Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Little family weekend adventure

















Oh Georgetown, you are so stinkin' pretty.
We explored this place for the first time as a family a few weekends ago. It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time wandering up and down the crowded streets. I can't even tell you how long the line for Georgetown Cupcakes was- which we did NOT wait in. It made me happy I had already tried them while at a baby shower last year and I told Tyson that if we ever got a craving for cupcakes in Georgetown, we will be sure it's on a Monday morning when no one is around.  They are good cupcakes but I wasn't about to wait in line for hours (seriously the line was ginormous!!!)
Georgetown is really beautiful and reminded me a bit of San Francisco.
My favorite part of all?
While Taryn and I got our feet wet in the spray from the splash fountains, Tyson called to me and told me to bring Taryn over, FAST! He had ventured just a few feet away to a stadium style drop off that led you right to the Potomac River where you could conveniently plant your little toesies in the water. Of course, for Taryn, there happened to be a billion ducks swimming within inches of the last step. It's safe to say we could have spent all day there. And of course she plopped herself down in the water a few times
*note the wet bum in the pictures above prior to us just giving up and taking her pants off- letting her be in just a diaper*
This was one of those family dates that just happened because we wanted to take advantage of the wonderful weather. Things fell into place nicely and the day did not disappoint. 

Monday, September 23, 2013

Celebrating little she




Amanda, me, Liz, and Lynne


I know some pretty amazing ladies and I am so glad that I've been able to get to know all of them better over the past year of living here.  Mandy put on a baby shower for our expected little one with many helping to contribute to the fun! I felt so loved (and so did the babe!) 


Shelley, Ali, Melissa (with Ali's babe- Finn)





My sister, Brittany, was there to celebrate too! 
 So glad she lives so close! 


The cute yummy Thank You take aways that Mandy made. I told her I am going to use "little she" from now on. Too cute!



 
Michelle, Ruth, Michelle, Amanda, Melissa, Shelley, Lynne
Brittany, me, Janelle, Ali, and Mandy

These ladies helped me prepare to have a winter baby! Taryn was born in February- in Arizona- and that definitely does not count as winter compared to snow and freezing temperatures here in Virginia. I'm hoping it won't be a very cold winter but if it is, our babe will be toasty and warm!


Mandy put together these adorable mobiles of Tys, Taryn & I each as babies & toddlers and baby #2's ultrasounds and included which state we were born in. It's pretty fun that everyone in our little family will be born in a different state. 


 Amanda and I


Shelley


Michelle (and her babe Ezra) & I


Lynne


And a belly shot. I have not done well at updating with these shots but I don't think I did it well with Taryn either. Here is the end of 36 weeks. As of today, I am now 38 weeks!

Thank you to everyone who made it such a beautiful fun shower! I had so much fun with you all. 

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Finally Ready

Today I saw many pictures of sweet newborns who have come into this world recently
Some belong to childhood/high school friends adding to their families
Some are related to friends from college
On Sunday I was surrounded by sweet newborns at a gathering for our friends.

My heart fills with joy to say that I finally feel ready. Ready to meet this little girl. Ready to take on being a mother of two, even though I know I won't have a clue as to what to do. My eyes filled with tears of excitement thinking about her arrival which is coming a long way from the fears I have been feeling for so long about being a mother of two (TWO?!!)

I cried while talking with my mom on the phone just yesterday. 
The morning started out picture perfect for our little family. But as the day went on, I let little frustrations enter into our life. I got upset with Taryn. Within seconds of looking at her sweet innocent face I felt guilt for everything. I wrapped my arms around her and apologized.
 I told my mom that this whole Mothering thing is really really hard. 
I love it, every second. 
It has changed me for the better. 
I have the choice of how to handle every situation and I am trying to be better at filling those moments with hugs, laughter, and smiles and quick forgiveness. 
Taryn is my little sunshine who is my constant reminder that life is so sweet and at times so simple. She has taught me that when things get frustrating, a hug & a tiny kiss can make everything melt away into insignificance.

In honor of baby #2 coming in less than 3 weeks I thought I would post some of our family baby pictures.

