poppyseed

Posted on January 8, 2013 by tara

Our lives changed forever one year ago today, when I found out that we were going to have a baby! Upon seeing that positive pregnancy test, I was overwhelmed with a whole spectrum of emotion- joy, fear, excitement, disbelief, and probably most of all, shock! It seemed I had been waiting for that day for so long, and there it finally was! I was so stunned that any creative approach to tell Michael was impossible, so I told him over the phone just moments before his church meetings were about to start. (Poor Michael! He got the biggest news of his life and had to sit there and keep it to himself!)

It amazes me that the most incredible person I’d ever meet was just the size of a poppyseed one year ago. She has grown into such a sweet, fun little girl and amazes me with her new development and skills every day.

(She’s even started taking naps in her crib this past week!) A year ago, I was overwhelmed with the prospect of being a new mother. Now, I am overcome with an indescribable love for this little girl. I am so grateful she came to be in our family!

birthday shout-out

Posted on January 7, 2013 by tara

Kaya heard that one of her biggest fans is having a birthday today, and wanted to send her a special message:

Hope it’s a great one! Here’s Kaya trying to blow out the birthday cake candles! 🙂

Christmas town

Posted on January 6, 2013 by tara

While we were still visiting our parents back home, we went to Busch Gardens to see “Christmas Town”! It was everyone’s first time there, and I have to say, all the decor was pretty impressive.

There were about a zillion Christmas trees, lit up in any and every color you could imagine. This one was definitely my favorite (and the biggest)!

Kaya was such a good girl. She had to nurse twice while we were there, but luckily there were a lot of very cozy heated tents for us to go in.

She had a good time at her first amusement park, even though she was too little to ride the “Verbolten” roller coaster with us.

Michael and I went on a few other rides, too. I always love how goofy we get as soon as we set foot on one!We also saw a mini musical. Even Frosty the Snowman showed up!

This is the last Christmas-related blog post for this year. Not long until we get to celebrate again! 🙂

the reception

Posted on January 5, 2013 by tara

Jeff and Lelia hired a photographer for the reception, which meant that I could just goof around and take as many (or as few) photos as I wanted. So here are a bunch of fun, random photos of our night!

Kaya and her Great-Grandma T. She is the 36th great-grandchild on that side of the family!

Kaya and her Pawpaw!

She was actually yelling during this photo. Crazy kid (wonder where she gets it from… haha)!

Here’s a closeup of her adorable little dress. The flower on her headband matched the one in the bride’s hair- Lelia ordered a blue flower and they sent her a silver one as well, so she gave it to Kaya! I think it really pulled her outfit together.

They had a small cake and cupcakes instead of one giant, tiered cake. The chocolate cupcakes were delicious and had the best buttercream frosting. Jeff carved and Lelia painted these penguin cake toppers. Adorable, no?

Michael with Lelia’s sister, Amy.

Lelia’s mama and Michael weren’t shy to be out there dancing even when no one else was!

Dad stole my camera and took this one. I think it really captures Kevin’s personality!

jeff & lelia’s wedding

Posted on January 4, 2013 by tara

On December 28th, our family got to drive up to the LDS temple in Washington, D.C. to witness the marriage of Jeff and Lelia for both time and all eternity. One year ago, when Jeff and Lelia first met, I never would have guessed that she would officially become my “sister”. I’m sure glad that after all my begging and pleading, they humored me and went on a first date (probably just to get me to stop bugging them)! I guess they ended up liking each other just a little bit, because there were more dates, a ring, and now a wedding!I am so grateful for my beautiful family. Life gets more and more fun as we keep adding people to it!

I felt so privileged to be able to be with Lelia as she got ready for the ceremony. Watching her put on her makeup and helping her step into her dress was such a special experience that I’m grateful we were able to share.

I was also one of the photographers, so here are a few of my favorite shots!

You would never know it by looking at those two supermodels, but it was FREEZING. Here we are behind the scenes, cuddling to get warm.

Lelia wanted everyone in the family to wear either silver or blue for the wedding. Since I knew it’d be hard to find a dress that was the right color, modest, and nursing-friendly, I had my mom-in-law help me make my dress. As a surprise, she made a matching one for Kaya to wear! Here we all are in our wedding clothes.

I’m so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and that we can have temples on the earth today, which allow us to be sealed to our families forever. I love my family so much and can’t imagine not having them after life on earth is through.

PS- This is my 300th blog post! 🙂

cookies and cones

Posted on January 3, 2013 by tara

I know I already posted about how we made Christmas cookies a couple of weeks ago, but we did it again once we arrived at my parents’ house. We put a little more effort into it this time, and I think they turned out really beautiful.

Somebody was kind of bored… or sleepy… or both.

We also tried making these nifty Christmas tree cookie-cones. I thought it would be really difficult to make them both taste good and look pretty, but they were sooo easy and mmm mmm delicious.

I might’ve eaten two of them all on my own…

kaya’s first Christmas

Posted on January 2, 2013 by tara

We spent Christmas day with my side of the family this year! My parents had a pretty full house- I think this is the greatest number of people we’ve had over for Christmas in a long while.

As expected, Christmas morning was so much more fun with a baby! Obviously, Kaya is still too young to understand what was going on, but she definitely got excited seeing some of her new toys. She was even happy about her stocking!

Uncle Karl tried to teach Kaya to unwrap presents…but of course, I opened all her gifts and had a blast doing it.

Grammy and Grandpa got her this awesome little kitchen set, and she couldn’t stop staring at it! For now, she’ll need some help sitting up to play with it, but I’m not complaining because I might like playing with her toys even more than she does (who says you have to grow up to be a mom?)
There were lots of other great gifts all around, including Halo 4 and some cashews for Michael.

A bird feeder and a sweatshirt for my mom.

A mug with Kaya’s photo on it for my dad.And a stuffed ducky for Socks… although we might as well have just wrapped up some wrapping paper as his gift, because he has more fun tearing it all apart than anything else.

All the excitement wore her out pretty quickly, so she passed out before all the gifts were even unwrapped.The next day, we got to do Christmas all over again with Michael’s family. Baby Bird got an exersaucer! She needs to be propped up in it with a blanket, but otherwise, she is so strong and can hold herself up pretty well.

Of course, the best gift of all was under the tree before Santa even came. _MG_7255 Merry Christmas!

Michael and Tara

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Monthly Archives: January 2013