trick-or-treat at the mall 2015

Posted on November 5, 2015 by tara

Late Halloween afternoon, we took the kids to the mall to do some easy trick-or-treating! I always have a really hard time getting decent pictures in the mall with the way the lighting is (and I totally grabbed the wrong camera lens too, whoops)… but here are the few photos I did take. 🙂

We met up with Karl and Kaitlyn and had a good time goofing off while walking around getting candy. No matter how old I get… I don’t think picking on my little brother ever will get old. We are kind of obnoxiously goofy together. Our kids were pretty tired (due to a shortened nap/no nap), so they just rode in the stroller the whole time. This made the event go a whole lot faster and easier, and I was surprised when I realized we had been through the whole mall in about 30 minutes. Kaelyn had never had a lollipop… but she sure figured out how you’re supposed to eat them! She just missed that one very important step… taking the wrapper off! I finally let her try one for real, and not long afterward, we noticed that she had a completely different flavor pop in her hand, and the first one we had given her was nowhere to be found. Our little Lollipop Bandit pulled this trick a few times before we wised up and confiscated her candy bucket.

Sneaking candy on Halloween… she learns fast! 😉This is my last Halloween post for this year… sad! I can’t believe our first holiday of the season is already over and we’re less than three weeks away from Thanksgiving!

pumpkin patching

Posted on October 21, 2015 by tara

We took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch on Saturday! This was the first year that we’ve been out there and had sunshine to help keep us warm! I was prepared for colder weather after last year’s freezing temperatures, but we really lucked out this time.

Having sunshine also made it harder to get decent photos, and while we were there, I was honestly a little frustrated because I didn’t think any of my shots were turning out well at all. Michael lovingly reminded me that not every picture has to be “pinterest-worthy”… and he was right. These actually turned out to be some of my favorite photos, ever, just because of the memories they represent.

Kaya was in love with the goats and Jersey heifer calf (although she called them all cows), and even asked to go see them again at the end of our visit.
We met up with Karl and Kaitlyn. He held Kaelyn for almost the entire trip (partly so I could take pictures). That’s one happy uncle! 🙂As tradition goes, Michael did the pumpkin slingshot (but didn’t make it as far as the pond this year).
Cuddles in the line for a hay ride! We took the tractor up to the pumpkin field, and Kaya had a great time running around and looking at all the pumpkins. There were so many HUGE ones this year, and of course, she was trying to pick them up herself. Haha.She was also running away from me because she didn’t want her picture taken (#herecomesthethreenager)… But she gave me the happiest, cheesiest little grin later on, so she more than made up for it. 🙂They had an awesome corn maze this year! We might have hit a few dead ends, but we had a blast doing it.
Brother & sister shot! I can’t remember the last time we took a photo together, so it was on my to-do list for the day. Sometimes I can’t believe this tall guy used to be a tiny baby I could hold in my little 4-year-old arms.Karl and Kaitlyn picked out a giant pumpkin! So glad they could come with us.
We had the perfect afternoon. I love my family and these beautiful days we get to spend together.

Since I’m apparently becoming the queen of cheesy home videos, I’ll include this one to sum up our adventure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZElkscNU_so

christmas 2014

Posted on December 31, 2014 by tara

This is a super photo-heavy post, but there were just so many great moments from our Christmas day that I couldn’t leave out! I loved everything about our holiday at home together as a little family of FOUR, so every one of these photos is a favorite for me.

Michael and I stayed up late on Christmas Eve. I was so excited for morning because I knew Kaya’s reaction to her cozy coupe car would be priceless. We basically stayed awake until we couldn’t anymore (around 2 am). I kept wishing it was time to wake up!
We haven’t really told Kaya too much about Santa… but as soon as she saw the tree, she kept saying “a Santa!”

