Monday, December 29, 2008

Holiday Fun

Christmas is over, but the fun hasn't stopped!

We had the Sweet family Christmas party the day after Christmas, which was a good time had by all! Sam and I are in charge next year so if anybody has any brilliant ideas on how to entertain 50 people....let me know! :)

Whatever we do, I think our centerpieces should be this:


Sam says they are snowman potties. heh heh heh!

Sweet kids gift exchange. Always fun, always pure mahem.


That's where our camera battery died. But the pinata was fun and the company was stellar!

On another note, good thing it's hat season....


Because Cameron's helmet gives him a terrible heat rash. I'm feeling pretty ready to be done with the whole helmet phase of Cameron's infancy!


It doesn't bother him though. He's a trooper.


We've had tons of snow over the past week. Our backyard has an excellent drift in it. Sam tried teaching Parker the art of snow angels. For some reason Parker didn't think he could open his eyes, ever.


We may have to teach him the art of keeping his hat on. Hmmmm, should I be surprised that Parker had a slight fever tonight?


On Saturday, Sam's niece, Tera, got married. That sentence has too many comma's in it...is it grammatically correct?

Anyway, Tera married Ben and so once again we got to chill with the Sweet clan. Tera asked Sam to take lots of pictures so Sam did!

He got this awesome shot. Not just any novice can capture ear wax with such flair!


Or this classic shot of Hunter, after he had just eaten something good!


My personal favorite: Owen with a chocolate covered candy cane. His face says it all!


Even when we're cleaning up we do it in style!


Today my niece, Mel, picked Carson and Parker up and took them sledding. Isn't she great? She took some sweet shots of the action:




Here is James. He is Sam's bro. He doesn't look like he was working too hard! ha ha ha!


Anywho, that is just a sampling of the last few days. Busy, but what else is new?

Bedtime is......NOW!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas 2008

I can't believe it's over! Christmas has come and gone....again.
I don't have any sadness or feelings or let down at all. This has been a great Christmas season and the past few days have been really nice!

Yesterday the kids were insanely crazy-hyper. Carson and Parker were pretty much running through the house and being super loud and giggly from about noon to 9pm. Wow, it was insanity.

Sam found a way to keep Cameron contained, too bad this wouldn't work for the older two!


I hosted Christmas Eve at my house. My parents and Fern and Russ' family joined us. We did our traditional homemade pizza and crepes, which is a lot of work but so worth it! I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of the pizza, but lemme tell ya, they were good! I snuck a leftover piece today and my taste buds thanked me.

Here is Mel making a tasty Christmas beverage for us. Do you like her sweater? She's bringing sexy back, I mean, the 80's. Who am I to judge? I still have sweatshirts from the 80's that I wear all the time!


Oh hey, there is that infamous sweatshirt now! See the green sweatshirt? Yep, I think I got it in 1988 or 1989. Classic! Let me put it this way, I'm LOW maintenance okay?


By early evening the boys were starting to settle down a tiny bit. This picture doesn't even do it justice, but Parker's cheeks were hot pink, all day, from playing so hard. I couldn't believe it! I'm so thankful for Carson and Parker, who are not only brothers, but best friends. They play and pretend all day and rarely fight. Let's hope it lasts....


This picture shows the rosy cheeks a little better. Their cousin Aaron tied their sleeves together. Whoever said children provide endless entertainment is telling the absolute truth!


After stuffing ourselves, we played a few games, including the "left right" story. We've been doing this at Christmas Eve parties since I was in Jr. High. We write a story about all those in attendance and include as many "lefts" and "rights" in the story as we can. Then we all pass around presents, left and right, throughout the story, until it's over, and then we open the present we are left with (hurry, pass it left!).

Fern and Russ got Pez dispensers, aren't they precious?


Melissa, who is still trying to bring sexy back, received this really scary cat towel. It had huge pictures of cats all over it. The funny thing, is that Carson was seriously bummed that he didn't get it! He lamented about it for about 30 minutes after the game was over!

Here Melissa is imitating the cat's face. The mad cat imitation is my favorite. I may try to find a nice kitty frame, maybe with cat paw prints in plaster of paris, and frame this picture. I think that would make a sweet birthday present on her 21st birthday. I can picture it now...



Meanwhile, tweedle dee and tweedle dum got their second wind. Dag-Nabit!


Cameron, however, was a doll. He just loved the attention he was getting in his new Christmas jammies. Plus this is his first Christmas so I think he was trying to be extra cute and engaging. Aaron's Aunt-in-law (is that a real relationship?) knitted him this sweet neck warmer. We put it on Cameron's head, because his head gets so little circulation we thought we'd choke out the air all together. Cameron loved his photo shoot.




By this time, my parents and Fern and Russ left. So Sam and I (along with Melissa and Aaron) put the three boys to bed.


Then Aaron said "well, I need to go to the store to get stuff for Danielle's stocking. I was laughing because it was 10:30pm on Christmas Eve. Nobody is going to be open! But then I remember that awesome story about my Aunt Barb and Uncle Keith from several Christmases past..... They had spent the Christmas season getting everything ready for Christmas, no detail was left undone....until late at night on Christmas Eve they remembered something: Hmmmm, we didn't get our 4 children any presents! CRAP! So off they ran to 7-11, who were the only crazies open on Christmas Eve, and purchased their children's Christmas gifts. If I remember right, the kids cried on Christmas morning. Somebody back me up, am I right?

Anyway, there is a "Sev" as Sam calls it, right down the street from me. So off they went, and returned, with a huge flannel stocking and tons of gifts from the 7-11. Ahhhh, a Christmas miracle. Hey Aaron, next year you should plan the stocking thing a day earlier and then you can hit the exotic stores, like Walmart!!!



