Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thanksgiving in the ER...

That's right, I had to take our first trip to the emergency room for one of our kids. Last week my little Ethan fell out of his high chair (my fault), we didn't notice he wasn't putting any weight on his right leg until the next day. Once we noticed we rushed him to his pediatricians office. They gave us an order for an x-ray, but told us to wait a few days before we do it because he will probably just start using it again in a couple days. Yesterday morning he still wasn't putting any weight on his right leg, so I said "That's It!, I'm taking him in for an x-ray". So after sitting in the waiting room for a half hour, they came and told me his tibia is broken, and I need to take him straight to the emergency room. So off to the emergency room we go, by the way, the whole time Ethan was smiling and giggling. They put a splint on his leg and sent us home. As soon as I put him down, he started crawling and his splint fell right off. Matt and I kept putting it back on, and it kept falling right back off. I was so frustrated, and so stressed out. So I called my pediatrician and she suggested that I take him to Children's hospital, because they know how to better treat children. So as soon as Ethan woke up this morning I drove him to Children's hospital. They did some more x-ray's and then put a soft cast on his leg. He crawled around on it all day and it didn't come off once. I am so much happier, but Ethan is not. He hates the cast because it is limiting his mobility, which is the point! They said it should be healed in about four weeks, but we do have to follow up with an orthopedic surgeon next week, so we will see what he has to say. On this Thanksgiving day, I am extremely thankful for a sweet, lovable, and happy little baby, who has crawled around on a broken leg for over a week, just smiling away as if nothings wrong, and who was giggling while they were putting a splint on his broken leg.

Here he is just playing with some toys, wearing his cute little hospital gown.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Trick or Treat


Doesn't he look like the Cowardly Lion? He kept eating his mane, it was so cute.


We went to main street on Friday night to do some early trick or treating. Here is Optimus Prime and Cinderella.

Matt's parents came into town to celebrate Halloween with us. We had so much fun, and got more candy then we know what to do with!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Happy Halloween

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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Ethan aka E-fey

I have so been slackin' on the blog lately. I feel so busy all the time, that when I have two seconds to sit down, I just end up veggin' on the couch because I'm so tired, and my little Ethan (or E-fey as we like to call him) has been neglected the most, at least on the blog, in real life he leads a pretty pampered life. It's because of all the smiles he gives. He is the happiest, smiliest (is that a word), most active little boy I've ever seen. He started doing the army crawl just before he turned six months, he is now seven and a half months and he still does a kind of modified army crawl, but it doesn't slow him down one bit, he is lightning quick (trying to keep up with his brother and sister). Quinn and Ava didn't crawl until 8 to 10 months, and baby proofing is way harder now because Quinn and Ava have so many little toys for him to choke on. We have had to add a new rule that Quinn and Ava have to keep their toys in their room, but now that they are always playing in their room, guess who is constantly trying to get in there? That's right, E-fey!!! So now they have to keep their bedroom, and bathroom door shut as well. He just wants to go and play in there so bad, he loves to play with Ava's kitchen (maybe he will be a cook!). Ethan has actually been a first for me in a lot of ways. He is the smallest baby I have ever had. At his six month appointment he weighed 14 lbs. and was 25 inches long. Ava was a good 4 lbs bigger at six months. I have also never had a baby that has rolled over before he could crawl. Ethan has been rolling over since he was about 4 months (maybe even earlier, I can't remember). And, he's a quiet baby, but still very smiley, and oh so adorable, but he does do something that all of my children have done, love their mommy, and when I say love, I mean I'm pretty much their favorite person in the whole world. Daddy becomes the favorite later on when they get to be Quinn's and Ava's age.

This is Ethan right before we fed him solids for the first time. Oh man he's a cutie pie.

and this is him after he got his first taste, do you think he liked it? Yeah, me neither.

Where'd Ethan go? Oh, he rolled right under the bed, and I couldn't find him for a minute and it scared me to death!
I just had to add this picture because I think it's so funny. This was in July when we were doing some tubing up in Seattle. I can't wait to show Ethan this picture when he gets older, I'm sure he's going to think the neon purple, and hot pink life jacket is SWEET!

Oh, how I love those cute, little dimples, and big, beautiful, brown eyes. Sorry, I can't help braggin' about my little E-fey, E-fey! (Ethan, I hope this makes up for neglecting you on the blog! I love you).

