Beauty and the Bad Rash

I will let you decide whether Joe falls under the heading "Beauty" or "Bad Rash." Most days I definitely pick beauty, or as he would like me to say, handsome. Hard to believe but, with all four of our birthdays falling in a two month period, we celebrated yet another birthday this week! Joe turned 29 on the 14th and we had a great day! I actually shot a handgun for the first time, a birthday request of Joe's. I didn't enjoy the experience, and made my first, my only time shooting because it scared me so badly, but I think Joe got some entertainment out of it. I was upset I forgot my camera. Anyway, here are a few pics from his year, from hanging out in the snow, to making both funny and happy faces, to looking cute in a uniform, he is our choice for best dad and husband!Now on to the other beauties. Here are some pictures I took this week of Chloe and Noah...

Beautiful Girl......and beautifully handsome boy... ...that is before the rash hit.

How did he go from beautiful to rashilicious? Almost two weeks ago Noah turned one and, to celebrate, a few days later he got to visit the doctor for his year one well child check up. As part of that check up he received some immunization shots. I was told that he might get a fever and have symptoms related to the shots about a week following, but I was in no way prepared for what greeted me Sunday morning. Noah had gotten a bit of a fever and a tiny rash on his nose starting Friday - I assumed it was the shots, or being out in the sun for most of what had been a beautiful week. The rash got a little worse Saturday, but I was still not concerned until Sunday morning when I got him out of bed and he was covered head to toe in bright red rash spots. Most of the damage was to his face, and when I brought him to the doctor I found out he had had a reaction (not allergic) to the measles portion of the immunization. Awesome.

I wish the pictures did it justice, but no picture I took conveyed the horror that was his sweet face. In fact, the doctor told me that, while not contagious, I may not want to take hime out in public much because people might react weirdly. I was very relieved that when Noah woke up this morning the rash has begun to fade. Now I can maybe go to the grocery store without causing people to go screaming from the building or make them fear I am infecting everything inside by having my speckled child there. Rash or not, he is still handsome - I don't care what anyone says!

To finish, here are a few fun Chloe pictures. Last Sunday, Chloe realized we shared similar outfits and made us dress as "twins" for church. I thought it was cute, us in our blue and white stripes. Yesterday, she loved her flower and wanted to take a picture with me and her flower. As for the Joe and Chloe pictures, Joe's brothers and sisters used to make the "bean" face (whatever that means) as children and Joe was trying to get Chloe to do it too. He at least got her to do the hand portion of the look, but she is too beautiful to ever look scary.