five on friday (11/13)

Posted on November 13, 2015 by tara

Happy Friday!!! 🙂

ONE. We’ve still been enjoying amazing weather here lately, and Kaya pleaded for me to let her ride her bike this week. The catch was that she also wanted to go to the playground, which meant that she’d be riding for over two miles. I wasn’t sure if she had enough stamina to go that far (or if I could help her on the hills while pushing the stroller), but I always try to give her opportunities to have fun, learn something, and get stronger… so I said yes. To my amazement, she rode for 2.25 miles, only fell once, and figured out how to walk her bike up the hills.

TWO. We had Karl and Kaitlyn over for a small (belated) birthday celebration on Wednesday night. There were tacos and Wii Party and brownies with ice cream. That’s pretty much the ultimate birthday shindig, am I right? I love my goofball brother. Happy 23rd, pal!THREE. We started our co-op preschool group this week, so for the first time ever, I dropped Kaya off and left. I was worried about how it would go, but she was just fine and had a great time.

Kaelyn and I then had some time to run errands all on our own… which really means that we ended up at the fabric store for forever because it was busier than I have ever seen it in my lifetime. Kaelyn loves these little “beanie boos” (beanie babies) and gets so excited anytime she sees them anywhere. Naturally, she had to cuddle them all (and tell each one “hi!” as she hugged them).

Aaaaand we might’ve come home with one… because my kids are only going to be little once, and sometimes it’s fun to give them a surprise gift for no reason. “Blue Kitty” hasn’t left her side all week. 🙂 _MG_0035 Of course, we brought home a surprise for Kaya, too- a baby dragon!FOUR. That moment when you’re folding and hanging laundry, and look over to see your baby wearing underwear on her head… Hahaha. She has another pair halfway up her leg because she wants to be just like her big sister and wear undies (only over her diaper, of course. No way are we ready for potty training again)!

FIVE. #awkwardselfie award. I won’t tell you how many of these are on my phone, just from today (maybe because there are too many to count… haha)!

Linking up here today!

birthday weekend

Posted on February 24, 2015 by tara

It’s taken me over a week to write about my birthday, because my mom was originally planning to come up and celebrate with us this past weekend. However, due to 500 inches of snow (okay, okay, more like 14), she didn’t get to come. We missed her, but still had a great weekend!

Michael surprised me with these decorations (and donuts!) on the morning of my real birthday! With all the dreary winter days we’ve had here, these decorations have helped brighten everything up. I probably won’t take them down until the end of the month!
My friend Brittany really surprised me when she made a cake and brought it to our institute class that evening! You have to love the hashtag! #obviouslythisisasocialmediathemedcake My sweethearts baked me a cake this past Saturday night! Kaya had so much fun helping in the kitchen. She’s a mini supervisor! Too little to help, but too cute to leave out her picture. Dark chocolate cake with cookie dough frosting… as I requested. Mmmm! Also, we apparently didn’t have a “2” candle, so Michael turned a “5” backwards, haha! Having a homemade cake meant so much to me.There’s no better gift on your birthday than being with the people you love most.
We blew the candles out four or five times… Kaya’s getting a lot of practice for her next birthday cake!Here’s to 27!

birthday party weekend!

Posted on February 11, 2013 by tara

I haven’t even had my REAL birthday yet, but we already celebrated it with both sides of our immediate family this past weekend! We had a little party on Saturday, but the whole weekend felt like a celebration to me- I got to run while grandparents watched Kaya, we ate a million of my favorite foods, and we had ice cream or cake (or both!) every night. Yeah… I’m spoiled.

Chinese-food buddies! (We are also mac ‘n cheese buddies…)

Just before the party, everyone banned me to Kaya’s room so that they could decorate. I was pretty excited to see all the hot pink streamers and so many of my photos covering the walls.

I was even MORE excited to see THIS sitting in the middle of all my gifts!!!

No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you… really! Michael surprised me with a Canon 5D Mark II, and I still can’t believe it! I’ve joked about wanting this camera for over two years, and it’s finally in my hands. I’m really looking forward to using it for both future photoshoots and just my own personal photos. My buddy is the best.

I also had a fudge brownie ice cream cake (and I didn’t even make it myself this year)! Mmmm. (Not sure what happened to the “h”… I never saw it. Oh well! Guess it’s my “birtday!”)