Thursday, September 17, 2009

First Day of School and some other funny stuff

Quinn's first day of school. He was so excited to go. He loves his teacher Ms. Georgie, and he has already made new friends. Every morning he gets up and asks me if it's time to go to school, and when I tell him he's not going that day, he gets so sad. I can't believe I have a little boy that is old enough to go to school. He is growing up way to fast!


Here he is with his teacher Ms. Georgie (I have know idea what he's doing with his face).



Uh, we'll just call this one Paint Fight. Quinn got a Crayola Cyclone for his birthday. It's suppose to paint cyclones on the pavement. Well, one day Quinn and Ava were outside playing with it and I guess they decided to start pouring paint all over each other, because this is what I found when I went outside. Silly kids.


So tonight I was sitting on the couch feeding Ethan and I looked over at Ava and this is what I saw. Matt and I were laughing so hard. She just looked at me and said her baby was hungry. I told her she was a very good mom. Right before this happened I went to sit down on the couch and her baby was laying right in my way. I didn't think much of it as I tossed her baby to the floor, but Ava instantly started yelling at me, "You through my baby on the floor!?!", I was trying not to laugh as I apologized to her and handed her the baby. It was SO funny, she yelled at me exactly how I would of yelled at her if she had thrown Ethan on the floor. She's so protective, I have to be so careful and always remember to treat her baby with complete love, and respect. I would like to think this has something to do with the great example I have been to her as a mother, but I guess we will have to wait and see on that one.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Two Years ago today...

Miss you Dad, and love you, can't wait to see you again.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Venting

I must be mad because I'm blogging again, and I don't have two seconds to spare these days. Matt and I discovered that Quinn has a yeast overgrowth in his stomach and intestines. It stems back to his ear infection days when he was constantly on antibiotics. The antibiotics kill the bad AND good bacteria, which allows the yeast to start growing out of control because there's no good bacteria to keep it under control. If you google ear infections and yeast, you will come across a plethora of articles that link yeast from Autism to Fibromyalgia. One I thought was especially informative was this one by Dr. Crook: http://www.latitudes.org/articles/hy_yeast.html

I'm mad, I don't understand why this is happening, especially when it's so preventable, and EASILY treated. Antibiotics save lives everyday, I'm grateful we have them, but why can't they prescribe an anti fungal medication and some probiotics along with it to counteract all the good bacteria being killed.

I'm sad, because my little Quinnie has been suffering with this since before he was one, thus resulting in constant rashes, behavior problems, delays in learning, increasing food allergies, and lots more. I feel like I did this to my child because I blindly do what the doctor tells me too, with out finding out for myself what I should do. I can't do that anymore. I need to wake up and take more of a proactive approach to my families health care, including vaccinations, because unfortunately doctors just treat the symptoms and don't try to find the real problem. I think doctors just learn how to treat symptoms in medical school, and now they come up with names for a bunch of symptoms even if they don't know what the cause is, like leaky gut syndrome, or IBS.

A couple of indications that Quinn had this problem was when his hair was wet it smelled like a wet dog, which is the yeast coming out of his hair. We did a home test that we found on the Internet. When you first wake up in the morning, before you eat, drink, or brush your teeth, you spit into a glass of water. If yeast is present it will look like strings are hanging down from the spit, or the water will turn foggy, or the spit will sink to the bottom of the glass. Normal spit just floats on top. We did the test twice for Quinn and both times it looked like strings hanging down from it, almost instantly.

I am so grateful that I found out about this now, and that it is so easy to help Quinn (if you call taking a 5 year old off sugar five days before his birthday easy), but I'm still very grateful that I can help him. I'm so grateful for a Heavenly Father that is watching over our family.

Thanks for listening.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Our Seattle Vacation

Christina finally returned after her three week long vacation to Seattle. I was able to bounce back and forth and eventually stay for a week. Christina had her annual family reunion in Eastern Washington on the Columbia River. It was a small turn out this year, but still a lot of fun. It was nice to finally get away with the family. We Spent 4 of my 7 days boating. Two days were boating on the Columbia River. One Day boating on Lake Sammamish with the Anderson's and one day on Lake Washington on my dads big boat. We were also fortunate enough to get family photos taken as well. One of our good friends took us to Discovery Park in Seattle and got some great pictures outside.

