Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my best friend, an amazing husband & the BEST Dad on this planet!!! We love you so very much Justin, thank you so very much for everything that you do for us. We are excited to let you sleep all afternoon and be bums with the spare matress on the living room floor to watch movies all day with you:) This is actually Justin's 3rd Father's Day to be celebrating:)Why you ask?!?

[June 2008]

Yes, We found out 2 years ago that we were expecting:) My mother was out here visiting California for the first time, Justin just headed off to the field to train for his up coming deployment back then. I just decided on the whim to take a test and sure enough....two PINK lines. I had to scream down to my mom because I needed another set of eyes. I also contacted one of my friends to run with me to Rite Aid to get another pregnancy test. Because I didn't believe the test!! It of course says "PREGNANT". I was literally blowing up Justin's phone to tell him the good news, I also had my mom and my friend Melissa texting and calling him. Just incase he got signal out in the middle of no where and got the amazing news:) We finally got ahold of him and he was so in shock but so HAPPY/EXCITED he told everyone on the mountain and called his dad. That was Justin's first Father's Day & his first Father's Day present!!Your the BEST dad & husband anyone could ask for:) Hope you have a great day with us!

♥ tiffany

Doctor Update

Its going to be short and sweet:)
We went to Luckas' follow up appt early this afternoon. I will be honest I was kinda freaking out that they were going to give me bad news. But I was praying and hoping the best. They weighed him and he gained weight YAY!!!!!! He is now 23 lbs 14oz. We are so happy that he is eatting and acting like he should be. He was chowing down on some snacks while she was talking to me. She was very impressed with how much he was chowing down. He was being silly and she would ask questions he would answer in his own way by shaking his head no or yes, with some babble in there with a smile haha. She thought it was cute!! She said his x-rays came back "outstanding" in the other doctors words. The meds that she put him on (the prevacid) seems the be working. Lets just hope he doesnt catch another little virus!! So everything is going great:) YAY!!!!

♥ tiffany

Don't Want Him To Grow Up

I really don't want to even think about Luckas becoming this "BIG BOY" that he is turning into! He never used to reach the top of the entertainment center. He never used to reach the stove top knobs. He never used to be able to go down the stairs by himself (with us in tow right behind him)! He never used to stand on his tippy toes and literally look OVER the baby gate into the kitchen. He never used to put his own diapers in his diaper pail and move it to put it in the pail. There is so much more that he does now since he is growing up before our eyes!! We don't have a "baby" anymore, he is a full grown toddler on the loose. He is about to turn 16 months in 2 1/2 days. Where does the time go?!? Why do they have to grow up so fast?!? Its like I just got to hold him for the first time. Giving him his first mommy kiss:) Changing his first diaper and just looking at him for hours!!
So now we are on the hunt for a new "BIG BOY" toddler bed for Luckas. We would use his crib since it turns into a toddler bed and then a bed. But we are planning to have another baby. So the new little bundle of joy will be needing the crib.

As of right now, we have found two beds that we like. We all know that being in the military we dont get paid worth crap. But this bed should do right now:)We did find the brand that Luckas' crib is in but we would be saving some $$ going with choice #2.

Choice #1 & #2
Now you maybe asking yourself....they are basically the same bed! They are two different brands. The first one is $50+ more dollars then the second one. I saw this and was really pumped to know I could save some $$ and get the style that I wanted:) Its a win win right!?! I am really excited to his bed in and come home our Kansas/Nebraska trip this fall and have him try out his new bed!!! Now for his new bedding thats already figured out and picked. We are sticking with his jungle theme and the colors painted on his wall. its going to be so cute when its all put together. Keep an eye out this fall for more photos!

♥tiffany

X-Ray Time

Luckas went in for his upper GI X-Ray this morning at 9am. They always tell you to show up 15 minutes before your appt time, but they you wait like 20-25 minutes to get seen. Atleast that happens here in 29 Palms! We didn't get seen till 9:30. I wasn't supposed to feed Luckas anything so he had no breakfast. I wasn't going to NOT give him anything to drink. They made him drink this nasty chalky drink that I added to his milk which he drank! The doctor was taking x-rays watching this weird drink go down into his stomach. We had to wait 15 minutes after that to get this first x-ray after. Then we had to wait another 30 minutes after that. I'm literally trying to keep him from going nuts by cuddling with him and letting him run around in his diaper and t-shirt with his cute little shoes on. Everytime we had to go back to the room to lay down to get the next x-ray, he would SCREAM like he was dying. I had to calm him down by myself so we could get a good shot. Poor little guy:(

He did finally break down and cuddle with me, he passed out. After 5 minutes of being asleep he starts snooring which was so adorable:) Here is his little photo of him passed out. Besides getting the upper GI X-Ray, they had to do another test thats why it took so long! His doctors wanted another test done so another why he had to take that nasty drink so it could get to his colon. After the 4th x-ray, I was so happy to hear that we didn't have to stay another 30 minutes for another x-ray. We go in for a follow up on Thursday to get the results on what they found out!! Hoping for good news:) Keep him in your prayers.

♥tiffany
ps.these photos were taken on my cell phone.

No Eggs/Allergies

Lately everything has been fitting together like a little puzzle. Ever since Luckas was put onto formula after I couldn't breastfeed him anymore, he was projectile vomiting his formula Enfamil Lipil that WIC provided us coupons to get. We were back home in Kansas last April 2009, we are at Taco Johns when Luckas just vomits all over himself and its so much that it goes through his car seat onto the floor. We went and bought him Enfamil AR the spit-up resolution formula. That formula stopped everything and we figured that it was just the formula! Well January 2010 rolls around and we move into our new house so we started him on whole vitamin D milk. He started vomiting yet again, so at his 1 year check up we asked the doctors at the naval hospital if he was okay and told them his symptoms. They said he was fine, so we just left with that. As the months kept rolling by we thought he was fine and just had the flu bug which he caught OFTEN. He would just get sick out of the blue with no fever, could be in the middle of the night, after he woke up, just whenever. We started to really get worried last month when it was happening more and after the past trip down to San Diego and the birth of my friends son. I scheduled an appt for him to get seen for reflux. I had been searching online for symptoms and most of them Luckas had. I was freaking out!!! The doctor put him of Prevacid to help with the reflux, he got blood drawn to see if maybe he was allergic to milk and we had to schedule a GI x-ray for him.

