The Langstraats

Matt and Sara Wedding

2012-01-20T19:58:00.000-08:00

My brother, Matthew, got married on December 28th. His lovely wife, Sara, is amazing and we are so excited to have her as part of our family! The girls and I were able to make it to LA for the wedding, but Chad had to work so we left him home on his birthday! We missed him but were grateful to see my family and be there for such a wonderful wedding! I will be posting some of these pictures on my blog so they can be viewed bigger and better. (Please note, I was not the photographer, and was just taking random pictures as my children allowed!)

Miranda ran up and gave Sara big hug as they came out of the temple. She said, "I just love Sara!" She was also cracking us up and kept calling the Angel Moroni a trophy. The next morning at breakfast, Panda leaned over to everyone like she had a secret and said, "Hey guys!!! I saw Jesus!" We all started laughing. She had seen a statue of the savior at the Visitor Center while we were in the temple!

My little posers!

Our side of the family that made it for the wedding (minus the bride and groom!)

Welcome the family Sara. We are just sad you live on the opposite coast so we can't see you more! (and Matt too!)

Christmas Morning

2012-01-19T06:58:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from Christmas morning! My mother in law sent these cute dresses for Christmas Sunday and the girls were ready for church before we did stockings and a few gifts...then we headed off to church and came back to finish with the rest of the gifts! They had a great time! Miranda had mentioned a few days before Christmas that she really, really wanted the Pop the Pig game. I had no idea she even knew what it was, but it ended up being the gift that made her the most excited! I found the last one at Target just 2 days before!

Christmas Eve

2012-01-18T13:01:00.000-08:00

I am wayyyyyy behind on blogging! I was so completely overwhelmed over the fall with working 40-60 hours a week and dealing with the first trimester of pregnancy and the holidays that blogging took a back seat. I am attempting to catch up. We had a great Christmas Eve. Our friends, the Parkers, came over for dinner then we headed out to see a neighborhood decked out in lights.

Miranda LOVED the lights!Brianna and Malayla

Miranda being silly posing with the penguin! She was such a poser for the camera this night!

Our tree on Christmas Eve. Almost done decorating for Christmas morning!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-28T12:50:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope everyone else did too...

Here is a video of our favorite part.

Enjoy:

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T12:06:00.000-07:00

I made all of their costumes except the leotard Brianna is wearing. I typically don't like to sew things that they aren't going to wear multiple times, so I tried to make things they could also wear at other times so it wouldn't feel like a waste of time. I however, really like to make things I can photograph, so I felt like it was a win-win this year! Enjoy their Halloween photoshoot. You can see the pictures bigger and better on my photography blog here

Celebrating 7 Years

2011-10-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

August marked 7 years that my sweetheart finally said yes to me. We were able to celebrate this last week by going on a cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico.

This video shows some of the highlights of our trip:

Family Reunion

2011-09-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

We are one CRAZY bunch! We had a blast at our family reunion. I have more pictures to come and a short video Chad put together....but here's our one big crazy family to start with!

Brianna is in Kindergarten

2011-08-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

Brianna turned 5 this month and started Kindergarten. She couldn't be happier or more excited! See my post here on my photography blog for all of the pictures!

Brianna's Fairy Party

2011-08-16T23:03:00.001-07:00

I know I have been a bad blogger. The last month has been so incredibly full of stuff that I haven't had a chance to document it! While we have had a great time, I am sooooo looking forward to our "normal" schedule and a routine.
Before you say anything, I am very aware that I get a little out of control when it comes to parties. I'm fully aware that I'm a little crazy, but if I'm going to throw a party I am one of the "go big or go home" types of people. That means, I also want to make everything myself, which makes me a little insane.
The hardest thing about this party was coming up with an invite list. Our new ward has about 20 kids Brianna's age, most of which are girls! She also has all of her friends from our old ward and from preschool, etc. so narrowing the list down was difficult. I knew there would be hurt feelings, but I couldn't throw a party with over 30 kids in my home (especially since I was making everything). The easiest thing was to keep it to kids from our ward, but even then I couldn't invite everyone. We had a list of 16 girls coming (including my own 2) and I had to cut it off there. Sooooo, if you didn't get invited please don't feel bad. I felt bad enough, but I didn't know what else to do!
We decided to do a fairy themed party and I knew we would be out of town the full week before the party so I started early on making party favors/decor etc. I ordered the wings online for just over a dollar a piece!!! Woo hoo! I was going to make them, but the thought of making 16 pairs of wings made me exhausted...and you can't beat the price I found!

I wanted all "fairy-like" food. We made "snail sandwiches" which were tortillas with cream cheese and jelly. (It wasn't as well liked as I thought it would be). I served little "toadstools" which was string cheese with half a tomato on the top. I knew most girls wouldn't eat the tomato, but I couldn't resist! I had a party favor table which had different candies that fit the color theme (however they do not taste well mixed together, so when they took a bag home of it all mixed I felt bad! :) Lemon drops don't go well with big mints and whoppers! The eating table had cups with flower straws in them. I didn't get a close up, but I was inpired by some cupcake liner flower straws on Martha Stewart.

The cupcakes were nothing special this year. I knew I wouldn't have time to make a fancy cake, or fancy cupcakes. I was going to make them look like pink toadstools, but I figured people wouldn't know what they were. Then I found these little flower petal liners at Michaels and wasn't sure how they would bake. They were ok, but nothing exciting.

I was in such a hurry I didn't get the canopy of streamers hung over the eating table, but I did have some hanging butterflies (no close up, sorry).

The most popular food items were the "fairy berries."

Butterfly bread was a close second. I simply used a cookie cutter, some light butter and sprinkles.

I personally was the most excited over the apple lady bugs, but I was so rushed they look off. They were tasty though! A little melted chocolate with apples!!! You can't go wrong with that!I made each girl a bottle of "fairy dust" but after buying cheap glitter to fill all 16 containers, I realized it looked like sugar and I could've gotten away with that instead!

Each girl also got a hand made rolled rosette bracelet, wings, and a hand made head dress. There were 3 large flower balls on the eating table that were also hand made (they were my favorite thing)

As each girl arrived we sent them out back to decorate a "fairy house." My good husband cut the doors larger from bird houses and painted them all for me. I had little items for the girls to glue to the houses.

Each girl needed to earn their wings so we did a sort of cake walk for them. I made flowers, butterflies, etc. out of cardstock and laid them in a circle. The girls danced around to music and when the music stopped they each ran to a shape. If my husband pulled out a matching shape they came and got their wings. I set up a little photo booth so after each girl got her wings, I took her picture. I will be using these photos for their thank you cards. The toadstools in the picture were also hand made.

The best part about any little girl party is just dancing. They had a blast twirling, prancing, running in circles together! After earning their wings we sat down to eat because we had some hungry fairies to feed. The girls then each got to decorate a butterfly shaped sugar cookie on a wand to take home. We stopped for cupcakes and presents then played a few few fairy games like "fairy freeze tag" and "fairy, fairy, pixie!" (like duck, duck, goose). We had an absolute blast, but I was so thrilled when it was over!!! I could not have done this party with all of my "helpers." I had a few young tweens come to help and our friend Christy was also there! We had a great time, and Brianna is still talking about her fairy party. Be assured, she will not have a big friend party every year......so I can breathe awhile til the next one!

July 4th

2011-07-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

We had a fun-packed weekend over the 4th of July! We had an absolute blast spending so much time together as a family. I didn't take my camera to every event due to the heat and the water we were surrounded by, but I caught some photos of the end. We spent Saturday at the movies as a family for the first time and saw Kung Fu Panda 2 which we enjoyed! Then we headed back to my friend's ice cream shop for some shaved ice and to surprise her for her birthday. Afterwards we had some friends over for swimming and a BBQ.
Monday we woke up and went to a pancake breakfast put on by our church, walked up the street to watch the parade, went and floated the river with some friends, went to Bri's swimming lesson, went to a friend's for a BBQ and then to another friend's for fireworks and dessert! Phew....it was a long but fun filled day! Miranda has been cranky every day since...I think we thoroughly wore her out for the week!!!
Here are the pictures in no order! Hope you all had a wonderful 4th!

We got a silly hat at the parade...sorry you can't see the top of it!

Snuggling Sienna....Bri asks me almost daily when I'm going to have her baby brother. I have to remind her that I'm not pregnant and there is no baby in my tummy! She's hopeful!

Sick, Sick Panda

2011-06-30T17:28:00.000-07:00

Nothing makes me more upset than to see my kids very ill. Miranda got a high fever after church on Sunday but after a priesthood blessing and a good night's sleep it went away. For the next few days though she had some questionable diapers (which is really common with her due to the FPIES syndrome). Tuesday afternoon she had really foul diapers and I started to worry! After trying to get her to eat her dinner she started throwing up! It is now Thursday evening and it still hasn't stopped. Our big dilemna is that Chad's new insurance doesn't kick in until midnight tonight. ER visits in the past have been about $1500. With the new insurance I think it will be closer to $100....so I've been holding off! I've been pushing fluids and have seen a few wet diapers now, so I'm not as worried, but she has been pretty lethargic today. She's been sleeping on the family room floor for the past 2 days!

