Disney World

Hey Family,This entry has been a long time in the making.

After saving for months and postponing our summer vacation we went to DISNEYWORLD!

Even when our flight out was delayed two hours , Tanner was still undeniably excited.

Hooray, so we spent 5 days in Orlando and had 4 fun-filled park days with great weather and short lines

Day 1: Magic Kingdom

On our first day in the park we were in a rush to get in,  pick up our tickets and of course the gift cards. The kids have been saving up for (4) months to earn their gift cards to spend how they wanted, so picking up the cards was a fairly important step on day 1. Main Street was decorated for Fall with plenty of Fall Leaves and Mickey Mouse Pumpkins. The kids' very first stop was to the gift shop to buy their cool autograph books and official Disney pens. We saw a lot of gift shops and each day Tanner found a special and high maintenance toy. Day one - he bought a donald duck whistle.. which yes- he blew everywhere. The sound of a quacking duck made sure he never got lost. 

We had a great time at the park, Our favorites were Pirates of Caribbean,  Big thunder mtn, Space mtn (most scary of all award), and autographs with a couple of the princesses. WE stood in line for 2 HOURS waiting for those special princess moments. The girls were star struck but were very leary of future "character meetings". We were very impressed with how accommodating the restaurants and rides were for families. Cristine even got a real cheeseburger with a bun. 

Rapunzel complimenting Brooklyn on her "satchel"

Day 2: Animal Kingdom

On our second day in the park we went on Safari ride with an authentic African tour guide and saw some cool wildlife from 6' off the ground.

Tanner all ready with his official Disney Safari Canteen. He filled and drank this full canteen about 5 different times resulting in a LOT of bathrooms trips, can you see it in his face? HAHA! 

Animal identification guides Included at no extra cost.

The girls got DRENCHED on Kali River Rapids. We needed a towel afterwards to dry our soaked and freezing kiddos. Our favorite by far this day though was the "flights of wonder" show. Where they showed a fun variety of birds and how they trained them. Even a bald Eagle! Brooklyn was in bird heaven.

 Day 3: Hollywood Studios

On our third day in the park we had a great time going behind the scenes to learn how movies are made.

 The backstage lot tour was awesome!

 STAR TOURS was Awesome! Darth Vador tried to capture our ship because he knew there was a spy on board. C3PO assured him there was not. until Darth vador showed him a picture of the spy... it was CRISTINE!!

Although we forgot to get a picture, DINOSAUR was a DO NOT MISS, very fun and scary, Tanner laughed at the giant Megaladon as it was about to eat him :)...We highly recommend it to all good parents out there.

A couple of our most favorite shows were the Stunt Driving Show and the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. It was awesome! Indiana fell down a big hole and climbed out with a vine and tanner screamed "Wow! How did he survive!?"

The Tower of Terror was....Absolutely Terrifying!!! Suzanne took Brooklyn and Tanner on the ride while Tyson and Cristine waited in line for the Beauty and The Beast Musical. Tanner was really brave until they told the twilight zone story before the ride and he was very afraid we were never coming back. Right after the ride they said they hated it because it was too scary.. now they will tell you it was their favorite ride and it was just so awesome. I guess either way it made a big impression  Brooklyn and Tanner were also the brave ones to go on the Haunted Mansion ride. Cristine decided she did not like Roller Coasters or anything scary, but she was Sooo happy with Star Tours and Mission Space.

 Day 4: EPCOT

On our fourth day in the park we saw the World...well... sort of...we actually saw the inside and outside of the giant silver golf ball. Very cool ride inside, but we don't want to ruin it for anyone else, so go see for yourself.

 We also had fun time catching lunch in Shanghai (very allergy friendly by the way).

 We also had a surprise run in with Cristine's favorite Disney Princess - "Belle" near a French Village where we sampled some authentic cuisine. Over all we had a great time seeing all the countries and characters dressed up.

 Day 5: Mini-Golf Paradise Land-World

OK, so just kidding, the place was called "Pirates Cove" and it was just one of probably a dozen courses near our hotel. We had  few hours to kill before our flight home, so we took a few swings (18 holes) at golf.

In the end the vacation was great, we all got along, no one got hurt or lost the whole time, we highly recommend such an adventure if you've been considering going.

