Saturday, June 28, 2014

Purses, bracelets and necklaces


I love her current obsession with purses, bags, and jewelry.
She often comes to me in bouts of frustration when she can't fit ALL of her toys inside what always seems to be the smallest purse she can find. 
Though she loves all her bracelets and necklaces, she hardly ever wears them for more than a few minutes at a time. I guess it's more fun to see the necklaces & hold them than to have them dangling from her neck? 

While putting on her sun glasses on our way to the pool yesterday, Taryn pushed them up to her face and said with her thumbs up,
 "Ready for action!"
Love that spunky girl.


Friday, June 27, 2014

Can't wait 'til Friday! Why we love Fridays


Dog pile on Daddy after he comes home

We all LOVE fridays!
 When Tyson came home last night, he told Taryn that tomorrow is friday. 
She then said, "Only one more day of work, Dad?" Tys replied, "Yup! And then it's the weekend and we get to play!" 

Outdoors


We often find ourselves thinking, "Where can we go to skip rocks?" So on the weekends, you can find us by a little creek, with Taryn picking up as many rocks as her little hands can hold, Tyson scouting out the perfect skipping rock, and Hadleigh & I meandering along the bank.




Oops. She wasn't happy about this little spill.





And because these three are little goof balls together  :)

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Watermelon



I love that our bathroom is always full of damp towels and bathing suits, that Taryn was an amazing sandal tan, fruit is everywhere and it all looks so good, that the days are longer and the sun is up later.

We are in full summer mode here with lots of pool time, splash pad visits, watermelon, and my personal favorite this year- popsicles! I'm just excited that we can make and store these ice cold wonders in our freezer and pull them out after a swim. Because if summer isn't wet from the pool and sticky from fresh fruits and popsicles, then what is it?

When Taryn discovered that we have access to our apartment complex pool, she was ecstatic! Just try getting that girl out of the pool, ever. It's near impossible. I love when we come back from the pool after lunch, I can find Taryn sprawled out on the floor fast asleep.

We spotted fireflies a few weeks ago and spent the last few hours of daylight trying to catch them in our backyard. I'm not so happy that as of a few days ago, mosquitos are back and ready to drink my sweet blood. I mean, I had to jump into the pool while talking with friends just to get them to stop attacking me! How is it that I can attract these awful little buggers so much. I promise, Mr. Mosquito, my blood isn't that great!



Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Picnics and water fun






Way back when when we had Memorial Day together as a family.
 Splash pad, lunch, and sun with my little family.
Followed by an impromptu friend's bbq, our day was complete.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

We love celebrating Daddy!


Tyson sported this homemade Father's Day tie to church over the weekend. Let me tell you, I was proud of Taryn for keeping it a secret for almost a month! We worked on it a little here and a little there and each time when Daddy would come home she would run over a whisper how she wanted to show him the tie. I had to remind her it was a surprise and we couldn't just yet. And she waited oh so patiently! Getting Taryn's hand print was easy peasy. But Hadleigh's? Oh man. It's WAY harder than it seems. 

We loved celebrating Tyson all weekend long and the other Dads in our lives. We were able to talk on the phone with my Dad in California and Tyson's Dad in Albania. We have so many wonderful Father figures around us. We are so lucky!

Happy Father's Day

Saturday, June 14, 2014

A quick visit with family and friends

Matching cousins in yellow! (Totally not planned but totally awesome!)


After flying into Salt Lake, Tyson's older brother, Trevor, volunteered to pick us up from the airport so we could see him and his cute family for a few hours before our jam packed schedule began. We felt SO LUCKY to be able to see Trevor, Whitney and Bailey!!! It's been far too long since we had seen them last- like 2 years! I'm so glad we have Skype/Facetime because living far from family is hard. We LOVE where we live but sometimes when we get together with family and see how happy Taryn is to play with cousins, or when we remember how the furthest we had to travel to see family when we lived on the West coast was at most 6 hours in a car, it gets hard to think of the hours of flying/traveling we have to do to see them now. We've become experts at flying, by the way ;) 
We grateful for these little moments where we can catch up with family, even if the time is far too short for our liking!