This morning when I couldn't get the vomiting to stop I posted on our church facebook page and had a few men over to give her a blessing shortly thereafter. I felt a little silly doing that, but it was also amazing to me how quickly we could get the help we needed via the internet. My friend Emily is an ER nurse and came over to check on Miranda. Her advice was to push fluids and go to the ER if she doesn't improve. She hasn't thrown up for a few hours....so I'm crossing my fingers that she's on the mend! Poor little thing!

Father's Day Fun

2011-06-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

For Father's Day I didn't take too many pictures, but I did manage to snap a few with the girls and Chad with their chocolate mustaches. (Miranda's wasn't real chocolate, but she was just so excited about it she couldn't wait for the picture to start eating it).

This is what Chad would look like with a blonde mustache! (lol, I didn't have any brown chocolate).
Miranda loves it when Daddy reads to her!

A Poser

2011-06-21T23:05:00.000-07:00

Why is it that whenever my kids are not looking cute (maybe even looking a little homely) that they want to pose for the camera? Especially Miranda? She will never sit still for me, unless someone else is having a photoshoot. Looks like I need to get her dolled up before my next photoshoot so I can get one of her looking less homely!

Miranda makes a good little photography assistant as well. She has watched me a lot and is constantly doing my monkey dance, and trying to tickle the kids and getting them to laugh for me!

Six Flags: Memorial Weekend

2011-06-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

We had a great time Memorial Weekend, sorry I'm so late in posting this. We went to Six Flags in Vallejo and stayed for 2 days! We all had a blast. Bri still loves to keep her arms up on all rides, Panda isn't as fond of roller coasters as her sister!

We had never seen the bird show before, and it was really fun! I have a few videos of the Parrots talking/singing that Chad will have to post!

Miranda wasn't too sure of these fellas once she got up close! However, she begged to see them!

Enjoying Shouka the Whale.

The butterfly house reminded us of Chad's Grandma and made us miss her!

Always trying on silly hats/masks.

Bri didn't know what to think about this fish with his "teeth"

We had a blast and really enjoyed having a weekend vacation! It had been far too long! We have season passes, so we'll be going back for sure. Anyone want to join us?

Preschool Graduation

2011-06-10T12:09:00.000-07:00

Brianna graduated from Preschool at the end of May! She loved preschool and misses it daily! She especially misses her friends! She talks daily about how excited she is for Kindergarten! I can't believe she is growing up so fast!
With her teacher Miss Sarah
And Miss Katie! I'm hoping to add a few videos of the songs they presented at the graduation later on tonight!

Water Park

2011-06-10T11:36:00.000-07:00

We headed to the water park near the end of May and had a blast with some friends. I have a feeling we will be frequenting this park a lot this summer!!
Miranda trying to brave the water to get to the bucket!

Malayla LOVES the water!
Keeping water from getting in her eyes so she can get the coveted sponge!!!

A picnic lunch on our towels!

Family Pictures

2011-05-24T23:37:00.000-07:00

I was going to just cut and paste my post on my photography blog here, but I realized all of the pictures are too large for this format. Soooo, if you want to see our new family pictures please go here. I can't wait to get some of these up on our walls!!!

Miranda's Birthday Part 2

2011-05-06T13:09:00.000-07:00

For Miranda's birthday, we just had some of our friends, that know and love Panda, over for and "allergy free" dinner. Everything that we served was something she could eat! It was so nice to be able to have her eat off of my plate, run around with the kids, eat picnic style on the floor and not have to worry! The food wasn't too bad either. I made the cake from a special allergy free cook book. For being free of gluten, milk, eggs, butter, etc it wasn't too bad. It's not the cutest cake and I'm sad I wasn't able to make it cute, but it was allergy free and actually looked edible. I also dipped marshmallows in allergy free "chocolate chips" and sprinkles. We had shredded pork, corn chips, potato wedge fries, guacamole (only smashed avocado), rice, apples, grapes and finger jello. Her diet doesn't seem to bad, until you've eaten the same thing for every meal of the day for 2 years! It gets boring!
Miranda is full of life! She is our little fire cracker! She is constantly full of energy! I have the hardest time keeping up with her outside of our home! Ihave so much to say about her since this is her "2 year old" post, but it's late so I'll have to wait to do that another time. And I have about a million other posts to blog as well!!

Miranda has been singing Happy Birthday to herself for the last month now. Most mornings I can hear her singing in her crib when she wakes up!

Miranda's Birthday Part 1

2011-05-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

For Miranda's birthday I wanted to do something fun and different for the girls. Chad was out of town, and I had to teach piano lessons later in the afternoon and then help set up/clean up for the RS activity that night while they would be in child care. So, we headed down to Old Sacramento to visit my friend's new ice cream shop! Since the girls are allergic to ice cream, we opted for the Hawaiian shaved ice! It was DELICIOUS! If you live in the area, I highly recommend "Frozen in Time" on K street in Old Sac.

This is her "it's cold" look! :)

I also attempted a 2 year photoshoot of Miranda that morning, but spent a majority of the time just chasing her! She finally smiled and posed, but the wind was blowing, so she's looking a little bald!

Chasing the geese!

I will be attempting another photoshoot next week with a theme feel to it...I'm excited about it and hopefully I'll be able to get some better shots of her!

I can't believe she's 2! I know it's a little cliche to say that, but I really can't! She has such a fun, spunky, crazy, independent, firecracker of a personality and we love her! I'll post another post with more details on her soon!

Easter

2011-05-06T12:48:00.000-07:00

So, I'm behind on posting as usual so this will be quick! These pictures are from Easter with the girls in the Easter dresses I made for them.

The girls enjoyed some allergy free candy in their baskets which includes Peeps! Miranda as you can see loved it!

Both girls also have some fantastic bed head!!

Brianna is reading

2011-05-01T22:02:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post these for awhile now. Brianna is officially a beginning reader now! She's been able to sound out simple words for a several months now and has been loving to read books. She is so excited about Kindergarten coming up this next fall.

Auntie Em Visit: Part 2

2011-04-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

Miranda is always sporting either several outfits, several accessories or both.We ran and played in fields!We took crazy pictures!We spent an afternoon at Funderland!Emily and Brianna rode this roller coaster several times. Miranda was terrified of all the rides which was surprising to me as she has loved them in the past.

Auntie Em is Finally Here!!!!

2011-04-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

Brianna is so excited because AUNTIE EM IS HERE! My sister, Emily, is the best Aunt and my girls are in heaven! (Emily took Brianna on a trip for the last 3 days to Carmel and Monterey Bay and I'm sitting here anxiously awaiting their return!) Brianna is now reading and read several books to Emily. I have some videos to post, but I'm waiting for help from my dear husband who's much more talented with posting videos! Miranda loves to wear Brianna's helmet when she's playing outside! Maybe I'll get her one for her birthday next month that is a little more girly and a little smaller! Can you believe she's almost 2? I can't! Panda loves to sneak up on the side of the house and knock on the windows!

Lots more pictures to come! The fun has only just begun because Emily will be here til Friday night!!! Woo hoo!

Daddy Daughter Time

2011-04-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Brianna asked me if she could snuggle me and watch basketball. A couple minutes later she asked me when I was going to take her to a basketball game. Since the Kings are rumored to be moving to Anaheim after this season I knew I needed to act quickly since there are a limited number of home games left. I got on craigslist on my phone and found King's tickets for $3 a piece. It was sad that it cost me more to park than it was to go to the game. I told Bri that we were going to go to the place where they were playing basketball. She then told me she was excited to watch me play in the game when we got there. I have spent the past 3 weeks explaining that I am too short and old to play in the NBA game with the other guys.

Bri kept cheering, "Go Kings, Go Kings" and "Defense, Defense." We had a great time although we had a difficult time tracking down the guy selling the cotton candy.

Today between General Conference Sessions I got to play with the girls in the back yard. For some reason Panda has decided she wanted to wear Hippo's bike helmet and rain boots. She looks a little "Special." I love my girls!

April Fool's!!!

2011-04-01T21:00:00.000-07:00

Did anyone else play an April Fool's joke on their kids today? I did and I have to say it was hilarious! Due to schedules I gave them their "joke" at different times! I made some jello jigglers in their sippy cups and gave them some "juice" with their dinner. It took them a little while to figure it out and we laughed the entire time! I have to say that I will be doing some kind of silly joke on them every year now! Here are their reactions! My favorite picture!!!!!

Miranda was really confused, and she thought it was funny!

(That's my sister Emily who is visiting with us for a week! We are so excited to have her here and I will have lots to post! She is always a blast and we had the best day playing with her today!)

Happy April Fool's Day!!!

