Buckle up, it's long again. Because once again, I had extreme technical difficulties. Its starting to become enough of a problem to do this every time that I am looking into possible alternatives. But I don't want to give up on this because I've been doing it for almost 10 years now. (This time I combined all the videos we took over the 5 ish months and put them into two so that I could cut the uploading time down. So That's why the videos are oddly combined.)
Anyways, here's a summary of the last 4 and a half months or so.
(Also- forgive the typos- there are A LOT. And forgive me for any picture duplicates, that happened here too.)
So I named this post "Happy hpapy happy" because cooper went through a phase wehre he was saying that a lot and I thought it was so cute. (We have all been so so happy lately. Which is such a relief because we are finally coming out of a year or two of really intense unhappiness.)
Hawaii life
We finished up the rest of our time in Hawaii and it was divine. We loved every second of our time there.
So this was at our fav restaurant michel's and we had an amzing date. Holy cow. Such good food, company, view, drinks, ambiance, etc. I wihs i could do that every night hahah we'd be broke if we did that.
Cue the "isn't she lovely" song......
I can't believe how fast he's growing up. Its like scary-fast. So I've become extremely sentimental as of late.
And she ended up with a red mark on her cheek because of her sleeping position hahaha
Princess dress up day! 💕 Evelyn was Belle and Mckinley was cinderella!
she was walking in the walker like she owned the place!
She fell off the bed and got a pretty mean scratch on her head and I felt terrible. But she was okay luckily.
Eating a crayon and coloring all over her face in the process
st patty's!!!
Jamie made that amzing cake and we got to celebrate with so much family because michelle and brian's family were there with us too! It was so fun. I loved the little hawaiian theme because he may not get another hawaiian birthday again for awhile so it was nice to live it up! What a cool experience for him to have- 2 months in hawaii is not something every kid gets for sure!
Memories that will last a lifetime
She fell asleep all on her own on a pillow on the floor one morning and then literally 8 minutes later she was WIDE awake and so hyper. It was hilarious!
I just don't know if it gets any cuter than this!!!!! 😍
Beautiful scenery on a walk we went on
Pool fun
Childrens museum
We went to the beach almost every day and had so much fun. I love how convenient it is there.
We did green play dough and I made these to send to my dad and shelly to thank them for watching teh dogs while we were gone. It was so fun! and Then we also did a little scavenger hunt for st patricks day prizes on that day. It was more fun for evelyn, I don't think cooper got it as much. But it was cool cuz at the end we had balloons and streamers everywhere. Didn't get a picture unfortunately. But I do want to do it again next year because I think he will like it more.
So this was cooper's creation....
Kinley looking for dad when he ahd to go back to work after his sebbatical.
Cooper's birthday celebration zoo day
One day, we are going to look back on these days and miss them so much. I already kindof do! hahaha take me back to the beach. But also just because of how dang cute these sweet little faces are!!!
Game night with the fam!! loved it and had so much fun!
Another zoo day
We love walks
more from the kids play place and zoo
More cute pics of the kids, hawaii, zoo, etc.
And this was what we sent....
It is such an amazing transformation from one st patricsk day to the next, to the next, to the next. We literally had one more person and i had like 30 less pounds hahahah but I didn't get a picture the day of.
omg we have a Threenager. (I don't know though because in his case he has been so much easier during his 3's than his 2.5's.)
He fell in love with spider man and toy story and they loved watching it together and eating snacks
hahaha mckinley was a higher maintenance baby for sure.
but also..... SO WORTH IT. because she is so darn cute and i am obsessed with her
So I lost all my hair from like february to now. And now it is starting to come back. Look how cute poppy is
DALLIN IS THE BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD AND GOT ME A SPA DAY IN HAWAII!!!!