(It may not look like it, but we were told these girls could not stop laughing and giggling for the entire bike ride! (Paige, Taryn, Olive, and Ada)



On this trip we were also so very lucky to see our good friends the Anderson's too. It had been a year since Tyson and Mike completed their schooling at Johns Hopkins and shortly after graduation, the Anderson's packed up to move to Salt Lake. I catch myself thinking about my days in Bologna with Paige as my go-to buddy for park dates and general "How do you do ___" about parenting or cooking with Italian ingredients. Short cuts in foreign countries are like dark chocolate. Just so perfect! Having our two oldest girls (Ada & Taryn) together again was so fun! And to meet little Liv (who is 4 months older than Hadleigh) was such a treat! We are grateful for the Anderson's constant friendship even when we have gone from being close neighbors to thousands of miles separating us now. Taryn loved her special time with Ada and the coolest ride ever in their new mono bucket bike. Coolest thing ever!!!


Hadleigh and Olive playing just as their sisters did at their age. 



The best I could get of all 4 kids together :)


We crammed a lot into this trip and it has taken us a really long time to recover, but we have happy memories from the whole trip!

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

A week at Lake Powell



At the end of May, we celebrated my great uncle Kay's 90th birthday. I think it had been about 10 years at least since I had physically seen my mom's side of the family. We were so happy we could attend and be apart of such a great memory. After the celebration, we headed to Lake Powell for a Scott Family Reunion. The lake has been a major part of both my life and Tyson's. I am SO incredibly grateful that Tyson grew up going to Lake Powell because it's always an easy "YES!" when asked if we will be in attendance. We love the memories, the beauty, family time, and being active in the water. I love so much that we've been sharing these moments with our girls while they are young. 



Taryn completely surprised Tyson and I when we asked her if she wanted to try water skiing this trip. She was in the ski boat with her cousins and she said, "Ok!" and jumped right up to get in the water! I was so proud of her courage & so glad that her cousins showed her how easy and not scary it could be. This girl was so very brave! 


It's these moments that I love to catch. Even though Hadleigh is a mama's girl and is deep in the "stranger danger" phase, she can have her sweet moments of enjoying life while in family member's hands.




The older girl cousins headed out on the paddle board together. I remember looking over and thinking, "Oh my goodness! There they go!" They all seem so grown up.



A day on the Lake is never complete without a little treat. 



If I have a moment to pass Hadleigh on, I will take it. Sometimes I think, "Oh, I don't want to burden someone else by making them hold my baby." I often get caught up in the moment when people say, "Can I help you by holding her?" by responding, "oh it's ok…." because I don't want to inconvenience someone (I know- I don't understand my logic either!!!!)
 I'm trying to remember that these sweet baby stages go by fast and those around me want to enjoy her "little"ness too. And that it's good for me and her to let her be held by others. 





She's not one for solids, but yogurt was a hit. She gets it from her Daddy. These two smiling just melt my heart. Love them so much





I think she had Lake Powell in her blood. She loved the water, the boats, and experiencing everything. 3 year olds are so much fun! (if they don't fight you when you're trying to put on sun screen!)




Those dramatic red rocks and beautiful water. It's an amazing scene to behold each day.


I LOVE this picture. Here is a bunch of grown adults not knowing what's in store for them. Let's just say they drank a lot of Lake a few minutes after this was taken :)



Boat buddies Taryn & Jacob



 I know that baby life jackets keep them safe but man are they buggy! I think the only time my kids have not been crying in them is when they fall asleep to the sounds of the ski boat. At that time they provide a great sleeping pillow :)


Dressed in pink from head to toe



When they weather is warm, you have sensitive skin and the water is still too cold for a baby's liking, you spend a lot of time in just your diaper on the boat :)








Cameron & Jana put on a great bonfire complete with songs, poems, s'mores, and campfire apple pies.







Grandma and Grandpa gave the grandkids these fun finger lights. Each kid loved them and somehow we ended up coming home with a least a dozen!




Because Hadleigh is still so little, Tyson and I switched off watching her on the boat while she napped etc.. and playing in the water with Taryn. That meant we often missed a photo op of each other wake boarding, solum skiing, banana boating, jet skiing and paddle boarding. So until I can grab some photos of Tys, these are the only ones I have on my camera.

Being on the lake with family is great. Sleeping under the stars on the roof of the houseboat, eating (way to much) great food, and catching up with family. We love these fun memories (and even how sore we are after the week is done!)