christmas parade 2013

Posted on December 10, 2013 by tara

As is tradition, we went to the town Christmas parade on Friday night! Usually, we’re bundled up to the nines and look like we’re heading on an adventure into the arctic tundra… but this year, temperatures were in the 60s! I actually missed dancing around and sipping hot chocolate in an effort to stay warm. We found a few of our friends from church, including Jeff and Lelia!

That balmy 60-something degrees was a little too good to be true, because it ended up pouring down rain for the majority of the parade. A lot of floats cut out early because of it. All I ever really care about is seeing the horses, shelter dogs, and Santa, anyway.

She’s still so little, but there’s something about watching her at Christmastime that brings tears to my eyes. Maybe I’m a little overly emotional, but I just can’t help looking at her and feeling my heart fill up with so much gratitude and love.
Santa was at the very end, of course, and then we were ready to go home and get some dry clothes on!
14 days, 8 hours and 45 minutes!

kevin and tori’s wedding

Posted on October 31, 2013 by tara

So… you might as well wish Kevin and Tori a happy 3-month anniversary, because yes, these pictures are from August 2nd. I gave them their wedding DVD at the end of August, but honestly kind of forgot about the more personal photos I took that day. Better late than never, as they say! 🙂 (If you want to see the rest of the wedding go here!)

It was a perfect day for a wedding. The light was a photographer’s dream. Of course we all got a little crazy… Okay. A LOT crazy.Michael took the photos of the girls, so he took the opportunity to leave this on my camera, too.
Brothers 🙂 These next two crack me up: There’s nothing like a little girl and her grandpa. And yes, he let her stick her feet in the stream!

Love them. My best friends. Lelia and I’s corsages! Pals!

pumpkin pickin’ 2013

Posted on October 16, 2013 by tara

Saturday was our day to go pumpkin picking! I was sooo super excited, because when I was a kid, this was a yearly tradition. I couldn’t wait to take Kaya and have fun as a family. (We did go last year, but Kaya was tiny and slept through the whole event!)

We tried a new farm this year and loved it! It was perfectly located in the beautiful, rolling Virginia hills, and it wasn’t overpriced like most places we’ve been.

Kevin and Tori were passing through town on their cross-country drive, so we were happy to have them join us. It’s not every day that all the Irwin siblings are together!
We took a hayride to the pumpkin patch!Love these two with my whole heart (plus some…)
Of course, we got a little crazy (it wasn’t even a long ride… but apparently this is the only way we have fun!) They had a corn maze. We all split up in different directions and still made it out alive! The pumpkin patch was right up the trail, so a-pickin’ we went!Kaya’s excitement definitely didn’t disappoint. She LOVED the pumpkins and just couldn’t stop pointing at them, holding them, or trying to lift them.

There was a tractor made out of hay bales, so naturally, we had to “drive” it. Kaya was really unsure of it.We visited with some ewe lambs (chunky ones, at that).
Kevin and Tori chucked some pumpkins! And then I took waaaaay too many pictures of Kaya. But just look at that face! No mama could resist. Like I said, she loves pumpkins (I also wish I had a picture of what was going on behind me to get her to laugh… we have a crazy family!)We paid for our pumpkins and browsed their tiny shop of homemade goodies… including some amazing fudge! We might just have to go back sometime soon 🙂

Happy Fall!

waffles, conference, and a whole bunch of crazy people

Posted on October 8, 2013 by tara

As I posted over the weekend, we spent Saturday and Sunday relaxing and watching General Conference. I was also craving chocolate-chip waffles… Luckily, I have a super-awesome husband who tends to want to eat the same things I do, so ~~I put him to work in the kitchen~~ he graciously whipped up these whole-wheat waffles on Sunday morning.
He kinda messed up the first one (just a little)! Jax didn’t care what the waffles looked like because they smelled heavenly. Newsflash for my dog: chocolate kills. Much better 🙂 Baby Bird slept through all our clamoring in the kitchen, so she had her waffle (which was actually 1/4 of one) for lunch. That’s the smile of one happy girl!

