Back to Kansas

Yep... we've already been back up to Kansas to visit.  Andy had training in Chicago for a week and I decided there was no way I was going to stay in Dallas by myself (I don't know how you awesome military wives do it!) and be in charge of Isaac 24/7.  Granted, when we made this decision Isaac was cutting his second tooth and adjusting to this new apartment/schedule, so he wasn't sleeping well and I wasn't sleeping well.  The thought of being alone for a week was overwhelming to say the least!

If we had lived farther away from family I would've made it work.  Since my parents are only 5 1/2 hours away now, I decided to go spend the week with them.  It was my sister Allie's last week at home before heading off to BYU (which I am suddenly missing so much it's not even funny), so I was extra glad to see her one last time before she headed off to enormous amounts of fun... I mean college.

I'm so glad we went because we had so much fun!  

One of the highlights was introducing Isaac to my parents new puppy Ginny (yes... as in Ginny from Harry Potter)

At first Isaac wasn't so sure about the furry beast...

But by the end of the week he was lunging for her!

Isaac had to learn what "soft" means.

Isaac also had fun exploring my parents house and neighborhood!

Isaac loved sitting in a swing by himself!  We wrapped my mom's jacket around him because it was a little chilly.

First trip down the slide!

Isaac LOVED getting into my mom's pantry and taking everything out!  He is one strong little dude too because some of those things are heavy!

Practicing his pedal work.

Isaac loved this little cart of my moms!  He could walk all over with it.

More than anything though, he LOVED spending time with his aunts and grandparents!

Isaac really enjoys being upside down!

Frozen yogurt popsicle with grandma

A careful inspection of the phone

Isaac LOVES Grandpa!  He was so excited every night when Grandpa got home from work! He would put one fist in the air so they could do a fist bump (we later realized that's how he points since he hasn't figure out the whole pointer finger thing).  He also loves helping Grandpa take a drink!

All in all, this was a great trip to Kansas!  I'm so excited to live closer to my family so we can see them more often!

The Chair

While living with my parents in Kansas, Andy and I wanted to try to find some furniture for our new apartment in Dallas.  Since they had a van (and were willing to watch Isaac) we figured it would be much easier to go get furniture then, rather than taking Isaac with us in our little sedan.

Long story short, one of the things I really wanted was a cute little chair to go in the corner of our living room.  I kind of have a thing for clean, classic lines and grey fabric, but I knew that finding those two things together wouldn't be cheap (or easy).  When I found a chair on Craigslist that was EXACTLY what I was looking for (minus the 1960s gold brocade fabric), I knew we could turn it into something beautiful with the right fabric.

Fast forward a week or two and it's suddenly the Friday before we leave for Utah.  Andy finally got sick of waiting for my mom and I to get started on re-upholstering the chair, so he took matters into his own hands.

This is the best before picture we have.  We forgot to get a good one before we started taking things apart.

First, Andy painstakingly removed every staple and nail to preserve the original fabric to use as a pattern for our pieces.  He also took over 100 pictures of every detail about how each piece fit together.  That way we could re-upholster the chair exactly the way it was done originally.

I don't have any pictures of the rest of the process, but it went something like this:

Once Andy was done taking the chair apart, we laid each piece out on the new fabric to make sure we had enough (we didn't).  We also realized that we were going to need upholstery batting to replace the 50+ year old batting that was firmly stuck on the fabric.  After a trip to the Jo-Ann's on in East Wichita, we had everything we needed to finish the project: more fabric, new batting, tacks, cord, etc.

After getting more fabric, we cut the new pieces using the old ones as our patterns.

I then sewed a BUNCH of piping! Since we didn't have enough fabric to cut it on the bias, we had to cut the strips of fabric surrounding the cording on the grain, but I would definitely recommend doing it on the bias if at all possible!

Andy then went to town with my parents' air compressed staple gun while I kept Isaac out of earshot and trouble.  When we left for Utah it was 90% done and the day we got back Andy finished it up.  It looks pretty awesome if you ask me!

I love this chair so much it's not even funny!  Every time I look at it I smile.  Isaac loves this chair too.  And by loves this chair, I mean he loves that the springs inside the chair make his hand bounce (and make a funny noise) when he stands next to the chair and hits down on it.  And he loves that if he can climb on it before Andy or I notice he can reach thinks on the bookshelf next to the chair by standing on the arm... or the guitar hero guitars behind the chair.  All around, this chair is loved.

We did learn a few lessons though about re-upholstering furniture (and any DIY projects really).

1. Re-upholstering isn't the cheapest way to get furniture.  We were wanting to spend about $80 on the chair, but after spending $60 to buy the chair, $60 on fabric (and that's after getting it 50% off!), $30 on batting, and another $15 on miscellaneous supplies, it cost us double what we had anticipated.  If you have a specific idea in your head though and you can't find it anywhere (within a reasonable price range), it's a good option.  Just be sure to price out the project before you start so you aren't surprised by how much it costs!

2. Take way more pictures than you think you'll need.  Even though Andy took a ton of pictures, we still had some parts where we weren't sure how exactly it should go back together.

3. It's worth it to take the time to make everything look perfect.  Even if it takes a few extra hours.  Make sure the pattern matches (as much as possible).  Make sure to pull the fabric as tight as possible while stapling.  If you're going to spend that much time and money on a project, it should end up as something you LOVE.

