Family Reunion 2012

 Here's our fun reunion t-shirts, each one carefully crafted by Wayne, Monique, and Samuel. This was right before church.

So we went to St. George at the end of May because my mom was in charge of a small family reunion, with just her siblings, their spouses, and kids (my cousins.) I think there were about 50 people. Actually there were probably more, but I'll leave my guess at that.

On Friday everyone started gathering in St. George. We had to take Ella to the ER on Saturday morning because she had gone from bad reflux (thanks to a total overload of Cheetoh puffs: (CORNMEAL!) which lead to laryingitis which turned into Croup. She was having enough trouble breathing that we had to take her in, and they gave her two breathing treatments, and a shot (steroids). She stayed sick for the rest of the weekend but started to cheer up around Monday.

On Saturday, the girls went to a morning temple session, with my newly-endowed cousin Monique, who is going to be serving a mission in Australia soon.  

Then all the family that was there, adults and children alike, met at the St. George Carousel and took a ride- we filled up the ENTIRE thing (and half the family hadn't arrived yet.) It was fun, although chilly and windy. 

We ate lunch, played games, and went swimming in a 90 degree heated pool (neighbors house) and then had a rad BBQ, and one of my favorite things, the guys and the girls who wanted to play

had a family basketball game. These games are very competitive, and always end in some blood and injuries. 

Saturday night was more card came, and a game of Settlers. I won two games while I was there. I was having a good Settlers weekend. :D

Sunday we had a yummy brunch of breakfast burritos, a tribute devotional to my mom's parents that have both passed away, the ones that started this huge family, and then we went to church. Samuel and I sang our duet "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" in my moms ward. 

After church and a quick meal, we packed up and headed about 45 minutes away to the Esplin family cabins on the Arizona Strip- it's actually in Cane Beds, Arizona, if you want to see it on a map. It's just MINUTES past Colorado City, which is the city of polygamist families and their enormous, unfinished houses. It's always fascinating to drive through there. 

Everyone just hung out and visited and ate and played games and rode four-wheelers. It was beautiful weather. The cabin was WAAAAAY too small to fit lots of people in for the night, so some slept in tents or in air mattresses in the back of vans/trucks.

I forgot to take pictures for the first half of the reunion, but here's some from the Arizona Strip- in random order of course.

 This was me trying to eat a S'more, keep Ella out of the fire, and help Annie (who fell and hurt her foot shortly after this pic...) This was my only S'more and my only time by the fire. Too many other things to do.

 Titan is actually in a Baby Bjorn carrier, but this cracked me up.  It got a bit chilly after the sun went down. I love that squishy little baby.

 Here's where Samuel and the girls slept- in our tent on the porch, on a big fat airbed. I got to sleep in my grandmas "Luxury Cabin" (not the one in these pictures) because I had a baby that needed a quiet pack-n-play.

 Most of the girls did their hair "polygamist" style, so that when they went into the store in Colorado City, they wouldn't stick out so much. BAHAHAHAHAHA, I love this pic. I'm not in it, I was too busy playing cards.

 Bring on the S'mores.

 Look at that beautiful background.

 Love my brother Jonny! So fun to spend time with him. He taught us the coolest Argentine card game.

 You can't really tell, but that's my baby sis Kimmy, and cousins Heidi and Monique.

Ella's Talking!

 As you might have guessed, Ella has become INSISTENT that she feed herself. And this is the result. (She is still eating baby food since it is easiest/fastest way for me to feed her with all these food allergies.)