Kaya grabbed her gifts and was ready to start unwrapping right away. (Also, her expressions just crack me up sometimes!) She started reading this book to Baba (that’s Kaelyn’s main nickname if you don’t know… given to her by Kaya, of course)!Just keep watching Kaelyn in these next few photos… I was cracking up over her falling-backward/trying-to-eat-wrapping-paper antics.“My clock!”Kaya loves this little puppy that walks and does flips! He actually lands most of his jumps, so I’m pretty impressed. We hid the cozy coupe under a blanket, and she was pretty unsure of uncovering it. She kept saying, “a Santa!”, so we almost think that she expected a living, breathing Santa Claus to be hiding under there. She doesn’t love seeing Santa, so that would explain her uncertainty! She got in and started turning the steering wheel right away! And this is why I love Christmas morning.She decided she had to wear her coat to drive, obviously, since she always wears it in the real car!Two of the gifts I had for Michael weren’t here by Christmas morning, but he was excited for a new Hokie sweatshirt and some homemade chocolate peanut butter fudge under the tree! _MG_5924 My favorite gift this year was delivered 6 months ago 🙂 But Michael did surprise me with a TomTom Runner (GPS watch) that I am absolutely loving so far, and a new computer monitor… I’m one spoiled girl! _MG_5890 I stacked some mini donuts into snowman and reindeer shapes for a fun, festive breakfast!
I think she was counting them all here… (and this was the plate for all of us, not just her, haha!) I cooked some pot roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, broccoli, and homemade rolls for our Christmas dinner. My gingerbread obsession continued on, so I whipped up another half batch of cookies for us to enjoy (especially since we gave away almost all of the batch I made before)! I got crazy and dipped these in chocolate candy coating. Mmm.Our friends, Katherine, Matt, Mia, and brand-new Baby Luke came over to enjoy dinner with us! We had a great time (Kaya and Mia especially)!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day! I’m always sad to see it end… let the countdown begin to next year!

christmas cookie delivery 2014

Posted on December 23, 2014 by tara

I love cookies. If eating cookie dough counted as a sport (a girl can dream, can’t she?), I’m pretty sure I’d be an Olympic champion.

Imagine, then, how excited I am each Christmas to make gingerbread cookies with my family! Here are a few of my 2014 favorites: snowmen, colorful candy canes, an American star, a hippie girl (any excuse to put Twizzlers on a cookie, am I right?), and Lelia’s most adorable Mrs. Claus (in green). I think they just get cuter every year!

I’m already sad to think that Jeff and Lelia won’t be here next year to decorate with us. Jeff is off to med school!

I thought Kaya might actually decorate some… but she was really into eating her lollipop instead.

As always, we made up plates of goodies to deliver to friends and neighbors. I just love that we can combine my childhood tradition of decorating cookies with Michael’s childhood tradition of delivering them.I felt like we really had a great assortment of sweets this year! We made:

gingerbread cookies
Michigan fudge
the best chocolate-chip cookies ever
and some buttery spritz cookies!

Kaya saw me scooping out the chocolate-chip cookie dough and was SO very excited to help!

Making cookies takes serious concentration. Obviously.

We made up 15 plates this year, which sure felt like the most we’ve ever done, but I didn’t keep count the last couple years, so I don’t actually know. We gave away all but one (our neighbors left town sooner than we realized so they missed out on these)!

Kaelyn was quite patient through this whole process. I love having a little buddy who can just sit and watch, but I know she’ll be into making a big mess with the rest of us next year!Just 2 more days!

pumpkin picking in the arctic

Posted on October 22, 2014 by tara

On Saturday morning, we headed out for our annual visit to the pumpkin patch. We had arranged to go with friends and were really looking forward to having a great time!

Admittedly, we were completely unprepared for the weather. Earlier that same morning, I had gone running in shorts and a t-shirt! The pumpkin patch is in a neighboring county, so naturally, we didn’t expect to encounter high winds and a huge drop in temperature. Kaya really could have used a hat, mittens, and a warmer coat. Mom fail.

She did get to enjoy seeing all the farm animals before it got too cold, though! And she tried to milk a wooden cow… … and Michael slingshot a pumpkin across a pond!
We did take a short hayride to the field to pick out a pumpkin. (cold weather had Michael making some funny faces)Our cold little girl gave me one big smile right before we left, so at least I have one good photo to remember our trip this year!
Kaelyn didn’t make it into any pictures, because luckily, she was wrapped up (warmly) in the Ergo carrier and slept nearly the entire time!

blog every day in may | day 29: a tradition I love

Posted on May 29, 2014 by tara

How many times do you have to do something before it’s technically a “tradition”? Hopefully there aren’t any tradition-police out there, because this one is fairly new for us.

Everyone who’s anyone knows that all the best traditions involve food. I’m not about to break that stigma!