I love all these ~~crazy~~ people and feel so blessed that they could be with me for my birthday. They make me feel so loved. I’m also so thankful that I now have a sister and a daughter to celebrate with!

Aaaand you know we can’t pose without doing something crazy.

A few other photos from the weekend:

Grandparents can’t get enough baby cuddles!

And apparently Karl can’t get enough Juni cuddles.

Then Mom and Karl were cuddling each other (are you seeing a theme here?)

And I have been ~~cuddling with~~ using my 5D Mark II. I can’t believe how sharp it is!

the pancake

Posted on September 5, 2012 by tara

On Sunday night, Michael installed a special app (that he made) on my phone. It was called “Surprise”, but it wouldn’t open until the time he set on it- which was 8 am on Monday!

I noticed on Sunday night that he had been acting a little sneaky… and when I woke up on Monday, I saw all these little barcodes stuck in random places around our house. The “Surprise App” started working and gave me all these clues that led me to different items. Then I’d scan the code with my phone, and if I was at the right item, it would tell me something that Michael loves about me. I am so glad I have a nerdy husband, because he’s so creative in showing me he cares for me.

It was a fun way to spend a Monday morning, and a real self-esteem booster in these last few weeks of pregnancy. There were 40 clues and 40 I-love-yous.

And when he got home, he said, “Well, there’s something interesting about the number 40…” and he pulled out a Canon 40mm f/2.8!

Canon released this pancake lens back in June, and I’ve had my eye on it even before that, so of course I was super excited and wanted to go try it out right away! It is very sharp, produces great color and I am impressed with the bokeh, too.

(It seems like the wind always blows when it’s my turn for a photo…)

The STM motor is incredibly quiet, which I’m sure will come in handy when I’m taking my millioneth video of munchkin once she arrives!

(Just to set the record straight… I didn’t ask him to be this silly. He did it all on his own!)

And I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting to share with our friends who came over to watch Hokie football… so I had to share a photo of those, too!

busy busy beavers

Posted on December 18, 2010 by tara

With Christmas and all the wedding stuff coming up, today was a crazy day of cleaning, laundry, and finishing of my secret project! This is all I can show you right now… which really isn't anything at all!

Today might have been a little stressful, but last night Michael took me out on the first real date we've had in a long time. I had so much fun! First, we went over to Michael's favorite store (obviously, this would be Best Buy) and he went straight to the Wii games section. When I told him we weren't buying anything, he pulled a $35 coupon out of his pocket! We went for the new "Wii Party" without question.

Next date stop: the movies! We had a free movie ticket from buying cereal, so why not? We saw "Tangled", and it was so cute and hilarious! The horse had to be one of the best parts. Last of all, we ate Chinese for dinner and played Wii! It was fabulous to just relax and laugh. I love my buddy!

spoiled much?

Posted on November 16, 2010 by tara

Sometimes you'll have a rough day at school: your class presentation just didn't go exactly the way you planned, and you have a huge test in three days. Maybe you just want to cry over it like a big baby, but then your extra-giddy husband picks you up from class. He's smiling and driving, and stops at a red light (way to obey those traffic rules, hubby!) and then… he pulls a Canon camera bag from just behind your seat and plops it in your lap.

What?!

This exact thing happened to me yesterday. I didn't even believe there was really a camera in the bag at first! No way he would go out and buy a Canon T2i. Well, I was gravely mistaken, because he did not just go buy the camera of my dreams, he also skipped class to do it! Whoa. Now that is love.

I have been waiting for this for at least a year or so, and now that I have it I'm honestly so excited that I'm nervous I won't have enough skill to put it to good use. I'm waiting for the weather to clear up and my huge test to be over on Thursday, and then I'll really see what this puppy can do.

Yeah, I'm really too spoiled. But hey, he can use it too! =)

what makes taking tests fun?

Posted on October 27, 2010 by tara

Honestly, there's nothing that can actually make a test fun. Sorry if I got your hopes up! But sometimes studying for them doesn't have to be so bad…

Yesterday I had to study for the two exams I took today. But look what a certain someone left on the doorstep for me to make my day infinitely better:

Michael is so thoughtful and does some pretty great surprises, huh?

Michael and Tara

It's Us!

Category Archives: surprise