Our Christmas Card

This year I have not gotten around to actually taking a decent photograph and getting Christmas cards printed and mailed. I even have $40 in gift cards to Shutterfly and it still didn't happen. So, instead I thought I would do a blog post dedicated to what has been going on with us this lately.

Sean: Moving to Florida was a great choice for us in regards to Sean's career. In mid-November he was promoted to Assistant Kitchen Manager, which is notable because he will now move to salary pay vs hourly, and he will also receive company benefits. In January he will begin manager training. All managers have to go through a rigorous training program almost always located at a different restaurant from the one they will regularly be working at. He will have to commute about an hour north of here for 8 weeks to complete this training. Mostly we are just excited for him to get it over with! Once he's finished his opportunities for promotions are much more easily accessible since there isn't any training between his current position and the Kitchen Manager. A new restaurant will be built on the west side of Tampa next summer. Hopefully it will cause some things to move around and allow Sean to take advantage of other opportunities. Sean loves his job, though. It's stressful and demanding and usually he works about 50 hours a week but I'm really glad he is happy with what he does and feels a great sense of motivation and accomplishment with his career.

Megan: Going from one baby to two babies has started to change everything more and more. Right after Jack was born I felt like the adjustment was very smooth and easy. The more time that passes the more I feel like having two is twice as hard because everything is literally multiplied. Twice as many diapers. Two mouths to feed and two babies who need attention. There are many moments during the day when I feel like I'm going to pull out my hair and shave their heads, but then of course I absolutely love seeing their smiles and seeing them continuously learn new things. After Lincoln was born I was already immediately making plans for my second pregnancy. I guess these boys were meant to be close. But this time around I feel absolutely no rush for a third! I am looking forward to being content with these two for a while. I want to take some time to let my body heal from both pregnancy and from the pains my arthritis causes while I nurse. Sean and I are also looking forward to hopefully starting to aggressively save money to eventually buy a home here so we can settle in one place for a while. 

Since Jack was about 6 weeks old I have still kept up doing my job at the Roadhouse, which is literally 3 hours a week. I also have started a little sewing gig on the side partially for fun and partially to make some extra cash. I make fleece diaper covers and pants that are to be worn over cloth diapers. Fleece is a stay dry material and so if any leaks occur during the night the fleece will keep the moisture off bedding and leave everything still feeling dry. They could be useful over disposables too, but they are a well kept secret in the cloth diapering world. I have had a great time sewing, coming up with new designs and communicating with the moms I sell to.

Lincoln: The gap between one and two is HUGE! Lincoln has grown up so much in the last year. Even in the last 6 months. He started talking and is constantly learning new words. He also amazes us all the time with how perfectly he understands everything we say to him. He loves playing with his toys. He likes blocks, cars, stuffed animals, and especially dinosaurs! He loves to play outside at the park and he also loves going over to his friend Ty's house (his dad owns the restaurant and they are in our ward here). Recently he has become completely enthralled by the Toy Story movies. He absolutely loves Buzz and Woody. I was able to have my family mail us my brothers old Buzz and Woody toys for Lincoln to have for Christmas. I am so excited to see his reaction to opening them! As of this week Lincoln has also started potty training. A few days ago he was naked in the house after his bath and I noticed he started to dribble a little. He kind of panicked and I ran him to the potty. He made it there and finished in the potty! It was monumental! Since then he has peed in the potty at least once every day, sometimes twice, and today he pooped in the potty for the first time! He is pretty proud of himself. At this point I'm just following his lead and not pushing it too much, but hopefully we will continue to make progress!