Rainy Days

2011-03-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been so absent with the blog lately! I've been feeling a little too spread thin! I'm participating in a musical for church, I'm working on wedding pictures, I've been sewing costumes and other things, I am back in the Relief Society Presidency, I'm teaching piano and I'm just plain tired!!! I've tried to spend as much time with my kids as possible, hence I haven't had time to blog! We had a really rainy and windy week this last week! Here we are playing indoors and staying dry! Bri watching the rain and "waiting for her Prince to save her!" Acting crazy!!!! Having some crazy hide and seek games!Miranda telling me to be quiet while she hides....she's is the loudest hider ever as she yells for the person!!And some much needed sleep! I have lots to post about this sweet and crazy little girl of mine! Next time!

Park Fun

2011-03-18T23:24:00.000-07:00

Utah

2011-03-13T14:09:00.000-07:00

We had a great visit to Utah, and I have been so busy since we came back that I've been a horrible blogger! We visited the Dinosaur Museum, and the barn at Thanksgiving Point and had a blast!
We especially liked the massive shark!

And Panda gave her best "roar" to the dinosaurs!The Pony Rides were a big hit, and Panda wanted to ride every horse after that!Played with fun and crazy cousins!Went sledding with Grandma and GrandpaAnd loved on baby "Brookie" as much as we could!

Lunch with my Ladies

2011-03-07T16:06:00.000-08:00

My wife called me up today when she was in the area. I was really excited to go to lunch with my 3 girls. We decided to try a little family diner that is right by my office. Erin ordered the french toast, Panda got a hamburger patty with hash browns, I got the country fired steak and eggs, and Hippo ordered the "horndog."

At least the server knew what she meant because she brought her a corndog.
She kept saying that she loved her horndog, it was the best hordog ever, and she couldn't wait to take her horndog home and have more later.

I was laughing the whole time! Kids say the funniest things!

Brooklyn

2011-02-24T21:37:00.000-08:00

I finally got to meet my little sister's baby this week while I was in Utah! She is the cutest, chubbiest, happiest little thing! I love her huge smile!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

2011-02-10T13:39:00.000-08:00

During piano lessons the other day I was letting the girls decorate Valentine cards and Brianna took her safety scissors and chopped her hair off. See how much hair is in that garbage can? Yeah...seriously chopped it off! She is sad in these pictures because she is in trouble. Surprisingly I didn't get all that angry and I didn't cry....I was sure I would when this would happen (as it's inevitable with most kids). I figured Bri would never do it because we talk about it ALL of the time. She had a little boy cut her hair to the scalp in a section a few years ago and it was just growing out. We have talked about this sooooooo many times! Good thing hair grows back at some point!!!

Honestly, I kind of like her new hair cut. I do miss all the things I could do with her long hair. My friend Michelle fixed her hair the best that she could....just don't look closely to the chunks that are lots shorter! Chad is elated that she has short hair! He absolutely loves it! So what do we do? Do we tell her we like her new hair cut so she's happy? Or would that lead her to do this again? I'm torn!

Snow Day!!!!

2011-02-01T22:32:00.000-08:00

We drove up to the snow this weekend and had a blast! Miranda wasn't sure what to think of it til we find the tiniest slope and kept sending her down on a disc. She would laugh and giggle and say "that so funny" and want to do it again!
Brianna and Adalyn are fearless and had a great time!

Bri thought she was so funny sliding down on her bottom!

Loving on daddy!

Adalyn the snow bunny!

"Cookie"

Chad forgot his sunglasses and wore his goggles while driving to block the sun! I totally married a nerd, but I love him!

The Wrights and the Woodberry's joined us again this year and it was so much more fun than last year! It was such a nice/warm day! We ended up taking layers off and were surprised to come home to a much colder and gloomier day in the valley!

Brianna: Hope

2011-01-25T15:21:00.000-08:00

(these photos can all be seen larger on my photography blog here)

Brianna has had a very exciting week! I decided that she was doing well enough with food lately that I'd let her start to eat normal food (though I should have started out more slowly with one type of food item at a time). She's been on a gluten, dairy, soy and nut free diet for almost 2 years. She was also free of eggs, citrus and berries for at least a year as well. Last week I let her eat "normal" food (anything except most citrus stuff) and she seems to be doing ok. She has had a little bit of a runny nose here and there which I'm not sure if it's food related or a little left over from a little cold she had already gotten over. I guess time will tell. I still need to look out for eczema patches, etc. but she seems to be doing pretty well. She hasn't had any tummy troubles though! Sooooo, she's been one super happy little girl! All throughout the day she asks, "Can I try______?" and then responds after eating the item, "Oh, it's so delicious!" She is in heaven...pure heaven I tell you! She'll just be absolutely devasted if I have to take it all away again. Maybe I should have introduced it more slowly, but I was feeling a little overwhelmed and seeing her so happy I couldn't help myself!
Cross your fingers that she can eat like a normal kid!!!! We are so excited to start taking her out on "dates" to eat things that she hasn't been able to do. We are still avoiding high doses of milk like ice cream or glasses of milk, and citrus, but most everything else is up for trying!!! This gives me hope that someday Panda will be able to eat something more than a rice cracker!
Here is Bri with her friend Kaylee. Kaylee just turned 8 and is getting baptized so I was taking her pictures and brought Bri along. Bri had a little mini shoot as well! She kills me with her poses. She asked me, "Mom, does Kaylee know how to model like me, or do I need to show her?" I guess we need to work on her being modest about her talents! Love her though!

I bought this rain jacket and boots for photoshoots and we ended up using it on the hottest day of the year so far!!! We'll have to try it again on a rainy day! I love it!
I also made these ruffle jeans the other day and was wanting to take pictures of them! They are so versatile with her outfits, and help dress things up "just enough." I just need to make Panda a pair!

She seems like such a "big girl" here!

Miranda Panda

2011-01-09T22:39:00.000-08:00

Miranda has SO much personality! She constantly keeps me laughing and smiling!
October to mid December were the busiest months of my life and I found myself very overwhelmed with moving, getting settled and trying to fit in all the photography and piano. I was so grateful for a few "down weeks" where I was able to just be a mom. No piano lessons, no photoshoots, no preschool, just being a mom! The girls and I had a great time. When Bri returned to preschool Miranda was very sad. She kept saying, "Oh no! Where's Bri? Where's Bri? All gone." She is sure missing her playmate.

Miranda LOVES to hide behind the curtains and jump out!

She loves her babies and especially loves feeding them.
She would color and do gluten free play dough all day if I let her! She has the best laugh!

She is obsessed with books and loves to act out being a "monkey" among other things! She's a ham! Whenever she sees the camera she strikes a pose like this: She picks everything up and puts it to her eye to pretend it's a camera and tells me, "Cheese!"
Miranda is the most talkative 1 1/2 year old I've ever met! She surprises me every day with the conversations she holds. She has somewhere between 100-200 words and speaks in sentences. She knows several of her colors and some letters! She's obsessed with letters!!! Someone slow this kid down!

I'm so grateful for the joy she brings into our life. It's hard for me to see her so sick at times (like last night as she continued to vomit through the night and have diarrhea due to her FPIES syndrome! Thankfully we avoided the ER!) I'm so glad once everything gets out of her system that she bounces back to our happy, crazy, fun little girl! Now someone find me a plastic bubble for her to live in so she won't get sick any more!

Christmas....finally

2011-01-09T22:03:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting about Christmas! Seems like it was forever ago already! Brianna and Miranda got to see Santa a few times, and Bri LOVES him. She was however very disappointed that he didn't bring her the gift she asked for 3 times! (I did all of her shopping early and decided not to grant her wish....though she's still upset about it) Maybe she'll get the doll she wanted for another holiday!

Miranda started Christmas morning out with a food reaction and was vomiting for about a half an hour. We waited for Bri to wake up, then took the girls downstairs and a towel for Panda to lay on. She only threw up one more time while opening presents and I was grateful not to end up in the ER on Christmas morning. Once it all gets out of her system she is just fine and normal (as long as she doesn't get too dehydrated and go into shock). She was happy as a clam that morning!

Our friend, Christy, spent the night on Christmas Eve and then stayed with us for Christmas Day. We really enjoyed having her there and it made not being able to go to Utah much more bearable! Bri was in heaven and was so happy for everyone with their gifts!

Later that day I hosted Chrismas dinner with 9 adults and 3 kids. We had 4 last minute guests, so I spent Christmas afternoon trying to find an open store to get enough food for everyone! I definitely was not planning on hosting Christmas dinner this year, but I really enjoyed it!

We had a wonderful time spending our first time home for Christmas (besides 2 years ago when I was pregnant and on "limited activity." I wasn't doing too well, and we ended up having Christmas dinner at Denny's that year! :( Glad this year was different!

We feel so very blessed!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-29T15:29:00.000-08:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We are "partied out" over here and enjoying some down time! We had a great time spent together and I have tons to post about, but for now I'm going to just share my favorite homemade gift we did this year!

