Christmas Pictures 2017 by Alicia Johnson Photography

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November & Thanksgiving 2017

Remember how I said I had a nursery calling? Scratch that. That lasted two weeks.

I'm now the Stake Relief Society Secretary.

I'm still hanging out with all the other people who can't believe it.

November was filled with lots of travel, family, and the usual craziness. We have four birthdays on the Baldwin side back to back towards the end of November, our anniversary is in November, and we went home for Thanksgiving. Although we weren't in Utah for all the birthdays, I wanted to be sure I got all the presents mailed before I left for vacation, plus getting Christmas stuff in order. We had family pictures taken for Christmas cards this month, which was nice, but a little late. I'm the queen of slacking off this year it seems...

Our anniversary was spent at Ruth's Chris Steak House, I guess you can call it a tradition since we've done it two years in a row now. Then I flew home. It seemed like I spent all week preparing for the trip, packing, doing laundry, and making Brian freezer meals to eat until he joined us.

I left the Thursday before Thanksgiving with just Tatum on her first flight ever. We flew Southwest, so there's open seating and I'm pretty sure the very last person on the plane was the one who realized he was stuck sitting beside a baby. Luckily there was a super nice lady who had been on the end who volunteered to sit beside us. She was a grandma and understood my anxiety and also didn't mind if Tatum cried the whole way. BUT SHE DIDN'T and all those people who were avoiding her like the plague when we took off were waving and smiling at her when we were getting off because she didn't make a single peep, other than giggling. She loved flying and was jumping up and down on my lap clapping when we landed. The hardest part was trying to pee in an airport bathroom while holding your child. Never doing that again. I'll hold it.

The first weekend was spent with my mom and stepdad and I got to visit with some friends, including a friend from high school and her sweet little boy who's two weeks older than Tatum, my longest best friend Chelsea (since 2nd grade) and my college bestie, Erin. Erin and I lived together two years and Chelsea joined us as our third roomie the last year so it's always a blast hanging out with them. Monday-half of Thanksgiving was spent with my dad and stepmom and we picked Brian up from the airport on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. He hadn't accrued much PTO yet and wanted to save it for Christmas break, so I bought his flight months before I decided to fly up as well instead of trying to make the 14 hour drive with Tatum alone. Good decision for SURE. We got to see my cousin Kimmy, and a ton of other family and friends when we spent the other half of Thanksgiving back at my mom and stepdad's. It was quite the trip, 10 days total, so much fun, and exhausting! We were so happy to have Brian on the flight home with us. 

Below are some photos from our festivities and Tatum on her first Thanksgiving!

XoXo.

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October & Tatum's First Halloween 2017

September was a crazy month, and October was pretty busy as well! The last weekend in September/first weekend in October, Brian and Tatum and I went to the University of Florida football game against Vanderbilt and watched General Conference on Sunday. We got lucky and were able to take a date night the second weekend to Bonefish Grill and mini golfing which was a blast. 

That next Monday, we had to drive to Gainesville and load up our stuff by ourselves but we successfully FINALLY got our stuff from the scumbag moving company, after waiting over a month for them to deliver it. NEVER USE PHOENIX TRANSPORTATION SERVICES OUT OF LAS VEGAS. I think by this point I've warned you enough.

We took Tatum to Harvest Moon Farm near Brooksville way north of Tampa to try and get Tatum some autumn festiveness, but alas, it was 91 degrees and miserable, so we only stayed about 2 hours. We did do the corn maze (full of dead corn) and let Tatum play in the petting zoo and with the pumpkins before we headed out. 

The weekend before Halloween, Tatum's second cousin (? or first cousin once removed? No clue how that works) had her birthday party and Tatum was dressed as a witch. She hated the sleeves and hat of her costume so much that I didn't make her be a with for the big day, and she got to be an elephant, which worked out well since the temperature dropped a little and she was in a warmer costume. However, my black cat costume no longer had a witch with her on Halloween. Brian was a banana, because he said he couldn't come up with a costume that corresponded with ours, and he thought it was funny. 