 Trying to get a drink out of the Slip-n-slide

ELLA IS TALKING LIKE CRAZY THESE DAYS!! Here's how our morning went:

Kalia got her out of bed this morning at 8 a.m. and brought her into my room. Ella came over to my bed and said, "Up!" I picked her up and gave her a big kiss.  I got out of bed and we went into the kitchen and she signed milk and said, "Maow", so I started to get her bottle, but first she saw the light switch and reached for it and said, "Off" (even though she says that when she wants to turn it on or off.) So I let her turn it on, then I got her bottle and took her back to my bed where we snuggled while she drank it.  Then she said, "Dow" as she turned around and went backward (feet first) off my bed. A minute later she came back into my room with a package of rice crackers in her hand. I wasn't sure how she'd gotten them, maybe Kalia helped? Anyway, she handed me the cracker and said, "Cackuh". Then she said, "Up!" again and i helped her get up on the bed. Then I ripped open the package and gave her two little pieces of cracker, and to my great surprise she said, "Take-oo" (thank you...first time she's said it un-prompted.) I giggled a little, and then Annie came running in with a different kind of cracker, and Ella rubbed her little chest (signing please) and said, "Pea! Pea! Pea!" She really wanted Annie's cracker, and I told Annie (and Ella) no, she had to wait til after breakfast. So I got out of bed again and went into the kitchen to make eggs. I put Ella in the high chair. She signed "drink" and also said "dee!" and so I gave her a cup of almond milk (a brand new development, SO glad she can have this! She LOVES it!) Then I made breakfast for the girls, and asked Kalia to bless the food. Ella immediately folded her arms. This girl pays attention to whats going on. I love it. We gave Ella some more cracker to keep her busy, and after about 5 minutes she starts shaking both hands and saying, "Ah-duh...ah-duh" (all done.) And so I get her out and  she notices a picture of her, Kalia, and  Annie on the fridge. She points to herself and says (Perfectly) "El-la."  and then she points at Annie and says (perfectly, as of 2 days ago,) "Ann-ee."  And then she points to Kalia and mumbles something I can't understand. Then I put her down she goes and finds a huge ball and brings it in to me and says, "Bah!"  so I take it and roll it away and she runs off to get it.  I remind myself to go write all this down, since I am kind of baffled at how many words she has used in one morning (seems like way more than usual!) and she comes and finds me, says, "Up!" and so I lift her up on my lap, and she tries to start typing. I hold her little arms back and she giggles and points with her little finger at the laptop and says, "No! No! No!"   So I give her my cell phone to keep her hands busy, and she immediately puts it to her ear and says, "Herro" (it's exactly how Scooby Doo sounds when he says "hello"- it's hilarious.)  She says it over and over, puts it to my ear, says "herro" over and over until I say hello back.  Soon she gets down and plays with her sisters. They make her laugh like crazy. They are finally starting to interact quite a bit with each other and it warms my heart.  When Ella comes back, she smells like rotten eggs (thanks to those rice crackers) so I take her to the bedroom to change her diaper.  She sees the package of diapers and I tell her to "grab a diaper" and she says, "Bi-pah" for diaper. Then she sees a picture of Jesus on the wall, and like she has been doing a lot lately, she says, "Gi-gi! Gi-gi!" for Jesus.

Another thing she has been doing is that she constantly says, "Mama!" to get my attention. Like even when we're driving. She figured out that I will always say, "What?" And so it makes me really feel like she's trying to communicate. She LOVES to look at family pictures. She also talks about "Daddee" a lot, and when he was out of town for a few days, she kept randomly saying his name- I figured she was wondering where he was. So she just turned 14 months old and she's talking like crazy. That's the latest on her.

May Journal Entry

Hmm...so, it's been awhile. Things have actually been going pretty well, except for one minor setback. Here's the latest:
My house has been much cleaner and my mood has been so much happier. I have learned how important it is to keep up with the maintenance and don't let it get too overwhelming.

I am getting better sleep at night, falling asleep easily and waking up easily, and feeling very well rested during the day. My kids are sleeping through the night again and even though I had to bribe Kalia and Annie to stay in their beds (major bribes- donuts, Reese's puffs, and these silly candy binky things, but finally it worked, and they stayed in their beds all night for 9 days in a row. Then the rewards stopped, and Kalia woke me up 3 times last night trying to get in bed with us. I promised cookie dough tomorrow if they stay in their beds all night.

