Lately I’ve been feeling really really lucky again. I have just been counting my blessings a lot and realized how blessed we are. Also with it being the week of St. Patrick’s Day the title “lucky” is very fitting LOL
(Full disclosure: if you ever read sentences in here that don't make sense it's because I use the voice-to-text function on my phone to making doing this faster. I apologize in advance for any typos.)
The biggest thing I feel lucky for is having Dallin. He makes me laugh every day and puts up with all my garbage. He deserves an award.
Marni's house
One of the ways that we are lucky is that we have Marni to watch Cooper every day while we work. Cooper loves her she loves him, and she takes care of him so well. We’re also saving so much money instead of putting him in a daycare center. Anyways she sent me these pictures because she thought it was cute that the older kids would crawl with Cooper and do a race. She makes 30s days so fun, and she never seems stressed or negative about anything. She is so happy and calm in general, and that happiness wears off on the kids.
Play, play, play
He reminds me of that Pixar movie when you could hear the dogs thoughts out loud and they just think “play play play play play.” He doesn’t want to do anything that involves holding still. Ever!
I can't believe his party is in 1 week! This was him practicing for the smash cake with a muffin haha
My old roommate Tonya is so sweet. She got Cooper a ball pit for his first birthday present because her son loved his at his age. She is so thoughtful for doing that. She also set me up with one of her old sorority sisters who lives down here in Arizona so we’re going to do a play date with them.
I'm so good at dieting now!
It’s so weird because I used to be really good about working out every day but I was horrible at dieting. Now it’s the opposite I’m really good at dieting work out LOL maybe you can’t have both maybe it’s always going to be one of the other with life. But if I have to take one definitely seems that being good at that shows better results than being good at working out does. I remember thinking that I could work out three hours every single day the hardest workouts of my life, and still never see results. When I was getting ready for Miss Utah I was working out so hard with a personal trainer 6 days a week for 6 months but I didn’t see results until I did a 10 day usage mix cleanse at the very end. Now I know why they say six packs are made in the gym they made in the kitchen. Eating freshly for dinner has really helped my diet, using the Lose It app also helps a lot. I have been really good about tracking everything out to eat and it has helped me to identify the areas where I could get better. For example I was spending about 90 calories every morning just in coffee creamer so I substituted that for skim milk and to torani sugar-free flavoring and now I only have like 15 cal in my coffee. Having that extra 100 calories available at night means I can have ice cream after dinner!
The one time everyone was at swim lessons
It’s so funny we all signed up for swim lessons together so that we could be social and see each other. The problem is just that everyone is so busy and so no one is ever there at the same time. Also you can’t really be social during swim lessons and so we’re really only social with them if we go out to eat afterwards. Which probably only happens half the time because people are busy. So we have been doing this for three months now and only one time was everybody there at the same time. So I felt like we needed to document it and take a lot of pictures LOL
Books
Speaking of books right now I am reading the last of my trilogy, it’s called reached by Ali Condi. Another book related news is that I finally finished the 2020 book of pictures and memories. The weird thing is we can’t really get Cooper to like books. I know that we’re supposed to be reading to him every night, and we do, but it’s a little bit of a fight. He doesn’t seem to like it because he hates sitting still. The books don’t hold his attention and so he just wiggles and cries and tries to get loose and go play. But thanks to my dad the kid has like 400 books to choose from LOL so it’s not from a lack of options that’s for sure…
Part of the reason that we have a lot of books is because my dad saved all of my childhood books. Check out how I used to write my name when I was a kid ha ha Ha
A week of different childcare
Usually highland breaks and our brakes lineup perfectly. This time it didn’t for spring break though. So that meant that Marni was off last week and I was not so we had to find childcare for Cooper every day.
This was him partying with Lexi on Monday and Tuesday. He loves her and she loves him. It was so cute to see them both so happy.
They also babysit Sadie for us sometimes and it’s seriously a God send. Lexi is a saint and I don’t know what I’d do without her.
