The last few weeks :)

Alex was much more interested in the christmas tree box than he was in actually decorating the tree!!

Cara, on the other hand, had a BLAST decorating it! She did almost all of the decorations by herself :)

We have no idea what Alex was so intently staring at outside. He was like this for five solid minutes!

A couple shots from Cara.....

She loves Alex's new bike. There were a good ten shots of this alone!

Mommy, of course, always gets a picture taken of her....I seem to be a favorite for her!

Daddy let her take a nice shot as well :)

We went to the Armament Museum last weekend. The kids just love this place! Airplanes are just so cool, you know!

So, I haven't updated in awhile :) A lot has happened to us in the last two months. We finally got all of the results in from Alex's allergy blood test. Drumroll..........................oh yes, he is allergic to gluten, dairy, apples, and hazelnuts. Fantastic, right? Of course we got all of the results in a week before Thanksgiving. I was in serious panic mode. How do I do this??? Not only does the boy eat applesauce everyday, he eats bread everyday and milk seems to be in everything. After an entire weekend of "pinging" (my husband likened it to living with someone mentally insane), I finally pushed through to the optomistic side of this craziness. I found some great people who have gone through the same thing and they have helped me out HUGE. I have baked Alex his own bread for his sandwiches at school, and even though I don't think the bread tastes that great, he doesn't care. Thankfully, he is young enough to where it isn't going to be that big of a deal to switch out what he eats. After only a week on this new diet, I can already tell a difference in him. Tonight, I successfully made gluten-dairy free pancakes that actually tasted great! There is a little bit of a wierd after taste that comes along with either the gluten free flour or the almond milk, but with syrup, Blake and I couldn't taste the aftertaste at all :) Woo hoo for that! Thanks Jess for the recipe.

So, in doing my research on gluten-dairy free recipes, I have found out so many interesting things. The allergist said that most skin problems and breathing problems that children have can be linked to a food allergy. He also said that food allergies can affect the brain chemistry. I have been doing research for a paper in school on ADHD, and a lot of kids who are diagnosed with ADHD don't actually have it, but have either food allergies or a learning disability. Also, it seems that a lot of autistic children are put on a gluten-dairy free diet as it helps even out their brain chemistry. It is just all so very interesting. It almost makes me want to be an allergist :) So many things are linked in wierd ways!

Anyway, so this is what's up in our life. The kids are both doing really well in school, as am I. I cannot believe that the semester is almost finished. This was such a scary step to start school, but I am finding I like it. And (surprise, surprise) I am not to shabby at it :)