Wer'e still here!

I haven't uploaded any pictures from my camera yet- but some of you have been wondering how we have been, so while I take a moment to catch my breath here are a few things that we have been up to.

Brooklyn Turned 5 ! Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl! She didn't have a big party, but she did have a few friends come over to watch Tinkerbell. Instead of trying to come up with treats and a safe cake, I made a paper one out of cardstock- it was made up of individual boxes that looked like a slice of cake- they opened on the top and were filled with smarties, rings, necklaces and lip gloss. The best part is that she still has a piece or two left of "birthday cake' and she can still enjoy it!

Tyson put pontoons onto his airplane to go fly it on the water- he was doing very well until he flew right into a tree hanging over the water! Luckily there was a couple of very nice guys out walking their dog who volunteered to climb up the tree and shake the plane down. They then got a Kayak and rescued it out of the water for us. WOW what awesome good samaritans!

Cristine had her class party today- which turned out very well thanks to some wonderful helpers who brought a lot of stuff for me. Another Mom even stayed up late last night making snowmen out of marshmallows. Brooklyn and Tanner ran around the room making friends and in general having a great time.

Cristine got to go to the Orthopedist (bone doctor) to find out that her back pain is probably caused by the curving as it is growing (darn genetics) unfortunatly she has both Kyphosis (curving front to back) and Scoleosis (curving side to side) Poor Thing - we are keeping a close eye on her back and taking it easy for a few weeks.

Tanner is a three year old boy, and still gets into EVERYTHING. WE have decided once again to take away all pens, markers, crayons, highlighters, pencils, stamp pads, glue, gluesticks, lip gloss, playdough, or anything else which may make a mark on the floors, carpets, walls and windows. It usually doesn't last very long. I am not sure why he doesn't like paper, maybe for CHristmas he needs something he can destroy and put back together again :)

I will post pictures, when I get around to it...Sooon.....maybe...

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

There has never been two years in a row (in recorded History) that Houston has gotten snow, until NOW!

WE got a cold front come down from the north and some wet come up from the gulf to give us a short snow storm yesterday. Except for one evening last year, it hasn't snowed for 5-6 years here. I was helping at tthe school when it started and ALL the kids came pouring out of classrooms so they could see the snow out of the big glass doors. The teachers were letting kids stick their hands out so they could feel it. Ty called and said that the guys at work were out running in it like kids! , but as much fun as it was- Houston has NO idea what to do with the white stuff! It never stuck to the ground where we were, but schools closed early and even ty was sent home from work early so everyone could get out of the snow! Today all traces are gone and it is supposed to get back into the 70's by later next week, but it was sure fun!

Trying to get a sock over brooklyn's cast to keep her fingers warm
jumping in the snow with daddy! It was the only place it didn't melt right away!

Thanksgiving Guests

Yahoo! Brent Jenny and the kids braved the 14 1/2 hour drive to our house from Kansas just to see us! WE had so much fun having them here! WE hadn't seen them since adam was a month old and now he almost 2! All of our kiddos have gotten so much bigger. I think Ruth Ann was in little girl paradise and Tanner found someone else who liked to be superman with. It is a good thing Ty remembered to take these pictures- because the rest of the time we had so much fun we forgot the camera. On Thanksgiving day ty took the boys out to go fly his plane and ended up stuck in the mud. So we gto to have them rescued and Jake got to see huge Pig tracks in the mud.

WE also got to bring home the school Fire Bellied Toads for the break. It was quite an adventure to feed and care for them. They ate live Crickets (that were quite noisy). When we each fed them a cricket the big toad caught ate them both- so we put in a new one for the other toad and the big toad got that one too! So we had to seperate them to feed them after that. Uncle Brent said it was like swallowing Three Thanksgiving Turkeys! We were glad they made it back to school alive.

Brooklyn's Arm

Brooklyn was wrestling with her daddy and she tripped over his legs right onto her elbow...OUCH!

So we took her to the ER to get it checked, and sure enough it was broken. She was the saddest little girl. They put it in a splint overnight and we got it in the cast the next day. The orthopedist said she broke both the ulna AND the radius. The ulna was in place but the radius was at a 30 degree angle. If she was older they would need to surgically set it, but thanks to her being young and still growing, they said that space will fill in with new bone. Wow! WE are hoping they can take it off just before Christmas.