Houston... we have an office

Yep... That's right. Tyson is the proud owner of a REAL OFFICE at work! How Cool is that!?  He has worked so hard he really deserves his own space :) We got to go to his office with him on  memorial day to help set everything up and move his items from his cubicle to the new room with a view.  One of the best parts was walking through the other offices and cubicles. Most of them were messy and crowded with circuit boards, wires, computers, etc.. and blank wall. But Tyson's cubicle and desk were clean and organized with pictures of our family on the walls and even a picture Cristine had drawn for him ;) This will make it so much easier to give reprimands, praise and give interviews for hiring in privacy. 

I have been working on my gardening more this year and finally having some success! My biggest problem was the rain... not too much or too little over time, but when it does rain it DUMPS a LOT at one time, and last year it flooded my garden and everything died. So this year I am trying the "bucket method" or using two buckets - one inside the other. The top one has holes in the bottom for extra water to drain out and the bottom one has  a hole 1" from the bottom in the side so Extra water drains out, it leaves 1" of water in the bottom for roots and allows a small space of air for roots as well. and it is AWESOME! I grew my tomatoes from seeds this year and I am already getting small green tomatoes on my big green plants. ;) I also dug out the grass in my front yard and we added a couple of trees and bushes. Fun!

Cristine made all A's this year in school. I think all the teachers at Cox Intermediate are excited to get her next year. She switches schools in the fall and becomes one of the big kids on the 5th grade campus. We went to a parent information night talking about the choices the kids have for classes. They get to choose either band, orchestra or art/ music. She was sure she wanted art/ music until she heard the orchestra. She said she loved it so much it may change her mind on what she wants to be someday! Wow! She has wanted to be a cowgirl since she was three so that is really saying something!  She recently performed in her piano recital and did extremelly well. This girl has a gift for music and I love it!

Brooklyn is now eating Kiwi!! Well, so far for now.  We were able to meet with Dr. Olive last week and get her set up in the Texas Childrens Eosinophilic Cinic. She will have her next Endoscopy on June 19th and then start the clinic on the 23rd. In the Clinic she will se the GI (Dr Olive), the allergist, the nutritionist, and dietician all together IN THE SAME ROOM AT THE SAME TIME! This is beyond awesome.. it's beawsome!  This is where we will come up with a good detailed plan on how to get more food into her diet and eventually off her feeding tube. 

Tanner turned 7 in april and is quite the handsome lad. He got a suit and it makes my heart melt to see him in it. We got some good pictures too but until I find my cord to connect the camera to the computer or I update with ty's i-pad then you all to get wait in suspense. He had a campout birthday with his friends. we set up a small tent for them to sleep in, in the front room and the boys got flashlights... yeah it was all they needed to declare it was the "bestest birthday ever!"  He is ever a true little boy and even right now , as I type, teasing his sister with a frog he found outside. I hear little girl screams and little boy giggles.

Our birds and tortoise are still just pets but we think they are pretty fun and keep decorating their cages. I built a PVC tree for the birds and we put a pool full of dirt outside for the tortoise so she can dig and dig without getting lost.

That's our update from down south in Texas!!!

WE love y'all!

Puzzle Pieces

Most people know that I love a good puzzle. I can literally spend hours studying the pieces before putting one into the puzzle. I like to put it exactly where it belongs and I make a goal never to put one in "just to see if it fits". Try it.. it's harder than it looks especially when so many look the same. Now that I have bored you to tears with my puzzle talk and if you are still reading ... here is the point of this post. 

My kids are a puzzle. I have to study recipes for hours trying to keep them fed and in good health. I study internet web sites and grill their doctors for information. I don't accept anything as "true" unless i feel it really fits with all their symptoms as well as the spirit telling me so. Then every once in a while something pops up and the spirit screams "That's it! The missing piece to the puzzle you were looking for!" Well a HUGE Puzzle piece fell into my lap yesterday for Tanner. 

