Projects

Here are some of the projects Nate and I have been working on...

We'll start with my favorite, Nate made this for me for my birthday. Since we didn't have enough room for a porch swing, he made a glider. It turned out quite well! He is so talented at wood working. Since we have been married he has also made our 2 end tables, the crib, a small rocking chair for the kids, and a few things for some of my family members. If we lived closer to his parents he probably would have made us a few more things. When I see some kind of wood furniture I like, he usually looks at the price and says "I would be a lot cheaper for me to make it." That is how he got a few of his projects handed to him!

This is the nursing cover some friends in Des Moines showed me how to make, they are so easy and fun. Makes a great gift, too!

This is our ongoing project, which started with me wanting a bigger table. We bought this one from some friends in Des Moines with the plan of sanding it down, staining it, and varnishing it once we moved. Nate, his dad, and brother Jason worked hard on the table and got it done, and it looks great! (sorry no before pic of this one)

My job was to do the chairs. Nate sanded one of them down and refinished it, and the other 3 are still waiting for me to find some ambition...soon!

Before

After

My friend in Des Moines also showed me how to make this baby blanket so I got to work. They are so soft and turn out really cute!

This one I learned from a lady in our ward, it is really easy and turns out pretty cute.

Closeup of the corner (just pretend the lines are lined up nicely). The corner comes to a really nice point.

So tired...

We walked in the door from church, I set Gracen down and he walked straight over to the couch and he was out. I was trying really hard on our way home to keep him awake so he could eat lunch before his nap but it didn't work out so well. It is funny the way kids can fall asleep just about anywhere if they are tired enough!

Sorry this is sideways, I'm not sure how to fix that. It is so funny how his knees keep giving out on him and he stays up and stays asleep.

First day of preschool

Today was FINALLY the first day of preschool for Brynlee. She LOVED it!! She is going to a preschool at the high school that is done by high school students for college credit. She also has two friends from nursery in her class, Lauren and Caleb. I think this made it easy for her to go and not be scared. I was able to get some cleaning done and do a little blogging before I went back to get her. The house was just so quiet, Gracen was napping, and it was nice to get some things done.

As we were walking out of the school Brynlee said, "So, how was school?" It was so funny, she was already reminding me to ask her how school was. Not that I wasn't going to, I just hadn't gotten there yet. So when I asked her how it was she said "Good." Then I asked her what she learned and she said, "Nothing." With a few more questions I was able to get her to tell me a little more about her day, mostly just that they played and learned about letter A and how she didn't get to eat ice cream at snack time :( I already knew she didn't and the her teacher Mrs. Sasala told me she handled it really well and that she ate applesauce with one of the student teachers who is lactose intolerant.

After school we headed over to Toft's Dairy to celebrate. She and Gracen got to eat rainbow sherbert (I think that is okay for them?) They have good ice cream here, probably one of my favorite places of all that I have been to.

This is a kids size cone, at Toft's the ice cream cones are huge. A small is too big for me to eat alone, it's more like a large served at other places.

It is hard to believe that she is old enough for preschool, it just doesn't seem to have been that long ago that she was born! I am so proud of my big preschool girl!! I love you Brynlee!

I Was Right!!

The GI allergy test results for Brynlee are in...first I am going to give a little background info on what I am talking about...

When Brynlee was 4 months she got some major constipation issues so, of course, I take her to the doctor and the doctor gives me some advice which didn't work. After who knows how many times of taking her back she is finally put on miralax, and is on it still. In Des Moines she started having problems and was sent to a GI doc, who I could barely understand(he had an accent), who put her back on Miralax. I have always wondered if milk/dairy was the problem, I didn't give it to her for a week or so when she was about 15 months because of a cold and she was fine, and when we took her off it as a trial with the pediatrician for a while she dropped to the 3rd percentile for weight and had to start eating it again. I have asked GI's and pediatricians that she has seen if that could be it. Probably not is the answer I always got. So here she is still on Miralax.

Then Gracen comes along and has the same problem...Luckily we were able to get him to GI sooner than Brynlee and were told that it could be a milk/soy protein allergy. So he is on hypoallergenic formula and he can't have cold milk products. I let him have some cooked milk products in small amounts. I asked his GI in Iowa if Brynlee could have the same milk/soy protein allergy where she had the same symptoms as Gracen and she had said it was possible, but when I asked about allergy testing she didn't think it was necessary.

So we moved here and found a GI for Gracen and in his first appointment she talked to me about testing him for allergies to foods, but we would have to wait until he was older. So I hadn't planned to ask about Brynlee, but when she brought up the allergy testing I thought she might agree with me so I did. She said she would so I got a referral for Brynlee and took her in, got the tests done last week, and yesterday the doctor called with the results. Brynlee doesn't have a true allergy(whatever that is suppose to mean) to milk and soy, but she had elevated antibodies to the milk and soy. So she is mildly allergic and the milk products that she has been eating/drinking for the last 3 1/2 years has been the cause of the problem all along...JUST LIKE I THOUGHT!!! So frustrating!! Although I am happy that someone finally figured this out, and we can change her diet a little to see if we can help her, I am frustrated with the fact that no one believed me and I got all those "crazy over-reacting mom" looks from doctors and even dietitians we have seen. The poor girl, that is probably why she was so unhappy as a baby, we were feeding her something that was bothering her little tummy. I feel so bad! Well, not much I can do about the past problems, but now maybe we can help her feel better.

I have had a nurse tell me "I believe in a mother's intuition, sometimes a mother knows what is best for her child, even if nobody else thinks she is right" I've always felt like I knew what was wrong, and been so frustrated over this whole thing, I guess that nurse was right, sometimes a mother just knows, even if nobody else believes her!!

To top it off, Brynlee loves milk, so when I told her this morning that she had to reduce the amount of milk she was drinking to none, she had a meltdown! I don't know what to do about this, I guess she will have to get used to it. Anyone have any good recipes for a reduced milk or milk free diet? They would be greatly appreciated!

Here is a cute picture of my 2 gastrointestinally challenged children, I don't know where they get it from but Nate blames me. Brynlee likes to dig the toys out of the toy basket and play like it is a car. She says Gracen got in all by himself, I don't know about that!! Problems and all I sure do love them!!

Picnic lunch and a movie

Nate has been one busy guy these last 2 weeks. He is in his internal medicine rotation, and lets just say now I understand a little better what other wives meant when they said, "Are you ready to be a single mom" although I am sure it is nothing like the life of a single mom, things sure have been crazy trying to do the whole day plus dinner, and the bed time routine by myself. I feel like I have really taken for granted the help that I get from Nate.

Yesterday Nate had a pretty easy day, lectures all morning and a group meeting so he didn't have to work in the hospital. Brynlee has been asking when we can go eat lunch with daddy like we used to (she has really been missing him) so since he knew what his schedule would be like we were able to meet him at the hospital yesterday for lunch and a short walk. We stopped by the library on the way home and picked up the movie Meet The Robinsons and headed home for a nap. Nate got home just after 4p.m. so we popped some popcorn and watched the movie. Its a really cute movie. Brynlee loved having daddy home and being able to spend time with him!

Couch turned upside down = Jungle Gym!

Brynlee got sick today and threw up all over the couch, fun for me!! :) While Brynlee was napping and the cushions were drying, this is what Gracen was doing...and he loved it!

The blue sheet covering the chair is where Brynlee was allowed to sit the rest of the day, I am not a fan of cleaning throw up, who is!? It is just gross, and probably one of the worst roles of being a mom.

At least someone was having fun!