I Could Be...

Right now, I could be going to bed, washing bottles, taking out the trash (crap, it's garbage night), catching up on some reading (who am I kidding), or ironing some of Sam's shirts (seriously, who am I kidding??). Instead, I think I'll do a quick blog update.

On Sunday, we fit 21 people into my house. The culprit? Cousins Dinner! Once again Shandy, my awesome sister-in-law, created the annual schedule of cousins dinners. Each month has a theme. We rotate houses. Each person brings a main dish and a side dish. The host provides paper goods, a main dish, and dessert. Every month has a theme! This month it was "breakfast foods". I love breakfast for dinner so I was thrilled to host this one.

Halfway through the night my mom asked why we weren't taking any pictures. BLAST! Thanks for the reminder mom! The next words out of my mouth: Sam, will you take some pictures? He's a good hubby.

We let the kids eat in the kitchen, because even though my carpet is blue, I need it to last.

So the adults ate in the living room. There are better pictures of our group, but this one makes me laugh the most. We all look so sullen. I promise we had a good time!


I absolutely love how everyone's kids play so well together. Right now we have 3 babies, under the age of 11 months. Let's hope Cash, Cameron, and Kai play as well as the older kids in about 2 years! I personally am so grateful for Meridith because she brought some girls into the mix of kids. All these boys were freaking me out!

Some of the crazy kid crew:




Anyway, it was super nice to see everyone again. We didn't starve, we never do...


So, on Sunday, Parker embarrassed me.

After taking the water during the sacrament, Parker put his cup back in the water tray, and then pumped his arm up and down and said, kind of loud, "Chug! Chug! Chug!" Oh my, I could have died. He keeps me humble.

Today as Parker was eating lunch, out of nowhere, he said "I hate it when girls LOVE me!" There you have it ladies, play hard to get with him, then he might like you.

Here are some shots from tonight. Cameron doesn't seem to miss his helmet anymore, but we are left with a bad case of cradle cap. Not sure what happened, but that helmet came off and the scalp became kind of scaly. I tried putting baby oil on his head and combing his hair over and over during his bath tonight. I'll see how it looks tomorrow. Anybody else have suggestions for getting rid of it? It's pretty much driving me wacko.





One of the many reasons I love my new camera: Parker was jumping up and down, spinning in circles, and acting totally crazy. I just started taking shot after shot, and they all turned out pretty clear. Plus the lighting was terrible, but I think the pictures look somewhat good! Amazing!



And finally, just for the journaling aspect of this blog, here are some things Cameron has been doing lately.

He has 4 goofy teeth on top, and 2 on bottom.
He can clap his hands and play "Patty Cake".
He plays Peek-A-Boo and when he covers his face with a blanket, he laughs in a really high-pitched shriek.
He can say "mama" "dada" "hi" "uh-oh" and tons of jibberish. When he holds his stuffed animal dog he says "goggy". It could be a coincidence, but it sounds like "doggy".
His left tear duct is still clogged.
He can roll all over the place, and he can scoot a little tiny bit on his belly, but he doesn't seem anywhere close to crawling.
He loves to just stand next to the couch, holding on the cushion.
He likes pretty much every kind of food I have given him so far.
I think he likes Carson the best in our family, it's very fun to watch.
He laughs about 600 times a day, music to my ears!

Guns & Hoses, 2nd Time

Today was the annual Guns and Hoses hockey game between the fire fighters and police officers. We went last year and were happy to return again this year. Our friend Chad Burnside plays for the Hoses. Unfortunately, they kind of got hosed....sorry Chad! The Guns won 11 to 4. However, it was a fantastic time. Kind of a reunion of old time friends - Gilmore's, Burnside's, and we even saw the Page family. Way fun!

It boggles my mind that anybody can actually stand on ice comfortably, let alone play hockey on it.


I remember we took Carson ice skating once...he lasted 5 minutes, crying the whole time, and then we got our money back and left. I think he was 4 or 5 years old. I'm not willing to try it again, anytime soon. Yes, I'm mean like that.

Here's Chad diving for the puck.


Here's Chad swiping some dude's legs out from under him.


Here's Chad looking on as most of his team and the other team got into a huge fight. It was awesome.


Sam was having fun with the camera. Can you tell?

Here's our friend Ed. You may not recognize him here since he's not flipping off the camera...


Here's a guy that was sitting a few rows in front of us. I thought his bone structure was kind of bizarre at the base of his head. That's kind of how Cameron's head feels to me...let's hope he has hair when he's older!