[this is him getting his blood drawn for the blood test..it took a lot for me not to start crying, poor guy had to get pricked 3 different times]

Since his last appt Luckas got sick twice yet again. So I called the Quarter Deck to see what I should do. The on call Doctor called me and said she would have the nurse call me in the AM to set him up an appt the next day so he can be seen and treated. We go in yesterday and since his 15 month check up he has lost already 1 lb and a couple ounces. His eczema has flared up really bad towards the end of May. So she gets him a stronger cream and gets him aquaphor for his eczema around his eyes. Benadryl for the itching and then she tells me that his blood work has come back already and that he is 90+% allergic to cat dander, 40%-50% allergic to eggs and dog dander. She told me recommends me not getting a cat anytime soon and that we should take cut eggs out of his diet for 9-12 months to see if he out grows it. As for the dog dander, ACE is staying since his breed is hypoallergenic. Gabby is already gone (if you knew who that little stinker is) Luckas and Ace are like best of buds and that's Luckas' "goggie".

[playing with his best friend♥luckas will tug-a-war with all day if luckas wanted to]

So after all that information, you would kind of think it would be easy to find books, information online or anything online about "no egg" baking or cooking. Its harder then I thought. I can find some recipes or I'll find something and start reading and it has eggs in it. Why would people waste my time with putting "no egg" and have egg in it. I have gotten frustrated a few times so far with this. But I have a good friend Erika down in San Diego who is a very happy vegetarian and knows her stuff about "no egg, no milk, no meat..." stuff. But its not that easy to be honest so I have been looking all over for maybe some good priced books and this is what I have found so far.

1. Joy of Vegan Baking

Looks like it could have some good baking things so Luckas can still have cookies and cake with us and not feel left out. I hope that it has some bread recipes in there too so I can make some bread for him so he can have some toast:)Since its his FAVORITE thing to eat lately. What caught my eye when reading what the book was about "The Joy of Vegan Baking lets you have your cake and eat it, too!" It should be helpful since I'm not an expert baker so I will be able to understand it!

2.The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes

Now this one looks like it could be alittle fun with pies:) I would love to tackle a pie or two to see if Luckas will eat it. But it just depends on the sugar, since we don't want him taking in a lot of sugar. Got to keep him healthy:) It says all these recipe are all homemade and it does have bread recipes in it. This book could be a winner to what I'm looking for since it helps understand replacers for butter, eggs, nuts and so on.

3.Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

This is a book that Erika referred to me. I really didn't get to read much about the book and what it have to offer since these authors have already have another book out. I might have to look more into it. But its worth a shot:)


4.Bakin' Without Eggs

This book is in my "cart". I got to read alittle of the intro thank you to amazon.com. The author that wrote the book was writting this book with one thing in mind. You can find a lot of books that pertain to one theme. But she wrote this book for families that can't use eggs. She also says that there are books out there for "no eggs" but those eggless books are found natural food stores. So as for Justin and I being meat eatters that we are, we are having a harder time finding books for Luckas:( Thank goodness for this book.
I just wanted to say if I have offened anyone I'm sorry. We are not going VEGAN or VEGETARIAN. Abuse to animals is very wrong, but we love meat to much! I was born on chicken, steak and mashed potatoes!! I have been doing alittle more than a handful of research for Luckas; health.Thanks for reading:)

♥ tiffany

Santa Fe Chicken Recipe

Thanks to some of my girl friends, I have really enjoyed doing this meal planning so far. It has gotten NEW food and recipes into our bellies! This one is a big one for me since I am not a big fan of any kind of beans but green beans. I was willing to go out of my comfort zone and to try this new recipe I found:) Lets just say Justin was VERY excited to have some beans in the house for the night. He devoured everything, score for me! I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did.

Santa Fe Chicken

Ingredients:

2 cups instant white rice, uncooked
1 can (19 oz.) black beans, drained, rinsed
1 yellow pepper, chopped
1 can (10-1/2 oz.) condensed cream of chicken soup
2 cups water
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb.)
1/2 cup TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa
1 cup KRAFT Mexican Style Finely Shredded Four Cheese

Directions:

HEAT oven to 400°F.
MIX rice, beans and peppers in 13x9-inch baking dish. Combine soup, water and cilantro; pour evenly over rice mixture.
TOP with chicken. Spoon salsa over chicken.
BAKE 35 min.; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 10 min. or until cheese is melted.

(I personal cooked it for 45 minutes so I knew the chicken was done..I just added some more water for the rice)

Thanks again kraftfoods.com

♥tiffany

Short & Sweet

So sorry for slacking again on writing. We have been really busy here with everything going on. Planning a trip back to Kansas/Nebraska to see family and to do my first wedding for a friend of mine that I went to school with. Luckas being more of a toddle & teething which is back!!!! Justin having another team out here and working all PM shifts and keeping up with college we have been all out of whack.

Tomorrow we are heading up to Pioneer Town for a nice little family afternoon:) Its going to be so nice to just spend time together. Everything here is going good. Just keeping busy and enjoying Justin being non-deployable!! We need to start taking advantage of that WAY more!!!

Till next time:)

♥ Tiffany