Friday, September 25, 2015

The end of Summer ?!! Planning our future summers and a love letter to my amazing little family

I'm looking forward to posting about our awesome Labor Day weekend with family, but until I can spare more than just a few minutes to sit down and write about it (and finish grabbing pictures from our family "Airdrop" folder, I'm going to re-cap our summer fun!


I'm not sure if Glan Carlyn Springs can count as "End of Summer" since it was so chilly in the morning air, we put on our sweaters. They were off by noon but man! I'm loving our Fall weather. It was like a flip was switched, it was the beginning of fall, and now everything is changing colors (slowly) and we have to bring jackets early on in the day.

Before the official Fall started, we ventured out to a new section of Glen Carlyn Springs to throw rocks and walk the beautiful paths. This area never ceases to amaze me with its' beauty. 

















I love that Hadleigh found this spot all by herself, positioned herself like that in the above picture and stayed there for a good long time just putting her fingers in the water. So calm, so happy.





Getting Hadleigh to smile is usually super easy but I guess she just wanted to keep walking and playing. even my tickles didn't work well enough to keep her interest! 


Love this little girl!




We decided to teach the Taryn how to really throw the frisbee. Taryn was picking it up really quickly. Then she got hit in the face. On the cheek bone! It gave her a little black eye for church the next day. Oops! But she tried it again that following Monday when we were out at the park! Way to get back on the horse! ;)





Oh man Haddie- I'm not ready for you to be a two year old yet! You can even scoot (slowly) on your big sister's scooter !??!?!! Sweet sweet girl!





Gorgeous sun set after frisbee throwing.





We received some fun free tickets to a near by water park. It was AMAZING! We will be back every summer until the kids are about 10 years old (the age at which they will most likely out grow this child focused water park) Our girls were born to be in the water! They are also little dare devils. Oh man! I just love their spirit for life and all things fun and exciting. They keep us on our toes. 
We passed a Duck Donuts, which we thought was only in North Carolina where my younger sister just moved with her family. So when we spotted it, we stopped by and grabbed a treat. Donuts hot off the press and custom made!??! SOOOOO GOOD! No other donut has compared since. 


Just a sampling of some more summer fun. I kept thinking the whole summer about how fast time is flying by and how our little girls keep getting bigger and bigger. Tyson and I talked about family vacations and what we wanted to do with the next 12-13 summers we have with the girls before college. That's not a lot of time to squeeze in everything we want to do but I guess we have to make it work. I love my little family and who they are and that they make me want to be better every single day. It's not easy making it through the day to day, whining, fighting and life's little bumps along the way but really, I feel like we've been blessed to go through everything together.

Those moments where Taryn becomes "super sister" and helps Hadleigh in the kindest, sweetest way, talking in the most adorably sensitive voice or when Hadleigh asks Taryn with the biggest concern in her voice, "Wha happen Tee Tee?!" if she is crying. Those little memories I hope to keep close in my heart and never forget. I love coming from a busy day to our little place we call home and feeling peace there. And getting to see my sweet husband every day, though some days our time together is limited with our work schedules, we've tried super hard at making every moment count. Tyson is just the best ever. While getting ready the other day I thought about how caring he is, how he is always wanting to do better and be better- man, he is such a great example to me. I know it's been said so many times before but it's totally possible to fall in love with someone more and more each day. You share more together, love each other even with their faults, and are made stronger by their strengths. Maybe it's because I've been thinking a lot about how we've been married for almost 6 years now but I really picked the best man out there! So to my little family, I love you every day more and more.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

1st day of Preschool and 1st day of a new job! Lots of firsts for the Smith family






Taryn had been looking forward to this day for so long! She would ask questions about preschool all the time and talk about going to preschool to everyone she knew. I loved that she was so excited about it. I took her to pick out her own backpack and lunch pail and she played with them for days after, pretending she was going to school. We met her teacher and her assistant and found out that the teacher's assistant had her middle name. Of course, she adores her now! Taryn always makes sure that we are on time because she doesn't want to miss one minute! 


What is your favorite color? Red

How old are you? 4

Where do you live? Uh…in the United States of America

What is your favorite food? Mexican Food

What is your favorite thing to do? I like going…no I like going to the spray park and my mama can spray water at my face.

