Hiking Amergosa canyon

The kids and I are currently visiting my family in Las Vegas. Yesterday we took a short trip just past the California border, to Amergosa canyon and a date farm where we sampled various dates and saw the date palms close up. It was a very interesting place - not how you would envision a typical farm at all! Sand dunes, ugly scenery, lots of mountains, and rows of palm trees!

Christmas with Jones Family

It was exciting to have "Christmas" (early) with the Jones Family - all of us together for the first time since Landon joined us! I love having the out-of-towners come visit, it's so fun to all hang out together. Here's all of us...

Rychen holding Elisabeth, me, Whitney & Paige, Andy & Carol, Landon & Courtney, Madison, Rychen P., Logan.
Landon & Courtney

Whitney & Paige, Madison, Dad, Logan

Grandma Huxford watching kids open presents

Landon apparently picked out the best present of Rychen P's life, and this baseball mitt and ball went straight home to bed with him and then carried onto the plane to go to LV.

Wonderful PJ's from Grandma Jones (the annual tradition) and some books and a vintage Sorry game!

We celebrated Christmas early this year, before the kids and I went to Las Vegas. Rychen is finally old enough to understand what's going on, so he was really excited. His favorite part of Christmas has been driving around to see the lights at night. He was also very excited to keep secrets and wait for us to open our presents from him. He picked out a present for both of us and Elisabeth. Here he is giving Elisabeth her "comfy socks," which are similar to a pair he already has.

Our Christmas morning breakfast spread, a fruit feast. Rychen P. was so excited to eat a "feast." His favorite part is frozen blueberries. Elisabeth too, she loves them! So we conveniently served all the fruit in the fridge we had to use up before going out of town... pineapple, banana, blueberries, grapefruit, fruit salad, and cinnamon applesauce.

Here we are opening some presents.

I gave Rychen some new flannel sheets for the bed, and Rychen P. gave him a Wii Baseball Bat.

The kids got various games and Mr & Mrs Potato Head.

Rychen gave me the most exciting Christmas present ever - a coupon for a weekly massage throughout 2010! And all stamped and decorated himself :)

Huxford Christmas reunion

Last weekend, we did some activities with Rychen's extended family from out-of-town. Shopping, dinner, games and visiting (and unfortunately couldn't stay for caroling). Here's the kids coloring at the kid's table with Alisha West.

and our Yahtzee game, which Elisabeth loves "helping" me play too

Rychen's interests

Rychen is asking so many questions lately!! It's fun to see his interests emerge. I take his lead and we learn about whatever he's asking about. I knew he was interested in musical instruments so I took advantage of the opportunity to take him to a school band concert. Little did I know exactly how excited he'd be, how much he'd get into it, how he had to SEE each musical instrument and name them off, and how disappointed he'd be when we had to leave before it was over (for Elisabeth's sake). So now we need to go to the library to get some books about instruments and learn more about them.

The other thing is, today we're learning about jail and prison. Unfortunately that seems a bit morbid, doesn't it?! We were watching the movie "Ace Ventura Jr: Pet Detective" when a woman is arrested for theft. So we had a brief discussion about where they were taking her and what would happen. Several hours later, Rychen brought it up again, and the questions started. He wanted to know all about prison--what it's like, what they do, where they live, how long they stay, how they get out, even what they eat (He was worried that if he ever goes to prison they would give him food he's allergic to). I told him what I knew, but to be honest, I don't know very much about prison! So I thought it would be a good topic to look up........ but I don't think they write kids books about this stuff! I know they show jail on movies all the time, I will have to point it out to him (like on The Santa Clause, there's a good prison movie for this week).

Rychen also likes having jobs to do, and always eager to do things for himself whether that be hanging up his clothes, juicing carrots, getting his pills out of the containers, peeling cucumbers, putting away silverware and tupperware, etc. He tells me he likes work (we had a lesson on that a while ago).

Here's a cute quote he told me yesterday: "Mom, I think I know why Heavenly Father wants us to have problems. He knows if we have problems, we will pray, and he likes it when we pray to him."

More candids

Rychen making a funny face before enjoying a TALL glass of smoothie

Yup, a real Prodigy. (I'm so grateful for our worthless piano that the kids get to play around on)

Don't Break the Ice!! Our "favorite" game, please come break it or steal it or something. (Oops! So sorry, kids...)

Such sexy running gear!

