When I typed that it made me curious what states were actually the hottest and the coldest, and I was very surprised by these results. How on earth could Arizona be 10th on the hottest?!
This is because my dad got the job as the president of NDSCS in Wahpeton, North Dakota and we're basically going with them up there. Breckenridge is the town right next to Wahpeton because they're both right on the border. I am so happy for my dad because it is literally his dream. It seems like such a quaint, friendly, close-knit community and they've already been treated like celebrities coming into it. (Even in the newspaper and everything!) We are a little nervous for the change but also excited. We're thinking of moving in mid September.
This is just a snapshot of the weather comparison at 8:47 at night about this time of year. Yikes. I asked my coworker if she thought I was crazy and she said, "Not at all. It's hell there 6 months a year and it's hell here 6 months a year. It's just flipped as to when that happens." So that's a good way of looking at it. (Elizabeth Francois by the way has been by far my favorite coworker this year. She has been so helpful and gave me a home since I didn't have a room and sent me lesson plans and been a listening ear. She has even started collecting moving boxes for me and her daughter helps me load my car with them. They're the salt of the earth people. I'm lucky to have known them.)
Cooper is rich in Grandparents
Not only does he have one set, but 3 sets of grandparents so you could say he is rich! 🤑 He has so many people who love him! Anyways these are pics from their last visit. They were coming home from learning that he got the job and the press conference and everything.
Warhammer
The guys and their games lol this was the last time we saw nick before they moved to Minnesota. So we will end up 3 hours from them. What are the odds!?
We have had to teach cooper not to touch “daddy’s toys” and I said something to Dallin about them and he said “they’re action figures!” Hahaha
Also… they’ve taken over. They’re in every vehicle, garage, tool box, kitchen, office, bedroom, etc. I literally found one in the freezer. So cooper and him are the same in that way. His toys are everywhere. And he will point at the “action figures” and say “daddy toy no” as if he’s telling himself he can’t have it.
Playing with play dough
He knows all the animals and he will say pig and make the noise and then ask Dallin to help him roll it out and use the pig cutter. It’s amazing how many words he knows and how well he can communicate. I know they call it a language explosion but wow it really felt like it happened over night and all of a sudden he knows hundreds of words.
He built this tower all by himself! We were just sitting there talking and looked over and said woah!
He always tries to make us laugh and says "I get you" to chase us or he hides or something. He also says "Im fummy" when we laugh at him.
Speaking of what he can do now.... he can roll down his window in the car with his foot! haha He can push the bar stools around to climb up to get whatever he wants. He can open the gate at the bottom of the stairs, go outside whenever he wants, etc. So we have had to be really thorough about teaching him what the rules are the why they're important so that he doesn't hurt himself. He is actually soooooooo so good about it. He will get up and point at things he can't have and say "no daddy" (like if it's daddy's cup he knows he can't drink from it, or he knows he can't grab knives or scissors, etc.) He is such a smart kid. He knows he has to wait until the microwave beeps before he can open it, so he waits and then gets excited because he's really good at opening it. But then after it's open he won't grab what's inside and he says "hot" and backs away. I think we lucked out in the kid department because he is seriously perfect.
Huxley's birthday party
She made personalized sunglasses for every single person! I couldn't believe it!
Dallin was the crowd favorite for the kids! haha he is basically becoming his own father. I remember them telling me that they would get jealous of all the other kids flocking to their dad at the pool and saying "get your own dad this one's mine" lol so He is very good with kids. It's quite cute to see. I was just so uncomfortable (like I always am now) so I was sitting down the whole time.
I was dying of heat and felt nauseous and my back was killing but it seemed like everyone else had fun haha
The weather is still pretty good
We are right on the precipice of it getting too hot out there. We still have beautiful mornings and evenings but it's too hot if you try to go out in the afternoon.
This is Jake on coopers table trying to get the bird in the planter lol
Date night
My amazing bananas foster that they lit on fire for me!!
It's his 3rd easter already ðŸ˜
GG got him this adorable Easter suit. I practically died of cuteness.
We just can’t get over how grown up he is now
Of course he’s holding the “grr-gurt” in this picture lol he loves it. And that’s the funniest word to hear him say because he says it in this frog sounding voice
Easter did not turn out how I planned. I wanted to go to an Easter egg hunt and church, hide a basket and take a family picture all dressed up. Of course, literally none of that happened. Marni was doing an Easter egg hunt every day that whole week in her yard for the kids with jelly beans so he was doing fine on sugar lol
I didn’t have anything that I fit into for the picture and church didn’t happen cuz I wasn’t feeling good. (As usual) Easter came after his birthday and he got presents so I didn’t feel like there was any toy that he really needed and I didn’t want to collect useless junk or spoil him into thinking he gets new toys whenever he wants. So because of that I didn’t get him an Easter basket. Truthfully I think he’s too young to even enjoy it or get it anyway. But I still felt bad and wanted him to celebrate somehow so we put him in a box and let him go crazy with markers lol he was soooo overjoyed and got marker all over himself. It isn’t going to happen again anytime soon because it was the biggest tantrum he has ever had trying to end the activity. (We had to because he was trying to draw on the walls.)
