Tara's

Thursday, November 17, 2011

day trip to mapleside farms.

a few weeks ago, our little family decided to embrace the fall season and head outdoors to mapleside farms.  it was such a cool place!  we didn't stay long because it was super windy that day, but we're excited to take junior back and hang out outside when he is old enough to enjoy the corn mazes, pumpkin patch, and huge slide to get down and explore that part of the farm.  but we had fun and chose our pumpkins anyway!


not thrilled. time to go inside.

: )

trying to fill his precious belly and warm him up.

daddy's touch finally calmed him down.

pumpkin picking! on the lookout for just the right ones.

not thrilled... again.
i walked him through where they were just starting [at the time] to put up their christmas display.  i was soooo excited to explain what christmas was to him.  how delightful and fun for him to have life in his little body and to experience Christmas for the first time. :)

happy autumn, and happy thanksgiving to you.
tk. <3

Monday, November 14, 2011

Noah, you're 4 months old!



We just can’t get over how cute you are!!  We look at you and admire your cuteness at least every other day, just staring and taking it in…  We aren’t sure now looking back how we thought you were “cute” when you were first born, but I guess we were just thoroughly in love, and that’s wonderful. J  You are absolutely the sweetest, most fun, happiest, easiest baby I have ever met, seen, heard of, held… hands down.  We are so blessed!
  • ·         You can’t roll over yet! You still love flipping over onto your side though - you'll hang out over there while babbling and chewing on something.
  • ·         You will give the hugest smile to mommy or daddy when they join you in the room that you are in after you’ve been alone.  You truly are sunshine.
  • ·         You haaaate tummy time.  If anything, you can last up to about 5 minutes.  MAYBE.  Daddy’s worried because he wants you to crawl and asks mommy daily how long she has made you do tummy time [I feel like I’m torturing you!].  However, daddy does think you could probably start walking any day now because you are so strong.
  • ·         You loooove to stand up.  It’s one of your favorite things, and you are always SO proud of yourself when you do.  If anyone decides to touch both of your hands at the same time while you are laying down, you instantly grab on, strongly hold up that head of yours, tighten those abs, and lock your legs and there is no other option but up!! As soon as you get there you chomp down onto the closest finger of your aforementioned supporter and suck/gnaw for as long as they will let you.  That, or you look around left and right as proudly as you can and try to lock eyes with daddy so he applauds you for standing up. You are oh, so proud of yourself.
  • ·         You are .always. in the mood for: being held by mommy [Uncle Jeremy says that you are a mommy’s boy… and momma likes it that way.]
  • ·         It’s only happened once, but during a Sunday night young adult service, you leaned towards Uncle Jeremy until he held you, then you held his neck.  He is soooo proud that it was him that you reached out to for the very first time.
  • ·         You love love love touching and feeling things… your blanket monkey is still your favorite, you love to touch the silky part undernearth and the soft part on top.  When you are nursing, you love to touch mommy’s mouth, her nose, or gently swat at her hair, even when your eyes are closed.  It might be TMI, but I [mommy] LOVE IT. J it melts my heart every time.
  • ·         No more giggles yet!  They have escaped out just about 3 times in the last month and a half or so.
  • ·         One time this month when you were on your tummy, you scooted your butt into the air several times!  Mommy even got it on video, but you haven’t done it since.  I guess you didn’t realize that’s what you should be doing to get ready to crawl!
  • ·         It is regularly observed of you that you are very sharp, you look right into people’s eyes, and you take in what’s going on around you - you are very in tuned to your surroundings.  You like to be sitting so that you can see what’s going on.  Mommy and Daddy’s friend Sam says that you look like a “professor”, and others have agreed that that’s a great name for you!
  • ·         Right now we are busy Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights with church activities and have been for two months now.  You are definitely getting your fill of being active in the house of the Lord from a young age!
  • ·         Mommy has been trying to monitor your schedule this month.  Right now you eat every two hours [more often than only varying by a few minutes] and you have a morning, afternoon and evening nap.  You wake up sometimes during the night for your pacificer, but other than that you sleep from about 10:30pm-7:30am!


We love you and can’t get enough of you, precious baby Noah.
Mommy




And what a treasure this is.... I found a note that Chris had written to Noah last month, here you go... :)

From Dad-
Noah it’s so hard to believe that your already 3 months old well actually 14 weeks.  Wow, you’ve grown so fast and soon you’ll be crawling all over the place.  You have been such an added joy in our lives.  I can’t imagine what life would be without you.  You truly are a gift from God.  I get so excited when I get to come home and see you and mommy after work every day.  Your mommy and I are always praying for you and over you that God’s will will be perfect in your life.  Noah I love you so incredibly much and will tell you that every day.  Even now I’m so proud of you ….



