it's broken?

well it has already begun. carter at the age of seven months has broken his first bone. he was a victim of neglect, as his mother left him on the bed unattended, from which he fell off and broke his femur. and his parents, being the caring and loving parents that they are, didn't even take him to the doctor until 5 days later. in our defense, he didn't cry enough to evoke panic or serious concern in either of us or his maternal grandmother (she was here when it happened). he cried the first day (but not a 'i broke my leg' cry) and we discovered that he would not put weight on his left leg when held in the standing position. but as the day progressed he seemed to be doing much better and we decided to wait and see how he felt the next day. there was no redness, bruising, swelling, deformity, he could move his leg and all his joints, and i was not able to locate a particular point of pain as i squeezed up and down his leg. so we waited. his behavior was mostly normal (note that he was also teething and had a diaper rash at this time) but still no weight on the leg. so when the flamingo stance thing didn't go away, we went to the doctor. after an xray, the doctor came in and told me his femur was broken.... after i realized that he wasn't joking, i felt terrible. poor kid, we had been squeezing and moving that poor leg around for days trying to diagnose what was wrong. i know i am possibly the worst mother i know. i saw the xrays and it was a break all the way across his femur right above his knee. thank heaven it was above the growth plate and the doctors say he should heal normally and will have no future problems. the next day we went to an orthopedic doctor (who told us he had a bi-cortical buckle fracture) and they casted his poor chubby leg. he held perfectly still and just like before he didn't even cry.



so this is carter while his leg was broken, but before we knew. he was still moving all around on it when it was broken (another reason i thought that for sure it wasn't broken).














this is carter at lake powell the day after he got his cast. he was a great baby the whole time and he didn't seem to mind hanging out in the pack and play.









and this is carter after he wiggled out of his cast. thankfully it was the day we already had an appointment.













and this is carter with his new removable splint. after we went to the doctor they said it was healing great and he was already making new bone. his skin was really red behind his knee so they decided to put the splint on so i can take it off, bathe him, and put cream on his poor skin. i think he likes his few moments of freedom.












the cast has not slowed him down; he scoots, and rolls, and sits, gets on his hands and knees and shimmies all over the place. the cast doesn't seem to bother him and for that i am grateful. hopefully he will only need it for a few more weeks. we love you carter

arizona

so right after we found a place to live in colorado, we threw our stuff in the rental and headed to az. i'll give you the abbreviated version.

we went to st. johns for the 24th of july celebration. it was tons of fun and we got to see a lot of family and friends. we stayed the following week also and even got to take a trip to lyman lake. it was cloudy and windy the whole time and we had 6 children under the age of 5 but we had a great time and no one drowned. so i would say it was a success.

then it was off to the valley for lake fun, visiting and shopping.
lyman was carters first lake experience. he did well and his second was at lake saguaro. it was also fun and tyrell even took carter for his first lake swim.

while we were in the valley i was able to find carter an adorable blessing outfit (it was a three piece suite). great grandma and grandpa smith were the first to see it.

then it was on to pima for a week and carter's baby blessing. we had lots of family and friends in town and it was a beautiful blessing. but because carter fell asleep, and it was REALLY hot, and everyone was getting ready to go home right after sacrament meeting, we only managed to get two pictures of the occasion. and then we lost our camera which is why the rest of the trip was not documented. (but don't worry it was later discovered at ty's parents in one of the chair cushions.)

and the big scrape on carters head was a mysterious cousin/chair accident from the day before.

we had fun in pima and from there went to lake powell. and of course that was a great time. carter did get a little chaffed, which caused some pain and crying but it was minimal and he didn't seem to mind staying under the canape the next day.

so we are now in pueblo, most of our things are out of boxes, and we are getting adjusted. it has been pretty easy since we have been here before and already know people.

our friends have taken us out on their boat several times and during one of those trips carter got his first sun burn. he didn't seem to mind too much.

we put a bid on a home here in pueblo and are waiting to hear if we got it or not. here's hoping. ty's job is proving more time consuming than he originally thought. mainly because there was not any material for him to work with. so he is basically starting from scratch the first week of school. he is keeping his head above water and thankfully he has said, even though it is horribly busy right now, he thinks he is really going to like this job. he is getting paid to learn. hopefully he will have things a little more together before he starts school himself in a few weeks. things are crazy around here but we are hanging in there. wish us luck!