Precious Moments

Today has been a day where I have just sat and watched Tacy a lot and smiled.  This girl cracks me up so much with her cute and funny personality.  It started with us all getting ready this morning.  I had put my hair up in a pony tail and put Tacy's hair up in two piggy tails.  Then I was trying to do my makeup, so Brad offered to let Tacy brush his hair (Friday morning she asked him if she could).  So he sat down a step while Tacy took the brush to brush his very short hair.  Then she asked him if she could give him a piggy tail and he said yes.  So she ran in to the bathroom and asked for an elastic which I gave her.  At this point I stopped doing my makeup so I could watch her and get pictures.  Tacy tried so hard to put the elastic in Brad's hair and finally put it on top of his head.  She then gave it back to me and asked for a bow.  This was still not working due to his short hair (his beard probably would have held the bow).  Tacy tried putting the bow on top of his head and putting her hand over the bow to keep it in place.  I was laughing so much.  She finally gave up and gave me the bow.  Then she brushed his hair a few more times and told him that he was "all done".  Brad thanked her for helping him.

Later, Tacy kept wanting to lay down to "sleep".  She would lay in bed and ask to be covered by her blanky and then suck her thumb or giggle because pretending to sleep is so funny to her.  Well, after her real nap, she was playing and ran upstairs and came back down with her pillow (she loves her pillow, especially ever since I made her a pillow cover with her choice of fabric).  She then laid the pillow on the ground, put her blanket over her and laid down.  She then rolled over and got my attention all to tell me that she was sleeping. 

Tacy has the funniest/cutest little imagination.  After running errands I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk. I was surprised she said no and played by herself.  She put her doll in time out and let me know that her doll was in time out (she put her little blue chair in the corner where Tacy sits for time out).  Then she was sitting on the floor with her baby and barbie talking away, laughing, singing songs to them and dancing with them.  Then she had her baby and barbie lay down on her pillow with her to sleep.  Her little imagination is so fun.  I stopped reading to just watch her and I couldn't help smile.  I love her little pretend conversations with herself and her toys.  She repeats alot of the same words or phrases and will then start laughing and keep on talking.  

Tacy is pretty good at playing like this by herself as long as I am in the room.  So I can read while she plays and she will sometimes run to tell me something and then go back to playing (like saying that her baby was in time out).  But she will not play for long by herself if we are in separate rooms. 

Tacy has been picking out her outfits and this one cracked me up with all her stripes

A couple days ago Tacy really melted my heart.  It was Wednesday I think and we were all ready and had a few minutes before we had to leave for work/school.  Tacy was playing and I went up and hugged Brad.  Well, Tacy saw us and ran up and hugged Brad's leg and looked up at him and said "Love you" then she ran away giggling while Brad tried to chase after her to get a full on hug.  After this, while driving Tacy to drop her off at our friends for the day, Tacy was talking to herself and then said "Love you Mom".  That evening she told us that she loved us again.  Tacy has told us this before, but it's so fun now that she seems to do it a little more often and it's so random sometimes.  I just love it.  Brad and I tell her that we love her repeatedly every day.  I'm glad that she is telling us she loves us too now. 

Tacy felt Sully needed to be buckled in her car seat

I just love watching her play.  It is so fun to watch her, to see how happy she is and how creative and imaginative that she is.  My little girl is getting so big.  It's moments like these where I just smile and remember how much I love this precious daughter we have.

Oh and Tacy loves listening/watching Taylor Swift's Shake it Off.  Tacy will dance to it and it's so cute.  She is now trying to mimic some of the things Taylor does in the music video and it cracks me up.

My Love of Fall

So I was the weird kid in kindergarten who picked fall as my favorite season while all the other kids picked winter or summer (this is a memory I can never forget because we drew pictures of our favorite season and then our teachers put them on a board to display so it was very easy to see that my opinion was not the same as everyone else).  While I did feel odd/outnumbered at the time, I stood by my decision.  I do truly love fall!  Spring is a close second.  Here are the reasons why I love fall most:

Tacy's art project made from leaves she collected during a walk

1. I love the crisp autumn air!  I don't know a better way to describe it, but it's how the air feels when it is no longer hot from summer but is starting to cool down, and you can smell the leaves, your cheeks get a little pink from the cold but it just feels so refreshing to be outside...I love it!

2. I love the fall colors!  I missed seeing all the leaves changing colors while living on the west coast.  Yes, it does happen, but not to the degree and amount that it does here on the east coast (probably helps that there are a whole lot more trees over here).  Fall colors are so warm and beautiful.  I love driving during the fall because it is just gorgeous to look out and see green, brown, yellow, bright orange, red, etc.  Fall is just a beautiful time of year and makes me appreciate this world so much.

3. I LOVE apples!  Seriously, I love eating apples, I love apple pie, I love apple smells, I love finding new apple recipes (I'm going to make apple pancakes tomorrow and I'm so excited!).  Cider is nice too, but I love the carbs of apple deserts!  Haha.  The NC State Farmers market is perfect because the farmers there bring such a wide variety of apples and sell them for such a good deal!  Apple heaven! I love winecrisps and I'd never even heard of them until a few weeks ago.  Brad's favorite are arkansas black.  They are yummy too.  It's fun eating and finding these not as popular/common types of apples. Brad rolls his eyes at my obsession with apples, but hey, they are delicious, yummy and healthy!  At work, my co-worker bought apple spice air wick plug ins and it makes our little office smell so good!  Not all the other girls agree, but Angela and I love it!

4. I love wearing jeans and sweatshirts.  Fall is perfect sweater weather!  It's not too cold that you need to bundle up so you don't freeze to death and it's not too warm that you are uncomfortable in modest clothes.  I love it!  I love being all warm and snuggly (just ask Brad about Tacy and my obsession with blankets and being well wrapped).  Seriously, I will turn on the fan so it is cool enough to need to be wrapped up in my comforter at night.  

5. On top of being great comfortable sweater weather, it is also perfect weather to exercise!  So i'm not great at exercising but we did a 5k walk for diabetes (November is National Diabetes Awareness month) on Saturday and then I went for a short run.  It was perfect!  I got warm but i was comfortable jogging in my yoga pants and a t-shirt.  It was great.  Gotta love the brisk air!!!  

6.  I love leaves!  I have many found memories of my Dad racking up all the leaves in our front yard in NC and letting me jump into the pile and play.  My freshman year at BYU I remember jumping in leave piles with my friends once.  It's just so fun.  I would love to do a fall family photo shoot with all the leaves and beautiful colors...maybe next year since we just had some done in July.  

Well, I could probably think of more but they all start to be similar.  I just love Fall, baking, apples, and the beautiful leaves.  North Carolina is the best place to spend fall because Fall lasts for a few months not just a week.  Oh, fall also makes me think of soccer.  I miss KSA soccer days.  

I hope everyone has been able to enjoy some Fall at least as not everyone lives in a place with a long enough Fall (#1 reason I'm happy not to be in Utah right now, well that and the snow, but that's kinda the same thing).