Super P Turns 3

Preston had a Super Hero Party for his third birthday.  We rented a gym and the kids enjoyed riding scooters, playing balloon keep up and even had a laser beam face off (staring contest).  I made capes for all the kids as party favors.  Some of them also put on masks.  It was a super good time.  Hallister puts his cape on just about every day, and when I took all three kids to the zoo I had them wear their capes so I could always see them.  Enjoy the pics!

My Favorite Season is Fall......Asleep

Are you tired yet of this catch up we are doing with the blog and all our updates?

OK good because here is another one well over due.

It has been a rough couple of months with potty training and night terrors.  I think we are finally back to everyone sleeping through the night at least until 6:30am.

Hallister, 4 1/2
Personality: Very, very talkative.  From the moment he gets up he asks: where are we going, what are we doing, what is for breakfast??? He has started to enjoy building with "real" Lego's.  He is very creative.  He always wants to be with someone except with the Lego's, he doesn't seem to mind playing quietly with those while the others nap.

Sleeping: Three month's ago we moved him into Liberty's room.  Preston was keeping Hall up, getting out of bed.  It worked quite well moving Hall in with Liberty.  We would watch on the video monitor that if Liberty woke up early (around 6:30am) Hallister would crawl in her crib and entertain her until we came in to get them (7am).  It was very sweet.  Despite him and Preston not getting along we are so thankful he is still nice and helpful with Liberty. He has complained lately about being in a girl's room, so we moved his bed back in with Preston two weeks ago and just didn't bunk them.  We moved all the toys to Liberty's room.  That has worked out quite well.

Food: His favorite food is chicken nuggets with honey mustard and pepperoni pizza. For breakfast he loves pancakes or waffles with cool whip and strawberries and also he looks forward to his every Saturday morning trip out with Jonathan to get donuts.  He will only eat apples without the peel.

Shows: He enjoys some new shows on Netflix, The Neverland Pirates and Bubble Guppies.  They have good lessons about sharing.  He is at an age where he is just absorbing everything so we try very hard to filter out stuff he doesn't need to see or hear.

Education: Our friend in Lifegroup is going through school for Speech Pathology.  She was assigned a speech test to perform on 7 kids to tell where they are at speech wise.  We were happy to let her do the tests on the boys. Her results for Hallister showed he can talk as well as a 5 year old.  That was very encouraging!  Thank you all for your prayers about our education decision.  We feel peaceful about sending Hall to Texas Montessori and God provided a way financially for us to send him there.  He will start Preschool there going three days a week in September!

Size: Hall wears size 4T shirts now, some 3T pants are too short for him but 4T is too long, so we have to roll up the waist.  He wears size 10 shoes.

Preston, 3
Personality: He is still our funny man.  His smile and laugh are so cute. We call him P-man, which actually became a funny nickname when we started potty training two month's ago.  He is pretty quiet and likes to play by himself.  His vocabulary has really increased and he says complete sentences, not just mumble jumble. He is like Jonathan in the sense that he wants to know how things work and will take them apart to figure it out.  The problem with that is we are the ones that have to put it back together. :)

Potty Training: We felt it was time and wanted him to be trained before swim lessons.  He rarely has an accident during the night.  He does great out in public, telling us when he needs to go and not being scared of strange potties, but at home he does not always say something.  We take him about every hour.  I know that if it gets quiet then he is laying somewhere playing and probably about to go #2.  He has even held it in for three days, but laxatives helped with that.  We have now figured out he goes #2 after breakfast and right before naps.  We set him on the potty with the Mobigo (a small hand held kid video game) so that he will relax and "let it out". HA, I know, too much information.  We don't give him liquid after supper and that seems to help him not pee in bed.  Although he does wake up usually between 6-6:30am having to go.  He won't yet go get on the potty himself but call for us to help him.  At least we are down to one being in diapers.

Sleeping: The hardest thing with Preston lately is not being consistent with his naps.  I will put him down then he will use the excuse of needing to potty to get up.  I'll set him on the potty with the Mobigo, go do laundry, come back and he has fallen asleep on the potty.  If he doesn't nap then often he will fall asleep in his high chair at 5:00 while eating supper.  As soon as I try to transition him to his bed though he wakes up.  This has been a consistent struggle and since I don't get a break like I used to I feel more worn out when it gets close to supper time.

