Hi everyone! This post is for June and July because I was having some technical difficulties and also traveling, renovating, and getting a new computer! So this is my first blog post on my brand new Mac. I'm so excited-this thing is awesome! I am bursting with pride to tell you about everything this summer has brought for us. The best part about summer is the the naps and the adventures we do during the day and staying up at night because I don't have to work. I wish it was summer break forever. Anyway, the first topic is.....
Hawaii!!!!!
We went for two and a half. weeks and had a blast! We got to see dallins parents, his sister and her kids, go to beaches, a water park, get massages, and go to a resort on our own for a few days. It was amazing.
We took this picture at bellows beach. I finally got pics art premium so I edited it to take out the people in the water and then layered the stickers and pic of cooper on top. I have been loving editing photos on that lately because I can do anything. Before I would get so frustrated because they slowly took away more and more functions unless you get premium. But anyway on with Hawaii....
The flight there was great! I don't know why we ever worry about Cooper he is seriously the perfect kid. On the first flight to L.A. he just hung out. Then we had a layover for 3 hours and we found an empty part of the air port and he ran around and had fun.
Dallin let him try root beer and he ate an entire cookie by himself so he was so happy. lol He smiled at everyone and so many people talked to him, made faces at him, threw the ball with him, etc. He was a crowd favorite
Then on the next flight we gave him Benadryl since it was longer. He pretty much slept the whole time. He was restless at times but so tired he kept falling back asleep. We got lucky and had an open seat between us so he had more room.
Wehn we got to Hawaii dallin and I were exhausted because of the time difference and not being able to sleep when we were traveling.
Here are all the random pictures we have from Hawaii. (Organizing the pictures takes the longest so as long as I have all the Hawaii pics together that's good enough for me. So this whole post is out of order with how things happened but I don't care enough to spend time on it.)
With my new editing thing I can take people out of the background. So here's a non-edited one....
And then here's edited. Looks pretty good right?
Dallin and I love to go to fancy restaurants so we went to a lot and had an amazing time.
These are all pictures from when Dallin and I went and stayed at a resort for 4 days. It was so nice! We did all our favorite things and really enjoyed relaxing without a toddler.
I am always amazed at the quality of pictures from iPhone cameras! I had to get a "handstand on the beach" picture again because that's kind of become a tradition.
This is the beach right across from their house
Cooper eating all of Nona's food 😂 
Eating Doritos on the beach-🏖 what a dream !
He loves his cousins soooooo much!
Crazy how time flies! This is dallin holding Aaron when we were first dating and then Aaron holding Cooper now. Those three boys loved Cooper and were so good to him. They're the best. They could have gotten impatient with him or done other things but they always wanted to play with Cooper and entertain him and make him laugh. He also really really bonded with Nona a lot. He would cry when she left the room.
This was a table-side banana's foster. It was amazing! I have never had that or seen that before!
The beach is right across from their house! It's sooo nice!
They have puppies over there that are only 5 weeks old so they are so adorable
Dallin and the boys got really into Pokemon when we were there and they opened packs and stuff. This is them getting all excited that they got a great card! I thought it was cute that he wanted to bond with them.
We were sad to go home but we were excited to see the dogs again and also excited that it was our first time getting to fly first class!! I don't even have words to describe how great it was. I will feel sad every time we fly now if it's not first class. That was a completely different experience in every way! Our chairs became full on beds! They went all the way flat! They gave us headphones, blankets, pillows, drinks, food, anything we wanted! (Well I'm sure not anything, but close. lol) We gave Cooper benedryl again and once he was asleep and dallin was holding him I laid down completely and it took me a long time to fall asleep because I was too excited to sleep hahaha
In between our flights at the layover we went in the delta lounge and it was amazing! They had great breakfast and everywhere else in the airport was crowded and the restaurants weren't open yet so there was a huge line at Starbucks. So it was so nice to go in there and have free food that is way better than airport food and drinks and comfy chairs and just play with the kid until our next flight. Cooper did so good even though he was probably exhausted. We had a red eye so we all were.
The pups
While we were gone our house sitters were Gary and Linda. They took such good care of the dogs and the house. In all the pictures they sent the dogs looked so happy. They cleaned the garage, organized things, and cleaned. He even replaced the pool vacuum for us! They were incredible. They also helped potty train Sadie.
This was before we left. Sadie had her first groomer appointment and they were able to do more than they usually do because she was so well behaved! She looked so fluffy and cute it was a huge difference.
We saw this on a walk and thought it was cool. People in the neighborhood paint rocks and add it to the train. 
This was them cuddling. They love each other now. 
This was them cuddling. They love each other now. 
Playdates with Pals
These are from all different times all over the place. This first one was just yesterday. We went with friends from swim lessons to giggles.
Coop was obsessed with the trampoline. If I took him off of it and set him down to play with something else he would just start walking back to the trampoline.
This was our last play date with Olivia before they left for 4 months.
This was coop and Luca like a month ago
The renovation
We finally got to do our floors, powder room re-do, and mud room area! I have wanted new floors since the day we moved in but I never knew if we'd do it because it was so much! We decided to do it ourselves because we would save so much money. Jon visited the week before so he helped us do some prep work like remove baseboards.