Tatum is growing more and more every day. She crawls up steps, feeds herself, hates wearing a bib, and loves to wave hello to everyone. Her favorite foods are mashed potatoes and spaghetti and she loves to walk with her walker, which she's really good with. She still only has two teeth but tries to eat everything we do constantly. I'm in love with my little bundle of joy!

The last Sunday of the month, I got a calling in nursery at church, so that's fun. It's nice to have a break and have a Sunday-only calling and be able to take Tatum in with me without it being a big deal. 

All is going a lot better for us now that we're in our own space. We frequently swim in our complex's pool and we should have a second pool, new fitness center, and new leasing center soon. The apartments don't look incredible on the outside but they're renovated inside and are in a very convenient location, both to shopping, and to the bridge so that Brian has a short commute to work across the bridge so that's nice. We go to the park A LOT (Tatum LOVES the swings) and we're still pretty close to the beach. We're staying optimistic and are excited for all the upcoming holidays!

Love, the Baldwins

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Randy. Sabra, & Zoey Come to Florida!

What a whirlwind week it's been! Time truly flies when you're having fun and it's always tons of fun having your best friends in town! 

Randy and Sabra flew in super early on the 21st and stayed until the 28th. Thursday, we headed out to Honeymoon Island State Park and took the ferry over to Caladesi Island. They have a little restaurant over there and we ate lunch on the beach and the girls had a blast playing in the sand and water. Luckily I had made and frozen enchiladas so dinner was easy that night and we could relax a little more. 

Friday, we hung around locally and went to the beach. Brian had to work but since he works right in Rocky Point, we met him right after at Bahama Breeze, had a great dinner, and headed to the Lightning game. We got Tatum and Zoey "My First Bolts Game" pins and they were so adorable! Tatum is enjoying sports, one game at a time! So far she's been to a few baseball games, a hockey game, and tomorrow we're going to a college football game! But anyway...

Saturday, we spent the entire day at Busch Gardens and had an awesome time. We took turns keeping the babies and we all got to ride the big rides. Sheikra and Mantu will always be my faves! 

Sunday afternoon/evening we spent at Clearwater Beach, an obligatory tourist destination for all visitors. Monday, we headed to Orlando to hit up Universal's new water park, Volcano Bay! So much fun and definitely worth the price, considering it's way cheaper than the other parks! The best part about the day was definitely avoiding the 4 hour wait to do the 125 foot vertical trap door water slide. Sabra and I had just come off another ride when we were talking about the wait times for the other two slides that come out of the volcano. A kid walking by that worked there overheard us and told us that the other two smaller slides were closed and the third slide had a wait time of over 4 hours, but that he could get us on without any wait at all! We went running all over trying to find Brian and Randy and finally caught up to them at the last minute so that we could all go, two at a time but without waiting! It was amazing!

Tuesday, we had another beach day and then Brian and I watched Zoey so Randy and Sabra could have a date night on a sunset dinner cruise. Zoey is such an easy baby so it was a piece of cake! We were so lucky to have our friends come see us and we had such a blast!

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Surviving Hurricane Irma, Part 2

Two weeks post-Irma and I'm just getting around to writing this... We spent just over a week up visiting family. We left on Tuesday the 5th and got back to Florida on Wednesday the 13th. We got back to our apartment first and miraculously we had power already! But because it was empty of furniture, we went back to my aunt and uncle's house who did not have power. Luckily, we were only out of power there for less than 24 hours and it rained that night so we opened all the windows and had a nice breeze all night that made it bearable. 

There were a few blessings about the hurricane that I've tried to keep in mind whenever I bitterly think about the stress it caused. The first is that none of my family had severe damage to their homes from the hurricane. The second is that Brian got paid for all but two days that we were gone. The third is that I got to see my family and some friends which was wonderful. 

