Colby's test results

Well, we had Colby's follow-up appointment yesterday with the naturopathic dr. We got the results back from the blood test checking for 70 different food sensitivities. The results came back with reactions to 30! I couldn't believe it! In a nutshell she said that he probably initially had a reaction to just a few foods in the beginning, probably the ones that he had the greatest reaction to like MILK! (His eczema did start soon after I quit breastfeeding and he was drinking cow's milk) So, with the original reactions/sensitivities to those foods his stomache lining began to breakdown and develop "cracks" where the proteins and things in the foods could leak out into his bloodstream and body. These are things that shouldn't be in the bloodstream/body and therefore the body has to figure out a way to deal with it... ECZEMA! Then as it continues to do that more and more foods leak out and new sensitivities develop... that's why he's now sensitive to so many foods. So basically just about everything he's been eating has been exasperating the problem with the Eczema. It's just a vicious cycle that continues and grows.

Our gameplan now is to take all of the foods he reacted to out of his diet for 4-6 weeks. We are also giving him probiotics to heal his stomach and another supplement that will coat the inside of his stomach and intestines until it can heal itself to help reduce the amount of things leaking into his bloodstream/body. Once the 4-6 weeks is up and his skin has healed we can begin to reintroduce these foods one at a time and see how he does. It's a process!

I am feeling very overwhelmed as the mom who is responsible to make sure I'm feeding him the right things and just getting this whole thing figured out! He is taking it like a champ! We made a trip to Trader Joe's today and I let him pick some things that he wanted. (believe me there wasn't much to choose from!) Just getting to pick out his very own apples was fun for him! He's had such a great attitude and knows he's lucky that he gets to drink special Almond Milk! He's such a sweetheart!

We will continue to take this one day at a time. I'm going to add the list of all the foods he reacted to so that you can see. And, if you have any suggestions or recommendations of things I could give him please share!

Asparagus +1
Barley +2
Cantaloupe +1
Cheese +2
Coconut +1
Eggplant +1
Garlic +1
Grapefruit +1
Lemon +1
Lettuce +1
Lime +1
Milk, cows +3
Milk, goats +2
Oat +2
Onion +1
Orange +1
Parsley +1
Peanut +2
Potato, sweet +1
Potato, white +1
Pumpkin +1
Rice +2
Rye +2
Sesame +1
Soybean +1
Tangerine +1
Wheat +2
Yam +1
Yeast, baker's +1
Zucchini +1

The number after each food indicates the level of reaction, the higher the number the greater the reaction.

Colby's Eczema

Most of you know that our sweet Colby has been battling eczema for a couple of years now. It has gotten pretty extreme and we still cannot get it under control. He has been to the pediatrician of coarse and has also seen both a dermatologist and allergist. No one has really been able to help him. We mostly have just been told that this is something that he has to live with! This has never been an acceptable answer for me. I've always felt that there has got to be something going on inside of his body that is causing this to happen on the outside.

I finally decided it was time to try something new. At this point we have nothing to lose. This last week I took him to see a naturopathic doctor. This type of medical treatment is generally not covered by insurance, but I am willing to do anything and everything to get my Colby some relief!

She was wonderful! We spent quite awhile talking about Colby and she asked lots of questions. I won't go into a lot of detail about everything, but one thing that they are doing is running a blood test to check for over 70 different food allergies. She said that most eczema is caused by some type of food allergy. I told her he had been tested for food allergies, but it turns out the basic "scratch" test that they do at the allergist only checks for life threatening allergies. There are some allergies that don't even show up in our bodies until up to 72 hours after we have ingested them! Anyway, I am feeling optimistic for the first time in a very long time! We should have the results back from the blood test in another week or so.

Please keep my sweet Colby in your prayers! We need to find out what is causing this and how to make it better! He deserves to have a better quality of life!

Here are a few photos I took of him a week ago or so after a particularly bad night of scratching! The eczema pretty much covers his whole body! :(

I'm growing a garden!

Okay, it might not be as big as Granny & Papa's... but it's a start! I've tried growing one before, but have always ended up killing everything! This time I think there will be an actual harvest! I'm so excited!

My first tomato turning red!



One of my strawberry plants!


My cilantro plant!


My first bulb blooming!


A picture of my planter with a bunch of my bulbs... no flowers yet... but hopefully soon!

New Temple

Have you heard the rumor that Arizona is getting a new temple??? The location is about 10 - 15 miles from us. There is a lot of "buzz" about it and everyone is thrilled and excited. The photo is supposedly a picture of what it will look like!

