainbow together. She was over the moon. I love my happy girl.
TWO. We also tried out the big kid playground this week… and Kaya can climb this shaky bridge with no problem now. She’s been asking to go back nearly every day since. I still can’t believe my little baby has grown into such a big girl so fast.
THREE. Speaking of babies growing up, take a look at this little girl sporting her tiny ponytail! It totally makes her look so much older, and all I can think of when I see this photo is a line from my favorite Sara Evans song: “our little ponytail girl, grown up to be a woman, and she’s gone in the blink of an eye”. A couple more blinks of the eye and she really will be all grown up.
_MG_9159FOUR. These sisters love doing almost everything together, and this week, Kaya asked to hold Baba as they went down the slide. I hope she’s always so willing to help her baby sister and that they always love doing things together.
FIVE. Michael isn’t the seminary teacher anymore (he was released just before the start of the school year), but I was asked by the new teacher to make them some surprise cinnamon rolls for breakfast this week. It’s my mom-in-law’s recipe, and it must have left a lasting impression the last time I made them, because all the students were so excited to have them again. I’m so glad I got to do something for these kids who wake up at the crack of dawn every day to attend seminary.
And for all the guinea pig lovers… happy “wheek-end” from Freyja πŸ™‚_MG_9173

Linking up here today!

five on friday (08/28)

Happy Friday! πŸ™‚

ONE. Monday morning had a slow start! After all our traveling last week, we’ve been a little extra tired. Kaya likes to snuggle up to me while I’m nursing the baby, and lately, she’s made herself even more comfortable by putting her pillow over my legs. I know she might not always want to cuddle her mom, so I’m soaking this up while it lasts.TWO. Our friend Katie surprised us with this gorgeous orchid! It’s the most vivid blue flower I’ve ever seen, and I love how it brightens up the room! It’s supposed to be pretty foolproof as far as care goes, so here’s to a (hopefully) long-lasting relationship with this beauty._MG_9104 THREE. So this must be the reason I had two kids…_MG_9117 …even if the end result is a giant mess! πŸ™‚_MG_9122FOUR. These little baby piggies are growing so fast already! They had their first baths this week and look better than brand new. πŸ™‚

Claire is still a little shy… πŸ™‚_MG_9133FIVE. We kicked off our Friday with sidewalk chalk! Kaya loves creating and even tried to make a rainbow. Kaelyn just loved tasting the chalk.. haha. Playing outside with my girls is definitely one of my favorite things.

Happy weekend! What are your plans?

Linking up here!

freyja and claire

We’re back from (almost) a week of traveling and visiting our families! We left town with four family members in our car…

…and came back with six! We added two furry little guinea pig babies to our family! Meet Freyja and Claire!
They are about 6-8 weeks old and most likely sisters. They definitely enjoy each other’s company and have been caught snuggling many times already. If we hold Claire by herself, she’ll usually start “wheeking” (that’s guinea pig language) for Freyja until she knows where she is.

Claire seems to be slightly more dominant thus far. Both are very outgoing, but Freyja is a bit more social. She’s comfortable enough with people to nearly doze off while being held.Kaya is so happy to have pets again (after a hiatus of two months), and has been so loving and gentle toward them. She loves helping me feed them and asks to see and hold them all the time._MG_9062 Michael finished building their cage last night, so they’ve been adjusting to that and have enjoyed jumping around in it. They seem so tiny next to the food bowls!_MG_9097

five on friday: driving, swimming, dating

Another week has come and gone! I will never cease to be amazed at how fast time goes once you become a mom.

ONE. My babies have actually started playing together. Everyone told me about how magical it would be… and they were right, it’s true! Kaya has been giving Kaelyn nearly-endless rides in the cozy coupe this week and they are both loving it. I’m loving how happy they are and that they can entertain themselves for short periods of time (total honesty here)!_MG_8549TWO. Kaya’s mantra this week: “I’m so excited!” She’s been saying it in anticipation of so many things, but the best time had to be when we were at the pool and she was dancing around! They just built a new wading pool over there, and it’s perfect for both my babies to play in.

THREE. We went on a date this week, just the two of us! I know that this shouldn’t be something monumental… but we can count the number of dates we’ve gone on sans kids on one hand since Kaya was born. Ridiculous, I know. At least we’re making the effort now!

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings (only after finding out that my favorite Greek restaurant was closed) and shared what they call the “sampler”. Mmmmm.

FOUR. We finished up our guinea pig sitting yesterday! We had such a fun time looking after these two sweet girls. Kaya already misses visiting them and has even asked me for our own guinea pigs. All I have to say is… we’ll have to see πŸ™‚FIVE. Sometimes it’s rough being a big sister._MG_8568Happy FRIDAY! πŸ™‚

Linking up with April today!

five on friday: guinea pigs and sandwiches

This has been a pretty low-key week, but without a Five on Friday post, I end up with all these random pictures and moments that have nowhere to go. So… here are our precious (but mundane) memories from this week πŸ™‚ :

ONE. I’m pretty lucky to have lunch (and every meal for that matter) with this cute girl every day. Kaya is pretty good at making her laugh and distracting her from her food most of the time though!

TWO. Speaking of lunch, a certain almost-three-year-old girl has been insistent on making her own lately. I think she even eats it more willingly after she makes it! She’s pretty talented at making PB&Js, but we just might have to work on her ratio of peanut butter to jelly…_MG_8459 THREE. Now that she’s eating more solid food, baths in the sink are a pretty common occurrence for Kaelyn. Kaya loves to help (and pour the water over her head about a million times too many)!_MG_8474

FOUR. We’ve been pet-sitting our neighbors’ guinea pigs this week and loving it. Kaya asks to go visit them all the time and loves to give them treats. It makes me miss my piggies so much! I think I feel a bit lost without a furry friend at home.