Oh yeah, this was after tanner Put an epi pen through his finger- then smashed the same finger (had to get x-rays on that too) and got a black eye! WHAT KIND OF PARENTS ARE WE??? A big Thankyou to our own parents who had even more kids and managed to keep us all alive as well as happy and healthy :) (spill the beans...how did you do it?)

Back to Normal!

It turns out that we have quite a few people we WANT checking our blog- but they are having a hard time with it being private. Sorry ! So we decided to make is normal again. It still will not show up on any search engines- but you can check it any time you want!!!! PLEASE CHECK OFTEN!! The plus side: If you follow us on your own blog is won't still say "happy birthday tyson and rusty" anymore :)

9 yrs...and going...

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday was our nine year wedding anniversary. It has gone by sooo fast! It is a good thing we have eternity or else by the end of our lives when we are old- it will seem as if we blinked and missed it all. I laugh at the idea now of saying "what are our plans for the next five years?" because in the last nine years NOTHING we have planned on actually happened that way - and we never imagined we would be living in southern texas right now. I am soo blessed to be married for time and eternity to my best friend. Heavenly Father sure knew what he was doing when he put us together. So just for fun: Let me tell you a few tid bits of what we have done in the last nine years!

Tyson was my home teacher for the summer at Ricks College, ( he was the very best home teacher), we started dating in september, we were engaged two weeks later, and married two months later on november 18th 2000 , I originally didn't want to date at Ricks because "everyone who dates there gets married" --until I met Ty and I changed my mind ;)

It was very cold and snowy in Idaho that day- we got married in the Idaho Falls temple and when we got pictures outside, eveyone was bundled in coats, except for the bride and groom! (we were so happy- we didn't notice).

We have three kids born in 2002, 2004, and 2006.

Not planned that way- but it does make it easier to remember when they were born. and they were all born in Idaho Falls.

We spent our first summer living in Tri- Cities washington selling Living Scriptures Door to Door. Since then we have lived in Rexburg, ID, Idaho Falls ID, Ammon ID, Blackfoot ID, Pocatello ID, Casper WY(rented a house, then bought a house), Vernal UT (an apartment, then a house), Spring Tx, just don't ask about the hotels we have lived in too- the list grows longer.

WE have visited at least five different dinosaur museums- it seems they are everywhere! We have learned something special about all the places we have lived. We have had everything from deer and antelope to wild pigs and armadillos in our yards.

We have survived weather temperatures that range from -18, up to 110.

We have gotten older and gained more weight- although no one seems to notice ;) SO I guess it's okay! (but I have not gained ANY height, (I may , in fact, be a little shorter so no one is allowed to check))

"So What do we try to imagine the next few years will bring??" WE have NO idea - but we know we will be doing it together.

OUCH!

For your information- I do not just let my kids play with epi-pens, but seeing as how - if you need them- you need them immediatly they are NEVER locked or left up too high,but they do stay in my bag inside another bag that we carry around. But so far the threat of a fast acting needle being injected automaticly into your skin has make my kids scared enough to stay away. UNTIL LAST NIGHT !!!! Tanner came screaming up to me with a bleeding hand. After looking around we saw this............ an injected EPI PEN! After doing our own little triage and deciding he was fine, we all calmed down and proceeded to clean him up.

The needle had gone in through the middle of his finger and out the bottom. we think it may have hit his knuckle bone because the tip of the needle came out bent.
So where did he get it? Cristine is required to carry one in her backpack for the school bus. I will need to think of a new solution for keeping it out of harms way but still very quickly and easily accesible. ANy Ideas??????

in case you missed it...