Sunland Estates right on the Columbia River right next door to the world famous Gorge at George Washington.





The 4 above photos were taken by Ron Quinn, who is one of Christina's family members and specializes in sport photography. He took some awesome photos.

Tubing on Lake Sammamish.




These Family photos were taken by Sarah Anderson and just a few of many that we love. It was such great weather in Seattle.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Ode to Our Dad

Matt had to work today so we made him these buttons to wear on his flight today. People were surprised that he had three kids, one person said to him "what are you 40?" We celebrated yesterday with a big breakfast and then we went to the pool before he had to fly out. Matt, we love you, you truly are the world's best Dad, we are so lucky to have you in our lives. Thank you for how hard you work for us. Happy Fathers Day! (and to all you Father's out there).

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

A lot of Pics and Two Videos

He must of been tired because he really likes his popcorn
What is he doing? He's barely four months old!


Um, my gluten free bread could use a little work (but it is the best bread I've ever had!)

and so could my pancakes, try, try again.



This can't be comfortable. Did she sleep like this all night?


My little Sweetie Pie (isn't Ava a great photographer?)


Brothers
Aaah, it must be love.

"Mom, help me please!"


"I'm so cool".


Papa Bill and Quinnie the Pooh

Uncle Joe Joe, isn't he cute.

Cousin Jazzy (she can come visit anytime, she changes diapers!)



My little Koda Bear, Go Indians!

Laura and I at the Denver Temple


Kianna loves the baby, which is good since she's gonna have a little brother in a few months.

Maura, this girl cracks me up, she calls me Chrisnina, I love her to pieces.


Quinn and Saylor at Main Street days.



I don't even know what to say about this.


How precious, I hope they stay liking each other.


We're just gonna call this one 'A Bat in the Cave'.




Koda's big hit.


The Perfect Storm, Ok, that might be a little dramatic, but there was a tornado a couple miles north of us and few miles south of us. The video is a little boring. The wind peaked at 65 mph.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Going G-Free

That's right folks, I'm going gluten free. I have actually been gluten free for two weeks as of today and I feel great! As some of you know I thought I had an intolerance to lettuce, so I stopped eating it almost five years ago, but I continued to have problems, but then two weeks ago I started to get the feeling it was gluten that was giving me the problems, so I stopped eating it and since then I feel great. I don't know if I have celiac disease or just a gluten intolerance. The soonest I could get in to see the gastroenterologist was July 28th, so I have to wait until then to get tested, but regardless of the outcome, I know I need to avoid gluten. I highly recommend this book by Elisabeth Hasselbeck. She does a fabulous job of explaining how to live a gluten free life. At first I thought it was going to be hard to do, but the more I learn the more I realize how easy it actually is. I can still eat bread, doughnuts, pasta, etc., just none that are made from wheat, barley, or rye. I have tried gluten free bread and pasta so far, and I think I like them better then the regular stuff. And there are so many restaurants that are now offering gluten free menus. In the last two weeks I've been to Outback, Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, Coldstone Creamery, and the list goes on of restaurants that accommodate gluten free diets. Also, I found out that a lot of candies are now gluten free, including two of my favorites, Sour Patch Kids, and Butterfingers, but the list is huge of other candies you can eat. I really think everyone should be on this diet. I feel so great (how many times have I said that now), and I feel so healthy. There is also more and more research coming out about the link between autism and diet, and gluten is one of the proteins that is taken out of the diet of children diagnosed with autism. I also took Quinn off of gluten. I figure it's better for him anyway, and if I come back positive for Celiac disease then I will have my children tested too, because it's a hereditary, autoimmune disease. If anyone has any advice or stories or info they would like to share, please leave a comment or email me at christinastevulak@hotmail.com, I need all the help I can get! Thanks.

Saturday, May 9, 2009


That's right, we're going private. I don't really want to, but I feel like it's the right thing to do. So, you know the drill, leave a comment with your email address so I can invite you to our blog, or you can email me at christinastevulak@hotmail.com. If you are blog stalking us, that's perfectly Ok, I do it all the time, even if your a friend, of a friend, of a friend, email me and I will invite you. I will probably give it about a week, and then I will make it official. Thanks for your understanding.