15 YEARS!

Did you all know that we just celebrated our 15 year anniversary this month??? It really is amazing to me! I feel like I've achieved something HUGE!!!

Family Pictures!

We just had family pictures taken on Saturday! It's been 3 years since we last did them! Anyway, click on the big family picture and it will take you to a photo album where you can look at a bunch of the pictures that I uploaded to the album. The password to access the album is: FRIENDS

You can navigate the album in the upper right corner by clicking "next" to go to the next picture. Or you can access a bunch of pictures on one page by clicking "view album". Hope that helps! There are several pages! The pictures are a bit mixed up as well... I don't know how to get them back in order! LOL!

Let me know which ones are your favorites!

Family Pictures

Photobucket Album

"What nooooooooooow?!"

Okay, so if you don't have a teenager you might not be up to date on what exactly that title means! It's the latest phrase that basically means "in your face"! It's Tyler's favorite thing to say! We've all picked up this wonderful phrase and use it a bit excessively!

So, last night we got in a big "What Noooooow!" on Tyler! As I'm sure you're aware, at this great age of 13 it is sooooo cool to have long hair! Everytime we try to talk to him about getting a hair cut he refuses and says no way! Yes, we know we are the parents... but we feel like we need to pick our battles! I'd rather let him have his way on this one and get my way on something more serious. (okay, who are we kidding... the darn kid gets his way on most anything! grrr!) Well, last night Tyler was once again asking for Shane to purchase something called Nova Gems for one of his online games. We have been bugged about these darn Nova Gems for weeks now and have held strong and not let Tyler or Chase talk us into indulging them with these great treasures! Back to last night, Shane said to Tyler, "Sure, I'll buy you those Nova Gems if you let mom cut your hair right now!" Tyler looked over at me and said, "Mom get the scissors, you need to give me a haircut right now!" I did not hesitate! I jumped up, gathered all my haircutting parephenalia and the clippers were buzzing within minutes! In the back of my mind I was thinking...Oh he is going to be sooooo mad when he realizes what he has just done! Needless to say dad was overjoyed and ecstatic... Tyler on the other hand was pretty ticked off within minutes of his haircut being finished! But, he's such a handsome boy!

I've attached some pictures for your viewing pleasure. We saved the hair so Tyler could give it to Dr. Black (his counselor) on Friday as a joke. Dr. Black had asked Tyler if he could have his left over hair to glue to the top of his head if Tyler ever decided to get a haircut! I'm sure he'll now have more than enough to fill in his bald spot! The 2nd picture I'm sure Tyler won't be too thrilled to know I snapped of him this morning while he was sleeping! I knew there was no way he would pose for a picture willingly! Naughty mommy! :P

Easter Sunday!

The kids were excited to see that the Easter Bunny had remembered them!













Colby had so much fun hunting for eggs in the backyard!













Jett even found a few eggs... and them proceeded to throw them in his basket because he thought they were balls! LOL!













Kyra, Jett and Colby all dressed in their Easter clothes.













And, I couldn't resist posting this picture of me fixing one of Kyra's hairbows that I made for her to match her Easter dress! :)

Coloring Easter Eggs!

We had great fun coloring Easter Eggs!

Everyone going for it!

Shane helping Kyra... her mommy was at work!

Jett kept saying, "Ball! Ball!"

The boys having a discussion about the best way to make the perfect Easter Egg!

Finally! Some girls in the house!

We have some new roommates! Back in February we decided to open our home to Dani and Kyra! I met Dani through a due date club that I was part of while I was pregnant with Jett. Dani is a young single mom working hard to make a good life for her precious little daughter Kyra! After some family discussions we agreed that we could sacrafice a little to help someone else that could really benefit from having a warm place to stay! After having them with us for almost 2 months we can say it has really been an adventure!

Chase's recent accomplishments!

In the last couple of months Chase has had a couple of exciting accomplishments! He made it to the Regional Spelling Bee and also to the Regional Science Fair for Arizona!

The spelling bee went great and he gained some much needed experience! I'm sure there will be many more spelling bees in his future and now he knows what to expect so he can be even better prepared!

This first picture is him holding his 2nd place award from the district spelling bee that took place before the regional one.

At the AzSEF (Arizona Science and Engineering Fair) he took 2nd place for his air car project. He was so proud and so were we!

It's finally here!

I've been meaning to put together a family blog for months now! I'm so glad to finally get it started! There's so many things that have been happening over the last few months that I want to share! I might just do some individual entries to get all "caught up"! I hope everyone will come back often to find out what's going on in our neck of the woods!