We Have A One Year Old!

It's been a ridiculously long time since our last blog post, so before I get going with the excitement, here's the extremely condensed update. We're still in Florida! Sean completed his internship last December, and was hired on full-time as an analyst on the forecasting team for Disney Resorts. He basically stares at previous data all day and tries to predict how many rooms are going to be filled at all the resorts in the near future. So we're still enjoying our perks and spend a lot of time at Disney World. :) We've also moved out of our 600 sq ft apartment now that we are here permanently. We finally got our stuff from Utah and moved into a house in Davenport, FL. We got to stay in our same ward, and we love it.

Early July, We found out that we are expecting another baby! Due March 15, 2015, we are extremely excited to find out the gender next week. This pregnancy has been a lot easier on me than the last, and so far I'm significantly less fat than last time, so there's a plus.

THE BIRTHDAY BOY!!

I can't believe it's been a year already! My little baby is a toddler and it's blowing my mind.

Stats: 20 lb, 29 inches tall, 18 inch head

Lincoln is still 25th percentile for weight, and 50th percentile for length. His rate of growth slowed down, as he used to be in the 75th percentile for length, but the doctor says this isn't anything to worry about. Lincoln is a lean, muscly baby with almost no jiggles or folds. Contrast this with his giant round head and we literally have "an orange on a toothpick." We still get comments in the grocery store about his perfectly shaped noggin. We love our handsome man.

In other news, he now has 6 teeth, says "mama" and "dada", is definitely left-handed, and recently started walking. It's so funny to watch him walk around the house with his hands in the air to keep balance. 

Ok, pictures. That's what you want, isn't it? 

Sunday morning, we decided to wake Lincoln up with a serenade! Since we generally leave him to play in his crib in the morning until we're ready to get up, this was a nice surprise for him.

As a little treat, we fed him his favorite pureed bananas and let him have a dessert of graham crackers for breakfast. He was in HEAVEN!

Lincoln got to go to church wearing his brand new dress shirt from Grandma Walker! (We left the hat at home.)

After church it was present time! Unfortunately, we were so excited to open his presents, we forgot to let him nap first. So he was less than thrilled with the present opening process, and completely indifferent to the presents themselves. So we only have one picture. Don't worry though, he's in a much better mood now and loves his new cars from Uncle Ryan, Aunt Steffi, and cousins Sam, Austin, and Eli! He also got a caterpillar toy and phone from Grandma and Grandpa Walker. Thanks, everyone!

after a million tries, this was literally the best we could do.

All day Saturday, I worked for hours on this dinosaur cake I found on pinterest. After finally finishing the frosting and being less than thrilled with the results (the frosting was really liquidy and kept drooping) the head fell off. That's when I called Sean, told him Lincoln's birthday was ruined, and had a melt-down on the couch. Sean kept his cool, propped the head up with candy corns, and we were back in business. I've begun to warm up to my dinosaur cake, it's probably the coolest looking dessert I'm ever going to make.

That evening, we invited some friends over and dug into the cake! Maybe it was too close to bedtime, because we could not get a smile out of Lincoln all night. But he did love the cake, especially the frosting. By the end of all this he was so buzzed he wouldn't go to bed until 9:00, 1 1/2 hours later than normal.

Glad I went through the trouble of making you a DINOSAUR, you seem thrilled

Yummy frosting!

And...we found the hat covered in frosting crumpled up on the floor.

Overall, the day was a success! Other than all the singing and cake, we're not sure Lincoln understood that it was a special day, but first birthday's are more for the parents than the kid, right?

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2013 was a little unconventional, but I get the feeling unconventional is becoming our thing for now. Over the past couple of years my family has discovered that the flights are way cheaper at the beginning of December than at the end. So everyone flew in to Utah the first week of December to celebrate Christmas. Sean and I had resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn't be able to make it this year. Then my parents magically managed to rustled up a couple of points to fly Lincoln and I to join the party! Yay! (Sean, sadly, had to work and missed out on this adventure.)