Ella is getting a little sassy, but it's mostly still cute. I found a wonderful probiotic that has helped more than anything else. It's a powder called L. Reuteri, and I ordered it from vitacost.com. It seems to be allowing her to eat a lot more foods as long as she is getting that specific strain of bacteria into her gut. I am so grateful for it. She LOVES to say "No" and she says it with some real feeling. She is also climbing like a little monkey, and I can't hardly keep her from climbing up on the table and running across it.  She is having a little vocabulary burst again and finally started saying words that I've been telling her to say forever- "Up" when she wants to be picked up, "milk" when she wants her bottle, and she started trying to sign "ow" or hurt, which is always good to know, with her tummy troubles. She also recently started saying "eat" (and signs it at the same time) and then she goes and chooses a jar of baby food and brings it to me. Three times in a row she chose the same kind- sweet potato and zucchini. Could she possibly have done that on purpose? She also very clearly said, "Help" the other day when she needed help. That was the first time (we've been working on the sign, but she decided to just start saying it instead)

 She is down to one nap and so she goes to bed really early. Usually at 6:30 but one time it was 6.  She is also trained really well around the pool. I can just sit in a chair and let her walk around, and even get in by herself at the stairs. She won't try to get in anywhere else, and she won't get off the stairs. Of course I can't take my eyes off her for a second, but it's nice to be able to sit in the shade. She is also a huge book-lover, and several times a time I will find her in her sisters' room sitting on the floor reading books. As soon as I sit down, she will choose a book, and turn around and back herself up right into my lap and have me read to her. Then she'll get up, choose another book, back herself up into my lap again, and start over. I have definitely noticed the vocabulary bursts corresponding with an increase in reading books. It's as good as the experts say.

Samuel is doing great in school and is ROCKING his prerequisites for his nursing program. He only has to take microbiology this summer, and might work as a CNA, since he just got certified to do that. He loves what he is learning and retains it so well. He starts the hardcore nursing classes in the fall. He isn't working, and his only real estate deal fell through, and his new one won't pay out for 6 months, so we are flat broke, if you must know.

This week my wallet and purse was either freakishly lost, or stolen from the parking lot of costco, or from my car. I don't know which it is, but it was beyond devastating to me. In my wallet was the last of our cash and about $400 worth of gift cards to places like CVS, Walmart, Kohls, and to the salon where I get my hair done. I can't explain what it feels like to feel like your very livelihood is gone, but it hurt like heck and I cried many, many tears over it because right now, those things are irreplaceable. I can't just go get new gift cards. I had been saving them for when we were completely out of money, and basically...that's right now. And now those are gone too. I have had a few promptings over the last few months to get all my gift cards out of my wallet, but I kept forgetting- and now it's my greatest regret. I guess the Lord will find some other way to take care of us, and I hope we're staying humble as we push on through our financial trials. I know that everyone has their trials, and not everyone wants to share what theirs are. Ours happen to be financial, as they have been for years. We are confident that these are the trials we need right now to humble us, and I don't think we can ever forget what it feels like to be "in need"- so I know this will help us be more Christlike when the tables have turned someday. In the meantime, we are trying to find a perfect job that will bring in just a little bit of money, and allow Samuel to continue with school, and let me stay at home to raise the girls. Things have always worked out before, and I know they still will, but I just hope that anyone who reads this, who doesn't have to worry about how they will go buy their kid a pair of shoes, will really appreciate what a wonderful thing that is.

Okay, onto happier things.

Kalia and Annie are out in the backyard swimming at least once a day, sometimes twice a day. They are amazing swimmers. It makes me proud. They can't mess up the house when they are out there, and they rarely fight out there either, which makes it my favorite activity. We are only at about 95 degrees down here, and so the weather has been great too.

But the biggest change that happened has been HUGE. MASSIVE. And totally unplanned and unexpected.   A lot of things came together to make this happen, some conversations with friends, my favorite new app (My fitness pal) and now that my hip injury from Ella's birth finally stopped hurting...AND since I haven't been so tired all the time...I STARTED WORKING OUT!! And I don't just mean kind of started. I am ALL IN.  I have decided to work out six days a week. I only rest Sundays. I've done it for 8 days and I am kind of obsessive about not missing a day. I am honestly afraid that if I miss a day, I will stop all together. I needed to be 100% in.

