Hope you're all doing well! 💜 (pssst.... Did you see my 10 year blogiversary post?) Anyway, here is yet another blog post to begin the next decade of posts 👍
Our video compilation ⬇️
Medicare conference in Vegas
Dallin had a lot of fun in Vegas for the conference again this year. It's always such a fun, cool, unique experience for him and I am always jealous of all the cool stuff he gets to see and do. Anyways work-wise he likes interacting in person with all the people he works with and he learned a lot and it was also nice for him to see people from clear link that he hadn't seen in a year or so like Stewart.
Home life
Home life now days is bliss 🥰 They are at such a fun age and it's a good balance for me because they are able to play independently so well now! Kinder likes kinder candy hahaha
Went through all the clothes and got rid of 18 months and 3t and switched over to 2t and 4t. 😭 isn't that crazy they're already in those sizes! two toddlers and no more baby. It's nice tho, our neighbors across the street just had a baby a couple weeks ago and I can hear it crying when I'm outside and it brings back almost like a PTSD feeling lol I know that sound so well and I'm so glad to be done with that. So when I say it's sad they're growing up I mean it's like 20% sad and 80% happy with where we are now and excitement for the future with them. Anyways so I scored at savers in draper and got like 47 clothes items total for both kids and it was sooo cheap. As much as I like kid to kid they're still more than savers and di. I just don't usually find anything at savers and di is the problem. So this time when I did find stuff I felt like I have to buy it because this is the jack pot. It was all newer stuff that was cute and not stained or ripped or anything so it was awesome that it was only like 2$ each. As you can see, kinder's 2t coat is still a little big.
cute cuddles. it really doesn't bother us at all anymore we will fall asleep in there with him sometimes. I think I'm just not in a rush anymore like I used to be.
Showcasing our healthy diet 😜
got my hair done again and I like this mid-tone brown not too dark and not too light. looks kind sunny
I am naturally a very goal-oriented person so I feel better about myself and more accomplished when I'm working toward something and sticking with it and making progress. So I was reading that they were wrong back in the day when they said that 21 days makes a habit and it's more like 66. So I made a goal to track my calories for 66 days to make a habit of it. Not necessarily to stay within a certain calorie amount but just to track everything I eat every day. And I think that has been a good strategy for me because of the education of it. I am now able to guess better on serving sizes and calories and whatnot because I have gotten into the habit of tracking and have often been surprised at how calorically dense things have been. So it helps me to make better decisions in the future. It's been a good balance because I am seeing results but also not doing some crazy crash dieting either.
I read that you shouldn't try introducing a new habit until you've stuck with the first one for at least 21 days so I did the calorie tracking only until I reached 21 days and then started trying to exercise everyday. Even if it's only 5 minutes, I told myself that I will be able to see the pink circle indicating on that day that I did a workout video on my fiton app every single day. (I don't think I need a rest day when I'm doing 5 minute long videos 😂 You may think I'm exaggerating but I'm not. They have videos that short and that's a huge reason why I love this app.) We cancelled our gym membership to save money for the house and that will make a huge difference monetarily speaking cuz that gym was expensive. But I still need to live an active lifestyle somehow and want to make it a habit again because I fell off the wagon.
Peter and the wolf at the symphony
We got my mom these tickets for Christmas and we were all excited to go. (me, her and coop)
miss Bluffdale pageant
Right after we left there I went straight to the middle school because it was pageant day! I was the back stage assistant and in charge of pulling the curtain and getting people on stage when they need to be. It was surprisingly stressful!
I was given flowers from the director and the girls gave me a gift basket which I thought was so cute and nice and thoughtful of them. In there was a face mask and it felt soooooo good!
St. Patrick's day
it was great! started the day off by going to brunch with miss kimineee and that is always a good time!
It was the best because we had a date that same night! So lots of eating out for me! haha We went to prohibition which is a speakeasy where you open a bookcase to get to the restaurant.