When people ask us about my kids food allergies, then ask me about Tanner we say "He's fine! He is daddy's eating buddy!" But honestly that's isn't the whole truth. Nothing but the truth would be that we didn't know what it was!! Tanner has this amazing ability to always know when he is going to throw up, or vomit, upchuck the whole caboodle. He even always makes it the bathroom in time! The funny thing is that is happens at random times. As hard as I have tried I have never been able to connect it with any food (and we are very good at decoding food allergies here) He also randomly will get hives.. again for no reason and with no food connection i  could think of, and his allergy tests have always been negative.  In Utah the allergist told us he had chronic hives , or hives with no purpose. I knew that wasn't correct. But he is a very happy little boy who doesn't complain and is growing and thriving! You would think that the next step would be to get him checked for an Eosinophilic Disease like Brooklyn. But that didn't feel right either , like I said he is a happy growing thriving boy.. who randomly vomits and gets hives. 

Then last April or May (to lazy to look it up right now) I had given Tanner some Ibuprofen (motrin) for some leg pain he was having.  Soon he started to go down hill and not breath well so we took him to the ER. It turned out he was wheezing and they gave him a breathing treatment and an antibiotic shot "Just in case" he had no other symptoms of being sick. I noticed when they were giving him the shot that he had a few hives on his leg. I wasn't too concerned as he gets those sometimes.. randomly.  But I was glad later because then I knew he hadn't been reacting to the antibiotic. Later that evening I gave him some more Ibuprofen and he got hives EVERYWHERE!!  A small puzzle piece clicked into place and we avoided Ibuprofen. 

Yesterday during our regular allergy visit I brought up that ER visit with questions such as "Will he also react to other NSAIDS (Non Steroidal Anti inflammatory) ?" When the

 doctor said "Does he throw up once in a while even when he isn't sick?"

Me:" YES!"

DR. : "Does he get hives sometimes?"

Me: "Yes"

DR. "I know what the problem is..."

Those words are so sweet to hear. You can't have a true allergy to Ibuprofen because it isn't a protein structure.. it is a chemical. More specifically a plant chemical Salicylate that has been duplicated by scientist to put in a more concentrated form for medical purposes in Aspirin and Ibuprofin. It is also added to food perservatives, colorings, and flavors. 

Tanner is Intolerant to Salicylate's. It's a mouthful, and I am still learning and getting used to it.. but here is what we know so far. Salicytate Sensitivity is dose dependant. It will slowly build up in your system until it hits a breaking point and your body tries to get rid of it. i.e. vomiting, hives, etc... That is why his reactions seemed random.  Salicylates occur in every day food. in fact the more healthy it is.. the more salicylates it probably has. It is in most every fruit and seasoning and herb, and in a large amount of vegetables, especially anything known to be anti inflammatory like cucumbers, honey, and onions.  You find it in processed meats, corn ingredients, and anything fruit flavored. There is a LONG list of foods he should not be eating because those foods have a high amount of Salicylates in them. In short his diet should now be the exact opposite from the girls. He should be eating plenty of dairy, eggs, Fresh unseasoned meats,  wheat and other grains (not corn though) and soy. and to stay away from anything too processed and fruity.  Whoa! I may never leave my kitchen again. Oh- and he can never have Ibuprofen or aspirin or other NSAIDS. How sensitive he is, we may not know completely until we get a handle on his new regiment and see if how much and IF things change... then see where his tolerance level is.  So bear with us! I feel very overwhelmed. and yet SO grateful !!! Hopefully we can help his little tummy and itchies. 

How do I love Thee...

Let me count the ways.  That has been my theme for Valentines this year. I am slowly building up a collection of holiday decorations. I love to craft and create, but believe it or not I do not like to decorate. I have a hard time making my counters look like the picture I imagine in my head. But this mailbox is one super cute I idea I can be proud of :) Isn't it cute? We have been putting little valentines and love notes to each other in it. I think I will fix the bow though. My next Valentines project it to make a Valentines countdown board that says "How do I love Thee, let me count the ways" then will have different hearts counting down from 14 to 1. On the back of the hearts will be scriptures and quotes about love. One will be turned over each day! I really do keep busy, I promise not all my time is spend on projects, but they are really fun to talk about. 

A few weeks ago when the weather was nice, Ty took the kids paddleboarding. They were kind of scared   ( from the phrase "Don't move an inch! The water is cold!") but that made it extra fun. I think Tanner was trying to fall in and swim though. He wore his swimsuit "just in case".  He is still just as much a character as ever. We always see his primary teachers in the hall and they just laugh and say "Tanner is so funny in class!" He recently got some cowboy boots. As soon as he got them he went and put on his cowboy hat and a cowboy shirt, and ran outside to check out his reflection in the windows. When he heard us girls giggling inside, he looked at us.. posed .. and wiggled his eyebrows at us and then winked. What a charmer!!! 

