Linden turns one!

Today our sweet, happy, amazing little Linden turned one!

It's also my step dad's birthday so yesterday went to the beach to a pizza place to eat. Then we headed to the beach to play. Once again not warm enough just yet to get wet, but the kids still love to play. The found a bunch of huge shells under the stairs. Linden loved crawling all over the sand. Then today I wanted to take a picture of Linden with his cake and he reached up and started digging right in before we could get his shirt off. I was only going to give him a piece to smash up, but we ended up giving him the whole thing. At first he seemed to like smearing his hands all over the cake, but then he hated it! He started to cry and wanted nothing more to do with it. He wouldn't even taste it. Linden is changing so fast. He all of the sudden has a ton of hair. He has 7 teeth. He is getting better about eating solids now and seems to enjoy it as long as there are no chunks in it. If there is, he start to gag until it all comes back up. He eats 3 times a day with solid foods and still has 4 bottles of goat milk formula. We have been able to decrease the formula a little now that he is taking in more solids.  He is really fast at army crawling and prefers to travel around this way. He only gets up on all all 4 to crawl when he doesn't have clothes on and doesn't want to feel the cold hard floor on him. He loves his siblings! If they are paying attention to him, he is so happy. KaeLynn likes to play with Linden more then Daniel does right now. Daniel can't figure how to play with him yet. Linden is a great sleeper. Still sleeping about 11-12 hours at night and he takes two naps a day about 2 hours each. I hope he will be ready to go down to one nap in the afternoon by the time summer starts so we can be away from the house more to swim. It's hard going out these days during one of Linden's nap because he gets real grumpy when he is tired. His first and only word he says is mum. And he knows it's me! When he wants me he will craw to me saying "mum, mum, mum, mum". He loves to play outside. Every time I start to take him out and he see we are going to play in the sand, he starts to squeal and gets all bouncy in my arms. He still sucks on his two middle fingers. He only does it when he is tired, or while waiting for us to give him the bottle. He has not attached himself to any blanket, so maybe he won't be a blanky kid like my other ones were. He weighs 23 lbs. This year really went by way to fast. 

Family Pictures

While we were in Kentucky during Thanksgiving we had our family pictures taken. Linden is 7 months old in these pictures. This is also KaeLynn 3rd grade picture 9 years old and Daniel's Kindergarten picture 6 years old. 

Bike Week

This was our first bike week. We didn't go last year because I was 9 months pregnant. My mom was nice enough to take our kids over night. We went to Daytona Friday afternoon to the Speedway. I didn't really know what we were going to do there, but I was so surprised with all the cool things they had. We got to test drive an Indian motorcycle. It was the smoothest ride I have ever rode on. We also test drove a slingshot. These motorcycles have 2 wheels in the front one wheel in the back. It was cool, but didn't feel like a motorcycle. It was a manual and just felt like a little sports car. I felt like I could even drive it, but you still have to have a motorcycle license to drive one. They had professional drivers that would take you on a crazy run around cones for fun. That was a fun thrill ride! Then we drove up the coast to St Augustine for the night. The weather made the ride absolutely perfect! The sun was setting, and the ocean was so calm and tranquil. On Saturday, we spent the morning in downtown St Augustine. We have been there multiple times, but it was nice to get to look into the shops with out kids. We drove back to Daytona and went to Main St. It was quite a scene. I can only imagine this place getting really crazy when the sun goes down. Luckily we were out of there by then. 

At one of the shops we got some dessert and my tongue got stuck to it. It was so embarrassing! Of course my friends and husband just took pictures and laughed at me while I was trying to work it off!

Its almost beach season (for me)

We went to the beach in February because it was a warm day. But at the beach with the wind, it was not nearly warm enough for me to get wet. The water is still cold, but the kids don't care. I like it really warm before I can lay out and enjoy the ocean. The kids love the beach so much no matter the weather. 

Primary Temple Trip

In January the Primary in our ward did a Temple tour for the primary children around the outside of the temple. It is such a beautiful and peaceful place. we talked about how our family is sealed together forever because Cavan and I were married in the temple. We got to learn a lot of fun facts about the temple. During the dedication of the temple, President Howard W. Hunter leads in a ceremony that is open to the public. There is a cornerstone in the temple that they put a lot of fun things in it that represent Florida. Disney even gave us part of the film sheet that has Jiminy Cricket on it from the movie Pinocchio!

Christmas Time

Wow! Time really got away from me during Christmas time and I have a lot to record. In December we went to our annual tradition we have started here in Florida, by going to St Augustine to ride the Holly Jolly Trolley, and see the whole town lit up with Christmas lights. Pictures can not capture how beautiful it truly is with all the lights. The children just love to ride the trolley. The weather was perfect! KaeLynn was the only one who wanted to take a picture with Santa. Daniel would not do it! He just wanted to run around with his friends. I couldn't even get a picture of him. Linden did great for having to stay up so late. 

 During Christmas break we had beautiful weather. We spent a lot of time out doors. My kids just love to get wet and dirty. Especially Linden loves the dirt. No matter how much I tried, he would not stop putting sand in his mouth.

Cavan and and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary and my 31st birthday. 

On Christmas Eve we got together with our friends the Hughes and decorated gingerbread houses. They also made us delicious orange chicken and a beef and broccoli dish. 

Finally Christmas morning came. This was our first Christmas with our little Linden. We had a wonderful morning with our kids and then a great Christmas dinner with my mom. 

Also during the break we took our friends to go see the manatees at Blue Springs park. They come in from the river during the winter months. We saw lots of little baby manatees. They are adorable!