weekend/lately

Posted on March 26, 2013 by tara

We haven’t done anything too crazy lately, mostly because we’ve been stuck inside with all this cold weather. I am really starting to wonder if spring will ever come!

It started snowing on Sunday morning before church. Michael went to his regular meetings, but it was decided that church would be canceled for everyone else. He came home and we had our own little “spiritual thought” together instead. I love going to church, but it was fun to have a snow day to just relax and have some extra family time (especially since Michael hardly sees us on most Sundays with all his meetings).

Daddy-daughter dance 🙂 We read books. And just enjoyed being together.

Yesterday morning, I got up and dressed to go running, but when I stepped outside, it was still snowing! Being hardcore like I am, I trudged through it and still got 4 miles in. Later in the morning, Kaya had her 6-month checkup. As soon as the nurse touched her, she started screaming her head off. I almost think she remembered getting shots before, because she continued to cry any time she was on the exam table and not in our arms. Luckily, it was only two shots this time, and she was actually happier when they were over. _MG_3400 Last night around 11 pm, I remembered that I kept getting e-mails about a big sale at Carter’s ending at midnight… and I hadn’t even looked at anything! We needed some things for summer (and beyond), so I thought I’d check it out. The things I bought were 50% off, and then I stacked a 25% off coupon on top of that. Each item came out to be about $2.61 (including shipping), so I think I did pretty well! 🙂 Here are a couple of the outfits I picked!
Aaaaaand I just looked out the window and it’s snowing again! Ahhhhhhh!

kaya- 6 months!

Posted on March 25, 2013 by tara

Happy happy half-birthday Kaya!

_MG_3231 (2)

Height: 26.75 inches (81.8%)
Weight: 16 lbs 2 ounces (50.2%)
Head Circumference: 17 inches (69.3%)
Clothing size: We are all over the place with this right now. Some 0-3 onesies still fit (I kid you not, the one she’s wearing for her monthly photo is that size, and she’s been wearing it since her 2-month photo!), but mostly we’re in 3-6 month ones. Pants are mostly size 3-6 months, but I just pulled out her 6-9 month stuff and it looks good, too.
Eyecolor: Her eyes were recently looking a lot more blue… but those brown specs are still in there. There are days when they still look gray, too.
Teeth: Two down in front.
Favorite things: It seems like most of her very favorite things are non-toy items, such as: water bottles, tags (like you’d find inside your shirt), power cords (!!!), cell phones (and especially watching videos of herself on the phone), dancing… she’s crazy! She’ll shake it for Luke Bryan (right on beat, too), Sugarland, and the Limbo Rock. She also loves seeing all her baby friends!
Feet are still a favorite. They don’t even have to be her own, so watch out- no toes are safe in this house. She discovered the guinea pigs, and she’s obsessed. She has also fallen head-over-toes for this tiny little stuffed bear. She lights up whenever she sees him and loves holding him in her sleep (or using him as a pillow… pet.)

Dislikes: Bath time, getting in the car seat, and apparently, laying on the paper on the table at the pediatrician. She burst into hysterical tears today at her appointment.
Sleep: It’s been rough the past 3 weeks. She still goes to bed between 6-7 pm, but then she wakes up 2-3 times to eat. I thought maybe it was a tooth, but now I’m blaming it on a growth spurt. She gets up for good around 6:30 am. I know it could be a lot worse, but it’s tough to go back to waking up a lot when your baby WAS sleeping through the night.
Milestones, etc.:
– Holding “babbling” conversations with us with a variety of new sounds (like “yaya”)
-Sitting up all on her own!

-Does dancing on command count? We’ll say “she’s dancing, she’s dancing” over and over again, and she wiggles her little bum. Hilarious!
– She finally understands peekaboo now and LOVES it.

Dear Kaya,
How have we already been a family of three for six whole months? It feels like just yesterday when you were placed in my arms for the first time and we said “hello” (well, I said hello. You were screaming your head off…). I soaked up every detail of your little face and remember thinking how grateful I was to know I’d see it each and every day from then on. Your beauty is growing right along with you!

I love when I catch you smiling at me. I smile back and you grin even bigger! Sometimes, we even exchange smiles in the dark of night when you wake up to eat. You sure are silly, but you are sweet, too- I love the way your little body just melts into me when you want to cuddle.

