Justin's eczema issues . . .

Justin's been struggling with food allergies and eczema outbreaks for several months now. We've figured out that cow's milk protein is a big trigger because his worst breakouts were after supplementing with formula, and the little stinker refuses soy so far, which means that I need to make sure I have a pumped supply in the freezer for the babysitter now. He also reacted to every baby cereal I tried. Some baby cereals contain skim milk powder, some are manufactured on shared equipment, and it's also possible that he has other food allergy triggers. I came accross a company called Healthy Times and ordered some of their cereal online and after three days he's had no new eczema outbreak! He's also tried their Teddy Puffs but they are quite hard; the solution is that I put them in a baby safe feeder and he loved that! So now I'm going to venture into fruits, veggies, and meats and hopefully our little guy will start going to bed with a fuller tummy and less wake-ups for midnight and 3am snacks. And if anyone's seen Justin over the past month or two, you'll notice the huge improvement on the above picture - his skin is looking so great right now! He gets terribly dried out and is always scratching, even between his eczema outbreaks. I'm always trimming his nails and lathering him up in creams. I've found that CJ's Butter has been working really well for us. It goes on greasy but gets soaked up in no time. And after a few days of lathering him up 3-4 times a day, his skin is finally looking soft and clear.

Elayna's Birthday Party

Here's some pictures from Elayna's birthday party last week Saturday. She did a combined party with another girl in her class. The girls met at our local gymnastics club and spent a couple hours trying out all the gymnastics equipment. We did cupcakes and presents there and then headed to our place for dinner and a little bit of time in the backyard. The girls all had a great time!

Happy Birthday Elayna!

Our firstborn turned 7 yesterday! She was SPOILED by my Mom who took her out for lunch and a shopping trip. She came home with new clothes, purse, jewlery, and more. And she still has some birthday money left from her grandparents and great-grandparents. Brad and I gave her a game, her first Bible, and a Bible bag that will also fit a psalm book. We're hosting a family get-together tonight for three birthdays in my family this week, and she has her friends party tomorrow. By the end of this weekend, I think I'll be doing a toys and clothes clean-up because she'll only want to play with her new stuff!

Spring break holiday!

We just got back from a week of holidays spent with friends and family. It has been so nice having Brad off work this past week, it was a little sad seeing him leave for work this morning. We first headed north to stay with some friends and see some beautiful country that we hadn't visited before. Our days there included taking the kids swimming (Justin's first time), the older two girls skiing (for their first time), and a lot of relaxing and socializing. The 12 hour drive there had gone quite well, so we made a decision to add a couple days to our holiday and head east to visit Brad's family for a couple days before heading home. We were so glad we added this side trip! His sister-in-law gave birth to their first baby while we were driving there so we got to meet and cuddle with our new little niece, and Brad's sister and husband were visiting from out of town and she announced her first pregnancy - so two unexpected suprises made the trip extra special! We stayed with another of Brad's siblings and his wife who were great hosts, and the kids loved playing with their cousins.

our growing little guy . . .

Our little man will be six months old in a couple of days! He can now roll across the floor, blow bubbles, and does lots of babytalk. He loves attention (thankfully his big sisters help out with that), splashes like crazy in the bath, has the sweetest laugh, loves music, and plays with anything he can get his hands on.