The other two days Dallin watched him in the morning and then we had someone come in the afternoons. Dallin said that it was so hectic and difficult because he’s not used to having to do that while also working and on top of it he was really fussy.
On Wednesday Tina came in the afternoon and it was perfect because when I got home we watched bachelor together
The other day we had a babysitter come who is a teenager. There was a little bit of a poop situation where it ended up everywhere so Dallin had to intervene and miss a meeting. Poor girl was not prepared for how powerful his poop can be LOL
Sadie and Luna
They love each other so much, and it’s awesome that they wear each other out. Luna is so much better than Sadie at the potty training thing. So one night when we babysat Luna for them, I swear when she was helping to teach sadie to go potty outside. I know they’re the same age but it’s crazy how much better Luna is.
Check out her creepy eyes when she’s asleep LOL
Sleepy boys
Work
When we were at the dog groomer some lady came up and put a yellow rubber duck on her car hood and waved at us and walked away. We picked it up and it says on it duck duck jeep Smile pass it on. So then we looked it up online and apparently you’re supposed to give it to another jeep wrangler. So at work this one was parked right next to me so I passed it on. That was kind of fun !
We had an assembly for a really stupid reason. It was really a waste of time for the students but it was awesome that it meant we got a little bit of a break. Meant that we got to go outside and enjoy some sunshine so I won’t complain LOL
This is the March bulletin board
Dance critique papers were due in my dance class and that meant that I had to grade tons and tons of papers. I remember the first time I had to do this I was very overwhelmed and it was a huge undertaking. I was very negative about it and it took me a long time. This time I just started didn’t think about it and went one at a time. When you think about it that way and you think about it a positive way like I can do this. Then it’s not bad at all. This time I didn’t even really complain once and it was over before I knew it.
Speaking of positive thinking, I am so glad that I took down because his outlook about work stuff has always been so positive. I’ve been around people who always say you deserve better, they should be giving you more, they should give you exactly what you want and pay you more because you do so much for them… Etc. And that way of thinking can be really contagious and also it can get really problematic because it teaches him to be entitled. And while I’m not saying that we are going to just be walked on at the same time it is important to not get caught up in the “grass is greener on the other side” mentality. Long story short I found out that I may not be able to teach dance next year. Dallin was really supportive and said I understand this means that you might not teach there next year, and you have options, but also it might be OK to just look at it with a new perspective and think there are positives and negatives to every subject you teach and if the school has been good to you so far you might regret giving up on them. Although it was hard to hear at the time, it did open my eyes a little to see the positive side of the situation. And it’s refreshing to think that way instead of focusing on the negative. It’s refreshing to think about a situation that’s not going how you want by thinking but I still have control over this and I can choose still how it’s going to be for me. I guess it has taken me a long time in my life to finally learn the lesson that your mindset is everything.
Even more pictures of swim lessons...
Cooper loves swim lessons and has so much fun and smiles. It’s also tradition that it wears him out so much that as soon as we get in the car he passes out.
He looks huge in comparison to the other babies 😂
This was my first time wearing a bikini again since having him. I still have the line on my stomach that is darker down the middle. And that has made me self-conscious. So it was refreshing to decide in my mind that I don’t care what other people think that I deserve to show my stomach and how hard I’ve been working on this dieting thing lately. And it felt good. Rewarding and plus I had a really good time with coop!
This time we went to a oreganos after swim lessons with Nick and Kirsten and cash. They give the kids a ball of dough to play with
We always go to downtown Gilbert because it’s so close to swim lessons and there are so many options. The downside is that it’s usually a little bit crowded so sometimes the restaurants have away and it’s hard to find parking. But it’s so picturesque and cute there.
The few times we remembered to take pictures at bachelor night
This time was at Jessi‘s house. We have gotten together pretty much every week except for one and we just forget to take pictures usually. I love seeing them every week and getting to get out and be social. It makes such a huge difference in my quality of life and I love those girls like family.
