the story of us.

pagosa

2011-03-10T08:46:00.000-08:00

i know. i'm a terrible blogger. the kids are huge. and i've written nothing about them... someday. but for now i have thirty seconds to upload these three images from pagosa this weekend.

six months.

2010-10-12T14:27:00.000-07:00

oh that's right. you read correctly. SIX months. we went from 10.5 weeks to six months. it's time for a much needed synopsis of our lives as five grebes under one roof, and that will come, but for today, i wanted to post the rolls that are my daughter. i LOVE having a chunky monkey. she's our first. the others were a little runty but still precious.

ten point five weeks..

2010-06-22T13:07:00.001-07:00

miss macey is 11 weeks old today. i can't wait to post a pic of aislyn at this age, they look so much alike. but alas, those pics are on a computer that hasn't been turned on in quite a while..

father daughter camping

2010-06-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

aislyn and kenny are on their first camping trip together, and he has sent me a few pics and videos i wanted to post. i can't believe i let m 4 year old sleep in the mountains for three days (even though i LOVE it myself)! but at least she is in good hands, her daddy is the best. :) i don't even have details on these pics to narrate yet, but i love the fishing ones. i guess kenny took pictures of her pants to show me the insanity. even though it will be me who gets to do laundry when they come home. i'll get a great look at them then.

three.

2010-06-02T08:16:00.001-07:00

our baby boy is three today. windblown crazy hair, forehead bruises, eyelid scratches and all. this morning as we were having birthday waffles, aislyn said "mommy let's pray about grayson. dear Lord, we thank you for grayson. we pray that you will just help him. help him... dear Lord... Lord... God.. help him to be obedient. and make him better." hard not to laugh during that prayer, coming from my strong willed defiant 4 year old.

grayson's favorite things as of now consist of cars (he has to have the entire line of cars from the movie "cars" in his bed at night- this includes but not limited to: mater, boost, wingo, dj, and 'bad car'- all three lightning mcqueens have been misplaced presently), batman and spiderman and "fansformers" (he told me originally that he wanted a "batman beats princess birthday party", that would have been fun), fire trucks, nascars, and any sports he can find to play. he insists on picking out his own clothes including a HIDEOUS (sorry lyssa but i know you hate it too) hand me down from liam which he calls "the spiderman shirt has wings on it". WOW. its bad people. it's polyester and his belly button shows when he wears it. so bad. he has been known to throw a fit or two when he doesn't get his way. which is much of the time lately. we turned his crib in to a big boy bed this weekend and his sleeping has been less than adequate. just a phase we hope... he loves his sisters but tries to terrorize the eldest on a regular basis by taking something he knows she loves, waving it at her and then running full speed ahead. he is not interested in the potty. at. all. i have been trying daily for months. bribes do nothing. and i'm not interested in holding him down on the toilet while he kicks and screams. pretty sure that's not the answer, even as nasty as 3 year old poo is... he cries and cowers under the table at the chic fil a cow, and my mother and i have decided that this is a fabulous tactic to use with him when he runs away in stores, parking lots, wherever. "GRAYSON! you better come back because the chic fil a cow is over there!", or "Grayson, sorry honey we can't play in the McDonalds play place cuz the chic fil a cow is in there today". so mean. but so effective. :) his favorite food is chips. he is addicted to them like a bad drug. he wants them with every meal, and will stack his meat and veggies on them and use them as spoons. he still detests fruit but yesterday he actually ate an apple for the first time since we were at National Jewish a year ago next week! (he eats grapes once every six weeks. he suddenly decides "hey! i like grapes!", but he hates them again the next day). he is still on the elecare formula for extra calories, but we're hoping to wean off soon. he doesn't quite eat enough of the good stuff. he's got about 15 or so foods now and we couldn't ask for more. well, we could, but we're doing great with the ones we have. just being patient for milk and wheat. it will be a few years or more, by the time he PRAYERFULLY grows out of it. he calls aislyn "seester" and it makes us laugh every time. it reminds me of my grandma klein and her siblings, they called her and my aunt nez "sister" too. i'm not sure they actually knew each other's real names. :) he's got eyelashes forever and knows how to work his momma. he's my only boy and i kinda like it that way. ;) he is brave, he is precious and he takes his meds and nebulizer and lotions like a champ EVERY day. and even lets mom and dad put wet socks on his hands and feet in the middle of the night if he is itchy. in his sleep. wow.

we love you lil bubba and we're SO proud of you!! happy third birthday to our little spiderman!

my boys.

2010-05-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

happy 80th great grandma katie!

2010-05-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

...macey and great grandma at her SURPRISE birthday party last week! great grandma katie LOVES her some babies!!! and we LOVE great grandma! (sidenote: that's where the "kate" in macey kate comes from. :) kenny's grandpa called his grandma kate as a nickname and i have ALWAYS adored the name kate. second sidenote: all three kids have been named after their great grandmas. aislyn joy is for my paternal grandmother alice joy, and grayson klein is for my maternal grandma, norma jean klein. kinda cool right?)

happy birthday grandma katie! we love you!

shhhhhhhhh.....

2010-05-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

macey was crying incessantly and grayson heard her over the monitor. he got off the couch, picked up the monitor and went "shh shh shh shh" like he does when he's trying to calm her. hilarious little boy.

three.

2010-05-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

the next group picture will be around christmas. if we're lucky.

married.

2010-04-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

today was a big day for supergirl and batman. while i was nursing macey the kids put together this train. on each chair was one pink girl stuffed animal, and one boy stuffed animal. when i asked what this was about, aislyn informed me that she and batman were taking all these kids to get married so they could kiss and get a ring. ya know, whatever keeps ya entertained...

tags.

2010-04-28T20:48:00.000-07:00

wanted to remember this, even though it is a sideways phone pic. when grayson gets tired or upset, he grabs his "snugger" and rubs the tag on his face. at night when he sleeps, he sleeps with the tag near/on his face. when he thinks i am tired or sad, he sits on my lap and rubs the tag on my face. i was cleaning the kitchen the other day and i went back into the livingroom and grayson had covered macey up with his very own snugger and made sure that the tag was, where else, her sweet face. i totally teared up. i mean, how sweet is that? he's two for heaven's sake. i need to keep this picture in mind when i want to punch holes in the wall because he won't listen. :)

introducing miss macey kate

2010-04-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

3 weeks and 1 day late, but here is our newest little girl. she was born april 6th, 7lbs 10oz with a perfectly shaped heart stork bite in between her eyes.

the transition has been rough. but we're makin' it. i hear the six week mark after your 2nd c section is when you start to feel fairly normal again. i can't wait.

my dear friend sherri took this picture. (and has done 13897219 other things for me.) thank you sweet sherri for capturing her.. um, fifth day, seventh day (oh wait we didn't get anything that day), and tenth day. :) that's right, it took three full days to get pictures of this munchkin. she was not super cooperative for the camera. don't worry. i'll train her.

we have been so blessed by family and friends, who have helped IMMENSELY the last few weeks. (i still haven't left the house by myself. and only twice WITH other people.)

anyhoo, i'll get my camera out someday and post some more. but just this one for now. OH and some hospital ones that ellen took that i need to figure out how to load... will do soon....

happy heart day

2010-02-16T09:13:00.000-08:00

hope it was FULL of candy... and attitude.

the update #2 AND a forgotten u/s pic :)

2010-02-04T14:29:00.001-08:00

baby grebe #3 (#5 if we're being technical) at 28 weeks gestation (two or three weeks ago)....

totally forgot to post this ultrasound picture, proving that yet again, we will have another kenny clone. :) check out the darling little nose! love it.

when i was updating on grayson, i forgot to mention something i wanted documented. in december, actually the week of christmas, he was diagnosed with asthma basically. we had gone into the doc late afternoon, because his cough was so so bad and his breathing just sounded short and weird to me. his o2 level was low, so they did a nebulizer treatment right there in the dr's office, like a rescue neb, and his o2 went back up to normal immediately after the 20 minute treatment. this was a red flag for the dr that it is likely asthma. that, and the fact that it was his third terrible awful cough since november. he would get a runny nose, and it would turn into a nonstop all night long all day long mind numbing cough. so because of that, they were leaning more to the asthma dx. he is now on a preventive nebulizer treatment twice a day (only 7 minutes each thank you LORD!) and he does really well with it. he hasn't coughed since christmas eve when he started it which is a christmas miracle. :) i can put the mask on him and walk away and trust him to MOSTLY hold it on his face and not move while he watches a program, or i will sit and read a book with him. his favorite thing lately though is having a skittle in his mouth while he does it. which of course, we allow. ONE skittle mind you. :) aislyn loves to sit with him and hates it when grayson does his "mask" without her. kinda weird, but it's sweet that she likes to be with him. we have to do this preventive nebulizer through the cold and flu season, so until march 31st. which is perfect and divine since the baby is coming the first week of april and it will be one less thing to do. he is also off of his nighttime antihistamine officially, and weaning off his bottles this week and taking his formula (sort of) in a sippy cup. kids don't really like elemental formula in a sippy cup for good reason, so we have always bought the munchkin sippy "bottles" for him, but i am ALL done with bottles. especially since we will have an actual baby around here in april. we've got a few more milestones for him to pass and then he will be de-baby'd. which is kind of sad. potty training, toddler bed and the paci. which i'm almost dreading breaking the paci habit more than potty training. that kid loves his paci.

ok i'm done.

the update

2010-02-01T13:10:00.001-08:00

i promised i would update, though i can't guarantee that there is anything interesting to report that i haven't already mentioned!

our pregnancy is going great, we have 9 weeks from tomorrow until our scheduled c section date, april 6th. we are undecided as to whether or not that's what we will do, but it's on the calendar. aislyn was an emergency c and grayson was a very hard labor, and if this baby is any bigger than he was, i would likely end up with a c anyway. i'm feeling good, just big and hindered in movement. aislyn told me i wouldn't be able to reach the pedals soon. and she is right. this one feels like its gonna be the biggest yet. we'll see. we still have not found out the sex of the baby, nor have we picked a name for it. it will really just all be one giant surprise. we are praying for wisdom and safety during delivery, as i have to be honest, i'm a little nervous. i'm sure that the anxiety will soon be replaced with "get this baby out of me however you see fit" in the near future. :)

grayson is doing really well. his skin continues to look creamy white almost all over, which just a couple trouble spots here and there that we stay on top of. we cut down on his antihistamines, he no longer needs them to sleep which is also huge. we have added green beans to his diet and when sauteed in his special "butter" the boy will eat a whole can. fresh green beans, however, he does not care for. not sure why. so canned it is. we have gotten several emails from the wall street journal article. what i mean by that, is that the editor at wsj has gotten several, and emails them to me for me to reply to the parents. some of them are moms who have kids who sound like grayson and i am willing to help in anyway possible, so i am trying to write all of them back. he still gets a bath (soak) a day in plain water, and then lotion all over. we haven't done any wet wraps in a LONG time and i rarely have to use the steroid ointments on him ever anymore. we are still trying to introduce new foods to him that were on his "trial" list, but he doesn't seem interested. i even got him a soy hot chocolate (dairy free of course) at starbucks and while he LOVED the idea of it and carried around forever (in his hands AND on his shirt) he really didn't drink much of it. i might have ruined his taste for chocolate since he hasn't really had it. so all in all, he is great. happy. sleeping 12 to 13 hours at night without scratching. (he finally started doing that in october i believe and we could not be happier about it.)

