Hmmm...

So, found out today that Sammy's also allergic to plastic. 

How would we avoid that one? He is two after all... everything he owns is plastic.

The kids dishes, his toys, the carpet usually has some in it... even his car seat.  Hmmm... it's a good thing that we're trying to get rid of his allergies!

The Wise man

Ada was over heard in the back seat singing the chorus to the song "The Wise Man Built his house upon the rock" 

"The rain came down and the flowers came up! The rain came down and the flowers came up!"

Can't argue with that.

NAET

I'm not someone who believes in cure-alls, but I'm really believing in something here.  Here are five different people that I know personally and how they were helped.

My cousin Susan.  Celiac Sprue.  Had to be a vegetarian or else she felt so sick that she couldn't do anything.  After NAET she gave all her gluten free food to my sister and she said she's felt amazing ever since... it's been about a year.

My Aunt Beth.  Celiac Sprue, fibermialgia (spelling?), depression, allergies... you name it, she's had it.  She couldn't even eat fruits because the sugars gave her headaches.  After NAET she ate her first piece of watermelon in 10 years.  Her Celiac is gone, and she's been taken off her depression medication.  They're now treating her for her fibermialgia and I hope it takes!  She says that she feels almost normal for the first time in years!

My sister Janelle.  Celiac Sprue and allergies to 17? different things... including corn, eggs, wheat, mold, etc.... After NAET she can eat things without feeling sick for the first time in about 10 years.  She says that she's feeling AMAZING!  And her immune system used to be way low and she'd catch everything... I don't think she's caught anything since she got treated... Janelle, correct me if I'm wrong please!  I don't want to try to exaggerate. 

My sister Sharon.  Allergies to about 21 different things, PCOS and depression.  Some of her allergies included Vitamin B, Calcium and several other important things for helping you feel energetic and happy.  Since NAET she says that she hasn't felt despair and has felt energetic and she looks a lot happier.  I haven't asked her how she's doing lately... or if she's done with treatment... but last I talked to her the drepression was pretty much gone.

Me.  Allergies to about 10 different things and PCOS.  I'm not done with my treatments, but the allergies that he's cleared me of are: mold, hormones (which was one of the causes of my PCOS), eggs, and now that he's done that he says that I might be able to do things like.... drum roll please.... lose weight normally, nurse babies, and maybe even get pregnant more easily.  Since he treated me for hormones I've been able to get by on about 2 hours of sleep less per night than I usually require... and I did lose 3 lbs without changing anything in what I'm doing... (I know that doesn't sound like a lot... but remember, I'm the one who trained for and ran a half marathon without losing a single pound, took 4 years of extreme excercise and diet to lose 20 pounds, and who was the only Jr Olympian competing that weighed over 200 pounds.) 

NAET is not a cure all... and on the face of it seems funny... it's accupressure.  And what they call "Energy Medicine".  What I understand from it though is that they are working with your nervous system.  And when your brain/nervous system can't function properly then your organs start to develop more diseases and allergies... so by helping your nervous system work properly your organs start working the right way again. 

And for you LDS out there... some of it makes sense in a LDS perspective as well.  When you're being cleared from a certain allergy you have to avoid all contact with it for 24 hours.  Which... we fast from all food and drink for 24 hours once a month.  I think that besides being a test of faith and willingness it's also God's way of helping us clear toxins out of our bodies.  And with NAET your body can tell you emotional things that you're hanging on to... which I think is a really cool opportunity to use the Atonement in our lives.  If you don't know that you're hanging on to resentment or guilt then how can you repent from them?

I know it sounds weird, but seeing the big difference it's made in my family's lives... I'm willing to believe it works.  Sammy is going to start getting treated this week for all of his food allergies... I'm hoping it will work.  I don't want him feeling different all growing up.  My mom and brother are also starting treatments for their own things too.  It's helped the rest of us... why not them too? 

And here are some of the things that they say that it helps... diabetes, celiac, allergies of any type, immune deficiences, depression, chrons disease, high blood pressure, low blood pressure, autism, constipation, acne, being too sweaty, and many more... they handed me literally a two page list of things that it can cure.  Don't think I'm crazy!  Besides... we're more willing to let someone operate on us than we are to try an non invasive thing... it's non invasive, and if it doesn't work then the only thing we're out is money... not health.

Random pitures

Just catching up on pictures that make me happy!

At cousin Aubrey's baptism

Holding the kitties while I got stuff out of the garage

Bath time.  And no, I don't let Ada hold the baby in the tub the whole time.  Just while I soap her up... and she loves it.  If I give her a bath by herself she screams the whole time.

Sharon was making faces at Sammy... love it!

Hiking at Cascade Springs

Reid doing what he does best!  Catching bugs and showing the kids.  He always caught frogs and snakes for us all growing up too.

She was trying to imitate Uncle Seth... but just couldn't keep a straight face.

Rest stop in the middle of the hike?

She picked me flowers

Classic Seth... no one, and I mean no one can make faces like my brother.

Jer loves being mobbed by the grandkids.  I think he had 8 of them on him at once. 

Found Sammy in the closet during nap time.  Where better to take a nap?

I love my sisters and love how much they love my kids!  What would I do without them?  (And Evelyn was absolutely fascinated with Janelle's shirt too by the way...)

Hand me downs...

I'm not at all against hand me downs... especially sentimental, cute ones.  Here are some hand me downs that I got from my mom the other day.  I wore several of these and my mom made several of them too.  (I haven't gotten pictures of all of them... but here are a couple.)

My mom made this as an Easter dress for me.

The sweater and shirt were my mom's.

The shirt was my mom's, but just thought that baby was cute.

Dress (worn by Janelle) and tights were my mom's and the shoes were my mother in laws... she thinks that Marg? wore them.

