first date and a woodland adventure

Posted on April 7, 2015 by tara

My in-laws came up for Easter weekend and camped nearby, which meant that we got to have a whole lot of fun, do a little bit of hiking, and take advantage of some free babysitting! All that pretty much equals a perfect weekend.

On Friday night, Michael and I headed out for our first date with just the two of us in two years. Crazy! I cannot believe how fast that time has gone by. We headed to Cracker Barrel and somehow ended our date by goofing off in the toy aisle at Walmart. We apparently don’t need to have the kids with us to still act like kids…
We visited Mom and Dad at the campground, and enjoyed walking some of the trails. Kaya walked over a mile and a half all on her own, which is so far for such little legs! She also enjoyed riding on Grandpa’s shoulders. 🙂 I love the mountains, especially in spring. Grandma made matching “Easter” hats for the girls. Seriously… how cute is my baby? I love everything about her happy little face!We had a fantastic Easter Sunday too, but there are so many pictures that it’ll have to be another post! We definitely love our family time.

a whole lot of lately

Posted on January 22, 2015 by tara

We haven’t been up to anything too crazy lately, other than trying to survive these dog days of winter. We’ve been making the most of our small family activities, which helps the dreary days go by a little more smoothly! I keep daydreaming about spring, taking walks, and playing on the playground… but we still have a little while before then!

Last week, we had a family date to Dairy Queen… one of our favorite places for sure! We tried the new Birthday Cake Oreo blizzard, and I’m telling you, it tasted just like eating a can of frosting. A delicious, amazing, dreamy can of frosting. #yesIjustreferredtofrostingasdreamy We’ve made more whole wheat waffles (with a cup of chocolate chips added to the batter) in the past two weeks than we probably have in the past two years. I have to give Michael credit for making a few batches (and adding sprinkles or M&Ms to make these even more fun)! Kaelyn has been blowing “raspberries” at us nonstop lately…And the rest of the time, we’ve just been super sleepyheads. Last Wednesday, both girls took a very long morning nap… which is so out of the ordinary, especially for Kaya! My only guess is that there may be some growth spurts going on. Nevertheless, it was nice to have a few quiet morning hours!Michael came home on Wednesday night and passed out on the floor. Kaya tucked him in with her Olaf blanket, and then proceeded to lay down on top of him!We ended the week with this incredible Cinnamon Swirl Quick Bread I made for seminary breakfast on Friday! It was just like a coffee cake, but so much easier! I doubled it and baked it in a 9×13 pan.What’s your favorite thing to bake in winter?

five on friday: poptarts, snail mail and ice cream

Posted on April 11, 2014 by tara

Five great moments:

ONE. Because I can’t text without making a million typos… and we think poo jokes are hilarious (#yeswearefiveyearsold). I’m glad Michael has the same weird sense of humor I do.

TWO. Speaking of ~~pootarts~~ poptarts, someone had her first taste of them while we were all sick. If it comes down to eating poptarts or not eating anything… well… at least she (happily) got some calories. _MG_1926

THREE. Suddenly, the grass is green and spring is HERE! We’ve been playing outside every day and I don’t know what we ever did being cooped up inside for all six months of winter.

FOUR. Does anyone still get excited for snail mail these days? I’m super pumped because I used to get Better Homes and Gardens magazine, but never renewed… so they sent me a deal to renew for three years for under $10 total. If it gets cheaper than that, I haven’t seen it!

FIVE. Michael took us on a date to Coldstone, and our little sweets-monster just couldn’t wait to dig in!Have a sweet weekend!

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

my valentines

Posted on February 19, 2014 by tara

When I was a kid, Valentine’s Day was a day for the whole family to get treats and feel a little extra loved. While Michael and I have never really gone out of our way to celebrate it, it’s a day I’ve always enjoyed.

This year, it was even more fun with to share it with Kaya! My friend Amanda hosted a Valentine’s-themed play date for all our kids on Tuesday, and I baked some chocolate sugar cookie hearts to bring. It was my first time using royal icing to outline and fill the cookies, and I think it actually went pretty well!

