Hallie's 1st Birthday

I documented Hallie at 12 months in this post HERE, but I'm still (forever!) playing catch up, so I'm just now finally showing her little birthday party. :)

The balloon arch was so fun! It took quite awhile to make, and it was SUPER distracting for the boys all day long (face palm), but it was fun to have for the pictures...which is all that matters anyway, right?! haha

With covid and everything, we tried to figure out how to celebrate with Curt's family and my family, without overlapping. (Since we'd been getting together in person with each family separately, but we needed to be careful about not gathering too many people together, and figured it would be best to not mix families just yet.) Originally we were going to do two parties, one day apart, but then we found out that Chad & Lisa were going to be out of town for the whole weekend. And then since Collin & Rachel had just had baby Cash, they weren't going to be coming either way. So then we were just left with Curt's parents, my mom, and Cory & Allie. And with that few of people, it didn't make sense to do two separate parties...so we decided to do an in-person dinner for whoever felt comfortable coming, and then everyone else could zoom in for the cake smash. Curt's parents were trying to be careful, so they just joined in on zoom, and Chad & Lisa and Collin & Rachel were also able to zoom in as well, so it worked out perfectly. 

Her lack of hair & beautiful physique inspired the theme, haha, and we had fun with it. Almost everyone joined in on the bow contest, and it was so fun!

Chad & Lisa and the girls all had amazing bows on zoom, and I'm so sad I forget to get a screenshot! Karli ended up winning for the biggest bow (she had made a bow out of ferns, haha!), and Cory won for most creative.

Everyone who came in person got to decorate circle (bald head) & bow cookies:

(I had the idea to take cookies to everyone who was going to be on zoom, so they could decorate their own cookies too...

but the thought came too late and we ran out of time to deliver them.)

And everyone (zoom & in person) got to guess how many bows Hallie had:

*I think the number was 56, and Tucker guessed it EXACTLY right! We thought he had maybe cheated, but he promises he didn't...just a crazy lucky guess, haha!

We had Hallie's favorite meal of teriyaki chicken & rice, and then we had these cute cupcakes for dessert:

A friend in our ward made the cake--and it was so cute! (And SO nice that I didn't have to worry about making it!) It ended up being almost as tall as Hallie, haha! For the first little while, she didn't want to touch it with her hands, so she just leaned in and gingerly ate it with her mouth. But then she started getting a little more daring and took a few chunks out of the side...and then she took the bow off the top and was LOVING that, hahaha.

The boys were RIGHT there by her side--the entire time. It was fun to see them so excited about it. :)

It ended up being a fun little party, and zooming people in seemed to work pretty well. It was so fun to celebrate her, and we appreciated everyone participating!! Here are a few other cute pictures:

She loved playing with the balloons:

We had this cute display of pictures of her throughout the year:

And I was so excited to give her her first doll!

And then lastly, I did this little photoshoot of her a few days before her birthday--she's so cute!

Happy Birthday, Hallie Girl!! We love you SO much!!

BASEMENT!!

When we bought our home a year-and-a-half ago, our original plan was to build a big shop in the backyard right away. We were/are going to build it with an apartment on top to bring in some rental income, so we figured the sooner we could build it, the better. But then we went through the process of trying to pull the permit with the city...and it took WAY longer than we expected...and then Hallie was born...and then covid hit...and then lumber prices skyrocked...so we reevaluated our plans and decided to finish our basement first and focus on the shop later.

We made the decision to work on the basement last fall, and the goal was to have the it finished by Christmas. Here is the timeline of how (quickly) everything happened:

Oct 15: We got a storage unit & started moving things out of the basement

Oct 19: Submitted the permit (the city said it would take 2 weeks for approval)

Oct 21: The basement was completely empty & clean

Oct 26: Lumber was delivered & Curt started framing!

Nov 14: Curt had all the framing, plumbing, electrical, and HVAC finished...and had to wait for the permit to be able to schedule the first inspection

Nov 17: We finally got the permit issued!! (and scheduled the inspection for 2 days later, haha)

Nov 19: We passed the 4-way inspection!!

Dec 1: After a week of the basement sitting (during Thanksgiving)...drywall finally started!! (the only trade we hired out)

Dec 9: Drywall finished! and Curt started working extra crazy hours, busting out all the finish work

Dec 23: Passed the final inspection!!

So Curt officially started on Oct 26, and we had the final inspection on Dec 23...which means he did it all in less than two months!!!! And even with only being able to work in the evenings and Saturdays!! He is amazing. Seriously, SO amazing. I'm so grateful for him and all his construction skills.

Here's the floorplan:

(It's so fun to think that Curt & I designed this all on our own...and now it's a reality!)

And now for the BEFORE/AFTER pictures...

Here are some progression pictures, all taken from the same angle:

Such a mess of toys & wires:

All cleaned up:

Framing:

Insulation:

Drywall:

Mudding & Taping:

Paint:

Flooring:

Trim:

And here are some time lapse videos during the process:

Insulation:

Shiplap Wall:

Flooring:

Curt documented every single day of the process on his Instagram stories, and they're all saved under his highlights. It's crazy and fun to go back to watch it all take shape, day by day!!

Finally, here are the fun "extra" projects that Curt built--he worked on these during the first few weeks of January, after the final inspection. Again, his talents and abilities are seriously so amazing.

We love, love, LOVE having our basement finished--and every day we talk about how grateful we are for it. The biggest things are probably that Curt now has a legit office to work out of (instead of having to work from our master bedroom...), and that Tucker & Calvin have a room downstairs (which moved Bronco into Hudson's room with him, and allowed Hallie to take over the boys' old room so she doesn't have to sleep in a closet anymore, haha). It's also SO nice to have the extra finished space to hang out in, and after covid is all over, we hope it will be a good place for the boys to have their friends over. Curt loves having the snack bar right outside his office, haha, and I love having the barn door to be able to close off the cold storage--it was always such an eye sore to walk down the stairs and see that first thing.

We are so grateful we had the money to be able to do this, and we're so grateful for Curt's skills that the Lord has blessed him with, that allowed him to do it all himself--which saved us a ton of money (and time!). 

We love our house!!!