I’m so excited for you to start crawling and discovering everything. Hopefully the winter weather will subside soon and we can help you discover the outdoors, too!

upcycled onesie dress

Posted on March 19, 2013 by tara

What do you do when you buy a $1 onesie that never actually fit your baby? Turn it into something cuter, of course! I cut off the snaps off the bottom, made a little skirt, gathered it, and sewed it on. I also drew and appliquéd a baby bird to the top. _MG_3189 _MG_3175 Not bad for a quick project!

foodie weekend

Posted on March 18, 2013 by tara

The only truly eventful part of our weekend was all the food we ate! We kicked it off with some homemade pulled pork using this recipe, and it honestly was the BEST pulled pork EVER. The recipe title doesn’t lie!Grandpa I. came up for a quick visit on Saturday and took us out to lunch- Greek food! (photo courtesy of him)I haven’t had a gyro since last summer. Still delicious!
“Pleeeeeease can I have some?”
Jeff may or may not have tried on his grandpa’s sunglasses when he was in the restroom… and quickly discovered that they were actually bifocals. Whoops. (Again… how am I related to these two??? Just kidding… love you guys!)Not pictured: ~~Hundreds~~ ~~thousands~~ millions of cookie bars that went in my belly.

friday favorites

Posted on March 15, 2013 by tara

As always, another week has just flown on by! Here are some of our highlights:

I’m so glad to have a little buddy to keep me company while I work on projects- I took my sewing machine out for the first time in a couple weeks. Hopefully Kaya will be modeling the finished project at church on Sunday!

These two together melt my heart. She is always so happy when daddy comes home! (Sorry you’re out of focus, buddy. Aperture fail!)

This little cutie is SO CLOSE to crawling. She just needs to learn to lift up her legs! Michael helped her a little last night, and she was starting to move. We might want to start baby-proofing…

There’s nothing like a peacefully sleeping baby (well, until I decided to be “that mom” and walked in there taking pictures. The shutter on a DSLR isn’t exactly quiet, you know. Lucky for me, she stayed asleep). She’s been waking up through the night a lot this week, so I am grateful for naps. We even had one that was three hours long, which was very out of the ordinary. I kept checking in on her! (I also love how infatuated she is with that little brown bear).
We also had a super-fun play date with two other cute girls and their mamas today! Kaya always loves seeing her baby friends.

I also might’ve eaten waaaay more cookie bars than I can ~~admit~~ count this week. My sweet tooth has been out the roof! I also just started leafing through a “cookie dough lover’s” cookbook my brother gave me… this could be bad. And by bad, I actually mean DELICIOUS.

Happy weekend everyone!

don’t blink

Posted on March 14, 2013 by tara

As I sit here, holding my baby, clutching her warm body close to mine and rubbing my fingers over the soft fuzz that covers her tiny head, I listen as she groggily gulps milk in the dark. Silently, I cry a little. Becoming a mother to this precious baby girl has been the greatest blessing of my life, but I am almost jaded by how quickly the past six months have gone. Right now, her daddy and I are everything to her. We are her whole world, as she is most definitely ours.

But I know that one day, we won’t be. She won’t need to nurse and might not want to snuggle. She’ll have her own hopes, dreams, and plans. That’s good. I know it’s only natural for her to grow up and move away.

I’m just afraid.

Afraid that once she doesn’t need me, she won’t want me.

It might seem silly to think about this now, but if the next 17.5 years go as quickly as the past six months, she’ll be off to college in the blink of an eye.

Maybe I’ll just try to avoid blinking for the next eighteen years.

But in case that doesn’t work out, I’m just going to be sure to get all the cuddles, giggles, and mommy-baby dance parties in while I can. I’m going to love my little princess with all my heart, for the rest of forever.

“I will stand by you
I will help you through
When you’ve done all you can do
If you can’t cope
I will dry your eyes
I will fight your fight
I will hold you tight
And I won’t let go”
– Rascal Flatts

insta-jam #8

Posted on March 13, 2013 by tara

Well, this post covers all the rest of January and February’s phone photos… and from here on out, I’m going to have to post them more often so that we don’t have a mile-long stream of photos every time! I just can’t resist taking pictures of this sweet girl… but then I end up with about 5 million of them on my phone alone. Whoops.

