Goodbye Allergies!!

We are SOOOOO EXCITED to announce that Claire's allergies have disappeared!! She has outgrown them ALL!!

WAHOOO!! - No more avoiding dairy, eggs, peanut butter, strawberries, or sunflower seeds!!

She was tested this month because she was not having reactions when she would accidentally ingest her allergies. They had to do a back prick test (not her favorite) and the poor nurse was on Claire's bad list for the rest of the appointment. Anytime the nurse entered to check on us, Claire would immediately cry and climb up my lap. the doctor was so amazed and super happy for us. He said we should feed her all of the "off limits" foods that we had been avoiding so they wouldn't return and we wasted no time! Ice cream, pizza, bagels and cream cheese, PB & J sandwiches, PB cookies, goldfish (fishies), Reeses PB Cups, Cows milk in her bottle, and so much more!! She has been enjoying her new foods and asks for Pizza often (a good choice I think).

It is so nice to not have to buy a separate list of foods, make a separate dinner, etc!! Now I just make food and we all eat it - it is a small slice of heaven.

Here she is enjoying one of her new favorite snacks - Fishies

Landon turns 6!!

Landon - our number three!! We are so in love with Landon. This little boy makes our home happy, crazy, hilarious, and sweet. One look from those puppy dog blue eyes and we are smitten. Happy Birthday Little Man

He Loves to:

Wrestle with his brother - or anyone unlucky enough to get caught ;)
Laugh
Read Books
Play with cars/motorcycles
Play games
Dream of owning a motorcycle
Avoid cleaning at all costs
Go swimming
Help me with Claire
Bother his big brother and get beat up in the process
Eat nutella, bacon, go-gurts, slushees, and spaghetti
Go hiking
Jump on the trampoline
Ride bikes
Play soccer
Sleep in the car whenever possible

He hates to:
Do anything that has to do with cleaning
Do too many things in one day
Be near dogs or any large animal
Go to bed
Be woken up
Have his turn skipped

Claire is 18 months old!!

We went to the doctor today and Claire has grown two inches and gained 2 lbs - its no wonder she has been sleeping and eating like a teenage boy lately! She is in the 100th percentile for her head, 97th for her height, and 60th for her weight. She dazzled all the nurses and Dr. Sniffen with her big blue eyes and babbling. She

Claire is the word queen and she loves her some shoes!! She is blurting new words almost every day! She is 18 months old now and we are still obsessed. She is a super sleeper; wakes up at 9:30 and takes a 3 hour nap.

She can now say:

Mama, Mom, Dad, KJ, Landon, Cam, GG, Gramps, Nana, more, another one, yes, no, nonie, barbie,
dog, stuck, paci/binky, elmo, Pooh (whinnie the pooh is her favorite movie), uh oh, owie, bum bum, pee pee, more, up, shoes, thank you, and more come out every day.

She knows her body parts and points to everyone around the room when asked. She loves to read and play with her big brothers and sister. She will always join in singing twinkle twinkle little star and she will always listen to us singing. She is getting good at following directions when we need something or want her to listen. She loves to be outside and go for walks. She is a good little eater too and we all love to watch her do just about anything. She is still allergic to milk, eggs, PB, strawberries, and sunflower seeds, but we have an appointment to get her tested again because I think she is starting to outgrow a couple of them. *fingers crossed*

8/24/18 Post Edit: She has added bite, puppy dog, and mine to the list of words.

August 10 - Aug 20, 2018 Journal

We found a house to rent!! I started looking when the prices came back into our range and houses started popping up on Zillow again. It is a crazy market - there were 6 people looking at the house and two people turned in applications before I got to the office 3 hours after the showing!! Luckily I knew the receptionist and she shoved my app to the top of the pile.
  We were supposed to move in on the 10th, but when I picked up the keys and looked at the house the friday before.....the entire house smelled like dogs. When they cleaned the carpets it released the smell and it was BAD. Also the cleaning lady didn't do a very good job - she left dust everywhere and things looked/felt gross. I called the property manager and let them know - they talked with the owners and decided that they would replace the carpets for us. The only bad part is that we had to back up our move date 1 week and keep living out of suitcases/sleeping with our beds on the floor another week.
  We survived though and we are all moved in. Its a crazy mess during unpacking but it is getting better each day. Halsy got what Finn had at the family vacation and has been out of commission going on day 4. Poor guy - I couldn't even be mad at him when he couldn't help with moving because I knew he felt so rotten.

I'll post pictures soon.

Aug 1 thru Aug 10, 2018 Journal

We have had a great August! We started the month with a trip to Sunriver with my family. We all stayed together in a big house and did day trip activities. We ate yummy food, played lots of games, and watched some good movies. The kids lived in the hot tub and on their bikes.

 We visited the lava fields, the volcano, and the lava caves!! It was an awesome day!

