Madison doing the Chicken Dance - Unknown to her I was taping it!

We went to Kings Island this last weekend. Dave got some free tickets for our family from work which was really nice. We went with Dave's brother Bryan and his wife Buffy and their son Bryce and than also with some friends of ours John and Missy Tucker and their sons Noah, Jackson, and Daniel. We had a lot of fun Kings Island is both an amusement park as well as a water park. That night we stayed in a hotel and than the next day we went to Splash Moraine another water park but much lower key and had a great time relaxing. Madison and Garrett both had a great time this was their first experience with an amusement park atmosphere. They did really well with all the walking and Garrett with all the sitting in the stroller.

Kings Island Adventure

Lots of Fun

I made this diaper cake for my sister-n-laws soon to be new baby boy, Blake. It was really fun to make and looked really cute. This is the first time I have made such a cake, but she needed diapers and it was a fun cute way to give them to her instead of wrapping a package of diapers.

Who knew

Who knew that the bookcase in the corner would be a great place to hid! Well Garrett and Madison think so. I came around the corner to find out why they were so quiet and what do you know they removed the books and were taking turns sitting on the shelf. When I came back with the camera, Garrett was getting up but before he was laying in there on hie belly with his butt in the air! So cute! So of course Madison had to have a turn.

What a Difference

I was looking through pictures and came across these, What a difference a month makes, knowing what is wrong with Garrett. Just click on the picture and it will make it bigger. Of course he wouldn't cooperate today to get a better picture but you get the idea and I can tell in the picture! He still does get read sometimes and is a little red in this picture, if one of the dreaded food ingredients gets missed he gets red again. We have had so many people comment on how well his face looks now, I didn't realize it was so red and gross but looking back I can see it and it looked horrible! Everyone kept saying dry skin, eczema and all along it was things he was eating.

Yesterday Garrett got his cool medical alert bracelet in, at first didn't want it on his arm but today he has barely touched it. It is a sports band style with trucks on it. It just lets anyone who comes in contact with him know that he is allergic to some foods.

BEFORE

AFTER

And we will leave you with a few extras.

Yes, BUNNY, is still around but now she has a name...ready for this one....HOPPER (so highly original don't you think!) What a loved bunny!

New

I know there are so many new post! Be patient I think they are all worth the read!

I'm A Big Boy

Well today we got Garrett a big boy bed (instances of crawling out of the crib had been enough!) A wonderful find at a garage sell, the frame and then we just put our crib mattress in it. He loved it and all afternoon he would say, "car" and points upstairs! WHICH BY THE WAY IS HIS FIRST WORD! He checked out the wheels and tried to lift the hood. But night 1 is better than expected, we got ready for bed and than I put him in there and he stayed cried for about 5 minutes and went to bed! I was amazed, hopefully the rest of the night is just as amazing! Look in the picture, notice HIS BEAR, he took to it when we took his pacifier away and he loves on that thing and obviously snuggles through the night.

Big Fun

We got a new game out to play with Madison, Crocodile Dentist, and she gets it and loves it and even Garrett can play along. After repeated tries Candy land is still played, how she wants too, and the only other game that she played fair was memory, and she is really good at that game. At first she wasn't sure about the crocodile eating your hand but it soon caught on.

The view next door!

How cute is this, our neighbors made this little display for Madison out their kitchen window! Madison loved it and looks out our kitchen window to see it often!

Too Girly

BEFORE

AFTER

Madison is such a girly girl! The past week she has been talking about putting curlers in her hair and having curly hair So last night we put them in after her bath and she slept in them. The result was massive curliness! It was out of control, she loved it though! She told everyone! By bed time they had calmed down a little bit, but not much! Secretly it sure is fun for her to be so girly and want to wear dresses constantly and always paint our fingernails and toenails! LOVE IT!

A Little Bicentennial Celebration

A very little celebration! There was a lot more hype for what there actually was. They advertised 5 cent rides, yeah they were 5 cents and there were 4 different rides. But that is okay and despite the horrible temperatures, HOT HOT HOT, Garrett got to enjoy his very first rides. A red plane ride, a yellow Ferris wheel, miniature version, and a pony ride where he wouldn't let go of his daddy's shirt!

A little Update

Garrett went to the ENT today and will be getting his adenoids out on August 3rd. I am really not sure what the adenoid does and why it is there but the doctor thinks the sleep issues will go away when they are taken out. He knows they are big but he won't know how big until they are out. We don't know what time, they go the youngest patient first but it will be sometime in the early morning hours. The Surgeon was very good at explaining things and we have a wonderful children's hospital 30 minutes from here where it will take place. So til then we deal with the sleeping issues and know there is a end in sight!

Proud!

We are proud to be Americans! Thankful that we live in the country that we have choices that we can make and not everything is chosen for us. To have the choice of what religion we want to have, to be able to pray when we want too. Even just having the opportunity to vote and little things as being able to walk down the street without having to walk past someone holding a gun in plain sight! I am proud of where we live and we support those and love those who make the sacrifice to keep fighting for our freedom.

So since my camera was working today, strange still. I decided to press my luck and take Madison's 4 year old pictures, I think we took about 30-40 pictures. I am not skilled in anyway maybe I feel if I take enough pics we will get a good one, and it is cheaper to take and print myself. But I do try to capture good ones and by trial and error i think I have learned some things about photography. Who knows?

And this time I let Madison pick her poses for the camera!

Now I must choose one and than decide if it should be left in color or turned to black and white.
I have my favorites, this is just a sample of the pictures.
And for those fellow bloggers, I am always looking for tips on taking better pictures!

So tonight as I was posting the previous post I was sitting here and playing with the old camera, and thought put the memory stick back in the camera and take a picture. I don't know why because for the past 2 weeks every time I tried it and it wouldn't work, and I tried multiple times a day. So i did it and it took a picture, than I told Madison to come in the room and it took her picture. I didn't chance anymore and turned it off, I will try again tomorrow and maybe by some small miracle(we can hope) the camera will continue to serve us well. Someone is watching out for us and knew just how expensive digital cameras are! But at any rate I did get a really cute picture of Madison actually smiling which is a rare occurrence she is into making the weird faces for the camera. Tonight is a happy moment!

Parade

Strange car, but did really neat tricks!

The city of Piqua is celebrating 200 years this year so they had a parade on Saturday. Dave had to work so the kids and I braved the crowds in sure of some fun excitement. Madison and Garrett did really well even if the parade was almost 2 HOURS in length! We got rained on which Garrett loved, he didn't care that he was being rained on the sweetest was when it started he was watching so intently the drops that fell on the sidewalk as they left their mark. He would gently touch the wet marks on the sidewalk. The picture of Garrett isn't the best but it just showed how intently he watched the parade in complete fascination by the cars, especially the little cars and semi's in the parade. Madison practically waved the whole parade, she has realized if you wave they throw candy. The strangest thing we saw was a car with two front ends. It was weird!!! The highlight was Madison and Garrett seeing their cousin Bryce, and getting a big hug from him.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Dave and I took Madison to the Dayton Dragons, a minor league baseball team in Dayton Ohio. It was a blast! Garrett stayed home so we could have some extra one on one time with Madison! She loves when we do this!

Madison took her glove to catch a fly ball. One was hit right beside Dave's head but he said no way was he going to stick his hand out and catch the ball. Madison was a little cheerleader during the game jumping up and down and cheering for the players. Although she would watch the outfield and kept asking when they are going to start playing so we had to direct her eyes to the pitcher and home plate...silly girl!

And what ball park outing wouldn't be complete without hot dogs, ice cream(dipping dots, Madison wouldn't eat them she said they were ice cream it did come in a cool pink Dragons plastic baseball hat), pop corn and a couple of souvenirs(their colors are not really pick but what better way to get girls excited than with a pink hat!)

The highlight of the night....getting to the mascots, Heater and Gem.

Dentist = Success

Both kids had dentist appointments this last week and they were both a success. No cavities! Madison loves to go to the dentist and lets them do everything in her mouth. Garrett, a first timer this time, went right back with the hygienist and came about about 15 minutes later all smiles! The got a bag with a new toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, stickers and a toy and they were happy the whole drive home.

Laundry List

So we got some of the test results back for Garrett. The one that has come back is his blood test back for the allergy panel and to our surprise he is allergic to more than we thought.

Very allergic too: Corn, Egg, Milk, Peanuts and Walnuts
Mild Allergy too: Soy and Wheat

He is to have absolutely no foods with egg or nuts in them. And we have to take him off all obvious dairy products.

They called in a Epi Pen to the pharmacy for us to carry with us at all times because his numbers were showing so high.

We meet with the allergists on Tuesday morning. Until I wonder what to feed the kid! =)

At least we are getting answers and figuring him out.