Check out our flaming pumpkins! Who knew Mold was flammable? just kidding, we actually ran out of candles the night before hallloween and wanted to see them lit up- so we improvised HAHA

Enjoying the Seasons

So I will admit to everyone I know that I truly LOVE christmas. But, I also LOVE Thanksgiving. This is my favorite time of the year when everyone stops to think about others and reflect on all the things they are thankful for. It kind of Irks me when I saw the christmas tree up at the store the day after halloween (we even saw them decorating it BEFORE halloween) I like to take the time to enjoy each season and holiday as it was meant for. I love the food and smells of thanksgiving and having family and friends get together. That said- Christmas Music is my exception. I personally think we should listen to christmas music all year (and I do:) ) I like to sit and think about my savior and how his coming changed the world. So in honor of the HOLIDAYS- I have created a playlist of a few of my most favorite songs for you to listen to while you browse our blog. In fact you may have to start begging me by January 31st to change them ;) Thay are set to shuffle randomly. SO turn up the sound sit back with a cup of hot cocoa (stirred with a peppermint cnadycane) and enjoy for a few minutes of relaxation!

A SAFER Halloween Party

When we moved to Texas, we were greatly blessed with many opportunities--better doctors, a good job, a nice house, and very good school for Cristine, (etc..etc...)but one of my favorites is being close to a Food Allergy Support Group called SAFER HOUSTON. I got the opportunity to volunteer my time to organize a safe , food free halloween party for the group. It was so fun! I got to meet even more moms with kids who have food allergies and my kids got to play and have a great time without worrying about "anything". We had a few "glitches" like every event does- but overall everyone had a great time. It is very good for me to remember that there are others who have even more allergies than we do, somebody, somewhere always has a more difficult situation. I am thankful that I have been blessed with a good understanding and additude towards ours. And I am also thankful for these other moms who truly understand. If it wasn't for these mom, I probably would not have brooklyn's diagnosis yet.

Of course we had a pumpkin contest! SO the night beofre we carved our hearts out and came up with these two. The kids thougth it was extremely gross, They never seem to remember what it was like the year before ;) WE got rewarded a "spooky" and "Creative"- Not Bad!

I love this face!

Don't forget if you are carvingpumpkins this year (and are not already using the seeds ;) ) then send them to us!

Plane adventures

Tyson got a Remote Control Airplane for his birthday -called the SUPERCUB! IT has been quite an adventure. I love to go as a family to the school and we all watch his plane as he flies it around. Everyonce in a while he will drop an item with a parachute, and the kids run to see who can catch it, but unfortunatly I don't think their depth perception is very good, because no one ever does ;) Once we used Tanners small plastic alligator- he thought the world was going to end when he saw it drop from the sky- we only used it once. Tanner loves to go with his Dad to get the plane after it lands and he follows after him- it is soo cute!

WE try to stay where there is a large field, knowing that with all of the woods around, it may never come back again if we lose sight of it. Ty got pretty confident however and tried the street in front of our house. He did really good until he flew the plane right into the top of this tree (the one just to the left of the lightpole). He had a momentary lapse of depth perception as well. It sat for a few days while we tried to get it down. Ty even called a professional tree climber, but the Professional thought that traveling from minnesota to Texas was just too far. HAHA. One morning he drove by and there was his plane- still stuck in the branch- at the bottom of the tree! Someone had actually cut the entire branch down and set it there! We don't know who our friendly tree climber was, but we are sure grateful.

There wasn't too much damage, but enough that Ty got to fix it up again, which he says is half the fun! I am amazed at what he can fix. Last week , he took apart our broken charger for our keyboard and scraped and sautered stuff onto the circuit board and fixed it! I am a lucky lady to be married to an electrical engineer!

I tried to post some videos, but my computer is having problems with uploading them tonight, I will try agian later.

Table is Done!

Didn't it turn out pretty? It took more work than I could have possibly imagined...(Strip of Poly Eurothane, Sand, sand,sand, Use Wood Conditioner, Stain, Wipe, Stain, and reaply Poly Eurothane) but WE DID IT! I will do the chairs next, but only one at a time, so we can still sit and eat.

Family Photos 2009

YAHOO! We got our disk in the mail today filled with tons of pictures my friend took for us! She did such a beautiful job. I especially love all the different color options and different angles. I put them in a video so it is easier to see them all. Look for some in the mail coming to you soon- maybe for christmas ;)

It's Halloween time!

What are your plans???

Yes...Again...

I had a good friend post a comment on how we got our information stolen..so for anyone who wants something to read because you are bored, interested, or want to learn form our mistakes here ya go!