The leprechaun left a treasure for the kids to find of course and Cooper wanted to wait to do it with GG so when she was babysitting while we went out she helped them find the treasure!
Their little st patty's day outfits were so cute
Cooper's birthday
⚠️ Caution ⚠️ CUTENESS OVERLOAD AHEAD!!!
Can you believe he's 4?! He was so excited for his birthday. He was asking about it a few months before. "where my party were my burday cake? want my song for my burday!"lol and he told us he wanted the heart of tefiti for his birthday lol 😂 We were going to throw a big party and spend 400$ at kidtopia to do it there but Cooper just kept saying he wants Matthew's house. lol Matthew and Shanna have amazing toys because they have a lot of kids and also just because any toys that aren't at your own house are immediately deemed important and exciting in the mind of toddler lol so we just did it there. And he was sooooo happy. So that's all he needed and we did it so cheaply. My mom gave me a lot of different pancake mixes for Christmas to try and taste test and it was perfect because Cooper is obsessed with pancakes right now. So we did a pancake party at Matthews with the family and on his actual birthday my mom came over and we did cake and a couple presents. So he got the song and candles twice and he got gifts and pancakes and to wear his cape and that's the recipe for happiness for little Cooper. I got his Dino birthday shirt, his gifts, some dinosaur paper plates/cups, sausage, and that was it for his birthday! It was sooo cheap because both gifts I got him probably totaled 25$ but for him it's not about cost anyway. He got exactly what he wanted and was so excited and happy.
The morning of his birthday we put on his new shirt and did a little mini photo shoot. He was so excited and cute that he did all the poses himself! He feels so courageous when he wears his cape and that's so cute it shows in the photos haha
Here he's holding his dinosaur toys that he got from my dad and shelly in the mail and he was absolutely in love. I taught him how to hold up 4 fingers and he was laughing because it was kinda tricky to get his fingers to do that at first and then he was just so happy that he can actually say he's 4 now because he's wanted to for months! He's been waiting for his birthday for so long that it didn't matter that our day was kind of just a normal day -just the fact that it was his birthday finally and he is finally 4 made him elated.
And this was what my mom got him 🤩 .......
THIS WAS THE BIG PARTAAAYYYY!! 🎉 🎊
We did it for dinner time so it was on a Sunday and all day up until the party he was so excited and kept saying "yay Matthew's house yay pancake party!"
So we had fancy flavors like Reeces, cinnamon toast crunch, lucky charms, confetti, and then regular. We all voted/ranked them and the winner was lucky charms! That surprised me a lot!
Easter
We had such a fun easter this year! We went to the draper city easter egg hunt. They got these cute outfits to wear for the hunt but they were covered up by the coats because it was cold out so I took a pic when we got home. They weren't in a picture taking mood obviously lol but had to document the cuteness nonetheless.
They had the easter bunny and Anna and Elsa to take pictures with and they also had face painting. Ours didn't want their faces painted
That was the day before so for easter Sunday we woke up and went to church at SMCC and then afterwards met up with Michael and sari to go to brunch. This was our pic after brunch in the cute spring clothes. We had fun and it all went so well.
Then we went home and did nap time. After they woke up they looked for the baskets. They were hiding in the basement and they were so excited. (Again such a cheap way to achieve pure joy that lasted probably a week or so) Since the can't read yet I put their pictures on their easter baskets instead and they liked that. They said "oh wow!" 🤩 when they first saw it.