We have been loving the Ana White website with the plans for wooden furniture! She had this cute farmhouse doll bed that was perfect for Brianna's new American Doll Knockoff from Target. Her bed plans were a little wider than I wanted, so we took on width of wood out to make it smaller! Chad built the bed, I painted it and sewed some bedding, a mattress and pillow, etc. Brianna loves it!

Miranda, however, thinks the bed was made for her and her dolls to sleep in! She looks a bit like a giant in it! She spent a good part of the morning on the bed and was upset that her legs went off the edge!

Here she is "pretending to sleep"and "sleeping while sitting up"

I'm personally also excited to use it as a prop in newborn photoshoots!!!

Dimitri the Stud

2010-12-29T10:19:00.001-08:00

Anytime you need a laugh, you can always listen to Dimitri the Stud:

FPIES Syndrome and an ER visit

2010-12-19T10:19:00.000-08:00

Miranda's test results came back on Friday. The only food of the 23 we tested that came back positive for an allergy was pineapple! I was stunned! Really, just pineapple? Apparently that is the only food of the tests (though we need to tests peanuts because I tested peanut butter not realizing they were not the same) that has that type of response. Unfortunately, it doesn't mean she's not "allergic" to all of the other foods, she just has a different response than an IgE response, and they aren't easy to test. Soooo, we still have to stay on the strict diet because all of the foods we tested still make her sick. The doctor then diagnosed her with FPIES Syndrome (Food Protein Induced Entercolitis Syndrome). It is rare and not very well understood but it is a non IgE mediated immune reaction to the gastrointestinal system to one or more specific foods commonly characterized by profuse vomiting and diarrhea.... Upon removing the problem foods all symptoms subside. Having FPIES does not proclude one from having other allergies/intolerances to food. Symptoms can range from mild increase in reflux and several days of runny stools to life threatening shock. In severe cases after repeatedly vomiting, the children often begin vomiting bile. It can also lead to shock when the child becomes severely dehydrated!
The doctor that saw Miranda on Friday was the best doctor I've seen so far. He was so nice, listened to what I had to say, played with Miranda, talked to me about things and actually understood what was going on. I felt relief when I left knowing that I can now understand why she vomits so often and has severe diarrhea, and that it is food related and there is a reason it isn't showing up on the food allergy tests. However, after coming home, I still have some questions, like why does she get hives and welts with some foods because that is not FPIES syndrome and the foods aren't showing up with IgE testing?
Last night Chad and I came home from a date and the baby sitter said the girls were good, Miranda ate tons of chicken, but had a hard time going to sleep and cried a lot. I went to bed and woke up to her screaming at midnight. She was COVERED from head to toe in vomit and her crib was smothered with it! Unfortunately, this is a little too common these days. I changed her and changed the bed sheets, but she continued to vomit, and vomit and vomit. I think she vomited a total of 50 times last night. She was to the point of projectile vomiting bile. I drove her to the ER where she continued to vomit bile in the car. I walked into the ER and nobody was there at the desk. Finally a nurse walked by and told me to sign in and she left for her lunch break. Nobody would listen to me as I tried to explain that she needed IV's right away to avoid going into shock. Finally, after watching her spew bile all over the waiting room, the security guard went and got me help. A nurse finally started checking me in and nobody knew what FPIES was. I was told by my doctor that I'd have to educate them and have them look it up, but they wouldn't listen to me. The nurse said, "So you say she's been vomiting but we haven't seen her do any of it." Um seriously, did you not see the floor, or our clothes all covered in neon yellow/green stuff? So, Miranda, on cue, vomited towards the nurse! That's my girl, you tell her!!! The nurse finally started listening and helping, and then Miranda blew out her diaper. They took us back to a room and Miranda was so dehydrated it took over 45 min and 3 attempts to get an IV line going. She was still fighting strong and it took 3 of us to hold her down....so that was good news, but she was limp most of the time. She continued to vomit and have 5 more huge blowouts with the scariest diapers I've ever seen. They took the stool samples for tests as the doctor had never seen anything like them before! Once she got rid of all the food in her body and the IV liquids went through her she perked up to her normal self. She went from violently ill to her perky self...and that is the life with FPIES. Unfortunately, she had a babysitter so I am not sure what triggered the reaction, but I'm guessing chicken isn't ok. Which is unfortunate because she LOVES chicken and would have it for every meal if she could. This is the third time she's vomited after chicken (but the only time this extreme). She eats chicken every day, but the only time's she has vomited when she has eat A LOT of chicken. So, I'll have to check with the doctor at our follow up appointment on Monday. For now, she's resting and I'm doing a serious amount of laundry! We spent from midnight to 7 in the morning dealing with this, and we are both exhausted. She kept begging at the hospital "Mommy, night night!" in between throwing up! She broke my little heart!
Oh, and the best news???? Most kids grow out of FPIES by 4-5. They may still have intolerances to these foods, but they shouldn't have such severe episodes. And???? they gave me a prescription for and EPI pen!!! I finally feel a little safer watching my child!

Patch Testing

2010-12-14T23:39:00.000-08:00

Miranda had some more allergy testing done today. They patched 23 foods to her back and they have to stay there til Friday morning. Her back looks alien like with all this stuff patched on it! She seems uncomfortable with all of the tape as she keeps saying "ow, off, bye bye, off" and points to her back! She didn't nap today due to discomfort and I'm hoping for a better few days as we wait for Friday's appointment to approach. I'm also hoping for a test that doesn't come back "inconclusive" again!!!

Home Sweet Home

2010-12-12T21:07:00.001-08:00

I’ve been taking too long getting this house in order! It’s in no way finished, but here’s a sneak peek for some of the family room and kitchen. Chad has been working really hard and has been building some things for our home! He built the entertainment center for our tv! He’s the man!!!! We’ve fallen in love with the Ana White website and taken some of her plans as “references” as Chad says!!! He’s got a list of other things to build that we’re excited about! More to come as I get my act together.

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The Plague

2010-12-11T22:55:00.000-08:00

We were hit by the plague this week! Brianna and Miranda had a runny nose and cough for a week and seemed to be getting better. Chad and I started to get sick on my birthday with colds as well. Then Bri took a turn for the worse and ran a high fever for 2 days. The highest was 105 degrees and she was very lethargic for those two days. She could hardly move and wouldn't walk. Miranda's cold seemed to be gone, but she was having some very cranky moments pretty often! So, I headed to the doctor to find out that Miranda had a double ear infection and Brianna had pneumonia! Thank heavens for modern medicine! They are both doing better after being on antibiotics. Brianna got an antibiotic shot, and within 12 hours was bouncing around the house again! She seems nearly back to normal, it's amazing! Chad however was feeling much worse today, so after a trip to Urgent Care he is on antibiotics for a sinus infection!!! I'm just hoping mine doesn't turn into bronchitis!!! Our new neighborhood is kind of in the middle of nowhere so I'm grateful that the one store out here is Walgreens. I believe I've made 7 trips there in the last few days!
Here's a picture of the girls feeling better, watching some tv (though they look a little orphaned due to a rough few days and no baths!) I'm so glad to see them smiling! Miranda loves to copy her sister and Bri thinks it hilarious!
As far as the allergy testing, both of the girl's tests came back "inconclusive" again! Miranda has another appointment next week for "patch testing" where they will make pastes out of the offending foods and leave them there for 72 hours...then check to see for a reaction. We may have to reschedule since she's on antibiotics...I'll just have to call and check!

Thanksgiving in Memphis

2010-12-05T23:03:00.001-08:00

We took a walk along the Wolf River with most of the cousins! It was gorgeous…so many trees and leaves! I wish it was close by for photography!!! Brianna was disappointed when we got home from the walk because she didn’t see any “wolves” like she expected!!! Don’t worry though, she got to see them the next day at the new zoo exhibit! Of course we had to get a picture of our “Hippo” with the hippos! And our “Panda” with the Panda! Wouldn’t be a Memphis Zoo visit without these pictures!

Panda has some horrible hair right now and is in need of a trim! Her hair went “OUT OF CONTROL” in Memphis! After a nap, she woke up with this “do”! Um, scary!!! I couldn’t control it in the humidity!!!

Flying Beads

2010-11-22T14:12:00.000-08:00

Last week Brianna had her first experience with a foreign object in her nose! She swears this purple bead just flew up there, but I think we all know better! Besides, the bead was rather big! I had been trying to get Miranda to sleep when I heard Brianna screaming! I came out to see what the problem was and she was sobbing that something was in her nose! I looked up and could clearly see a purple bead!!! I tried to work it out, tried the CPR thing (blowing in her mouth while plugging the other nostril), had her blow her nose a gillion times and it wouldn't budge! She was so uncomfortable and you could see a bump on her face from where the bead was pushing against her nose. We went to the doctor and it still wouldn't budge, so we had to wait til the next day when an ENT could see her! Daddy made it "silly" that a bead was in her nose so that she wouldn't be upset! She then thought it was hilarious that she got to sleep with it still in there! Thankfully the next morning, after an hour wait, the ENT was able to get it out! Brianna of course wanted to keep the bead and played with it the rest of the day, careful not to let it fly up her nose again! :) Moral of the story, "Watch out for flying beads!"

