Henry is 4.

My cute little baby turns 4 today. He really was the best baby. Loved to sleep. I'm sure I didn't appreciate it enough at the time. From early in his life he taught us that he likes to do things his own way, and that there are just people in the world who really don't care what any one else is doing or what they think. He's really does things at his own pace and in his own way.
He's been begging me to measure how tall he is, so we finally do this morning.
He is 41 3/4 inches tall and 40 lbs. He's grown almost 2 inches in six months.

He's always been a ball of brute strength, though finally now he has found the ability to control his own strength and isn't quite the Destroyer that he once was.

A few months ago he came up to me and asked, "Mom, What does 'dimple' mean?" I laughed out loud, all his life people have been talking to him about his dimples and he had no idea what they were talking about.

He is such a great big brother to Wyatt. He loves him so much he can hardly keep from touching him and pulling on him and kissing him constantly. He recently said to Wyatt, "Wyatt, you are gross. But we love you because we love gross people." Then he gave him a kiss.
When people tells me that Wyatt looks like Henry all I can say is- Yes, but without all of the things that make Henry look so naughty. Like 5 cowlicks and giant dimples. He's a little daredevil and fun-loving maniac. And he is the most cuddly kid who loves to snuggle up and give hugs and kisses.

He really makes me laugh everyday. He is such a fun guy and I love the time that we get to spend together before he heads off to school. Happy Birthday Henry!

I will survive

Somedays I wonder if we will survive Wyatt as a baby. We still live in a 2 bedroom duplex and have decided that 2 parents and 1 baby being woken up in the night is better than 2 parents and 3 children awake, so Wyatt still sleeps in our room or the living room when we think to move his crib out there. I know some of you are thinking, "Why is he still getting up in the night when he is almost 8 months old?" And the really annoying part is, he isn't really getting up. He just reaches this partially asleep state while he moves around, or searches out his pacifier and he talks to himself during this time. Loudly. Like the kind of loud baby babbling that we all find cute and funny during the daytime hours, or when you can hear him settling in for a nap. But not so cute at 4am. Seldom do we even have to get up and do anything for him, but yet, one or both of us is always awake for it. For all of our poor blog readers who attend church with us on Sunday, you know exactly what I am referring to. He's not sad, just really loud and talkative.
He also seems to be going through a serious growth spurt. It does wonders for his naps, but is not as wonderful when he wakes up at 5:30 or 6 starving and super angry that we have not immediately provided him with some kind of nourishment at that hour. He then proceeds to suck down a bottle and pass out cold for about 2 more hours, with a 2 fisted grip on the shirt of whichever parent got the pleasure of feeding him... just daring us to leave him to sleep alone.
The other fun thing is that he has been teething since he was 3 months old, and while he has 6 teeth and many more partially on the way, he can sometimes become incredibly annoyed with us when his poor mouth hurts. All I can think in those times- "Curse you Highlands teething tablets for being taken off the market!"
This morning as I left all of the boys in the living room and went to move laundry to the dryer, I walked in and found that Wyatt was missing (I was gone like 2 minutes tops). Gavin and Henry were both looking at books and hadn't notice. I turned around to look in their room and found him on the floor with a mouthful of legos. Luckily for me, they were big ones, one in each cheek.

You may wonder why I am blogging about the craziness of this baby, but sometimes, I think it needs to be said. Raising kids, especially babies, is not all sunshine and flowers (especially not the flowers part in my house full of boys). Sometimes things get really exhausting and hard. There... I said it.

All of these fun experiences really just make me realize, it is only the beginning. We are on the wild ride that is our crazy lives right now, and I had better just get used to it and stop thinking it will change in the next phase of Wyatt's developement. All that is coming next is that he will be able to reach even higher and move faster than he does now. And really, when you look at that super cute chubby face, with his little blonde hair starting to come in, how can you not smile. And when he sees me come into the room and he smiles really big and reaches up for me to pick him up, of course I do it. How can I not? even if my arms ache from holding him all morning. I guess I just have to think past all of the really stressful moments of the third child, and remember... Caleb and I are both the third child too. Perhaps he just wants to be heard and included and an individual and, oh yeah, kind of a pain-in-the-rear like we both are.

