happy 27th birthday, michael!

Posted on August 28, 2014 by tara

Michael’s only request for his birthday was to have some new photos printed so he could take them to work and decorate his space. I made him some plain old 4x6s, but still wanted to give him a fun little surprise.

I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew I wanted to create my own version of it. It’s easy when you have such cute, photogenic girls! 🙂 Michael absolutely loved it, of course.
Kaya insisted on Kitty having his own picture done, too. I’m not too good at translating stuffed-cat-ese, so his message is up for interpretation. We had a cookout with some friends and family. It rained on and off throughout the day, but luckily, it stopped long enough for us to enjoy some time outside. I made cupcakes (of course)! These might be the messiest ones I’ve ever frosted… but they were definitely some of the most delectable I’ve ever made! They were dark chocolate with a homemade white chocolate cookies and creme frosting. Mmmm.
Happy Birthday Daddy! Your girls sure do love you! 🙂

friday favorites

Posted on August 1, 2014 by tara

It’s Friday again? This week seems to have flown by!

Here are some of my favorite recent moments:

We’ve been going on a lot of walks. The weather has cooled off, so much so that it nearly feels like fall here. Hopefully the winter won’t be unbearably freezing since it’s already this chilly outside.

We’ve spent a lot of time playing with this little princess, who suddenly seems so much more aware and alert.

Could we have adopted a sweeter dog? Jax loves to kiss the baby (although I kind of think he just likes how she tastes…), but I’m not sure Kaelyn enjoys it very much.

I made these lemon cupcakes this week (with this lemon buttercream) and they were amazing! There’s a bakery in Charlottesville, Virginia that sells a lemon drop cupcake that’s rumored to put women into labor. My friend Brittany was overdue with her baby girl, so I figured that was a good enough reason to bake! For the first time ever, I zested and juiced the lemons myself, and I think it really made a difference in how fresh they tasted (compared to when I’ve used lemon extract in the past). They didn’t put Brittany into labor, but they were still a wonderful treat.

Kaelyn was a bit cranky while I was baking, so she had her first ride in the Ergo! After she settled in, she went right to sleep.

Kaya [sometimes] loves to have her picture taken now. She’ll even hold a pose…

If you can’t tell, she really really really loves muffins.

She also loves having Kitty do everything Kaelyn does. She was super excited when we swaddled him!

Happy weekend!

blog every day in may | day 6: my favorite pinterest board

Posted on May 6, 2014 by tara

If you know me, you also know I have a pretty big sweet tooth. However, it goes a little further than that- I LOVE decorating cakes and creating cute little fondant flowers and animals to top them with. So, naturally, I love anything on Pinterest that’ll help me learn a new decorating technique or inspire me to create something of my own.

I thought it’d be helpful to share some of my favorite cake-related pins. These recipes have never let me down!

Tara Irwin’s pin on Pinterest.

Linking up with Erin!

friday favorites

Posted on September 20, 2013 by tara

Our family is coming into town this weekend for Kaya’s birthday party! Of course, I still have a million things left to check off my to-do list, so I’ll just leave you with a short post of this week’s highlights 🙂

Fall weather has arrived and we are loving the cooler temperatures (although I might not be loving how dark it is when I go running in the morning)… Kaya and I took a walk and she had fun pointing out all the trees. She even wore a hair bow! 🙂

Kaya has learned to “throw” the ball for Jax to fetch! As always, here he is kissing her right IN the mouth. My two crazy kids… I stripped our bed down to wash the sheets, and someone made himself a little too comfy on our pillows and comforter. He does have his own blanket, you know… that he ripped to shreds. We gave Kaya a cupcake last night to celebrate her birthday, and she barely touched it! Michael had to encourage her to taste it. She seemed to like it but only tried a small bit before she was bored with it. (C’mon Kaya… it’s chocolate!)