Panda is 18 Months!

2010-11-07T14:34:00.000-08:00

My little girl turned 18 months this week, and we all know that means she can FINALLY go to nursery! Well, I'm not so excited about it! In fact, I'm a complete mess! My kid could literally die in nursery!!! Last week, when I went to talk to the teacher to give her a warning about Miranda's food allergies they were serving peanut butter sandwiches for snack!!! It can't get much worse for my little girl! I walk in and just see "poison" everywhere! They were really kind and cleaned all of the toys this week, knowing she was coming. I made a batch of gluten free playdough which they will be using from now on. I also packed a month's worth of snacks, typed up a list of her food allergies, symptoms, etc. and left them with some Benadryl in case she breaks out into hives again. I went to drop her off today and there were nearly 20 little kids and one teacher! A few other moms and I stayed to help out!

Snack time was a disaster! With that many kids crammed around the table they were nearly sitting on top of eachother and all of the other kid's food was within inches of her little grabby fingers! Within two seconds her neighbor had already tried to give Miranda his snakc. So, Miranda had to sit in the corner of the room eating her snack today while the other kids ate at the table! She looked like she was in time out! After snack, there was food and crumbs all over the floor, so I had to get the "vacuum" to clean it up and we wiped the tables off really well! Ahhhh, nursery is going to be a nightmare! After talking to the teacher we decided it would be best if I came and got Miranda before snack time every week and didn't bring her back until snack was all cleaned up!

The teacher is really nice, but I just don't see it being possible for them to keep as close of an eye on her as she needs with the crazy amount of kids in there. (And this ward has 3 nurseries!!! They are all just as full!)

Miranda hasn't been doing as well lately in the food department. She has broken out into hives around the mouth about 5 times now, she is having horrible diapers again and she has thrown up 3 times now after eating something we thought was ok! I felt like I was getting on top of things til this last month! We finally got a referral to an allergy specialist and hopefully we can get to the bottom of this soon! I hate not feeling safe to feed my kid or to leave her anywhere!

I'm sorry I'm complaining, I know I have it easy compared to some! Days like today are just hard! In fact, every holiday is just kind of hard. We celebrate with food so much, that I find it rather depressing to not be able to participate with my girls. I always wanted to be that mom that made fun food, treats for holidays and my poor girls just get chicken and rice for every meal! Maybe I can spice it up with some salt for the holiday! Yippee!

I tried to do an 18 month photoshoot of Panda, but she is really difficult to take pictures of right now! I'm hoping I can find a time to bring Daddy along so she will cooperate a little more! I was really hoping to get a great one of the girls together to blow up on the wall....and this is what I got instead:

Princess in Training

2010-11-04T21:47:00.000-07:00

Brianna wanted to be Sleeping Beauty for our second night of celebrating Halloween! Her friend had outgrown this dress and given it to her a few months before, and she had it in her mind that she was going to be Sleeping Beauty for Halloween! We ended up just going to the Trunk or Treat at church this year since Halloween was on Sunday. We had fun, though we don't know very many people in our new ward. Bri has been acting shy at church and events saying, "But I don't know anyone here!" She's excited to make friends, but has been a little more quiet than usual. Hopefully she'll make fast friends soon!!!
I didn't take any pictures at the actual event! Sorry! We enjoyed a chili feed, a magic show and then the trunk or treat. We have never seen so many kids in one ward before. I heard there was something like 250 kids there and about 400 people total! We ran out of candy fast as we weren't prepared for such a large group!
So here is our Sleeping Beauty, who is actually not sleeping at the moment and keeps sneaking out of her bed!!! She wished I had bought her a wig because "Sleeping Beauty has much longer hair Mom!!!"

I let her wear make up and she about died and went to heaven!

Painted Halloween Faces

2010-10-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

(I copied this from my other blog so I didn't have to reload and resize all the images, but they are too big for this blog...you may want to to go to my other one to see the full pics! go here
Brianna's preschool had their Harvest Festival today! The girls and I had a lot of fun! Grandma Langstraat sent a Halloween package a few days ago with these cute costumes! I decided to try my hand at face painting for the first time.....so no laughing! I wish I had better paints and brushes for faces because I could have lots of fun with this! Maybe some day I'll do face painting at one of their birthdays...but I shouldn't get ahead of myself, I'm definitely a beginner!
Ummm, my favorite picture that captures her personality!!! I got away with calling her Panda in public without silly looks today!

Best friends!

What are your kids/grandkids going to be for Halloween this year?

Brianna is also going to be Sleeping Beauty for our church party tomorrow...she wishes she could dress up as something else every day! And she's hoping I'll paint her face pink tomorrow for Sleeping Beauty!

Pink, Pink, Pink!!!

2010-10-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

Brianna has finally decided that brown is no longer her favorite color, she now says, "pink is my first favorite color, then brown!" So, she requested a pink room at the new house! I would like to call it bubble gum pink instead of pepto bismol!
Last Sunday she was all dressed in pink for church so we had a quick pink photoshoot in her new bunk beds! She absolutely loves them! So, here's a tiny peek of her new room, you don't get to see much yet because I'm not done yet! We are still not done moving, but we're getting close! I also don't have the internet for another week, so I am sitting in this nearly empty house with a lap top so I can catch up on a little blogging before I get too far behind!

Apparently bunk beds are good for meditation!

Here's my pink girl who has just discovered the "Pinkalicious" books and I think might be liking them too much!!!

Baby Shower: Pink, Brown and White Polka Dots

2010-10-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

I co-hosted a baby shower the morning after we moved!!! It was one crazy weekend! Thankfully my friend, Stacy, took over most of the prep and hosted the shower in her home!!! She is amazing! We had fantastic food, fun new games, and some good girl time!
Marianne is one of my closest friends and we are excited for their first baby, Sienna, to come. Brianna thought Sienna was going to "pop out" of Marianne's tummy at the shower!!! She was sad that she still has to wait to meet her!
We had a pink, brown and white polka dot theme! We had this little "sweet shoppe" set up for the guests to take candy home, all of which were in the color theme. I also made that monogrammed frame for Sienna's room. I got the frame at the dollar store, took some scrap fabric that I had and cut it to fit the inside of the frame, and then cut some vinyl with my cricut for the monogram! Easy and inexpensive gift for the mom to be!
Stacy made these "almost too adorable to eat" ice cream sandwiches. They were absolutely delicous!!

We served lots of fruit with one of my favorite dips: equal parts of cream cheese, cool whip and powdered sugar!
Stacy also made some fantastic brunch foods including: blueberry coffee cake, super moist banana cake and the best egg brunch item I've ever had! She has to share the recipe because it was to die for!!
Stacy (the magic behind the madness), Marianne and Me!!

We Bought a House

2010-10-08T13:59:00.001-07:00

Sorry I've been absent in the blogging world lately! We bought a house and are moving tonight! Well, we've actually been moving all week long, but tonight we will finish moving the big furniture and will finally sleep in the new house!
I think the girls and I will be happy to be living in one place and will love having some type of order and routine back in our lives! The unfortunate thing is we won't have the internet or tv for 2 weeks so I won't be able to share pictures, etc til then. I will have lots to share once we get settled in!!

Mini Sessions!

2010-09-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

I'm offering mini sessions over on my photography blog! Go check it out if you're interested! They are a great way to get those Christmas card pictures without booking a full session!

Two Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

2010-09-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

The girls were playing on our bed last night and the last light of the day was just barely reaching through the windows! I grabbed my camera and had to shoot in a high ISO format, leaving lots of pixelation!!! I love having a noiseware program to help fix some of that graininess! Now if I just had the nice Canon camera that shoots in high ISO I'd be good to go, but I started as a Nikon girl and kind of need to stay there financially! Anyway, here are the girls!

I forgot to mention Panda's stats at her last check up. She is:

18 lbs 4 oz (under the 5th percentile)
30+ inches long
and her head was large as usual (gotta have space for a big brain ya know!)

She might be a little girl, but she sure makes up for it in personality! She was exceptionally loud at church today. She is starting to really talk a lot, and lately it's talking LOUD!

Some of her new words are:

diaper, wet wipe, pee pee, juice, water, people, night night, throw, bread, Bri, outside, banana, shoes, movie, bubbles (she signs a ton too)

Animal noises: meow, growls for bear, tiger, lion, baa, oink, woof, horse noise and an elephant noise, hiss

She always wants to have a purse, necklace and shoes on! Then she walks off and says, "Bye bye!" She loves to run and get a diaper (or 15), lays down and takes a wet wipe to wipe her diaper as she says "pee pee" or "poo poo." When I'm done changing her she grabs the diaper and says "throw" and I have to open the garage door so she can toss it in the garbage can! She loves to put diapers on her babies all day long! Even the tiniest baby gets a diaper!