aislyn is doing really well too and developing new attitudes daily. there isn't much to report on her since she has never had any health issues. she loves kids express and brings home countless projects twice a week for me to guilt strickenly throw away. ;) she wears at least 4 outfits a day, one is usually a princess dress. i do two extra loads of laundry a week because of it. she is preparing her room for the baby and has put an extra blanket in her doll cradle, right beside her bed, so that the baby can sleep there... probably NOT where the baby will be sleeping. but we have decided to put it in her room nonetheless i think. i don't really trust my son with a baby in his room. not sure what he would try to do with it. it's likely it would wake up with cars in its diaper and on its head, and vaseline all over it's face. because sweet grayson thinks that's what you do to babies. you grease 'em up! anyway, all that to say, aislyn is so excited that there are only 9 weeks until the baby comes. she tells me frequently with a frown, "mom, this baby is taking TOO. LONG. all the other babies in the world are coming out but NOT YOURS. why will your baby not come out mom?" oh the patience of a 4 year old. it resembles the patience of this 33 year old actually.

that's about all i got. i think i will attach our christmas card and letter in this post somehow... and then that will OFFICIALLY be all i got. :)

our 2009 christmas letter update

Christmas 2009
Dearest Friends and Family who we are so blessed to have in our lives,
What’s this? A Christmas letter? After a few years of no words, we decided it was time!
We have nothing bad to report, we are all doing well! This Christmas finds us just a few months away from welcoming a third little Grebe baby to the family! We have chosen to kick it old school and be surprised with the sex of this one, which makes Amy a little crazy, but also keeps her from buying endless amounts of gender specific things we probably don’t need. We have also decided to keep the name a secret until the big reveal. This should work out just fine, since this baby will likely not have a name until it’s a few months old.
Aislyn is four years old, and sports an attitude much like her mother’s at that age (or now). She is beautiful, very imaginative and cannot wait for mommy’s baby to come out. She insists that it is taking far too long. We had one ER visit with her this year (we try to go once a year), just a few weeks ago, which will leave her with a nice little scar on her forehead! When she is older, I think she will wish there were a better story to tell in regards to the scar. Because it goes like this: Aislyn was walking in the driveway, trying to take her coat off, tripped on her own feet and fell forward on her head. That’s it. Perhaps we should make something else up. Aislyn did ballet this year and LOVED it, and danced in a recital in which Madagascar was the theme. She also started a preschool at Hoffmantown Kids Express this year, just two mornings a week and has made lots of friends there and adores her teachers. She even got to meet Santa Claus (her biggest fear) who told her all about baby Jesus last week. She loves all things princess and has a great princess tomboy balance going on. Listening to her have conversations with her dolls is one of our favorite things to do. She is so nurturing with them, yet not afraid to discipline. It’s hysterical.
Grayson is two and a half, unbelievable. This has been a BIG year for him. Before June, his diet consisted of chicken, rice and sweet potatoes because of his allergy blood and skin tests. As many of you remember, we took him to National Jewish Hospital in June, a week after his second birthday. His stay there was two weeks long. They cleared his severe eczema within four days and began food challenges with him to determine real allergies. We added nine foods to his diet and learned how to manage his eczema so that Lord willing it will never be out of control again. We are SO thankful to God for his orchestration of our entire visit. The things that lined up for us to be able to go were completely divine. National Jewish’s Annual Report even includes a story on Grayson! He does not LOVE all of his foods yet. We are being creative in our introduction of them. He doesn’t yet eat enough to be off of his calorie providing hypoallergenic formula, but we are hoping this will be soon. He is VERY into Batman and Spiderman, even though he has never once watched an episode of either on TV. And if it has wheels, it’s his best friend. As we drive along the roads, Grayson labels every car he sees. “Bug car momma! Blue truck momma!” His vocabulary is coming along nicely and it’s so entertaining to have a conversation with him!
Amy is taking a break from photography until after the baby is born (but will gladly take newborns until then…you don’t have to chase them around!). She is loving being at home with the kids, dreaming of being a minimalist and never quite knowing how to pull it off. Maybe this year? She is also doing the books for our landscaping company in between diapers and snacks.
Kenny is enjoying running Red Shovel and even had a news story done on him this year, involving the Christmas Décor part of our business! It is posted on our blog if you’d like to watch it! The kids adore their daddy and so does their momma (and yes, Amy wrote that part. ☺) He is so excited to be surprised about our mystery baby, which makes it more fun for all of us! Minimalist Kenny hopes to rub off on Not Minimalist Amy this year.
We hope this letter finds you resting in God’s peace, understanding His sovereignty and learning how to delight in Him and only Him through this upcoming year. This is our goal for the year, so that we may teach our children more and more about God’s love for us.
We love you all and Merry Christmas 2009,
Kenny, Amy, Aislyn, Grayson & Baby Grebe
(keep up with us at www.grebefam.blogspot.com)

litte miss aislyn's 4 year session

2010-02-01T13:01:00.000-08:00

4 months late? yes, but that's how i roll.

aislyn and i went out yesterday, just the two of us, with a bag of hats, a couple chairs, a giant white poster board and a camera (cramera is how she says it.) we stood out in the cold trying to perfect our shots for a good 40 minutes, and then went to have an ice cream cone at mcd's because she was so good. little did she know, i needed to take her BACK out to practice my backlit shots. luckily she was a sport and we got some fun stuff. she was quite proud of herself actually for being so good. i wonder how grayson's shoot will go...

here are some from our session. some of them are glistening with beautiful sunset light and some are lit by dark clouds. it was fun to work with all kinds of situations. :)

grayson and the wall street journal

2010-01-25T21:30:00.000-08:00

a few days ago, national jewish contacted us and asked if the wall street journal could interview us for an article on food challenges. she noticed my email said amy grebe photography, and asked if i had photos. of course i had photos. so in the article they even did a little slideshow. the actual article will be in the actual paper tomorrow, but here is the link to the online article with slideshow. anything to spread the word about false positives to allergy blood testing!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703808904575025013194645130.html

(i have five more days to do an update, you know, so that it's in january. ha.)

spring fever.

2010-01-16T21:03:00.000-08:00

i'm gettin' it pretty bad.

and yes i'm due for an update. christmas, aislyn and grayson stuff, baby stuff, i know. maybe this month. :)

happy thanksgiving!

2009-12-09T22:18:00.001-08:00

a couple weeks late.....

RED SHOVEL MADE THE NEWS!

2009-11-25T13:01:00.000-08:00

my hard workin' man caught the eye of the people at channel 13 and they did a story on our business, the christmas decor part of it. here is is!

and just so we never forget....

2009-11-18T21:05:00.001-08:00

well, aislyn is up to two ER trips now. shouldn't that be grayson instead? he only has one so far. just so we remember, sweet girl was just walking to the door. ian had picked she and liam up from school. they were in the driveway of our house and aislyn was walking while trying to take her coat off and just fell. with nothing to stop her fall. her head hit the concrete, ian said it sounded like someone dropped a cinder block. i heard frantic knocking at the door and screaming and looked through the window to see she and ian COVERED in blood. it was just pouring down her sad face. her nose was also bleeding because of how hard she hit, but we didn't even know that until we got to the ER, because I couldn't tell where the blood was coming from. after much discussion and a couple doctors, the original plan of sedating her and stitching it was bagged and we decided to glue it because of where it was cosmetically and because the second doctor thinks that all the skin might still be there. just really damaged. she is a trooper. they numbed it at the hospital, i gave her motrin when we got home, and have given her nothing since, because she says it doesn't hurt, which is great. anyways, here's the nastiness....

my little superheroes.

2009-11-18T20:52:00.000-08:00

i love them. have you EVER seen a cuter batman? or a spunkier supergirl? and aislyn picked out her shoes and socks herself. she loved the way it looked with the outfit. :) grayson has about two or three layers underneath his costume, he really didn't just gain thirty pounds.

i love them. they are my heroes.

happy fourth birthday sweet girl...

2009-09-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

our girl turned four at 2:15ish this morning. hard to believe! here is the post where i posted her first day pics. check out the one where she's smiling! and could she look MORE like kenny?

http://grebefam.blogspot.com/2006/04/youre-supposed-to-start-websites-like.html

and then this is from a few months ago... sweet little three year old attitude face. :) i will do her four year session soon..

anyway happy birthday aislyn. we love you now more than ever!

blue

2009-09-23T13:43:00.001-07:00

a sweet lady who came across my photo blog sent me some hats for free if i would get her some kid model shots to use in her advertising. i am obsessed with hats, knit beanies, etc. grayson agreed to pose for a couple today. is he not darling?

grayson in action

2009-09-15T11:37:00.001-07:00

no words for this video. i mean, what is he doing? and who taught them this?

http://braidynandmali.blogspot.com/2009/09/best-buddiesor-butt-buddies.html

9.5 weeks

2009-09-11T13:30:00.000-07:00

and all is well so far. still a heartbeat. still complications, bleeding, subchoreonic hemmorhages, etc. but they have not proven to be a big deal so far. another ultrasound (the FOURTH) will happen next friday. so for now, they will just watch me. and that's that! our approx due date is april 13th, which i can't remember if i mentioned in the last post or not. we will be optimistic, as is our dr., that this baby will keep growing!

aislyn's name for him/her this week? mara. like mare-uh. she makes up a new name at least once a week. i think she REALLY thinks she gets to name this one. maybe i should stop telling her that.

thanks for the prayers. :)

THUMP thump. THUMP thump...

