Zac's New Hairdo

Zac recently has decided to change his hairstyle.
One of his friends in school has "spikey hair" and Zac wanted to do the same. So, each morning before school he's in the bathroom getting his hair plastered with gel by mom. We'll see how long this fad will last. Next thing we know he'll wear his pants around his knees, pierce his lips and get a tattoo.

Is it really almost May?!

Come see my new blog !

So I started a new blog a few days ago but haven't really told anyone about it. It's a recipe blog. I love other recipe blogs on the internet because I love new recipes so I thought I'd start my own. There's a link to it in the column on the left or here.

Good thing we recycle

Abbi is our little artist around here. Too bad she uses about 50 pages of paper a day. All day she'll have this stack of papers with her that she's just randomly drawing on. Just a little picture here and then it's off to the next paper. Lately she's found a notebook and she's been drawing on every page in it. Then she has to rip the pages out and then those lovely little pieces of the edge of the paper are left on the floor for Carter to eat. She's also figured out all the letters in her name (the b was a challenge) and she writes her name over and over on the paper. Well, at least that's good practice. Thank goodness we have a recycle bin and a huge box of paper (that I got for a good deal even) in the basement. We'll let her creative mind stay at work.

10-41, 7-32, Hike!

Today was the spring scrimmage for the BYU football team and Zac and Tom went down to see it. It only lasted about an hour, which was perfect for a 5 year old that has an attention span of about .001 seconds. It was great to show him who the quarterbacks were, how they run the ball or whether they pass it, etc. However, he was more excited about playing with his cousin McKay than anything else. After the game we had the opportunity to go down onto the field and mingle with the players. Zac had a great time and we are excited for yet another BYU football season.

Guess who turned one?!

I can hardly believe my baby is one! It goes so fast. I swear it wasn't that long ago that I was bringing Carter home from the hospital and he was just so little and sweet. Well, he was never so little (since he weighed almost 9 pounds) and he's still sweet. But I know everyone tells you when you have a baby "they grow up so fast" but it really is so so true.

One of the downsides of being the third child is the non excitement of the first birthday. We just stayed home all day and Carter took his naps. Well, if the weather had been nice maybe we could have done something but I even saw it snow for a minute or two today (crazy spring weather). Tonight we had a little party with cake and "Happy Birthday" but that's about it. Carter didn't mind a bit though. We did get him a present but it a was a push buggy car that he rides in so we didn't wrap it and just took it out of the box for him to ride in. He seemed to like it. Zac and Abbi pushed him back and forth in it in the family room and he laughed. I think it will be good for when it finally warms up around here. Carter also got to enjoy some cake but it was sort of comical as he had no idea what to do with it. I made a caterpillar cake out of cupcakes and we gave him the head of the caterpillar (which Zac and Abbi both wanted). We put it on the tray of his highchair and he just sort of poked at it. He would touch it and the frosting would get on his hands and he would shake his hand trying to get it off. Finally he just started squishing the cupcake all over the place and then put it in his hair, threw it on the ground, and then finally put it in his mouth. Then he decided it was good and ate as much of it as there was left (which wasn't much). I think the problem was is that I never give him a big piece of food to eat. I usually cut it up in pieces and he had no idea what to do with something bigger. But in the end he was a mess and we got a good picture or two of it.

Carter has definitely changed our lives in the past year. All for the good. What a sweet little guy he is. He is a laugher and if you've ever tickled him you'd know. He laughed as soon as he smiled. Such an easy going kid he is. Not much bothers him and he can entertain himself for quite awhile. He loves eating, reading books, playing with toys that make noise, our dog Maia, sticking out his tongue, and as of recently being mobile and getting into anything he wants. We'll just enjoy it all before the terrible twos (or threes or fours) overtake his sweetness. We'll still love him just the same (of course).

Easter

We had a fabulous Easter and have tons of candy to prove it. The kids were able to have 3 Easter egg hunts and that provided plenty of candy. Tom's parents were visiting from California and that made it extra fun for the kids. Of course we had to dye Easter eggs, and of course they're still sitting in the carton in the fridge. Looks like it will be egg salad sandwiches for dinner tomorrow!

We love that sun!

Warm days around here and have been few and far between. Finally today we had some 60 degree weather and all the kids wanted to do was play outside. They've been really into their kites and love to just run around with the kites flying just feet behind them. Carter even got a little outside time and enjoying picking and eating grass (I did stop him but I thought it made a cute picture since that's what he spends most his day doing-- picking up things and eating them).

Abbi's Birthday!

Birthdays around here are big events. Well, my kids like to think so. It's the day they talk about all year. Abbi turned 4 this year and we had a little party with some friends over. She wanted a castle cake so we just made it a castle party. We had a princess one last year so I decided a castle one would be simpler and we wouldn't be repeating. We built castles with sugar cubes, played pin the door on the castle, played with balloons, and even had a pink crown pinata in the basement. And then that night we got the privilege of going to Chuck E. Cheese. It's actually not that bad and the kids love it. According to Abbi this will be her last birthday until she's 6. She's not turning 5 because that requires shots to go to kindergarten and she's not doing that (so she says).

Carter's surgery

It's been awhile since our last update. We've been having computer issues but thanks to my brother, Scott and a tax return, we have a new one up and running. Carter had surgery on February 15th. It went really well. It was a draining experience for me as a mother. I worried about everything possible but everything went perfectly. Carter did really well not eating before the surgery. He could nurse until 6 AM, had a bottle of juice at 9 AM, and his surgery was at 1 PM and he did fine. He would remember he was hungry every once in awhile but we could distract him. I just couldn't hold him or he would really remember he was hungry. The anesthesiologist was a nice Grandpa looking man that took him to surgery. That made me feel better to hand him off to him. I just couldn't think about what was going on in that surgery room while he was in there. The surgery was only a little over an hour and afterwards the doctor was immediately reassuring us that everything went perfect. Carter wasn't so happy waking up from the anesthesia but a little morphine took care of that. We stayed at the hospital an hour or so after the surgery and then they let us go. He was very groggy the rest of the day and just wanted to be held. I expected that. But the next day, he acted like nothing ever happened. He was back to sitting on the floor with his toys for endless amounts of time. They gave us some loritab for him but he never even needed it. His eyes were really red in the inside corners for a week or so. They almost looked like there was blood in the corners of his eyes. The doctor told us to expect that for a couple months but it only lasted that week. He had eye drops for 2 weeks which he hated. I assume they stung since they were going in the incision in his eye. His eyes have also really straightened out quite a bit. At least I can tell they have. Here's a before and after picture (in that order).




The doctor said it would take 6 weeks for the muscle to get it's elasticity back (they actually went in and loosened the muscles in both eyes during the surgery) but they already look really good. I'm hoping he can see better too. He actually also ended up having tubes put in his ears at the same time. He had had an ear infection that wouldn't go away for several weeks before this and finally the day before our pediatrician had it set up so they could put tubes in his ears at the same time. It was easier and cheaper that way. So that ended up working out. I'm glad to have this experience behind us. It was stressful and worrisome for me. I'm so grateful all went well and that we can hopefully move on. Yet I know at the same time he'll probably have the surgery again sometime during his childhood. We'll just cross that road when we come to it. Here are some pictures at the hospital before the surgery as we got him dressed in his gown/pajamas and after surgery. Just looking at those after surgery pictures make me cringe and not want to think about what they did to my poor little boys eyes.