Doctor Visit: Six months ago when he went to the allergist and we found out his allergies we stopped giving him things he is allergic to.  He doesn't have tomatoes or ketchup. He drinks Lactaid or Almond Milk. Trooper, the cat we fostered, went back to be with her family.  The allergist had said his tonsils were enlarged and adenoids as well.  Preston still puts his hands in his mouth and drools some, but not as much.  We took him to an Ear, Nose, Throat doctor thinking she would suggest getting his tonsils and adenoids out. She actually said his tonsils were NOT enlarged and his ear echo results showed his adenoids were not enlarged as well.  She said to keep giving him Zyrtec regularly (to help with his grass and molds allergies) and Nasonex every night before bed may help him not have to breathe with his mouth open.  We were all ready to hear he needed surgery but since he has not had tonsillitis perhaps things are getting better and that is not what he needs.

Education: Our friend in Lifegroup performed the same speech test on Preston and we learned he has the vocabulary of a 2 1/2 year old.  She was encouraging though and said once he is not around Hallister as much he will start to talk a lot more. He will go to Mother's Day Out in the Fall, we are not sure yet if it will be one or two days a week.

Size: Preston wears 2T and 3T shirts, and 2T pants.  In shoes he wears size 8.

Liberty, 20 Months
Personality: Very talkative, and surprisingly enough she says more words than she does sign language for now. She always likes to be with someone, sitting in their lap or close to them.  She loves bath (still does the sign for that) and likes to put things in things....such as bracelets in her purse, blocks in a basket or even cars where they are supposed to go. She loves to sing "If you're happy and you know it" and likes to dance.  She also likes to be chased and play hide and seek. Basically whatever her brothers are doing she wants to be doing.  We learned she can climb up the playhouse ladder and also get on the trampoline by herself.

Food: Lib still has her Tyson chicken nuggets pretty much every day.  I make gluten free waffles or give her the frozen gluten free Eggo's that HEB has.  We have tried new foods and it seems that if the wheat is frozen she doesn't itch after eating it.  She can now have Pillsbury frozen biscuits and Gorton's MSG free fish sticks. She seems to rotate between strawberries and apples if she likes them.  We have tried giving her greens, cucumber and celery. I am not sure how much she actually swallowed, I think more of the cucmber than the celery.  I also found Glutino pretzels and she loves those.

Sleep: Just as Preston and Hall had night terrors, Liberty has gone through her phase of them.  I think now it has passed, but about two months ago she would wake up during the night crying and not be consolable. She has never been one to like rocking so we pick her up and walk around the house a little but while patting her back. I would change her diaper, pick up the three pacifiers that were most likely on the floor and hand them to her, then put a sippy cup of water in the crib. (We did find that she was soaking her diaper during the night so we now put her in overnight diapers.) She typically sleeps from 7:30pm to 6:45am.

Education: She is going to Mother's Day Out this summer.  It has been very nice to have a break and good for her to socialize.  There are only 4 kids in her class.  It is neat to glance in the doorway if I arrive early and see her playing with girls. This past Spring there was not room for her in a class.  She doesn't always nap at MDO so when she gets home she will sleep for two hours.

Size: Liberty weighs 24 pounds and is 30" tall.  In clothes she wears 18-24 months.  She still fits in some 12 month pants.  In shoes she is between a size 4 and 5.

Sorry for the very long update, but hope you enjoyed it.  We are thankful for the moments we have as a family.  We know that this tough, restless season will pass and we will grow closer together.

Talent Show

 

The church we attend had a talent show last month.  We entered Hallister into the show to say the Pledge of Allegiance.   It was so moving to see adults stand up as our little 4 year old led everyone in saying the pledge.  We are so very proud of our little Hall.

Menu Planner

I know we have all been there.  You get to the store with your grocery list, and you can't remember if you have some things so you grab one just in case.  You get home to find not only did you have that item but you had five, and you missed two items that you needed for supper tonight.  HA!

