Catching Up! March 2012

The catching up continues.  The majority of the month was just crazy with unpacking, cleaning, organizing and trying to maintain some level of normalcy for the sake of the boys!

Above: This is the very first picture I took of the house after we moved in.  The boys are enjoying our new couch that was delivered only moments before (our couch was delivered a week after we moved in).

Above: When we moved in, there was hardly any snow on the ground.  Only a few days later, we were hit with a snow storm.  This is the view from our family room window!  And apparently, this has been a very mild winter.  Some winters the snow can be ten feet high.  Uh-oh!  What have we gotten ourselves into?  :)  No wonder the residents call Suncrest "Snowcrest" during the winter.

Above: We also get a lot of wind up here.  It's kind of cool because the wind makes the snow move around like sand dunes.  Every day, our yard looked a little different because of the wind.

Above: In some areas, the snow was as high as our fence.  We are definitely going to need a good snow blower.

Above: Now, let's see...what's this?

Above: Ah hah!  It's a cupboard that hasn't been baby-proofed yet!  (It was baby-proofed shortly thereafter).

Above: Just enjoying our new space.

Above: This is what our basement window wells looked like.

Above: Did we move to Antarctica?  Look at those snow/ice formations!

Above: Aunt Laurie's visit lasted throughout the first week of March.  Here is a very cute shot of Thomas' crazy hair right after a blessing from his Uncle Clayton (he had suffered from ear infections, so he got a blessing to get better)!

Above: We snuck in a little visit to the Living Planet Aquarium so that the boys could see the otters.  It was ridiculous.  It was super packed and the boys never got to see the otters (I only caught a glimpse) because the otters were hiding from the throngs of people!

Above: Jonathan sure loves to swing!  Especially at Nammy's house!  It was good to get down into the valley to escape the winter and see glimpses of spring!

Above: Jonathan contemplating a ball.  Look at that sweet belly!

Above: How Pete can eat ice cream when it is that cold outside is beyond me!

Above: Peter getting comfortable at Nammy's house.  And I have to wonder, with how often Uncle Sean pulls silly faces in pictures, will he have a hard time keeping it serious for his wedding photos?  I guess only time will tell!  Ha ha!

Above: Spider-Pete going to market.

Above: Whoohoo!  The snow is finally beginning to melt...oh wait!  Yeah, we live at the bottom of a hill and with the combination of that and our trampoline pit, our yard became a swamp.  It looks like we're going to need a water pump in addition to that snow blower!

Above: After being cooped up for so long, the boys were happy to find any excuse to get outside--even though it was chilly.  Here, the boys are keeping Jeremiah company while he starts to pump some water out of our backyard.

Above: Peter exploring our backyard/arctic wonderland/swamp pit.

Above: Catching some rays in his favorite Toy Story PJs during a warmer day.

Above: Taking every chance to throw balls into our window wells.  Yup, there's another expense we hadn't planned on...window well covers.  D'oh!

Above: Whoa.  That's a deep window well.

Above: Peter loves to climb the rocks in our backyard.

Above: Peter was in heaven helping daddy with all of our home improvements.

Above: Peter enjoying a St. Patrick's Day green velvet cupcake at Nammy's house.

Above: Peter chose their outfits this day.  It's pretty cute because whenever Peter wants to wear his BYU jersey, he insists that Jonathan wear his too.

Above: Yum.  That's a good cupcake.

Above: It makes a good mustache too.

Above: Jeremiah flashing a handsome smile at the camera after being sassy to me.

Above: I'm not exactly sure what happened here, but from what it looks like, Peter is playing the part of a football and Jeremiah just scored a touchdown.  And Laurie said that Jeremiah might have been pointing in the air and saying "To infinity and beyond!"  It could go either way.  But Jeremiah isn't just pointing, he's pulling the Hawaiian/surfing "shaka" symbol with his hand (is that what it's called?).

Above: Enjoying the space in our garage to ride bikes.

Above: Peter loves his birthday bike!

Above: Peter excitedly telling a tale while wearing his brand new Spiderman mask.  Sometimes, he barely stops for breath when he is telling his stories.

Above: Peter makes a very heroic Spiderman.  He loves the fact that he and Spiderman share the name "Peter."

Above: Peter climbing a tree with the close supervision of his daddy.