On Valentine’s Day itself, the snow finally melted a little, and the roads were finally clear enough to escape our house. Since Kaya has still been struggling to sleep, we decided to have a “driving date”. She passed out, and we might’ve had both Subway cookies and Dairy Queen…

SInce we were snowed in for my birthday, it felt great to get out and finally enjoy time together.
While we were out, Michael also surprised me with my birthday present- a Kindle Paperwhite! I’ve already done more “fun reading” in the past week than I have in the past couple years. I’m definitely going to love using it when I have a newborn to nurse around the clock in a few months 🙂

Next Valentine’s Day, Michael will have three princesses to spoil!

five on friday: ice, ice cream, baby

Posted on January 24, 2014 by tara

ONE. Obviously, our most exciting part of the week was announcing our pregnancy! We got a whole lot of love, both in real life and on social media. I’m feeling so blessed and excited to be able to share this special time with everyone.

TWO. I feel like I’ve been talking about the weather a lot on here lately, so forgive me… but how can I not, when I have a sheet of ice on the INSIDE of my sliding glass door? It’s become a game for me to keep opening the weather app to see if I can capture a screenshot with the lowest temperature (clearly, there must not be much to do here in the winter in the mountains…)

THREE. This is actually from last week… but it’s just too adorable to not post. We had a date to Dairy Queen, and after a few bites of sweet sugary goodness, Kaya performed the craziest little dance.

I love our family date nights.

FOUR. The weather may be dismal, but on the bright side, we’ve enjoyed cuddling up with blankets and Jax! Sometimes, he rests his head gently over my tummy, right where the baby is. I love it. I could not have asked for a sweeter dog. FIVE. I’m also in love with this picture Michael quickly took of us on Monday. I’m trying really hard to get into pictures, because I know that one day our kids will look back and want to see them. These are precious moments 🙂

Happy weekend! 🙂

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

surprise long weekend

Posted on January 21, 2014 by tara

I didn’t even realize that this weekend was a long one, until Saturday night when Michael “reminded” me that he was off on Monday. I am either a really poor listener (totally possible), or Michael is already getting old and forgetful and never told me.

I’m going to go with the second option. Yep.

Anyway, we had a wonderful, relaxing couple of days. We even got to spend some time with our friend Katie, who we haven’t seen in awhile (and I failed to take a picture…whoops).

We had a great Sunday at church! On the way there, I just kept chanting “BFFs!” to Kaya, and she thought it was hilarious. Hence this picture: Afterward, Michael even took Kaya out with him for home-teaching so that I could nap. I think he wins the best husband award.

We had some glorious weather on Monday (50 degrees say what?)! Jax enjoyed his run but was obviously still energetic afterward. I love that Border Collie energy! We had our first dinner date out in a long while. We went to Olive Garden (thanks, Karl!), and although I was worried about how Kaya would do at a sit-down restaurant, I was overall very impressed with her patience. She loved the breadsticks (but I think she liked picking the croutons out of Michael’s salad even more…)Happy 4-day week! 🙂

utah randomness

Posted on August 12, 2013 by tara

We did a whole bunch of fun things on our trip, but some of them aren’t big enough to dedicate an entire post to, so I’m just going to mash them all together right here!

My in-laws watched Kaya so that Michael and I could go work in the temple together. I LOVE the Jordan River temple, and it was such a blessing to be there with my best friend. We finished up pretty late (it was nearly 11pm), but it was so peaceful to sit together outside in the cool night air and gaze at the temple.

Here we are in front of the temple together (it was the best we could do to take a photo ourselves), and here’s Baby Bird at dinner just before that. She’d rather eat the table than the food! (Although we did let her try a little Chinese food, and she seemed to like it!)

My dad in-law found the best way to spend $6. That’s right. The shirt. Spongebob swag all the way!

We had a fun dinner with one of Michael’s friends/coworkers, and then we met up with some of his old mission buddies at the Provo temple. He finally had a mini “mission reunion”, which he’s been longing for for a few years now. Kaya was cranky and more than ready for bed, so I just walked her around temple grounds while Michael chatted.

_MG_8777 We ended our trip with a visit to our former Institute teacher, Brother Bowman! It was so good to see him and his family and have them meet Kaya. We left for the airport straight from their house, and it really was the perfect way to finish our adventure in Utah.

friday/anniversary date night!