Driving back was really strange. The worst damage we saw was around the Jacksonville area. Almost every billboard was ripped or damaged. There were the big overhead highway signs that had been knocked down and lots of trees down and debris everywhere. There were lines of 45-50 cars at gas stations that had gas and police officers directing traffic and making sure there weren't any fights. Empty gas stations with bags over the gas handles everywhere. Stores completely out of water and bread. Grocery shopping with no frozen/cold foods because stores lost power and everything went bad. Cleaning out refrigerators that hadn't had power in over a week. Our church has been sending people to the Naples area every weekend to do disaster relief and it's heartbreaking to know the numbers of people who lost everything farther south. 

Somehow we didn't hit any traffic on the way out or in, except in a few spots where they were doing roadwork. We didn't get stuck on the side of the road with no gas (but we were prepared with a 5 gallon gas can in the trunk just in case), and Brian even worked with my stepdad a few days and made some extra cash on the side. We were by all accounts extremely blessed and somehow, I can look back on the stress and anticipation of the week now that we're past it and realize how lucky we were. I'm so glad we decided to evacuate since most people that stayed were without power for over a week. It was an extra blessing because I definitely wouldn't have wanted to put Tatum through that. Plus, we enjoyed some wonderful autumn weather, Tatum got to spend some time with two sets of grandparents, and I got some mental health time surrounded by green mountains which definitely did my soul good. 

Thank you to everyone that reached out and was concerned about us! We are lucky to be doing so good and we successfully made it through our first natural disaster (and hopefully our last in Florida).

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Surviving Hurricane Irma, Part 1

Let me start this post by saying it has NOT been easy for us since moving to Florida. In case anyone has been under the impression that our lives have been peachy keen since we packed up our entire lives and drove 2500 miles, I'll set you straight right now.

Before we moved, Brian began applying to jobs back in April. He had so many responses that we didn't anticipate he would have any difficulty finding a job once we got here, and since everyone needed him NOW, he decided to stop applying until we were 2 weeks away from moving. It took him from halfway into May until the day after Labor Day to land a normal, permanent, full-time job. Insane right!?! We thought so. Especially since we arrived in Florida with as much stuff as we could pack in two cars on June 1. He worked temporary jobs for awhile, always going to other interviews until finally, he had two amazing opportunities on the table and was able to negotiate a higher salary with the one he wanted. Flash forward to the day he started that job (September 5) and when he got home from work we decided we should leave that night to get away from Hurricane Irma. Awesome timing, Mother Nature.

Let me take a moment to stress a few other major blood pressure raisers in our lives. Finding an apartment in Florida SUCKS. The nice places are either wayyyy too expensive or they're government subsidized, which means our family of three has to make under $35k a year to live there. You can find a decent apartment in the ghetto for $1k if you want, as long as it's not a 55+ community. Oh, and buying a house here is a terrible idea because property taxes cost you both arms, legs, and your neck. It's a miracle anyone lives here at all. When we finally found an apartment in our price range, desirable location, and available, it was halfway through August. I mentioned in my last post we still haven't had our stuff delivered. That's still true. So basically it's been a month without our things. Which means my baby that was 3 months old when we left is now almost 7 months and she's outgrown all the clothes that fit in our cars and I'm constantly spending money to buy her clothes that fit, even though she has tons packed away. Are you getting stressed reading this yet?

After we wasted our entire Labor Day holiday staying within a 20 minute radius of our empty apartment and our stuff wasn't delivered, YET AGAIN, I looked at Brian and started crying. We both looked at each other and said, "Why did we move here? This was a mistake." The next day, we left because of Irma. We decided early on we would rather look stupid and leave even if we didn't need to than risk being without power and being in that disaster. I've never prayed for other people so fervently in my life. Speaking of prayer, I think it's the only reason I haven't had a total breakdown since this whole process of Florida began.

There are some things you learn as you get older... one of the biggest being that sometimes you need faraway friends that you can text/talk to all day every day that just get you (shoutout to a Sabra who I Marco Polo literally every day). Sometimes the people around you who are supposed to be good friends just aren't. And that's ok, everyone has different priorities and when yours don't align, it's okay to let them go. When times are tough, it's better to have real friends.