Well that was me and I was getting tired of it. I used to have written on a piece of paper the order of HEB aisles.  As we ran out of items we would put them on our grocery list on the fridge.  Before going to the store I would rewrite the whole list in the order of the aisles.  Sometimes I would leave an item off though accidentally.  Once I got to the store I would see something we might need, I'd call Jonathan to see if we need it.  I would try to think ahead of stuff to make for supper the next week but couldn't remember every single ingredient.

We then downloaded a free App called Grocery Gadget.  I figured we have these smart phones, might as well get smart and use them to our advantage.  That App was nice.  We plugged in the aisles of HEB in the order we go and the ones at Walmart and the order we take there.  If we needed an item we check it, and it showed up on mine and Jonathan's phone.  We were able to put in the amount at each store, which was very nice.  Since we use the cash system we would know exactly how much we were about to check out with.  If we didn't have enough cash left in our envelope then we could put back the things we didn't absolutely have to have.

That App was good but I wanted an App where I could pull in recipes while at the store or look in my "pantry" while at the store and see if I had certain items.  After researching a week I found it - MENU-PLANNER.  This is probably the biggest plug I will ever give for an App.  I absolutely love it and it was only $4.99.

It took me a weekend to plug in all the items in our pantry, arrange the aisle order for HEB and Walmart, but it was so worth it.  It also has a scan barcode feature!  I can scan an item and it will pull in all the info for me, I just program what aisle and the price.  We have 45 recipes saved so I can organize what is for breakfast, lunch and dinner each week.  If I don't have the items in our pantry then this App will add those items to my shopping list!  How cool is that! As we go through the week, and say I made spaghetti, then my amount of spaghetti jars will decrease from 2 to 1 in my "pantry". If it goes from 1 to 0 then it gets added to my shopping list.

If you are a Mom, you have a smart phone and you do the shopping then you need this App!  It saves so much time and makes grocery shopping fun.  So there is my plug, let me know if you try it.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

To save on our expense of laundry detergent I decided to make our own.  We have been using ALL Free and Clear since it does not make Liberty break out.

We have been very happy with the homemade stuff.  I included the recipe in case anyone wants to try it.  I made half the bath the first time, just in case we didn't like, and that $10 batch lasted a month.  It was not difficult to use a cheese grater and shred the Ivory soap.  The laundry smelled so fresh and clean. I also ordered the scent Quiver from Scentsy and added it to our second batch.  It smells SO good.

We also noticed how clear Liberty's skin has been as well, since we started using it, which is a wonderful benefit.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients-

• 1 (4 lb 12 oz) Box of Borax- Found in the detergent aisle
• 1 (3 lb 7 oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda- Found in the detergent aisle
• 1 (3 lb) Container of OxyClean- Found in the detergent aisle
• 2 (14.1 oz) Bars of Zote or Ivory Soap- Found in the detergent aisle
• 1 (4 lb) Box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda- Found in the cooking aisle
• 4 Bottles of Scentsy Washer Whiffs- found online or through a Scentsy Representative

Instructions-

1. Grate soap with cheese grater or food processor.
2. Mix all ingredients together in a large bucket.
3. Use 2 -4 Tablespoons per laundry load.

Preschool Graduation

So.....yeah we are a little behind on blog updates but here it goes.

As you know Hallister was in the Preschool class at Crestview Church of Christ this past year.  He really thrived in his class of 6, even with him being the only boy and the youngest (4 when all his friends turned 5).  His teacher Ms. Renee was awesome and his best friend was Katie.

This past May he got to walk with his classmates in the graduation ceremony.  He was so small and cute!

We are still praying about where Hallister should go for Preschool in the Fall.  We registered for him to go to Castleman Creek Elementary, which is right beside our house, but we aren't completely peaceful about him going to a public school with a big class yet.  The problem with this school also is that we won't find out if he made it in until August 21st.  That is too late to register anywhere else. ("Getting in" for Preschool is based on low income, if you speak Spanish and/or if your family is in the military.) We visited a new Montessori school that opened up and really like their concept of learning sounds of letters with letter shapes, before ever writing with a pencil.  The problem is this school is very expensive and not currently in our budget.  God would definitely have to show us if He wants Hall to go there by providing extra finances.  Perhaps I can pick up so extra freelance design work.  The other option is for him to just go to a Mother's Day Out program.  Please be praying for us to have wisdom about where to send him because education is so important.  Thanks!

