Surprise! We Moved!

Back in April, we moved to Everett, Washington (which is about 25 minutes north of Seattle). Hooray!

Daniel was offered a job with Boeing, and thankfully, they were willing to wait until after we had our baby.

We based our moving date on a few important pieces of information:
1) Some airlines won't let you fly with a baby that is less than 10 days old.
2) My doctor said that he would induce me if I was a week late.
3) You spend 2 days in the hospital for a normal delivery.
4) SO, the due date + 7 days to be induced + 2 days in the hospital + 10 days until the baby can fly = our moving date of April 9th!

That was our plan, and kindly, baby Will came a day before his due date, so he actually ended up being 2 1/2 weeks old when we moved.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the moving process in Utah, but I had just had a baby and so we were either nursing or sleeping most of the time. Also, Boeing packed us and moved us, so we didn't actually do all that much. It was pretty great. Okay, it was REALLY great.

Here is Will's very first airplane ride at 2 1/2 weeks old. I was super nervous, but he did fantastic!

This is one of the only pictures I have of us in the hotel while we waited the few days for our stuff to arrive. Our cars didn't arrive until a week or so after that.

This is what our dining room looked like in our new apartment (after quite a few boxes had already been unpacked or put into other rooms).

This is Daniel putting together Will's crib. I would like to add that I LOVE having him in his own room.

This is a picture of Will's very first nap in his crib (which we had had for months, but never set up in Utah). Don't worry - I immediately tucked the blanket far away from his face so there was no suffocation hazard!

We are LOVING Washington for many reasons:
-I actually like the clouds. My sensitive eyes are very happy here.
-I love not having to coat myself with sunblock every day.
-We came at a good time of year, so there have been a surprising amount of sunny days.
-The air smells good and there are trees everywhere.
-Everyone is very friendly. We really love our new ward at church.
-We have friends who moved here with us, friends that have family here (so they will be visiting), and I have family here.
-Although we miss the big house that we were house-sitting in for the last 18 months, I love being able to clean my entire apartment so quickly.
-There are all kinds of new places to eat at! I love food!
-Daniel is really enjoying his job.
-Boeing has been wonderful during the whole moving/settling in process.
-I love staying home. Teaching 1st Grade was a wonderful job, and I miss the great people I worked with, but staying home with Will has been the best thing ever!!

Father's Day, of course!

Happy 1st Father's Day to Daniel. Will sure loves his daddy. Daniel is MUCH more fun than I am. Daniel got the first smile and the first laugh from our baby boy. I love to see how much they love each other. Here are some cute pictures of the two of them:

Will loves to look out the window. And Daniel likes to look at Will.

They love to be outside together and chat about random things.

Daniel has become very good at doing things on the computer and even playing video games while holding Will. This is back when he was only a week or two old. So tiny!

Will has no trouble taking whatever kind of bottle we throw at him, although he definitely prefers nursing.

Look at that love!

We also love the new grandpas!

 Papa Pete (my dad)

 Grandpa Larsen (who we will come up with a cuter name for...)

Will is just so excited about all of the wonderful men in his life!

He laughs!

Will laughed for the first time yesterday! He laughed for so long that we were able to get it on video. He thinks his daddy is sooo funny! I especially like the quick sad face at 0:27.

I still haven't managed to get a laugh out of him, but I'm not bitter or anything...

New Pictures

We just got back from a wonderful trip to California (and a semi-wonderful Utah trip), but I will blog all about that later. For now, here are a few family photos. One of our main reasons for the trip home was to introduce Will to both families. We were lucky enough to get a five generation picture with my family.

Thanks Michelle Deakin for these beautiful pictures. Five generations:

***EDIT: Sorry, my mother has requested that I remove the five generation picture. I guess that will be our Christmas card picture. Sorry if you already saw it and the surprise was ruined!***

Will, his Great-Grandma, and his Great-Great-Grandma

He was not thrilled with being woken up or the chilly morning, so there were no smiles that day. He is still pretty cute though.

We sure love this baby!

He has brought so much joy to us.

Happy Mothers Day (to me, among others)!

My first Mother's Day was wonderful. One of the highlights was probably the 3 1/2 hour nap that Daniel made possible - besides just being with my cute baby, of course.

Here are some pictures that I like. These aren't actually the pictures that we took today (Mother's Day). I'll have to get those on my computer another day. I found that I have less pictures of us than I thought.


There are two obstacles to taking good pictures of Will and I...

1) Most of the time that we spend together is when he is nursing. Not the greatest time to take pictures.

2) Even if he isn't nursing, I sometimes haven't done either my hair, my makeup, or (most often) both. I am getting better at this one as time goes on.

This is back when he was only a few days old. Chubby mommy, tiny baby. I love that squishy face!

Here we are on our back balcony. I like to call it "our treehouse" because it looks like we are living in the trees on the 3rd floor.

 He has started attempting to dive out of my arms. But look how happy he looks! He doesn't mind that it frightens me every time.

This is outside of the Seattle temple. He looks a little exhausted from all the picture taking.

Speaking of mothers, we have some fantastic mothers in our family. Here is my mom when she came to help for the two weeks after Will was born. He especially likes it when she sings "A Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track" over Skype.

My mom was his very first visitor in the hospital - just minutes after he was born. He is the first grandchild, so it was pretty exciting. :)

 Back at home. I already miss his scrunchy newborn poses. Aww, so tiny!

And here is Daniel's mom when she came to help after we moved to Washington. She was a huge help as we got settled in and as Daniel went back to work.

He isn't the first grandchild, but he is the first grandSON. So he is still pretty special. :)

Daniel's mom got to be around for some of his very first smiles. He became much more active and alert while she was here.

Happy Mother's Day!

Pictures!

We have taken over 800 pictures since Will was born. That is not an exaggeration - it is a real number. Can you tell that this is our first child? Can you tell that we think he is the cutest kid ever? Here are some from just a couple days ago...

 He loves to move his arms and legs.

 Just hanging out. This is the look we see most often.

He is getting so good at holding his head up! What a cutie.

Sleep Deprivation

Our baby boy is so sweet. I just love and adore him. Sure, there have been adjustments we have had to make, but the only one that has been really difficult has been the lack of sleep.

I have been really lucky to have my mom to help for two weeks, my mother-in-law to help for one week, and Daniel to help for a whole month before he had to start work. Someone was always there to help during the night or to let me get a nap during the day. Sadly, now the mothers are gone and Daniel has gone back to work.

We have a very hungry boy on our hands! He likes to eat - a lot. We are attempting to get him eating on a more regular schedule, but sometimes he acts like we haven't fed him in days (when it has been 2 hours)! Needless to say, my night is spent feeding him often. And the sleep deprivation has started to show... Take this example from yesterday:

I had just woken up from a nap that Daniel had encouraged me to take when he got home from work. I could hear Daniel talking to Will as he was changing his diaper. He came out of the bathroom and I looked straight at Daniel and said, "Where's Daniel?" I quickly realized what I had just said. I also realized that I had even looked out the window to see if his car was there as I had been listening to him talk to the baby. Daniel looked at me and gently said, "Go back to bed." Which I did. For another hour and a half.

Sadly, I have traded Pregnancy Brain (which is a real affliction!) for something that might be even worse. Good thing he is so cute.

Now, for a funny video (completely unrelated to the story above) of the baby: