Best Buds!

Farmer's Market in October

A lot has changed in our lives since my last posting! We moved out of our condo in Okemos and are now renting a house in Williamston. It is a small town just down the road from where we previously were! We finally feel at home, and love having more space for our family. The kids seem to really love each other as you can see in the picture above.

Some highlights of our summer: The Amazing Race for Nigeria (fundraiser for the Shephard family), my 30th birthday, our 1st camping trip as a family to PJ Hoffmaster State Park, trip to Cedar Point for my bday, and celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary!

He Found My Mascara!!!

I should have known something was up! I had just realized it was awfully quiet! I was in the shower and Jason was on the computer. Sure enough, Caleb pokes his head in and looks like that! I was upset, but I had to laugh too! He even put the cap back on and put it in my makeup bag again. All I was thinking was good thing it wasn't waterproof! :) I'm glad we got the pics to remember this act by this silly boy!

Squeaky Shoes

Abby is One!

I can't believe my baby is One!!!!! Abby had a great birthday party on Easter weekend! She loved being the center of attention. I will have more pictures of the party soon (hopefully). Mommy didn't take pictures, so she's working on getting the pics from others who were at the party! Abby is doing well... 25 lbs and 31 1/2 inches tall! Still a tall girl! Her new words are: duck, ba (ball), maba or baba (momma), bubba (brother), and still uses dada most of the time. You can tell she is soaking up whatever you tell her, and she's going to explode sometime with tons of new words!!!!

Eating Banana!

She was quite moody this day until we found a cold banana in the fridge! It made her happy... at least for a little while! :) I think the funniest thing is how huge the banana is!!!

We Waiting!

Roomies!!! I just had to post this darling picture of the kids! They have been sharing a bedroom for about a month now. We finally kicked Abby out of our room. :) It couldn't have been an easier transition! My mom helped me rearrange their room last week, so it didn't look like wall to wall furniture. The next morning this was what we found! I think they like it, don't you?

Update on Caleb's Diet

Well, it was been 4 weeks today since we started Caleb's Elimination Diet! 4 very exhausting weeks at times!!! It was initially a huge struggle for Caleb to even think about trying some of the foods we were giving him like... carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli. In time, he has learned to eat all of them (except for sweet potatoes which boggles my mind because I love sweet potatoes!). In week 3 we decided to go ahead with a blood test to test for the most common food and environmental allergies since we had not seen major improvement in his skin. Today we found out the results of that blood test and it turns out he is NOT allergic to any of the common items. Praise God for that! We are very thankful with the results, but still don't know why his skin is like this and how can we make it better.

So... we are being referred to a dermatologist to see what they think. I don't have an appointment yet. For now, we are excited to let Caleb eat some of his old foods, and yet continue the great new habits he has learned in this process! Even though this process with Caleb has been sooo hard, I'm grateful to God that He's leading us through this because it has already proven positive results in all of us!

Stay tuned...

Abby's First Steps!

Need Prayer - Caleb's Special Diet!

It's official! We started Caleb's Elimination Diet yesterday! We thought we needed extra prayer right now, so we wanted everyone to know what was going on and when you think about us please pray for Caleb, Jason and I as we work through this process together.

What is an elimination diet and why are we doing this?

Caleb has had excema in the form of little red bumps on his legs, arms, and a little on his face since he was about 6 months old. It has been getting worse the last few months and has spread to his tummy, back and bottom at times. We believe that this is primarily food related from our own instinct and doctor's advice. So... we decided to go through an elimination diet which means we have cut out any possible allergenic foods. That means almost everything Caleb has eaten has something that could be an allergen: stuff like dairy, eggs, soy, wheat, possible fruits that are suspect as well. For one month we will stick to the good foods, and then start adding things back in to see if he reacts to them.

This will be a long process for all of us! We hope and pray that it will all be worth it and we will figure out the cause of Caleb's skin problems.

Things to pray for:
1. Caleb will eat the good foods we give him.
2. Patience for Jason and I when Caleb gets stubborn.
3. Wisdom daily for us in our planning and decision making.
4. Caleb's understanding of the process. :)
5. Healing for Caleb's skin!

We will keep you updated throughout this process! Thank you for your prayers!
-Jason and Amber

Caleb Discovers His Name!

I was finally able to figure out how to post this video of Caleb discovering his name for the 1st time. He thought "Redoutey" was quite funny! This was taken over Labor Day weekend I believe.

Abby Truckin' Along

Caleb's Cowboy Hoedown!

Caleb - Mommy's Helper

I've been meaning to share this story on the blog for everyone. This story took place approximately 1 month ago now, but it's hilarious and I don't want to forget it!

I have been trying to train Caleb to help me a little more and this particular day I needed to change Abby's diaper. Well, I didn't have a diaper next to me, so I asked Caleb "Do you know where the diapers are, Caleb? Can you go get one for mommy please?" He kind of gave me a blank look, but then he took off towards his room. Sure enough! He came back with a diaper for me! Yeah!!!! What a good helper!

Later on in the day, I had to change Abby's diaper again. I had a diaper already, but she was a little red and needed some ointment. I thought Caleb did so well getting a diaper.... maybe he can get me the buttpaste (and yes... it is called buttpaste!). So, here I go again and I ask Caleb, "Do you know where the buttpaste is, Caleb? Right above the diapers! Can you get the buttpaste for mommy please?" Again... he gives me a blank look, but heads toward his room. As he enters his room I hear him saying, "Find. Buttpaste. Find. Buttpaste." Caleb returns with not the buttpaste, but hydrocortisone cream. I praise him for bringing something back, but I say, "Thank you so much, Caleb! That's not the buttpaste I was looking for though! It's a bigger tube above where you got that." Again... a blank stare and then takes off! This time I hear him saying, "Find. Bigger. Buttpaste. Find. Bigger. Buttpaste." I died laughing!!!! This time he came back with the Bigger Buttpaste!

What a good helper Caleb is!