YOu would think after the first time we woud be smarter huh. We first Had our credit Card number stolen when I ordered some DVD's for Ty's birthday last year on the internet. ( the old dexters laboratory from cartoon network ;) - which we still never got ) And it turned out to be a bogus site- even though it said it was secure. We found out because we got a package for a coffee subscription that came to our house, complete with coffee maker and gourmet coffees. With a bill for a monthly subscription to a gourmet coffee club. Obviously we did not order this so we called the company who helped us trace down who ordered it. The person who had ordered started with small music purchases to see if we noticed (we didn't) so then went for a small monthly item - but forgot to have the item shipped to a different address than the billing address. Lesson Learned: DOn't order stuff on the internet until you can guarantee the site is good, and check your accounts often for small purchases you did not make. (apparently good theives do not go on shopping sprees, they milk it out as long as they can with small stuff not noticed)

When our e-mail got hacked it wasa because of "Windows Live" we never had a problem with hotmail until they started that- you can google it and see a lot of people got hacked into. So we deleted our contacts so they (whoever it is) could not keep sending people stuff from our account...but we have kept the account open for now because we still keep getting a few e-mails from important places or people and we want to be sure they don't get lost in the shuffle. whoever broke into our account has now been looking through all of our old e-mail looking for information. Ty had a work credit card from american expreess- he used the same account name and password as our e-mail- so once they found that out it was easy to request the card information. luckily we were still checking that e-mail and caught it before they could use it. Lesson Learned- NEVER use the same account name and password for important things as you would on say...e-mail or facebook, etc...and we need to not only delete the contacts list , but also all of the old e-mails.

So there you have it!
Anyone else have an expereince to share we can all learn from ..or just some plain simple good advice?

Pictures and the blog

Whe we were on vacation in Utah Igot to catch up with my roommate from Ricks- It was soo awesome to be able to see her again and meet her family. SHe also got some wonderful family pictures for us. What lucky people we are to have such talented friends! Tysons friend Tyler has also done family pictures for us in the past. And they both are wonderful! Check out a few of them here: photographyblogbyannie.blogspot.com They make me wan tto go out an get a fancy camera- even though I know that there is soo much more to good photography than a good camera. It is still tempting.
Also having our information stolen once again from the internet, We have decided to make our blog a private one...sorry, I know it is SO much easier to check when it isn't, but considering all of the family information on here, we are trying it out.

Happy Birthday Tyson and Rusty

My hubby turns 31 today- Wow He is OLD! Just kidding ;) and being an identical twin, Rusty is OLD too! Happy Birthday Guys! Whe we were in Utah Erik got him really excited about flying model airplanes. So I got him one for his b-day- it is called the supercub (he ordered it - but I pretended to give him permission ) I am sure we will have plenty of pictures to post very soon. It came in a BIG box yesterday and the kids spent an hour wrapping it all by themselves. It was soo cute how they were very careful to use plenty of tape and take turns. And it took them all of 10 seconds to unwrap it with ty this morning.

Every once in a while I get caught up in a project, a new book, or blogging and ty will say " Is my name in that book?, or blog, or project, etc...) So here are some things we all love about Tyson!
He loves to get his Subaru Dirty and wash the car often
"Mountain Biking is essential for good health, and stress relief"
He loves to play wrestle mania with his kids
He has a VERY strong testimony and is a good missionary
He is very sympathetic to others- he loves to tell me "The kids have baby sized feelings"
He is a Wonderful, Caring, Handsome hubby!
He works very hard, and it shows at work and at home

He loves to learn new things, and never waits around for someone to teach him- he will take the time to learn himself.
He is a perfectionist, and uses it wisely
He is very honest
He talks to Rusty one the phone EVERYDAY- sometimes more
He is a true friend and values good friendships- ones that last for lifetimes
He forgives and forgets quickly
He has a good sense of humor and makes me laugh everyday-I can never stay mad at him.


The kids say:
Daddy is sooo Cool!
Daddy is handsome and kind
Daddy Fun!

a Very short version of our family vacation

We had a fantastic vacation. If you would prefer to just see the video- here it is: but if you like I have more below.