What makes you happy? When we play 

What do you want to be when you grown up? I want to be Dorothy (Wizard of Oz)

What are you most excited about at preschool?  I like playing

What is your favorite thing? Going outside




Haddie could feel the excitement but I'm sure she had no idea that all the excitement meant that she was loosing her buddy for 3 hours a few times a week. The first day she got a little sad but the 2nd day she cried good and hard for about 10 minutes on the car ride running errands. She's gotten used to it now and just asks for "Tee-Tee" every five minutes while she is gone. Their reunion is so very sweet. I love the giant hug that Taryn gives her little sister, as if they haven't seen each other for days! 




The two T's on their first days




Tyson started a new job and looked very dapper for his first day!
  I would say there were nerves and excitement that normally follow a new job.







We headed out to the car to find a praying mantis on the roof!
I took that as a sign (hahah!) to a great day ahead.




I caught this little moment on Taryn's orientation day. 
She came home saying from her first full day of preschool saying, "I heard Spanish! I learned Spanish!" Her teacher, from a Latin American country, blends spanish into her lessons and exposes her students to the beautiful language. Taryn has always been interested in other languages so I was super happy to meet her teacher and hear her story. Last year I did an early scope out of the preschools in the neighborhood. Tayrn joined me because I thought, "Why not get her opinion! She's the one that will be going there!" We visited a few and when Taryn walked in to this preschool she lit up, asking me questions like, "Where is my cubby?" "Who is my teacher" etc…She didn't give that reaction to any other classroom so I knew this was the right fit for her. Thankfully, she was admitted, because enrollment is famous for being cut throat. Phew! 










Thursday, September 17, 2015

"Super Happy" and "Super Fast"


Taryn and Hadleigh LOVE to be super heroes. Since Taryn was Hadleigh's age, she has been asking for a cape and running around the house. We would always use our dish drying towel because it most resembled a cape :)
Now Hadleigh does the same thing! We recently watched The Incredibles so Taryn has been calling herself, "Super Fast" and Hadleigh declared that she was "Super Happy"
I can't even tell you how happy these girls get while running around the house pretending to be super heroes. I also love how Hadleigh is looking up at Taryn, watching how she poses so that she can do the same. They are "Super" cute! 




Monday, September 14, 2015

Random pictures from the last few weeks


When we returned from swimming one day, they were finishing up the new road on our street. Taryn and Hadleigh were fascinated by the trucks and different tools used. Taryn set up this little "bed" and watched while I put Hadleigh down for a nap. When I came back down stairs, she had fallen asleep. Thanks construction guys, for lulling my child to sleep ;)



Another round of Gymnastics completed! Tyson was able to come to this awards ceremony, (it's just a simple thing) and Taryn was happy to have him there. 


We set out one day for lots of errands and some fun activities. We were planning on being gone for a big bulk of the day. We heard Hadleigh start to cry in the back seat and found out she had dumped a whole bunch of water all over her. Luckily we had just past a Old Navy and I can't tell you how much I love that store. I basically only shop the clearance section or when they have those amazing jean sales so I always score great deals. I ran in the store while Tyson and the girls waited in the car. I picked up this outfit for $5.00 in the clearance section. And it only took a few minutes to find both of them. 
Yup- I love Old Navy so so much




One Saturday after gymnastics, we stopped by DQ for a cool treat on a super hot day. Yum! I think the last time we had a blizzard was when we moved out here 3 years ago on our road trip. I think it was somewhere in Texas. 


I think this picture is hilarious (now.) One Sunday morning I was helping the girls get cereal and Hadleigh poured her bowl out on the table and it fell over the floor too. It was a big mess (Honey Bunches of Oats) and I had JUST finished cleaning up everything. 5 minutes later I was cleaning up breakfast and putting cereal away while the girls ate. I grabbed this organic Cocoa puffs stuff (on sale at Costco-whoohoo!!) and the chip clip slipped right off the bag and it spilled EVERYWHERE! Tyson had been in the front room and when we saw this, he took a picture, knowing that it had been a crazy 5 minutes. Taryn was so kind to help me clean up my mess. At those times, you appreciate the help but also cringe when they step on more cereal while helping and make an even bigger mess. Oh man. 







Our library just got even cooler. They've added this fun Eric Carle rug which the girls LOVE and boxes of trains, magna tiles, blocks etc…. My girls love the library and now we have more to do there in the winter time when the weather is too cold to play outside. 



Taryn and her duple tower and Haddie in her diaper. Yup- that's normal life right there.