FIVE. Probably everyone has already seen this blog post… but it could not have come at a better time for me. I think we all need to know that as mothers, we aren’t alone in the hard things and that it’s okay to feel overwhelmed at times. We live in a world of social-media overload, but I’m grateful that there are honest, inspiring pieces out there like this as well.

Happy FRIDAY! πŸ™‚

Linking up with April today!

currently…

Counting down the days to Christmas! (35 days, 13 hours and 15 minutes if you’re wondering)… I’m so excited to share Christmas with Kaya this year (she was such a tiny little munchkin last year, so I’m anxious to see her reaction to the Christmas tree, opening presents, and sweet treats πŸ™‚ )!

Trying to catch up on editing photos. I still haven’t gone through all the ones from our family shoot. I’ve been super diligent about shooting every day for my 365 project, but I’m behind on editing those too.

Thinking about gingerbread cookies! This is a big tradition for my family, and in the years since we’ve been married, we’ve tried to keep it up. There is nothing like my mom’s recipe (and all the delicious candies we decorate them with!)_MG_7261

Planning out the rest of the cookies we want to make to keep up with our cookie-delivery tradition. There are always so many great recipe options (I even started a Pinterest board just for Christmas cookies), but I am especially loving anything that has to do with chocolate and peppermint right now.

Missing this little chunk-a-monk. It’s so weird not having pigs (and probably part of the reason I am so behind on editing photos… my computer is in the den, where Maggie and Juni used to always be. It just seems so quiet in here without them)! We used to pick on Juni for being “chunky”, and now it makes me pretty happy to look back at earlier photos of her in good health, because she was definitely a skinny pig in her last days. (And this is random, but did you know that Juni was actually featured on Cute Overload a few years ago?)IMG_8804Wishing you a happy Tuesday!

sometimes, it’s rough

Let’s face it- on the blog, I mostly write about sunshine, rainbows, and/or unicorns. (Not really, but you get the idea, right?)

Today I’m going to be honest.

Life is hard sometimes.

I know that other people have trials that are so much bigger. So much harder.

But that doesn’t mean that YOUR troubles aren’t significant and sometimes even overwhelming.

We had a crazy weekend. For most of it, I was feeling pretty under the weather. I noticed on Saturday night that my guinea pig, Juni, really wasn’t looking so well. She was still eating, so I kept an eye on her.IMG_1497 [640x480]

When I woke up on Sunday, she was just lying there, barely hanging on to life.

“I think she waited for you”, Michael said.

I agreed.

I spent all morning with her. I stroked her fur, which seemed softer than ever. I told her I loved her. Her breathing became so slow that it was hard to tell exactly when she left us, but I believe it was just before we headed out to church.

This is the first time in almost 8 years I haven’t shared my home with a guinea pig. It’s strange. It feels empty.

We went to church, and suddenly, Kaya started to become lethargic and feverish. She has never been sick before (we have definitely been blessed), so it made me really nervous. We actually left a few minutes early to get her home, take her temperature, and see if she’d nap.

103.4 degrees.

I felt so helpless. She cried and cried and cried. My first instinct is to nurse her, but anytime I’d lay her down, she’d start bawling.

Sometimes (maybe even most of the time), I have no idea what I’m doing as a mom. I’m just making it up as I go along, and sometimes that doesn’t feel good enough.

She was still eating and drinking, so we didn’t take her in to her pediatrician until today. Her doctor said that she has seen a lot of kids lately with fevers that just run for a few days, and that’s all it is. Everything else looks good.

All these events seemed to accumulate into one big avalanche and completely cover me. Add some insomnia and sleep deprivation to our equation… and it made today seem so hard. I’m so thankful for Michael, because without him I would probably be 100 times more irrational and clueless.

I miss Juni. My heart breaks for my sick baby. I’m exhausted. But it’s okay. Life’s meant to be a little rough.

I also burnt our microwave out on Friday. I’m almost laughing at that one now. Almost.

five on friday

Happy Friday! Here are five awesome tidbits from life lately:

ONE.
Kaya’s smile is so contagious. We’re a couple of grinning fools together and I love it. She was so happy just because I tucked her into the car seat with her blanket.

IMG_20131010_105747

TWO.
Juni has had a rough week and had to spend Wednesday night at the vet due to bladder stones and a urinary tract infection. Poor baby. Luckily, they were able to get the stone out without surgery. It was 4 mm in diameter- HUGE for a tiny guinea pig! We’re all happy she’s home now.IMG_20131009_201408

THREE.
I went “treasure hunting” (or thrifting, as normal people call it) this week, and found a few great deals- a Banana Republic skirt (with the tags on, original price marked as $88!) for $3.75, and this busy ball popper toy for Kaya for $3.95. It still needs batteries but she gets SO excited just looking at it!51fEtdpCuwLFOUR.
I haveΒ pumpkinΒ everythingΒ on my brain right now. Lelia and I have made pumpkin bread AND pumpkin cookies in the past two weeks. Mmmm. I bought five cans of the stuff this week so I’m looking to create even more ooey gooey deliciousness soon._MG_9900

FIVE.
This little girl is suddenly doing all sorts of big-kid things. She colors, says a few words, and even started drinking some whole milk this week. It warms my heart to see her learning and growing so much (although I do wish time would slow down just a little)!_MG_9896

Linking up with Natasha, April, Christina, and Darci today!