I've held back writing this post for awhile because I felt like maybe I was weak for all the ways this life changing experience went completely wrong and the way I've handled it. Then I realized I didn't want to be one of those people who only posted the good on social media and gave everyone a false representation of our "perfect" life.

I keep waiting for that one moment to come where I'll think coming out here was worth it, but so far it's nowhere in sight. Being close to my grandma has been wonderful though, and I can't thank my incredible aunt and uncle enough for letting us be total bums at their house for so long. Brian and I have determined that Florida is definitely not where we want to be post graduate school, so I guess that's one good thing.

For the time being, we're near my parents house in Maryland & West Virginia. We spent a few days with my mom and stepdad in West Virginia when we first arrived and are now in Maryland with my dad and stepmom for a few days. On the not so bright side, the hurricane has kept moving northwest (contrary to what all those know-it-alls told us) and it turns out we were super smart to leave when we did because the Tampa area could get positively slammed by this hurricane. So we're going to be here for a few more days and I can actually visit with more friends! Hit me up if you want to get together. In the meantime, I'll be enjoying my time in an alternate reality before we have to head back to the disaster zone (literally). Prayers for everyone affected are much appreciated. 

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3 Months in the Sunshine State

Hello everybody, it's been awhile! 

So much has changed since my last post and I've been meaning to sit down and write for quite awhile now... Would you laugh hysterically if I told you I'm typing this on my phone while sitting in the Bed Bath & Beyond parking lot because Brian is at home with Tatum and I don't know what to do with my freedom out of the house by myself? That's ok, I'm laughing too.

Since my last post was in the first month of us being in Florida, it's been a solid two months since I've updated! For starters, we got a little townhouse apartment to rent and have had the biggest hassle in the world trying to get the movers to deliver our stuff. The whole thing has been such a nightmare that when I'm more levelheaded and less livid, I fully intend to write them the worst review they've ever gotten on Better Business Bureau and anywhere I can. NEVER, EVER use Phoenix Transportation Services out of Las Vegas. There's your warning.

To avoid letting myself be clouded with negativity for the rest of the day, I'm going to avoid all the details of our struggles with them, but it's been one of the more frustrating experiences of my life. I never want to move cross country again. Along with that, I'm LOVING being back on the east coast.

Summer in Florida is like being in a permanent sauna, but I guess since we knew it would be hot, it hasn't bothered us that much. It's been a much more pleasurable summer, since I've been enjoying it with Tatum instead of throwing up as a result of being pregnant with her hahaha. Our days are mostly spent at the beach or swimming in our complex's pool. 

We spent the weekend of the 4th of July with my dad and stepmom who came down for the long weekend. We went to the beach with them every day and then spent the evening grilling and setting off fireworks with my cousins, Joe and Julie, and their boys. It was a wonderful day celebrating our country's independence surrounded by family and food. 

Later in July, we spent a week and drove home to see my Mom, stepdad, and Dad. My stepmom unfortunately was out of town on vacation and we missed her, but luckily we saw her not too long before that. Brian worked with my stepdad a few days which left my mom and Tatum and I home. It's true what they say that you never fully appreciate your mom until you get older. We used to drive each other nuts, but we've always been close, and now I could honestly sit and talk to her for days on end, which is exactly what I did and loved every single second of it. I also got to see one of my best friends from high school. By sheer coincidence she was home visiting her family as well before heading back to Oklahoma City for her final year of Teach for America. I'm so proud of all my friends and how far we've come, and scattered all over the country... (Florida, Oklahoma, NYC, Virginia Beach, etc). I wish I had been able to visit more people but for anyone reading this, I'll be home at Thanksgiving!!! (maybe sooner, but that's an uncertain surprise...)

Brian got a new job that he worked temporarily while he continued interviewing for other positions and now has a great new job that will be so good for our family and for his resume for grad school. 