2009-08-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

went our new baby's heartbeat this week. :)

we found out, MUCH to our surprise, that i am pregnant almost four weeks ago. i thought i had begun my cycle (way too much info but this is where i document things i want to remember:)), but three days later, when things were just a little too weird, i took a test on a whim when we got home from church. i was immediately devastated, knowing that there were already complications and that has never boded well for us in the past. our first miscarriage seemed to be a replica of this pregnancy. (yet our second seemed like a perfect pregnancy). i knew something was wrong. i called right away to get on progesterone, started it an hour later (i got people ;)) and started the roller coaster of emotional HCG level checks. our first number was 30. SUPER duper low. last time i bought a new robe as my "miscarriage gift" to myself to make me more "comfortable". i was already thinking, what can i buy this time... two days later, they had gone up to 68. good, not great. two days after that we were at 195. ok, now we're getting somewhere. we waited five days and they shot up to 3020. way more than doubling every other day which is what they are supposed to do. i was thrilled and started to relax about it all. that lasted a week and then satan took over. he filled my head with awful thoughts and convinced me that everything was wrong, that there would be no heartbeat. i could not distinguish this awful feeling from that of the enemy, or from that of God just preparing me for His plan. because i know that sometimes His plan is just that.. it's pregnancy loss, it's infant death, it's all of these things that we see as bad, but He is using them for His glory- to Him they are not bad things at all. i know that. so i prepared myself for the very worst, and if you asked my mom, i talked very pessimistically for about a week. ok, actually you could ask anyone who knew our secret and they would tell you the same thing.

finally, the day for the ultrasound came. our dr's office has this handy little roll around ultrasound machine, which is FABULOUS for moms who have had miscarriages and are jaded each time they go to the doctor. at your first appt, she does a quick ultrasound just to find a heartbeat and put you at ease. i walked in there just bracing myself for a large man to punch me in the stomach as hard as he could. i know i looked so downtrodden, my doctor even said that actually. the ultrasound began, she was silent for thirty seconds, no expression on her face. then without looking up, she said "everything looks great". i said "WHAT? you're kidding right? there's a baby in there? with a heartbeat? and it's not in my tube? or there isn't one in each of my tubes (which is one of the scenarios i played out in my head)." "no, look for yourself." she was right. a tiny little baby shaped blob with a heartbeat was visible on the screen. i really really could not believe it.

i know that God is teaching me to trust Him, but i also know that trusting Him means being at peace with His will for my life, whether we get to meet this baby or not. we are not out of the woods. i am just shy of 8 weeks, a month away from my second trimester still. anything can happen. but what we will do, is find joy in Him and nothing else. and if we meet this little one (who kenny predicts is a boy), awesome. if God decides to take him/her home before that time comes, then that has to be ok too. i'm done with the "everything will be fine" theology, meaning don't worry, everything will go your way, just have faith. i'm onto the "everything will be according to God's will, and i will rest in the fact that He knows best." that's my attempt anyway. i need accountability for sure.

so for now, we are expecting, due in april (right around tax day) and very excited at the prospect of a new little grebe, who kenny would like to name ritter. really?

thanks for your prayers. we covet them.

bubbles and my grizzly man

2009-07-21T14:38:00.001-07:00

i know you must be dying

2009-07-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

to see another. ok, twist my arm.

and another

2009-07-21T13:38:00.000-07:00

i just love this smile. it's natural. and for some reason when i get out my camera she will only do "model face", so this made me happy. :)

another

2009-07-21T13:20:00.000-07:00

of my girl. she kills me.

my babies

2009-07-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

so.. my kids were all dressed up and playing in the backyard so i had to grab the camera. don't have much else to say. OH, grayson is eating turkey lunch meat and grapes now. happily. so that's two more things he has agreed to eat! that's big news for us. :) onto the more interesting part of the post...
i forgot to add (earlier) that grayson posed himself for these.. hands over his head, stare at the camera, then he decided to put his hand on his face. people i do not pose my children. i tell them where the light is best, and they do things like this. isn't that hilarious? he must be watching his sister...

we are still here

2009-07-10T07:35:00.001-07:00

and doing well. it seemed like it took just as long to get back in the swing of things as it did for us to be gone. i don't think i left the house for a week, and if i did, it was because i had to. the kids are doing good. aislyn says she does not want to go back to denver. i don't blame her. it was certainly NOT a vacation in any sense of the word. i think somewhere in my mind i thought maybe it would feel like one.. but alas, no. it did not. i have not ever been that tired i don't think. it was a GREAT trip, don't get me wrong. but certainly not a vacation.

grayson has flared once or twice since being home, but it is likely because i am letting him "be more of a kid" and run through the grass, step in water with his socks off, etc. it's very hard for me to let him do these things, knowing that he will likely flare, but its good because i know how to make him comfortable afterwards. his hands are still his problem area but it's not nearly as bad as it was. i only have to do a scratch check once or twice a day and i think he is understanding that when he scratches, it hurts. we have done several wet wraps on his extremities and he lets us, so that's good. i've done his head a couple times, but he usually pulls it off his face within 20 minutes. i'm looking forward to the fall, his eczema seemed to do a little better last year in the fall/winter months, and i hear it's usually the opposite. so i'm not sure why that was the case. hopefully it will be the case this year too. he is eating SOME new foods, but not tons. he loves fritos, raisins and sometimes corn. i still canNOT get him to eat apples and grapes, though he carried one around yesterday, which i guess was a start. aislyn encourages him to try new things, it's cute. she's a self proclaimed "good" big sister.

we are enjoying our summer but would really like for it to not get hot until 1, during naptime so we could go to the park in the mornings. but oh my word i just can't get out in the heat. i have fall fever, as usual. i want to buy pumpkins and halloween costumes and it's july 10. typical.

i have no pic for this post..sorry. i know that makes them considerably more interesting!

and now for something unrelated to allergies...

2009-06-26T21:12:00.002-07:00

we went to the denver aquarium. and this is the most bizarre fish i have ever seen. i really though that it was going to start talking to me. and it was HUGE. it was, like, a person fish.

that's all i have today.

we are so home.

2009-06-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

so so home. it's 7:42 in the a.m., grayson is still asleep, aislyn is playing in the backyard on this cloudy yummy day, i'm sippin' coffee and lamenting over the stupid photo ticket that was due while we were in denver and is now late... i totally disagree with the ruling of course. i MUST have had a green arrow, you just can't see it...

i have never been so happy to be home. i feel like NOW i am on vacation! is that so weird or what? my house looked different, smelled different, it was so weird to walk through the door! the kids went to bed so so happily last night, to be in their OWN bed! grayson didn't sleep through the night, he woke up out of habit, but not until around 3! and i THINK that if we had been of sound mind, we should have just left him in there and seen if he would fall back asleep. he was just talking to himself, and i, in a very disoriented state of mind, told kenny that i did not know where i was, and would he get go grayson. and kenny, in the same state, obliged. so maybe tonight will be different. he didn't scratch (unless he's doing it now) and kept his hand socks on all night long which we were told to still try and do for awhile. we're hopeful that his itchy waking days will soon be over.

i do intend to write in detail about all of grayson's "diagnoses" and what foods we can try, what we canNOT try and what it means for his new diet! it's actually, right now, a little MORE stressful because i have to read labels like a HAWK. and i have to read other people's labels like a hawk if we go somewhere! which, might be irritating.. so i apologize in advance. :) ha.

i really really can't thank you all enough for keeping up with our journey and praying for us. i feel a million times better than before we left, we both do. and i want to find a way to get the word out about this place. so if you're reading this, and your kid has eczema and a RIDICULOUSLY high IGE (gray's was almost 9,000 i found out) and tests positive to almost any food via blood and/or skin test.. some of them may not be true allergies and may just be cross reactive to other things. however, don't give your kid the food without medical supervision... i'm just sayin'.. and please, shoot me an email or a comment if you want more info on National Jewish.

there's my plug for NJ. maybe they'll send me a check. or as becky and i talked about, a commission for everyone we send there. ;)

off to start my day. at my house. not in denver. :)

all done.

2009-06-23T22:13:00.000-07:00

all done.

our time here is done. i really can't believe it. i'm completely exhausted and will write more about all his diagnoses and how much we love this hospital later... but for now, i wanted to share a few pics and give you a list of grayson's new foods.

corn, oats, soy, grapes, apples, white potato, beef, turkey, pork.

how awesome is that? we were given a list of some other foods which we can challenge at home and then a lengthy list of things that he should avoid at all costs. and they gave us a home care plan, and an action plan that goes with him everywhere along with his epipen. it's very detailed and makes me feel so much better about leaving him with people. and i'm sure it makes them feel better too. :)

for father's day, we went to MY favorite restaurant.. :) maggiano's, on 16th street mall. kenny was pleasantly surprised. they had spaghetti for aislyn and rice noodles for grayson and our food was DIVINE. happy late father's day to my amazing husband, thank you for supporting us. love you. (and happy daddy's day to my daddy, i can't wait to celebrate with you when we get home!)

every morning, the "art cart" comes along and the kids get to make crafts.. aislyn made these, one for her, one for grayson.

this.. is our amazing team of doctors. these pictures are so special to me. i posted the one of jen and of dr. fleischer in another post, and i forgot to get one of shannon (another one of our nurses).. this is dr. searing, our main dr, in his fellowship at NJ. and he is awesome. i seriously can't say enough about our team.
this is emily, our other nurse. we basically only had jen or emily. and we LOVE them.
this is the, i believe his title is "attending physician" of the unit, head over the unit, you get the picture. dr. szefler. and he is so great. as you can see, grayson is thrilled to be taking ALL of these pics. ha.
all of these doctors were around ALL the time, completely approachable, and so helpful. they have changed our little boy's life, and ours, for the better. God truly blessed us with finding this place.

this is just funny. its a little display case of dolls in wet wraps. you can see the appeal for a pic...

long drive tomorrow. thank you all for your prayers. we felt every one. thank you so much.

bunless burgers and fries.. here we come.