Thanks for hanging with us you guys! Best brother/sister picture ever!


Christmas morning:

We woke up to a raging blizzard. I think West Jordan got hit the hardest. My parents didn't have any power at their house but we did. They came over to watch our kids open gifts.

Again, Cameron was pleasantly surprised by all this "Christmas" stuff.


Parker was a little tired and hung-over from the previous day's run-around-like-crazy-until-your-mom-almost-has-a-meltdown fest.


And Carson was just happy to show his little brothers how things worked on Christmas morning!


Santa was amazing and brought #1 and #2 exactly what they wanted! Wall*E robots. I think Parker is sleeping with Wall*E right now actually.



To feed Parker's obsession with Ben 10, my parents gave him a new omnitrix. Check out his face, priceless!


Anywho, the opening of presents was great! Thanks to my parents and my brother Mike and his family for being so generous! The kids have not stopped playing for one minute today. It has been wonderful. At different times today both Carson and Parker exclaimed "this is the best Christmas ever!"

Right when we finished opening gifts, our power went out. Sweet timing. We eventually made our way back to my parents house, once everyone's power was restored. Talk about a treacherous trip! 3 miles in a blizzard are like 30 miles! This picture doesn't do the snow justice...but this is on my parents front door porch. It's actually protected from the elements but this much snow still made its way in! I loved having a white Christmas!


After we watched my parents open their presents, we had an awesome brunch. Again, Carson and Parker never stopped playing. I love how intense Carson's face is right here. Gotta love that kid!



The rest of the day was spent hanging out, shoveling snow, visiting Fern and fam, and finally, cleaning up this mess:


Around 7:30 tonight, another blast of a snow storm started to hit. It's still snowing like crazy out there. I am loving this White Christmas! Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Cameron update

Remember this little guy?






Well, he's not so little any more.




He had his 9 month appt a few weeks ago. Here are the stats:
Weight: 20 lbs 1 ounce, 43%
Height: 28.5 inches, 60%
Head size: 18 inches, 63%

His weight stat shocked the heck out of me. He feels like 30 pounds at least! I guess I'm just extra whimpy, no shocker there.

Helmet update: We had an appointment with his cranial guy at the beginning of the month. He said his head was looking super good and just needed a little more "finesse". He's hoping we'll be done in 4-6 weeks. I have an appointment with the orthotist tomorrow so I'm excited to see what he thinks. The helmet itself hasn't been that bad, but Cameron's skin is so sensitive--he has red dots all over his head and face. I'm hoping once he's done with the helmet, and his skin can breathe better, his complexion will clear up.

Also, he's had a clogged tear duct in his left eye since he was born. If he turns one and it's still having problems, the doctor will probe it and clear it up. Not sure why they have to wait until 1. I figure if he's had the problem for 9 months, will another 3 months make that much difference?

Developmentally: totally behind the curve for other children his age. However, if you compare him to the other Sweet boys, he's right on schedule. Carson and Parker crawled around 10 months, walked at 15 months. Cameron is too dang laid back to bother with exerting any effort to obtain a toy that is just out of reach. He'd rather just look at a light or suck his fingers.

He does have some teeth though, his bottom two teeth are in, one "fang" on the top is in, another is pushing through, and one of his top front teeth has also pushed through. He's looking super goofy in the mouth and I love it!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Hork!

Hork is such a funny word. I use it to describe how I'm feeling when my tongue and mouth get all watery, right before I...well....hork. You know what I mean, right?
I feel that way every time I open the microwave and realize that the last thing cooked in there was a corn dog for Carson. Hork.
I also feel that way when I change Cameron's stinky diaper and the last thing he ate were carrots. Hork.
Oh, or how about the time I was pregnant with Carson and I was making potato salad? That was a good hork.
I could go on and on. But I won't.

I will show you something that made me want to hork tonight.


You probably thought I was going to show you something disgusting and vulgar, but just hear me out.

Carson kept telling me to look at him while I was making dinner (by "making dinner" I really mean "cooking corn dogs in the microwave....hork!). I kept glancing at him and thinking to myself "yeah....so what?"

But then he "undid" his arms and I realized.....HE HAD SPUN BOTH HANDS 360 DEGREES AND THEY WERE RESTING ON THE COUNTER THAT WAY! Seriously, on his left arm, right where the sleeve of his shirt meets his skin, that is his elbow folks. Hork.

I told him to slowly 'unwind' his hands so I could see. So he did. I like how Parker is trying to manipulate his hand as well during these pictures.






I told him he was freaking me out. He said "I know, maybe we need to see a doctor because I think something is wrong with my bones."

Hey, do you remember on Napolean Dynomite when Kip said "Your mom goes to college" in a really dorky, mocking way?

Well, tonight Carson was telling us about all the sauces you could get to go with your school lunch. It was like Bubba on Forrest Gump because he wouldn't stop describing sauces...."there's fry sauce, ranch dressing sauce, ketchup sauce, mustard sauce....." it literally went on and on and on. Out of NOWHERE, Parker said "Your mom has some sauce" and he said it in the EXACT same way as Kip on Napolean Dynomite! I could not stop laughing. It's not like he has ever watched that movie, I swear!

I was playing with my nifty camera and the "night portrait" setting. Do you remember that song "let there be peace on earth"? Here's my interpretive picture to that song. Ha Ha Ha!


Isn't my tree purdy?


Lastly, Christmas is one week from tomorrow. I think somebody is a LITTLE bit excited, what do you think???