Sick, Continued

Sorry about that disgusting picture of Cameron in my last post. I just wanted to share my grief with you.

Is this picture better?


That's what Sam's eye looks like right now. He came home from work looking like that. I have no idea what's wrong with him. Sam says he doesn't think it's contagious unless he rubs eyeballs with somebody. Oh boy. I've never had pink eye, but that looks like pink eye to me. Can I come live with somebody for a week? I have 'Wicked' tickets this weekend and so help me, if I get sick and can't go....I will be T O'd. Yeah, you heard me, I said T O'd.

I must clarify something here. I don't know why everyone keeps getting sick. I promise I clean my house. I have disinfected every surface possible and I wash my hands about 50 times per day. If you have some suggestions, send them my way because this is getting crazy.

Speaking of crazy. My baby likes dill pickles. But that's not the crazy part. The crazy part is that string of boogies going from his finger to his lip. Now THAT'S art!


I better show something good or you are all going to stop reading my blog!

Here's something good:
We celebrated my dad's 65th birthday this weekend. In his honor, my mom made a 6 layer, homemade, coconut cake. Oh heavenly bliss. There's nothing like a cake made from scratch. It's crazy good, not crazy bad like those red eyes and blubbery boogies.


This picture is so funny to me. Look at the faces on those boys. They are so excited to try this cake, especially Parker. Look at my dad's face. He had just blown out the candles and he told us his birthday wish...for the next 6 weekdays to go by quickly (after that he will be officially retired). Yay!


I agree with my dad's birthday wish. I really want the next 6 or so days to go by quickly. I took Cameron back to the doctor today because he's just not getting better. Apparently, some strains of Croup can last 10-14 days, so that means 2-6 more days, at least, of grossness. Seriously, this mothering thing isn't for the faint of heart. We did get some eye drops for his eyes, which I'm thinking Sam needs now. However, I'm so lame because I forgot to give Cameron the drops before putting him to bed. Ugh.

I must say, even through everything Cameron is enduring, he's so dang happy. All day long he is still laughing and smiling. It cracks me up. I hope he keeps this trait as he gets older, because it makes everything less painful for those around him. I think there is an important life lesson there, don't you think?

Sick.

Soccer...Second Year

Parker will be attending Kindergarten this fall, so I could have signed him up on a soccer team full of kindergarten age kids. However, the last time he played soccer was last fall during fall soccer. Last fall was the first time he had ever played. Catch my drift?

I chose to put him with Pre-K kids.

I'm so happy I did! He has 3, 4, and 5 year old kids on his team. It's brilliant. Lots of tears, lots of bloopers, and a few kids who are pretty dang serious about their soccer! It's the perfect blend for somebody like me, with a blog.

Remember last year?

Well, this year the color is red and Parker and Jacob are on the same team again. They are a little older, a little taller, and perhaps, a LITTLE wiser. Emphasis on little!


I was almost giddy right before the game because I was so excited to see what bloopers would present themselves.

This little guy only wanted to play in the dirt the entire time.


This shot appears to be by the goal, but actually, our goal is way way waaaaayyyyy over to the right. The kids found something that looked like an upside down "u" and ran for it! Of course, nobody could get the pack of kids to stop until they reached their destination!


Now we're on the opposite side of the field. The EXTREME opposite. The ball rolled past our goal, but the kids didn't care. They ran out of bounds, and clear across another soccer game that was in progress. The coach literally had to chase them down (he's the guy in the jeans, on the right), get in front of them, and put his hands out to stop them. So awesome!


Unfortunately, this kid is so little, the other kids thought his shins were the ball. Ouch!


Parker managed to kick the ball a few times. Shhh, don't tell him, but he kicked the ball toward the other team's goal. Aw well, it's a start!


One of my favorite moments: the coach from the opposing team had his kids gathered around for a huddle. Parker marched right over and listened in on what he had to say. Blue was his color last year, I guess old habits die hard!


Did you know Parker could do a Jay Leno impression? Me neither.


Good times were had by all, except that one kid who kept getting kicked in the shins. I swear he is only 2 1/2 feet tall! :)

I can't wait for the next game! Neither can Parker.

What Big Eyes You Have!

Long day. Very long day.

I woke up at 6:15am. I hear a dog barking in Cameron's room. Oh wait, we don't have a dog. Oh crap, Cameron's got Croup AGAIN! Cameron had Croup at 2 months old, 10 months old, and now 13 months old. That is three blasted times in less than a year! Nobody else in my family has ever gotten Croup. I swear I don't know why this keeps happening to him.