Jack: At 3 months now Jack is getting super chubby and is great at being interactive. He is ticklish and laughs hard when we tickle under his chin and his belly button. Like any baby that age he loves to be talked to and sung to. He sleeps fantastically at night, but during the afternoons he is a terrible napper and often throws complete fits from being tired and unwilling to settle down. Once when I was putting him to bed I got up to turn the light out. When he saw me leave he instantly freaked out and started screaming. I was back to his side quickly trying to talk to him and calm him down without picking him up because I was hoping that I could just rock him in his bed to sleep. I was trying to calm him for a good minute when all of a sudden he saw me and had a look of complete shock on his face like "wow! where did you come from?" and then instantly he stopped crying and started smiling at me. He is a very determined little guy. Once he decides he wants to be held or changed or nursed or put to bed he will not let up. It makes it hard when I am trying to help Lincoln with something and Jack is over there having a fit. He is quite a little charmer though and always instantly smiles when he sees our faces. I know he is already trying to figure out how to mobilize himself. Having two babies who are capable of destroying things will be a whole new adventure!

Well, that is us in a nutshell! We will be celebrating Christmas here in Florida this year. It will be our first Christmas with just our little family, but we are looking forward to it. We are planning to go to the beach in the afternoon with some friends. Not exactly the white Christmas I had in mind, but I guess we might as well take in the whole Florida experience! :)

Merry Christmas!

Love, The McWhorters

MM Fleece

This photo sums up a little hobby/project I've been up to the last few months. More on this later... but the Mickey butt sure is cute! :)

Halloween

 Lincoln loved trick-or-treating. It was an extremely exciting and overwhelming experience for him. We loved watching his reactions to everything. We went trick-or-treating with our friends that have three boys all older than Lincoln. He had a hard time keeping up with them since they can run faster but also because he kept taking pit stops to admire his candy and even took out a few suckers to enjoy along the way. We only did one street, but it was enough! He had such a great time. Sean also dressed up as a red-neck with a mullet and aviators which I'll have to add photos of later. He looked hilarious!

Lincoln's 2nd Birthday

 

We had several days of celebration for Lincoln's 2nd birthday. Saturday night before the 23rd we went out to Texas Roadhouse and had everyone sing to him. Grandpa Jerry and Nana Marleigh were in town which made it extra special. I was impressed he sat on the saddle. 

His dinosaur cake. He loved it! I had to hide it in the fridge so he would forget about it and eat dinner first. He blew out those candles like a pro. Extra cute! On his actual birthday Grandpa Jerry took all of us to see the animals at an aquarium in Tampa. Lincoln really enjoyed it, but was definitely scared of the ones they would let you touch. It was a great day!

Jack at 1 Month

This past month with Jack seems like it has gone by really fast. The transition has been fairly smooth, other than when I have to attempt to take both boys out of the house by myself. Lincoln loves Jack so much. He is constantly giving him kisses and wanting to sit or lay down right by him. I also recovered from delivery extremely quickly. It has been great! Now I'm just looking forward to the weather cooling down so we can actually enjoy going outside.

A few things about Jack at 1 month:

• Weight is 11lbs, 2 oz. Between 4 days old and 11 days old he gained a whopping 2lbs after loosing his initial birth weight. As of today he has gained another 3 lbs. 
• In the hospital eating was a challenge because he had quite a bit of fluid in his stomach that he was spitting up, but ever since then he has turned into a fantastic nurser. He loves to eat. 
• He loves to be swaddled. 
• He likes the binky. 
• He has brown eyes and dark hair. He looks a lot like Sean. 
• He hates having a poopy diaper and will be uncomfortable immediately after he poops. He calms right down when he gets that clean diaper on. 
• By some miracle, he is a fantastic sleeper at night. At about 2 weeks old he started sleeping an initial 5 hours at night and then will fall right back asleep after he wakes up to change and nurse. If I slept when he slept I would be doing perfectly fine considering I have a new baby. But, because him and Lincoln don't exactly sleep at the same time I'm still exhausted. 

It's crazy how different one baby is to the next. Jack and Lincoln are so different from one another already. Lincoln struggled nursing (which was probably mostly my lack of experience), woke up every 2 hours, didn't like the swaddle or the binky and couldn't have cared less if he was poopy. Each little personality comes out so quickly. It's fun to watch Jack grow and learn little things so far. We love having him in our family.