Oh Nuts!

We had quite a scary event happen last week with Liberty and peanut butter.  We knew she had an allergy but we thought dairy was the worst.  Well, apparently not.  We are not proud of this happening but want family to know during get-togethers how serious it is. We need everyone's support and awareness of her allergies.

Viewer discretion is advised of pictures below.


4:00pm - I gave Preston a snack of peanut butter and celery while I was trying to cook supper.  Liberty was having an off-nap day so she was asleep. 5:00pm - I heard Liberty start to cry so I quickly washed me hands off, got her up and put her in the living room, then hurried back to finish supper.  I was almost done when Liberty brought me Preston's plate and handed it to me over the gate.  I looked in shock at the plate and upset at myself for leaving it out.  I took it from her and noticed some peanut butter smudged on the edge of the plate but the celery was accounted for.  She was not smacking like she had tried any so I wasn't too worried.  I washed her hands off and put her in her chair.  I warmed her chicken and glanced back at her to notice she was itching.  I cut up the chicken and the noticed the swelling start. 

5:18pm - I immediately threw her in the bath to try to wash off any peanut butter that might be in her fingernails.  The swelling was worse.  I gave her Benadryl.  Jonathan had come home early but not feeling well so he had been asleep.  I woke him up.  We decided to go ahead and give her the Epi-pen. I called my friend Christi who has the son that fainted when he had a chocolate chip and asked what advice she had.  She said it was very good what we did.  I sent a text to many friends to be praying.  We really debated on going to the ER but since her breathing was fine we held off.  Thank God she did not eat any.  I felt God's presence keeping us calm and helping us make wise decisions.  We called the on-call doctor and she also said since Liberty's breathing was fine we could hold off on the ER, but of course if it flared up take her immediately.  The doctor said she would check back with us the next day.

7:00pm - Liberty was no longer itching, the redness was going away and the swelling almost completely gone.  I was amazed at how quickly the Benadryl and Epi-pen worked, and so very thankful for everyone praying for her.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 1 Cor.12:9

She is a tough cookie and kept high spirits the whole time.  (With everything that is going on in West we gladly sent all our peanut butter and peanut butter crackers to help bless a needy family.)

We love our Little Libby Lou and appreciate everyone's support in keeping peanuts and peanut butter away from her.

Preston - 33 Months

We have not done an update on Preston in quite a while, so here it goes.

Preston is still our funny man.  He loves to laugh and make us laugh.  He is daring and curious, yet also clumsy.  He will talk to us as he is walking down the hall, and then smack into the wall or a door.  He can fall asleep anywhere, as you can see in the pictures.  He has been fighting his afternoon nap.  So when I go into his room about 3:00pm to check on him I will find that he got up from his bed and just played on the floor.  He then fell asleep while playing.  When he does this he gets very tired before bed time, and will often fall asleep while eating supper.Preston has started saying many new words, and also sentences.  Probably the one he says most is, "Hallster hit head."  (Yes he usually leaves the "i" out.) We are thankful he is communicating more using words and not mumble jumble. 

He has noticed Liberty more, especially when she tries to scoot in between him and his toys.  Unfortunately he is hitting and throwing toys more because of it.  He is total opposite of Hallister, in that he just likes to be alone and play.  And when he is ready for us to play with him he brings us a toy.

Preston wears size 2T clothes and size 6 shoes.  As far as allergies go he cannot have goldfish, anything with tomatoes or juice of any kind (he gets diarrhea).  When we order pizza we get bread sticks for him to eat. As far as dairy is concerned we give him soy yogurt and almond milk.  (I know you grandparents have been wanting to know all this for when you keep him, but it is a good update for family as far as a family get-together is concerned.)  For some reason he has been waking up around 3am, he says he has to go potty, but after sitting on the potty and doing nothing he will say he wants milk.  After two weeks this became very tiresome, so we began to give him milk right before bed and sternly told him we will have to discipline him if he gets up before the light is yellow.  (We have a nightlight that goes blue when they should be sleeping and yellow at 7am when they can come out of their room.  They can play quietly if they wake up before 7am but must stay in their room.)  Thankfully that worked.