I am also counting calories for the first time in my life. I never thought I'd do it, but this app that I mentioned has made it SO fun, and I truly had no idea how much I was overeating. I have about 7 lbs of fat to lose (I gained it after I stopped nursing Ella, and I started eating ANYTHING I wanted, WHENEVER I wanted it. Bad idea.) But I really need to regain some muscle as well. So I just put a 7 lb weight loss goal into the app, and it popped out this certain number of calories, and it deducts them throughout the day, so I know how much I have left- and then when I work out, I get all those extra calories to eat- another big motivation to workout.

Good things are happening. Our diet is much healthier because I need lower calorie foods. Samuel started exercising on his own too, almost like he didn't want me to leave him behind. But most of all, the endorphins I'm feeling after working out a TRULY like a DRUG for my mood. I want that drug EVERY DAY. It feels so good. I love this change in my life and I'm grateful that we've had beautiful weather, since I've mostly been running and rollerblading outside, and the outdoors and sunshine and Vitamin D lift my spirits as well.

The only bad thing is that I haven't yet balanced my new workout schedule with my cleaning schedule, and the house started to go downhill.  I can't clean, obviously, when the girls are swimming, and so I haven't yet figured out when is the best time to do it. It's okay though, I'll keep working on it.

Here's a smattering of pictures for the blog book. I forgot to mention that my sister Krystal and her family came down to AZ for a little vaycay. We loved seeing them and hanging out. There's a few pics from the super awesome children's museum.

Truly, I am happier than I have been in a long time. Life is really really good. Having money would be awesome. But I know it won't make me happy if I can't learn to be happy now. Besides the wallet incident, I am so happy right now that it makes me nervous that another huge trial is around the corner. I hope not. But we are blessed in so many ways. I have an incredible husband who loves me so dang much, and I have some really smart, sweet, and beautiful girls who are bringing me so much joy right now. They are not very difficult at the present time (knock on wood) so that is one blessing or tender mercy that I get to enjoy for awhile.

Bye for now.

Motorcyle!!

If you didn't see this post on facebook, Samuel is now the proud owner of a motorcycle. And the surprising part about all this is that I'm the one that found it and told him to get it.

He has been commuting 45-60 minutes each way to school every day, and he was driving this old (1994!) Ford F-150 truck that was getting about 15 mpg. The gas was killing us, as we are getting up to almost $4 a gallon here in AZ. So when our tax refund came, I was assigned the task of finding him a great commuter CAR.

I was put in charge because of my tenacious researching skills (I love it) not to mention that I had more time at home with the computer to find deals and set up test drives.

I learned that the 2004 Hyundai Sonata, which was in our price range, was the MOST reliable car from 2004 out of ANY MAKE and ANY MODEL. So I decided that I wanted one. It was kind of a sleeker/cooler looking car, and wouldn't make him feel like a high school student when driving it. I test drove 4 of them. There was one that drove perfectly, and I wanted it really bad, but several times while test driving it, I had this very clear thought come into my mind. "DO NOT BUY THIS CAR." I was crushed, because finally I had found "THE ONE"- it had everything I wanted and drove sooo nice...but the answer was no. It was hard to swallow, but I told myself that it was probably because the transmission would blow out or something in the near future, and we would have wasted all our money.

I test drove SO many cars from private sellers on craigslist. I was driving all over the Phoenix valley, hauling around 3 kids (and putting all 3 of their carseats in the cars I was test driving.) One guy called me a "real trooper." Hahaha. I was starting to get frustrated, and finally it occurred to me that I might be looking for the wrong thing.

Samuel has owned 3 motorcycles in the past, he's an experienced rider, and he has the endorsement on his drivers license. He LOVES motorcycles, and was afraid to get his hopes up when I told him I was looking at motorcycles (I had to ask what to search for, since I know next to nothing about them.)