Jack's Birth Story

Our little Jack came to us four days past my due date. For a week or so prior I started having some days where I felt like I could go into labor at any moment, and then other days where I felt like labor was never going to happen. There were a few times where I had a few contractions, but nothing major or regular. Friday morning the day after he was due I decided that I was fully ready for him to come out and I felt like maybe he was needing a little help. I started going on walks, I went shopping several times with Sean's mom, I even drank a little castor oil, but nothing seemed to be working. I was also extremely determined not to be induced. I desperately wanted my body to go into labor naturally, but I was also starting to worry that I wouldn't go into labor on my own before Sean's mom had to leave. Sunday I wasn't feeling particularly close to labor and in my worry I said a very earnest prayer that Jack would be ready to be born the next day and that I would go into labor on my own. Sean and I went to bed without me having any contractions or really showing much progress. I woke up all of a sudden about 2:40am in the middle of some very painful contractions. I had about 3 of them back to back before I was even fully awake enough to realize what was going on. Then out of nowhere my water broke! I know there are lots of different ways people explain how it felt for their water to break but I honestly felt like a huge water balloon exploded between my legs. It was crazy! That's when I woke up Sean in a slight panic to tell him my water broke. He jumped up out of bed and started to help me get up and into the bathroom. From the bathroom I told him everything that I needed to go to the hospital. He went and woke up his mom. He said she looked like a kid on Christmas morning! She was thrilled that I was having this baby. As soon as my water broke contractions came hard and fast. Luckily the hospital wasn't too far and we made it there about 3:15am. I got checked in, and set up in my room. They checked my cervix and discovered I had already dilated 7cm. (three days before I was 2.5cm). They started an IV and had to start antibiotics immediately because I tested positive for the strep B virus. The next hour and a half was extremely intense. I had to wait for an epidural because they had to get the antibiotics through me first. Each contraction seemed to get stronger and sometimes they would be back to back with hardly any break in between. It was honestly the most intense pain I have ever experienced in my life. Finally the anesthesiologist came in about 4:45am and I was able to get an epidural. I sat up on the side of the bed and basically hung on to Sean for dear life as the contractions came while she got everything set up. This epidural was not as good as the one that I had with Lincoln. It relieved pain, but I could still feel almost 100% of the intense pressure of each contraction. It also made my legs extremely heavy, which started to become very uncomfortable. After about 2 hours I realized that I was ready to push and I called my nurses to let them know. They checked me, discovered I was fully dilated, but the Dr decided to let me go ahead and wait about 15 min before pushing to see if he would move father down just with the contractions. Then the shift change happened! So I was waiting for about 45 min for the Dr to come in. I was going crazy! I felt like Jack was going to pop out without any pushing and even though the epidural was dulling the normal pain sensation the level of pressure I was feeling was almost unbearable. I started to bare down a little bit on my own, which eased the discomfort of each contraction. Finally the Dr was ready and they got me in the position to push. With the first contraction I pushed on I immediately realized that I could feel almost everything. When I pushed out Lincoln I couldn't feel anything down there, but I was able to push really well just because I knew how to use those muscles. This time I could feel everything except for the actual pain sensation. It seems so weird to describe, but that's what it was like. I think I pushed on three contractions and near the end of the third I realized that if I relaxed that I would be in some extreme discomfort waiting for the next one. So I pushed harder than ever right at the end of the contractions and Jack came flying out like a canon ball. His whole head and body came out in one brisk motion and he landed on the bed as the Dr sort of caught him. I think everyone was totally shocked! Immediately I felt a sense of relief. He started crying and they put him up on my tummy so I could see him. It was amazing!
I got to hold him for a few minutes and then the nurse cleaned him off, and measured and weighed him. He was 7lbs 6oz and 20.5 inches long. We think he actually has brown eyes. Lincoln's eyes were dark grey and didn't turn blue for a while, but Jack's eyes actually look brown instead of grey. I guess we'll see. He is such a sweetheart! We are so happy to have him! Lincoln loves him too! It's been so awesome to see him interact with his little brother. What a wonderful week!