We have worked on potty training off and on.  Some days he will go in the bathroom and go potty on his own.  Some days he pees in his room while playing or right in front of the bathroom door.  We have been told by many with boys it is right around the age of 3 they are ready.  At least we have something to look forward to, that in 3 months time we will have only one child in diapers.

Preston does like books more now and is getting very good at saying his colors. We are working on shapes since Hallister has now learned his.  We did figure out the one thing Preston will not say is his own name.  We say Hallister, Liberty, Ranger, Wriley and repeats them all, but then when we say Preston he will say Mommy or Hallister.  We are going to work on that!

 

Liberty - 16 Months Old

Libby Lou is 16 months old!  She weighs in at 21 pounds.  Since she cannot have dairy she has thinned out over the past two months.  Her hair is blonde and her eyes a beautiful brown.

Basically all she eats is chicken nuggets and dairy/gluten free pancakes or waffles.  Our babysitters have 400 degrees for 12 minutes memorized.  That is how long to cook her nuggets.  I did cut up a hot dog and she ate a few pieces of it.  I am surprised how much I have enjoyed learning what things to substitute so she can eat them.  We use rice flour, grape seed oil, rice milk, almond milk and egg substitute, which is a powder.  (In case you grandparents need to know for when you keep her.)  I did experiment and gave her almond milk with strawberries blended up in it, and she drank that!.....for a day.  Maybe once a week will surprise her with it.  She liked our red drink a lot but we discovered it had aspartame in it, so we weaned everyone off of it and quit buying it.  Now we are back to drinking water. I am hoping to try more recipes next month for her.  I have been sneaking bananas into her pancakes.  She won't eat fruit plain so sometimes you just do what you go to do.  She can have Kix cereal because it is corn based, not wheat based.

Side note: All of this experimenting with food and learning more about it has also inspired me to eat healthier.  I discovered that cow's milk really is not the greatest for our bodies and I am enjoying protein shakes with almond milk.

Liberty loves to go, go, go.  She tries to keep up with her brothers, and it is so cute to see them follow each other back and forth across the house. She has started to climb on the couch and is getting better about staying seated, and slowly getting off by going backwards until her toes can touch the floor.  She is such a girl, already swinging one arm and putting her hands on her hips.  It was interesting the other day at the park to see a little girl come up to her and they were handing a rock back and forth to each other.  I am not used to seeing her play with girls.  She will get plenty of practice though this summer when starts Mother's Day Out.

Liberty loves bath time and immediately does the sign for it and runs to the bathroom when we say "bath".  She likes to play peekaboo and to be chased.

We are so thankful she has been healthy.  She still has not had an ear infection, or no other health condition really besides an occasional runny nose.  We can deal with the allergy stuff and are very thankful it is not life threatening should she eat something wrong.

Sesame Street Live!

My sister's fiance won tickets for Sesame Street Live.  For some reason he was not too excited about taking Rebekah (haha), so he gave them to us. 

We don't have cable so the kids haven't really seen Sesame Street except for in books we have.  Jonathan has acted out Grover saying "near" and "far", which is hilarious by the way.

The show we attended was during Preston's nap time.  He actually lasted quite a while but we did not stay until the end.  The story was cute and the kids loved the music.

Here are some pictures from our fun adventure!

Hallister 4.5

It is hard to believe our first born is 4 1/2 years old!  He is very smart and has learned so much this past year.

He knows his days of the week, months of the year, the Pledge of Allegiance, and can count to 30.  He can also write his first name, which is not an easy task with it being so long.

Hallister is always listening and will repeat stuff we say, even if it is days later, and even if it is something Jonathan and I were talking about, not even to him.  He also has a remarkable memory. Just the other day he said, "Remember when I slipped in the mud at Preston's party and I got my shoes muddy."  That was last July!  Hall also has an amazing sense of smell.  He tells me when Liberty is poopy or just by smelling my breath he can tell me what I just ate!

Hallister is 3' 3" tall and weighs 32lbs 6oz.  He wears size 3T pants, mostly 4T shirts, and size 9 shoes. He is very helpful around the house.  He feeds the dog each morning and gets dressed on his own.  Anytime Liberty has a poopy we call for Hallister and he entertains her so she won't put her hands in her mess.