Miranda also has the incredibly funny/scary forced laugh! I need to get it on tape! She gets soooo excited when you guess what she wants and then has the evil/excited laugh!

I'm sure there is more, but that's all I can think of for now!

Brianna's First Day of Preschool

2010-09-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

Brianna has been sooooooo excited to start preschool. We had to make a chain to count down the days because she just couldn't wait!!! Here she is the first day of preschool. They don't want the kids to have back packs, they ask that the kids wear clothes that we don't mind getting ruined because they don't believe in aprons, etc. So, not the cutest picture in the world! She has a small bag that I put her special snacks in, but other than that she doesn't need anything.
Anyway, to say she was excited would be an understatement! She started a week ago and she is loving it! I told her that I missed her and her reply is always, "Mom, I didn't miss you, but don't worry because I do love you! I think about you and Panda all the time, I just don't miss you!" Guess she's having too much fun! I don't think she could have me out the door any faster!

For Labor Day we got to have a nice birthday lunch with Wayne and his family! The girls loved hanging out on the swing with Stacy and Hayden! Miranda enjoyed her first ear of corn and didn't seem to have an allergic reaction to it. She used to have some sensitivities to it, so hopefully she's getting better!
She carried the corn around forever and did not want anyone to take it from her! I'm pretty sure she ate her fair share of dirt that day along with the corn!

My Little Hero

2010-09-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

Brianna asked me today, "Mom, how come I am smaller than all the 'nother people? The only people I'm bigger than is babies, well, except the big babies!" My heart ached for her as she showed real concern about being so much smaller than her friends! This got me thinking about how she will do in school with being small and having food allergies. She starts preschool next week and she couldn't be more excited!!! We had to make a chain to count down the days until school starts so she could be satisfied! Unfortunately, I'm already "that mom!" at her preschool. At the open house I had to explain to one of the teachers that Brianna is allergic to play dough. I asked if I could provide some gluten free play dough for the class, and they seemed fine with it. At the parent teacher night, I came up to ask about whether I had to sign up for snacks since I'll be providing her own snacks every day and I was greeted with several teachers saying, "Oh, you're the playdough mom!" They were nice about it, but I couldn't help thinking about what they might be saying/thinking about having a child with so many allergies in their class.
Brianna has been a real trooper through this whole allergy mess! I couldn't have been blessed with a more willing and accepting child when it comes to her limitations with food! She is much stronger than I am with it! She's my little hero. And while I don't worry about her safety at school because she is so good about her foods, I worry about how she will feel about being so different! Maybe I should provide snacks for the class every so often, so they can all eat the same thing with her and maybe not be so different for a day!
Here are some photos I took of my little Super Bri the other night to finish off her 4 year photoshoot!

Gaining Independance

2010-09-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

Miranda was thrilled the other day when I gave her a "nuk" brush to feed herself! She won't eat much these days, and usually does better if she can feed herself! The nuk brush is a much easier way to eat than a spoon and she acted like she was hot stuff with it! She enjoyed some coconut milk based yogurt with minimal mess!!! Well, as minimal as you get with a 16 month old!

She finished the last bits off with the good ol' fashioned finger feeding!

Miranda is also getting better at climbing and will put stools up to get on higher chairs, the piano bench, etc. I'm starting to get a little nervous about my little explorer!!!

Brianna 4 Year Photos: Part 2

2010-08-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

(This post was meant for my other blog and I by mistake published it here first....so half of the horizontal pictures are cut off. You can see the full pictures here. )
So, I'm sorry that you're getting a little overkill with Brianna's pictures, but she's a willing model and I'm an eager parent! This was our indoor shoot, and there will also be a part 3 outdoor shoot, so brace yourselves for too much of my kiddo! But I love her, so you'll have to suffer through it! She had her 4 year check up this week and we finally hit a big milestone....Bri is FINALLY 30 LBS!!!! Barely, but 30! Woo hoo! She is under the 5th% for both height and weight, and I was a little surprised, I know she's small, but I thought she was catching up to her peers a little! She won't be able to get into a booster seat til she's 40 LBS...so maybe by the time she's 10!!!

I used some fun wrapping paper as my background!!! I love it! Bri was having a hard time relaxing and not being crazy in front of the camera, so we played the "show me (insert emotion)" This is what she did when I said "reverent," but she kind of looks like she's pouting!
Most of the time she's an absolute nut in front of the camera, here is one of the billion silly pictures she did, and it is sooooo her!

I'm kind of leaning towards one of these for the big blow up canvas on the wall. What do you think?

Partying the Funderland Way!

2010-08-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Brianna's 4th Birthday at Funderland, a little children's amusement park. Brianna loves roller coasters and rides, so we thought this would be a good way to go. I didn't want to do another big party, like our Dora party last year, that will only happen once in awhile. Brianna was told she could invite 1-2 friends to come along and we ended up bringing 3 girls and their families. We had a blast. The only thing I would do different is spend your 2 hour time slot riding rides, and forgo doing the party stuff inside Funderland. There is a really nice park just outside where we could've done food, cake, etc and not been rushed!
Please don't look closely at the cake/cupcakes! I was just trying to make something edible that my girls wouldn't be allergic to, so I skipped out on going with a fancy cake this year. Maybe next year I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing.

A big thanks to Robin for helping me take some of the pictures when my hands were full with Miranda or being a hostess! As always, Brianna has her hands up on every ride the ENTIRE time! I rode this rollercoaster with her later and she said, "Daddy's more funner to ride rollercoasters with because he doesn't hold onto me!" Yes, it's a kiddie ride and I was a little terrified!

We had a blast! Thank you everyone for coming!

Happy 4th Birthday Brianna!

2010-08-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

Our sweet Bri turned 4 today and she is thrilled about it. However, this morning after taking a bath she said, "I've been 4 for like 6 hours mom! When am I going to get bigger?" She cracks me up and literally believed she would magically get bigger this morning because she was turning 4! She kept saying, "I just love being 4!" all day long! I did a quick photoshoot of her, and still have more pictures I want to do, but here's a little sneak peek. More pictures, and bigger versions, will be on my photography blog here. This is part 1 of her photoshoot.And yes, I'm aware that she kind of looks like she's a boy going to the bathroom here, but I liked the shot anyway! I had a hard time getting her to cooperate with this photoshoot, she was beyond silly and distracted most of the time! Then suddenly she started posing like this!Due to work, Daddy couldn't be around for Brianna's birthday, so we gave Brianna her bike on Saturday so Daddy could see her enjoy it! She obviously loves her bike! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa L for contributing to it!
With Daddy gone today, I wanted to do something special for her birthday. We headed over to Fairytale Town and Brianna LOVED the slides!
We were able to talk some friends into tagging along last minute! Thanks for helping us make Bri's birthday a good one. After this we headed to Carl's Jr. (they have gluten, dairy & soy free fries and hamburger patties that my girls can eat!) Then we went home and I pathetically sang a solo "Happy Birthday" to Bri while she blew out the candle on her allergy free cupcake! I must say, it was delicious! I got it from a bakery that is free of the things my girl's can't eat, and I may have to fork the money over for the actual birthday cake for this weekend!

A Little of This and That

2010-08-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry, long time no post! Not a whole lot has been going on besides just trying to enjoy the summer and survive during all of Chad's business trips!
Miranda turned 15 months yesterday and is becoming such a funny little girl! She is constantly jibber jabbering all day long! She "sings" when she hears music and she has tons of signs to communicate with us. She is also talking alot, but her speech has been a little less understandable the last 2 weeks as she's been getting some molars! Blaste molars are taking forever to come in and have been causing some difficult nights, no nap days and overall more crankiness than usual! They're finally breaking through, so hopefully she'll feel better soon.
The "Hair Fairy" still hasn't visited so she's still quite bald. It makes me a little sad! I wish she had more hair for me to style! But who's kidding thinking she would even keep it in if I tried! We still try the little pony tail, but I give up after about the 5th time she's pulled it out!
She doesn't have her 15 month check up for a few weeks, but I have lots to ask the doctor about. Like, why haven't you give me an epi pen? Seriously! A few days ago I saw Miranda eat something off of the floor. I couldn't tell what it was but just thought that it was a small dried apple bite. Unfortunately I think it was a peanut. She immediately started to get hives all around and in her mouth! I started freaking out making sure she wasn't having trouble breathing! Now, we've done hives before, several times with both girls, but never around the mouth! Thank heavens Benadryl helped and she didn't seem to have a problem drooling. Still not sure what caused it, but my best guess is a peanut! Here's a picture of her mouth after she was starting to get better and the swelling was going down. Her poor lip was starting to get huge before this! The hives were calming down and by morning she just had a rash, some congestion and drooling, all symptoms of a food allergy.
I've had a really hard time getting Miranda to eat lately. Heaven knows I'm already really limited to what I can give her! Unfortunately the food she isn't allergic to just ends up all over her face, hair and body and the stuff she is allergic to magically appears on the carpet for her to consume in a flash! On a brighter note, Chad's dad was in San Francisco for a conference and came to stay with us for a little while. He spent Saturday golfing with Chad, we enjoyed some Chilis and went to church together on Sunday. After lunch he had to head back and the girls were sad! They loved their Grandpa! It was nice having him here!!