Cooper's school
We had his first parent teacher conference and his teacher had nothing but good things to say! (no surprise there, am I right 😜) She said he participates, answers questions, follows directions, is nice to the kids, polite, friendly, funny, athletic, smart, etc. She showed me all the things he can do and I was impressed! She said he sings and colors and cuts, she said he likes painting, climbing, etc. She said for some reason he doesn't like sitting on the floor during circle time so he pulls a chair over and sits on that hahaha
She said he is developing on age-level in every area and doing great and thriving. She said they notice a huge difference on the days when he wears the cape to school lol 😂 She said that he is confident, courageous, and helpful saying "I'll save you!" lol almost like it's his super hero alter ego when he's wearing it haha
Oh and she also said he likes to build houses with blocks and he puts toy dinosaurs in them every time. That's his favorite game when they do independent play while everyone is still arriving or waiting to be picked up and she said he gets so into it he's concentrating so hard he doesn't always hear what you're saying to him right away hahaha She said he likes playing with Leo and Jasper the best those are his friends in class. I'm so glad he has friends and plays well. For show and tell he brought his recorder to show he can play music and he told me Jasper brought a velociraptor and he thought it was really cool.
What a cutie.
Money saving mode
We are back into money saving mode for the house, so this was me being sad that it was our last day at the gym 😞 The pic on the right was getting some free entertainment by going to scheels. we found this game and didn't even pay but Cooper sat in it happy as a lark just pretending to play haha
This was the last time I got my nails done 😞 ...... gave it up in the name of saving money but boy do I miss it.
I ran out of 3 of the skin care things I was using and didn't repurchase to save money there (skincare can be expensive and add up.) but my red light therapy has made a big difference in my face and I'm still using that every day. I have also started drinking collagen peptides in my tea so we will see if that does anything
We went to check out the Gale center cuz I saw that it was free and in sojo and that was really fun the kids loved it.
Afterward we went to check out a new park. Cooper had to go to the bathroom and I showed him the facility and he was grossed out by it and tried to hold it but kept saying he really needed to go so we drove home and they were both crying that we had to leave the park (lol 😂 quintessential toddler problems am I right?!)
We have started going to SMCC for church on Sundays and they have an indoor and outdoor playground and they have childcare for every age and that too is free. So it's nice to get the kids used to being social and I like the messages and coop likes the music. We really like it so far. (see the video of him going down the slide)
The tulip festival
Kinder and I went with my mom for a little girls day at the gardens while Cooper was at school. It was really fun! We saw a goose and her babies, and it was funny kinder knew without me telling her she said , "Don't touch it!" haha and we laughed and said good idea. (It was freaking me out to be that close to birds as it was so you don't have to tell me twice lol ) this couple walked up and she turns to them and says pointing "Mommy and babies-don't touch it!" haha
kinder said look balloons! haha
This was the day before my mom's arm surgery so the last day with the big cast and then she went to a smaller one
Selena's Baby shower
We went to celebrate baby Reven with the graffs! I loved how unconventional her shower was! She did a co-ed kid friendly kind instead of just women, didn't open gifts during the shower, and had everyone bring books instead of cards and don't wrap the gifts. I loved those changed because all that stuff isn't as practical. It was nice to spend the time talking, decorating blocks, coloring, watching a movie, eating, playing outside, etc. instead of sitting there watching her open gifts. We all had a lot of fun and it was nice that nona and pa and granny all got to be there and it was good to see them again.
mom and grandma
speaking of Grandmas... haha perfect Segway. My mom and I spent some time taking care of my grandma because my aunt and uncle went out of town for the weekend so it was good spending time and talking to her because I don't see her a lot. She is still her funny, upbeat, positive self. She's not all in there of course but she still has a happy attitude to her like she always has. I have always admired that about her and that's how I aspire to be. My mom broke her arm at work (she fell and broke it close to the wrist). She gets workers comp to cover the med bills and a percentage of her income while she can't work but it's not all of it so that part isn't ideal. The good news is that she is able to focus on other things and have a break from her busy work schedule. She had surgery and it went well, The pic below is right before surgery. Then she spent the day with us and I stayed with her at her apartment that night. She seemed to be doing well and she is very on top of it with the pills and what she needs to do for appointments and whatnot so I haven't really needed to help all that much.
Cooper painted this for her and she deemed it "fridge worthy" lol He was experimenting with putting some water on the page and watching the colors swirl and using his stamps in the paint and making dinosaur tracks with their feet in the paint and stuff. Its cute to see the wheels turning in his head.