4. Curves and seams are hard to get right. Look for a piece with as many straight lines as possible.

5. Make sure the piece has good bones.  If it's a chair/couch, you want it to have good firm cushions and a good solid frame.  Re-upholstery isn't a cure-all for sad looking couch, but it is a good way to update an outdated piece that's otherwise in good shape!

In the end, we'll probably skip the DIY re-upholstery for awhile and stick to slightly simpler projects for the time being.  Andy swears he's never going to do it again... and I've promised myself I'll start off with something easier.

Moving to Dallas

Two days after we got back from Utah, we loaded up the moving van again and headed off to Dallas with my two sisters in tow to help with Isaac.  Isaac wasn't a huge fan of being stuck in his carseat for 5 1/2 hours, but his Aunts Allie and Sarah were amazing at keeping him happy for the most part!  He pretty much lost it about 30 minutes before we pulled into our complex.

I don't know how we would've done it without my two sisters!  They were so great about playing with him so Andy and I could focus on getting things unpacked!  And they were great about helping us unpack and going shopping with me for the million and one things we seemed to need to get a new apartment up and running!

Friday night my parents headed down to help us with the last little bit and to pick up my sisters.  The number one thing on our list was to hit up Ikea the next day... and man did we!  After 4 hours of shopping we successfully found bookshelves, chairs, spice storage, and various other doo-dads and gizmos.

Then came Andy's favorite part of moving in... assembling the furniture!  Isaac was a big help with all of this!

Sometimes... it's too hot for clothes and we just need to sit and read a book.

We honestly LOVE it here in Dallas and can't imagine living anywhere else!  Our ward is amazing (and about half of them are young families who live fairly close to us)!  Our complex is within walking distance of a couple grocery stores, so if I get feeling cooped up, we'll head over to the grocery store for a walk.  And my favorite part... once a month our complex gets a bunch of food truck to come to the club house and we go get dinner there. Oh how I love that day!

Family Reunion in Idaho and Getting Back to Kansas!

After spending a week with Andy's family, we headed up to Idaho for a family reunion with my mom's family.  We all stayed at my uncle's lodge in St. Anthony, ID (just outside of Rexburg).  We had a LOT of fun there!

Due to the time change (and bed change, and people change, and schedule change, and tooth coming in), Isaac wasn't sleeping so well in his crib, so we ended up bringing him into bed with us most nights.  It's hard to be mad at him when you get to wake up to this cutie in the morning!

Isaac taking a bath with his 2nd cousing Maylee!

At the water park with Maylee!  Isaac LOVED the waterpark!  

 There were a lot of other fun activities (including the traditional water fight), but all those pictures are on my parent's camera.

On our way back to Kansas after the reunion, we spent the night with Andy's parents again.  His mom was nice enough to have the family over so we could see them again!

Uncle Lauri was such a trooper!  He "got" to hold all the little girls toys while they ran off to play something else.

Another picture of Tinley and Isaac.  I can't help it!  They're so photogenic together!

On our way back to Kansas, our flight got delayed due to a storm.  So we got to spend 6 hours in the Denver airport with Isaac before finally boarding our flight at 10:30 p.m... luckily Isaac is good at keeping himself entertained!

Trip to Utah

Even though we had only moved out of Utah at the end of April, we headed back out there in the middle of June for a family reunion and to spend some time with Andy's family.  While we were spending the week with Andy's family we decided to take Isaac to some of our favorite places... and to some new places that we had always wanted to go to.

Andy's parents took us to Asian Star (Andy's favorite restaurant)

We took Isaac for a walk around Temple Square

At City Creek Mall

At the aquarium.  Isaac LOVED watching the fish!

I am in love with Isaac and Tinley together!  She is such a cute little mama when he's around!

Logan trying to get Isaac to crack a smile.  

Isaac and William (who looks 100% like his dad) saying hi at my grandma's birthday party!

Isaac was being silly up at my grandparents house and decided that his pants belong on his head

This is how we spend a large portion of our day... with Isaac inspecting me for cavities.  Hopefully once he has his own mouth full of teeth he'll be a little less interested in mine!

We also took Isaac to BYU, but somehow missed getting any pictures of that!  Don't worry though, we got him a BYU t-shirt to wear while we cheer on our Cougs this fall!  I would definitely be okay if he said "Go Cougars" before he said mama or dada.

Last few Weeks in Kansas

I know, I know... You're all shocked that we're still alive.  Getting settled in Dallas has definitely kept us busy!  Now it's time to play catch-up.

When we first moved to Kansas after graduation, we thought that 2 months was FOREVER!  Surprisingly, it went way too quickly!  Before I knew it we were getting ready to head back to Utah for vacation and family reunions.  We packed a lot of fun into our last few weeks there.  Here's a recap:

Isaac LOVES to be upside down!  He is such a silly boy!

Andy turned 26... and Allie made him an amazing Choco-Flan cake (Seriously. Look it up... it was To Die For!)

Allie showed Isaac her award winning ugly Christmas Sweater... and he thought it was AWESOME!

Isaac learned to crawl on top of things. Why yes, he is using his mouth as an anchor.

He had his first experience with pool time.  He went from being not so sure about it...

...to totally in love with it!

I returned to my permed roots!  Yay for curly hair!  Surprisingly... it's so much easier to deal with here in Texas than my stick straight, no body hair was!

I FINALLY made a pillow for the back of my rocking chair.  I used this tutorial and I love how it came out!

Next up... our trip to Utah!