The plane rides were very interesting, Tanner did not enjoy ANY moment of it. He prefers looking at them from the ground. On the way home he screamed during the takeoff and wouldn't stop until Tyson held him. The girls did okay, but got bored with movies, treats, coloring, going potty on the plane, etc.. VERY quickly. The first thing we did when we got out of the airport was take a breath of fresh air-soooo nice! And look out, seeing for miles. The sense of calm at "seeing the big picture" helped get us through the 2 hour wait for a rental car ;)

It was sooo fun to hear the kids playing with their cousins. My goal was to see if I could get my nieces and nephews to like me- Danielle was a breeze, since her Mom and Dad let me hold her all I wanted. What a piece of heaven- it was hard to let her go. Cason took a while longer, but I won him over in the end. That age is soo fleeting and the next time I see them they will be so much bigger, and I savored every moment. If any of my siblings or friends want to lend out their kids for a weekend, my house is available. Monday we got to see my roommate from college too! She took pictures for us at garder village. Then went to her house and got se meet her family. It brought back so many memories, and it is good to know we still have good friends

Steven and Camille took us to see the new oqirrh mountain temple. What an amazing place! From the over look you can see 4 different temples at the same time. WE saw Gramma and Grampa and love their little apartment. We made sure to play shanghia and brought home the instructions. Tyler and Jessica let us have a BBQ at their house so we could get caught up with all of our friends and their families. We met them later in the week at pocatello to have a campfire. Cool! The kids loved yellowstone. We saw Old Faithful, The IMAX, the Bear and wolf discovery center, and some buffalo. Then we got to have an Earl FAmily Party for Juan- who thankfully found our car keys to the rental car. On the way back we stopped by patti and pauls and were shocked to see how tall their kids are getting. What a sweet family, they played and played with my kids. And we stayed with the gundersens one last night and got loaded up with all kinds of crafts and goodies. A trip to Elizabeths fills my spirit every time. WOW! And I don't think that is half of it! There just isn't space or time to tell it all- and we didn't get the camera out near enough. WE were so busy having fun -it got forgotten- so If you don't see yourself in the video- it is because we were talking too much, playing too much and enjoying the moment too much to get a quick photo.

Answers and Questions

in that order please...because sometimes in life the answers you get means there are more questions to ask. WE finally know brooklyn's diagnosis: Eosinopholic Gastroenteritis. Think it is hard to pronounce? so did we...

So WHAT IS IT???

It is an autoimmune disease. When she eats food- her body is reacting to it and causing damage to her esophagus and stomach, so the body sends and abnormal amount of eosinophils (white blood cells) to the area. When the area is infiltrated with eosinophils, the body is on constant alert, thinking that every thing she swallows is harmful. (To be clear- it is NOT caused by food allergies, although people often have both. However, food is the most common "trigger". It is her body saying "I am angry and upset with everything for no reason" with food allergies the body sees a specific protein and identifies it as a harmful substance and attacks it with IGE antibodies. It is her body saying "I don't like you because of something" So an allergy test will help identify what foods are causing an allergic reaction and is extremely helpful in keeping her safe from an anaphylactic reaction, but will not identify which foods her body just "doesn't like")

Having any eosinophils in your esophagus is abnormal. For people with acid reflux causing damage, they may have around 5-10. Above 20 is the cutoff for eosinophilic diseases. and depending on where they accumulate is where the disease is such as E. Esophogitis, E Gastroenteritis, or E Colitis. Brooklyn's esophagus had 39, her stomach had 34 and just around her duodenum she had 257.

To treat her right now we are starting with corticosteriods (budesonide). to help her body "calm down" and not "hate everything coming down the tube". WE might also so some more allergy testing to see if there is a reaction we don't know about that is aggrivating the EG. Beyond that - we will try to identify which foods are causing the most pain and eliminate those from her diet. Some kids go on an elemental formula diet (amino acids only) for a while so their body can heal and then try one food at a time- since that is very extreme we will try the corticosteroids and eliminating foods first and go from there.

How do I feel about this? Hmmmmmmm. Justified (I am not a crazy mom, nor is brooklyn just trying to get attention), Relieved - that we finally have some answers, Overwhelmed - it is a Lot to take in and change in our lives. so much to learn...again...I should be a doctor by now. Yesterday I was calm, this morning I cried, we will see what tomorrow brings.