I loved it because I got to get not just one but 2 treatments! I got a massage and right after a body treatment and it was sooo relaxing!!! Thank you dallin i love you! (When i took the pic on the right I was thinking of that quote "am I beautiful" that people say because I just spent so much money on a "beauty treatment" but I look so dissheveled lol )
The flight home was sad and we were scared how it was going to go because it was a red eye. Dallin got me and kinder 1st class for my christmas present and that was seriously the most amazing thing in the whole world. She slept but I didn't really. But still even though I wasn't sleeping I was very comfortable. It was amazing that the seats lay all the way down and there was so much room on the floor for her to play. Dallin was definitely not and cooper screamed bloody murder for teh first hour and a half. So I felt bad for him. The weird thing that happened to kinder was she was throwing up alot. (Dallin and I got a horrible stomach bug and we were throwing up 4 days before that so maybe she just got it delayed? But we were so grateful it was only a 24 hour thing because it was so bad we were down for the count and cooper watched tv literally the whole day.) So by the time we were getting off the plane she had gone through every back up outfit I had and she was leaving in her diaper. All things considered the flight went well. We were both very sleep deprived but that's to be expected.
Back to Breck
On our drive home from the minneapolis airport we slid on ice and did a 180 degree turn and went off the road into the center. We were so incredibly lucky. It had to have been divne intervention because there wer so many other spots where the center area of the road went down and we could have rolled. Shelly was screaming, I was frozen, Dallin kept saying we're fine, and the kids were both sleeping. No one was hurt but wow me and dallin were both traumatized from that and still have worries about driving now. It was such a scary thing that I don't think I'm doing it justice by quickly writing about it here. Very scary.
Anyway heres some pics of us safe and sound back in breck.
She finally got two teeth when we got back.
Easter
We had such a good easter! I loved that we were able to dress up and get pictures. And it was cute seeing cooper get excited because this is the first year he seems to get it.
Shelly made the cutest carrot cake
They love playing together now!! Its the sweetest thing in the world to see them becoming best friends.
Cooper's nudist phase
I don't know if we can even call it a phase or just who he is. I think he takes after me (and Olaf, " I just find clothes restricting." 😂 ) So that's why I love robes so much.
One day when I told him he needed to wear at least something he said okay my "globs" (gloves 😂 ) So he walked around like that for an hour or so
He loves spray bottles and spraying them so I put water in it and let him spray it in the toilet and it occupies him for hours. He calls it a space bottle and begs me to "wat in it" lol
And the picture on the right is every single night. He wants to go to bed in clothes but then he always takes them off in his "cwib." (Yes, he's still in the pack n play even though the bed is right next to it. He still asks to sleep in the cwib.... lol I'm convinced he's going to go to college still sleeping in a pack n play.)
Good times at home
I scored some clothes for them at the thrift shop
The picture on the left was a giant duck that flew into the window and died. It was so loud it woke us up! I was so happy that ever since we got home from hawaii they have both been napping on a really solid consistent level. So it made my life 100 times easier and I loved getting alone time and one on one time with each of them.
Selling everything except the children and dogs.
We found out while we were in hawaii that we needed to move for dallin's job. So when we came back I started getting rid of everything. I decided to go full on minimalist because we really did not need as much as we had. My clothes and shoes especially had gotten out of hand. So I was on fb marketplace a lot and going to drop off donations constantly. But it helped our move be a ton easier and I like the feeling of not being so weighed down and only truly having what we need and no more. I saw this guy on fb marketplace selling snow hahaha
I thought htis was hilarious
This was the little miss at her 9 month appointment.
Its so crazy how fasst time flies because I remember like it was yesterday taking cooper to his 9 month appointment and now I have 2!!
I never thought i would be a mom of 2 and this would be my life but here I am doing it. So weird and cool and surreal. Even just mckinley's life has flown by-let alone if you think about coopers and hers. Yikes. That's what's made me think I need to be more present and positive and soak it in cuz we're done having kids and this is a time we are going to miss. and we only get to experience it right now. and I know it will be fleeting and before we know it they're in school and dating and whatnot. 😳😭
So she's perfect (of course) and healthy and she's in the 20's for height and the 90s for weight hahaha so she's like a bowling ball but don't worry we've all been there honey hahaha I love every inch of that bowling ball body lol 😆
The dogs missed us while we were away. it was nice to cuddle them again at night.
We miss jojo. She would have turned 10 on april 20th and she's not here and I hate that.
All I know is that for me, I know she was the special kind of thing I needed at that time in my life and I'm lucky I got to experience those years with her. So although its sad I don't have her now, they always say "don't cry that its over smile that it happened."
I heard this song and i related to it with her.