Above: Spiderman climbing a tree to keep watch on the city.

Above: Spiderman shooting a web at an unsolicited photographer.

Above: So, one night while Jeremiah was gone, the boys were playing on their riding toys and I was pushing them.  It got to be a little hard on my knees, so I stood up, hunched over, and took turns running them down the hall.  It was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time, but in hindsight, I couldn't have foreseen the number of exhausting runs I would make down that hall.  :)  The boys LOVE it.  So, here's how it goes: I run Peter down the hall and back.  I run Jonathan down the hall and back.  I then collapse on the ground for a few deep breaths before repeating the cycle.  Peter's turn, Jonathan's turn, Mommy's turn to rest!

So, that's about it--picture-wise.  The big news for our family in March was that we took the boys in to have their allergies assessed.  

Peter added a few more allergies to his list.  His tree nut allergy got worse.  So, now pistachios, cashews, pecans, and walnuts could send him into anaphylactic shock (it used to just be pistachios and cashews).  He is still allergic to all tree nuts (as he was last year).  However, he is now also allergic to coconut, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds.  In addition to that, he is pretty much allergic to all pets and tree pollen.  Though those aren't serious enough to ever require an epi-pen.  But the funny thing was that Peter didn't have any reaction to almonds.  So, we'll need to take him in sometime to challenge his allergy to almonds.  He might not be allergic to that particular tree nut after all.  I'd be really glad if he wasn't.  Almonds were my absolute favorite and I really miss them!

We took Jonathan in because my pediatrician said that eczema mainly on the face is often a sign of food allergies.  Well it was!  We discovered that Jonathan has a mild allergy to both peanuts and eggs.  So, the fun thing is that I have to keep giving Peter peanuts so that he doesn't develop a life-threatening allergy to them and I have to keep Jonathan away from them!  Yikes!  Though Jonathan isn't allergic to tree nuts, we are keeping him off of them for the time-being so that he doesn't develop an allergy.  As for the egg allergy, apparently, the allergens in eggs are destroyed if the eggs are cooked in a 350 degree F oven for at least 20 minutes.

Our allergist also seems to think that there's a very good chance that Jonathan will grow out of his allergies though, so that's good.  She also prescribed some medicine that helped poor little Johnny's cheeks to clear up again.  That was a relief for me.  His cheeks made me so sad.  He's such a handsome little guy, but I don't think people noticed because he had such painful looking cheeks!

It has been a learning experience for me.  Sometimes it's easy to forget how many things eggs are in without having been cooked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes!  We have to be especially careful with Jonathan because he is a little human garbage disposal and is constantly shoving food in his mouth and sneaking it away from others.  And Peter is constantly leaving his food all over the place (in all sorts of accessible places).  So, I've had to be on my toes.  I can't tell you how many times I have been about to give Jonathan something and then I realize "he can't have Ranch dressing...it has egg in it," or "that's right, donuts are fried, not baked, so it's not long enough to destroy the allergens in the eggs that were in the dough."  I mean, we even got breadsticks and pizza from Papa Murphy's to cook in our own oven and I had to adjust the baking times to make sure that it was safe for Jonathan to eat.  Lot's to learn, that's for sure!

And I have to wonder, will the list of foods that I can keep in the house continue to dwindle with each child and their allergies?  What wonderful food allergies will baby #3 develop?  How in the world did my kids get these food allergies in the first place?  And there's nothing like finding out that you can't have a certain kind of food anymore to make you crave it even more.  I've never wanted foods with coconut milk in them more in my life!  It just sounds so good!  And people keep telling me that I can have those foods when I go out.  But I don't ever go out!  :)

Oh, and in addition to the boys' allergies, Jeremiah also had an absolutely terrible kidney stone and had to go to the emergency room for that.

You just can't plan for life sometimes, can you?  I had a wonderful, fool-proof plan to remain debt-free (besides the house and our van, we had zero debt when we moved in), build our savings, and stay on top of things.  And then, within only a month of moving in, all of those plans were ruined!  What with unexpected purchases that had to (or will have to) be made for our house, and medical bills, things got complicated, that's for sure!

But we have to be faithful because we know that this was the right thing for our family to do.  Besides that, we have enough to take care of everything that's important and we are in the Lord's hands.

We have good times ahead!