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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).

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.

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.