It was a bit stressful because we were supposed to get Cameron's tear duct unclogged today so adding Croup on top of that is just frazzling.

We went to the eye doctor and the first thing they did was dilate Cameron's eyes. Freaky Deaky.


They did a thorough eye exam on Cameron and said "his eyesight is great, no cataracts, no glaucoma, he just has a clogged tear duct." Shaw, tell me something I DON'T know. Then he proceeded to talk about the procedure to unclog the tear duct and the way he was describing it, I could tell it was in the future. I was all sorts of confused. I said "that is why we are here...today...to get it unclogged. I've been waiting 5 weeks for this appointment." He apologized and said he couldn't do it today because Cameron will be under general anethesia. Today was just for the eye exam.

It's like my life has a theme lately...let's make things a pain and stretch out the process for as long as possible. Oh well, what can I do but say "okay."? Besides, just that appointment took several hours and Cameron's bark was starting to get worse than his bite. Wait, I don't know what that means...

So then we head to the pediatrician's office to get the dreaded steroid shot to keep the airways open in Cameron's throat.

Have you ever had your eyes dilated and then you go into the really bright sunshine? It's quite the experience if you've never done it. No matter how hard you try, you just can't get adjusted to the light. It's like being in a dark movie theatre for 2 hours and then going outside in the bright light. You know that painful first minute of adjustment? Yeah, imagine a few hours of that. Cameron had several funny faces in the car while we were driving to the Pediatrician.





So Cameron got his steroid shot and Sam and I headed home and the day was gone! I couldn't believe it. Happy Monday to us!

We did get our new trampoline set up today. I'm happy to report that all the pieces were there and nothing was damaged. It's got a full enclosure so here's hoping for zero stitches or broken bones this summer! A mother can dream....

Here is Parker saying "I can see my future, and it is bright."


The boys.


Parker starts soccer tomorrow. I'm very excited for the bloopers!

Doing the Vegas Thing, Without Casinos

First of all, we FINALLY received our trampoline. Almost one month after purchasing it, Sam's Club finally got their act together and it arrived at the West Jordan store this past Wednesday. Honestly, I don't even want to give details because it was so ridiculous, but I kept my patience, I laughed at how crazy it was, and we finally have it. We haven't unpacked the box yet, so it wouldn't surprise me if we unpacked it and there were missing pieces, or a bent frame. I swear it is cursed!

Moving along.

For Sam's birthday last month, I gave him a ticket to see The Cure in Vegas this weekend. So, we packed up the fam, with my parents, and headed to Vegas.

We were optimistic and happy about the road trip. Two days off work, no set agenda, we can do whatever we want! About 20 minutes down the road, Sam said "the tires feel kind of squishy". We pulled over to a gas station to put air in the tires and Sam discovered a slow leak in one of them. Ahhhh man! We pulled into Costco just as they were opening and asked them to fix our tire. The wait was 2 hours. Ug. Good thing we were at one of the greatest stores ever. We perused the store, picked up some snacks and books for the trip, and made our purchases. When they were finally done with our tire, we hit the road again!

2 hours down the road Sam said to me "huh, I don't remember putting any of our stuff from Costco, into the van." One quick check into the back of the van, and we were laughing at Sam because who pushes a cart into the parking lot, and then doesn't unload it? Luckily we all had a good sense of humor about it as Sam sheepishly calls Costco and asks if they discovered a cart with items in it, in the parking lot. They confirmed they had, and they agreed to hold everything for us. My brother Curtis kindly went and picked it all up for us and kept it over the weekend.

Several snow storms later, we finally pulled into Vegas at about 6pm. We went to my cousin's house and hung out with his family for a few hours. Thanks Chad and Jen, you are awesome hosts! They also have 3 sons (and one daughter) who happily helped my hyper-from-being-confined-all-day children to get rid of their energy.

Friday morning we decided to do things around Vegas, without ever going to the Strip. It ended up being a great day! We went to Hoover Dam. They are in the process of building a new bridge across the canyon, pictures don't even do it justice. It's crazy/scary high and with binoculars we could see workers on the very edges just doing their job! It makes my knees weak just thinking about it now!





I know I'm rude and I lack serious compassion skills, but this guy was making me laugh so hard. He kept this stance and was taking sideways baby steps toward the overlook. Then he'd stop, his legs would shake violently, and he'd walk away. A minute later, he had this stance again, trying to make it to the railing. I don't think he ever did get there. I get nervous with stuff like this, but I've never been completely frozen by my fears before. It was wild to see!