CLOTH DIAPERING: MY EXPERIENCE

I have mentioned several times on my blog that I use cloth diapers. I mostly want to write this post to basically tell anyone who reads it how awesome and simple and also inexpensive cloth diapering can be. It seems funny to me that especially within the 'Mormon culture' more people don't use cloth diapers. When you're having kids at a young age often close together cloth diapering can prevent you from spending thousands of dollars you would have spent buying disposables. Yes, thousands. All saved on what you choose to use to catch your baby's pee and poop. So if you want to cut down on costs to take care of your baby, don't look past cloth diapering as a way to save some serious money.

First I'll tell you a little bit about what I use, and then later (in another post) I'll tell you a little more about what I know about some of the other options out there.

I use PREFOLDS AND COVERS:
Below I posted several photos of Lincoln's orange diaper cover. This cover is made from PUL (Polyurethane Laminate) which is basically a water proof fabric. The covers I use are made by Thirsties. Like other companies that make PUL covers Thirsties makes sized covers as well as two different sizable covers they call duo wraps. Size 1 for the first 6 months or so and size 2 for all time after that.  By snapping those front snaps together you can make the cover bigger or smaller to make it grow with the baby. Lincoln started wearing the size 2 cover at about 16 pounds, and I am still using the same size covers a year and a half later. Each duo wrap cover costs $12-13.

 PREFOLDS:

 Prefolds are very easy to use, super durable, and almost the most inexpensive option when it comes to the absorbent part of cloth diapering. In the lower photo I have three different sizes of prefolds that I have on hand. All of the prefolds I own are unbleached Indian prefolds made by Osocozy. Osocozy makes traditional length prefolds and also has a sizing option they call "Better Fit" which basically is just shorter so that the front part doesn't have to be folded down in order to fit inside the cover. It makes the diaper more trim when on the baby. I trifold my prefolds. It's hard to see in the picture but prefolds have seams that divide them into thirds. The center portion of the prefold is always thicker than the outer two portions. Mine are 4x8x4 meaning they have 4 layers of cotton on either side and 8 layers of  cotton in the middle. I fold it into thirds and place it inside the diaper as in the picture below.

This is what the orange cover looks like with a "Better Fit" prefold tri-folded inside of it. It's the perfect length.

 And that's it! You put the diaper on the baby almost exactly the way you would put on a disposable, by laying the baby on top of the prefold in the cover, pulling up the front between the legs, and securing either side of the Velcro on the middle Velcro tab. When you change a pee diaper you just remove the prefold, put it in the diaper pail, wipe out the cover, and reuse the same cover on the next prefold. If the diaper is poopy, the poo goes in the toilet. The cover can still be wiped out and reused if it didn't get poop on it. I change the cover if it gets poop on it or if it gets damp because the prefold was completely soaked. If a baby is exclusively breastfed until 6 months all his poopy diapers do not have to be washed in the toilet. They can go directly in the pail. It sounds crazy, but breastfed poop is more or less like yogurt in the sense that it is water soluble and will just dissolve in the first rinse. Once the baby starts solids the poop goes in the toilet. This can be as simple as a single plop to get it off, or if your baby is like mine you will be soaking the diaper in the toilet, putting on rubber gloves and rinsing it out. I didn't get lucky with this, but at the same time I don't think that disposables would even hold some of the poops Lincoln has, and I would rather clean out a nasty, but contained, diaper in the toilet than change clothes with poop on them.  More than likely you will have a plop-able pooper. I'm pretty sure dealing with Lincoln's poop is not the norm.

Let's break down the cost:

I have a total of 4 dozen prefolds. Each dozen is in a slightly different size.  Lincoln has outgrown the absorbent power of two of those dozen so they are stashed away for this next little one, and I only keep the other 2 dozen out to use and wash.