2009-06-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

that's right ladies and gents. we passed potatoes and beef today. i really can't believe it! i wasn't terribly worried about white potato, but his beef numbers were up there, (beef is cross reactive to milk, and we KNOW that is a true allergy) and the docs have been up and down about whether or not to try it for a few days. but we did it. and he did great. he had eaten more than a whole burger patty by the time of his last dose. for the potatoes, we did french fries and he loved them. who wouldn't?

and now, for approximately 16 pictures. :)

i'm really terrible at moving pics around in the order i need them on this particular computer, so i will just tell you what each one is...

we went to a street fair with mike and heidi (one of kenny's childhood bff's) and their son owen, who just turned 1. it rained on us the whole time, but we had umbrellas. and the baby boutiques were so so cute that i didn't care. (i'm a sucker for a good baby boutique.)and now we jump to bacon. we went out for dinner a couple nights ago... it was a small place, with no one hardly in there, and a very nice waitress so we decided to ask if they could make grayson an allergy friendly plate. we asked her how she made the bacon, if he could have corn made in a clean pot with NOTHING around it, and if they had an apple. she complied and brought us out his plate with corn, bacon and two apples neatly sliced. :) NOTE- we don't plan on making this a habit...eating out with him that is.. there is the fear of cross contamination and someone not being careful in the kitchen...so for the most part we will continue to take his food with us, which is fine. we're used to it.

back to the fair...

and back to the bacon... we could not get grayson, at first, to eat the corn. all he wanted was bacon. finally he decided that he would eat the corn as long as he could use the bacon for a spoon. weirdo.

this next one is AWESOME. GRAYSON IS EATING POPCORN!!! they had kettle corn at the fair, and the man told me that it was just soybean oil, corn, sugar and salt! and oh my word did he LOVE it! it was so fun to watch him eat a treat with everyone!
grayson has discovered that when not wearing socks in the car, it is fun to eat his toe.
and we're back to the popcorn.
sweet little owen at the fair...

not sure what all the leg extending is about.

grayson is doing really good. he is flaring a bit on his feet and the bottom of his legs. i have let him wear shorts for two days (giant sigh) and that could be why. so we wetwrapped his legs tonight and hopefully they will look better tomorrow. our discharge meeting is at one tomorrow, i really can't believe this has come to an end. it has FLOWN by. i think everyone is ready to come home. the kids' schedules are so messed up and aislyn is a bit crabby because of it. pray that tomorrow i will remember EVERYTHING that i want to ask the docs while i have them all in the same room.

i can't begin to tell you how much better we feel about all of this. our son can eat food. God has been so gracious to lead us to this particular hospital with these docs to really nail down what are his issues and what aren't his issues. we understand it all so much better now! and met amazing people in the process! not sure what we will challenge tomorrow, we're gonna talk about it in the morning.

off to bed now. thanks for checkin in...

plea for prayer for blake

2009-06-21T21:30:00.001-07:00

becky and blake got home this evening after an exhausting couple of weeks, and blake had an anaphylactic attack to something but they are not sure what it was. becky and ryan had to epi pen him, and then he was taken to their hospital to be monitored overnight. he's doing fine now, but this is just a WHOLE lot for them to deal with. i can't imagine if one of the kids fell down and scraped their knee right now because of how tired i am after this trip, much LESS if one of them had anaphylaxis. please keep becky and ryan in your prayers, that they would be able to put a finger on exactly what it was that triggered his attack. and pray for blake, that he would quickly recover, and that they would all be able to rest this week.

we sure love our jen...

2009-06-21T21:15:00.000-07:00

jen is grayson's nurse, the one we had almost the whole time. and she was amazing. so good with grayson and just REALLY good at what she does. she doesn't work on mondays or tuesdays, so we had to bid farewell to her on friday, since g's last day is tuesday. i can't believe it's almost over! these couple weeks have gone by fast...

all about blake...

2009-06-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

i wanted to post, for my sweet sweet kindred spirit and now close friend becky, a couple of her precious little brave boy. they came over friday night for a jaunt in the fountain... grayson's first experience IN a fountain, with a diaper and a tshirt on. maybe a little white trash, but we didn't care. and he CERTAINLY didn't care. i will post the ones of grayson later, but i wanted to post these of blake now. congrats blake on your SUPER big new diet!! and thanks becky, for being my sanity. i really just really am so glad you were here at the same time we were. i mean, what are the odds.. divine intervention i tell ya....

happiest he's ever been.

2009-06-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

kenny and i both agree. we've never seen the kid smile and laugh so much. it's so refreshing. just wanted to share some of the happiness...

i am so not a doctor.

2009-06-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

and that's ok.

today was soy. and it was looooong. this was one that the docs wanted to be super careful with soy because of his numbers, so they took it slow. it was about six doses every 30 minutes, which he took like a champ, but it meant he couldn't nap until about 1:00 after his last dose. he got a couple hives right at first, but we determined they were from the bath he had after his first dose, and they got smaller and smaller throughout the day. but then after his nap (which was 30 minutes because it was loud- there were aLOT of boys in the unit today), he was super red eyed and scratchy and coughing. but he was EXHAUSTED, totally worked up and having a meltdown, so we had to wait two hours and try it again. after THAT large serving of soymilk, he was fine, and has been ever since..soooooo

it's a pass. :) GIANT SMILEY FACE. this means elecare can be backed off on. not gone altogether yet, depending on how mon and tues go, but we will meet with the nutritionist again on tuesday to determine that.

one of our doctors could tell that i was so hesitant about calling it a pass, but in retrospect, it really was. he kept saying "DO NOT BE AFRAID to give it to him." once again, i have to trust!

have i mentioned that i love this place?

we had the option to come in tomorrow (saturday) for a challenge, but grayson needs a break. bad. mommy needs a break bad too. i really really have not ever been so worn out. ever. not even after 30 hours of labor actually. i think i'm even more tired than that.

kenny comes back tomorrow morning, first thing, and we could NOT be more excited about it. courtney, her mom and the girls leave in the morning. :( she has been a huge help this week, thanks girl.

so guess what grayson did this evening. you'll never guess what i LET him do this evening. he PLAYED in the FOUNTAIN with his ... get this.... SOCKS AND PANTS OFF. can you believe it? just runnin' around in water with a diaper and tshirt on! he was so unsure for awhile, blake kept trying to get him to get IN the fountain, and he would politely say "no" and just walk circles around it, for probably half an hour or more. once he got in he was just screaming "MOMMY! WATER! MOMMY! WATER!" he was in heaven. and it was cold. but he loved every second of it. inside i was freaking out a bit, but the thing is , i knew what to do. i soaked him, i wet wrapped his legs up to his knees and then put him to bed. and it should be ok. it's so nice to know what to do.

i love this place. but i will be SO sad that becky and blake are not there on monday. blake had a great trip and passed a lot of foods. i think he's up to 30ish now, which is so encouraging.

all done for now. ya'll with the comments... thank you so much for leaving them. i LOVE to read them, they are all just brilliant and encouraging and funny and just thanks. :)

4 kids in a small apartment

2009-06-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

this is what courtney and i's nights are like. every. night. my kids are in the same room and so are her girls and they pretty much just scream and cry for thirty minutes each evening when we put them down. all three girls are screaming and grayson is just screaming because they are. it's so fun. and i have never been this tired, which makes it even more fun. i think courtney would agree with me on that one. i told her that i wanted to scream a cussword tonight. she encouraged me to go for it, but then we decided it would not be in the children's best interests.

cutest video ever...

2009-06-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

ok MAYBE i'm biased.

we are five for five. with three incompletes. :) today we got pork and oats. oats was a reeeeeeaaaaalllllly long one. he started out with the tiniest eensiest bits of oatmeal ever and i literally had to hold him down, arms behind his back, force it in his mouth, squirt some water in there, and shove his paci in. all the while, he was screamin'. it was kinda sad. by the THIRD dose, the nurse decided that we would mix it with sweet potatoes and boy that totally worked. he ate all his doses and then some... his face turned red and he developed a little patch on his chin, but THANKS to our amazing docs and nurses, they determined that it was not from the oatmeal, but rather from other things going on. THIS, people, is why i can't do this alone, especially with the biggies like oats. oats means oatmeal, and COOKIES!! we are going to try and get cocoa because i can totally bake stuff with that! and cocoa is typically a low allergen, if i understand correctly.

so, i'm putting this in here so that i can remember it for comparison's sake later. grayson's IGE level is 5,000. normal is below 30 i think. it was 1,200 a year ago, and has gone up significantly. this number can be very high in kids with eczema because of all their open wounds. this number being elevated can certainly elevate his individual food IGE's which determines what class of allergy it is. for instance there is class 1 through 6, 6 being the worst. grayson's tests are typically between class 3 and 6. but as we know, you can't trust every skin prick and every blood test. those are just helpful in determining whether or not to challenge the food. which is why we have decided to not challenge wheat, milk, any nuts, egg and any other grain, because they were all super high still. but i really do think there are several things he'll grow out of. blake is already growing out of some that he was super allergic to a year ago. anyhoo, random.

and now for a couple pics. fritos. he LOVES them. this was his final dose. and he ate every one of them!look at those TOES! this was the first day that grayson hasn't worn socks. ever. ever. i told blake yesterday that grayson would come today not wearing socks and they could wear their matching shoes. well, grayson insisted on wearing socks. when we got there, blake said "um, grayson has socks on." so i gave it a whirl, and got him to take his socks off. so we got a pic of their little naked spidey feet. tomorrow could be huge. it's soy. and it will be all day long probably. if we get soy, we can get RID of elecare. eventually. which would be so wow. he could have soy cheese, and lots of other interesting soy things. i'm fairly convinced you can make anything out of soy. anyways, so pray for that. i'm going to bed. and i don't know why this text is underlined. and i don't care. good night.

success...