Happy Valentine's Day

That's right, you guessed it... Heart-shaped pizza night at the Cardons. The tradition lives on, and was even passed down to another Cardon male for his first Valentine's day. While Wyatt only ate some little pieces of crust, he was instantly a fan of the Valentine pizza loving tradition. Gavin and I had the idea to dress him up as Cupid today, but when we discovered that we no longer had a bow and arrows in the dress up box it didn't sound like as much fun. He sure is a cute little chub though. Maybe next year.Gavin went to school today wishing us a Happy Valentine's, but not giving it much thought beyond that. After school, however was a different story. He and Henry had a great time sorting through all the cards and treats and laughing it up over the school valentines. While shopping for the festive food this year, Gavin said he really didn't want any red 7up and just wanted a Mountain Dew. I know they make a red one, but we can't be spoiled enough to find every kind of soda caffeine free in Utah. We made an exception for him and let him have a non-yellow drink in order to avoid the caffeine. And he always insists on drinking from the can.Henry and I had a rushed and crazy day. He has had a cold for 2.5 weeks, so I finally dragged him into the doctor for the diagnosis of sinus infection and at least one ear infection. Hopefully now that he will be drugged up morning and night for 10 days he will start to feel 100% again. Amazingly enough, you would hardly know from his energy level that he was even sick, just his voice and sniffing were giving him away. He enjoyed a day of checking out Valentine's and trying to sneak dough from the kitchen while we were making pizzas.Occasionally between school, work, home, family, sickness, fun and dinner my days don't go quite like I intended when I started out in the morning. Today was no exception, but I still managed to team up with Caleb and create a night that we enjoy sharing with our family every year. I even came up with these cute little heart-shaped brownies for dessert (I know they aren't red, but no one here eats jello, so heart shaped may be the new dessert of choice). Oh yeah- remember this guy? My valentine was here too, and I'm pretty happy about that fact.

Porch Picnic in February

For some strange reason temps in the greater Salt Lake area neared 60 degrees today. The boys and I celebrated by having a porch picnic after church. We even wore our flip-flops and they wore shorts. It was fabulous to sit in the sun in our little windless paradise. We even got to chat a bit with a few neighbors, just like spring time. The grass was still wet and the shady areas still have snow, but we'll take what we can get around here. A day like today might just help me keep my sanity for a little longer... maybe.

We spent a little time making some great things out of play-doh (thanks Julie Issacson!). Henry is sporting his "Paris hat." And Gavin was working hard on his duck-billed platypus.

Wyatt and Dad missed out on our picnic fun, but they enjoyed plenty of harassing when they woke up and got home.

Not a stolen toy after all

So you may be thinking... Is Henry flipping the bird at us?... No. No, he is not. But this was how his finger looked for at least an hour today. Apparently while playing with his friend, Josh, this afternoon, Henry stuck this handy telescope onto his finger and then could not get it off. Instead of telling me or Caryn, he hid his hand behind his back and walked almost all the way home before Gavin ratted him out for taking a toy from Josh. I told him that we would have to return it tomorrow, and he got a panicked look while trying to pull it off.
We got home and I told him we needed to get it off. All he said was, "Not today." After much soap, water, and even butter, it was apparent that he had tried to pull it off enough that his finger had swollen inside. Though I know that I shouldn't laugh at my kids' predicaments, I could not help going in the other room and cracking up.
I made the executive decision that we needed Dad's help on this one, but the minute Caleb walked in Henry started backing up towards the kitchen with his hand hidden behind his back. He was in tears before Caleb even made it in the room, and I do think it had to have hurt. Luckily, he likes Caleb more than he likes me (though I was the one who laughed, it's no wonder) and he let him take a look at it and start to pry the thing apart.

It only took a pair of tin snips and some muscle to break the thing into pieces and free the finger. He did agree to tell someone next time he gets into a tight situation, hopefully the swollen finger is helpful in making that point.

Just because it is a funny moment- sometimes the jeans get tucked into the socks, and the best part is that he doesn't seem to actually know the difference when it happens. It's pretty cute to be clueless.

