It's 2024 everyone!! That feels weird to say. I'm really looking forward to this year though. I know it will be amazing 🤩 with all the stuff we have planned and seeing the kids grow.
Speaking of the kids growing...... isn't it so weird that they used to look like this and it really wasn't that long ago?!
The holiday season
ahhh the holidays. Who doesn't love the holidays?! (Actually, in talking to people it turns out this is a higher number than you'd think. As I went to the gym and did errands and went throughout life I was hearing more and more people say "this is a stressful time" and things like it. I have started to think that it's the popular thing to be negative. You're the weird one if you're happy and positive and I don't like that. I hope there is a societal shift to talking more about the positives than the negatives. Because why on earth do people feel like they have to ruin the most magical time of the year by talking about how much it sucks?)
Anyways- holidays were not stressful for us because I did all the shopping online on Black Friday weekend, wrapped it during nap time as it came, and then that was it and it was done. We went out to Gardner village and saw the elves, and made ginger bread houses with the kids, listened to holiday music, and it was such a good time.
Cooper loved making gingerbread houses
We definitely enjoyed getting more time with daddy! he wasn't working all week and it was GLORIOUS!!
I had fun making gifts for the neighbors and sisters in law and gym girls and coopers teachers and gymnastics teachers.
These pumpkin blondies were to die for! So I had to eat a little before I gave it to the neighbors ahem for quality control purposes. lol 😜 Cooper loved helping make the goodies but he was less of a fan of giving them away. lol we tried to say " we give gifts so that our friends will be happy" and he said "But I want Cooper be happy!" (The concept of giving gifts has got to be a weird thing to understand in the 3 year old mind. He just put all that work into making something that he wanted so why would he give it away? lol)
We went to the outlets at traverse mountain to see the biggest Christmas tree in Utah and the life size gingerbread houses and that was festive and fun!
They made the reindeer chains at the gym and the snowmen at preschool
holiday lights at the gym in my barre class 😊 and all the classes did holiday music too of course
Doing photo challenges has gotten me to be looking around for cool/beautiful things to capture and I loved the reflection of the sun setting on this building in Lehi. So cool !😁
Christmas 🎄 🎅
And now for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! I felt like this was the first year that the kids were both fully aware and psyched for Christmas and all that it entails. I loved seeing their enthusiasm because in years past they seemed to not be that into it.
So Christmas Eve we went to a candle light service at a local church (SMCC) and got all dressed up. It was sooooo fun and so cute to see them all dressy and stuff. They seemed to love it! They didn't even fight me on getting dressed up!
After the nap that day we went to Brian and Michelle's and had fondue (that's their family tradition on Christmas Eve).
Then we went home and put out the cookies for Santa and watched a tiny bit of a Christmas movie before they had to go to bed. (Cooper had to try the cookie first before he left it on the Santa plate. just to make sure it was good.)
This was the look of it Christmas morning before the kids woke up
Christmas morning!!
They were pretty amazed when they first saw the presents and then we waited for my mom to get there and we ate French toast and then started opening presents one by one. It went very slow because the kids wanted to play with each toy after opening it for a while. So it was nice that we didn't have to slow them down and if anything we were telling them to keep opening! lol we got to enjoy the presents all day long because we stopped to have lunch and take a nap and then opened more and then had dinner.
This is me opening my red light therapy mask (which I am obsessed with) ❤️
McKinley loved the dress up kit
These were some other favorites
This was the next few days of us using all of our new gifts.
My red light therapy mask has already made a big difference in my skin and it's only been like 3 weeks! this outfit was given to her from shelly
and I was surprised but the dogs weren't that interested in the Christmas bones. They do chew on them every once in a while though.
Cooper got this light that rotates and shows dinosaurs on the walls and this bath toy that lights up so we did kind of a cosmic bath party one night. and My dad and shelly gave me a thing that will print pictures from your phone so this was the first one I tried. So cool!
It was so good having dallin with us the whole week of christmas. He didn't have to work and joined the gym and we did a lot of fun stuff together. Good times. It was so sad when it was over.
He cracks me up. Cooper and his Crib.
We wanted to help Cooper transition from the pack n play to his bed so dallin tried sleeping in the bed with him but what ended up happening was just Cooper getting in and out of his pack n play, taking off his clothes, playing with toys, reading books, etc. while dallin slept. So that didn't really work.
So finally we got him these huge bed rails and told him that he was getting a new crib. We said he outgrew the small crib and he needs a big crib since he's a big boy. And he agreed- as long as it wasn't a bed. So we put it together and here it is. A cage for a human lol
So I took down the pack n play and we just kept calling it his new crib so that he would be comfortable with it. and we put the same things in it so that he would feel as similar as possible. So the blankets look so small but when I tried to put another one in Cooper adamantly refused.
This was dallin reading to him in there on the first night. He seemed uncomfortable with the change a little the first day or two, but not enough to refuse it. He was just getting used to it but accepting it.
He has since taken a liking to it and figured out he can leave the room (dallin showed him how to get in and out through the corner by pulling the two pieces apart.) But he's been doing really good about staying in his room for the most part. He has only come out when he needs to go to the bathroom. (which I'm very proud of him for)
New year
Happy new year! We made coffee cake muffins and I put these little decorations in them and we went out while my mom babysat and it was sooo nice to be off mom-mode for a while.
the restaurant was really good! It was kinda funny how red everything was with the lighting in there.