Sunglasses
He is obsessed with sunglasses now and I think it’s the cutest thing ever. If I’m wearing them he will take them off my face and put them on his own. I love that he leaves them on because he takes hats off right away. These car pics are all on different days of driving to school.
He took mine on our walk
He fell asleep in them
This day he wanted to take a toothbrush to Marni’s
He just looks like such a gangster in shades :)
Dallin's Brother-Honeymoon in San Antonio
Brian had a plus one on a company retreat to San Antonio and took Dallin. I made fun of them for being a couple and going on a trip together of course. He said it was beautiful and so fun. He wants to take me back there because he really liked it. That was such a nice thing of Brian to take him.
Check out how stunning the resort was though! They definitely got sunburned by the pool.
Kaden got baptized
Everyday we are astounded at how cute he is.
Now he loves to play in car and pretend like he's driving. Or on the golf cart.
Nick and Gianna gifted us this playhouse and Cooper was soooo stoked when we got it set up in the backyard for him. The videos we got don't quite do it justice.
I thought it was hilarious that on his nap one day he wanted to go to bed with his tape measure. And when I looked in the camera he's cradling it and it looks kind of like a weapon or something lol
He is such a big boy now because he loves tv. Which is cute but also kind of not cute because he will beg or not let us watch our shows. He does pretty good at calming down or finding something else to do though when we explain it to him. His favorites are "JJ" (coco melon) or "Binbin" (bim bim the monkey on YouTube) or "doggies" (paw patrol) or "shark" (pink Fong shark on Netflix). He was also hooked on these 3 videos on the animal planet section of disney+ for a while and that seriously gives me ptsd. Thankfully I think he's finally past those.
He is such a sweet, soft-hearted, sensitive little kid and I think it's the sweetest thing. I was crying one night because I was afraid I had preeclampsia and gestational diabetes (because my doctor at the time freaked me out for no reason and is an idiot... long story but no longer my doc anymore.) and Cooper did the sad puppy dog face and said "mama sad" and "sorry" and "up". Then he was just so cuddly and stuff. There have also been a few times where he was trying to be funny and did something wrong and accidentally hurt someone. And he went in the corner and made a sad face and silent-cried like he was embarrassed and felt bad. We have had multiple times where we have had to explain to him "you're not in trouble, you did good, don't worry that was just an accident, everyone is okay, etc."
It's just so sweet how he obviously cares about other peoples' feelings while still being so young. He shows that he misses people and stuff too. It's so cute. He can say "love you" now and it sounds like "wuh woo" and my heart melts every time.
He brought the leaf blower there all by himself and was shoving rocks inside it.
He likes to pretend by saying "ni-night" and then fake sleep and then suddenly bounce up and say "boo!"
He wants to read the same 4 books every night. One of his favorites is called Roadwork and the way he says it is so cute.
He always gets a fruit snack when we leave Marni's and this day he didn't get one and he said "nack" a few times and then grabbed this from the back seat and said "kah-wing" and starting coloring. lol so cute. he deals with disappointment so well and just moves on.
this one's funny
helping daddy make eggs
Bump Progression
I have probably been the worst for dallin to deal with this whole time because it's torturous. Everything hurts and I'm dying and I want it to just hurry up and be over with.
He is so sweet and takes care of Cooper as much as he can and makes me a bath and tea and stuff to help. My stupid former doctor ordered me to take the 3 hour glucose test even after I switched so she wasn't technically my doc anymore. and the people at the lab were surprised because my levels weren't that high. But I still had to suffer through 10 hours of fasting and feeling barf-y and sitting in the uncomfortable waiting room for 3 hours and drinking nasty sugar water.
I am hating school now days because all I want to do is lay down. And also because the closer it gets to the end of the year 13 year olds tend to turn into jerks. lol Plus being a floating teacher and having to pee every 5 seconds is annoying because I am always late to my classes. I get dehydrated SO easily that I have to drink like a gallon of water or I have a headache, so then I'm just peeing all the time. Anyways, I'm counting down the days. The other reason I'm counting the days is because I am just soooooooooo excited for a baby girl. I wanted a girl so bad and the clothes are so cute and she is going to be so cute. I definitely didn't enjoy it fully last time because I was so scared. (I had to be in denial that anything was even happening at all just to be able to get through the day.) So this time the excitement is in full force. (I mean how can you see a newborn-sized tutu and not be like dying of adoration?!)
I have never been more hot, tired, immobile, nauseous, hungry, or irritated in my life. I can't move either leg to the side or my sciatic area of my back and tail bone kills, I can't bend over, my ribs kill, I feel like I can't breathe, I can't move anything even remotely heavy, I can't sleep, I often times can't even poop and I am constantly hungry. 😂 That's not even listing everything! Seriously I know I write this rant on every post but this pregnancy is HARD. I am so happy it's a girl because I think I'm never going to do this again. ("Think" is the key word there because I'm not positive, but I'm like 80% sure.)