If there’s no description under the photo, the default explanation is “she was being cute so I took her picture!”

We were wearing Christmas jammies even after the holidays were over. It just seems like a waste to not use cute clothes that fit! (If I’m being honest here, we are actually STILL using these jammies… in March. Ha.) Cutie pie after grocery shopping.

We love our cuddle bug! photogrid03072013_2

1: New running shoes! I’m sticking with the barefoot ones, but I wore a hole through my old pair after about 1000 miles, so it was time to replace them.

2: I’m obsessed with homemade chicken nuggets and mac ‘n cheese (as if you didn’t already know this…) I’ve also been trying to include greens with every dinner, so there it is.

3: New phone case for my Galaxy S3. I kept dropping my phone, and the case I had wasn’t protecting it. Can’t go wrong with blue zebra stripes!

4: Running as the sun comes up! This is pretty much every day for me, but it looked exceptionally beautiful over the frozen pond.

1: I finally started eating yogurt again! I stopped last year when I had super bad morning sickness, and I guess the aversion stuck around for awhile.

2: Playing around making buttercream roses.

3: Cupcakes from my Wilton cake-decorating class!

4: Deal-shopping for cereal- 10 boxes for $7.83!

Just being silly together!

Future photographer?

How can babies sleep with their neck cranked to one side? It never ceases to amaze me.

I couldn’t decide if these pants matched this onesie… aaaaand now I’m pretty sure they don’t.These little sleeping bags are so cute. I love seeing my princess so warm and comfy!

a walk in the park

Posted on March 12, 2013 by tara

This winter seems to have dragged on foooooreeeeeever. We’ve had a lot of snow, frigid temperatures, and the sun has been away on an extended vacation. Finally, we had a glimpse of spring this past weekend- it even hit 60 degrees! We would’ve been fools not to take advantage of it, so we all went on a walk to the pond (about 2 miles).

I even got to try out our new baby carrier! Turns out, I love wearing my baby, and Kaya doesn’t seem to mind (for the most part), so I think we have a lot of fun opportunities in our future.

And yup… we’re related to these crazies.

Wow.

meeting baby liam!

Posted on March 11, 2013 by tara

Our friends, Mike and Amanda, had their little baby boy last week! I’m so glad that we were able to go visit them in the hospital and meet their little prince. He was born at the same hospital as Kaya, so I was definitely excited to go back. Sadly, we didn’t see any of the nurses from our stay there, but it was still fun to visit a place that holds such a great memory for our family.

Liam is so handsome (and tiny! Was Kaya ever really this small?)

We were so excited to introduce the ~~future husband and wife~~ babies to each other!

“I know him!” Crazy to think that these two guys met their freshman year of college… and now they are both daddies!Congrats Mike and Amanda 🙂

nomalicious

Posted on March 9, 2013 by tara

nom (v.) – to eat.
nommy (adj.) – the state of being delicious.
nomalicious (adj.) – OMG that is so GOOD I could eat that FOREVER!!! (in simpler terms, “extremely delicious”).

I might have just made all those words up. You decide, but as far as my family’s concerned, they might as well be in Merriam-Webster.

So anyway, here are a couple of the dinners we ate this week. Let me introduce you to these nomalicious double-chocolate whole wheat waffles. (yes, we ate chocolate for dinner… and I totally plan to do it again in the near future…) These were melt-in-your mouth good. I added a cup of semisweet chocolate chips to make them “double” chocolate, and they were perfect. I tried to feed Michael three of them, but he couldn’t finish. I ate about 1.5 before I was ready to explode. A better alternative to stuffing your face would be to make these and freeze some for later!

I also made this Mexican mac and cheese. I’d categorize it as “nommy”, mostly because I feel like it could have used more spices. It was a great recipe for that particular night, when I wanted some easy Mexican-type food and didn’t have any rice or tortilla chips. Next time, I’ll spice it up a little (literally) or maybe try a different recipe. It did make enough leftovers for three dinners though, so I can’t complain about that!

Michael and Tara

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Monthly Archives: March 2013