 We celebrated Jesop's (4) Birthday while we were there! 

 On the last day we stopped at Hobby Lobby and then ate lunch at Round Table. We all got so stuffed the the kids fell asleep almost instantly!

The last two days we floated the little deschutes. We have no pictures because none of us wanted our phones to float the river too...well sink in the river. We rented tubes the first day and it ended up a disaster. Jerry and I were stuck in double tubes without a double and we had to paddle most of the time! Th second day we did better. We got a raft for the kiddos, cooler, and extra adults and everyone else was on kayaks and paddle boards. We had so much fun!! It was super hot and the river felt glorious.

It was a great week - only a few minor fights or head butts. Just a couple slivers, bike pedals and poor Finny B got sick.

Claire 11 months old and other family updates

Claire is changing and learning so much that I need to write it down!

She can now:

*WALK!! Yes she is mobile and getting faster every day.
*When you say "How bigs' Claire?" she raises her hands above her head as we say "This big!"
*She gives kisses
*If you ask her where your nose is- she will point to it.
* She can give high fives
* When people say "yay" or she hears clapping she claps too!
*She says "Uh Oh" which is her official first word, but now she is associating it with things that really mean "uh oh" like tripping or loosing her balance while walking.
*She copies us when we sing (I have an awesome video that I'll post soon)
*She is signing "bottle" and "more"
* She can almost say bottle too....but only when she is really hungry and really tired...."baaaaoul"
*She is a master stair climber - before you can turn around once she is half way up and so happy about it.

Family Update:

We  have got the sickies around here. It started with Claire, moved its way to me, then John, then Cameron, then Katey Jane, and now Claire AGAIN and Grandpa. Its a bad one and it stays for a long time.

We just had our first baby calf of the season and it was a circus! Luckily dad came home early because he was sick and noticed a momma giving birth in the field! He came in and told us...Landon and I raced to get our clothes/boots on to go watch. As we got closer I noticed it wasn't a baby coming out...a baby was already trying to stand next to the momma. It was her uterus hanging out!! Lucily, I watch Dr. Pol on Animal Planet and I knew immediately it was a prolapsed uterus. I yelled to Dad...."Dad, its not a baby, its her uterus!", He said"What? How do you know?" and I replied, "It happens on Dr. Pol" (The incredible Dr. Pol is a tv show the kids and I like to watch about a veterinarian in Michigan) So we called the vet and sure enough he had to come and push it back inside her YOUCH! Luckily the mommy and baby are ok.

Thats it for now....here are some cute pictures and videos too.

Claire is just the happiest little thing - she is always bursting with joy!!

On a walk to shake off the winter blues

Cameron playing with baby sister

Jackson won an award for good behavior at school and he took the boys to see their first hockey game!! They loved it!

Here is our first baby calf of the season - no name yet.

Fun Things

Here are some things we've been enjoying/doing lately:

Claire....duh. She is repeating things back to us and its so fun to have a little parrot. She says: Mom, Dad, Grampa, Uh-Oh and she repeats sounds back (singing style). She is so fast at crawling and standing....walking isn't far away. She puts everything in her mouth and man is she fast. She sees you coming to stop her and she pops it in at lightening speed before you can get it. Then she tries to keep you out of her mouth - she even grabbed halsy's finger and bit him the other day to protest the removal of a foreign object from her chubby cheeks.

"The Greatest Showman" this musical came into theaters before Christmas and we're obsessed. Halsy and I went to see it and then we took the kids back to see it a couple days later. They really love it too. We have been listening to the soundtrack non-stop since then and we LOVE it.

Today is "not back to school day" for us and I'm going to take the kids to play and out to lunch. I just love homeschool - it gives me such freedom and a sense of control over the world that is constantly at war with itself. I hope we get to do it for a long time.

We let the kids stay up until midnight for the first time on New Years Eve and they all Made it (Claire included)!! Cameron was the only grump the next day due to lack of sleep - which I call a success. We spent the following day out to breakfast at Biscuits with Katelyn and David then taking Christmas down at the house.....which took 4.5 hours YIKES - it was my fault because IU suggested that we go through boxes and trash stuff we've not used in YEARS.....well that doubled our workload and wasn't very successful. I think we trashed maybe 15 items, there might be some hoarding tendencies in our DNA somewhere. Then we all took naps/rested before eating the crap out of some Frank's noodle House goodies. We put the kids to bed early and chilled out.

Christmas was a total blast! The kids all got something that they had been wanting and are enjoying their spoils. We went a little bigger this Christmas because we were never able to do it before....but I think we will go back down next year. The kids got a little overwhelmed toward the end and I like that. Halsy made me a beautiful quilt that I love and now rests on our bed. I got him a book of interesting facts and useless knowledge - he loved it. Landon got a Power Wheel, Cam got a BB gun, and KJ got a Fingerling.