I’ve been crazy busy this week making all sorts of things for her party tomorrow. I made fondant for the first time ever and had so much fun playing with it yesterday… here’s a sneak peek of the cake!Happy Friday!

friday favorites

Posted on July 26, 2013 by tara

Apparently, last weekend didn’t rejuvenate Kaya at all, because she kicked off Monday morning by falling asleep in the high chair! (I even got her into the crib after this without waking her up… and I’m not the gentlest person, so that’s impressive!) For family night, we went to the pool! We stayed long enough for Kaya to get the wrinkliest little baby toes. On Tuesday, I made a cake for the first time in months! It was chocolate with buttercream frosting (inspired by this). I know it’s far from perfect… I like to call it “shabby chic”. Emphasis on the shabby.The cake was part of a surprise party for Brittany and Lelia after institute! I’m so glad we got to celebrate these two awesome girls (by the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lelia TODAY)! This might’ve been one of the only times I didn’t bring any leftover cake home.

There was a whole lot of playing this week (as usual)… … some laughing over sandwich crumbs, and sleeping while running errands/shopping (what am I going to do when we upgrade her car seat and she falls asleep?)

Church put on a “Pioneer Day” activity on Wednesday, so we enjoyed some fun outfits, homemade butter, making yarn dolls, and gunny sack racing!
The missionaries had the best getup.And if you want a good laugh…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25roY-uMvks

This morning, we had a playdate with Bianca and Aaliyah! The weather has been cooling down a whole lot lately, so we enjoyed being outside without sweating! (Kaya also wore SHOES for the first time ever… and what’s even better is that I got them yesterday for 50 cents 🙂 )

Also, I think someone has been watching the puppy a little too closely…
http://youtu.be/Hk6iV7_ypO4

insta-jam #11 (may 2013)

Posted on June 20, 2013 by tara

Now that we’re more than halfway through June… Yep. I’m a slowpoke, but that’s okay. Better late than never! I won’t write captions for all of them since they are pretty self-explanatory (aka my baby is CUTE and I take lots of pictures of her. Haha).

Baking too much; a bath in the sink at Grandma’s; playing with some plastic cups; and one of the last photos I have of my sweet Maggie just two days before we said goodbye. Smiles; frozen keys for sore gums; waiting at the pond for a photoshoot; giggles.

She loves panda; I love these “Wendy’s fakeout” homemade chicken sandwiches; being cute; big beautiful eyes.
Juni (in motion!)
One of the few “fun” baths we’ve ever had. Rolling over on the changing table; grabbing toes; eating some yogurt for the first time; and cuddles.

The night we brought Jax home (look at that tail wagging); less-than-perfect mint chocolate cupcakes I made for a barbecue; chocolate chip cookies with my buddy; and Jax always trying to sit in my lap.

Beautiful; sleeping all crunched up in the corner of her crib; making her laugh is so easy; and letting Jax cuddle in our bed when Daddy isn’t looking.

Sheep that didn’t run when we walked up to them; my first walk with a baby AND a dog; enjoying the swings; and a hot, tired puppy.

wilton course 2 final cake

Posted on April 1, 2013 by tara

Tuesday was my last cake-decorating class, and the final project was (you guessed it) a CAKE! Most of the course was on making flowers, so I certainly tried to put that skill to use when I designed my final cake.Ta-da! Royal-icing roses in a basket! All these roses took quite a bit of time for me to make (I’m still a little slow at it), but they really turned out beautiful, so it was worth it. I’m actually quite sad I won’t be taking course 3 (it’s pretty expensive and I’ll be traveling next month, anyway), but I might just buy the book and go through the lessons myself.

PS- Don’t come knocking on my door for a piece of cake, because well, it’s gone. I brought it to institute and everyone devoured it!

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!

friday favorites

Posted on March 1, 2013 by tara

We’ve had a whole lot of fun around here recently (and to me, “fun” basically means that I ate a lot of sweets and took a million photos of my cute baby…)

We went on a date to Dairy Queen, since I had a buy-one-get-one blizzard coupon for my birthday (if you sign up for the blizzard club, you’ll get one too). No ice cream for Kaya yet, but she sure thought it was fun to look at.

Since she can’t enjoy dessert with us, she tried to save some milk on her chin for later. Too bad I like to wipe her face clean!

I did some Target clearance shopping on Monday, and actually came across things I’ve been casually looking for. I’m super pumped about that soap pump (hahahaha) and the stoneware platter. The photoframe actually turned out free with a coupon I had. And of course you can never go wrong with baby clothes.