2009-06-17T21:08:00.000-07:00

well, we had a good day. today, we got TWO new foods. corn, which is huge, and turkey! isn't that awesome!? the docs wanted to try the foods that they figured he would maybe do ok with first, and we have been 4 for 4! FOUR NEW FOODS! and no more vaseline. that right there has made this trip worth it. i'm off to bed, but wanted to share that, and a few pics....

becky has become grayson's other mommy this week. and i am ok with that. she is such a blessing, SUCH a blessing and has helped me with him so much. she's way better at this stuff, and has been doing it longer and her advice is always right on the money. grayson just adores her and blake and they are the reason i can actually get him to the hospital fairly happy each day. :) i will be soooo sad when they leave at the end of this week. blake has done phenomenal with his food challenges, and he is truly just a picture of hope for me! aislyn thinks he's pretty cool too... don't get jealous liam. ha ;)
blake likes to steal his doctors instruments, nametags, shoes..... and grayson just likes to be in pictures.
some foundation provides computers with games for the kids hangin at the hospital, pretty cool...

this is dr. fleischer, who we love. but we actually have loved ALL of our docs at this place... he gave him this banana which grayson pretended to be excited about.
the apple....
i know. ouch. this was his food skin prick test. there were 32 things on his back...

um, this is grayson tip toeing across the floor in an attempt to not anger our downstairs neighbor, which is a whole 'nother story. the problem is that when you teach 2 year olds to tip toe, they tip stomp. but they think it's tip toeing. anyhoo, on to a different subject.

this is my skinny naked white boy with striped socks on. oh the whiteness. i think this is his first pic ever just in a onesie. ha.
grayson's eczema still looks amazing. we are just thrilled with our new knowledge, and God's healing on our boy. he just looks happier when he's not scratching ALL the time!

tonight we got to go to my bff's (rachael in denver) son quincy's second birthday party. he and grayson are just two weeks apart. it was so nice to get out and see familiar faces (her parents were also there).

i don't think i've ever been this exhausted in my life. mentally and physically. this is so worth it, but man, i am one tired girl. good thing there are starbucks everywhere, but i really would like to find a drive thru one...

tomorrow is oats and pork. pray that he will be in the mood. hopefully we can get a third food in.... friday is HUGE. it's soy day. we really want that one. it COULD mean no more elecare! but it could definitely go either way....

thanks again for the prayers. and a shout out to my amazing sister in law courtney who likes to be an organizing cleaning fairy while i'm gone for the day. it's so nice to come home to picked upness... cuz i certainly haven't been doing it! thanks girl. i so could not do this on my own...that's fo' sho'.

food challenges with a 2 year old

2009-06-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

are just really really not fun.

however, guess what we passed first thing this morning? GRAPES. he loved 'em. and it was the ONLY thing he would love. all. day. long.

we tried a banana. he asked for a fork. put the banana on the fork. licked it. put it down. and went to play with cars. i tried that for awhile to no avail.

we tried pears. we tried cubed pears. sliced pears. pears cut so small that they looked like rice and put them IN rice pears. and he spit. out. every. one.

we tried strawberries. he picked them out himself. he put one on the end of straw. he thought it was super cool. he then shoved it in MY mouth.

we tried a bell pepper. we cut it up to look like sweet potato fries. he was not amused. "i want rice" was his chant. all day long. more rice. more rice.

poor becky, who is REALLY good at food challenges, was even stumped by this kid. she had so many tricks up her sleeve that i just KNEW would work. but they did not.

by 3:30 i was done, he clearly was not going to try one single new food put in front of him. so we called it a day. i went to a grocery store and bought different varieties of some of these foods so that maybe we can trial them tomorrow. we are doing fritos tomorrow for the corn challenge. that should be interesting. i'm hoping to do soy and oat at some point this week. i told the dr. that i was NOT above squishing the food, putting it in a medicine syringe, holding him down and shooting it into the back of his mouth. i'm really really not.

we did his environmental back prick test as well today, 28 more pricks. 4 less than the ones he had yesterday. he is allergic to cats, dogs, grass and trees. several different types of grass and trees. i figured as much. that was no surprise to me, as his seasonal allergies have been killing him the last couple days. and i can't give him anything at all for it because it interferes with the food challenges. he has been rubbing his eyes and nose, which now i recognize as environmental allergies. he hasn't gone for his hands or legs or ankles ONCE in a few days now. he actually wore a short sleeve shirt for HOURS today without scratching his arms! and people, he is the whitest boy i have ever seen. i mean, get that boy some sun. now that the redness is gone, it's blinding. holy white boy batman.

we also drew blood today. from both of his tiny white arms. he was not a fan. i was not a fan either after watching it squirt everywhere after they pulled the needle out. i could never be a nurse. they did RAST testing to compare it with the skin prick test to see whether or not we will even try to do some of the really bad reactive allergens, such as wheat, milk, beef and several others actually.

our reinforcements arrived safely this evening, courtney, braidyn and mali. and martha (courtney's mom) of course, but she is here on work and staying across town. courtney will watch aislyn during the day while we are at the hospital which is a huge load off. another friend of mine, heidi, watched aislyn today while we were at the hospital. and aislyn had soooooooo much fun. she came back with her nails painted, and diamonds all over them, thanks to her care package from liam. heidi has a one year old boy, but she's one of those girls that would be a GREAT girl mom... so i'm guessing she may have had fun too. ;)

that's all for the day. we got grapes. so all in all, a good day. please please please pray for grayson, that he would eat his food challenges. i'm very frustrated at this point. if he were one, he would try anything, if he were three, i could bargain and at least try to reason. but he's two. and barely two. and he is stubborn. i don't know where he gets that from.

pictures soon. i promise. it just took an hour to get the kids asleep and i have no energy to pull out the camera... but i have lots of fun ones to post soon.

skin prick tests

2009-06-15T17:16:00.000-07:00

i forgot to mention these. i will post a pic tomorrow because kenny is taking his computer back to abq tonight. he was tested for 32 things MOST of which he reacted to. those he didn't were turkey, corn, carrots, squash and one other thing that escapes me at the moment... but we will start trialing those soon! anyhoo, there is hope..

need i say more...?

2009-06-15T17:14:00.000-07:00

dr. fleischer took this today and emailed it to us! i LOVE this place. the dr was so anxious to start food trialing that he just handed him an apple right there in his office! of course, i was like "i don't have my camera!" so he pulled out his phone. i love this place..

apples are a GO people. i could cry. and i did. tomorrow is the rest of the fruits. :)

some pics and an explanation

2009-06-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

so my friend amy asked if i could explain how they have him itch free on no meds. isn't it crazy? and amazing? it all has to do with the itch scratch cycle, i think. becky if you read this, feel free to clarify in the comments.. i know you deal with this with blake. i guess its fairly simple though. and it has everything to do with the wet wraps and with the ointments and creams we are using on him. he is in the bath three times a day, 20 minutes each bath and until yesterday, he was doing 2 hour wet wraps after each of them, and then he sleeps in the final wet wrap. so his skin is wet. all the time. so it has time to heal. once it heals, there is no need to scratch, unless he comes in contact with an allergen of sorts which could cause some itching, but we are keeping him away from everything as we always have. since he can't be on meds to do the skin tests, he had to stop them on tuesday. he used a sedation medicine (a small amount) the first and second night to help him sleep and so they could monitor him at the hospital, and i have not used it once since then. i haven't had to. he still will grab at his feet or hands, and i'll think he's gonna scratch, but he'll just feel them. it's funny. anyways, that might be a bad explanation but it's just pretty cool. basically if you stay on top using the preventive measures they are teaching us, the need for meds decreases significantly. for instance, if we find out that there are a ton of environmental factors, which i am suspecting, we will obviously have to use something at times.

and now for some random pics...

this is grayson and blake.. blake is trialing STRAWBERRIES which PASSED!!! and later that day, he passed wheat.. congrats little man!!
these are my new friends becky and cara... and the room we hang in.
who says you can't play basketball in a wet wrap?
this is becky (blake's mom) and xavier, who is 3. he is a doll. they are both BRIGHT red headed dolls....
blake and grayson playin' with trains.

that's all for now :) tomorrow is skin prick test day!!

i'm dreaming...

2009-06-14T18:08:00.000-07:00

of putting shorts on my son. for the first time... and it's not so far away, i don't THINK. but this is what i would buy. if i had $100 for one outfit. i love boden. back to the shorts and flip flops thing. it almost makes me teary to imagine him running around with kids in the summer NOT in jeans, socks and tennis shoes and a long sleeve shirt! can you imagine? oh the bliss...

another good morning...

2009-06-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

he looks great. totally clear, just beautiful. pray we can make this last!! its so funny to watch him because he is so used to scratching, and he will go for his ankles, and then just feel them slowly all the way up his leg and back down, its SO funny. he can't believe that they don't itch. and guess what?! he hasn't had ANY of his itch meds since tuesday morning!! crazy right? wow.

kenny and i are ROCKIN' the wet wraps. translation: we're really good at it. and grayson is fine with them. i think he LIKES them now! he's in one right now for two hours, and then we are going to go down JUST below us to the aforementioned park where there is a GIANT farmer's market!! everything from fruits and veggies to bavarian sausage! I LOVE THIS PLACE. we are so blessed to be able to stay right here, where we are comfortable and there is tons of stuff to do without even driving. it is really a huge HUGE blessing. we are humbled...

more later. thanks for your continued prayers, we are amazed at God's work.

he's got legs..

2009-06-13T18:28:00.001-07:00

and a forehead...for real, under the red and itch, is beautiful pale white skin. :) just wanted you to see his progress... we are very happy with it. :) scratch patrol has been lessened considerably. only one time has he wanted to scratch today and it was while in the bath that he did not want to be in. oh and when i couldn't get the wrapper open of his bar fast enough. these pics are unedited by the way so you can see exactly how he looks.

today was great, bagels with rachael and james and the kids, played in the fountain (except grayson of course, but ONE DAY), and then we took the kids to the IMAX theater to see Wild Ocean. it was sooooooo cool and they loved it. this was all in between wet wraps and soaks, only one more to go for the day.

you totally have to watch this..

2009-06-12T21:49:00.001-07:00

i found the video that was on nightline about blake and i think it will shed light on anyone who doesn't understand totally what we're doing. blake's case was definitely more serious, his docs told him to withhold everything for two years and be fed on a gtube only. grayson hasn't had to have one of those yet, but another year of the way we are going now, and i could almost guarantee that he would have had to have one. anyway, this was shot partly at becky and ryan's home and then mostly right smack in the middle of the unit that we are in every day. so when you watch this and you see the docs and nurses, and eating areas, and nurse's station, those are our docs and that is where we are all day! now you have a visual!! anyway, watch the video. i cried a little..just thinking of what we might come home with! more than three foods!!

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AllergiesNews/Story?id=7232662&page=1

i really wanted to get a pic in this post..

2009-06-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

however, my camera battery is dead, i am tired, and therefore too lazy to walk across the room and get the other one. but maybe tomorrow..

long day. we did three baths and only two wet wraps today as opposed to three baths and three wet wraps yesterday which is great. his middle bath from now on will just be soak for 20 min and then lotion and clothes instead of wet stuff, which makes me happy. his face looks SOOOOOOOOOO great that we don't have to wrap his head anymore at all unless it takes a turn for the worst or something. his face is so soft and sweet and his eyes aren't red, he just looks like a different kid. :)

his body is getting there. we tried to do a skin prick test today, which i was OVER THE MOON excited about, but it wouldn't work. i had given him zyrtec on monday and apparently, that is the one drug that takes 5 to 7 days to get out of his system. so they did the control prick with the histamine and he did not react, which means he would not react to anything. so we have to wait until monday. actually, it's better because his back was only clear enough for 5 to 10 pricks and the doctor wants to do 23. if we get any negative prick tests, there is a 95% chance that he would do fine with that food. if we get any positive prick tests, there is still a 45% chance that he would do ok with it. enter food challenges. we will draw a list from the prick test of food and start food challenges on tuesday. hopefully. if he doesn't clear over the weekend then that may be put off. so we will do our best to make that happen.

we were also filmed a bit today by a crew doing a story on blake. they took interest in grayson because we are there because of the article we read about blake, and because their stories are so similar. the hospital wants to get word out to other moms like becky and i who have been withholding food from our kiddos because of blood testing. they want moms and dads to know that there could be more to it. which by the way, i thought the clinic would be filled with kids who were just like grayson, but once again, i am learning that he and blake are unique. the kids there have bad eczema and some food allergies, but they actually do eat food. more on that later. oh and i got my make up done three times by a lady walking around with a makeup cart. hi.lar.i.ous. it looked good actually. i think she was like "oh that girl needs help", because at the end of the day, the producer offered me a makeover just because, for no reason. so funny.

our killer apartment overlooks a giant green beautiful lush park. at this moment they have the biggest movie screen EVER up in the middle of the park and are playing madagascar. we can see everything and hear every word. crazy. and so very very cool.

prayers? for a relaxing weekend, that wet wrap bath time would be successful and go well and that i would STOP freaking out about it. and that his prick tests would be done on monday and that we would have several negative ones so we will have good options for testing. i'm so excited.