                                                         
                                                          Do you like the rosettes? Cristine is as always such a sweet girl! Lately we have been letting her watch the kids while we go for a 15 min bike ride around the block. She likes to text us every few minutes to tell us the kids are doing fine. Little by little she is growing into quite a young lady. The time when we can leave her for longer amounts of time is so close we can taste it. And she is loving the extra allowance she gets. She is also becoming quite "romantic". She wants to watch romantic movies and read romantic books. Valentines day is right up her alley right now. I keep hoping the phase won't last too long.

 Brooklyn sewed her very first quilt on her own sewing machine! It was just the right size for her american girl doll. I am so proud of her!! She was so careful with the stitching to make sure everything was straight.

 Pretend this picture is rotated to the left! HAHA! This is Brooklyn tying her quilt. We set it up on a mini frame.  She is pretty determined to make something very fancy soon and keeps asking when we can go to the fabric store.

Tysons job has changed a bit too! The company he works for was bought out by a bigger company. So now he works for Ryan Directional which is part of Nabors. So our Insurance is better, the Pay is better and he got a promotion.  Great Job Ty! We are also very thankful the Lord is always mindful of our family and continues to pour in the blessings. 

Happy Valentines Day to you all!!!!!!

a New year with New goals

 So last year I was very laid back with this blog, which is too bad because I LOVE looking back over past posts and seeing all the fun things we have been doing! I heard a quote that said "Simply keep a journal, and one day you'll find that your ordinary life is Extrordinary"  So one of my goals the year is to blog more often, with or without pictures.

So here is a quick re cap of the last little while...

For Haloween my kids dressed as Anne of Green Gables, Angelina Ballerina and The Cat in the Hat. I think they turned out super cute! Whenever a little girl (or one her age) saw Cristine they would say "Who are you.. a scarcrow?" But ALL the mom's and grown ups knew who she was right away, and almost with tears in their eyes would burst out "Oh it's Anne!" I spent the last month before reading the book to the girls at bedtime. Tanner didn't think it was much fun. but I am determined that my girls will grow up to be little ladies and cultured in Lucy Maud Montogomery,  Louisa May Alcott and Jane Austin. Right now we are reading Little Women. How Fun! But Tanner is not being left out and we have started reading "The Dragon Slayer Academy" series of books together.  I did make him watch Anne of Green Gables with us though when we got it for Christmas. He said it was "Horrifying!" But my swet husband reminded him that good husbands know about Anne of Green Gables. Isn't he romantic?

A few months ago the aching in my jaw was getting worse and the dentist suggested I see and endodontist about it. It turns out when I had a root canal a couple of years ago the previous dentist had left a metal file in the root of my tooth, which had then become re infected. Yuck! He had also cause a problem with the root canal on the other side by drilling through the bottom of the root allowing bacteria to get in and reinfect that tooth as well. So I had to get one root canal re done and the metal file had to be taken out surgically. NOT FUN! THis will be an on going issue for a least a while onger trying to get things to heal.

WE took our kiddos Ice Skating for Family Home evening a few weeks ago. It was so fun. They have little tiny walkers for kids to hang onto. It looked like a miniature old people scooting around on the ice. But Ty and I did our share of hanging onto the kids' walkers because otherwise we would fall ourselves.

 Brooklyn got pretty good with the walker and went fast while Cristine was content to go slow.  Their faces above show it all! Tanner however was convinced he did not need it and therefore spent 90% of the time of his bottom.  He was very determined to go fast without a walker like the bigger kids and couldn't understand why it was so hard. 

We ended up putting our kiddos in a smaller "kids" section and let them go without the walkers. They spent their time like this... hanging onto the edge the whole time or on their bottoms.  But we sure made a lot of fun memories!

I think all our pictures of Christmas are on Ty's i pad so I will have to upload those later. But Brooklyn turned 8 on the 7th of December and we were very blessed to have both Grandma and Grandpa Westover AND Rusty's family come to her baptism. She was soo beautiful in her white dress and we are Soo proud of her decision to be baptized.  She invited our Baptist neighbors to her baptism and they came! they then took a little tour of our building and asked lots of questions. Way to be a good missionary Brooklyn!