In the mean time this was the kids at home with my mom. Kinley ate it all no questions asked
And then my mom had to keep making deals with Cooper to get some dinner in. this or that? okay now this or that? okay now this or that? to earn dessert (which he knew he was working toward because he saw the chocolate pie she brought when she came in) and This was him when he finally earned it. He looked at it saying "wow.... it's beautiful.... 🤩 it's PERFECT!" and then he took a bite and said ew yucky. and didn't want it. hahaha maybe he's like his dad and he likes light, fruity desserts not chocolatey, rich ones.
me and miki playing back when we were little
It was very fun to see them all we had a good time.
Tom came over and we had dinner and talked and he brought the kids presents and they loved them. One day Cooper decided to paint his banana
there's no such thing as bad weather
This is kinder saying "bock bock" because she was sitting on the chicken. The elf on the shelf was the library's tree topper
this was a paleontologist base camp thing
He was making snow angels in the sand which I thought was hilarious. He also likes the climb the walls in there. McKinley felt the sand this time and said ew yucky no thank you. and then another girl her age walked up to her with a hand full and said here you go. and I opened my hand and said thank you and then the girl went up to McKinley and said here you go, so she copied me and put her hand out and said thank you, and then just like that she was into playing with the sand again and it wasn't yucky. I just think its so cute how social she is
Cooper doesn't need pants when he has a sheath for his sword lol
He wanted to try on the dress up stuff too so this is him wearing the earring and high heel shoes
McKinley took this picture one of the times she took my phone. she's getting better!
(the pic on the right was taken by kinder)
She was really bad when she didn't have medicine in her. That's the highest temp I've ever seen! so we put her in the bath in cooler water and gave her medicine and held her with the fan on in the room to cool her down. Once she had medicine in her she was happy
Family time
This was visiting with my grandma, miki, ray, Kim, my mom, and Matt who was visiting in town
Utah haze
We had to change the filters in our air filters after only 2 months instead of 6 because that's how bad the air is. I like having them tho. Gives me peace of mind.
Hygge times
At first I wanted to make 1 hour of hygge time every day my new years resolution, but then I realized we easily already do that. This was when we were all painting and then Cooper decided to paint the dinosaur too. McKinley wanted carrot and celery infused water I guess lol 😂
Cooper reading a book, pretty view
This was at Matthew's surprise birthday party
Taking Cooper to gymnastics
cuddles during screen time
Dinner out with topper and kara
this restaurant is called Tuscany and wow what an amazing place! It was so festive and decked out for the holidays! It was gorgeous and the food was incredible. We had such a good time chatting with them too!
Topher gave dallin this cute painted Warhammer piece but it's like Christmas themed so we put it on our tree!
Exploring at the library
They wanted to walk around outside next to the library and look at the sculptures of chickens
The clouds looked like they were sitting on the mountains that day
dino's
They both like that place so much that now I don't bring a stroller because they both just want to walk around. Makes it kind of like herding cats but at least I'm not herding cats while pushing an empty stroller too lol
And this was on a different day going there. They had a teacher that was showing them things and letting them touch them
quotes
One of the photo challenge days with the graff girls and I liked these
Happily ever after
Kinley getting her protein shake in after the gym lol and I look so creepy in my Freddy Kruger mask lol
I had a scab from a zit and casually scratched. I was reading my book so I wasn't paying attention and didn't feel much and then Cooper comes over to me and goes oh no! mommy owie! I'm sorry! so I looked at myself in the camera on my phone and there was blood dripping down my face in between the eyes. He kissed it better for me and then said ew yuck and had to wipe off his lips lol
Both kids in pjs watching a show together
Art
she likes to color
And this was us figuring out that the white board markers wipe off the tray so she likes that because the paper slides off so much.
Cooper likes painting a little bit more. Still doesn't hold his attention for that long though. He's not really into anything that involves holding still unless it's screen time lol
Dates
Dallin's new year resolution is to go on a date every week and workout 4 times a week and stay on top of it with getting testosterone. my resolution is to be social once a week so I have been making new friends. because of all those resolutions we have been a lot happier! It makes me happier to be social and I have been missing getting time with dallin because he has been working so much. So this date was something from the book (we forgot we had this and it was nice to pull it out and get an idea from ) we didn't have a sitter that night so we did the one where you plant something in your window and we did a little kit that will grow tea leaves so that is fun since I love tea. and we door dashed chilis which I love, and we played a game after. It was a really good date even though we didn't have a babysitter!
Sadie's favorite blanket
Tom's Christmas gift to us was this blanket and we love it too because its so soft but I think Sadie has gotten the most use out of it lol
I'm an official committee member now!
I joined the miss Bluffdale committee and it has been really fun so far and everyone is so nice. I'm so impressed with the girls too! I got to teach walking and that was a blast from the past!
the many selfies of dallin graff
We all know dallin loves a good selfie!
Sickness
We got a cold and it hit kinder the hardest poor thing
this is her happily eating popcorn and watching a show. Waving hi!
I got it too and it was bad so the kids got a lot of screen time that week.
we had snow and then lost it
it was snowing for a few days straight and I loved how white and pretty everything was but then it warmed up and melted and now we have like nothing left. So the con is that it's not as pretty but the pro is that we didn't have to shovel and we can see the dog poo to pick it up.
Here is our video compilation of home videos from dec 14-jan 15 this time!
I love combining the upload into one. saves so much time!
We are looking forward to an amazing 2024! This is the 10 year anniversary for the blog (and our marriage) so it's going to be such a fun, big year and I cannot wait to see what all unfolds. We wish nothing but the best for you this year as well. Happy New year everyone!