"See grief, it's just like glitterIt's hard to brush awayBright light and it still shimmersLike it was yesterdayAnd it falls like confettiAll of the memories explode like a hand grenadeAnd it's sweet and it's bitterGrief, it's like glitterOh, what a mess it makesWhat a mess it makes"
When we got back to breck it was supposed to be spring and it still hailed and snowed a bunch. 
They both loved playing in the boxes as I packed up to get ready to move. It really wasn't stressful at all this time. I got rid of so much and so I just packed one or two boxes a day during nap time and that was it. Not bad. Last time I was so stressed about it.
Jake with a pony tail. Kinley's a mommy fan- she cries when I'm not holding her. Getting better tho she's working on it.
My dad and shelly took them to the zoo and they got to pet the rhinos and they were in the newspaper!
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I made this going away present for alyssa to thank her for being the best friend in the whole world to me while i was there and I thought it turned out pretty cute! I loved being able to craft again!
The 9 month pictures!
This is a picture of her wearing one of my old dresses from when I was her size. She looks so cute (I think she probly looks better in it than i did) My parents say we do look similar tho!
More minnesota life pics
the fire dept was called for the house across the street and it was another moment where i was thanking my lucky stars that we're all good. I thikn the older I get and tehmore experiences i have the more anxious it has made me (and also maybe more spiritual because of that)
I'm so glad dallin got a picture of this. Not many mom moments are on camera. Anyway we read books in the morning during breakfast, sometimes books before nap, and more books before bed. It drives dallin crazy to read books so he's told me before he likes that i do it haha I think it's cute that they like books and I catch them looking through them on their own and I feel like that's a mom-win when that happens. There's so much debate with parenting advice but the one thing that is never debated is that you should read to them. So I feel like I'm doing the right thing and that it's good for them so i try to make it interesting and do different voices for the characters and whatnot.
Dinner at Alyssa's house and Blaine and Kinley are playing together!
Another big move
The way it went down was that we first thought we were moving to arizona and then it swtiched to utah so moving at all was a huge change and to have it change was like whiplash. We didn't expect for this to happen and we were sad leaving Breckenridge the way that it went.
The kids "helping" pack haha
Dave came to drive the uhaul for us and it was a complete God-send. We both would have been so anxious drivng a uhaul especially after that accident we had and it helped us tremendously. (Dallin had panic attacks recently and I think it had to do with the stress of that accident) Anyways he has been such a helpful father in law and I've learned so much from him as a person. This is just one example of the many times when he is completely selfless and squeezes helping others into his insane schedule.
Katie came to help me fly with the kids and I'm sure it was not the most fun she's ever had lol 😂 So I'm so grateful she was willing to do it for me. Cuz yikes that was a lot flying with them. It went fine luckily, they did good. The connecting flight was quick so we had to hurry and it was cooper's first time on a train so that was cute. But ya there were definitely a lot of stressful moments. 😳 I was so grateful i had her and I relied on her a lot.
I think this graphic sums up perfectly how I am feeling right now ↙
Needless to say I'm enjoying my kids and realizing what miracles they are and how blessed we are to have them. They're perfect and we're so lucky.
This was dallin's last night in breck and tehn starting the drive. He was anxious about leaving the house in good shape and making sure he had everything and cleaning and stuff. Poor guy.
Meanwhile, Dallin's mom kept our spirits up by sending us pictures of her new puppies back in hawaii. Aren't they so cute!!
Utah!
We weren't thrilled when we found out we were coming back to Utah but it has actually surprised us a lot. We have really enjoyed it so far. We seem to always have something going on- somewhere to go, something to do, people to see and socialize with. So I love that about it. I am such an extrovert that I love that here we get out of the house every day and i'm talking to other adults all the time and the kids are happy and becoming less dependent on me. Their sibling bond has been soo heartwarming to watch. Cooper asked me to take a picture of them and grabbed her and held this pose for so long. (and by "asked" I mean, he walked up to my phone and said "cheese" and then "kin kin cheese" lol )
This was the lead up to that pic lol
One bad thing about utah is that we've been sick more here than in any other state. We think it's the inversion and poor air quality but it has been very annoying.
We think cooper had it too but he was being tough about it and so we couldn't tell as much.
I was having to chnage her sheet and clothes from throwing up 4 times a night and she had a fever off and on the frist couple days. It was rough.