And to top it all of with fun they all got to stay for Christmas! BEST CHRISTMAS EVER! It was seriously so fun to watch all the kids open presents and see the special things they got.  WE played Games with Grandma and Grandpa. and played with the kids and watched out for Hyrum who had a facination with our tortoise and kept hiding her in her bedding or in the blankets of our bed. Tyson took Rusty Paddle Boarding on a warm day. Rusty took a lot of pictures which I will have to post later too.  Hyrum gave everybody "a kiss on the forhead which will turn into a star later" and Hannah stuck to the girls like glue.  Tanner was Rusty's buddy and wherever Rusty went, Tanner went too. 

Brooklyn's favorite gift was a real sewing machine. it's still small but works like a champ. When we discussed goals for the year Cristine said "I want to do jobs so I can earn money to buy a play dress" Brooklyn said "I want to learn to sew a play dress so I can sell it to Cristine!" Tyson got a guitar. I have loved the music filling my home with Tyson playing the guitar and Cristine on the piano. Brooklyn really really wants to learn the violin. We are becoming quite a musical and accomplished family! Our ordinary lives are starting to seem extraordinary!

I was called to be the Laurels Advisor in our ward.. which I LOVE! And as such us leaders have been asked to complete the personal progress program again, along with the girls. How fun! So I have been learning and trying new things lately. One of which is learning how to "do" my girls hair. After all, there are three girls in the house with pretty long hair! It has been so fun, so for your viewing pleasure here are some pictures. It's why we don't have pictures of christmas.. the camera was in the bucket of hair supplies ;)

These are the rag curls we did on the girls. I love that it looks like little bows while the hair is drying, but it makes for a tight spiraly curl.

Cristine's "up do" a pancake braid with twists

 A Waterfall Braid                                                                                                             a Lace Braid

 French pancake braids

 3 rosette buns

 Chignon with braids

 "hair bows" in a braid

 These are my absolute favorite.. they are no heat "sock curls" aren't they beautiful! I simply rolled their hair into socks (clean of course) and took them out the next morning! These curls stayed in all day too!

Hannah's Rag curls the next day.

If you want to know how to "do" these "do's" check out cutegirlshairstyles on youtube. We love you all!

Engineers and Car Repairs

Ok so there are a few facts about engineers that most people don't know about. 

1) They think they can fix ANYTHING!

2) They know SOMEONE can with enough time and money

3) But engineers are CHEAP!

4) And because they are cheap they WON'T pay someone else to fix their stuff

5) They like to RESEARCH things to get good deals

 Here is Ty's good deal: a $325.00 bumper cover primed and painted .

After getting (2) rediculous auto body quotes to repair our crunched bumper at a cost of $1100.00....Tyson found a local guy on ebay motors that custom paints bumper covers here in Houston.

 The bumper cover and trim took about and hour to get off.

 Even after looking at the weight savings, he determined that the new found fuel efficiency just looked bad so the new cover just had to be installed.

 So we all did our part to help him install the new bumper cover.

 Doesn't it look good!!??

Glam shot 1

Glam shot 2

Summer Highlights

Wow! It has been a whirlwind of a summer so far.  I consider April through July our summer months and August and September our "ultra- summer". And since it has been forever since I have updated my blog, I'll try to share our best highlights!

Tanner turned 6 in April (see it has been a loong time since I updated) He wanted a "cars" themed birthday. I was pretty proud of his cake. 

His birthday was a hard day for us as we "lost" Tanner. We walked his friend home after the birthday party a few blocks away, when Tanner suddenly dissapeared.  After a frantic search we discovered he had ran all the way home by himself because he thought we had already left when he didn't see us. (I was inside chatting with his friends mom). He had passed three neighbors who had seen him crying and running down the street but no one stopped to help him. What kind of world do we live in!? People are so afraid to stop and help anybody, and at the same time I was terrified he could have so easily been snatched up.  I had a very clear thought come to my mind that he had angels helping him home. I am so thankful for his safety. We sure love this little guy! He has lost his front tooth since this picture and looks adorable!