Rychen Parker showing his new rainboots

Avocado, Elisabeth's #1 preferred food, unfortunately appears to give her diaper rash....So she got to go diaper-free for several hours, and had to be entertained on the hard floor...

And finally, here is Rychen and his friend Troy playing DINOSAURS!

(These gloves are Bub's latest obsession. He even sleeps in them.)

Hanging out at Grandma's House

Considering it's been a few months since we've taken or posted photos, we made a point to take a bunch of candids this past week. Here is a documentation of what we do when we go to hang out at Rychen's parents' house...
Playing Scattergories

O Christmas Tree

My Birthday

Earlier this month I turned 26! Wow, I'm almost a real adult now! For my birthday I chose to go to NW Kids Club as a family, since that would be less stressful than taking the kids out to eat. We got back and Rychen had arranged for some friends to come over ... and do what? Well my surprise birthday present was Dance Dance Revolution, so we all took turns and had ourselves a "dance party" (which is what I asked for, but Rychen wanted it G-rated, I guess...)

My friend Becca provided 3 great birthday treats, orange-chocolate cake with yummy frosting, homemade Turtles, and Almond Joy balls. (Not knowing she was coming over to surprise me, I had made my own cake, which paled in comparison! But Elisabeth liked it.)

Skin picking

I just found this article randomly - http://mothering.com/skin-picking - and it was interesting to read. I was a skin picker for many years. I was so weird, it was such a weird habit that nobody else did. There isn't even a name for it, but there's a name for compulsive hair-pulling, if you can believe it! In my wedding pictures you can see scars on my arms from my scabs I would pick for months. I literally had the same wounds for months because I picked them every day and they couldn't heal. How did I stop? I am still a compulsive person but my mind is improving over time, but mostly I stopped the skin picking because my zits cleared up when I switched to a healthier diet. Still, I will break out a bit if there is much fat in my diet, and I find myself picking at those. But the habit isn't as bad as it used to be, and they will heal in about a week. Weirdness!

Lots of new items up on Etsy

I put up several new cards of various greetings up on Etsy, many of which are sealed in plastic wrap to be used as a gift. Please browse my store and consider using some great hand-stamp cards as holiday gifts!

Also, please note, my store is now organized by sections (various occasions/greetings) which you'll see listed by category on the right-hand side of the main store page.

Stories from the bathroom

Yesterday we were with some friends when Rychen P. had to go poop, and away a while Rychen went in to help him finish up. Rychen P. yells out, "No, Mom! I need MOM! I need to show mom my poop!"

So yes we are public now. We are poop watchers. When you have digestive issues and take daily precautions to deal with it, when there's always at least one library book on the bedstand about digestive health, and constant various modifications on diet to treat it, you get pretty excited to see what your results are going to be. When we get "snake poop" around here, we cheer!

Here's a quick update. Rychen P. had constant diarrhea for the first 3 years of his life and only then did it begin to occur to me that maybe that wasn't normal. Turns out he had a problem with gluten, giving him leaky gut syndrome (which also leads to behavioral problems when the "toxins" are in the bloodstream and reach the brain). Recently we also had him tested to identify further food allergies, which turned out to be corn, wheat, oats, cow milk, eggs, peanuts, buckwheat, and oranges (all foods he loved, which is interesting that people usually crave foods they're allergic to, since it produces a drug reaction in the brain). His histamine was out of control so now he's on a remedy for that, in addition of course to removing the food allergens from his diet. That was 3 months ago and only now do I realize we've been cross-contaminating him with sharing pans and the wheat mill, etc. Oh my goodness, what an adventure this is turning out to be. It's a work in progress but at least we've identified it and it's not getting worse.

I am grateful that he is a good sport and loves fruit, so he doesn't mind eating the way he does. It really isn't that often that he is exposed to other foods and feels left out, and we prepare for those situations by talking about it, bringing favorite foods, having a special game whenever he is "tempted," and Oh Yeah, of course Mom can't eat any of those illegal foods in front of him either. Sure makes my life interesting.

I am grateful his symptoms aren't acute, but they would definitely worsen over time if left unchecked. I am grateful his only remaining symptoms are poop issues and bloating (the behavior is under control, and the itching went away after we eliminated allergens). But still, for me, it's a big deal. My heart sinks when he gets his huge "pregnant" belly. I just feel like shouting "What on earth is going ON inside of there!?" Only after a big starchy meal does he get really pregnant looking, but he generally always has a more bloated stomach than other kids.