"excuse me, is that your son?"

2009-06-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

...were the words we heard tonight at starbucks while ordering our coffee..from the man...standing at the door... with it open.. i ran outside and found grayson running down the sidewalk. why? why are boys like this? good grief. he was giving me a dirty look, but i quickly found out that he has THREE girls and no boys, and really just didn't understand..

anyhoo- day 2. was ok. grayson is flaring more than he usually does. and he should NOT be. this morning, when i took his wet wraps off he was clear, beautifully clear, i was rejoicing inside. but then after his first cream, and then bath and then meds etc., he was super flary and NOT in a way that he usually does. the docs are just watching him pretty close because there are several things that i think could be a factor. some of those things, they disagree with and i need to TRUST them.

i mentioned yesterday that we have met and become friends with a couple, becky and ryan, parents of a kiddo named blake who is 5 now, but he and grayson have aLOT in common. (blake is the kid who was in the article which led us to nat'l jewish). becky told me that the first time they came she just had to let go and trust and put herself into this 100% because they had come a LONG way to get care here. so i am trying really hard.

the docs really are great, grayson loves them, and they have excellent demeanors. all this babble to say i have a very specific thing to pray for. please pray that they would figure out TOMORROW what is making him flare, FIX it, and that he would clear and stay clear over the weekend because we can't start food challenges until he looks GREAT. otherwise, as has been the problem all along, we will never know if he is reacting or not. i am fearful of us being in charge of his skin care over the weekend, it freaks me out. but they are teaching us everyday, and this is the point..that we will be able to see it, know what to do, and do it. but these wet wrap baths are like my own little anxiety attacks. 2 pairs of wet socks, 2 pairs of dry socks, a zipped up onesie, a sweat shirt, sweat pants, diaper, face gauze, a face sock, half of it has to be at the perfect warm wet temperature and a giant tub of a couple creams with some stick to apply it with, freezing cold baby and a freaking out momma. oh and a freshly warmed in the dryer blanket. tonight we had to do it alone for the first time and i totally almost lost it when kenny said "are you ready for him?" cuz i wasn't. but we did it, and he did great. he will now hold out his arms for me to put the wet socks on him. i think he sorta likes it, though his face typically tells a different story.

side note- sweet blake got his mickey button out today! he has had it for three years and man was he excited. we were blessed to be there and get to share in the joy they were experiencing. i have been so thankful that God has put becky and kara (mom to a 16 mo. old named bret who has severe eczema) at the hospital this week. i have really enjoyed getting to know them, as well as a few of the other parents. cuz peeps, we get to hang out alllll day. in between baths, in between wet wraps, in between food challenges, and doctor meetings, we just hang out. its fine though. board games, wagon rides, movies, sweet husbands who bring us starbucks, it works out great. there are two or three girls on the unit who are around 10 or 11 and aislyn has really taken a liking to them. they come around and see if she wants to go play and she always does. she'll be like, "hi friends.. what are you doin? i have my princess, you wanna see it?" then she'll be like "mom, those are my friends." she's so cool. even at 3. hilarious.

i wanted to post some pics tonight but i haven't slept in about 4 nights now i think.. well, maybe just 3. either way. i'm all done. off to bed with my little wet baby.

don't forget to pray like crazy for the docs to clear my boy's skin. and thank you a million times over.

tomorrow, maybe i'll get to write about how FREAKING COOL THIS APARTMENT/VILLAGE we are staying in is! i mean, seriously..its straight out of a movie, like "you've got mail" or something... so fun.

all done.

end of day 1

2009-06-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

this is just a hard day. but we're doing good. grayson's skin looks awful and i am 90% sure it is his antibiotic. i intend on discussing more about that tomorrow. his bath and wrap tonight were pretty traumatic but its over. he's on a sleep med right now, wearing wet pajamas. didn't your mother ever tell you to NOT wear wet pajamas? apparently, this helps. anyhoo, he's a sad sight. i'm not sure i like seeing him all wrapped like this, but he's comfy. well, since HE is SLEEPING, so should i.... but first a few pics.

with our super duper singy cards from lyss. and our drawings from liam posted around. oh, lyss, the dr. came into our room earlier WITH these cards and drawings and said "hey, amy, i found this card for grayson, and this card for you, and this envelope all in your medical records and i wanted to come bring them to you!" and he was seriously excited about it cuz he thought it was cool. cool huh?
on a lighter note, we have a new little friend, bret, and tonight during bret's wet wrap time, we went on a wagon ride... when grayson first saw bret in his wraps, he laughed at him apparently. clearly we did not let grayson look in a mirror after his... lucky for me, i really like bret's mom and we've hit it off quite nicely.. :)

we made it through day 1

2009-06-10T16:02:00.001-07:00

ALMOST...

today has been full of meeting docs and nurses and therapists and educators and plenty of wet wraps. i don't have time to write much at the moment... the bottom pic is him in a wet wrap, its awful to see, but you see it ALL around on the unit. our room is super nice. his crib is giant and steel and kind of weird, but with his "sleep help meds" tonight, he shouldn't care.

we got in last night around 6:30 and i have never been sicker. i'm sure that our apartment is ridiculously nice and the area its in is beautiful. a special shout out to the sweet person who blessed us by setting us up there. i won't mention his name, just in case i'm not supposed to or something. but for real, thank you. we love it.

the docs have been amazing, they have been so encouraging and are telling us that he will look awesome in 48 hours. i can't wait. cuz he looks awful now. we have one more 2 hour wet wrap tonight before bed and then three intense ones tomorrow. i have been to a class on eczema today already and have had a "counseling session".

the reason we are here is because kenny's cousin christy sent us an article about a little boy named blake who was in some publication and has been getting quite a bit of media attention as well. he is like grayson, all his food blood tests come back positive, but NJ has been able to help him get several foods in his system. well, i looked over in the playroom today, and there sat blake with his mom becky and his dad and brother. we introduced ourselves and have been able to speak a couple times in and out of doc visits. its so nice to meet other mothers who get it. who really really get it. but how cool that they would be out here at the same time.. this is his second trip for food challenges. and he was referred here by Mayo if that tells you anything about how good this facility is.

keep up the prayers. we can feel them. i am starting to feel better. i came down with what i believe is strep yesterday morning on our way out of town. i am on antibiotics, and after an AWFUL trip down here, a HORRIBLE night and a REALLY ROUGH morning, i am finally starting to feel better. i can't believe i have survived the last two days with 101 fever, the pukes and a roadtrip and a throat that feels as if i am swallowing a tennis ball with razors sticking out of it. please pray aislyn doesn't get sick by the way. or kenny. and pray for the dr's wisdom in the antibiotic grayson is on for his sickness earlier this week, because i think it's making him rash out, which will negate everything they are doing. its just hard to tell. so, yea, pray for wisdom...

i leave you with pics... thanks for the prayers, more later. :)

things to pray for..

2009-06-07T11:06:00.001-07:00

regarding our trip to National Jewish. you know... if you want to.this is how i found him yesterday, with his pop. just hangin out in a window sill. yes, his pants are taped around his leg to prevent scratchfest....though it only worked for awhile.

- grayson is sick. fever, pukes, doesn't want to eat. and we leave tuesday morning. its a little concerning, mainly because i am hoping aislyn doesn't get it on tuesday morning. he's a bit miserable and could use some prayers.
- for the kids to be comfortable in new surroundings for 2.5 weeks
- for grayson to think the hospital is the coolest place EVER (so he will be happy and not freak out :))
- safe travel, obviously
- for very smart doctors, who will know exactly how to test and what to test
- for at least FIVE new foods (let's shoot for the moon here).
- for kenny and i to learn how to keep him as clear and comfy as we can when he has flareups
- for kenny's work here not to suffer while he's gone, no big problems, and that he can get more business even though he is gone, and for safe travel for him back and forth
- safe travel ALSO for my reinforcements (aunt courtney, braidyn, mali) when they come up in a week
- for me, that my expectations and faith will be right where it is supposed to be, that my irrational fears will go away and that my rational fears will be replaced with peace
- big HUGE one- that grayson will NOT SCRATCH for 7 hours on the way to denver. people, if that is accomplished, it will mean that God himself is in our car holding him down. which i believe is possible.

those are the biggies for now.

that being said, we are so thankful that we have been blessed with a 2 BR apt. for pretty much NOTHING to stay in while we're there that is, ahem, down the street from target.. and have several other things to be thankful for. . including the fact that Nat'l Jewish is in Denver. and Denver is fun. and two of our BFF's live there.

thanks to those of you who will lift us up :) God is big.

t minus 3 days....

2009-06-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

and it cannot come fast enough. he is the itchiest boy we know right now, not to mention that he has a fever which does NOT do anything for eczema kids. we leave in a few days and i will be updating daily (hopefully) on this blog to let friends and family know what's happening, instead of doing a caring bridge site thing. so feel free to leave lots of comments, i will read them all to he and aislyn.

if any of you feel so inclined to pray for us while we're there, i'll post a list of specific things to pray for soon. um, i have lots of them.

ballet. and makeup.