When we had the baseboards and carpet out it was already a mess from that point and nails were everywhere so we always had to hold Cooper. Jake was upset that his room had been disturbed.
receiving the enormous load of flooring was a bit of an ordeal. long story short after 3 tries and a disgruntled delivery driver calling me "un kind" we got the 3,000 pounds of flooring off the truck and into the garage... 😓😑
Then Shelly and my dad got here and we hit the ground running and did not stop all week. It was 9 or 10 days of really hard work but we got it all done in time! We had a really hard deadline because Gary and Linda were coming to stay in our house and we were going to Hawaii.
The first step was to put hardy backer down.
And we demolished the bathroom wall
We took Cooper to babysitters as often as we could to be able to have all of us working. Also because he wanted to get into everything and there wasn't anywhere he could safely play except his room.
we chipped out the uneven tiles and put self leveling concrete on them
My dad put in the new overhead can light to replace the sconce that was there
We moved the bathroom door
We had to move all the furniture to keep it out of the way while they did flooring. My dad accidentally cut the power wire to the the island and we found mold so we did hit a few snags along the way.
This was after we had all the hardy backer in to level it out where the carpet was.
All 4 of us had our different jobs we stuck to throughout the process
This was close to the end hanging up the board and batten.
This was when we were done with flooring but we still weren't done cleaning or putting up baseboards
This was before we had a bathroom door
And this is the finished product! It looks so good. We ended up saving money doing it ourselves and I'm so grateful to my dad and shelly for helping us because we wouldn't have known how to do that without them. Even though it was a week of 16 hour days and the hardest we've ever worked, I'm so glad we did it that way and got it over with and done instead of dragging it out longer. It felt so satisfying to have the whole house clean and back to normal again after it was in a "construction zone" state for about 3 weeks. And we loooove the floors and the bathroom so much. We aren't done with the mud room yet but still it's impressive the amount we were able to get done in only one week. Shelly and my dad are no joke!
Poor Jake and Sadie were so scared the whole time. We were making loud noises and keeping them awake and moving everything around. They were so anxious we practically never saw them.
I painted the mirror and light fixture we had from before to try and save a little money
This is the finished bathroom!
And this is the finished product! It looks so good. We ended up saving money doing it ourselves and I'm so grateful to my dad and shelly for helping us because we wouldn't have known how to do that without them. Even though it was a week of 16 hour days and the hardest we've ever worked, I'm so glad we did it that way and got it over with and done instead of dragging it out longer. It felt so satisfying to have the whole house clean and back to normal again after it was in a "construction zone" state for about 3 weeks. And we loooove the floors and the bathroom so much. We aren't done with the mud room yet but still it's impressive the amount we were able to get done in only one week. Shelly and my dad are no joke!
This was when we bought the baseboards and were picking them up.
Poor Jake and Sadie were so scared the whole time. We were making loud noises and keeping them awake and moving everything around. They were so anxious we practically never saw them.
Cooper did as good as could be expected. He was frustrated that he couldn't play with everything and "help." He was a little under the weather as well so we took him to the doctor that week to check for an ear infection but once again they said he was all good.
He decided tape measures are fascinating
I painted the mirror and light fixture we had from before to try and save a little money
This is our new door to the bathroom. Before it was on the other wall.
We actually made some changes to the design mid-reno because the vanity I bought was smaller and then we changed our minds and got a bigger one. This was my design before, and then we thought that maybe doing that dark of a color might be too much for a small space so we completely changed it. Originally we were going to do a shiplap accent wall but we already have that upstairs. I had always wanted board and batten and I'm so glad we did. I'm glad we had my dad and shelly here to bounce ideas off of because they thought of things I would have never thought of but I would have regretted later.
Now this is what the hallway off the garage looks like. We're going to put a bench with hooks and storage there for coming home through that garage door.
the garage was a mess because that's where we were cutting and painting. it was also 100% full after demo of all the trash. We had to take it all to the dump.
I'm so glad it's all coming together. These renovations and this house is seriously a dream come true for me. I heard the song "buy dirt" while we were working and a tear came to my eye. I remember talking to Dave about how it seems like such a frivolous or shallow thing to spend all this money on. But he said something to the affect of "it's not just a house it's a place where your loved ones gather and you make memories and build a life and plant roots." He totally got why renovations and this house mean so much to me. It's way more than a "keeping up with at the jones'" type thing. I want to feel like I put my stamp on this place. Like it's really mine. And I love to look around and see the beauty that it is. It has become such a beautiful, functional, fun, great house full of memories. We're so blessed. I think it will be so hard to leave it if we ever do. I love this house and I'm so thankful that Dallin lets me put all the money into it that we have. and Thankful that my dad and shelly help us do it!
Our whole life
This kid is everything. He's the best thing ever. Anyway this was his reaction to a new toy from Shayle.
holding the spoon instead of using it for the yogurt. We play outside every morning before the first nap.
