Six Months Portraits

Just wanted to share Sammy's 6 mos. portraits,

taken at the local JCPenney Portrait Studio.

I sure enjoy this little cutie...what a blessing!

I bought the copyrights and would be happy to mail you a portrait, 

if there is a favorite one you want a copy of, just email me. 

How do YOU get to school?

This is K-Rae's favorite way to go to school!

Mommy-Daughter Date Night

Off to the ballet....apparently a serious affair......

and not to be undertaken without a very large hair bow!

 At the theatre and ready to watch the performance.....

 A very professional performance by Ballet Magnificat.....

(if I had taken that photo myself, I would have a career as a professional photographer, 

as opposed to stay at home Mommy and unprofessional blogger!)

The classic part of the ballet, in my opinion, was when K-Rae piped up early on in the first song during a quiet part "Why is there a boy doing ballet?" in a voice loud enough to illicit quite a few chuckles around us...followed later on by a heart melting question just for my ears, as we were sharing our intermission purchase of a box of Butterfingers bites...,

"Mama, do you want the last piece of candy?"  

I love those little moments when they just get it.....

Blog Posting Number One Hundred!

So I had high aspirations of doing something cool for my 100th posting....

sharing 100 highlights from summer....

or maybe saying 100 things I'm grateful for.....

Instead, this sweet (and sweets loving!) little gal---

has given my life just a little bit of a curve recently, 

by being diagnosed 

with over 100 food allergies....

(This is on top of the struggles she has with mobility and speech due to cerebral palsy.)

But it's still 100, right???? 

And we still had a fun packed summer, and I'm still grateful for at least 100 things, 

but those will have to wait to ponder on until later!

I was also diagnosed earlier this summer with food allergies to 60 different things, top items being potatoes, canola oil, baker's yeast, gluten.   

Do you have any idea how many things they sneak potato starch into?  And try buying chips that don't have potatoes or canola oil or the possibility of canola oil in them!  If you find some, let me know!

When Little Miss Mae started displaying some similar symptoms, we decided to get blood work done on her as well.....and boy, oh boy....she doubled my allergies.  It made me quit feeling so sorry for myself quite honestly.  Top ones on her list are wheat, rice, corn, baker's yeast, almost all meats (which she wasn't really sad about, as she has been trying to become a self-proclaimed vegetarian for a few months now, and we've still been insisting she eat meat....seems like maybe she knew something we didn't!)  

So now I spend a lot of time doing this:

.....jotting things down in Little Miss Mae's food journal throughout the day, trying to brainstorm things that might possibly appeal to her to eat that really don't involve much grain or meat, and designing meals that won't overload her body with things that are toxic to her.  K-Rae (in true K-Rae fashion!) is upset that she doesn't have food allergies, and she doesn't think that is fair at all!   She does manage to enjoy helping me try out new recipes though.....some of the recipes work, a lot of them don't!  It's quite a trial and error process to make things with unique flours and unusual ingredients I'm not familiar with. God must be wanting to make sure I don't get bored!

And Sammy doesn't seem to know or care whatsoever that life seems to sort of turned upside down lately....he's just still as happy as anyone could ever be!

So---Happy 100th Blog Posting, and Cheers to managing food allergies!

Back to School

Where did summer go? All of a sudden I blinked,

and it was time for school to start again, already....

maybe I'll have time to catch up on posting some fun summer activities, but for now:

Little Miss Mae is off to second grade in style this year, in her new power chair!

Hard to believe K-Rae is a kindergartner,

 although she still prefers to be a puppy dog at home!

Sammy is missing his grandma, who so graciously helped us out most of the summer,

we've realized we're out-numbered now, 

so we appreciated the extra hands very much!

And I'm looking forward to seeing my little sis this weekend,

even if it is just for a few hours!

Video snapshots of July

Video clips below...enjoy!

Little Miss Mae reading to Sissy and Bubba

K-Rae climbing the walls, literally!

Sammy playing with new toy

Sammy's first solid food; rice cereal at cabin

Creamie and Grandpa's neighbor's new bird dog puppy....too, too cute!

 The girls think we should get one just like it!

 Mr. Chatty

Summertime fun continues

Guess who lost their first tooth?

 A special tooth pillow made by Creamie (RyDaddy's mom) 

got here just in time, as K-Rae's tooth got loose on the day of her 5th birthday, 

and came out just a few days later!

And at the time of this posting, a second tooth has already been lost, 

so that tooth pillow is getting lots of use.  

And I'm not sure how our munchkins ever came up with the idea 

that they could petition the Tooth Fairy for special prizes, 

but K- Rae's last note to the Tooth Fairy said, 

"Dear Tooth Fairy, 

I would like a plastic animal crown size medium."

RyDaddy and I are reading the second book in the Hunger Games Trilogy....
(yes, I'm hooked) and when I saw her note, 

my comment was, "K-Rae seems to have mastered manipulating the Capitol!"

Sammy continues to keep us full of laughs:

And Little Miss Mae is getting a lot of neat summer

experiences with Colorado Discover Ability camps.

This miniature horse "Firefly" fell in love with her;

and it appears the feeling was mutual!

 

 The first time Little Miss Mae has been on an actual horse ride since we moved 3 years ago!

 Little Miss Mae with her friend.

 And the crazy busy fun summer "schedule" continues!