Two Years ago today...

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

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.

Quinn Singing O Mio Babbino Caro

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.

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).

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.

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.