Busy Weekend Day 2

On Sunday we made a trip North to see Blake and Jen and there trio of adorable kiddos!  Blake and Jen are incredibly busy with 3 children ages 4 and under!  It was so much fun to watch our kids all play together and Steve and I were envious of their space just outside of Waterloo.  It was such a nice visit and left us wishing we could get together more often.  Jen shared some of her expertise on life without dairy since she has eliminated it from her diet a couple of times to accomodate their little ones.  Luckily, both of the boys have outgrown their allergies!  This gives me hope.  :)  Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying the visit.

 Bo and Veda

Caitlyn and Sawyer

Brady showing Sawyer how it is done.

Kiddos racing!

Veda and Daddy getting in on the fun.  :)

Full Weekend!

It is so awesome that both Steve and I are teachers and can take time during the summer to really enjoy our family and friends.  We spent long days on the boat, go to swimming lessons, hit up the park, take road trips to see friends and go to bed late.  Life is good.  Luckily for us, our kids continue to be really flexible and enjoy playing with friends and going along for the ride.  Now that Ms. Katie is on maternity leave we are making lots of plans to fill our summer with great memories.  Here are pictures from our visit with Washington friends on Saturday.

Vetter, Sawyer, Mark holding Norah, Emma, Veda, Sydney, Nick holding Drew, and Grace

Hollie with Drew and Jaclyn with Norah

My baby looking so grown-up!

Sawyer's Favorite Part of the Day...

He looks so little in the x-ray chair!

Getting his teeth cleaned at the dentist.  No lie.  He was awesome and handled the cleaning so well they decided to try for x-rays.  Sawyer has a very healthy mouth and one very positive dentist experience under his belt.  Sweet.

Special Little Dinner Guest

Sawyer is such a sweet boy and loves to be mommy's helper.  When Mabel spent a few hours with us on Monday, he insisted on feeding her.  I loved watching them stretch toward each other for each bite.  He was genuinely helpful as he fed her while I worked on making the rest of supper.  

Veda enjoyed being the big girl and kept pointing at Mabel saying "baba."  She doesn't realize that Mabel is only 5 short months younger than her, but she attempted to put her in her place.  I kept having to separate them because Veda kept bopping Mable on the head.  Luckily, she didn't really seem to mind.  :/  I hope that when Rebekah reads this post she won't rethink allowing her baby to visit again!

Father's Day Weekend

Sawyer is just as at home on the golf course as he is in papa's boat.  He was blessed to get the best of both worlds and Steve and I both got good quality time with our dads.  :)  I was not brave enough to take my new camera out on the boat, however.  Occasionally we do get some water on-board and it would be just my luck to end up with a drenched camera.  Perhaps later this summer I will take the camera near the water.  :)       

Papaw and Nana with their grand-babies.

Andrea's handsome hubby/Sawyer and Veda's Daddy.

What a sweet little face.

Allergies... Keeping Things Interesting

I often contemplate all of the things our kids will teach us as we raise them and wonder what interests they will pick up and how their personalities will evolve.  Our lives are so ordinary and our kids are so mellow and laid back, we weren't expecting any curve-balls.  We are learning about what it means to plan meals that are dairy-free for a little girl with a milk-allergy.  As it turns out, almond milk is delicious and quite nutritious as well.  It has plenty of calcium and vitamin D which makes a great substitute for cow's milk for Veda... mommy may be making the switch as well.  We shall see, almond milk is about 3 times as expensive as cow's milk.  Right now I am hoping that she will continue to love eating avocados since that is one of her main fat sources... unfortunately it is becoming a significant fat source for me as well.  Not good.  But truly delicious.  :/  

  Steve and I are meeting with a dietician next week to get more ideas about dairy free products, recipes and cooking with milk substitutes.  I am hoping the session will provide more answers than our visit with an allergist at the university.  That was just an odd experience.  Basically we were able to observe a clear reaction to milk after a scratch test that bubbled up on her back.  Luckily she is not allergic to peanuts, almonds, eggs and she did not react to soy either.  The doctor confirmed that she is allergic to milk and needs to avoid it.  I asked if she could have milk in baked goods and he told us to avoid it completely.  That about sums it up.  I understand that he is a doctor and not a nutritionist or dietician but I was hoping for more information as we left there.  We did receive a booklet on treating Eczema if anyone is interested in that.  Steve and I must have repeated 3 times that Eczema is really not a major concern and we know how to treat it but he really spelled that out for us over and over.  Great, really useful for us right now.  Thanks!  Anyway, we will keep totting our Epi-pen and do our best to keep Veda from getting ahold of Sawyer's chocolate milk and shreds of cheese that have been dropped on the floor.  Lord, we pray to never require the use of an Epi-pen. Amen.  

Here are a few pics from our visit to the allergist.  We were responsible for entertaining Veda without touching her back for a full 30 minutes.  It was interesting.

Roarrrrrr

Promises...

I promise to be more committed to keeping this blog up.  It is summer, there is simply no excuse for sloth in this area of my life!  Also, we got a new camera!  I will have to share some new pics and with all of the activities we are up to this summer there should be plenty.  As long as I get brave enough to lug the camera around with me.  :)

Worst Mommy-Blogger EVER!

Two birthday's have come and gone in this house with no reference in this blog...  Time to rectify the situation.  We now have a 3 year old and a 1 year old!  They are so darn cute and getting cuter and bigger every day!

Bedtime conversations...

Bedtime is rough lately.  It is quite the process that seems to take forrrrrrevvvvvver!  The conversations that take place around that time are so priceless though.  There are frequent professions of love and silly attempts to not be sleeping.  Sawyer situates everything so perfectly and the blankets that total up to 6 some nights must be spread just right.  The Buzz Lightyear toys must be in their places and his lion and doggy continue to have important positions in Sawyer's bed.  For sleeping time, it sure is exhausting.  Occasionally I get glimpses into my future that cause me to pause a bit.  One night I was talking with him about putting his toy cell phone away or I would need to put it up where he couldn't play with it.  I startled myself as the words left my mouth and I realized their future applications.  I love it when I leave the room and I hear Sawyer giving the bedtime speech to his toys that insist on continuing to play after bedtime has begun.  It goes something like this.  "You need to sleep so you can heal up your owies and so you won't get sick."  I usually have to coach him with the reminder that they also need to sleep so they can get big and strong.

Sawyer has been reduced to bringing Veda into prolonging his bedtime, reminding me that she needs to brush HER teeth and needs another story before bed.  So sweet.  I know that these are the moments that seem so inconvenient right now and there will be a time in the not-so-distant future when I would do anything to have them back.  :)