Right now I am reading the book "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" which deals with leaky gut problems and how you can heal the gut when you remove certain foods (mostly complex carbohydrates) from the diet, because you aren't fully breaking them down so they cause absorption problems. When you look at it that way, the person is more malnourished the more they eat, as they absorb better nutrition on a simple diet. I think we're going to give that a shot. It's a lot of fruits and vegetables, nuts, avocado, squash, lentils, peas, navy beans (those are the only carbohydrates permitted). I have to be creative because the recipes in the book use a lot of eggs and dairy products, but he is allergic to those. We do organic, grass-fed meats only on occasion (that is not related to his condition, but for general health and spiritual reasons). Actually it is related because a higher-fat diet causes more candida and bacteria overgrowth problems (which is the reason for the bloating).

Elisabeth, you ask? I don't think she has it. But she has gotten sick 3 times after I ate cow milk products (which I am personally allergic to) so I won't be giving her any of that. We're also delaying other common allergens for a while so we'll find out later!

Meanwhile, Rychen and I are discovering the beauty of "At-home Dinner Dates" where we get to eat our own meal in peace and quiet after the kids are in bed! Who needs to spend money on going out? Eating pasta, potatos, or oatmeal is now a beautiful luxury in our home.

Holiday Card GIVEAWAY!

In an effort to promote my Etsy Store, I am offering a free box of 25 Holiday cards to one lucky winner!

To get entries, please tell your friends about my store, located at http://annalisestampinup.etsy.com, where I have multiple varieties of holiday/winter cards available as well as the usual greetings for other occasions.

You get:
-5 entries for posting on your blog about my store (feel free to include a picture of your favorite card listed on my Etsy site)
-1 entry for every 10 friends you e-mail about my store
-1 entry for putting my link up as your Facebook or Twitter status for 24 hours

Please post a comment on this to let me know how many entries you earned. Thanks!!

These following photos are the designs the winner may choose from (it's OK to pick and choose from the cards shown):

Fall card kits for sale

I am now selling card kits on ebay, all pre-cut and pre-stamped, for those who don't have their own supplies but would still like to make their own hand-made cards. I have three auctions up so far, and will be adding holiday sets soon, as well as various other non-seasonal themes. Click here to take a peek! Once on the auction site, click "View Seller's Other Items" to see a few other kits (more should be up this weekend).

wordsearch

Today our preschool activity was practicing handwriting by writing a letter to Uncle Joe, which turned into making a wordsearch. When Rychen asked me to make him one, I obliged, thinking I would just show him how I do it. But instead, he wanted to make it himself. So for the next HOUR (oh boy, he writes slowly, and I had already made a BIG grid) we painstakingly composed a wordsearch to send to Uncle Joe. Rychen first wrote the words that we would be using. Then I showed him how you write in the longest words first, and then try to find a letter you can double-up on for the next word. He went through and filled in most of the grid by himself, with me showing where to put each letter. Impressive!

Buh-nah!

This afternoon I took some spotted bananas and wrote MOM on each of them, telling Rychen, "This is for my breakfast tomorrow, since I like the most spotted ones. You can eat the yellow ones." To which he replied, "Okay, then can I write my name on my bananas?" and proceeded to sit in front of the fruit cupboard for the next ten minutes, meticulously writing RYCHEN on several individual bananas.

 

Meanwhile, I was at the table reading Mothering magazine (shameless plug!) when Elisabeth walks up to me and says "Buh-nah! Buh-nah!" Hey cutie, I think, without listening... and pick her up. She continues, and points over toward the kitchen. "Buh-nah! Buh-nah!" And it dawns on me, she is asking for a banana!

 

So cute. That is the first time she has asked verbally for a specific food.

World's Strongest Boy

AMAZING

Primary Program

Our primary program was today. You'd expect Rychen P. to be enthusiastic, engaging, excited to be up in the spotlight, right? Actually he was quite the opposite! This kid who talks non-stop at home every day, and LOVES singing all sorts of songs (and nonsense) actually stood up on the stand for the duration of the 40-minute program, MUTE. He did not sing a single note. He was bored and apathetic.

...Pretty much what all the other sunbeams were doing. For once, Rychen P. was actually typical of his age group!

"Intestint" picture

"See my picture mom? That's the small intestint, that's the large intestint, and see the dot? That's where the poo comes out."