Posted on May 27, 2013 by tara

We had a pretty fantastic Friday! Karl came over for the first time in at least a million months (he’s been busy working so hard)! I’m happy to say that Kaya is officially over the “stranger danger” phase, because although she didn’t remember Uncle Karl, she fell in love with him ~~again~~ pretty quickly. She kept “asking” him to help her stand up! Michael kept teasing about having some sort of surprise date night in honor of our anniversary. As usual, he didn’t disappoint- he took me out to the best Greek food in town. Mmmmmm. If I ever make it back to Europe, revisiting Greece is at the top of my list. IMG_20130524_222204

The next part of the date was a complete shock- he drove to our Institute director’s house and we left Kaya with his family! It was the first time we’ve had a date without her… which was strange at first, but it let us relax a little more. We had a great time just joking around without worrying about pacifying a sleepy baby! (Of course, we had to go to Dairy Queen. It’s not a real date if you don’t.) IMG_20130524_201245 After ice cream, Michael surprised me again by bringing me back to the very place where we both realized we’d marry each other. We sat under the same little tree (well, we at least tried to pick the same one) as nearly 5 years ago now and just talked.I loved having some special time with my buddy to just reflect on the past few years. Thanks for the fun night, pal!

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 #6

Posted on October 23, 2012 by tara

It’s been waaay too long since we had an insta-jam post (seriously, the last one was for August)! I think that instead of doing monthly ones, I’m going to switch to numbering. Then I can write them whenever my little heart desires (and I won’t have a ridiculously large number of photos all at once…)

Hmmm, where to begin? How about with the birth of the sweetest little girl ever?

1: Kaya on the morning she was born! So very brand new.

2: She was actually born with a slight fever, but after that, her temperature dropped and she had to wear two hats and two blankets to get warm.

3 & 4: Chubby cheeks!

1: Showing off those big blue eyes, even at the hospital.

2: Kaya loves sleeping with her hands up by her face.

3: Check out those serious eyebrows!

4: So sleepy… eating is hard work!

1: Early morning cuddles with daddy!

2: She makes this face every time we burp her! I love it.

3: Her first Halloween card (from Auntie Joyce)!

These are two of the approximately one million hilarious faces she makes.

Smiles are so priceless. Right before I took this, I told her to say “hi daddy!” and she smiled so big.

1: I love getting drawings from my Primary kids (if you looked at my refrigerator, you’d instantly know this)! This one has a baby bird saying, “mom mom mom”, and then the mama bird is saying “kid kid kid”. So thoughtful, and I think it’s extra cool since we call Kaya “Baby Bird”, which then leads to Michael calling me “Mama Bird”.

2: Halloween socks I got from Target for $1 apiece! I am crazy about holiday socks, but all my old ones were getting holes in them, so I’m glad I saw these!

3: Jeffrey tried out some of the hair bows I made for Kaya…

4: There’s been a whole lot of football-watching going on around here. I’m never too interested in it, but I do get disappointed when the Hokies lose.

1: Our neighbors brought us dinner after Kaya was born, including this HUGE tray of cookies- M&M ones, gingerbread, and even chocolate-covered candy corn. Mmm. I think they lasted about a day. Oops.

2: I tried out a new crockpot recipe: Cuban Street Tacos. Michael really loved them, but they were a bit too citrusy (is that a word?) for me.

3: My homemade buttermilk biscuits. Now I just need to master homemade mac ‘n cheese, and I can open my own Cracker Barrel!

Kaya and I went to visit Michael at work for lunch one day (please take note of the spit-up on my sleeve)! It was fun to show everyone the baby and see Michael’s new cubicle. He always loves to see us.

This past Saturday, we had a date night at Cookout! So unhealthy but so delicious. Michael was sad that I didn’t take a picture of our milkshakes- he had mint Oreo and I tried something new called caramel fudge, but it was not quite as fudgy as the name lets on.

(Okay, this one technically isn’t an instagram photo, only because there was no way for me to crop it into a square and keep both our faces in there. I like it, so I’m including it here anyway!) I love snuggling with my baby, waiting for Michael to come home. This was after church on Sunday. I took this picture and e-mailed it to him while he was gone, titling it “your girls miss you”.

Michael and Tara

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