They all watched Andy's Dinosaur adventure together while they took a sick day. I thought it was cute that she wanted so many cuddles from me and cooper and dallin.
This was them both watching andy's dinosaur adventure- they love it so much
The day after the fever subsided for her she had a fever rash on her tummy. Dallin had to get an IV perosn to come to the house for him and he said it helped him to feel better
I'm not sure why dallin took lots of pictures of cooper drinking. lol But here they are
Our new amazing car that we absolutely LOOOOOVE!!!!!
She's a beaut. I can honestly say I have never loved a car more than this one. I guess we're jeep people through and through.
Mall outing. It was so fun! We have loved just getting out and doing things again! We really haven't been to a mall in years.
Dallin's Career
I said goodbye to Clearlink after 12 years of working there. Clearlink and the opportunities that I was blessed with during my time there have changed my life. I am forever grateful to that place. I found a love of sales and in leading people and they continually gave me more opportunities and more responsibility. It allowed us to explore the country a little bit(moving to AZ and MN). It gave us the ability to save and buy our first home and start our beautiful family. I feel like I owe so much to Clearlink and the wonderful leaders and friends that influenced me, especially early in my career while I was figuring how what I could be good at.
But with how amazing clearlink was and for how long I had been there, the right opportunity at the right place was going to be the only thing that could pull me away. And I found that at Centerfield. I will be overseeing all insurance sales teams for their insurance agency and I could not be more excited. I am absolutely nervous and anxious but I feel incredibly at peace with the decision to leave clearlink and join Centerfield. I know I am going to grow and be stretched there but I am looking forward to that.
Me and Syd talk a lot about how lucky we seem to be in life and with how our careers have progressed, we have absolutely been blessed.
"Happy" -Cooper (he whispers it when he feels it)
He also says "i love you" instead of thank you so it's so cute when you give him something he's grateful for or that he wanted he says i love you. And he has started to sing the ending words of lines in the songs he likes.
Matthew and shannas house for dinner. Thier kids love ours it's so cute
They both love bananas so much we go through 10 a week
So our rental house in this new neighborhood has been a major adjustment because we are boxed in with houses all around us and so close together. We have no yard and being next to the park is loud and the dogs all around us get each other barking and it's awkward that you can hear and see your neighbors all the time so you just have to keep your blinds closed. I feel like I have 0 privacy.
Moments caught on the baby cam
So cute watching my mom wake up kinder when she was babysitting. It's been so nice to have her help so I can get out she has babysat a lot. and the kids love her of course.
This is the good part about our neighborhood! So I told you the bad already, the good is that we are right next to an amazing park and tons of walking trails and sidewalks and it's beautiful with lots of feilds and tree lined streets. I do love a lot about it.
My hair change
Over the years of highlights my hair has gotten accidentally lighter and lighter and I hated the difference between my ends and roots. (Not to mention the grays)
So I tried to darken it myself and it did nothing to my hair but stained my tub so that makes perfect sense lol The pics on the left is the before, pics on the left is after trying to use this product that's supposed to darken it.
This is a pic of the product and the stains. Don't buy it!
So I went to Ottalaus salon in draper and got it done professionally. (Although it was a very new stylist and a very bad experience because it took 4 hours and was double the price I'm used to paying, so It's hard to use the word "professionally" lol she was definitely not acting professional. I will never go there again.) So the top two pics are me and the bottom two are waht I wanted.
My cute kids
They looooooove the basement in utah. Its the same toys we always had but now that they're underground it makes them more exciting and they will want to play down there for hours. It seriously occupies them independently and I just sit down there reading a book. I just finishing parenting with love and logic and started the one for early childhood specifically.
Cooper loved climbing the rocks by the park. It's so funny that he'd rather do that than play on the actual playground.
Sadie cuddling with cooper. A little bit after this picture was taken we decided to not let him do screen time anymore. He was starting to get addicted and its been sooooooo much better without it. He is more social, interactive, creative, imaginative, and patient without any screens in his life. I know we wont eliminate it forever, but for now it's making him so much happier to not watch it at all. It hasn't been as hard as I thought too- he almost never asks for it.