My Garden blossomed and grew llike crazy! We had tons of yellow squash, zuchini, and jalapeno's. I never did use my jalapenos though except for a few. I had no idea they would thrive so well here in this heat! 2 plants was way too many. We put out aluminum foil balls on the tomatoes to keep the birds away. and everything was hunk dory until ..... it rained and rained and rained and rained some more.

The garden soaked up ALL the rain and had no way to drain it out. my ruler here went in 5 inches without having to push. It killed all my plants :( But the good news is, since we live in Houston I can wait for things to cool off and start again around the end of August. After, I fix my drainage problem of course.  

After Girls camp we went on an adventure to Natural Bridge Caverns in San Antonio.  It was cool to see a cave that isn't in a mountain, but rather goes underground the flat surface on top. It was HUGE! We even saw a bat or two.  Brooklyn loved all the formations and couldn't get enough information, Tanner kept wanting to touch everything but I kept thwarting his plans and Cristine would rather have stayed outside in the sunshine and fresh air.  WE did find a fun new creature that enjoys adventures as much as we do. He already got to visit Grandma and Grandpa Earl, maybe you will see him soon too!

After experiencing all the rain this year we decided to pour a cement pad for our generator.   Didn't Ty do a good job?! It was a lot of work for something so small. 

I had my birthday and the kids suprised me (as much as kids can keep a secret) with a pet parakeet! Meet Sky and Bumble. Ty calls them Luke Skywalker and Hans Solo.  WE got bumble first (the green and yellow one) but he was very lonely and sad so we got sky and the two are best buddies.  I love to listen to them chirp and click and chatter.  They are a species of parrot and as such can make a multitide of sounds and will even learn to say a few things. Only in America are they called "parakeets", the rest of the world calls them Budgeriers or Budgies for short. I couldn't find much info for them until I typed "budgie" into google. :)

The fireworks we set off in our front yard! one of the best parts of living in Texas are our own Texas sized fireworks.

More rain and flooding! The Spring Creek that runs behind our house normally is anywhere from 3 feet to 4 at the deepest, but after a week of straight rain it rose to 29 feet high and caused quite a bit of flooding. This is the grass in our front yard 3 inches deep with rain. The creek never got to our yard, but you could easily see it from behind the house and normaly you have to walk through the woods to see it.  Ty's cement pad stayed high and dry! Thankfully is has lowered again and I am also thankful that our rivers and lakes are getting filled up from last years severe drought.  Houston is Not supplied by ground water, but instead it is piped directly from the lakes into the water plants. and last year they were draining other lakes into Lake Houston in an attempt to keep everyone supplied.

Brooklyn and I have been experimenting with more food ideas. I made her some safe donuts with a safe muffin recipe (rice flour, and pureed pears) and cooked them in a donut shaped pan! coat them with sugar and whalaa! Donuts!

I also got out my dehydrator and made some fruit roll ups made from just pears and sugar. they are now her favorite food. Her she is holding her "tomato chip" I sliced them very very thin with the slicer, dehydrate them until crisp and sprinkle them with sea salt.

She calls these "tom-aisins" They look just like craisins but they are dried grape tomatoes. I sprinkled a little sugar on them before I dried them and they are super yummy!

After our birds got used to us, we got them out of their cage and learned their favorite spot in the whole house is our kitchen, especially under the table.  We usually bring the kitchen chairs into the front room for them to play on, but they still run to the kitchen whenever they get a chance. Do they poop? of course! but only a drop or two and it is easily cleaned. We trained them to perch and a dowel when we say "step up" and they will run to the dowels when they want to get somewhere higher they can't jump to. Their wings are clipped right now. and Bumble will be happy to perch on my finger for about 30 seconds before he jumps off. 

Here is Sky singing songs to Brooklyn. If you listen carefully you can hear bumble also chirping from the background :)

They bob their heads when they are happy or excited.

Cristine turns 10 this week and I will post all about that soon as she needs her special day of feeling all grownup.

And The biggest change happening this summer? Tyson is leaving Halliburton to work for a small start up company called Navigate Energy Services (NES). We are not moving. It is only a mile or two away from Halliburton. But after much prayer, we feel this is a good choice. He will be the Program Manager over their MWD tools or "Measurement While Drilling" It will be a new adventure for sure! His last day at Halliburton is on Thursday and He starts his new job on Friday. Wish us luck!

Love to you all!