For Amy

Dear Amy,

These are for you... just cause your kids are so dang cute.  I have one of Aubrey, but I posted it with Ada's party pictures...

Ada's bday party

So yes, if you couldn't tell, Ada is officially 4.  But yesterday we had her party.  It was so fun!  There were 17 kids in the end.  Ruth, Kate, Johnny, and Adam helped Jer and I put on a storyline for the kids.  At the beginning of the party, the evil birthday party witch (Kate) stole all the kids cupcakes.  To get them back they each had to complete 5 tasks.  After each task they got a magic token that they'd sprinkle on the witch to get the cupcakes back.  So here's basically what happened:

Kate - the witch stole the cupcakes.
Johnny and Adam - the monsters put a bean bag in their way so they couldn't chase the witch... the kids climbed over it and ran to the front lawn.
Adam - played red light green light to try to sneak past the monster.
Then we had to cross a lake by going over a bridge (we had an old slide that we laid down on some blocks so it was up off the ground).
Ruth - The princess, they had to draw a picture for the princess to get a token.
Johnny and Adam - they had to put the monsters to sleep by singing them a song so they could get the tokens that they were guarding... then Adam was a little impromptu and stole the tokens and we had to chase him to get them back.
Then we had them complete an obstacle course by going through hula hoops, around balls, down a slide, through a tunnel, etc... to get a token.
Then they had to kick a ball from one end of the yard to the other to get a token.
And finally they had to put together a puzzle to get a token. 
Then we all ran up to the balcony and poured the tokens over the witch and were able to get the cupcakes back.

It was a lot of fun and I'm really grateful to my nieces and nephews for helping us have so much fun!  And to my partner in all crimes... my sister Janelle snuggled Evelyn for me from start to finish so that I could run around being crazy and take pictures.  Thanks Nells!  You know I owe you big time for everything right?  Let me know whenever you want to cash in! 

And I mostly videoed the goings on, but here are some pictures...

Money thief

So, Grandma Robertson usually gives kids $10 for their bdays. I wasn't there when Ada opened her card from Grandma so I never saw where the money went, and Jer says, "There was money?"  I just figured that Judy had forgotten this year (which I didn't mind Judy... ), until I did laundry today.  I did the kids bathroom laundry and in the dryer was a brand new laundered $10 bill.  I'm guessing that Ada pocketed it before anyone else knew! 

We took it to the bank today to put in her savings.  (I wanted to set up savings for each kid so that they get the idea of how to save, that's one way my parents taught me.  Our bank even has an early savers program that you get stamps and stickers when you deposit things into their account, and after x amount of deposits they give the child $10... so the kids like going to the bank.)  It was really cute.  I gave Ada the money and her little bank book.  Sam wanted to do it too... so I gave him his bank book and $1.00 in quarters that I found in the car... and they very seriously took them up to the man.  Ada told him, "This is my birthday money." Sammy chucked them up at the counter because he couldn't reach... after trying to intervene several times I finally got all the quarters away from him and to the clerk.  And they proudly gave me back their books and I gave them their receipts and stuck their stickers onto their shirts... which are still there.  Sammy was so sad in the car when he dropped it... he kept saying, "My dollar, my dollar!"

I hope that eventually they understand what saving is and what you can/should use it for.  We'll see!

Angry bird

Sammy's newest addiction is Angry birds... which is funny cause he can't really play it on our PC... and I think he's only seen it played on his uncles ipad.  But we were in Walmart and were going to buy these cute little masks/hats that they had just for fun, but then they saw the stuffed Angry Bird display and it was all over.  So I told them that if they didn't want to buy the hats then we could buy one stuffed bird to share.  So of course they did.  Ada was very opinionated about the color, Sammy could care less which one we got as long as we got one.  Blue. So we got it home, set up some of the other stuffed animals as pigs and threw it at them to knock them over. 

Here's what Sammy had to say about it: 
to the bird - "Did you fall down? ohhh... " including a kiss on it's cheek.  "Shhhh, shhh, shhh." with his finger in front of his lips (like I do when I tell him to be quiet) and rocking it back and forth. 

Here's what Ada had to say:
to me - "We need more pigs!"

Seth, I forgot to tell you

I was asking Ada what friends she wanted to invite to her party... and she said, "My cousins!"  I told her that all the cousins were invited but what friends did she want... "Seth!"  So it's official... you're not an Uncle, you're a friend.

More on Ada's bday

The first thing she said when she woke up and I told her it was her birthday: "Ohhh!  Now I can reach stuff!"

Her first present:  My Little Ponies from Sammy and Evelyn.  (the old ones... she got Spike the dragon, a baby pony, and a sea pony with a float... she's been singing the Shoobedoo song all morning that the sea ponies sing in the tv show)

Her first cake:  A surprise present from Grandpa Wilcox.

Her first activity:  To play with Daddy and the cats.

Her first time buy something with birthday money:  Went to target and let her pick out a $1 toy to buy with her bday money from GGma.  The rest goes into her savings account.  (She probably won't fight me on that until she really understands what money is.)

Her first family activity:  Going to Kung Fu Panda 2 at the movie theater.

Her last activity:  To go down fighting... didn't want the day to end.  After playing with cousins Henry and Wesley, "Those boys were my birthday party!"  (Party's actually on Saturday, but we can say she had two right?)

She also got $10 from Greatgrandma Robertson, a beautiful handmade card from Grandma Robertson, a play horse for her dolls from mom and dad, a jewlery box full of my grandma's old jewlery (that I used to play with when I was little acutally) from Janelle, Seth, and Sharon, and some clothes, a princess cape (made by my mom) and a book about the last year together made by Grandma Wilcox.  Love them!  Everything was something that she adores!