Lincoln did great on his first plane ride. At the time, he was only 6 weeks old, so he slept the entire time. The flight was about 5 hours long, and he was most beloved by all the passengers and flight attendants. The passengers at the back of the plane loved holding him while I went to the bathroom. They were disappointed when I went back there for the second time during the flight and found out I was only there to change his diaper. I did have to deal with a couple of blowouts on the plane rides, and I didn't have Sean to get me through the airports, so now I consider myself a flying-with-a-baby expert. It was a crowning achievement for me. It was a little odd to take off in 85 degree weather and land in 12 degree weather, and Lincoln did NOT like the walk to the car once we got to Utah. My mom had to meet me in the airport with a coat, since we did not bring any winter clothes to Florida.

While we were there, we got to meet a lot of people from both of my parents' sides of the family. Lincoln was a little too worked up to spend much time with the Walkers, but he was well-behaved during the Stanley Christmas party. We tried to get him excited about Christmas, but with the jet-lag I'm afraid he kind of missed the spirit of the whole thing. As a result most of the cute Christmas pictures I tried to take of him ended up like these.

Most excitingly, Lincoln got to meet his Aunts and Uncles, and his cousins Sam, Austin, and Eli! By far my favorite picture is this one of Lincoln and Eli taking a nap on Great Grandma Stanley's bed.

Lincoln also got to meet 3 out of his four Great Grandmas (We're looking at you, Grandma Johns, you missed the party.) Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of Lincoln with Great Grandma Stanley, but I'll be happy to edit this post later as soon as someone sends me one, because I know there were cameras out. I do, however, have pictures of Lincoln with Great Grandma Walker...

And Great Grandma White

It was so nice to get these pictures, particularly of Grandma White, who is battling cancer. We weren't sure she would ever get to meet Lincoln, but she just happened to be visiting Utah at the same time Lincoln and I were there (And remember, we weren't originally supposed to be in Utah anyway). Small Christmas miracle.

Fast forward to ACTUAL Christmas. Sean and I knew we would be spending Christmas alone, so instead of getting presents, we decided to take a road trip down to the Florida keys. Back in the warm weather and on his normal schedule again, Lincoln was in good spirits by Christmas day.

On Christmas Eve night and Christmas day, Sean and I stayed in a small Islamorada motel called Postcard Inn. The room was nothing to celebrate, in fact the carpet was soaking wet on one side and there was most definitely smelly dog pee on our comforter (It was a pet friendly inn). But we didn't book this place for the room, we booked it for the view.

This was the pool area, which overlooks the ocean.

In addition to the pool, there was a small beach. And yes, we bought Mickey Santa hats at Disney World before we left. Discounts, people. Be jealous.

 On Christmas morning, Sean gave me a great present by taking Lincoln out to watch the sunrise while I slept in. He got some pretty adorable selfies while he was out, but I just really like the ones of Lincoln cuddling in his Santa hat.

We spent Christmas day lying by the ocean and driving through the keys. For those who aren't familiar, the Florida Keys are just small skinny islands that someone decided to connect with about a trillion bridges. It takes a couple of hours to drive from Miami to the end (Key West), and Sean and I drove most of the way, enjoying the long bridges and great ocean views. It was also the most stress-free activity we could think of, since Lincoln slept the whole time.

Chrismas night, we stayed at a Courtyard Marriot in Key Largo. We weren't expecting a view, but when we got there they realized they booked us a room with two queens instead of a king. So they upgraded us to a top floor room with a single queen, since all of the King size rooms were booked. When we got to the room, we realized we got the best deal ever! If someone asked to you stand outside the hotel and pick the room you thought would have the best view, you would have pointed to ours. We had a large balcony overlooking this:

You can't tell from the photo, but you could also see the ocean just beyond the treeline.

Sunrise

 Because our room was so awesome, we just hung out there all morning. When we finally left, we went to see some large tarpon at Robbies (you have the option of feeding them, but we didn't want to pay money) It was so cool to see them up close, because some of them are easily six feet long.

There were also some pelicans hanging out.

 Before heading home, we had one last dinner at an Island grill in Islamorada. They told us they had beach seating, and when we asked them where, they led us down this shady looking pathway over the water around the side of the building. Watch in horror as my husband precariously navigates this narrow dock with our newborn.

The view was worth it though.

As was the food.

If you aren't grossed out by raw tuna, I'll have you know this was divine.

So, that was Christmas for us. As many of you know Sean just accepted a full-time job offer with Disney and we will be staying in Florida awhile. I'll miss the snow, but I don't think I'll mind a few more Christmases on the beach.