It was bound to happen eventually....

Sydney had her first fender bender. Unfortunately (or fortunately from an insurance perspective) the car she hit was mine. She was pulling in to the spot next to me and scraped along the side of my car. The damage looks fairly minimal, but we haven't taken it in yet to be sure.

I forget sometimes how much she has going on this year.  She's working and swimming and still getting straight A's. The night in question, she was leaving the district swim meet to rush to her choir concert. She was trying to get there on time because she had a solo and wanted time to warm up. She also was taking the PSAT the next morning. No pressure, right?

I think we handled it okay. We still try to impart the importance of driving safely, but we've all made silly mistakes behind the wheel. Our saving grace is that we have more experience and can often times recover before it's too late.

I'm pretty confident she will be a lot more careful from now on. She was pretty darn freaked out!

Unfortunately, while this was her first accident, it may not be her last. Hopefully if it does happen again, it will be equally as minor. 

For now, she's just having to deal with a whole lot of teasing...and a lot of parking practice!

4 Weeks...

Peyton has been away at college for four weeks. So far, so good...

I remember when we were so proud of ourselves as parents for keeping her alive for four weeks! It seemed like such a big milestone.

She seems to be loving college life. She dyed her hair the first week, so our cute redhead now looks like this:

I think she expected us to be mad. Honestly, I kind of like it. Go figure.

I'm assuming classes are going well. We really don't hear much from the "Great White North."  I think that's a good thing? Also, if you got that reference, you are SUPER cool...hoser.

We did get to see her over Labor Day. She and Emma sweet-talked Mark into letting them come home for the long weekend.

Macie was probably the most excited to see her...

 I think the feeling was mutual.

I'm sure Peyton was super excited to hop in the car again the next morning...

 It felt a little like this:

We put her to work at the Catholic fair booth at the Twin Falls County Fair Saturday night. I think Uncle Scott was happiest to see her there. He needed all the helpers he could get! We've been helping for the last several years and I think Peyton would have been bummed to miss out.

We got to have a little fair fun, and a lot of fair food on Sunday.

Mark missed his baby a wee bit I believe...

Not me though. I'm stoic...

We will get to see her for Homecoming the first weekend in October. I think we'll totally play it super casual though. ;-) Oh, and....Go Vandals!

Tverdy, party of 3...

Well, it's finally happened. The time has come for Peyton to leave for college. In fact, she and Mark drove away about an hour ago.

Even though we have been preparing for weeks, I think the denial is still super strong for all of us.

We walked by this pile so many times that I'm pretty sure we stopped noticing it!

It doesn't seem like too much stuff. I'm sure that dorm room will fill up quickly though.

Here it is in packed form...

I feel like I've been doing a pretty good job of staying chill. Especially since jury duty coincided with moving week. Nothing like having to wait until the last minute to see if you are able to travel. And I am the eternal optimist so I was SURE I would get to go. Finding out at the last minute that I didn't in fact get to go was bit heartbreaking.

I did lose it at Church Sunday. The priest had all of the students headed to college stand in the aisle and the congregation blessed them. That's so far been the only time I cried. I also made my people take photos after Mass to commemorate her last Sunday at home. They were thrilled.

We had a fun going away lunch with Emma's family after church. I hope she and Peyton will be successful roommates! I think they will do well.

Syd is still super terrified to be our sole focus. She's pretty sure swimming will take up a lot of time so she won't constantly be bugged by us. I imagine she'll find a few extra hobbies if we get too obnoxious.

As of now, I'm waiting to hear that they arrived safely. Tomorrow is official move-in and I made Mark promise they would face time me so I can at least see her room!

The tears haven't actually started yet, but I'm definitely on the brink of crying. I'm pretty sure it will be short lived if and when it comes. At least I hope so! Peyton will probably stay fairly tear-free since it's Mark there and not me. Fingers crossed anyway!

And it's ONLY 7 weeks til U of I's Homecoming and I get to see my girl again.

Sweet 16!

It doesn't get much sweeter than this girl!

It's hard to believe that our "Absent-Minded Professor" is 16 already! Syd is one of the smartest people I know. She also has moments where I'm completely terrified for her. We have story after story of times when Sydney just made us shake our heads in wonderment. Both good, and bad. Ha!

One of the things that has always struck me about Sydney is that she is seemingly fearless. When she was really little, she would jump into any pool she saw. Whether she was wearing clothes or not...and even though she couldn't swim. It was extremely difficult parenting her through the toddler years. Childproofing was just a challenge that she was always willing to tackle. We never did find anything that would work to thwart her. Thankfully she was (and is) adorable!

