The CAST is finally off - Broken Arm Update

His arm is still very bowed but the cast is off, and we are thankful for that. The doc says it will straighten out over time, I sure hope he is right.

Swollen Ear

I have no idea what stung Carter's ear but he came home from school with a huge ear. It continued to get even more red and swollen throughout the afternoon and evening. Now three days later it's finally back to a normal size. This is after giving him lots and lots of benadryl. I do have to say it was pretty funny. His ear was so fat and swollen that it became floppy.

Broken arm and fat ear....poor Carter.

5 Years

If you are reading this through google reader then the date is not going to say May 5, 2010. I am very behind on blogging so I am cheating and back dating my post.

Carter turned the big 5 years today. I think it's called your golden birthday when you turn the age of the day of your birth...or something like that.

Carter you were born 5 years ago today on 5-5-05. My labor with you was the best. I drove my self to the hospital and they started my pitocin at 6am. Daddy stayed with Bryson for a few hours longer and then dropped him off with our friends the Krantz's.

The doctor broke my water around 8 and then I got my epidural around 9 and then daddy showed up a little bit after. We talked about you and how excited we were to see you and on TV Disney World was celebrating it's 50th year anniversary. We talked about how we would like to go to Disney World with you boys. I had already been to Disney World but daddy and Bryson had not been yet.

My labor continued on and the nurse came in and said you would be born before noon. Daddy and I just couldn't believe it. Bryson's labor was 31 hours and yours was going to be less than 6. Sure enough around 11:30 the doctor came in and said it was time to start pushing. I pushed and you started to make your way when we lost your heart rate. They inserted a heart monitor and placed it on your head but it wasn't picking up your heart rate. Your daddy and I were very worried and were even more worried when the doctor and the nurse looked at each other and said we need to get this baby out now.

Thankfully you were alright. You were born at 11:55 weighing in at 8lbs 15oz. Daddy cut your cord and then had to step away for a few minutes and catch his breath and I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures.

You were such a good baby and you are a wonderful child. You bring us so much laughter into our home. You are always making us laugh and smile and the funny thing is you don't even have to try. You are shy around other people at first and then you open right up. Everyone that meets you once remembers your name, you just have that way with people. Kids in your class love to be around you and are always screaming...Hi Carter, or Bye Carter. I will ask you "Who is that?" and you will shrug your shoulders and say "I don't know!"

I love that you have a great imagination and that you can play by yourself. I love that when the month of May starts you think it starts your birthday. You think the whole month of May is your birthday. I love that we can still call you Carter the Farter.

Here on Kadena we only have one real American sit down restaurant. You would eat at Chili's everyday if we let you, well that and Burger King.

For your birthday today you woke up and had doughnuts for breakfast,

then you opened your presents. I took cupcakes to your school, and then Andrea(our next door neighbor) Chase and I took you to the boat races.

Andrea took you on a carnival ride, bought you a snow cone and cotton candy.

Then we took you Chili's with the Salas family. They wouldn't allow us to eat your cake there so we took it to Chris and Andrea's house and we all sang happy birthday to you, I think you had a great day.

Thank you so much for choosing us to be your parents. We love you so much, Happy Birthday Month Carter!!

You are 3 ft 9 1/4 inches, and you weigh 42 lbs.

Okinawa Photographer

So, I decided to jump in and make my hobby a part time living.

My website isn't completely done yet. I can't figure out how to add music to save my life but for the most part I think it looks great.

Go check it out!!

www.dawnhudsonphotography.com

Tokyo Disneyland and Mickey Mouse

Here is the video of Carter getting his cast signed by Mickey. At the beginning you can see that Mickey is trying to find out if he can actually sign it and then goes for it. There are a few Japanese that take photos of him signing it and then Mickey gives his arm a kiss afterwards.

Okuma

We went up to Okuma on April 18th just for the night.  We headed up their with the Salas family.  I use the  term "we" loosely because Joe wasn't able to get off work for one day.

How do you know you are really good at your job??  Because you never get time off.  In the military you get X amount of days off per month.  If you don't use those days then you lose them.  Joe has lost so many of those "Use or Lose" days.  When he was deployed he saved up all of his days and he lost all of them also.  We thought he would get to use them here but nope.  He wasn't even able to get time off when our household goods arrived to help me unpack.

The beach was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast.  Even Carter had fun with his baggy on his arm.

They had these awesome bikes there to rent.  Leann and I hung out with the babies and brave Ramon took the four older kids on a ride.  The kids all had so much fun.