One side of the road it the dam. The other side of the road is Lake Mead. It was real purdy. The weather was gorgeous as well, 70 degrees or so. Too bad Vegas doesn't stay that mild all the time.


Family Foto


Lake Mead


On the way back from Hoover Dam, we saw a sign advertising helicopter rides. If you know Sam at all, you'll know that he is obsessed with helicopters. We didn't even hesitate, we signed ourselves up for a ride. The riders: Sam, Carrie, Parker, and my dad. Carson had no desire to fly. My dad thought for sure he was going to die, and again, no compassion here, I was laughing. You can't really hear much, but we are flying over Hoover Dam. It was amazing!


Sam got some great shots since he was up front with the pilot. Here is the Dam and the new bridge they are building. OoOoOoO, my knees just went rubbery, remembering how high we were!


Every time the helicopter would turn or make a scary move, Parker would say "goin down, goin down" in almost a bored voice. Even in an adventure, he can find his wits about him to make me laugh. He is so funny!

The pilot was kind enough to "buzz" our van. Hi Carson!


After our thrilling adventure, we headed back to my boss' house, where we were staying, to wind down for a bit. Then we decided to head to the Vegas temple and take some pictures. It's a gorgeous temple with gorgeous grounds!





I love this picture that Sam took. Nice Palm Tree shadow. Very cool!


After a quick dinner, it was time for Sam to go see The Cure!
Robert Smith of The Cure, turns 50 on Monday, I think. Some of these pictures Sam took scare me. This guy sure is dedicated!




Sam enjoyed himself immensely and it was worth every penny of the ticket, even though Sam's ears are still ringing. :)



Saturday morning we hit up a breakfast buffet with my Uncle Fred, and then made the long trip home. Luckily, we got to make a fwe pit stops on the way, just to break up the day. We saw Shauna and Rose in St George, and then Curtis in Orem, to pick up our Costco purchases from a few days ago! Ha!

Now we're working on lots of laundry and unpacking. It was nice to get away for a few days but as always, I like coming home as well. In fact, I'm going to go sleep in my bed right now! Night!

Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter to all! I hope you had a great day. Unfortunately, my Sunday worship was pretty sketchy...Parker made Carson cry during sacrament meeting and Cameron was a stinker. I spent my energy into trying to keep everyone quiet so I didn't hear or feel much of the meeting. I'm sure Festin and Patterson did a great job with their talks, however!

The boys found their baskets this morning.



They have been wanting a Rubix Cube for a long time. The Easter bunny found little miniature cubes and the boys couldn't have been more pleased!


But guess what happend about 9 minutes after this picture was taken? Yep, you guessed it, Parker 'messed' up his rubix cube and then freaked out because he wanted Sam to fix it so the colors were where they should be. I kept laughing so hard because, well, good luck to you Sam!

Cameron received a little car and he loves it. As he pushes it back and forth he makes "vroom vroom" sounds. Boys always know how to make car sounds, they are born with it, just like they are born with the ability to breathe and poop! It's instinctive!


Here are some artsy pics I took yesterday:





Sam and I decided that we didn't want the traditional Easter dinner so Sam had a great idea. Let's have spaghetti. Sounds great to me. Then Sam took it one step further...let's have spaghetti, but color different pots of water with food coloring, and boil the spaghetti in that!

Anything to shake up the day, that is the Sweet motto. Ask anyone.

So, we had three pots of spaghetti...one red pot, one blue pot, and one green pot.

We invited my parents, but warned them that it could be kind of scary. They were happy to be part of the experience with us.

What do you think??



I'll be honest, once the spaghetti sauce was mixed with my spaghetti, I had to close my eyes when I took the first few bites. It looked a little like vomit.

Here's an Easter tradition a girl can get behind! My parents always make amazing coconut cakes with cute little nests on top. Precious!


Cameron received an Easter card in the mail from my parents the other day. I gave it to him and he thought he was hot stuff.

Oh thank you grandma and grandpa! I love my card!


Tastes great, less filling!


No really, this tastes good!


Huh, I should probably call G-ma and G-pa and thank them!


Hello?? Hello? Can you hear me? I need to talk to my grandparents, I want to thank them for loving me!


I guess they couldn't hear me. I guess I'll just read my card instead.


Ha Ha, PSCYCH! I can't read yet


Cameron, quit saying "PSYCH". Nobody says that anymore!

If you are still awake, check out my previous blog post which includes our Easter Eve activites. I'm still tired!