On the good side: WE had a fantastic vacation that I will post about VERY soon!! Tyson is baing made a project manager at work. The school has been so wonderful with CRistin's allergies I haven't even stressed or worried about it. Oh- and our Security sytems are in check- as we found out last night when both of our cars got broken into (nothing got taken- the screaming alarm on the car and house scared them off pretty quick). Whoo Hoo! Check back soon to see all about our vacation!

here is a pre view:

Links to check out to read more : www.apfed.org http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/174100

or just google eosinophilic gastroenteritis

Family Update

Hello All who check our blog ;) (I hope everyone does) Here is an update on US!
Tyson: is doing a great job at work and is getting assigned new projects that are keeping him busy. His last prototype is still in the works of being changed a little and then finished. He is also working on learnign how to write the software for a new graphic LCD screen- This is way cool -he brings it home and shows me all kinds of stuff he is learning- He is also inventing a bike accessory- it will be an LCD screen you mount on your bike that will give you your speed, teperature, humidity, altitude, distance, time. etc... COOL! go ty!

Suzanne: I have been getting more done on refinishing my kitchen table- I am just about ready to start staining it- I am way excited about it! i also broke my tooth last night- yikes! It was the first one I got the root canal on- we hadn't gotten it crowned yet- because I had another tooth that needed a root canal first-The whole corner broke off - down to the gums- then bled for a little while- I think I may just get it yanked out and be done with it for now. I'm not sure what else to do :( What was I eating that broke it? Bacon! Watch out pork lovers- it's more dangerous than youthink ;)

Cristine: started school this week. She is now in first grade. Her teacher is mrs. chatfield and she is currently on maternity leave as she had a baby three weeks ago. So mrs. Kennedy is her teacher for a few weeks. Her school nurse is going above and beyond her job title to keep kids safe- including cristine- she is WONDERFUL! There are 9 students this year at broadway elementary with peanut allergies and even one on a feeding tube. EVERY teacher is trained on the epi -pen - her bus driver came down to the school to meet cristine in person and to be trained. WE are so blessed. Of course she loves school, but is struggling with getting up in the morning.

Brooklyn: had her endoscopy done this morning at Texas Childrens Hospital. She was very very brave. The sedative made her a little "out of it" for a while afterwards. I was told that kids usually talk a lot during this time about what they dream about or hear often so "don't be surprised if you hear them say bad words" Brooklyn instead talked about sewing me a pretty dress- because she is a good sewer. It also gave her double vision for a little bit- she was just starting to wake up and became facinated with her thumb (it had the glow thing that checks your ogygen) she said "It's glowing like a fairy!" Then she said with amazement- " And I have two thumbs!" We should have the result of the biopsies some time next week.

Tanner: Has been teasing his sisters a whole lot lately as he is trying soo hard to get their attention. He wants to join the "girl games" soo badly. I am always reminding the girls to let him join... He has not had an allergic reaction since last week and I am content with that for now. We can find out what he is allergic to later, when it becomes more clear as to what he may be allergic to. Tanenr is also potty trained now! I have not used or bought any diapers or pullups for 5 weeks now- and he stays dry during the night too! WHoo Hoo! GO TANNER!

Giveaway

Sooo, I have never been lucky with winning givaway items or contests- in fact I NEVER win- but if there is a good time it is now-- A very sweet and ingenious friend in my ward has her own couponing blog www.theivanovskys.blogspot.com she calls her litter of six. I check her blog EVERYDAY and even attended her coupon class. She posts the best deals. She is hosting a givaway for a coupon binder- that is excellent in itself- but is then filling it with coupons and the baseball card holders and stuff! Here's hoping!

George the Frog

So here is an update of this week so far!...Brooklyn found some scissors (which wasn't too hard unfortunatly) and cut her hair- she said she wanted to pretend she had short hair-- I don't think she understood it is permanent until it grows out again--SO I took the kids to Great Clips and we all got hair cuts (except tanner). Brooklyn got a cute "bob", mine just got trimmed and Cristine got layers cut to help her bottom curls shine through! WOW! Could two girls' hair be any different from eachother? Believe it or not- cristine's curl is all natural- brooklyn had curly hair when she was a baby and it all fell out- yes I cried.