For every recent holiday, we’ve had a surprise donut breakfast (although I guess if it’s an official tradition, the surprise part will eventually wear off)… When I was a kid, we used to get donuts every Sunday morning. I really don’t think that any of us need to eat them every week, so I really like just keeping donut breakfasts as a special holiday tradition.

On Christmas we had reindeer and snowmen, Easter was a bunny, and then having donuts at all on Mother’s Day was a complete surprise to me! I love coming up with something special to give my family, even if it is as simple as a holiday-themed donut.

As Kaya gets older, she definitely gets more excited about little things like these!

christmas cookie delivery 2013

Posted on December 30, 2013 by tara

One of my favorite parts of celebrating Christmas has got to be the cookies (I’m stating the obvious here… even if you skip all my words and just look at the pictures on my blog *ahem dad-in-law ahem*, I think you’ve probably figured this out by now)!

We love continuing the Irwin family tradition of delivering cookies to our friends. I felt like I was baking for days on end this year, but it’s always so worth it when you see the joy on someone’s face upon receiving a thoughtful, unexpected treat.

Here are the goodies that we made this year:

gingerbread cookies from my mom’s classic recipe
these chocolate thumbprint cookies
my favorite sugar cookie dough twisted into candy cane shapes
this Michigan fudge

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that everything tasted just heavenly! It was my first time trying that fudge recipe, and I’m definitely never switching back to the one I used to make.

The thumbprint cookies were so good that it was hard to not eat a whole bunch of them right after they came out of the oven. In all honesty, the full recipe didn’t even make enough to give to everyone, so some people who received cookies didn’t get these (but I did try to make up for it by giving the thumbprint-deprived people extra fudge…)

Gingerbread and sugar cookies are a classic that can’t go wrong!

Kaya wore her reindeer hat out on our delivery trip (and yes, that’s fudge smeared on her cheek. It was Kaya-approved)!

I think our goodies were thoroughly enjoyed (and some of these same treats might make a repeat appearance next year)!

pre-christmas celebrations

Posted on December 27, 2013 by tara

The weekend before Christmas, we made the trek back home to spend a little time with our families. It was the shortest stay we’ve had in a long time, but we definitely enjoyed every minute of it!

We went to my parents’ house first and were definitely spoiled. My mom has almost all of the Hallmark singing snowmen. It wasn’t long before Kaya figured out how to get them working (and of course she danced)! She was in love with opening gifts this year and even helped rip the wrapping paper! She also kissed almost every toy she received…
Her big gift from my parents was a shopping cart. She screamed when the last piece of wrapping paper came off!
She immediately knew how to use it, too.
We decorated cookies again (although it was a bit more difficult this time, since my mom only had spatulas instead of the usual paint brushes…) My mom made a pot roast feast (and Kaya actually enjoyed the meat)! We went to the Irwin house too, but I didn’t take nearly as many pictures. Kaya enjoyed more present opening/yelling!

She got some toy food, but her ultimate favorite was these little toy tupperware cups.And that was part one of our Christmas! 🙂

gingerbreads 2013

Posted on December 17, 2013 by tara

Saturday was filled with dough making, rolling, and baking! As you most likely know by now, decorating gingerbread cookies has been a tradition in my family ever since I can remember. Kaya actually tried to help this year (and by “help”, I’m really saying… she stole my cookie cutters and started eating raw dough right out of the bowl while I was rolling it)!

Lelia came over to help out! Jeff was out shopping, and Michael had some work to get done, so it was just us girls. Kaya helped Lelia for most of the evening!

Giant mess of deliciousness. Can you spot the Lelia cookie? (hint: she’s not a snowman, a reindeer, or a house…)

Here are a few of my favorites from this year (can you find the cookie Lelia made of me?)!

I think we decorated a record number of cookies (usually, we all get tired and leave a lot of them plain). Now we just get to give them away!

meeting santa

Posted on December 12, 2013 by tara

On Tuesday night, we took Kaya to visit Santa Claus! We were the 9th family in line, which was so much better than being 73rd like last year.

They had crafts and Christmas movies for the kids while they were waiting. Kaya was more interested in the television remotes, but overall, she was very patient. I expected her to be fussy- but I’ll admit, I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get a picture of her on his lap. Oh well. We avoided a complete meltdown, so I’ll call it a success. Even if she has no idea what’s going on, I love carrying on all these Christmas traditions.12 days, 7 hours, and 18 minutes!

Michael and Tara

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