Carlsbad Caverns

This past weekend we headed from Tucson, AZ to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM. It was about an 8 hour drive without any long stops...but we goofed around on the way out of Arizona, so it took us about an hour longer than it should have to get there! Lincoln did great on the car drive again, and slept most of the way there. We spent Friday driving to the park, Saturday we (Jamie, Jennifer, Mom, Andy & I) went on a lantern tour in left-hand tunnel. It was interesting, but I doubt I would do it again. I was glad that it was only $7/person. Well worth that amount of money. Later that afternoon we went into the main cavern on the self-guided tour. It was free-admittance weekend, so the main caverns entrance was free. We went down the "natural" entrance walk. It is so awe inspiring! See pictures below of our Saturday afternoon!

We all had a great time in the main caverns at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. It was nice and cool and dark, and was full of huge beautiful formations. The cavern itself was gigantic and awesome! Lincoln had a great time, but was definitely tuckered out by the end.

In the next couple of days I will add a post about our off-trail tour/cave scramble in the Spider Cave last Sunday!

Big news

The big news is: we are pregnant again!! Andy and I found out the day after Lincoln turned 1 year old! We had decided to wait to see a heartbeat before announcing it to anyone because of what happened the last time in April. And following some scary spotting earlier this week, that made waiting to tell seem like great idea. Fearing another miscarriage, I headed to the doctor today. Well, I am thrilled to say, that Baby Blatchford was measuring right on track at almost 6 weeks of gestational age, and already had a beautiful little heartbeat!

We go back for another heartbeat check in almost exactly 2 weeks. If everything looks good there, then we will have the CVS testing done in September to make sure that the new baby doesn't have TSC, like Lincoln, or any other major genetic problems, like our first miscarriage. If we make it through September, it is much more likely (although never certain) that we will be going all the way with this one. We will keep you updated, good or bad!!

What a difference a year makes...

Direct comparison #1

Direct comparison #2:

Direct comparison #3:

(Yes, he did fall asleep in his highchair. Apparently, mommy was taking too long making his waffle...)

Video comparisons:

Linc's "crazy eyes" that he used to make while being burped.

Linc's "baby squats", while he works on the pulling up/standing/cruising/walking skills.

From his average 7lbs 8.5oz, and rather short 19.25 inches at birth, all the way to his "off-the-charts" 30lbs 4oz, and 33 inches. He has definitely chunked up, grown taller, and even cuter in our opinion! It has been a long, eventful, but wonderful year with our little man, Lincoln. I hope that this next year is even better!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINCOLN!!

So, Lincoln is the big ONE year old now! Can you believe it!?! When looking back, the year has been a long and eventful one, but it seemed to go pretty quickly also. We spent his birthday (and our 6th anniversary) weekend in Baker City with Andy's family. It was a lot of fun. Linc did great on his first airplane rides, and slept just about the whole time, even through take-off!

On July 19th, we went up to Anthony Lakes in the mountains, took Linc for his first kayak ride, had a picnic, and then we came down and did the cake and presents. Here are some pictures of his birthday.

Anthony Lakes. Isn't it beautiful here? It was a perfect day, except for the mosquitoes (but we fixed that problem pretty well with bug spray).

Birthday cake time. Look at him try to grab at the flaming cake in the video!! Plus, this was a great experience because it was the first time he self-fed at all. At one point he brought a chunk of cake to his mouth! Andy and I were thrilled!!

Enjoying his present from Mommy & Daddy back at home.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

This is our cutie, just being cute! Times like these make all of the worries and difficulties of the past year just fade away for awhile. I hope this video makes you smile, too.

Of course, he laughed so hard that he spit up in the end...but I think he thought it was worth it.

Project Kitchen: Complete

October 2008
Step 1: Paint and antique cabinets.

In my brilliance, I forget to take before pictures of the cabinets and countertops, so you will have to see them in these other pictures. You can see the upper kitchen cabinets behind the blooming Christmas cactus.





And the lower kitchen cabinets behind the clutter and mess that occured during the installation of the hardwood flooring in our 3 bedrooms spring of 2008.




November 2008
Step 2: Demo the dividing wall!?

Before. View from inside the kitchen.

Remove drywall. We weren't sure originally if we were going to do just a window in the wall or more.

View from living room.

We opted for more than a window.

Remove more drywall: Ahh, that's better!

Remove 2x4's & rebuild ceiling (Don't worry these weren't supporting structures. We checked!)

December 2008

Poured the first 3 concrete countertops. The small one by the fridge, the one over the dishwasher, and the large one on the island divide.

February 2009

Installed our first 2 concrete countertops, the small fridge one and the large island divide one.

April 2009

Installed the last of the first 3 concrete countertops (the one over the dishwasher), and removed the rest of the formica countertop around the sink area.

May 2009

Poured the final 2 concrete countertops. The sink and the bar-top.

June 2009

Installed the last 2 concrete countertops, and picked out and installed the backsplash in less than a week!

In summary, the project took eight months, and many many steps!! As you can see, most of that time was spent pouring, curing, grinding and polishing our concrete countertops!

The changes of note: removed dividing wall, added maching arch and pillar on left side of opening, new paint colors for kitchen and archway, pendant lighting, refinished cabinets, new cabinet hardware, rock display shelfs, new ceiling fan, upper and lower cabinet lighting, new backsplash, and new concrete countertops.

Our newest addition, and by far the most difficult to create and install, is the finished sink countertop.

The whole package. Our final, small task, is to install glass paneled doors on the far right upper cabinet, and possibly updated track lighting on the ceiling (still deciding about this). Then we will truly be finished with the kitchen/living room!!

View from kitchen into living room.

Bar-top and "island" divide between kitchen and living room.

We absolutely love our updated kitchen, and think it looks wonderful...even better than we could have imagined it!

1st Haircut & More!

Lincoln got his first haircut on Monday (at 10.5 months old)! He just kept rubbing his forehead during meal times and getting food all over in his hair. I took some before and after pictures. They are kinda funny beacuse he crawls to me if I am in the same room, so they are a series of pictures as he gets closer and closer.


Before series...

After series...

Here are some other pictures and videos from the past 3 weeks.

Linc is hangin' out chewing his thumb waiting for Daddy to drive down this... (see videos below).

(That guy in the third video is Chuck. He is Andy' friend from work and we go out Jeeping with him a lot.)

We opted to sit that one out. Here we are!

Before: Checkin' out his hot wheels. We got a flat running over a thorny branch...gotta love the dessert flora. (We did not stage this pic, he crawled up through that tire on his own!)

After: As expected, he tipped over... (He cried, but wasn't really hurt. Just scared himself mostly.)

Root beer flavored popsicle! Do you think he likes it??

Now everyone can see that the cat scratches on Linc's arms are deserved...and that Todd is just defending himself. (Although the cat does get yelled at anyways.)

Another crawling video. This video is about a week old (before he would crawl well off the carpet). Now he is pretty fast and gets around the whole living room! He has yet to venture into other rooms on his own, but when he does we will be in trouble!

If Lincoln is awake in his crib, this is almost always what I see in the video monitor. Do you think he knows we are watching???