Messes

Don't worry, this post isnt' going to be photos of all of the things that I clean up in any given week... though that does give me an idea for a little photo essay... but you should be advised that the following photo may gross you out. I know it does me.

Just moments before this was taken, that mess was a banana cookie.And now that Wyatt loves to eat and watch people eat and pretend he is eating, I get to clean up this and more three times a day. Oh yeah, and he has brothers who are only marginally less messy. Let the eternal battle for cleanliness live on.

I am grateful that all of the mess makers do enjoy a nice soak.The giant claw-foot tub gets a lot of use around here...
as does the vacuum, broom, washer, dishwasher, mop, and the endless supply of clorox wipes. Sometime I feel like I am losing this war, but I will not surrender.

Look Who Can Tie His Shoes!

I don't know why this makes me so proud, but it does.Gavin had set some goals to learn to tie his shoes and wash his own hair before his birthday, and he did it with more than a month to spare. I get so excited when he actually chooses the shoes with laces to wear to school. We still stick close to make sure he doesn't end up discouraged at his new talents, plus I love to watch my little boy doing such independent big kid things.

We have made it 6 months

I'm not sure when this happened, but Wyatt has been a part of our world for 6 months. It has been crazy and fun and sleep deprived, but what a blessing he is to us. He is still much loved by his brothers, and he loves them just as much. Now for my brag session about my little guy.
6 months stats-
Weight- 20lbs 4 ounces
Height- 27.7 inches
(75%tile for both- that's right he is a light weight, my smallest baby)

Wyatt is sitting up alone. Hurray! He loves to do it, though sometimes decides that he wants to me somewhere else and still just dives over. We keep pillows near so that he hasn't hit his head too many times yet.

He has also started schooching around, which I have not been at all prepared for. It started a few weeks ago with us leaving a room to come back and find him in another spot. Now it is more visible as he rolls over and starts with determination towards whatever he spots of interest. He still mostly moves around by turning circles and backing up, but everyday he gets faster. His army training is well underway as his low crawling is perfect to keep him out of the eyes of the enemy. He is also putting in a large number of push ups a day, and not the wussy knee push ups, but good hardcore on the toes. You can even see the muscle strain on his face. So funny.

One of the things that Wyatt does not love about his time here on earth is the eczema. He inherited his mother's overdry skin and has to undergo a treatment of one or more lotions morning and night. Luckily, he is so ticklish that he usually thinks it is fun.

The other unfortunate part of having a body for Wyatt is the spitting up that didn't seem to want to end. We finally switched to a sensitive formula after I realized that his most common nicknames were "barf bag" and "puke face" (said only with the utmost affection, I assure you). It helped, but just hasn't seemed to end it. When we went to the doc today, I brought it up again and she let me know that he does in fact have reflux... that's right all of you who suggested to me that he did, you were right. He doesn't seem to have pain from the puking, so I wasn't thinking that was his problem, but she said the lack of pain just means that there is no need to treat it. No worries though, he will grow out of it, and he certainly isn't having any issues with weight.

My matching Super-men. Yes, Henry is watching TV instead of the camera.

We are generally having a crazy good time, and busy as the rest of the people we know. Wyatt has adapted well to his life in our family and he really is a fun guy to have around, and now that he rides in a bigger car seat, he doesn't hate me as much when I drag him around with me. I am looking forward to what the next 6 months will bring for Wyatt and our family.

The Turleys Come to Utah

The whole Turley family finally came to visit us in Utah over New Years. Their motivation was taking Alaina to BYU-I in Rexburg, ID. We are quite lucky to be so close to her now, though I am guessing we won't see too much of her new found college life. Everyone stayed in our cozy little house, and we really enjoyed having it filled with "the cousins." The temps were colder than normal and there was a lot of snow, but somehow those poor desert dwellers survived it.
Schatzy said she has always dreamed of seeing the Lights on Temple Square, and they arrived just in time to make her dream a reality... though a very cold reality. It was about 10 degrees out (but weather.com said it felt more like 1). So we all bundled up and made some stops in the visitors centers to drive not to lose any limbs to frostbite. It was a great time and a great memory for all of us. And the lights really were so beautiful in the falling snow.
What a cute family, even if they are a bit frozen.