24 hours later, he was riding his new motorcycle home. We got it for $1500 less than I was going to pay for the Sonata, and it gets twice as good gas mileage. (I think he's getting 40-45 mpg.) It's saving us a ton of money and we're thrilled with it.

This purchase was conditional upon two things- that we have a life insurance policy on him, and that he always wear a helmet. He agreed, and it's been a blast to have that thing. We went on a date the Friday after he got it, and we took the Motorcycle. It was fun and exciting and made us feel young again (lol) and as an added perk, Samuel looks hot riding it, and walking in the door in his leather jacket. Kinda turns me on. That's never a bad thing. ;)

The girls love it too. They've all been on a ride around the block. Ella loved her ride so much that she kept lunging back towards him to get back on it, and so she got to go twice. She is surely her fathers child.

So here it is, a 2006 Yamaha V-Star Silverado 1100. It was assembled in Japan, which makes me feel even better about it's reliability.

Easter

Easter was fun and low-key this year. Our ward put on a breakfast and easter egg hunt for all the primary kids on Saturday morning, and the Easter Bunny came to our house and left their baskets on Saturday morning as well. So we got to do all that non-religious stuff on Saturday, and focus on the Resurrection on Sunday. I kind of like that and hope to keep that up every year. These pictures are out of order (Sunday first) but I'm having trouble moving them, so out of order it is. Here's our Sunday pictures. I really did not mean to dress all of us in purple. Everyone chose their own outfit, and we happened to match. Funny.

Samuel and I sang the most gorgeous arrangement of I Know That My Redeemer Lives in Sacrament meeting, it's the one from EFY 2000. It really made Easter special to focus on the words to that hymn. When I was practicing it alone, I seriously kept having to stop because the words were hitting me so hard, and I was crying. I'm so grateful for the knowledge we have that we will all be resurrected someday, and we can be with those we've lost forever.

Saturday Pics:

Can you believe we have never dyed eggs? We aren't intentionally leaving it out, it's just that we haven't had our own easter egg hunt, we just keep going to these public events. Maybe next year.

On another note, I am so glad that all the candy/junk food holidays are over. Now I can keep the candy out of my house, and therefore, out of my belly.

Allergy Testing

Poor little Annie has had food allergies since she was a newborn. We had her skin tested when she was only 3 months old, but results at that age are usually wrong, and they were in her case (everything showed up being negative.) But after many prayers, and lots of tears, I got a very clear answer in my mind, from Heavenly Father, that corn was bothering her the most. That's when I went on a crusade to find her a corn-free baby formula, which was hard to do, but luckily not impossible. Here it is- the only corn-free baby formula that I know of: Simliac Alimentum Ready-to-feed. (Every single powdered baby formula on the market is sweetened with corn syrup solids and sometimes has corn starch in it too. So it has to be this liquid stuff.) Annie transformed into a very happy baby on this formula, and her reflux was related to her allergies, and it stopped too, without any medication like Zantac or Prevacid. Most doctors said that she was sure to grow out of the allergies or sensitivities, but now at 3 1/2 years old, she was still complaining of stomaches and she would get itchy eczema and rashes occasionally. I was so stumped as to what was causing them, because I limit her to very little dairy (she drinks almond milk, but does love an occasional chunk of cheese, or yogurt.) And I was also keeping her about 75% gluten free, which was hard. To be honest, I quit making dinner for the family, because Kalia wouldn't eat Annie's special food, and Samuel usually isn't home by the dinner time hour-- anyway, that point aside, it's been a long road. We were so grateful when our family doctor told us that Annie could be allergy tested right in her office. She wanted to start with outdoor allergens, but I insisted we get right to the food. And I'm so glad we did. We had to do it over two appointments, and this time the allergy testing was slightly different than it was 3 years ago. This time there was no "control" prick, or histamine added. They just did skin pricks of 40 different foods, and then waited 15 minutes, and then measured the size of the red circles that were left.

