5 Years!...are we there yet?

Hello to the .blogspot.com world. This is my first attempt at blogging, so remember, patience is a virtue. Be kind to me in your comments. If your not, I will hunt you down and claim it is in the interest of "National Security."
May 11, 2004; St. George, Utah; local time: 10:40. That was when this little carpool to exaltation started. Today is Laurin and mines 5 year anniversary. She is always nagging me to try and blog, mainly because my mother is always nagging her to blog. I guess that happens when you live half a continent away. (just joking mom) How else are you going to see the 2 cutest grandkids! Anyways, I thought what better of a topic to blog about than how great of a wife I have. She does so much for me and my little posse. She is the ringmaster in this circus we call a family.
I am not a very good writer, so it is hard to put on paper (I guess technically it is a screen) all that she does for us. Most importantly she makes me feel like I can do anything for her. She is the best. I just wanted to let other people know how great she is but I guess if you are reading this, then you obviously know that anywaysHere is another reason she is so great, look what she gave me. As you might be able to tell, Kate is watching a movie now.

When we went to Ocean City we went mini-golfing. Laurin posted that. What she didn't post was that she got her hole-in-one. I honestly think that she has gotten at least one hole-in-one every time we have ever gone mini-golfing. NO JOKE!! She has only beaten me once though. The game is not to the swift, but he who endures to the end(or has the least amount of strokes.)

For those of you who follow our President closely know he was in Turkey a few weeks back. He went to this gigantic museum that is 1500 years old. The Notre Dame Cathedral towers could fit inside of it. I was there too...working. Anyways, if anyone saw the press photos, Mr. Obama stood right in front of this spot. He was there about an hour after I took this photo. I was still there of course, just...working. I just wanted to put this in here to make everyone go "oooooo" and "aahhhhh". Not to bad of a business trip, eh?

Well, that's all from my end. Maybe we can try this again sometime.

Ocean City

Chris, Kate, Carter and I took a little weekend vacation down to Ocean City, MD. It is the ideal beach bum town you would imagine in California. We had a really good time the only down fall was that it rained most of the time. I guess that is what you might expect towards the end of March. We were jus glad to get away together.

We went mini golfing. This Kate checking out the moving eel. She wasn't too sure about it at first. It was moving back and forth and made her really nervous at first but her dad always has a way of making scary things fun. After he talked to her I was finally able to talk her into taking a picture with it.

While she was standing there smiling for her picture it came back around and hit her in back and she freaked her out. She thought it was attacking her. I happend to snap the picture at this exact moment. She was really scared but Chris and I being the "horrible" parents we are we laughed-just a little though. That was the end of our pictures with the

eel.

My baby and I at lunch. He is so sweet.

Carter after his first swim in the pool. He had a ton of fun but he got cold really fast so he had to get out and come chill with me on the lounge chairs.

There is more to come....

Carter's Blessing

We blessed Carter last Sunday on March 22nd. It was so nice and Chris did a great job. It is so wonderful to have this sweet little baby in our home. Sometimes I forget how special this time is of having a new baby, but that day was a wonderful reminder for me. I know Carter is a special little boy. He has already been through and overcome so much in his short time here.


We have church at 9:00 so we didn't get any pictures before and after church Chris and I both have responsibilities so I just snapped these after I got home hoping they will suffice. Thanks Mel for the adorable outfit. It came just in time and we loved it.

My two favorite guys.

The only thing lacking that day was our family. We really missed them but we are grateful for our own little family we are building. Love you all!

Here are more pictures that we had taken a few weeks ago. Sorry it has taken so long to get some good pictures of Carter up. I apologize especially to all the grandmas out there. This whole sickness things has taken a while to regroup from. We are happy to report that for now everyone is healthy and happy and Chris has finally gone back to work after a two month vacation. Honestly I think he was ready to go back to work. He isn't used to the hours us moms have to keep. He said that being a stay-at-home mom is hard work. I just smiled.
Again the pictures my next door neighbors little sister took. She is only in high school but did so wonderful. It is obvious she has a natural talent...lucky girl.


Many will remember Kate's beloved Jeffery from our vacations out there. We got Carter a monkey, that is yet to be named. Kate has picked Abu from Aladdin and Chris keeps calling it Apu from The Simpson's. Neither of them I can reconcile with so we will keep thinking or leave it to Carter when he can talk....any suggestions. We decided some pictures with their animals would be a nice remembrance. Those of you who have seen Kate's Jeffery can testify that these animals aren't likely to make it past childhood. She is literally loving him to pieces.

Our Carter is defiantly made of stronger stuff as I'm sure most second children are. His sister loves him so much that sometimes it hurts for us to watch. We don't want to discourage her from loving on him but it is really difficult for a two and a half year old to understand how hard is too hard to bang on Carter stomach after he eats. She says she is just trying to burp him like we do. He doesn't EVER complain. She would note have been so patient. Again that is why he is number two and she is not.