Friday, October 28, 2011

i WILL blog more often!

I am committed to blogging more.
There, I said it, and now I have accountability.
Please, I beg of you...

For real, though.  I want to document my life and share it with you [whomever you may be - I would love if you made your presence known whenever you enjoy a post or have a thought to share!].  I have learned that when I am forced to write out what I am going through that I end up understanding it more - I can more truly grasp what is going on.  When I take time for those threads of my heart to get untangled one by one, I have found that I end up living life with tremendously more peace, joy, and believe it or not, productivity.  Not only are these reasons wonderful, but the number one reason is because the Lord has called me to be faithful to blog and share.  He keeps giving me more and more reasons so blog, too!  So here I am, day number 2. : )


The house is quiet this morning.  I have a bit of homework left to finish for the week, which is always a relief when it is done for the weekend.  It doesn't take a tremendous amount of time, but does require focus, and when I am done for the week it isn't always in the back of my mind - expectations on time are so heavy, aren't they??  This week I have started tracking when Noah takes his naps to see if we can regulate a more structured schedule for him now that I think he is old enough.  I counted last night and realized that he naps for about 6 hours during the day.  That was eye opening for me for sure, especially because I realized that that isn't very much time at all.  For some of you, that might seem like gobs of time, and I am getting better with what I can do during his waking hours, but to have time with the Lord, eat breakfast, clean up, do laundry and whatever else around the house that I need that day or whatever distracts me, and THEN get homework done... yeah, it definitely opened my eyes to see why I never seem to get done all that I expect out of my day.  Like ever.  I love those revelations - though a bit of a disappointment because now I realize how precious little time I have, now that knowledge helps me strategize how to maximize that time better.  And to be honest, I crave his waking time.  I find myself looking at pictures and videos of him when he naps, and thinking about how I can't wait to hug him when he wakes up in the morning and I kiss him at LEAST 100 times in his first waking hour because I haven't gotten to all night.


Anyway, we are having some company over tonight... so exciting!  I LOVE when we can share what the Lord has given us and open up our home - it makes life just feel right.
our spare bedroom, ready for our guests.


I'm also washing some loads of scrap fabric that I scored over the summer - a whole box for a $1!!!  The Lord loves me, and just knew that I would want to sew this fall... :)
This is only half of it... and please know that I have lovely
pink rosed pj pants on. Love them!



Three things that are SO on my mind and heart this week are:



|     I want to take this class so badly!  I think mom might get it for me for an early Christmas gift so I can learn before the end of the year... yeaaaaaaah!! :)  It's $50 and I can't just drop that kind of money right now, but I keep thinking about it and have for MONTHS now, so I hope I get to do it!  It's just a life skill that I could totally use as a wife and mommy, and would love to make whatever I want for around the house and for gifts!  I am already getting excited about some projects I have recently found. : )


|     I am going tonight with the our youth group to the Acquire the Fire in Cleveland, and I am SO excited to see what God does in their lives and how He shows up.  It's incredibly different to be on this side of the event, and my anticipation is super, super high for the youth [and for us as leaders!] to whatever God has on His agenda for us.  It always greatly impacted my life when I was a youth and went [every year].  I am also so loving getting to see those that I know that are still on tour.  It's wild realizing that that's what I was just doing, literally, not even a year and a half ago.  My, how time can quickly change things...



|     I have just started going through this ebook.  Now that my newborn is no longer a newborn, I'm seeking to adjust life into productivity mode.  I want my personal vision to be renewed, and put practical steps in place to keep pursuing that vision during this season.  Plus, I always need to adjust every few years [or more than that] to what I thought my life vision was to where life has taken me and add in the clarifying revelations that I get through life experiences as well.  This is the first time I have really sought out my vision since being married as well, and Chris and I want to protect our family and our calling by being purposeful, and I want to make it real in me!  It's totally free, I recommend going through it if you are interested.


That's all for now, folks.  See you next week.  Hope you have a beautiful, fall weekend.
tk <3

Thursday, October 27, 2011

a thursday in october.

squeaky clean and fresh noah.

homework, homework, homework.
[it's always better with a hot beverage]

1 corinthians is soooo good.
3 chapters a day now, reading thru the Bible this 2011.

family of bright orange pumpkins.
[i love how the rain changes them to that color]

his shirt says "mini elephant."
he doesn't want to nap right now. so much for homework?


that's all for now.
busy weekend with Acquire the Fire festivities.
soooo looking forward to it.

here's wishing you a taste, scent, sight or sound of rich fall today.