2009-06-03T13:44:00.000-07:00

update: aislyn saw this post and said "mommy, we look like beautiful!" and no, neither of them are wearing fake eyelashes. just mascara.

the girls had their very first ballet recital this last weekend. and though we had to take out a loan for them to be in it AND for us to go to it, it was kinda fun. they were absolutely adorable. and yes, they're wearing makeup. courtney and i wanted to fit in with all the rest of the moms. and secretly, we kinda enjoyed putting it on them. they thought they were the STUFF. i think the mascara was their favorite. lipstick was a close second.
i think braidyn is doing an irish jig here.

now, i must say, these are awful pictures. we couldn't use a flash and my super duper fun lens was too close to get more than one person at a time. so these are horrible, but you get the idea. now aislyn preferred to watch all the other dancers and occassionally throw in her own moves. braidyn on the other hand, had it down pat. but i'm not sure why she is taking flight in this picture. i don't remember that part of the routine.
anyhoo, hope you enjoy the pics, because that might be the last ballet lesson we take for awhile. i can't wait for soccer!

cousins

2009-06-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

this is from easter. i sure like my kid and my niece.

happy birthday angel boy

2009-06-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

yesterday, our littlest guy turned TWO. two years old. and what a two years it has been.

sweet grayson, we are so happy that God gave YOU to us. you are such a joy. your little smile and your little laugh and the way you hug me so tight (when you're in the mood), we wouldn't trade you for the world. God has used you to teach us so much about His sovereignty and patience among other things. you never cry when you can't have the same food that the other kids are getting. you think that rice cakes are the most exciting thing EVER, which totally helps when i have to give that to you day in and day out as a yummy snack. :) you continue to drink your formula and eat your chicken, sweet potatoes and rice like they were the BEST food in the world! you're such a good boy and we love you so much. we know this is only a season and we absolutely cannot wait until one birthday, when we can take you out to dinner and order off the menu!!! until then, its movie and chicken and rice night! and we love it. thank you for being you. and baby, denver is only 6 days away. :)

so, we started his party with a little jaunt in the FREEZING cold pool with his new mcqueen ball from liam. he decided to skip his nap on his party day by the way...
after he developed hypothermia, we decided to get him out.
after we got his body temperature back up to a reasonable level, he fell asleep on papa. which papa was ok with, because there was a golf tournament on. he proceeded to sleep for one hour and 45 minutes, about the duration of his party.
we woke him up for presents and food. which he was ok with.

grayson loved his "bar" cake. we stacked trader joe's rice krispy bars on top of each other with a Cars candle on the top and he was in heaven. (even though he eats them every day.) aislyn came up and gave him a big hug and say "happy birthday baby brother" and it was too cute.
isn't he so big and handsome sporting his new lightning mcqueen hat from uncle chris and aunt courtney?
just a little chat on the bridge.
we love you itchy munchkin.

the final countdown

2009-05-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

11 more days til we go to denver. we finally got a date, june 10th is his start date. i will TRY to have a computer up there so i can update almost daily with progress. i'm super excited and have very high expectations that i likely need to lower a bit.. very tired of disappointment with his case, but these people work with kids like grayson and way worse than him too. so i really do believe that we will walk away with help and answers. AND FOOD!! his eczema, oddly enough has been worse this month than ever i think. so we couldn't be more ready to go. his body normally looks ok, he has to be covered 24-7, but he has been ok for awhile with flares here and there, but lately it's been way worse. his hands are in wraps up to his elbows for every nap and night time and sometimes all day. one of them is wrapped all the time, while i try and let the other air out, and then i switch them. am i doing it right? who knows? probably not. i feel somedays as if i might in fact lose it and have broken a couple of kitchen utensils in my frustration. its just hard to get anything done because when he knows i'm not looking he has taken his socks off and is bleeding on his legs from scratching so hard in like 30 seconds! this is when fear sets in, fear of staph infection because i'm not doing enough, things like that. and then i start thinking... what if the doctors in denver actually think grayson's case is really weird and we come back with no answers? which is why this whole situation forces me to go back to the cross and remember things like this:

It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. (Deuteronomy 31:8)

or this:

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his son is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. (Psalm 42: 5,8)

or...this:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27)

so clearly God has given me plenty of reasons to not fear and give this to Him. please pray for us to be able to do that fully! man, things could be so much worse. we are so thankful that he is so healthy otherwise.

i've babbled long enough...

and what's a post without a pic?

we went to the zoo with great grandma katie and alyssa and liam the other day. and yes, i see how liam and aislyn are standing. and no, we don't let them look through abercrombie catalogues.

my boys

2009-05-19T22:12:00.001-07:00

this was a couple months ago. they looked so precious just sitting there, eating rice cakes. i had to "snap".

my girl and her boy

2009-05-18T09:50:00.001-07:00

watering the angel trees with daddy

2009-05-17T21:29:00.000-07:00

look at his hair! total fro. and look at her posing. my kids are crazy. oh, and i have a not so great cell phone for taking pics... :)

cavities

2009-05-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

this week, we had to take aislyn to the doc, for some wetting her pants issues. the doc had to do a quick exam, which prefaces this story...

aislyn to alyssa:

"alyssa! i went to the dr. and he looked at my pee pee and guess what?! my bottom doesn't have any cavities."

except for that ONE...

our boy

2009-05-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

it has definitely been awhile since i've updated on grayson. that's really because there hasn't been much to tell. we stopped trying to add new foods awhile ago, because they all seemed to cause him more eczema and more distress. so we are still with chicken, sweet potatoes and rice, in many different forms. well, ok. not very many different forms. but i try new ways to cook sometimes. my sweet cousin molly beth has a kiddo who can't have many foods because of reflux and she has shared some GREAT recipes with me for something that looked like a pancake, but when baked, kinda looked like a scone. so hey, there's two more things right there. :) i called them cookies and he ate them UP.

we feel as though we have exhausted the dr's here in our town. they are awesome and we love them all, but i think they would likely agree. his case is just weird. SO.. our dr has pushed an approval through with our insurance and we're going to a hospital in denver that has a 2 week day program for allergies and eczema. the thing is... these dr's are noticing that kids like grayson, who test allergic to EVERY SINGLE food they are tested for via blood, are indeed allergic to many foods, but there can be some false positives. but kenny and i can't figure that out on our own. we've tried. there are so many things that exacerbate his eczema, and every time we trial a food, it gets worse. but it could be because he was around a dog that day. or touched a plant. who knows? we certainly don't. so, we will be doing medically supervised food challenges. grayson and i will be admitted into the hospital the first night for surveillance and then the rest of the two weeks, we will be at the clinic from 8 to 5ish and then back to the hotel at night. we are very excited, but i'm getting more and more nervous as it gets closer. i don't want to be away from aislyn that long but she can't come to the hospital with us during the day so i can't really take her. she will be there some though. also, i don't want to get my hopes up, but i do. they told me there is a good chance he will come away with several new foods! can you imagine?! and they will teach me how to treat his eczema effectively when it does flare. i think satan is whispering in my ear "this is all for nothing. it won't work." which is discouraging. so pray against that for me please!

we can use tons of prayers actually. travel, hotel, grayson not to freak out while we're there, etc. he does really good with drs, so hopefully that won't be different. right now, he has torn his arm and hand up so badly that he has been wearing a wrap for several days. he caught a virus last week that caused him to flare and one night he tore his hand up so bad that kenny and i got in the car to take him to the E.R. at 11 o'clock at night. until we remembered that everyone thinks they have swine flu. and we didn't want whatever it was they DID have. so we turned around, and played dr. it's looking better and healing great, but its things like this we would love to avoid!

all that to say, we're very excited and hopeful. please pray with us for MORE NEW FOODS! OH to give my son an apple, or fruit of ANY kind for that matter would bring tears to my eyes. he lives on dum dums and rice bars from trader joe's for snacks at this point! luckily he LOVES them and sees them as a super fun treat still.

thanks for listening to my ramble. hopefully i will have access to the computer when we're there so i can do a play by play day by day! but that is yet to be determined. it will be mid june, but i'm not certain of the date yet.

rice cakes

2009-04-27T09:34:00.001-07:00

are yum.

temper tantrum

2009-04-27T09:29:00.001-07:00

this is what the beginnings of a temper tantrum look like around here. you may think she is singing loudly and passionately, but no. she is sad.

oldies...random

2009-04-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

i found myself looking through old pics this evening, no idea why, but these made me smile. aislyn, in this picture, is grayson's age now. almost 2. also, almost 2..at the zoo with daddy. i really think that she and gray look nothing alike. but they both look like kenny.
seriously? my boy was so bald. so so so bald that i don't even remember him being bald cuz he has so much curly hair now. weird. i don't miss that carpet by the way.

no. actually, that is not a doll i'm holding. once again, it's my ridiculously bald baby. but it LOOKS like aislyn's baby doll, just bigger. with no hair.

anyway... that's all.

home

2009-04-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

i put this on matt's blog, but matt went home to be with Jesus this morning. it's a bittersweet feeling for sure. i already miss his sweet face, but do not miss his suffering. he is dancing with Jesus today for sure. :)

shelter

2009-04-17T18:19:00.001-07:00

i think, that this post won't make alot of sense. because i feel like i don't make much sense lately. i've written about this previously, and if you know me, you know this is a huge part of my life. matty matt is not doing well. Jesus will likely take him home soon. we knew this was coming. we've known it since matt was just a day and a half old. but somehow, i don't feel like that makes it much easier. it's so hard to watch him deteriorate, and to remember just a few weeks ago, when "r" and i were in the driveway and he almost seemed normal for a few minutes. but we know he's at the end. and it's tough. all the kids have fallen head over heels for him, and i know we will hear "where's baby matt?" likely for months after his passing. i tried to explain things to aislyn today, i think i totally sucked at it, and she got one of those frowns that precedes a huge cry on her face, and said "but i won't see him again mom?" i tried to explain that she will, hopefully a long time from now, but i had such a hard time trying to explain it in a manner that wouldn't give her nightmares. all this to say, please keep the "b" family in your prayers. they, and all of us who have loved him so intensely, will miss him. so. much. i take great comfort in knowing that matt will shortly be in the arms of our Creator, but "r" and "s" are still losing their son, "e" and "j" are still losing their baby brother, and we are all losing the most precious little surprise that we have loved as our own over the last few months.

but i cannot believe how many lives this little boy has touched. and he doesn't even know it.

my new favorite song...

I have a shelter in the storm
When troubles pour upon me
Though fears are rising like a flood
My soul can rest securely
O Jesus, I will hide in You
My place of peace and solace
No trial is deeper than Your love
That comforts all my sorrows

I have a shelter in the storm
When all my sins accuse me
Though justice charges me with guilt
Your grace will not refuse me
O Jesus, I will hide in You
Who bore my condemnation
I find my refuge in Your wounds
For there I find salvation

I have a shelter in the storm
When constant winds would break me
For in my weakness, I have learned
Your strength will not forsake me
O Jesus, I will hide in You
The One who bears my burdens
With faithful hands that cannot fail
You’ll bring me home to heaven...
(Steve & Vicki Cook, Bob Kauflin)

Jesus, help us to believe these words. Be our shelter.

poser

2009-04-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

aislyn has been fairly cooperative with me lately, as i am taking a photography class, and am using her as my model. this was one i liked alot. :)

toe jam

2009-04-03T18:46:00.000-07:00

aislyn was showing grayson how to find and properly remove toe jam. it was gross.

as long as we're jumpin'...