Kaya and I went to visit Michael for lunch one day. We wanted to take a walk, but we chickened out because of the cold and just sat in the car and played with Kaya.

She keeps doing this ~~weird~~ cute thing with her lip. And she loves when you pretend to eat her hands!

Have I mentioned that she also loves to eat her own hands?

Her smile could not possibly get any cuter.

We even had a bath with no tears for the first time in a while.

This wouldn’t be a real blog post if there weren’t a few more photos of food! We tried whole wheat pizza dough this week, and it was pretty delicious.

I also had to make a cake for my final cake decoration class of course 1. It took me forever to finish, and I know it isn’t even close to being perfect… but I am actually pretty impressed with myself. (And yeah, I’m lazy and just wrote “congrats”…)

By the way, it tasted even more delicious than it looked. We brought it over to Jeff and Lelia’s right after class was over, and no one could quit ooooohing, ahhhhhing, and mmmmming over it. I’m usually a chocoholic, but I chose white cake this time and I’m so glad I did.Other noteworthy occurences with no photos:
Kaya had another play date with her little friend Mia! She was trying to hold Mia’s hand, and when they were laying down, she stroked her hair so gently. It was so cute!

I’m also super happy because our apartment complex replaced our washing machine this week! The old one was ancient and always sounded like a rocket ship about to blast into space. The floor would shake and that thing jumped around like mad. Recently, it stopped getting things clean… and that is NOT good when you have cloth diapers. Ahem. Anyway, the new machine is quiet (it’s almost relaxing to listen to it), and my diapers look brand-spankin’ new.

Happy weekend everyone!

insta-jam #7… finishing off 2012

Posted on February 25, 2013 by tara

Well, I guess I’m just a little late on this… but I wanted to put these photos up here anyway (plus, Kaya is super squishy and little in all these… so I don’t see why I shouldn’t share the cuteness)! Between getting a new phone and then just having a ton more phone pictures than ever (which might have something to do with having a super-photogenic baby!), I just didn’t get around to it. So here you go… late October through the end of 2012!

1 & 2: Sleeping (obviously). I love those smooshy cheeks!
3: She loves this little snail that hangs above her seat. Nowadays she’s strong enough to rip him right down.
4: Blowing bubbles while smiling! (Now THAT’S talent!)

1: First snow of 2012… just a small dusting.
2: More sleeping.
3: First bottle ever! This kid has always taken a bottle like a pro- she isn’t even picky about the temperature and has even had one ice cold!
4: Homemade cookies. Mmmmm.
1: Nap buddies. This is back when she would only nap if I snuggled her. I’m both happy and sad that those days are already gone.
2: Sleeping again… she did a lot of that!
3: Bundled up in her little bunny-ear suit!
4: Talking to daddy first thing in the morning.

1: Asleep in the carseat.
2: Asleep in her Halloween shirt (are you noticing a theme here?)

1, 2, 3, & 4: Sleeping, crazy, tired, and fun!1, 2, & 3: Morning snuggles and tiny little toes. photogrid2012_6

1: I went to a baby shower one Saturday morning, and when I came home, there was a Halo party going on.
2: My practice run of the fondant dog I was making for my aunt’s birthday cake.
3: Kroger actually has really good ice cream, and I was super excited to try this “cupcake party” flavor!
4: Giant Christmas tree at the mall!

1: Funny face.
2: Tired of shopping with mommy.
3: Asleep on the way to church.
4: The Thanksgiving onesie I made for her! (Remember how those plastic eyes are NOT a good idea…)

1 & 2: Thanksgiving lunch at Michael’s work!1: She really started to like reading books!
2: Cuddling with her little doll on the way to church for the last Sunday in 2012!

One more insta-jam and I’ll be all caught up… stay tuned 🙂

Michael and Tara

It's Us!

Category Archives: cake

happy 27th birthday, michael!

friday favorites

blog every day in may | day 6: my favorite pinterest board

friday favorites

friday favorites

insta-jam #11 (may 2013)

wilton course 2 final cake

insta-jam #8

friday favorites

insta-jam #7… finishing off 2012