I Can't Believe He's Already a 2 year old!!!
Dallin got this as a reminder on his phone when it was cooper's birthday. How crazy is that!
These were some of his birthday presents he got from his party. (well it was more of a celebration than a party.) Everyone that came and gave him gifts were so sweet to do that. We tried to space them out in giving them to him so that he could fully enjoy them before moving on to the next one. So he was getting new toys for a couple of weeks every few days.
This was at his "party." I put that in quotation marks because we didn't do a cake or any decorations or really anything that typical birthday parties do. (Because I have no energy and can barely survive lol ) So I just texted everyone we know and said "Hey we're going to uptown jungle to celebrate coop turning 2 cuz he loves that place and you're welcome to join if you want." I didn't make an invitation either. I just didn't want to pay 500$ for the stupid party package that they offer when all Cooper cares about is the trampoline and the slides lol
So it ended up being perfect for our situation and Cooper was sooooo over-the-moon-happy. He absolutely loves that place. We only go very rarely because we want to keep it special.
His smile while going down a slide is priceless.
This was really sad because it ended up being the last time we saw Gianna before she moved to Minneapolis. We tried to act like it wasn't happening so that we wouldn't cry and of course I started to so I just went to the bathroom. I will miss all her and we had such a great few years as a girl group together. Everything is definitely different now and sometimes I miss those days.
Tom fell asleep in the adult area while everyone played
We were there for a couple hours and then came home, gave him lunch, and put him in bed. He was so tired and napped for 3 hours. I was really tired too. After he woke up we went to the splash pad and I thought I was going to die of heat and tiredness lol so basically for me I just felt normal 😂 But the kids had fun
The following pictures were on his actual birthday because the party was the week after. (See he had a lot of fun festivities before Easter so he really didn't need more.)
My mom was here and celebrated with us and she had such a fun day with him. She even put sprinkles on his yogurt to make his lunch "birthday special." She is so good to him and he's a spoiled kid hahaha
On my way home I stopped and got him a balloon (his 🤩 fav)!
She made him a cake and this was him devouring it!
We all went to Fat Cats to celebrate that day and he tried bowling for the first time. He said "ball" and wanted to run after it. We got him the ramp thing kids use to bowl and he said "wow slide" and we said it's for the ball and he said "ball slide!" hahaha He was cute with it but his attention span was short and he mostly wanted to be over by the arcade games.
This was him playing his favorite one that shoots the "juice" (He still doesn't say water for some reason.)
I'm bummed I didn't really get my mom in any pictures.
After cake when we got home he opened presents from GG and us and Shayle who sent it in the mail. He was so excited
She got him a replacement sink since the one she gave him for Christmas broke. He was so excited for the "juice" haha
This was him at his 2 year old doctor appointment. I got all nostalgic sitting there thinking about how far he's come. He used to lay in his carseat like potato not even able to smile yet. (I remember going to those first appointments feeling like fish out of water and still being all freaked out to change his clothes because I was afraid of breaking something so little.) And now he just chills on the floor coloring like a big kid while he waits for the doc to come in. It's crazy. I feel like that time flew by so why can't this pregnancy fly by!? lol
Anyway she said he was 70 something for height and 80 something weight and his development was above average and everything was great. After he colored he turned off the lights in the little room and played with his flashlight hahaha so the doctor came in and said woah it's dark in here
Everyone is moving!
Gianna and I went to Zupas for old time sake to celebrate her getting her PhD. She is officially a doctor now! She told me all about it and moving and stuff. It was so nice to have a kid-free dinner together for once in like 2 years.
Chillin' with the Neighbors
We went to the splash pad with Katie and Jessi and coop loved it
This was another day when we went to the park with the smiths. He wanted to copy everything he saw the older kids doing.
Look at all this cute stuff! I went through the clothes and separated it and boxed up some and washed some and put it in this closet because we're not doing a room for her since we're moving when she's only 2 months old. I put all the bows on one really long ribbon with clothes pins and it took up the entire door haha so because I was given so much (Thank you Jessi!!!) I was trying to not buy very much but there were a few things I wanted so I already bought what we need. I have been going back and forth on her name. I'm still not sure and when I looked and a certain outfit on Etsy this was one of the review pictures and I thought "oh is it a sign that should be her name?!" But anyway Dallin's mom Sara sent us a box of newborn girl clothes and shelly bought some too and I swear going through it I was thinking there is nothing cuter in this world than baby girl clothes. It's all so freaking adorable. I didn't really ever think that with the boy stuff. Or if I did it was very rare.
Anyways so next we have all our weekends planned out with what rooms we need to pack for the move and stuff. We have a lot coming up with the baby and the move so the next few months are going to be interesting. From now until the end of June or beginning of July it's probably going to feel like more of the stupid waiting game that I hate. And then we will probably be really busy in September so that time will be tiring I'm sure. I'm really hoping it all goes smoothly. That's all I can do at this point. Just wait and hope for the best. 😊 See ya next month!