My favorite things that are happening with him right now are: he has started smiling and his hair is going red. That's right. He came out with gorgeous brownish-blond hair and it is now getting redder. Most strangers call him a red head. It doesn't seem that drastic to me but you can tell a difference.

We love and miss all of you. Thanks for the phone calls and messages of support!

There's No Place Like Home!

Things have been kind of busy these past few days. I just wanted to quickly update and let you know that Carter was able to come home from the hospital last week. I don't remember the day because they have all just blurred together. He is on a apnea monitor that goes off if he stops breathing for too long or his heart rate goes up or drops. It is very reassuring. He seems like he s doing so much better finally. We will go in to see the Pulminologist on Thursday and if all goes well he gets to come off the machine. I can't wait! Of course only if he is healthy.

My next door neighbor's little sister took this picture of Carter a couple of weeks ago. She is so amazing and did such a wonderful job. There are more to come, but I just liked this one so much I wanted to put it up. Love you all and thanks for the support!

Hospitals, Hospitals and more Hospitals!

Just to give everyone an update Carter had to go back into the hospital on Monday. He had a really good day Sunday but that night things got worse and they weren't any better the next day for our follow up appointment with our doctor so they had us take him to the ER. Sure enough he wasn't doing good and they admitted him and then transfered him to another hospital with better support for his needs. Now we have been to 3 different hospitals in one week! We are still so grateful though that he is here with us. Even though every time I hold him there are a gazillion cords hooked up to him and it could almost break your heart I shudder to think what might have happened if they weren't available. I can't help but feel gratitude when I ponder all the worried mothers out there who never had these things available to them to help their babies breath and get well. At least I know I have a team of people watching him around the clock.

He might be sent home today or tomorrow. They are sending him home on a monitor and a better machine to give him his breathing treatments. It seems that maybe the first machine they gave us wasn't sufficient for his needs and that could be why he is back in the hospital. He still is such a happy little boy through all this. He has been poked and prodded at so much but all the nurses comment on how happy and bright eyed he is. We'll keep you updated. Thanks for all the prayers, love and support. It has been overwhelming and we really do feel like Heavenly Father has sent so many earthly angels to help us at this time!

So Blessed....

This past month has brought about many, many new experiences and challenges for our little family. It started when I had early labor for about three weeks before Carter was born. After four hospital visits and bed rest he was born. When we finally made it out of the hospital after an extended stay we were thrilled. Then we spent our first night home caring for Kate as she threw up all night long and it continued for two days until we ended up in the ER for an IV. I had never seen my baby girl so sick. It broke my heart. Then over the next few weeks I experienced three infections and thrush and a very difficult case of PPD. Then in the midst of it all Chris hurts himself playing basketball and he ends up in the ER with a severely sprained ankle and comes home on crutches.





I feel so blessed for all of these experiences that we have had. During these times I have found myself on my knees multiple times a day praying for the strength to keep going. We have been blessed by so many people with their service and their prayers. We have truly seen miracles.


This week we found ourselves again humbled by the miracles we have seen. Our sweet baby Carter started getting sick a couple of weeks ago. And Wednesday night we happened to take him in to the doctor because he had vomited twice that day. Once we were in the office the nurse took a look at him, checked his breathing and rushed out of the room to get the doctor who quickly followed her in. We were sent to the ER and admitted to the hospital. It truly was such a blessing because I had no idea he was so sick. Then the next morning he started breathing fast again. He was breathing a 100 reps per min when normal breathing is 20-40 per min. His oxygen absorption dropped so even the oxygen he was breathing wasn't being taken into his blood. They sent him by ambulance to a larger hospital down in D.C. that specialized in respiration problems and also had a pediatric ICU. They diagnosed him with bronchiolitis and RSV. They told us that as sick as he was he wouldn't be out of the hospital for at least a week. We spent the next two days in the hospital and after many prayers by us and on our behalf he was able to come home. It was a true that he was able to heal so quickly. It has been such a long week but we are overjoyed to have him home again in his own bed. He is still a very sick baby and I miss the monitors that I was able to watch and listen to telling me if he was okay or not. I miss the nurses who knew exactly what to do when something went wrong but I feel so lucky to be able to hold him in my arms without all those cords on him. We feel all the more blessed and have been able to ponder again how fragile and precious life is and how much we should enjoy every minute that we have.

This is when they started him on oxygen because he wasn't getting or absorbing enough.

At the new hospital and hooked up to all his cords.

He is having a rough week.

Getting ready to go home and finally a FREE man of all those cords! It was so wonderful to be able to hold him without all them attached.