In these two pics the air is so bad you can hardly see the mountains
Kinder was pushing things around walking in Breck, and then kept doing that when we moved to utah and so she would push her high chair, the folding chairs (we use a pop up table and chairs since we don't have one anymore) and Michelle gave us Patrick's old walkers. Finally she is walking now! She could have a long time before she did but I think she just didn't want to. So our first documented video of her walking was June 10, 2023 so She wasn't technically 11 months old yet. But she also walked a few times that week and we just couldnt' get it on video. So she walked at about 10.5 months old. She's amazing and I love watching her walk.
We love the draper library!
They do stuff for toddlers and babies all the time for free so it's been good for cooper to get used to being aroudn other kids again
Had to put them both in the same swing several times because cooper always wants the infant swing
When he put cooper in the seat there was already a boy sitting in the one next to him and cooper immediately grabbed his hand and they held hands for the first lap they rode the train. lol so cute
Kinley also gives us moments of going "woah you're all grown up". I swear she understands what we say. I will say "ok i'm going to chnage your diaper do you want a veggie straw to hold? " and she will say "Dah " and reach her hand out, then I say " I need to you hold still during the diaper chnage okay" and then she holds still. I know it might be coincidence but it really doesn't feel like it because things like that are happening all the time with her. So she watches tv, reads books, she even figured out coloring. She likes to put a ball at the top of a slide thing and watch it fall, and she plays rough with cooper without crying and seems to like it!
We had so much fun seeing Sari and Michael and thier kids. We had dinner and played with their toys and in the backyard.
We went with my mom and all the dogs the frist time and after that I learned not to bring my dogs anymore lol
The dinosaurs make noises and move
Even mckinley loves it
I thought it was funny how long jake stayed in the stroller. he is definitely getting old and needed a break
They like to wrestle and it looks rough but then kinder is laughing so I don't make them stop lol and they also feed each other the. play food
I like christian rock music- I know alot of people hate it but I don't care lol
Walked to shanna and matthew's house to jump on the trampoline and cooper loved it. I have been going to matthew's clinic for the pelvic floor treatment and it has seriously changed by life. I was peeing my pants every time I sneezed (and with the allergies hitting me so hard when we moved it was alot) and now i don't at all! I am only about halfway through the treatments too so I know it will continue to get betteer. I'm so glad I did it.
She loves to feed the dogs. She will hold it out to them and giggle when they eat it
Then thier dogs Rico and Rory came over here for a week while they were in AZ. Both the kids liked playing in their "dog crib" lol Cooper loved cuddling with rico and called him Ringo lol so he cried when they had to go home. Having 4 dogs was a lot in house with no yard but they all got along fine and their dogs are very well behaved (ours not so much lol )
me culdding with 4 dogs at once.
This was cooper crying up against the door after rico and rory left lol
neighborhood walking trail
WE love thanksgving point!!
We got a membership and there are dinosaurs in the gardens this summer and it has been so amazing for cooper. He is obsessed with dinosaurs
It's so beautiful and we are getting our money's worth with the pass for sure and it's only 10 min away!
We went to Gavin's baptism and so we got all dressed up so I wanted to take pictures but it didn't really go so well. But these are also kindof her 11 month pics since I ddin't take any others
More Thanksgiving point
He always likes to look in the feilds of grass pretending like he's looking for dinosaur eggs so one day I threw some eggs with dinosaurs in them down in the feild when we were walking and he was so happy. We stayed outside and played for hours that day.
When we had selena over I tried to make these gluten free cookies and they turned out laughably horrible lol
She is a dare devil. She will climb up on her own and stand on that rocking chair and try to keep climbing up if its next to the window sill
This was the puppet show at the library. Cooper wasn't as into it as I thought he'd be.
He wanted to hold kinder lol
Twigs with Katie
We met katie's new bf tyler and had amazing food and blast from the past goign to our old fave restaurant. It was so much fun!