4 dozen prefolds: $139 
10 Thirsties covers: $130

Total: $260 to not only diaper Lincoln for a year and a half, but what I currently have will probably last us another year with me probably only needing to replace 2-3 covers. I also have more than I absolutely would need. I could definitely get by on probably 6 covers and also a few less prefolds. I would just have to wash more often. I only wash every 4 days but a lot of cloth diapering mamas wash every other day. 
From what I understand the average person spends about $40 a month on disposible diapers. That's $720 for 18 months of disposables. I've already avoided spending $500 and my savings is only increasing the older Lincoln gets. The savings gets even better when you consider that I am only planning to spend another $30 for another dozen prefolds to use on this next little boy. I will need to replace most covers since they get worn more quickly, but that $140 on prefolds was well spent. I bet I could get use for at least 2 more kids on this same batch of prefolds. That's how well they hold up.

NIGHT-TIME DIAPER:
For the first year of cloth diapering I still used a disposable diaper at night. Disposables have a better stay dry effect than cloth, and I was worried about Lincoln feeling wet for too long at night if I put him in cloth. Towards the end of last year, however, he started peeing waaay less at night and I decided I was tired of spending money on extra disposables because I knew there had to be a way for me to make cloth work. I just didn't know what it was. After doing some research I decided to make some cloth 'doublers' out of some flannel fabric I had on hand. I just sewed 4 layers of flannel together in the measurements of one third of the prefold so that I could easily wrap the prefold around it. Then I cut up fleece fabric in the exact same measurement and laid it on top of the tri-folded prefold. (imagine the picture above but with a strip of fleece fabric sitting on top of the prefold). Fleece has an amazing stay-dry effect. When used on top of a prefold the baby will pee and the wetness will go right through the fleece and be absorbed into the prefold. The baby's bum feels perfectly dry and the prefold is still wet like normal. After the first night I was amazed at how dry the fleece still felt even though the prefold was pretty wet. I haven't looked back to disposables since then, and up went my savings.


WASH ROUTINE:
Diaper companies will tell you that you need to use 'cloth diaper safe' detergent. From all of the research I've done that is mostly based off of reading real life mom experiences as well as from my own experience I can definitely say that this is completely unnecessary. You need good detergent to make your diapers come out clean every time. Mild, 'safe' detergent isn't always going to get the job done. Especially when you factor in different water types as well as different climates. In Utah I always used my homemade detergent (borax, washing soda, and soap). This hasn't worked quite as well in Florida. I think it has something to do with the humidity because even our clothes don't seem as fresh for as long. Now I switched to using the Target version of Gain with a lavender scent. It works great. Tide is also awesome. Any detergent you like to clean your clothes will work great. However, you cannot use detergent with fabric softener, or any added fabric softener because it will prevent the diaper from being able to absorb pee.
To wash I first do a quick cold rinse before I start the normal cycle. This just gets off any extra poo  and also gets the pee out before I add detergent. Then I do a hot/cold cycle with detergent. I hang the covers to dry (important) and put all the cloth in the dryer on high. It's really no different than a normal load of clothes.

I personally really like the Thirsties brand for covers because they have double leg gussets to hold in poo and they also come in simple colors. Many brands make covers with lot of different prints that are really cute. It's just too much for me to keep track of, plus I feel like it would bug me if Lincoln's shirt didn't match his diaper. Yeah, I don't need that kind of stress! :) But some people LOVE all the cute prints, which is awesome. Anyways, other brands that sell one-size PUL covers are Flips, Blueberry, Bummis, Diaper Safari, Imagine, Assunta, and Kawaii to name a few. All of these brands are priced differently and have slightly different styles. PUL covers can also have snap closure as opposed to Velcro. Snaps hold up better in the long run. I like Velcro because I feel like it's just a little easier to put on (especially for Sean) and it also helps me get the perfect fit on Lincoln's waist. It's really just a matter of preference.