That night we roasted some marshmallows and hung around the fire.

The next day before heading out we went back to the beach and had some more fun!!

The kids and I did have a blast at the beach but we will be looking forward to the time we can all go as a family together.

Tokyo DisneySea

DisneySea was amazing.  There were hardly any people there and all the rides had about a five minute wait.  It was amazing.  It did sprinkle on us later on in the afternoon but nothing an umbrella couldn't fix.

As soon as we walked into the park all the characters were there and they were so funny.

Mickey was so sweet and gave Carter's arm a kiss.  We wanted him to sign it but Mickey's bodyguard threw up his arms in an X and shook his head.  I think Mickey really wanted to.

Pluto ran away with Bryson.  And then Pluto wanted Bryson to rub his nose so Bryson rubs his nose while holding a permanent marker and yep you guessed it...Pluto had a mark on him and had to leave right away!  I hope they were able to give Pluto a bath and get him all cleaned up.

  

Chip and Dale were hilarious and quite the funny ones!!

The details to all the different Ports and Lagoons were unbelievable.

The was Ariel's Lagoon and inside was an amazing underground play area.  There were rides, a theater and play area to run around.  It was a perfect place when it started sprinkling.

The ride behind the boys was Journey to the Center of the Earth.

I wish I would have gotten another picture of the wheelchair but I didn't.  At Disney World in the states you can rent an awesome stroller.  One where the kids can climb in and out of.  We thought that would be perfect to rent for Bryson and Carter.  That if they got tired of walking they could take turns.  Yesterday at Tokyo Disney we went to the stroller section and the stroller was anything but easy to get in and out of.  So we decided against it and Carter walked, and walked and walked!!  He was so tired as we were leaving the park that Joe had to hold him.  The train ride from Disney to our hotel was over an hour and we had two separate train transfers and then about a quarter of a mile walk after the last train.  Joe said Carter was very heavy. ha ha

So when we got to DisneySea today Carter saw the wheelchairs and said he wanted one of those.  The funny thing is the wheelchairs were four dollars cheaper than the hard to get in and out of strollers.  What was also awesome about the wheelchair was that Bryson and Carter both could ride in the wheelchair together. 

We walked all over the park and didn't have to yell at the kids to hurry or hear them say they were tired, and when it started to sprinkle they were even able to share an umbrella.  It really was the perfect solution, and no, people didn't stare or wonder why we had it.  We also didn't get any special privileges using the wheelchair or even with Carter's broken arm.

This was the Tower of Terror and you can see just how empty it was here at the park.  (don't laugh to hard)

This ride had a 360 loop in it and was Carter's favorite ride.  The boys rode it three times in a row.  We also think Carter might have re-broken his arm.  The bars go over your head an lock across your belly.  Well, Carter had his cast pinned in between his belly and the bars.  He cried and cried but slowly he got better.

You can kind of see Carter here, he is to the right of Joe.  You can barely see his head and the side of his face.

This is Chaser's very expensive stroller cover.  If you are headed up to Disney and it might rain bring one with you.  It was more expensive than a Disney Resort umbrella.  Though it is super cute because it has Mickey all over it.

As soon as Gepetto made eye contact with Chase he said "Peace out, I'm outta here!!"

Overall DisneySea was amazing and we all had a very wonderful time.

Oh and about Mickey and Carter's cast.  At the end of the day Mickey did end up signing his cast and I got it on video.  I will try and upload it later.

Tokyo Disneyland

We had a few problems getting into Tokyo Disneyland today.  Apparently they have changed their systems and our American debt cards don't work.  Actually any card made in the States didn't work.  We were bummed and not exactly sure what to do because we didn't bring 30 thousand yen with us.  We just figured "It's Disney they will take our cards!"  We only brought enough cash to buy items in the park.

We walked over to the large Disney hotel to use their ATM machine but once again no American cards.  We talked with the hotel about buying tickets through them but they have the same systems.  Luckily there was an ATM about 15 minutes away that took American ATM's and we were able to get into the parks.  Though all that mess ended up putting us an hour behind schedule and it was hard for me to relax afterwards.

The parks weren't too busy.  The longest line we stood in was about 30 minutes.  Chase had a good time riding, It's a small world, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and a few others.  Bryson and Joe had a blast riding Space Mountain and Carter and I loved Buzz Lightyear.  Our favorite family ride is Pirates by far.  We all love that one, and we all want THE RED HEAD!!