Brooklyn reminds me soo much of Grandma Earl (tysons mom)- she had a short bob and ran around the farm with her brothers growing up. Brooklyn is soo much like her- I could just let her play outdoors in a garden all day and she would be soo happy!

"Look out first grade boys!"

Later we went to the park and as I was watching tanner "drive" the play equipment with a giant steering wheel- something wet and slimy landed in my hair- gross! It turned out to be a little frog about the size of a nickle. Soooo, I caught him and brought him home for my kids to torture- I mean- to learn about. They named him "George" but to tanner he will always be "frog"

WE played for an hour or so and then told george "goodnight" and let him go in the backyard.

Tanner has had an allergic reaction needing benadryl EVERYDAY so far this week and tonight he projectile vomited his chocolate milk again (on me of course) He suddenly said there was a bee in his mouth and out dinner came- then he was fine. It is time to call the allergist- poor little guy.

Brooklyn had her appt. with the Gastroenterologist at Tx Childrens Hospital yesterday. WE ran a few ideas around and decided a scope was definitly needed for a diagnosis of any kind. She is scheduled for an endoscopy next Friday (the 28th). It shouldn't be hard on her- we are just praying for answers to be found. The doctor asked her to show him some ballet and she said "no- you are a boy- and that is a girl thing"

While we were waiting in the room tanner brought me a Dr. Suess Book in Spanish- I said "Sorry Tanner I don't know how to read this book" Brooklyn said:

"Mom, I know spanish...Ni Hou!"

Me: "I'm pretty sure that is japanese"

Brooklyn: "mom- you just don't "get" spanish---ALoha!"(as in goodbye aloha) ;)

then she ran off to go count the fish..Uno, Dos, Tres...

Mystery Reaction

Last year Tanner had an allergic reaction to...something... We still have no idea what. At the time the allergist decided it was Ideopathic Uticaria (because all his allergy tests were negative) or in other words...Hives that come and go for no reason "na na na na na na". But since then he has had no problems. But now I am pretty sure he is allergic to something. A couple of weeks ago our babysitter called to tell us tanner was throwing up everywhere after giving him some chocolate milk- a few days later he threw up when we gave him yogurt- I would say 'milk' except he drinks milk and eats cheese daily with no problem- so maybe he is lactose intolerant? possibly- who knows. We wait and see- then sunday morning He got up before we did (so I only have the words of tanner and cristine as to what happened) he got a carrot and cristine opened a small bag of potato chips for him- then came to tell us that tanner was very itchy. Here are his hives.

They did get worse after this and spread very quickly to his feet and hands. but we were too busy getting him taken care of and watching him to get more pics.

So, I think it was something on the stool he climbed on as there were no hives around his face or mouth...and they were mostly clustered around his knees and arms... again the answers continue to allude us. We haven't taken anything out of his diet- and he continues to eat fine. ideas??

REVENGE!

Tyson was out yesterday mowing the lawn for me when he bumped the fence by a hornet nest. They decided to get revenge for disturbing their morning naps and he got stung on the cheek. Ouch! So I took revenge back on them (instead of turning the other cheek) and sprayed their home with nasty poison to kill them all.

Yeah...Don't mess with me ;)

The Prototype

Is this cool or what?! WOW!

The Inside

With the handle off
Handle off and "plugged" into the tool

I am way impressed! My hubby is soo smart! He designed this project from scratch- from designing the circuit board, building it , programing the microchip, and getting the metal outside made custom. The next one will be a little smaller.

Our BIG Dragon fly

We were out talking to our neighbors last night and when we got back to our house- we looked in the garage and thought we saw a small bird hanging out by the light- but no- it was a GIGANTIC dragonfly- if you are reading this and you are from texas- this may not surprise you. but for us - this thing was a monster- or a "dragon" among flies ;)

Don't be fooled- ty is actually holding the wrench at least 6" closer than the dragon fly- we wanted to show how big it was!

The black case on the right is 10-12 inches tall. That makes the dragon fly about 5- 6 inches