Spray Park

2010-07-18T12:57:00.000-07:00

We are blessed to live really close to two water spray parks! Our friends, the Parkers, invited us to meet them over there last night. Brianna and Malayla had fun as always!
Malayla is just adorable and LOVES the water!Sugar free popsicles!!! The sweetest dog that was next to us! Panda loves dogs, so she just kept on pointing to him!"If you're happy and you know it shout "Hooray!" Panda loves this song!Daddy was able to come along! He said he hasn't been to the spray park in 2 years...how has he missed all of trips there? Thanks to the Parkers for a great time!

Keeping Cool

2010-07-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

I found this yummy recipe on the Family Fun website! We needed a way to stay cool and allergy free! I know we're allergic to cantaloupe, but I'm not sure about honeydew. This mixture of raspberry sorbet, honeydew and dairy/soy free chocolate chips was delicious!
I thought I could trick Bri into eating the melon and I was not successful, but she loved the rest of it!It melted pretty fast since it's soooooo hot! I would recommend freezing it longer than the recipe says and chilling the knife in the freezer, not the refridgerator! If not, you'll just have a tasty soupy sorbet like pictured below!Panda tried the honeydew (because she can't have the raspberry sorbet) and it was the perfect treat for a teething baby! She's been so cranky and this chilled melon seemed to help!

We ended the day running in the sprinklers! It was nice to cool off on such a hot day!

Hope you're staying cool!

Face Painting

2010-07-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

Chad's company had their first annual picnic this weekend! We had so much fun meeting everyone as a family. I unfortunately didn't bring my camera and there were tons of photo ops! The park and lighting were beautiful and I missed my camera! Thankfully Chad caught this picture of Bri's first face painting! She loved it and was sad this morning when it was gone! She wanted to be a brown, pink and blue cat!
Miranda painted her face with a sucker! She had found a wrapped sucker on the floor from the piano candy jar. I thought she was safe to play with it until she came waltzing into the room a few minutes later COVERED in her sucker! She was so proud! I promptly stuck he in her high chair. She had also been "feeding" her stuffed Panda the sucker which ended up going in the wash. He had sticky syrup all over his face!

We had a lot of long baths this week!!!!

Utah Cousins!

2010-07-09T17:05:00.000-07:00

Brianna had the best time playing with her cousins and she misses them terribly. I got some pictures of a few of them, including my cute niece, Morgan!

Lexi was a ham! I wish I could've done a real photoshoot with her and her hair done, face cleaned, etc. because I know she would've had some fantastic pics! She just LOVED to make Bri laugh and it wasn't all that hard because Bri thought she was hilarious!

Zach! This will teach you to only make silly faces for pics!

Robby is a sweet guy...and he will probably hate that I wrote "sweet" because it's so girly!

Maddie is the best big sister/cousin/niece ever! She always offers to help with the kids, babysits for her mom, is a self driven artist/crafter and I just LOVE her. Maddie, can you come live with me for the rest of the summer?

There are more cousins not pictured....somehow I didn't get pictures of all of them, or at least good ones!

Celebrating in Utah

2010-07-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

My dad is amazing! He flew down to our house last week to help me drive up to his house with my girls! Brianna was at his side every second he was here! Here they are enjoying some jello cups together! She loves him so much she even made Grandpa share his room with her that night! Being the good Grandpa he is, he obliged! They slept in separate twin beds and she told him he could only snore a little! Silly girl! She went on to have several sleep overs the rest of the week.

Here are random pictures from the weekend, with more to come!
Bri learning to drink from 3 straws!
Miranda gave everyone "nose kisses."
"Cookie"Enjoying some gluten/dairy/egg and soy free pizza!

Silly Lexi.

We got to watch Zach play in a 3 vs 3 soccer tournament! Maybe someday he'll be in the World Cup! He's a really good soccer player!

Panda enjoyed the HUGE dogs at the game! She is obsessed with dogs!

Panda even fit some good literature into her trip!

Snuggling Uncle Mark. (She especially liked him.) Anyone that knows Panda very well might be surprised that she's letting someone hold her and even snuggling them! She was so much more social with my family this trip than she has been with other people before! It was so nice! She is even snuggling me every once in awhile and I LOVE it!

I fit a quick maternity shoot in with my sister! She is younger than me by 2 years and is having her first baby, a girl! We are so excited for her!

I have oodles of pictures to share...so this was just a glimpse of our crazy, fun weekend in Utah!

Utah, here we come!

2010-06-27T16:13:00.000-07:00

To my Utah friends, I'll be in town this weekend and will be available for one or 2 photoshoots between Thursday and Saturday. Email me if interested! erinnoel8@yahoo.com

Besties!

2010-06-23T16:22:00.000-07:00

Bri considers Sailor her best friend! It had been too long since we had Sailor over for a playdate and Bri had been begging for a photoshoot with her! They played in this pool all day long!
I love Bri's face in this one!

Sleeping In?

2010-06-23T16:11:00.000-07:00

Miranda slept in for the first time EVER! Bri however woke me up at 3:45 and I didn't get back to sleep before my workout at the gym at 5! Miranda usually wakes up around 6 and occasionally a little closer to 7. This morning it was going on 9 and I was starting to get worried! I went in to check on her and she was still snoozing away, didn't even wake up to the loud door opening! Just after 9 I woke up to this happy child!
I realized I'd never taken pictures of her in her crib yet, so we did a mini photoshoot until she was ready to really get up!

Bed head! And she's done with this photoshoot business! "Get me out already!"

Edited to add: She woke up even happier from her long nap! What is it with this sleeping child today? I'm not complaining...I like it... it's just weird!

Just Keep Swimming.....

2010-06-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

For our FHE activity on Monday we filled up the new swimming pool we bought for the girls! They had a great time in the cold water!!!

Bri absolutely loved it!Bundled up with Daddy!

The girls are looking forward to a long summer full of swimming!!!

Langstraat Family Reunion, AZ

2010-06-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

We had a great time visiting with Chad's side of the family! We met in Flagstaff and rented a large house on a lake. We spent a day in Sedona which is beautiful and I had never been there. Can't say I could handle the heat in Arizona, but it was a nice place to visit.
Our brother in law, David, is a photographer. It's nice to have a break from the picture taking sometimes! He set his camera up and asked a stranger to take our picture. The guy only took 3 pictures and got a pretty good one with 19 people, 9 of them being young kids.

The two sons with their youngest girls.
Took some pics of the cousins and played and played and played. Brianna is still upset that she's home and not playing with her cousins anymore!Miranda became obsessed with "peek a boo" after her Aunt Alicia played it with her in the car! She still plays it often!Youngest cousin so far, but in a few short weeks there will be another baby girl cousin!We visited a volcano/crater one day!

Bri just loves her older girl cousins! The girls did really well with the long car trip. It took over 14 hours in the car to get home! I was so proud of them for doing so well. Miranda was excited to watch some movies on the trip in the car and for a few days asked for a movie every time she got in the car. Not gonna happen girly! But we will be making the 10 hour drive to Utah in a few weeks and my Dad is going to fly here to drive up with me! He's the best dad ever!

We had a great time and are sad to be so far from family!

LA Beach

2010-06-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

After Disneyland we relaxed on the beach! The girls loved it, still a little chilly, but much warmer than our last beach visit! I'm pretty sure there is a lot less sand at this beach after Bri wore a lot of it home!!! She thought doing "sand angels" was a bright idea until she had sand in uncomfortable places later.This is how Panda felt about Bri's messiness!!!Bri danced in the sand...
Threw the sandPosed in the sand

We had a great time and hope to go back again to another beach!

Disneyland!

2010-06-14T21:11:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to Disneyland and the girls loved it! We headed to a family reunion last week in Flagstaff, AZ and decided to stop half way at Disneyland and the beach! Miranda was exceptionally good, especially for only getting a 20 min nap in the stroller the entire day!Brianna however started out really grumpy (I think she was really overwhelmed).Thankfully she bounced back to her happy, excited self! This girl LOVES roller coasters and any other ride she can get on! Unfortunately I'm not sure she'll ever be tall enough to ride the big rides!!! Chad loves the thrill of rollercoasters and was such a good dad and husband and made this trip all about the girls. He didn't ride a single thing that Brianna couldn't, and I really appreciated it!Bri rode the roller coasters in true Bri fashion, with her hands constantly up in the air! (Notice the bruising under her arm? I didn't notice until I was taking this picture. I'm sure it's because of all the lifting we did with her, and it makes me sad to now realize that!After hitting the main attractions at Disneyland, we headed over to California Adventure for some fun!