Overall I LOVE cloth diapering. Probably a little too much. Compared to disposables cloth diapers are bulkier and they also have to be changed more often, but there are so many lesser known benefits besides just saving money: less garbage, fewer chemicals touching your baby's skin, no blow-outs! (cloth diapers hold in explosive poo waaaay better than disposables), and just a soft, cute and colorful diaper on my baby's bum.

The Terrible Twos

 Even though Lincoln isn't even two yet I feel like we've entered a completely different stage of raising a toddler. As of March not much had changed for him compared to a few months before, but suddenly he has grown up a ton and become less of a baby and more of a kid. Right around the time we left for Florida he stopped nursing. Pregnancy caused my milk to decrease a lot, especially the longer I was pregnant. Eventually he was only wanting to nurse at nap time and bed time. Then we started rocking in the rocking chair to sleep and nursing just sort of fizzled out. By the time we got here he had not nursed for about 3 weeks, and we never really looked back. Since we got here he has also started sleeping all the way through the night without even the slightest trouble. This was a big deal for us since up until we left he still woke up at least once. Now, he never wakes up. I'm so glad that we got all of this sleep stuff worked out long before we have another arrival. Otherwise I would have been panicking at this point.

Lincoln has also turned into quite a helper. He loves to help do dishes, put laundry in the washer or dryer or away in the drawers. He will help clean up his toys. Although, usually he will dump out the bin again about 5 minutes later. He likes to help use the vacuum and pretends to use the dirt devil vacuum too. He will get rags to wipe up water or other things he spilled as well. It's been so funny to realize all of the things he observes during the day. But along with this he has also figured out that chairs make him taller and he has learned to scoot chairs up to the kitchen table or counters so that he can reach what he wants. I never would have expected how much that one thing would change everything about life at home. He definitely gets himself into way too much trouble. And just like every other home with a toddler--silence is never a good thing!

Before we moved the weather started to get really nice in Utah and Lincoln discovered how awesome the world was outside. There were two families that lived down the street with us that also had younger kids and he loved to be outside with them and play with all sorts of toys. He would go up to the door and point and ask to go outside. Sometimes we could, but we were also still having some really cold days mixed in with those nice days and he learned quickly that being outside when it was cold and windy wasn't nearly as much fun. Around this time he also discovered bubbles. HE LOVES BUBBLES! In nursery class they would turn on a bubble machine at the end of the hour and he went crazy! It was hilarious.
He also loves to dance. Any song that's on either on the computer or on TV he instantly starts dancing. And if he really wants to get into it he will grab my hand and pull me up to dance with him.

Finally, Lincoln has also started talking. Before we left he started to get a lot better at understanding us, which was major progress at that point. He just wasn't really getting the whole talking thing earlier on. Now he understands even more of what we say, but he also says several words.
His first official word that was tied to an object was 'shoes'. He also now says mama, dada, ball, light, no, stop, nana (food), uh-oh, and hot. A few weeks ago we were kind of driving around to explore the area and also find Best Buy when we decided to go into Target. In the car Sean and I had been talking about how since we had been here the realization of our responsibilities for Lincoln and our family seemed so much heavier than before because literally no one here that is our age is either married or has any kids. We stick out like sore thumbs! When we pulled up to Target Lincoln immediately saw the big red balls cemented to the ground in front and as Sean got him out of his car seat he wiggled right to the ground and started running with his finger in the air pointing and yelling "ball, ball, ball". That moment was so priceless to me because we both kind of looked at each other and smiled and all I could think was that all these other people have no idea what kind of perfect happiness they are missing out on. Having a toddler is hard. Lincoln is very opinionated, and he will usually have a small tantrum if he doesn't get what he wants. And believe me, he makes more messes than I ever thought was humanly possible. He is 'strong willed' and a 'hand full' and probably all those other cliche things people say in regards to having a kid that challenges your patience. But it goes without saying that he bring more joy to our family than just Sean and I could bring to each other. We are getting more and more excited to have this second little boy join our family for so many different reasons. I'm excited to have a cute, cuddly little baby again and we are both so excited to have two babies that can form a bond with each other as well. I am quickly becoming even more out numbered here at home, but I love my boys and wouldn't have it any other way! :)

I'm back!