Serum on. It was hard for her to lay on her stomach for 15 minutes. The redness around the pricks was huge at first and I didn't know what to think.


4 mm and smaller was considered a normal reaction. Then the other sizes were 5 mm (moderate), 7 mm (high), 9 mm (very high) and 11 mm (extremely high).

Now let me just say that I have spent the last two years doubting whether or not Annie was really allergic to corn as a baby. You know how you always wonder if that was REALLY revelation that you heard in your mind, or if it was just your own thought? I had also decided that it was probably still eggs, milk, and wheat causing Annie's rashes and stomachaches, so I just wanted to see.

It was a shock to get her results. Not only had she NOT outgrown her allergies, she had WAY more allergies than I had ever dreamed. Allergies to foods that make you just scratch your head- like garlic, and lemon, and rice.

But the real validation was that she only had ONE allergen that was considered EXTREMELY HIGH, and guess what it is? CORN. It was a cool moment for me, and really strengthened my testimony of divine revelation.

Another surprise was that the usual foods that bother people (dairy, wheat, eggs, etc.) were all only moderate or moderately high allergens. For our family record, I am going to record all the foods and her reaction to them (measured in millimeters).

Oh yeah, and notice the only food she WASN'T allergic to? PORK. So strange.

Apple -9
Apricot -9
Banana -7
Barley -5
String Bean -7
Broccoli -7
Cantaloupe -7
Carrot -7
Chocolate -9
Corn - 11
Garlic -9
Grapefruit -7
Mushroom -5
Oat -9
Orange -7
Pineapple -7
White Potato -7
Rye -7
Soybean -7
Strawberry -7
Tomato -7
Watermelon -5
Whole Wheat -5
Beef -5
Pork -4
Chicken -5
Egg-5
Turkey -5
Cow Milk -7
Fish -7
Green Pea -5
Lima Bean -7
Buckwheat- 5
Cherry -5
Cucumber -5
Lemon -9
Onion -7
Spinach -7
Cauliflower -5
Rice -9

This is her back right after they wiped off the serum stuff, and right before they measured her.
Positive for 39 out of 40 foods.





And also for the record- we had Kalia skin tested and were surprised when she came back allergic to tons of things too, although all of her reactions were moderate, only 5 mm, which is probably why we never knew about them.

If you were wondering if Samuel and I have allergies, the answer is...probably. I didn't know I had any, and neither did he, not with the typical reactions, but allergies can cause reactions that are usually not recognized, such as irritability, dark circles under the eyes, ADHD-type behavior, skin itchiness and bumps, mouth itchiness, diarrhea, etc. When I was nursing Ella and went on that super strict elimination diet, the bumpy skin on my legs smoothed out like silk. So obviously that was an allergy that I hadn't noticed. I miss that skin now that I'm eating normally again. I am pretty sure it was dairy that caused that reaction. Samuel has a few other random symptoms that are probably allergies too. And I do have a brother that had severe allergies as a baby, and he is still allergic to a bunch of things. He has asthma too. So I am just guessing that something about the combination of Samuel's DNA with mine caused this crazy food sensitivity. It is probably also caused by food alteration, and the food I eat while pregnant. I might try to eat all organic during the next pregnancy and see if there's any difference. Chances are, all my kids will have this to some degree.

Ella is still very allergic to everything, and will be staying on her special formula until she's 2. Thank goodness, because right now EVERY form of solid food except for maybe squash and greenbeans, is causing some sort of problem with her. SO GRATEFUL FOR THIS DANG FORMULA! Thankful that we have it 100% covered through WIC and insurance as well. Ella can be allergy tested (and treated) after she turns 2.

So now, back to Annie, we are just waiting for insurance approval, and she will be treated with some allergy drops that will be formulated just for her, and the foods that she tested positive to. That's quite a cocktail. Supposedly I just give her a few drops under her tongue every day, and it's supposed to "re-set" her body and help it recognize these foods as good, and not as foreign invaders. I am really hoping it will work.