We took Hall to the dentist and it did turn out he had three small cavities.  We had them fill one of them, but barely.  He got very anxious at the end.  I'm not sure if we will be able to get the other ones done without having him sedated.  Thankfully they are very small though.  We have cut back on sugar we give him, which isn't a lot.  He occasionally has a pop tart, but his favorite sandwich is just jelly.  I bought a sugar free jelly for him to use.  His other favorite foods are popcorn and chicken nuggets with honey mustard.

If we are still in this house Hallister will go to Preschool at Castleman Creek Elementary in the Fall.  It is the school right behind our house.  That will be convenient to walk him to school. It is only half day, so it will be a nice way to ease him into Kindergarten.

On the weekends when Jonathan needs to work on something in the garage, and the other two kids are sleeping, we will park the suburban at the end of the driveway and Hallister enjoys setting up cones and riding his bicycle.  He is very good about watching for cars and always wears his helmet, but we mainly park the burb there because of careless drivers that go down our street.

Hall is very caring, sensitive, and loves to give hugs.  In the picture above Hallister brought me a "snack" while I was in bed taking a nap.  He is so sweet.  Hall really loves to cook, but it takes patience because he wants to do everything on his own.  He is a big helper after eating, and takes his plate to the sink after excusing himself from the table.

After last Halloween when he was a fireman he is still really into firetrucks.  At school when they play dress up he always puts on the fireman outfit.  We will see if this enthusiasm wears off or if it turns in to a future career.  He still loves to play with cars and trains.

We are so proud of our sweet boy!

The Pledge of Allegiance

Red Juice

About a year ago Jonathan was getting tired of drinking just water so he decided to try Gatorade instead.  Well buying Gatorade every week became pretty expensive.  We then found this flavored water.  It does not have sugar (like koolaid) and since Liberty does not like Almond Milk we were glad to find that she loves this "juice".  All the kids like it actually, so we bought a large container to dispense it during the day (see picture).  And although Jonathan does most of the inventions around here I am proud to say I am the one that came up with cutting the cup off to catch the drip from the dispenser. :) We probably go through at least two of these a day.

I like that the kids are getting in a lot of water each day. The only downside to this juice is that it is very red and stains the counter tops when it drops on it.  We have to get out the bleach Clorox spray to get it up.  Other than that, it is keeping us all hydrated and healthy.

Top 5

I have been meaning to post this for a while now.  Oh well, I hope you still enjoy it as something new to read.
Below are top 5 inventions or discoveries we made last year and have really enjoyed using.

1)  Video Monitor - We have really enjoyed our video monitor with Liberty.  We had a regular one with the boys and it is just so much nicer to peek at her without having to open the door, risking waking her up.  We can see, Oh she just lost the paci, or Oh she did pull the blanket down on her we better go in now.


2)  Toast Tongs - This might seem silly but I was tired of getting the kids Eggo's out of the toaster with a fork and Jonathan was concerned for my safety, HA, so I found this neat little gadget.  They work great getting food out of the toaster.  I just have to remember not to leave them in reachable places, because Preston has already gotten tong tied.  But Jonathan pulled out the super glue and two sticks once again became a tong.

3)  Febreze Set & Refresh - We love these Febreze air fresheners.  They are inexpensive, small thus discreet yet release enough scent to cover up diaper and trash can smells.






4)  Lysol Disinfectant Wipes -
I noticed I was using a ton of paper towels to clean the cabinets, tables, and toilets every week.  When I volunteered in the nursery at church we would use Lysol wipes to wipe everything down so I decided to give them a try at home.  First I tried the off brand but they did not work as well.  These wipes work great and are nice being all in one with cleaning solution and wipes combined.




5)  Drying Rack - A friend of mine that uses cloth diapers posted on Facebook this nice drying rack she had.  We had been going outside to hang our diapers on a clothesline or hanging them on hangers on our canopy bed if it was raining outside.....ha.....not very romantic.  So I had mentioned this to Jonathan, it would be nice to have something inside to dry the diapers.  The next evening he has all these pvc pipes in the living room and I have no idea what he is working on.  Then he gets the clothesline out and the lights turn on.  My brilliant husband made this drying rack from scratch in his mind.  He can just envision things and make them come to life, so amazing.  It works great, for diapers and sweaters too.