This was at Raeanna‘s house and she has a farm so that was really cool to be able to see all the animals!
Last batch of swim lessons photos I promise
This was our last regular Saturday class and so I had Cooper take a picture with the teacher Mr. Nathan. We have three more substitutes to do in the month of March so it’s a good thing it’s spring break next week I am going to be swimming a lot to get my moneys worth LOL
He likes looking at the other babies it’s cute
At this lunch Misha told us that she’s Prego again!
This little trouble maker
He really is getting into everything now. It is like a full-time job just following him around and making sure he doesn’t mess anything up or hurt himself. If we don’t lock the gate he knows how to open it so that he can crawl upstairs. And he is fast! His other favorite thing to do is crawl towards the dishwasher anytime that is open and he wants to go directly for the knives so that’s safe lol
He is also waking up at 5:30 so that makes me tired
The food thing is turning into a fight a little bit. Some days will have really good eating days where we can’t get him the food fast enough, and then other days he is throwing everything we give him on the floor or he won’t open his mouth for a spoon or he just takes it and rubs it in his hair and all over his arms and face but nothing goes in his mouth.
So we’re trying to stay away from his favorites to make it so that he doesn’t become a picky eater. But still the old faithful is chicken nuggets avocado and applesauce. He will never turn those three things down. So if it’s been a really bad eating day and I can’t get him to eat anything I still turn to those so I don’t know how well I’m doing with all broaden his horizons thing LOL
I thought this shirt would have been perfect for him
Jess & Wade's
They have had a revolving door of visitors lately so we haven’t seen them as much but still love getting together with them and we are so grateful that we met them because they make living in this neighborhood so much better
It’s the same for Katie and Michelle too. I’m so glad that I started that walking group and let them because they are so fun and I love getting together with them and being social. They also give great mom advice, and Katie gave Cooper two full bags full of hand me down clothes from her son Carson. So that was so sweet of her!
I thought it was cute that we have dad‘s drink mom‘s drink and Cooper’s drink all in cupholders on the golf cart LOL
He's crazy
Sometimes when he’s tired he can go from laughing to crying in the same second and he always seems to have a new bruise on his forehead from playing and falling
We couldn’t believe how long his hair was when he spiked it up! Because it’s always laying down we always assumed it was shorter than it is! I can’t wait to be able to spike it up every day. It’s still so thin that I don’t know if I could yet
My parents took my brothers family to Disney world last week and they had so much fun! They brought back so many presents for Cooper and he loved them!
Date day out!
We finally got a babysitter and hired her and went out on a date by ourselves! We have of course been out before but it was always someone we knew or family watching Cooper. It was so nice we went to a movie and a dinner there. We had the whole theater to ourselves. I reminded us of our first date because that happens then too. I had a cheat day of course and ate my heart out. And we hadn’t been to a movie in over a year and it was a really cute movie. Well worth paying someone to watch him because our relationship is worth prioritizing. We also noticed a difference when we’re not with Cooper to. Like were able to have more fun and focus on each other. So we love being around Cooper but I’m also glad that we’re still able to just be us as well.
Dallin's Man Dates
I’m sure he will hate that I titled the section that LOL Dallin went out on a work lunch which doesn’t happen anymore because of Covid but used to happen all the time. So it helped him to feel some sense of normalcy again. Ever since going to work from home he sometimes misses that social interaction part of working in an office. So it’s nice for him to see a coworker in person and go to lunch..
Everyone’s in a while him and nick go out as well and he had a really fun time getting sushi with Nick this time.
My new Trellises
I got sick of having this view and we look out our kitchen window above the sink so I got some trellises and fake vines
I really like how it turned out! This is the "after" picture. It's not a view of the mediterranean sea but its better than nothing haha
Guess that's it! We're thinking of going to the zoo today.
Hope you're doing well!