On the way home tonight it was very foggy. Eagle eye Sam saw these freaky deer on the side of the road. We saw them next to a chemical plant. I'm thinking those eyes are glowing for a different reason than my camera flash!


By the way, thanks for the helmet suggestions. Very fun! I've actually added his helmet to his toy box. He loves to play with it!



The first night Cameron went to bed without his helmet was kind of rough. He cried a lot. At about midnight I went in to check on him and he had pulled the bumper pads around his head, from ear to ear, and finally went fast asleep! I couldn't believe it! I put the bumper pads back where they go. The next morning around 7am I went to check on him again. He had pulled the pads right back on top of his head again....security for the head. So weird. Thank goodness he has gotten used to it now, the doctor was right, he probably forgot he ever had a helmet.


Every time I try to get precious pictures of my kids, they never cooperate.




And finally, I got the greatest surprise in the mail the other day! My awesome Aunt Jana randomly sent me this:


I was totally laughing before even opening the card! A penguin loofah scrubber?!? That is SWEET! I collected penguins when I was in High School. Very fun that she remembered that! Her card says it all: "Silly things that are useful are my favorite". I concur! Thanks Jana! You are super awesome cool! I can't wait to start scrubbing stuff. :)

Done! Now What??

Today we went to see Cameron's helmet doctor. I knew he would either say "he's done" or he would say "see you in six weeks".

I was expecting him to say "6 more weeks", but he took off Cameron's helmet and said "he's done". I was so happy, but it was pretty low-key....The doctor, nurse, and orthotist were all standing there and they kept saying "he's done". It finally occurred to me, they were waiting for me to leave the room! I quickly stood up, not knowing how to end this 'relationship'. Shake hands? Slap on the back? Curtsy?

Instead I awkwardly walked past them and said "Gosh, I feel like there should be a parade or something!" At least the nurse laughed....

By now Cameron knows something is going on and he's scratching his head furiously...18 1/2 weeks in a helmet seems to make your head a little sensitive! I asked the doctor if there was something I could do for Cameron's head so it wasn't so sensitive. He said "Bleh, by tomorrow he'll have forgotten he ever had a helmet!"

Let's hope that's true because he cried himself to sleep pretty good tonight. Poor buddy, lost his security 'blanket' on his noggin.

Here is Cameron's last picture I took of him wearing a helmet. It was taken last Sunday. Now...if we could just get his clogged tear duct taken care of and don't EVEN get me started on his acne...


Now the big question: What should I do with the helmet now?





Sam said it would make a nice strainer or a candy bowl...I would love to hear your creative ideas! What would you do with the helmet if you were in my situation? Seriously!!

Gilmore's & The Bounce House

Friday night we went to our friends, the Gilmore's, for dinner. Our mutual friend, Amy Curtis, was in town so Cathy and Amy cooked a gourmet meal and we ate and visited...two of my favorite things to do! I felt really bad when we got in the car to come home because the clock in the car said 11:22pm. Oops, sorry guys, I bet you were happy to see us go! I guess we need to get together more often so we don't need so much time to visit. :)

Cameron and Jane had fun, Cameron even gave Jane a foot massage. Lucky!


Sorry Ed, you KNEW I had to post this! Ed's explanation for this picture is he's excited the Utes were ranked #2 in the nation...see how he's holding up 2 fingers? Nice.


Amy and Cameron were instant friends. Actually, anyone that can hold Cameron's hands while he bounces up and down on the floor is a friend for life! Of course they have a special bond because Amy is the one who came up with Cameron's full name: Cameron Carl Sweet. I love the picture of Cameron looking up at Amy. If you can zoom in on Cameron's mouth, you'll see his 4 top teeth. They look so funny to me!



I think this is such a cute picture of Jane. She is always so happy!


Thanks to Cathy and Amy for the delicious dinner and fabulous conversation. It was a very fun night!

Today we were able to have our two nieces, Sarah and Emilee, hang out with us all day. We had so much fun.

We jammed on Rock Band for a good part of the day. Carson and Sarah shared the drum responsibility and they did really well! I guess having half of a talent is better than no talent at all!


Then tonight we went to Jumping Jacks with our friends, Ryan and Natalie. These bounce houses rock because the kids run around like crazy for a few hours, then sleep super good at night. So fun!

Fun shots:





Ryan and Wesley's face in this picture are CLASSIC!


Natalie...AKA...Super Mom!


More random shots, and yes, Parker is still wearing his Christmas shirt. I pick my battles.





Parker quote:
Yesterday I was tickling him and all around driving him crazy. We were the only two people in the room. All of a sudden he says, very loudly, "Who thinks mom is annoying? Motion Carried!"