Here's some more pics of Good times
I thought this pic was funny and accurate and I thought I would place it in the "good times" section because its a reminder that for every good times pic there's still those hectic, chaotic times where I lose my patience. But luckily those times are happening fewer and fewer because I think the kids and I are really good at understanding each other now and my patience has grown exponentially since I've learned more about how the toddler brain works so I can kind of understand where they're coming from.
gymnastics waiting in line to get his stamp at the end, screen time at the end of the day
Kinder in a very odd position for screen time lol but she was comfortable 😆
They both play independently so easily all the time now.
She wants to do everything Cooper does and is very into all the girly things like dress up and barbies and baby dolls. They're both very into beauty and the beast and want to read the book over and over and listen to the music a lot. So Cooper likes it when she wears the yellow dress because he says she is belle and he is the beast because the beast wears a cape too lol
lunch with tom at chick fil a
(I'm hoping the way she says his name now is not a nickname that will stick..... being called pooper would be annoying)
Coop giving the kitchen some renovations lol
The weather has been so nice we have been enjoying the backyard a lot now days. (I like the backyard more now because they both are really into exploring now when we go to the park- meaning that I lose them and it's hard to keep track of both because they go in opposite directions and it's dangerous 🤦♀️)
Here are the captions for the pics below ⬇️
(Left: Kinder copying Cooper laying down lounging and relaxing in the warm weather. ~
Right: We all ran around in the backyard, did bubbles, played hide and seek, pretended to be dinosaurs fighting and falling, and then we found these yellow flowers and the kids made sure we all had one on our ear. It was such a good night enjoying simple things with each other. Like the summer version of hygge and it warmed by heart and that's something that I'm sure we'll look back on and treasure. I love this age because it's just simple things that make them happy. All they want is quality time with their family and that is a lesson we can all learn from that we need to prioritize that in life.)
Thinking about house stuff to be ready for our design center appointment
They do one 4 hour long appointment where you pick literally everything for the house. So it feels like a lot of pressure to be ready because I don't want to be indecisive and take too much time on something just to run out of time at the end and have to rush to pick things and then we regret things. So we've been starting to think about what we want every room to be like. (For dallin I think that's an accurate statement. For me, it's more like "obsess and spend hours scouring the internet every single night for the last couple months and making mood boards for every room deciding down to the tiniest details what everything needs to look like 😅 lol 😬...... anyways....) Our appointment is this week and I can't wait!!! 😁
Lets finish with the uplifting stuff
I liked these quotes 👇
I thought these were good advice 👇
So the little thing on my window is rarely good/cute and more often stupid stuff. (You pull a paper off every day for some uplifting quote or whatever.) So it was funny I pulled it off in the morning and saw this 👇 and thought that's dumb and then went to the gym. At the gym I listened to a Dr. BEcky workshop on triggers that we have as parents that are kids do and it actually helped me soooooooooooo much more than I thought it would. I had started it a couple times and kept quitting it thinking this is stupid I don't need to hear this, so then when there ended up being so much that was applicable to me I was surprised and I apparently needed to hear it so much because at parts I was even kind of emotional listening to it. So I thought it was divine intervention or the universe telling me that I needed the message or something because there were a few times throughout the workshop that Dr. Becky referred to this kind of reflection as an investment in yourself. So I thought what are the odds that a saying like that would be in my day repeatedly?! It was a clearly a sign and it helped me so much. I was a much better parent the rest of that day and the next with the knowledge that workshop taught me. I am once again very grateful that I have that membership and it is teaching me a lot .
I hope you all have moments in your lives where you are able to stop and reflect, "sharpen the saw" as Stephen covey would say, and be inspired by things. I have noticed that I definitely need that (and maybe it's part of the human experience that all people do? 🤔) because it makes me stop and make sure my life is aligning with my priorities and makes me appreciate what I have and just makes me a better person and happier in general.
Anyways, have a good week!