Allergy Update

I decided to take Preston along to see the Allergist when Liberty had her one month checkup with him.  Some of you may remember P-mans' cheeks being red from about 3 months to 12 months.  And still certain things he eats to seem to set them off.

As it turns out, he does have allergies as well, just mostly different ones from Liberty.  He is allergic to grasses and trees: Bermuda, Pecan, Johnson Grass, Marshelder and Sagebrush.  As far as foods he is allergic to eggs (extremely), tomato, and cow's milk was a 2, out of 5, so not as bad as Liberty, but still slightly allergic.  Molds also showed up in the test (Alternaria, Helminth, and Sterophyl).  We learned that usually when someone is allergic to eggs they have eczema, and he did have that growing up.

The most disappointing allergy to find out was cat and dog dander, a 3 of 5.  The interesting thing to learn was that after being vacuumed, cat dander is such a small molecule it can stay in air for up to a year.  We have had Trooper, our foster cat, for a year and a half now, but have informed her parents of the allergy and this will be our last year with her.  She is not a bother and really just keeps to herself, but we do not want Preston to develop Asthma from her dander.

We learned the reason Preston drools so much is that he has enlarged adenoids and tonsils.  If we don't keep his allergies under control he could develop Asthma.  We have started him on Zyrtec and he is supposed to use Nasonex before going to bed.  He is doing great.

Miss Lil' Bit is doing well, but still stubborn.  She will not drink the Almond Milk.  The doctor suggested Minute Maid orange juice for kids, which has Vitamin D in it that she needs, and isn't getting from milk.  Well that gave her diarrhea. She eats 3-5 chicken nuggets for lunch and again for supper, so she gets plenty of protein.   Our last option for her to get Vitamin D is chewable vitamins so we will start those.

We truly hope she grows out of this milk allergy.

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken December 1st.  We wanted to get updated pictures of our whole family (parents, sister, brother) and it was a celebration of Liberty turning one.  Karla, our photographer who is also a friend of mine, was able to really capture the kids personalities.  Here are some of our favorites of just our family. Enjoy!

 

2012 Letter

Got Grammer?  That is probably what some of you were thinking if you received our 2012 letters that were the batch where I didn't proofread.  Then there were some that Liberty got to the keyboard and added her own random letters to the letter.  Oh well, it was rushed and I wanted to get it out before it was too far into the New Year.  I hope you enjoyed the letter and pictures anyhow.  I condensed it to have it on just one page when printed, but below is the same letter with some additions (in bold)....about the kids and other things we did during the year.  Enjoy.....again!

Allergies

We took Liberty to the Allergist and found out the things she is allergic to: cow's milk, egg, peanut, tomato, wheat, soybean.  On a scale from 1 to 5, 5 being highly allergic, soybean was 3, tomato was 2, and milk, egg, and peanut were 5.

Now we read ingredients carefully before giving her food.  For milk she is supposed to drink almond milk.  She does not enjoy it but during the day I do not nurse, so that is the only thing she is offered.  She does like this flavored water that Jonathan drinks.  It is red powder you pour into water, so it tastes like fruit punch, but unlike koolaid it does not have sugar.

For breakfast now she will eat Van's Blueberry Eggos that are gluten and wheat free.  We tear them apart and she eats them.  It is so helpful with her feeding herself.  We still give a little strawberry banana baby food and Baby Natural's organic puffs because she will not eat just cut up banana or apple so far.

For lunch she has Tyson chicken nuggets.  We tear these up bite size and she can feed herself.  With each new food we read ingredients but still have Benadryl ready in case she has a reaction.  She was also prescribed an Epi-Pen.  If she has a major reaction we have to push the pen into her thigh, a shot releases medicine, and that calms her body down until we get to the ER.  Of course we pray we never have to use it. So far she can have Whataburger french fries (not cooked in peanut oil) and she gobbled those up.

Good news is she CAN grow out of these allergies and it COULD BE a lot worse.  My friend's son is allergic to corn syrup.  She gave him 1 chocolate chip when he was little and he fainted.  So they have to majorly watch what he eats.

SO until she does grow out of them we will bring our own cupcakes to birthday parties and enjoy learning more about what is in food!