 Baby #2 (looks just like Taryn did as a newborn babe)



Taryn - 6 months old


Tyson- 3 months old



Brianna- maybe 7 months old






Taryn - almost 2 years old





Tyson- 2 years old

Brianna- 3 years old



* Oh my goodness! We had no idea how much Taryn takes after Tyson until looking at these photos recently (mainly the toddler pictures). Looks like she has more Smith in her than we thought!!! Taryn still has my curls though :)

*Whitney- these pictures are in response to your request for baby photos :)



Monday, September 16, 2013

She's going to be a soccer player :)


Saturday was a special day for Taryn and Tyson. 
They spent the morning together- just the two of them- doing what Taryn loves most. They visited the library and built the world's tallest block tower ;) then they played forever at the park together. Tyson wanted to show Taryn what soccer was all about so they headed to the fields next door to the park. Taryn was ecstatic about soccer!!! 
She kept asking Tyson who the people were- the goalie, the coach, the players etc...She was jumping up and down with excitement every time the ball was kicked or the whistle blown. When Tyson asked Taryn if she wanted to play soccer when she's older she said, "YES!" 
They sat and watched the games being played for a good long while. As they left the field, Taryn asked Tyson to "Wait!" as she stopped behind the goal net to continue watching all the action. Love at first sight for sure. 

Taryn could spend all day at the library reading different books and playing with the toys (especially the little stuffed beagle dog.)

Friday, September 13, 2013

When she makes up songs

While playing outside on the teeter totter, Taryn began to serenade me, singing all about the bird on the telephone wire. 

"There is a bird on the telephone. He has a nest on the telephone!
Fly over here bird and then down over here. Bird is on the telephone!
He is going to go swimming! On the telephone!
Bird is going to come with me!"

I really liked her song. 


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Discovering a bit of Maryland

We are supposed to have a few more hot days (like in the high 80's) and then....it's going to be beautiful.
Just like it was on Monday. 75 degrees. 
 I can smell Fall in the air. 
Taryn and I started our Monday outside wandering around the backyard. With some new additions that our landlords have added (because their grandkids visit so much) we've been able to play with the new slide and teeter totter with only having to walk outside our door. Now please don't try to imagine a very pregnant lady on the teeter totter with a toddler on the opposite side. No, thank you. (even though I did try it a few weeks ago and learned quickly from that.) I have figured out how to get Taryn going up and down by just working out my legs- as in- one foot on the seat helping it rise up and down. Pretty good leg work out if you ask me :)


We were in Maryland this past weekend checking out the area and exploring some new places for our next move. It's exciting to think about starting anew- making new friends, discovering new places, and knowing that we will be doing it as a family of four.










Part of our new discovery this weekend was Wheaton Regional Park. Tyson and I flipped out when we pulled up to the park. Why in the world did we not have amazing parks like this when we were growing up?! A carousel and mini train!!? One of the biggest slides I have ever seen!?! A giant hill covered in rubber cement for the kids to run up and down!
 We will be spending some serious time here in the future.
We can't get over how beautiful the area is.


We could hear the train from the other side of the park as we played in the toddler sand pit. Taryn would cup her ears and say, "Can you hear that?! It's a train! Come on! Let's go find the train!" She loved the ride that took us through the woods. 

Taryn was one lucky girl to be able to ride so many carousels in the past two weeks!



Thursday, September 5, 2013

Argentine Facturas and Carousel rides

How has it almost been a week already since our nice long holiday weekend?!!



Saturday we started the morning off with cleaning our church building. It may not look big, and the stake center I grew up going to is double (if not triple) it's size- but it's still really big compared to the normal LDS meeting houses. With amazing help from volunteers, we got the cleaning done in one hour!!!!! What? A new record for sure!!!!


From Tango in Alexandria. 
The establishment is unassuming, but spot on with what the real stuff is like in Argentina (so I'm told.)

We celebrated the long weekend and many other happy things in our lives with Argentine facturas (pastries). 
So delicious. 
Tyson was in heaven for sure and I would be happy to return again....for his sake of course :)

We braved some craziness at an Outlet mall to get in on the sales for Tyson's work wardrobe. 
I was quickly reminded that I am very pregnant, we have a toddler, and that avoiding places like this on major sales days with the two above mentioned people is best. Taryn really had no problem with any of the shopping because we made sure to give her "toddler time." 

Which meant a few awesome rides (some moving, some not) on the various mini carousel rides in between stores. I was super proud of Taryn.  I however felt like I was beginning to meltdown after reaching the end of the indoor mall where apparently the air conditioning wasn't working after having been walking around for a few hours. It's moments like this where I realize that if any of us take another step (me), it might mean big meltdowns across the board (or just me). Luckily we were all done at that point so we wrapped up our semi productive shopping. 



Monday was hotter than we expected but we still enjoyed Clemyjontri Park in McLean together. We've been talking to Taryn for months about "riding a horsey!" and she often reminded us about what we had promised her. So to the horses we went! 




Picnic Lunch



 (wow- check out our matching red hot faces. Good thing the carousel was covered!)





She loved all three rides so much!! It's always great to see someone enjoy an activity so throughly. 



And to top off our Saturday and Monday, we got our last fills of the Spray grounds while playing with friends. 
The weekend went by too fast but we loved it while it lasted.