We took a family picture, which is something we try to do on or around each conference weekend (every six months).In the afternoon, we had friends over to watch the last session. We had a potluck dinner- chicken ‘n dumplings, rice, veggies, and my favorite homemade brownies topped with ice cream for dessert. It doesn’t get any better than that! I love all these crazy people and I’m so grateful to share these memories with them. (PS- the babies have the best expressions… and Jax looks pretty insane too).

life is good

Posted on September 16, 2013 by tara

About a week ago, Brittany and I were talking about how fast summer went… and she suggested that we have one more cookout all together before the warm weather disappears for good. So on Friday, we did just that! We grilled and then planned to have a game night (which really just turned into all the boys playing Xbox and all the girls sitting around and chatting… which was still a lot of fun)!

Karl even came! It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do anything fun together. Nothing beats picking on your little brother 🙂

We had hamburgers, hot dogs, Amanda’s amazing pasta salad, and I made some s’mores bars that actually ended up NOT tasting like real s’mores… but you can’t go wrong with something covered in chocolate, so they were still a big hit.

Jeff and Lelia joined us for games, and Chris and Cerina were in town (from North Carolina!) so they stopped by. These BOYS. ARE. CRAZY when they’re together! Love it. (This was a tickle fight in case you can’t tell. Jeff versus everyone else… haha!)

On Saturday, I worked pretty hard to get everything ready for Kaya’s one-year photoshoot. I finished the cake, Michael bought her some balloons, and we got her dressed. I LOVE how these turned out and I can’t wait to share the rest.

She loved her balloons so much (even when they had already fallen to the ground the next morning).
We had our awesome friends over again on Sunday night, because someone needed to eat the cake left over from Kaya’s photoshoot (which she didn’t smash)! We played some more games and laughed a lot.

Life is good.

down on the river

Posted on June 26, 2013 by tara

This weekend, my in-laws came up to our neck of the woods to go camping, which meant lots of food, fun, and family time! They camped down at the river, so that gave us a chance to cookout, enjoy the sun, and go tubing.

Dad and Jeff kept teasing Michael for being so slow to get ready and actually get in the water……so he tried pretty hard to catch up. Lelia tried to get Jax to go swimming (“tried” being the key word)! But as you can see from the look on his face, he was not so thrilled.The puppies still had their share of fun outside the water, though. I think they wrestled all afternoon! (And yes, that’s Fallon doing a somersault!)
We filled up on hotdogs, burgers, homemade mac n’ cheese, and strawberry salad! (And of course there were s’mores for dessert!)

Kaya had lots of grandparent cuddles… _MG_6803 Seriously… how precious is my princess?
There is nothing I love more than spending time with my family.

a grand weekend, part one

Posted on April 9, 2013 by tara

Grand as in GRANDparents, great-grandparents, and even a great-great-grandparent!
On Sunday, we took a drive (along with Jeff and Lelia) to visit the boys’ grandma and great-grandma.

They hadn’t met Kaya yet, and of course they were thrilled to see her. Here’s Kaya meeting her great-great-grandma! (She actually smiled a lot for Great-Great-Grandma P.- she just looks sad here because she missed her nap!)

This wouldn’t be a normal family gathering if there wasn’t a whole lot of silliness…
… and grandma/baby cuddles… …and daddy/daughter cuddles for me!

We had hamburgers, hot dogs, BBQ chips and cake for dinner and just had a fun time goofing off. Grilling out makes it really feel like summer (the high today is 81, and we had snow on the ground last week… so where’s spring?)

It was EXTREMELY windy (you’ll see all our glamorous wind-blown hair in just a moment), but we needed to get a few 5-generation photos, so outside we went! (And no, we didn’t all color-coordinate our outfits. I guess we all just really like blue!)

Grandma I., Great-Grandma P., Dad, Mom, Michael and Kaya 🙂

(LOVE this one because it shows just how windy it really was… and how cute is Kaya’s face here?)

Outtakes… one word: “badonkadonk”.
My sister the super-model (this was a test for lighting, but it’s too silly to leave out!)We have a pretty goofy family… and I love it!

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.

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.

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

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Category Archives: Jeff