Refreshing

It's been a while since I've sat down to write out my thoughts on life and family.  So, I think a bit of a refresh will be helpful!

I'm Tara.  Steve and I have been married for 10 years - a whole decade people...By the Grace of God, we are still striving to love each other well and enjoy this wonderful life we have been given together!  We definitely don't have a perfect marriage, but we are blessed by each other every day, and I am so thankful for Steve walking through life along side of me.  Here's to our next decade together, and many many many more!!!

Our kids have grown and changed so much!

Jonas is 7 (nearly 8).  He is energetic and honest and very caring.  He's tall and growing more every day!  He's also convinced that he will outgrow his super tall mom by the time he's 10.  With the rate he is growing, he very well might!  He will start 2nd grade here in a few weeks.  Jonas loves reading and math and basically anything that involves action! He is an energetic boy!

Joelle is 6.  She is gentle and kind (most of the time), and loves to color and play with her princesses.  She is also growing tall, but being taller than me isn't really on her radar right now.  She's more interested in playing pretend and seeing her friends.  She will start 1st grade this year.

Jaina is 4.  She is loving and cuddly.  She also loves coloring and pretend play, but her favorite things are her collection of Hatchimals and all of the stuffed animals that she can fine.  She loves her tiny little animal buddies.  Especially the kitties!  One more year until school for this kiddo!

Jaiden is 3.  He is snuggly and goofy.  He is all about sword fights and Nerf gun battles and batman.  You wouldn't believe the amount of times I've seen him draw an imaginary sword out of an imaginary sheath on his hip!  He is spunky and fiery and walks around talking in his batman voice.   He always keeps us on our toes!  

This summer has been full of outside play and adventure.  Steve and I had the chance to adventure down to North and South Carolina this past June to celebrate our 10th anniversary - Thank you Mom & Sam & Alyssa for watching our crazy bunch of kids while we were gone for a whole week!  We stopped for a day in Asheville, NC area and spent some time hiking through the Beautiful Smokey Mountains.  I think I officially found our favorite place in the US.  The Smokeys are just breathtaking.  We hiked up to the top of John Rock, near Brevard, NC.  It was absolutely incredible!  

We saw some beautiful waterfalls throughout our hike, also! 

We spent a few wonderful days at Hilton Head Island, SC.  The beaches were so pretty, even through the cloud cover!  We enjoyed watching the pelicans fishing off the shoreline.  The would fly around and then dive right into the water to catch their dinner!  It was pretty cool! 

The kids have spent lots of time outside riding bikes and jumping on the trampoline.  We have explored a few hiking trails here in Indiana, too!  It's been a fun summer!  We can hardly believe that school starts in less than 2 weeks! 

Kindergarten!

Well, it's official!  Yesterday was Jonas's first day of SCHOOL!  Our little guy is little no more - he informed me this morning that he knew how to do "everything" and that it was not necessary for me to walk him in to school on his second day.  I calmly asked him where his classroom was located and he rattled off "lefts" and "rights" in no apparent order.  I'm fairly confident that had I not walked him in today, he would have been found in a very random corner of the school!  I am so proud of his confidence, though, and he was so much more ready for Kindergarten than I anticipated!  I think yesterday was a bit low-key for him.  He said it was kinda boring at school. We reminded him that not every day needed to be the most fun day of his life and that maybe the second day would be more fun!  I'm happy to say that he was still excited for his second day of school today!

August 2017

Joelle has grown very tall this summer!  She seems to have changed so much in such a short time!  Every time I look at her, I think she looks way too grown up for her age!  She is still the same sweet, gentle little girl, though!  It's been so fun to see her develop her love for art and drawing and coloring this year!  She has so much patience for the tiny detail.  I recently shared on of my "adult style" coloring pages of a butterfly, and she has been diligently coloring it for weeks!  I love it!  I think she has more patience for the details than I do!  

Jaina is also growing and changing this year, although she hasn’t gotten much taller yet!  She’s our petite little one, and what she doesn’t have in height, she makes up for in personality!  She is a goofy, loving, energetic little girl, who constantly steals the spotlight!  She keeps us all on our toes, and she adores her big/little brothers and follows her big sister around everywhere!  Her speech is improving, and more and more we are understanding what she is saying!  This summer has brought some challenges with her eczema, but we are confident that we will find a treatment that works to help to alleviate the problem.  She still has her food allergies, but we were encouraged to see that the severity has lessened!  Maybe in another year, she will have outgrown them.  Only time will tell, though!  Our next adventure will be potty-training.  So far, she’s interested, but doesn’t seem to be quite ready.  I think we will just have to go for it, one of these days, and see how it goes!  I bet she will be more ready than I think she is!  

Jaiden has probably changed the most this year, considering he’s the littlest!  He started walking last month, and enjoys it so much that he just walks around for the fun of it!  It’s been challenging to keep him off of the stairs, but the baby gate seems to do the trick.  He still babbles, saying a few words.  He is picking up sign language and uses it as the primary way to communicate, along with the ever-present high-pitched scream!  His fiery red hair reflects his personality  - he’s a spit-fire and proud of it!  In general, he is very calm and quiet, but when he is upset he flips from quiet to quite loud and determined to get his way.  I have a feeling that next year will be an adventure, to say the least!  He loves to snuggle, and insists that hugs are given by leaning his forehead onto you.  This often results in a sort of head-butt.  We’ve all been bruised by his cute little “hugs”.  The kids don’t think it’s quite as funny as we do!  

Steve and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary a few months ago!  I keep telling him that it’s time to start planning our 10 yr anniversary!  Yay!  Hopefully we will get to go on a (kid free) trip!  We had an amazing summer vacation to Traverse City, Mi in July!  We stayed with Steve’s sister and her family in a little cabin on Bass Lake, just south of Traverse City.  It was absolutely an amazing trip!  The kids enjoyed fishing, boating, lots of nature walks, hiking, and more outdoors than we ever get to witness down here in the city life!  It was very refreshing for Steve and me.  

 

July 2017

We hope you are all doing well!  Thank’s for taking the time to hear about our little family!  

Jaiden's First Birthday!!

Jaiden's 1 Year Photos:

July 4th 2017