2009-04-03T18:41:00.001-07:00

peace corp

2009-04-02T14:26:00.001-07:00

example from earlier post. :)

my new face.

2009-04-02T14:18:00.001-07:00

grayson has a new face. this is the face that he makes every time aislyn does something that he does not like. if i could attach a sound byte, i would attach a blood curdling girl scream. he has realized that it gets attention and aislyn is soon removed from his presence.

elfish

2009-04-02T14:03:00.000-07:00

we have been talking to aislyn about our selfish hearts and making good and bad choices, since she could talk. with that said, i will share a story.

aislyn dresses herself now. she has recently been likened to someone who is about to join the peace corp. (ie. hippy, lots of patterns, that don't match, at all). she was putting on a dirty shirt with a dress and i insisted that she pick a different shirt. she argued and argued, and i was about to "get the spoon" when she says,

"MOM. you can be elfish... or you can help me. it's your choice."

yes, she said elfish instead of selfish. and YES, i had to leave the room because i could NOT hold back a smile.

my dad's comment? "have fun payin' for your raisin'."

he gave me his heart....

2009-03-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

and i took it.

before he threw it at me.

XL

2009-03-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

last weekend, we went back home (my home) to texas to visit all of our cousins, and there are ALOT. :) i had a fun little shoot with mine and my cousins' kids at an old run down barn that totally makes me think of vernon every time i see it. it has what looks like a giant XL at the top and i always called it (in my head) the extra large barn. and it was extra large. anyways, i wanted to do a test shot to see if i liked something so i called aislyn over from what she was doing (playing with her cousins and their dolls), and she ran over and i said "up against the wall stat", and she threw herself against the wall, and twisted her head sideways and made this face. i thought i was gonna have to pick mom up off the ground she was laughing so hard at my compliant model.

new favorite pasttime

2009-02-11T15:54:00.000-08:00

hypoallergenic dum dums. thanks jen for the tip. :) he loves 'em.

cookies

2009-02-08T08:30:00.001-08:00

aislyn and i were learning our letters this morning before church. wanted to write this down.

me: "aislyn, you are one smart cookie."
her: "mom, i'm ALLERGIC to cookies. don't call me that again. i am a little girl named aislyn."

that's all.

please check this blog

2009-02-03T18:33:00.000-08:00

www.prayformatt.blogspot.com
check and it and please pray for him. God might do a miracle in His little life...

walk the line...

2009-02-02T20:20:00.001-08:00

just a little something for fun....

cuties

2009-01-31T15:37:00.000-08:00

these are some cute kids. i was just playing around with them and got some smiles..

hiking part deux

2009-01-27T13:11:00.000-08:00

grayson rode in kenny's backpack, and charlie rode in lyss'. :) and i really think its steeper than it looks! oh, i figured, obviously, how to turn my pics. i am sad however, at the quality of my point and shoot. its kinda crappy, and i used to think it was SO good. ha. maybe i should ask for a new one for some holiday this year....

hiking

2009-01-26T12:04:00.000-08:00

i have several more pics from our hiking experience, but they're oriented the wrong way and i can't figure out how to rotate them NOT using photoshop. i'm going to carry our small point and shoot camera around with us more and just take quick pics and upload them instead of trying to get EVERYTHING edited before i post... so if anyone knows how to rotate images, let me know and i'll post the other ten. :) oh and aislyn and liam were TROOPERS. these kids hiked FAR and had a blast. grayson, though you would not know it from this picture, loved the backpack, he didn't make a peep. he was just taking it all in. it has been so nice here lately, we'll definitely be doing more of this.

tagged

2009-01-25T21:10:00.000-08:00

i've been tagged by my cousin in law tracey and i've actually never heard of this tag. kinda fun.. go to the 4th folder in your photo stuff (on your computer) and post the 4th pic. this computer is mostly work stuff, so here is an adorable little guy i shot last week. actually this is one of kenny's best friend's little boy. it was so wonderful to meet him for the first time - they live in denver. oh and heidi, if you're looking, here's another sneak peek!

don't do a hard one mommy

2009-01-22T15:55:00.000-08:00

i have to jot this down to remember it- we have recently begun giving grayson little spankings ("gentle reminders") because he can be quite the defiant one these days. (sorry to offend any non spankers out there :)) anyways, i told grayson, after warning him several times to not climb on the table, that he was going to get a spoon spankin'. i took him in the bathroom and noticed that aislyn was terribly concerned, she looked horrified. she said "MOMMY! DO NOT DO A HARD ONE! mommy, please don't do a hard one", as if i normally beat her or something. so i gave him a "soft" spanking and aislyn promptly came over to his behind and kissed it and told him it was ok. HIlarious. didn't want to forget that one.

the three mustketeers...

2009-01-22T12:58:00.000-08:00

baby matt's new site

2009-01-22T12:54:00.000-08:00

lyss and i have started a blog for baby matt to keep everyone updated on his life. the site is www.prayformatt.blogspot.com. check there for stories and pictures about the little guy.

another little one...

2009-01-19T11:42:00.000-08:00

i want to share with you all, matthew patrick brown. our friends, rachael and steffen, have applied for guardianship of this little one. i will attach rachael's email below, as she can explain it much better than i.

Dear Ones,
Steffen and I are in the process of becoming guardians for a little guy we will call Matt Patrick Brown. He was born on Tuesday at 7lbs.1oz, and his mother (15yrs.old) did not wish to have any interaction with him. Matt is now out of the hospital and doing quite well despite the fact that he has a terminal brain anomaly known as Holoprosencephaly, at least we think it is terminal. Apparently the doctor's feel his prognosis is not good as they have already put him into hospice care. There are still a lot of legal details to be worked out, but we are getting close to taking responsibility for Matt. (Though given the details of Matt's birth, I am confident that even after we have guardianship of Matt, it will be his Heavenly Father--through His body the church--who will continue to look out for this special little one). This is not something we had planned on doing at this point in our lives. Nonetheless we are thankful that at least for today, God has given us the grace to love Matt as he is. God has mercifully provided for all of our needs in abundance through you, His church, in a multitude of ways. We have been blessed beyond all that we could have asked or imagined through your tangible gifts or prayer, adoption services, childcare, food, baby items, legal services, encouragement, wise councel, cuddling, tears of compassion, monogrammed blanekts, church leadership, and so much more. Thank you! Despite the tragedy inherent in this story, we know that God is good because He has used His body to demonstrate His love for us and Matt through such a variety of integrated and yet unique gifts. Grace and Peace to you all. Love, Rachael (for Steffen, Emma, Jack, and Matt)

i had the HONOR of doing his newborn shoot. please pray for him, please pray for the browns also. we are coming together, as a church, to help them with this little guy and it has been amazing what God has already taught us through this little life.

if you are wanting to do anything for them, send me an email to kagrebe@hotmail.com. they have diapers and formula provided, but we all know how expensive newborns can be!

here he is:

babies

2009-01-16T21:17:00.001-08:00

Lord, i am thankful for my babies today.

and then...

2009-01-16T21:05:00.000-08:00

there was grayson. i used to think , "gees, how hard could a boy's hair be to do?" and then... there was grayson. sweet 'fro boy. i mean, seriously, i do NOT know what to do do with it. its SOO cute out of the bath, spiral curls, just beautiful. and then it dries. and then he scratches it until it 'FRO'S like crazy! i would put product on his little hair but i can't even put lotion on him so i'm not about to do that... here is an example of the madness that is his hair.this is his cute as a button face. :)cuz seriously. he's really cute. its kind of ridiculous.

who are those kids....

2009-01-11T20:07:00.000-08:00

this is nothing but good times right here. i saw this and just thought, wow. that looks like some kids i know... check out my brother's ...overalls? onesie thing? romper? not sure. oh and whatever you do, DON'T call him a girl. i know i know, the hair. but really, he really was a boy. with beautiful golden curly locks of girl hair. (love you chris.) i remember that dress and vest like it was yesterday. i was quite fond of it for some reason. and i loved that necklace. it was gold, and had three hearts on it (likely made of plastic) in pastel colors. i don't have a pic of my kids where they are posed like this (there is kind of one on the post entitled "sibling love"), but chris and i are the EXACT same age as aislyn and grayson now. i was 3.5 and he was 1.5. so funny.

our little ballerina

2009-01-08T10:29:00.000-08:00

she must have asked me a million times before lunch "mommy, where are we going again?" just to hear me say it. "ballet, honey." and then she would put that precious, shy smile on her face and go dancing off into the other room. "will i do this mommy?" she kicks her foot back behind her to hold it in her hand and puts the other hand above her head. "maybe", i say, knowing full well, that that is clearly NOT a ballet position. but adorable nonetheless. she put on her ballerina clothes, after taking a big girl nap and out the door we went. she was not one bit shy, but its probably because cousin braidyn was right beside her the whole time! they had so much fun with all their "friends" and miss jessica the teacher. aislyn did wonderful and followed instructions like a champ. you could not wipe the smile off of her face the whole time she was in there. i got some pics of the class but it was through a tiny window that i had to fight to get in front of. i will post some of those later. for now, here are a couple. i also have some cute ones of braidyn to post, too, but i need to go through them still. we will definitely be continuing ballet this spring, and i think i love it as much as she does....grayson got his very own dance lessons from liam while we were gone... here's the video. you won't want to miss it...

the first snow of the year....

2009-01-07T17:17:00.000-08:00

aislyn's first camera

2008-12-28T16:33:00.000-08:00

aislyn got her first camera from santa (via the help of aunt courtney... braidyn will NEVER miss it. until she sees it anyways...) i have loved watching her take pictures, its too cute. i will have to post some of her work sometime. also, my blog is still broken, i don't know why it uploads EVEN tiny pics to giNORmous on my blog, so you have to click on the pic to see the whole thing....

the spot

2008-12-17T14:48:00.000-08:00

so i must not forget this conversation today.

me: aislyn if you talk to your brother like that again, i will spank you on the spot.
aislyn: on my spot? but mommy, it will hurt my spot. and then i will have to go to the dr. to get my spot fixed. and i won't have any clothes on.

that's all. and i leave you with a picture.