The lovebirds (aka the parents) in plenty of borrowed gear.

Cheyenne, Laina, Gavin and Morgan.

These two became a bit snow-drunk from all the snow they were eating. And their hands became a bit frozen. On the last stretch to the car Morgan said, "Mom, you were right about the snow. It really is worse than I thought." The poor guy was so frozen from putting his hands and feet in the snow, the excitement wore off quickly.

Wyatt loved all the extra people around to hold and cuddle him. He had developed the bad habit, while in Iowa, of waking up around 4am to talk loudly to himself. With a very full house, most of our guests were awake for a few minutes every night to hear him "blah, blahing" as loud as he could.

Look how cute these two are, especially since they were washing my dishes. I really miss them every day since they left. :-)

Whenever Al or Caleb would sit down to do anything, at least one of the little boys would start plotting, "Let's go jump on your Dad and wrestle." I guess there isn't much we could do to stop them.

It makes for a good story- Road trip home from Iowa

So, here is the story of our long and laborious journey home from Iowa. On Christmas Eve, Mount Vernon got close to a foot of new snow. No snowing on Christmas Day and the forecast looked clear for us to drive home on the 26th. We left the Cardon's house at 5am and headed toward I-80 to bring us all the way back to Salt Lake. It was pretty clear right away that no one had wanted to pay the overtime for snow plows to be out on Christmas Day and it was slow going toward Iowa City on snow-packed roads. Right before we hit 80 Caleb and I had a conversation about whether or not we should fill up with gas before heading further, since it is winter and my dad taught me not to let the tank get much below half in the winter in Iowa. Caleb decided not to stop.
We turned onto the on ramp (from Highway 1 for all you Iowa folk) and about half down it started to accelerate and hit a solid patch of ice at which point we start fishing tailing. This being the first time we had driven the minivan for more than a mile, Caleb over corrected, and we started swerving out of control. We ended up headed perpendicular to the road and deep into the snow filled ditch. It was a 45 degree drop and about 2 feet of snow in the lowest point, our front tires were only about 2 feet from the shoulder, but it was pretty obvious we were stuck. Gavin was the only one who woke up for this, and he was a bit freaked out, but relaxed once we realized we were all ok. Caleb decided he was going to get out and try to push (yeah right). We tried it, but we were really stuck.
Finally we called Denice and Jeff, and asked about AAA and Rich's truck, and told them where we were. Caleb was pretty hopped up and having a hard time sitting still so he got out a few times to try and figure something out. During this whole time almost everyone who came down that stretch with any speed would start fish tailing making us wonder if we were going to get hit sitting in the ditch. There was already another car about 15 yards away that looked like it had been there over night, and one women also went in the ditch about 30 minutes after us. Caleb tried walking up the road to try and wave people to slow down, (since he was ansy), but the whole time I thought he was going to get hit by a car and it was about 7 degrees out. He finally got back in.
Jeff, Denice and Brennan then showed up to help us, with shovels and sand etc. It was quickly decided that we weren't getting anywhere without a tow truck, so Jeff called AAA. We had to wait and hour for the tow truck, but when it finally came it was quick work to pull us out. When the tow truck was hooked up to the van, Henry woke up and looked around and finally asked, "Why are we stopped here?" (very annoyed at us). Gavin told him we were in the ditch and he then had to start an argument with his brother that we were not in the ditch, we were stopped in a snow pile. We can always count on Henry to be contrary for us.
We made it out, and the front tire was leaking air, and we realized getting on the interstate that we had to go somewhere and see what damage the van had sustained. When we hit 55 mph the car was shaking out of control. We looked up a Firestone that the tow truck driver had suggested, and called to find out that they were open. We drove to it, and even though it was 8am on a Sunday, they said they couldn't get us in until 3pm. Caleb called Sears and they said they could get us in right away, so we drove back 15 minutes to where we had been and waited at Sears for an hour for a tire patch, alignment, and for them to remove all of the loads of packed snow and ice that were surrounding the back tires and axle (causing the shaking). $100 later we were on our way.
We decided that we had better try out luck heading home and see how far we could get. We left Iowa City and 10:30am, so much for an early start.
It was smooth sailing until the border of Nebraska and Wyoming, we were feeling cocky about making good time after our rough start, and it was starting to get dark. Out of no-where just past Cheyenne, WY we started to see every sign lit up warning us of "Severe High Winds" and they were not kidding. Shorting after that they signs added "Danger- Black Ice." Awesome. And then "Blowing Snow." It was a white-knuckle drive from there to Utah. Of course, it didn't help that we had been up since 4:30am, or that we had already gone of the road once that day, or that it had to be one of the darkest nights in all of Wyoming winter. The roads were also eerie with the snow blowing across and over the road like we were driving through a cloud, and the wind was blowing so hard that it was a struggle to move the car forward at times.
I ended up feeling quite car sick from being so tense and having to eat junk to stay awake behind the wheel. Lucky for me Caleb had a Dr Pepper and since he never drinks caffeine he was at least awake enough to feel safe driving.
We finally made it home at 4:30am MST, and fell into bed as quickly as we could for a few hours before the boys decided to get up and celebrate the fact that we were home. Through the whole thing, they were such good sports, even Wyatt, who usually loathes the car. Having the van was a huge blessing since on of us could sit next to Wyatt and help him be more comfortable. I was amazed that the boys hardly even asked when we would get home.
There was once awesome moment at a truck stop in Nebraska when I was getting the boys drinks and Gavin yelled across MacDonalds, "Get me a Mountain Dew!" (which we can get without caffeine in Utah) That got us a few bad-parenting looks from other customers.
My advice, stay away from Wyoming in winter... oh yeah, and maybe wait another day after Christmas to leave when snow is involved.