Tatum is growing like crazy! At her 6 month appointment she was almost 16 lbs and is 26 inches long. It feels like she should be in a higher percentile but she's pretty average haha, like 50th percentile for everything. She started crawling a little before she turned 6 months, she can sit up on her own and can be crawling and sit herself up from a crawling position! We started giving her vegetable baby food at 4 1/2 months and real fruit in her mesh feeder. We waited until she turned 6 months to give her fruit baby food to make sure she really liked veggies first and it seemed to have worked! She loves alllll food, but we've discovered her favorite seems to be watermelon in her mesh feeder! She's obsessed and it's so cute to see her get so excited. I can never stress enough what a water baby she is! She loves the ocean, the pool, and the bathtub.  Around 5 months she started blowing raspberries constantly. It used to be cute but now it drives me insane hahaha. She's still adorable though and I can never get mad at her. 

About a month ago, she started getting really bad separation anxiety. If I walk out of her sight she would wail! Basically this meant showering or doing anything in another room was out of the question unless she was napping or I could take her with me. As much as I tried surrounding her with my favorite (elephants), her favorite stuffed animal is the kangaroo Brian bought her the day she was born. It has a baby kangaroo in the pouch and she holds onto it and strokes it when she's falling asleep. She gets so excited if I take it out of her crib for her to play with and she giggles and squeals. I love our pre-bedtime cuddles and she's getting much better about going to sleep on her own. Usually I put her in the crib when she's almost asleep or drowsy and she'll roll over and hold onto her kangaroo and fall asleep. Sometimes it's not that easy, but she's such a good baby and we're getting into a rhythm and routine! She's still the happiest baby and smiles at people everywhere we go! People are so much nicer when you have a cute baby, it's hilarious! 

As for me, I'm doing so good. Transitioning into being a stay at home mom was kind of hard at first. That sounds so dumb, but in all reality, I'm such a go-getter that I felt like I wasn't ever accomplishing anything and without a schedule I felt so lost. Structure has definitely helped me. I set a routine of exercise, eating healthy, and getting out of the house everyday that's really helped me feel accomplished! My Lipsense business has really started taking off and I LOVE doing it. I love sharing the products with people and I love having a small business of my own. It keeps me occupied and it's something of my own that I get to focus on outside of being a wife and mom. I've discovered my new passion (still second to traveling and being a travel agent, I would be lying if I said I didn't miss that!) and that is home decor! I think it started a few years ago when I developed an HDTV obsession and has only grown from there! I can't wait to be able to spend more time crafting. I could honestly spend every day walking the aisles of Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Goods, etc. (missing At Home soooo much. Come on, Florida, get with it!). I miss sitting down to write these blog posts too! It's almost therapeutic to document all that's been going on and I need to get better at it. Tatum won't always be this little and I don't want to forget to document all these times for her. 

We thought about going away for Labor Day weekend but I'm not sure if it'll happen or not! One good thing about moving to a new place is exploring new places constantly! One weekend we went to Tarpon Springs which is this cute little old Greek town and explored the Sponge Docks. They have tons of cute shops and restaurants and they sell the sea sponges and homemade soaps and crafts. I found one of my favorite soaps EVER at this little place called Lori's Soap & Sponge Market. We also ate at an amazing authentic Greek restaurant which made my heart (and stomach) so happy. 

We've explored closer to my aunt and uncle's where we've been staying before we got the apartment around Madeira Beach and John's Pass, and have been to St. Petersburg multiple times. Every time we've tried a new restaurant, we've gone back to our favorite... a hole in the wall, authentic little Cuban place called Bodega on Central Ave. SO. GOOD. 

We're counting down the days until Randy and Sabra come visit for a week and I cannot wait for all the fun we have planned! I have more recipes to save on here but I'm not sure when I'll get around to that truthfully. We have so much to look forward to in the next couple months and I know time is going to fly by with the holidays coming, so I will try to update this more! 

Thanks for reading!

XoXo

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