That kid is crazy.

Saturday Fun

First of all, thanks to everyone for your sympathy and support regarding last week's ailments and frustrations! Everyone is healthy now for the most part. Cameron is just trying to get rid of his runny nose and the last of his congested cough. His attitude is a little better, thank goodness, and I'm pretty sure the happy days are coming soon! Phew!

Yesterday Sam decided to clean out the garage, so while he was outside, I decided to try and get Carson and Parker involved in a snowball fight. It was pretty funny. Parker would hide behind trees and stand as still as a statue while Carson tried to find him and pound him with an icy snowball. I wasn't much help because I would point Carson in the right direction and then we'd see Parker scream and squeal like a little girl as he ran away. Surprisngly, nobody was seriously wounded and we all had some pretty good laughs.

My favorite part was when Sam was trying to hit Parker with a snowball. He threw four at Parker and missed, all four times. Finally Parker said, in the most innocent voice ever, "What are you trying to hit?". Gotta love that Parker!

For some reason, Parker also decided to plant his face into the snow and then look at his face indentation. See?


Here is the result:


That picture freaks me out because it's like an optical illusion. Sometimes when I look at it it looks like his nose truly is indented into the snow. Other times it looks like the nose is 3-D and coming out of the snow.

Saturday night we went to our friends house, the Hildebrand's. I hope Laura has recovered today because it was a mighty crazy evening! Cameron was fussy britches and cried a lot, hopefully we're invited back over one day!

The kids had a blast, my kids never hang out with girls (because they have cooties) so when there are girly toys around, they totally have a blast!

At one point we looked into the toy room and found Kennedy and Ady dressing up Parker. They put an apron on him, some funky D.I. glasses, and a flower lei. Check out his face? Totally hysterical! Not to mention the tea party going on at the same time, and that naked Barbie on the floor....oh my, I was dying!


Davis, is this really fair competition? Pick on somebody your own size! I can just hear Davis now "come on Matthew, place air hockey with me! I'll even keep one hand in my pocket!" Hey, I just noticed that there are 3 kids hiding under the air hockey table! That's funny, I had no idea. I bet that was loud under there.


Anywho, thanks to Tom and Laura for letting us crash your place and thanks to Holly and Davis for organizing the dinner! Good times! I'm glad Tom had the Jazz game recorded because there was no way he could actually hear what was going on while we were there!

Quite Possibly The Saddest Photo Ever

I'm keeping it real.

Today was a rough one. Cameron is still recovering from Croup. He's pretty much got a super, terrible, really bad cold. But he's a baby, so he can't just drink half a bottle of Nyquil and say "see ya'll next week!"

Enter....The Mother

The Mother is supposed to be nurturing, caring, loving, patient, kind...sigh.

However, THIS mother also works a ton of hours from home. THIS mother also has 2 other children who were home all day, thanks to year-round school. While Cameron was screaming, and had runny boogies down to his chin, Parker decided to be athletic.

We ALL know that "Parker" and "athletic" don't really make a good pair. He jumped high in the air, tried to do a 360, got dizzy after about a 195, and landed on my magazine rack. This isn't your average rack...this baby is wrought iron.

So, remember, I got boogied up Cameron screaming, and now I have Parker screaming. My first thought is "Sam has the car today, I don't have transportation to go get stitches". I'll admit, my first thought SHOULD have been "Poor Parker, let me love him and make the pain go away."

Right amidst the chaos, Sam calls. "Hey Carrie! How's your day?" A perfect wife would answer "It's great honey, take your time coming home tonight, I know you are busy. I'll be sure and have dinner on the table whenever you arrive."

But the REAL me says "Ummmmm, it's been a hard day. Come home as soon as possible. I have to go now....click"

Like I said. I'm keeping it real.

Luckily Parker didn't need stitches, but this picture makes me laugh because it's so sad (Yes, I'm weird. Tell me something I don't know). I actually took the picture for Parker because he wanted to see his 'owie' and he couldn't see it in the mirror. Look at his tears! Somebody, give the poor boy a hug!


Here's a closer look:


He's used to getting hurt though, so one band-aid later and a few funny faces by Carson and me and Parker had totally forgotten about his chin.

I really wish Cameron would forget about his man-cold. I went through an entire box of tissues in about 5 days. I also have washed my hands about 27 times today, I'm serious. You should see my dry, cracked hands. I'm desperate NOT to get sick. How can I be the wonderful, caring and compassionate mother if I get sick too?

Oh....wait.....hmmmmm, maybe I should start taking Vitamin C as well....