Are you current???

So did you know that the whooping cough vaccine runs out?? Not sure how to say it, but you get your kids vaccinated for it at their 2 month appt. (and I think there are a few more shots after that) but then it runs out. And you have to get it again.

It also runs out on adults. So you need an adult whooping cough vaccination.

I follow a blog of a photographer but not for the photography. She had a baby a few weeks before I had Carter. And he caught whooping cough (they think from an adult) when he was six weeks old. Two weeks before he would have had the vaccination. And he swelled up. And turned blue. And spent several days in intensive care. While his still recovering mom sat by his side and watched him breath his last breath. Sounds dramatic, I know. But it's true.

Here's a link to her blog. http://www.natalienortonphoto.com/2010/06/one-was-enough.html

Be warned that if you link over you might be there awhile.

Point is, check and see if you're current. And if you aren't, get the shot. Even if you don't have babies. Because you could catch whooping cough and then give it to some mother's baby who hasn't been protected yet.

Do it!

A perfect moment...

We got our carpets cleaned on Friday so I escaped to my parents house for the day. (Side note--it's slightly frightening how exciting getting carpets cleaned is. Makes me feel old)

Just before getting ready to go home, I was out on the front lawn holding Carter. My dad was cutting down a tree and Mya wanted to watch. So I sat and watched Mya by my mom, my dad with a chainsaw in hand, and Carter snuggled up with his head resting on my shoulder. An odd moment but in that moment I thought "this is a perfect moment." Why? Not sure. It just was. And I'm grateful for it.

And despite the feeling the blog may impress, and the fact that I act like Carter might make me melt sometimes, truth be told, I'd die without him. Die. He's 100% momma's boy and he snuggles me. All the time. And he sings. Oh he sings. It is the-most-endearing-thing-ever. It's loud. And all the same tone. But he sings when he's tired. And I love it.

Today I am grateful for fast and fleeting perfect moments mixed in with all the not so perfect ones!

A quick reminder.

I've been pooed on 4 times today. Four. That's four times too many. I've taken 2 showers. And I've bathed Carter 3 times. I slept about 2 hours combined last night. Carter has a "horrible ear infection" as the doctor called it. And the antibiotics have given him ridiculous diarrhea. Just adds to the "hardness" that is my baby Carter.
This is just a quick reminder to myself that in a year, when I start thinking newborns are cute.....Not on your life.
Pretty sure Carter has sealed his fate as the youngest child of this family. :) And he's a perfect way to end!
There's more to this story which I'll add later. Because it's time to go change yet another diaper, do some warm soapy water bumb soaks, lather on the Aquafor, and wait 20 minutes to do it all over again.
The luxurious life I lead.....

Fun with sisters.

Mya thinks it's hilarious to put this headband on Carter so his hair sticks up. Hilarious. Belly-laugh, nearly pee her pants hilarious. So I let her do it. Because I LOVE that belly laugh. And Carter doesn't seem to mind. He kinda likes Mya's belly laugh too. And may those bright blue eyes forever stay that blue. And those eyelashes--got those from his daddy. Lucky.

Lagoon.

I love Lagoon. Always have. We use to live for Stake Lagoon day when we were kids. So much to Mike's dismay, I insist we take the kids once a year. And they love it just as much as I did. We took Mya when she was Carter's age and I just stuck her on all the kid rides with Jaida. Now that I have Carter, I can't believe I did that. 9 months and I just strapped her in. And she just sat there happy as can be. There's no way in the world I would have tried that with Carter. He stayed in the stroller. Scratch that. He stayed in Mike's arms and my arms the entire day.

And the girls partied with their cousins. And Holly braved the heat and walking all over the place at 8 months pregnant. Fun times.

Mya really wanted her face painted. Really wanted. So we caved and let her do it. Every picture I took after that she asked "did you get my face". Sure thing Mya. Then 30 minutes later when the paint dried she said it was "itchy" and wanted it off. Money well spent. It was actually still worth it just to see how excited she was about the whole thing. Jaida wanted nothing to do with paint on her face.

Balloon fest.

Sandy City has a "balloon fest" once a year where they blow up a bunch of hot-air balloons and launch them at the crack of dawn. My dad invited us to go and we're always up for new adventures so we decided to go. We camped out in my parents backyard (the "dry-run" campout), woke everyone up at 6am (pretty grueling for our bunch) and raced down to the park so we wouldn't miss anything. The balloons were all blown up, flopping around with little people holding on to ropes getting tossed around. So we watched. And waited. And took some pictures. And waited. And then they deflated the balloons. And nothing was launched. Because it was too "windy". I didn't see a leaf moving on a tree. Windy? So we dragged the whole brood to the park to not see a launch. As we were walking back to the car Jaida said to no one in particular "Well that was pretty dumb." Memories, Jaida, that's what that was. Memories.

I absolutely adore this picture. If you know Carter well at all, you'd know why. And my dad is going in for his signature "bonk". Perfect.

Who needs hot-air balloons? We've got a park.

Camping--Dry Run.

Our family loves to camp. Loves to camp. Camping with babies--not so easy. Mya was about as chill as a baby could be, so we didn't worry too much about her and we dragged her to several different campouts. Carter. Not so chill. So we figured we'd give it a dry run in my parents back yard to see how things would go. If it got too bad, we could always go inside.

That was the one and only time we went camping this year. Carter failed camping test 101. Well, maybe he got a D. But for me to prepare for and execute a camping trip in the wilderness, he needed at least a B+. We're working on stuff so he'll be good to go next year. :)

Initiated.

It's like a rite of passage for grandkids in our family. To take the inaugural ride on the lawnmower with grandpa. And most babies cry the first little while. Because it's loud. And currently it backfires even louder. True to fashion for Carter's life, he was opposite of "most" babies. And he didn't cry. He actually quite liked it. Temporarily at least. He doesn't really like anything for very long.

But he has officially been initiated into the lawnmower wagon train. Here's to many more years to come.

The Zoo

I took the kids to the zoo. Because I'm crazy like that. And I managed to trick my parents into coming because this was before I was brave enough to take my 3 kids anywhere alone. So I pushed the stroller and my dad pulled the wagon and my mom rotated with whatever kid was escaping from said devices. It was pleasant weather, most of the animals were out, Carter didn't have a tantrum (miracle), and the girls thought baby Zuri (the elephant) was the coolest thing ever. They still talk about her (or is it a him).

Downtown adventure.

Back in July we thought it would be fun to have a little downtown adventure. Ride tracks (not sure why we thought that would be fun), go to Temple Square, a little lunch at the Garden restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and then to the Visitors center at Temple Square to see the "giant Jesus".

Just for reference for those extended family members that may be confused, this was before brother Burk was put back in the slammer for "making bad choices" as we tell our girls.