Thursday, September 15, 2011

a glimpse of my thursday afternoon.

chicken noodle soup lunch.  yum.

philosophy homework on the brand, brand new laptop!

a week's worth of laundry.
noah's laundry.

snuggled in for a nice, long afternoon nap  -
wonderful so momma could get her homework done!

a tiny glimpse of autumn on our new tree
planted just this summer in front of our home.

nap's over, homework is done.
time for some snuggles before daddy comes home from work!

happy thursday pm to you.
tk. <3

Sunday, September 4, 2011

lunch break with daddy.








we love when he comes home to visit us during his lunch break...
happy long weekend, everyone!
{tk}

Thursday, September 1, 2011

adjusting to new life.

Wow, I’m really bad at this blogging thing... last I blogged was a month ago, then a month before that.
Lame.
You wouldn't even believe that I think about my blog almost every day.  Oh, something needs to change…now that it finally feels like a mommy/baby rhythm has been discovered, I would love for that to become a regular reality soon.
               

The past eight weeks having my mini addition in my arms has been super challenging in so many ways, but absolutely delightful at the same exact time.  It’s hard to pinpoint to myself what this experience has been like.  I guess for me, the always wanting to multi-task individual that I am, it's hard to still not be able to expect a certain schedule of the day.  Though we have the INCREDIBLE blessing of our little guy getting lots of sleep at night, he has just started napping more than an hour or two during the day.  It's pretty wonderful!  For a while, if he wasn't sleeping, he was fussing and trying to fall asleep in my arms only.  So my days were spent snuggling a fussy baby off and on, and as soon as I put him down he would wake up.


yes, i want to document everything... :)



The last few weeks he has started sleeping a lot more during the day.  It may be a growth spurt, but it's been going on for a few weeks, so either he just now needs more sleep during the day, or his momma has more experience now for calming a poor fussy baby.


these pictures make me smile.  just about everything about him does.  ok, but not always in the moment, but frustrated moments are RARE compared to the moments that I wish I could just hold him all day, watch him learn to smile, listen to him coo and practice making noises and making faces.   
right now he is snoring right next to me...
i better jump into my homework and snatch up these precious moments to work on philosophy.


Friday, July 22, 2011

the first 14 days of his little life.

today marks our noah christopher's 2nd week birthday.
i can't believe my sweet boy is already two weeks old!
it's been a wonderful two weeks of getting to know him and adjusting to being our new family.

in honor of this holiday, i wanted to share some pictures,
a glimpse into each day of his life outside the womb thus far as captured on my iphone.


7-7-11
a few hours after labor had finally begun.
he was 8 or 10 days late depending on which due date we went by.
yes, i was out to eat dinner and in labor -
 I had to get in one last good meal before "the hardest work of my life."

7-8-11
by morning time, i was finally allowed to see this precious face
that i had wondered about for so long
and to hold him in my arms...

 daddy's in love.
this is our first time, just as the three of us,
a few hours after noah was born.

newborn face. :)

 7-9-11
night time shift...
i was supposed to be sleeping,
but i couldn't help staying awake
to just stare and let it sink in...

7-10-11
finally on our way home.
he cried until he held my finger,
then he slept the rest of the way home without letting go -
melt . my . heart.

 7-11-11
meeting our friends (Jordan and Kim).

7-12-11
happy feet.

(going to interject a daddy pic here)
he started with a full beard/mustache
that he decided to grow until baby noah arrived.
that night he went to shave, and was inspired to keep only this.
as my brother rob would say,
"that's just sooo dirty."
don't worry, it's gone now.

 7-13-11
if you don't get this onesie, watch this:
onesie compliments of my dear friend, rebekah. :)

 7-14-11
 my wonderful momma in the background,
cleaning my house, taking care of me and baby,
serving my fam like crazy.
thanks for everything, mom and Sharon,
that you have done for us the last two weeks!!
i don't want to even try to imagine it without the two of you.

7-15-11
he fell asleep like this...
i need to find him a baby-size eye mask for his naps.

7-16-11
visitors!!  jake and sarah brought their precious eden
and spent some time visiting with us and meeting our noah.

daddy's making breakfast.

eden and noah. little buddies.

teaching jake and sarah to play 'settlers of catan.' 

...and eden, too.

7-17-11
sunday morning cuddles with daddy.

7-18-11
monday morning can be rough for anybody.

 7-19-11
(imagine these kicking alternately and with serious emotion)
this is what an 11-day-old's frustration fit looks like.

 7-20-11
"can i be an h&m model??
grandma k gets me SO many cute outfits."

7-21-11
the coffee didn't work apparently...

 7-22-11
our precious son,
sweet dreams.
Jesus, watch over him and protect him.