You blink and they're grown :(
Wow I remember making this for cooper. And now she's almost a year. So in the toher post I had one that was months 1-6 so here's the rest
And then here are all the pics together so you can see the transformation
Cooper is in gymnastics now
It's been so cute to see the transformation from the 1st week trying it to the 3rd. he loves it and I can tell it's going to be so good for him. The first week there dallin had to sit in there with him up against the wall but cooper coudlnt' resist because what the class was doing looked so fun that he had joined them by half way through
Brunch
I love brunch so much that I have started a new tradistion that i'm going to go every sunday with friends and try to hit all the spots in the valley.
cliff dining pub (it was soooooo good) with rachael and todd. I give it an 8 out of 10 . would be a 10 if the view was better
Sunday's best with Tara, food was 10/10, company 10/10, but the restaurant was so loud the waitress was losing her voice!
Cafe niche in slc with shayle. Sooooo yummy french toast with sausange on the side. so good.
AHHHHH. R & R
Speaking of R&R, the tub and shower we have here are amzing. Me and my drink enjoying (usually ice cream and chips) tv show at night after the kids are in bed. (yes i drink out of baby bottles lol ) Right now we've been watching ted lasso, battle on the beach, windy city rehab, i watched say yes to the dress and nikki bella says i do, and then we also started watching the bachelorette with shilo and tara. That was so fun. It's nice feeling like I have "me time" now that I haven't had in so long. (However this habit is not good for my fitness or my "staying up too late at night" habit that I've started to develop.)I also joined an adult dance class that shanna told me about and it was so fun! I can't wait for that as well.
I think now that my mindset has shifted I don't feel like being a stay at home mom is all drudgery. I have come to love it. I don't want to do it forever but maybe for the next year or two.
He was plugging his ears becuase theres a part in the song wehre he says now everyone shout your name and he said "no scream" lol but they were doing what they were supposed to
You can tell he loves it but he is still not used to following directions. He just is in lala land doing whatever he wants most the time and then sometimes he'll do what he's supposed to. But since they're all 3, they all do that so it's okay.
Couldn't believe it when I saw this fb memory
Jumping in puddles!
it was so fun and they love playing together
coop didn't want to leave the dinosaur exhibit. He said word for word , " I love this!" lol
More library, park, spash pad, home
Dinner with Topher and Kara
We have so much in common with them and it was such a good time. It's so nice to have sucha strong snese of community here in utah. Like I run into people I know all the time and have a lot of people I can socialize with so I love that because I'm such an extrovert.
Screen-free life!
More gymnastics fun! That place is seriously like a 3 year olds dream lol get to climb and jump and swing and roll and they have shakers and music and running. He's in heaven
prizes from DI
I went to drop off donations so while we were there I told him he could pick out any toy he wanted so he picked out a car dipstick lol classic. So that's his new sword that he can't let out of his sight. Kinley picked a baby doll and held it the whole time we were in the store which was adoreable.
We also found 3 dinosaurs that cooper loves!
Discovery Gateway with the cousins
😍💕❤️😊 theyre so cute
Mother's day & Father's day
Dallin made me an adoreable video on fb for mothers day and we went shopping and to smash burger. It was a good day because we had just moved into our rental house 3 days prior but I was alreayd all unpacked! It took me like 3 weeks in breck because I had no help and was doing everything all one handed because kinder wouldnt let me put her down. This time I was able to knock it out quick and dallin was able to help. It felt so nice to be out of the "moving" mode so quickly and already know where all of our stuff was. It felt like home very quickly. I wanted to take my mom to the gardens to celebrate but they're closed on sundays so we made a plan for another day.
For fathers day we went to matthew's and. had a graff fam bbq and then dallin's present was he got to go to az for a weekend to play warhammer with justin. a few days later we took tom to goodwood for his fathers day present.
Dallin's plethora of selfies with the kiddo's (they love doing that for some reason)
Cooper gets really emotional when he listens to really beautiful music with a love story or something happening with the video so when he watches it he squints because he doesn't want to cry lol and it's the sweetest thing I've ever seen. I love that he is so empathetic.
Dallin's work trip
He went to vegas for a medicare conference
We still root for the suns and the cardinals. We do miss AZ sometimes so who knows where we'll end up.
Here are the two video compilations so that I didn't have to upload them all individually
It's amazing to watch those videos and kinley is slowly going from barely crawling to fully walking and from only saying dada to saying hi and waving and saying mommy and dog and ball. She is growing up so fast!
Anywasy, that's all for now and I hope to do this more frequently in the future so it doesn't become a novel everytime. Hope whoever is reading this is having a great summer!