As she's grown and matured, she has transferred that fearlessness into other areas. Including this:

Mark took the girls to the Basque picnic a couple weeks ago. Syd decided she wanted to try the weight competition. Maybe it's the fact that I'm pretty timid when it comes to things that could end up making me look foolish, but I'm always surprised when she volunteers for something like this. She never, ever worries about looking silly! Amazing. Oh, and I guess she actually did quite well, especially for never having seen this competition before!

She is also fearless when it comes to performing in public. 

 Even if she's wearing a swim suit!


I've never met someone who is more comfortable in their own skin. To be honest, I'm a little jealous! Whether she's cutting her hair super short, being into totally "geeky" things, or wearing whatever she wants, she definitely stays true to herself.

One of her other amazing qualities is her willingness to work hard. She's definitely willing to do the work and try to improve. I really love watching her determination in the pool!

I do think she's a little nervous about her sister heading to college. Not only will they really, really miss each other, I imagine she's terrified that she'll be our sole focus. I think Peyton's big personality has always let Syd fly under the radar. A role which she plays quite well. Hopefully we can temper our helicoptering a little. 

I am pretty thankful that she still likes to hang out with us. She really is about as sweet as they come!

Happy birthday, Tommy Waffles! We love you and are so humbled to be your parents. I'm still not sure how we got so lucky!  XOXO

Adult-ish

To borrow a phrase from one of my friends, we have a "newly minted adult" at our house. Yep, Peyton turned 18.

What is even happening right now? The joke has always been that our goal was to keep her alive until she turned 18. Nailed it! But it wasn't always easy...

 In honor of her birthday, I decided to catalog a couple of the big events in her life. 

Starting with:

Probably the first time we were a disappointment as parents...still in the hospital

And then there was this:

Her baptism...this was right after we had to fish her pacifier out of the baptismal font...

Or this:

The first, but not last, time we broke her...

Her arm was actually broken in this photo...

And her first haircut, as if we hadn't traumatized her enough already.

Or this:

30 photos later, and this was the best...

I will say, this was probably one of the biggest life changes for all of us!

There are so many other momentous events that have taken place. This post could go on forever and ever!

But, I'll just post one more event:

Happy 18th, Dude! (Peyton on the right...)

The above tattoos are in memory of this lady. She loved us like no other and we still miss her every day.

Next up is graduation and college. It really has flown by in the blink of an eye. We are super proud of you, Peyt!

And I promise I won't tell anyone about you getting pulled over on your birthday last night. ;-)

There is something about 
a red-headed girl.
She'll make you crazy, 
and shake up your world.

Life skills...

"I can't believe I'm 15 years old and I already have to pay taxes!" - Sydney Tverdy

Dude, you're preaching to the choir. I can't believe I'm 43 and still have to pay taxes!

A year or so ago, Peyton mentioned that she didn't think she was ready for college because she didn't know how to do anything.  Including filing tax returns. Well, as much as I think this would have been a good skill to teach her this year, I ended up just doing them for her...again. Maybe next year. (Yeah, right.) Hopefully we have prepared her for being on her own. Thankfully, she will have her friend Emma as a roommate. Pretty sure they will be a good balance of adulting skills. Peyton knows how to cook, do laundry, manage money. I'm not at all worried about her study skills. What are we missing? I'm sure there is something.





We seem to be screaming through April, which means my first baby will be turning 18 shortly. And then there is graduation. We should probably work on getting those announcements out. Throw in a few swim meets for Syd and another nerd camp and a driving test to obtain her license and she seems even busier than her sister.

I think the next few months are going to be a blur.

It's Official!

This chick is #UIdahoBound!

She's filled out the housing application and sent in her deposit. In 5 short months, she will be on campus.

How is that even possible?

I think we knew all along this is where she would end up. It makes the most sense in all aspects. She was accepted everywhere she applied, and received a crazy amount in scholarship offers. But none could come close to U of I financially.  Even Idaho State would have been more expensive. I'm not sure how that even happened.

We are pretty excited.

Some might say we brainwashed her...I'm not following that logic. ;-)

   

Just because she has always been drawn the the black and gold doesn't mean we had anything to do with it! She makes her own clothing choices. Always has...

What? ;-)

For now, she has her work cut out for her addressing these babies...

Being a grown-up isn't all it's cracked up to be sometimes. ;-)

Oh, and watch out Nate and Erin...it will be here before you know it!