Merry Christmas 2010

What a very fun Christmas we had. Wyatt and Jade both seemed to enjoy their first Christmas. Wyatt was very excited to meet his newest cousin, and we managed to keep him far enough away not to grab hold of her too tight.

We visited Rachel and Brennan's new house and played like maniacs on the lovesac. A three boy pile up, so cute.
Lots and lots of lego building was done with the uncles.
Christmas jammies were so cute and snuggly this year.

Christmas caroling was one of Gavin's favorite parts of Christmas Eve, though Star Wars jammies were a close second.

This was the first year that Henry really got into the real spirit of Christmas. It was so fun to see his excitement and anticipation of all the fun events.

And of course there was plenty of game playing for all.

Lots of Iowa gear to snuggle up in with a good book. Ben was enjoying his gifts.

Macy was the little chef of the family. She made imaginary food for us all most nights, and finally got a little baking set to make us some delicious cupcakes on Christmas morning. She was quite in her element.

Kelbie's cool new toy was all the rage for everyone for the whole day. Plenty of fun and no one could beat it. Nothing like a challenge.

And of course, lots and lots of present opening.

Iowa Ice and Snow

We definitely got a little (or big) taste of Iowa winter on our short trip. The boys went ice skating with the Esklesens and played a little ice hockey. Then on Christmas Eve the snow just kept coming so there was sledding and more sledding. Both Gav and Henry love to sled and play in the snow, so they had a great day. Gavin was even rockin' it on the kids snowboard of Caden's. He did amazing and managed to make some decent runs down the sledding hills. Henry was a maniac and just kept going and going even after he "had snow ALL over" his face. We had to borrow some gear from Crystal's kids, and while Henry refused to wear the pink heart mittens, he had no problem with the purple princess gloves. Though he did deny that they had princesses stitched to the back when anyone asked him about them. Good times.

Headed to Iowa

We headed to Iowa for Christmas, the way out was a nice flight to St Louis with a layover in Dallas. A bit out of the way, but it when it is basically free for our family of 5, thanks to some saved airline miles, we won't complain too much. We got through security in a breeze and didn't even have to go through the violating body scanner. We waited in next to no lines, and all things considered, even Wyatt did quite well on his first flight. Gavin and Henry were so excited to get to go on a plane that they were helpful and acted great.