I'm sad to say that I have been absolutely terrible at documenting our family over the past 6 months. Mostly I'm sad because the first half of this year has been very exciting and life changing for us and it stinks that I didn't write things down as they were happening. But, better late than never! Let me back track:

Right as last year came to a close we found out that I was pregnant! I am due with a second baby boy at the beginning of September. Seeing a positive pregnancy test was a lot different the second time around. I was late, but I wasn't totally sure that I was pregnant. But then I was still late four days later and finally decided to take a test. When we found out I was pregnant with Lincoln I peed on the test and then Sean took it and looked at it first. Then after 2 minutes he showed it to me. This time we did the exact same thing. When I saw the positive test I immediately squealed and broke into tears as we gave each other a hug. I was so happy! When I found out I was pregnant with Lincoln I didn't cry (sorry, buddy). This time I knew exactly how much love and joy and happiness awaited us that I was so thrilled to be able to experience all of it again. Throughout the first 16 weeks of this pregnancy I had a total of five dreams that I was expecting another boy. Kinda weird, right?  A few of these dreams also included Lincoln, and in the dream I had two boys together. Of course when we went to the ultrasound appointment we found out that he was indeed a little boy. Looking back I feel like I never didn't know, and I am so excited for Lincoln to be able to have a little brother to play with and terrorize the house with. :) Not to mention I will be able to reuse all of my little boy clothes and other baby stuff. Added bonus! I have felt fantastic my whole pregnancy. I got tired with this one, but not as tired as I remember being with Lincoln. The second trimester has been great, but I'm only a week shy of 28 weeks and I'm fully expecting things to change a little. This little guy is also extremely active. I started being able to feel him around 16 weeks and Sean was able to feel my belly move at 18 weeks. He's a wiggly little guy. I'm getting really excited to meet him!

Fast forward a few weeks and zoom in on mid February. We found out that the kitchen manager Sean was working with in Orem received an offer to become a managing partner at a new Texas Roadhouse being built in Lakewood Ranch, Florida. A week or so later he offered Sean and I jobs to come work for him there. He gave Sean a really great raise with added bonuses and offered to have me work as his office administrator. I had always told Sean that we would take the first great offer we got in terms of his job, pretty much no matter what. Although, I never once considered that this type of offer would potentially move us to the opposite end of the country. The more we thought about it the more we felt like we couldn't pass it up and that it was our time to go ahead and make a change and take a risk in hopes of something great. We have been here two months, and I am so glad we came. Turns out Florida is currently the fastest growing market for Texas Roadhouse in the country. Just in the Tampa area alone they are looking to build a new restaurant every year for the next several years. The Utah market had kinda been tapped out, and now it is so obvious that was the case. Within an hours drive across the Wasatch Front there were 9 Texas Roadhouses. Here the closest ones are both an hour away or more. This really was such a good decision for the future of Sean's career. I am so grateful that he has been able to develop such a strong work relationship with his manager over the past few years because he is really what got us to this point. He has been such a great leader and mentor to Sean and at this point it is really awesome to have someone who is totally Sean's advocate in every way. The new restaurant has been open for about 10 days and so far it is doing extremely well. Sean has been able to do some more extensive training required for management, and he is also enjoying being able to lead and train the new employees that have been hired.  We have been extremely busy working since we got here, but I'm glad because it has kept us focused and prevented me and Lincoln from getting bored at home since we are still have to much to explore in the area.

Well, those are the big changes! Lincoln has also grown so much, but I want to take a whole separate post to write about him...so stay tuned for that! :)