He's still a good eater unless his teeth hurt. When that happens he doesn't eat for a few days but then he's back to eating. lol it's the weirdest thing because he still only has 4 teeth
2nd haircut!
This was me trying to pick an outfit for a job interview and a meeting with a person from our HOA fitness center
It's like he's a completely new kid now!
He's learning and growing so fast. He can sign and communicate what he wants and do things and copy us and talk and run and swim on his own. It's astounding because I swear it's all been a transformation in the last month. 14 month old to 15 months and he's practically acting like an adult. lol
He figured out he can get in the tent without me zipping open the door for him. He just leaned on it super hard and then when the side was on the ground he crawled in through the gap in the top.
He likes having blankets now in bed so that makes me feel like he's a kid not a baby anymore
He seems to be forming opinions about food
I've been looking at activity ideas for 15 month olds on Pinterest because he is soaking up new things and excited by trying things lately. One of them was put post it notes on a book and let them pull it off, try out play doh, put strips of tape on something and let them pull it off, drop something down a paper towel thing, pom poms in and out of a cup, etc. This one was putting pipe cleaners in and out of a milk container. He seems to love anything like this because it's new, he's getting a challenge, he's really engaged and interested, and he's getting a lot of one on one attention. But also his attention span isn't that long so he moves on quickly. But I do notice he will go back to those new things a lot if I leave them out. He is sick of the same old toys and he doesn't seem to want that. Like today he figured out he could roll a car on the top of the caddy into the drawer and close it, then open it up, grab it and do it all over again. So he will still use his toys but they have to be for a new purpose.
The old ball pit has been our kiddie pool lately and he loves to splash in it. He also is obsessed with the hose. I just have to turn on the misters and put a blanket where there isn't pool decking because it gets so slippery cooper's feet literally slide apart. He looks like a cartoon character trying to get up and he gets so frustrated. Sadie is just like Jojo in the way that she stays with us all the time wherever we are.
He can get on and off of things if they're low enough- that's new
He gets so annoyed with the hose because it has a handle on it that you have to pull and his hands aren't strong enough to keep it held down. So I thought I'd take off the handle and that was a bad idea because apparently the hose is incredibly high powered. It was soooo crazy. You could feel the pressure pushing against when you just hold it still because the water is coming out so fast. So it was really funny watching him with it cuz it was a lot of power for such a little kid to have.
So Cooper figured out that its hilarious to spray me with the hose. I'm no longer safe! LOL watch this with the sound on and pay attention to his hilarious laughing at the end
He gets so annoyed with the hose because it has a handle on it that you have to pull and his hands aren't strong enough to keep it held down. So I thought I'd take off the handle and that was a bad idea because apparently the hose is incredibly high powered. It was soooo crazy. You could feel the pressure pushing against when you just hold it still because the water is coming out so fast. So it was really funny watching him with it cuz it was a lot of power for such a little kid to have.
This was me after that. He soaked me! And we were about to leave to go to a play date! lol that kid knew what he was doing.
We got him a puddle jumper and now he can swim all by himself!
isn't that crazy! He looks like a big kid!
This was him at the 15 month appointment we had recently. She said he is healthy as a horse! He has hit all the milestones that he needs for development and he's 97 percentile in weight and 74 percentile in height. So his height went down a little because this was the first time in his life that he hasn't been 90's in both. He was so happy and playing with the nurse and stuff so he looked betrayed when she gave him the shots. Poor kid cried so hard no sound came out.
This was us trying to catch his dancing on camera. He always stops when we record
Independence Day!
I have learned my lesson with holiday decorations and this time I went to Michaels the day before the 4th of July. Every time I go the day after expecting this amazing sale and it's just picked over, nothing left. So the day before it was 50% off and I got this to to do the next day. So I celebrated in the morning by painting this cute fireworks blocks.
It turned out great I just wished that I would have picked a darker blue paint. I might re do it more navy instead of the electric blue. I also got that plate for 50% off.
Later that evening we had people over and swam, ate, and did fireworks. It was sooo fun!
You can't really see it but Sadie got a new thing for her neck and it's red around the neck with a bow that has blue and white stars. I had to get something new for her to wear because I got out Josie's shirt that she wears every year and I cried. Sadie couldn't wear it anyway because she's way smaller than Jojo but also because of my emotions no dog can ever wear any of her clothes again. But I also can't get rid of them so that makes perfect sense. Speaking of that, Sadie made the same noise Josie made that night and I freaked out. They say that smell can take you back the most but idk about that because sound was incredibly powerful. I heard her coughing and I was back in my closet at 9pm that night in my pajamas staring at Josie wondering if I needed to take her to the ER or not. That was such a traumatic night that I may never get over it. Dallin had to calm me down and remind me that Sadie is totally fine and she was just coughing. But holy cow I think I have PTSD. I am usually completely fine in my every day life but then all of a sudden it hits me like a truck sometimes.
We went over to Josh's tonight to watch the Suns game and eat dinner. It was so fun!
I've been watching Brooklyn 99, HIMYM, and the bachelorette lately. The dogs are my tv buddies :)
Hope the suns win the finals!!
See you next time!