Bri's favorite thing was "Pirates of the Carribean." Here is her "pirate" face. She and Chad rode this twice while I strolled around with a sleeping Panda. We rode the swinging Gondola on the Mickey Ferris Wheel, despite my fear of heights!

The best thing was that Chad surprised us with a reservation at Ariel's Grotto where you get to have lunch with the princesses. Ariel was fantastic and talked to Brianna for several minutes and promised to be best friends. Bri is sure they are best friends now.

The chef personally came to our table to address our girls' food allergies. He had quite the time figuring out something he could feed them. Thank heavens he had some rice noodles and spaghetti sauce for Bri! Because most of his stuff is from outside sources and pre-packaged or seasoned, it really limited us. Brianna couldn't have been happier with the meal she got though!

For those of you who know Chad, he is not a fan of anything princessy and he never complained one bit the entire time! He is a good man!

Several princesses visited our table as we ate. Some were very good with the girls and others were just awkward. Brianna got to see Ariel, Snow White, Cinderella, Belle and Pochahontas. She was a little disappointed that Sleeping Beauty and Jasmine didn't come, but she has a book of signatures to go along with the pictures she does have with the princesses. Cinderella is her favorite princess. She ended up buying a Cinderella Barbie as her gift.
California Adventure had a fun Bug's Life Land where the girls enjoyed some rides.By about 6:00 the girls were tired, so we finished up and headed back to the hotel! I'm excited to take them again someday! A big thanks to my husband for planning a magical weekend and staying away from the big roller coasters so we could have some good family time!

Chatterbox!

2010-06-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

In the last several weeks Miranda's communication has just exploded. She picks up new words, animal sounds and signs everyday. She often signs while talking which helps me understand her. She definitely knows what she's saying all the time, whether we do or not. For my own journaling purposes I'll be writing down her current words:

mama

dada

Bri Bri

baby (and signs it)

bath (and signs it)

doggie and woof woof (and signs)

elephant and sound

duck and sound

fishy face and fish sign

animal sound for mouse and horse

bye bye and waves

"mmmmm" when eating something yummy

more (sign)

all done (sign)

night night (and signs)

car (sign)

beep beep (when playing with cars)

candy (sign)

hat (sign)

shoes (and sign)

uh oh sounds like "uh uh"

she says poo poo while filling her diaper

different versions of dada mean "drink" "ball" and dada

ball (sign)

people (says beepoh for any doll or toy person besides a baby)

eat (and sign)

water (and sign)

movie (sign)

music (sign)

phone (sign) and says "hi" while pretending on phone

"no no" while shaking her finger

swing (sign)

slide (sign)

growling for bears, lions, tigers and other animals

book (sounds like book without the k and signs it)

diaper (and sign) (occasionally)

begining to say "on and off" today

monkey (sign and sound)

bird (sign) and tries to whistle but just makes the mouth movement

I also think she might be saying "this" but I'm not sure.

I'm probably forgetting some, but this is a good list for a 13 1/2 month old. I was surprised when she wasn't signing or communicating as much as Bri did at this age, but she has sure made up for it in the last few weeks. It is so much fun to watch her learn and grow. She loves her Signing Time and Baby Einstein movies lately and seems to just soak it up!

Tennessee Cove

2010-05-31T21:42:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day! We got to spend the day together as a family and we loved every minute of it! I can't believe we live this close to the beach and we've never gone! Chad has been a few times with the YM, but the girls and I have never been. Bri is almost 4 and has never been to the beach so she was so excited! We went to Tennessee Cove near San Francisco! There is aboutt a 2 mile hike in and out, and it's "somewhat paved!" As pretty as it was, I'm sure Chad had quite the workout pushing the stroller up and down these hills! Thank heavens for him because I wouldn't have been able to do it! Good thing our girls are as light weight as they are! (For anyone that may want to go there, the trail breaks off to a "lower trail" and it is sooooooo much easier than the main trail! We took it on the way back!)
The girls loved playing in the sand, even though it wasn't the softest or warmest sand!

Bri played in the sand most of the time building sand castles!Miranda was hilarious! She LOVED the beach! She thought the sand was funny, she was constantly doing her "laugh growl" because she was so excited! A few months ago it would've been a nightmare to take her because she would've constantly been eating the sand! She just played with it, signed "water" as she pointed to the ocean and walked around the best she could on the uneven ground and in the wind constantly laughing and smiling! She thought it was funny when she fell over and she even rolled in the sand several times! Let's just say she had sand in places that would've made anyone uncomfortable!This picture cracked me up as she inspected this new stuff called "sand" on her fingers. She was so intrigued by it!The water was FREEZING, and you're not supposed to swim at this beach so this is as close as they got!

Miranda was an absolute trooper the whole day...the car ride, the hikes and all despite waking up at 5 am and only taking a short nap in the car both ways!!! Bri had so much fun, but she was disappointed when we left and she hadn't gotten to swim in the ocean yet! We're going to Disneyland this weekend and we're hoping to take her to a warmer beach while we're there!!! She came home tuckered out, but we had a fantastic and unforgettable Memorial Day!

Christensen Family Photos

2010-05-31T18:24:00.000-07:00

I had another very fun photoshoot this weekend! I feel so blessed to be meeting so many amazing people. This family was no exception! Not only is Cheralyn a beautiful mom, but she's also a very talented woman who owns Christensen Vinyl. I have several of her items up in my home and I love them!

This first picture is my favorite from the night! Isn't Callie a cutie?

To see more go to my other blog

Teerlink Family Photos

2010-05-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

My latest photoshoot with the Teerlink family is posted on my other blog
You can see the fun we had in a bigger format there!

I'm Thankful I Married An Engineer

2010-05-23T21:15:00.000-07:00

My husband never ceases to amaze me. For Panda's birthday we wanted to get something for her swing to hang from. 2 years ago the city chopped the limb off the tree our swing was hanging from and the swing has just been sitting on the ground ever since. So this weekend Chad went to Lowe's for about 20-30 minutes and came home with some lumber and made a swingset from scratch. We have a tiny yard and he made the perfect little set! That's my engineer husband for ya! He can make almost anything he wants!
The girls LOVE it! Miranda is sooo calm in a swing! We also got to babysit cute little Hayden this weekend! His parents have watched my girls several times so it was about time we took a turn! Miranda is 6 months older than Hayden, and he's bigger! (Ignore her hair, I didn't feel like redoing it for the umpteenth time that day and right before bed!) He was sooooo easy and makes me think that I could handle another baby someday (in the far off distance) if I was promised such an easy one like him! Until then I'm still really afraid I would get another "non-stop screaming, can't eat a thing and never sleeps baby!" And I'm pretty sure I couldn't handle it a 3rd time! So, I'll babysit to get my fix for now!

Miranda 1 Year Photos: Take 2

2010-05-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

Between head injuries and illness I was having a hard time finding time to redo Miranda's 1 year photos. This time she wasn't as smiley because she is getting 5 teeth! At the same time! Poor thing! I wanted to capture some pictures before those teeth come in, so I had my good friend, Marianne, come to the rescue to help me out! Here's what we got!

I'm not sure Marianne could count how many times she had to replace that headband!!

I wanted to try this "field" out, but the wind and weeds made it difficult. The sun was still too bright, Miranda kept bouncing the balloons up and down so they were popping and freaking her out , and the wind picked up and blew the balloons all over the place! Good thing a few pics came out ok!

Birthday cake shots aren't as much fun when the cake isn't very cute! She wasn't allergic to it though, so that has to count for something! She wasn't thrilled to be eating cake at the moment and she kept smashing it with her feet. We finally got a smile but she didn't really want the cake!

Somehow I don't think my girls will ever complain that their mom didn't take enough pictures of them! Maybe they'll complain that that's all I did!!

Professional 8x10 Photo Giveaway!

2010-05-18T16:57:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed yet, I have a new giveaway going on at http://www.erinnoeldesigns.blogspot.com/ This giveaway is for a free professional 8x10 print for 2 different people! That's right, 2 different winners!
I'm trying out a new printing company, so the giveaway is only for people who have already had a photo session with me. (I have to turn the prints in by Friday.) You can win for yourself, or someone else. See the other blog for details and make sure to leave a seperate comment for each entry so I can count you for each one! Thanks and good luck! The giveaway ends Thursday at midnight and then 2 winners will need to tell me which to photos of theirs (or their friends/family) that they want an 8x10 of. I will announce the winner on Friday morning and will need to turn the prints in asap! Thanks and good luck!

New Photoshoots

2010-05-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

I have been really busy lately with photoshoots. I did 3 this weekend, 2 of which have sneak peeks on my blog
Beautiful and new Camille!

The McDonalds

A Very Sick Panda

2010-05-12T11:12:00.000-07:00

I miss her smiles! This is about as happy as she has been in the last 3 days! She has had diarrhea and vomiting for 3 days and I'm starting to get really worried about dehydration! We went to the doctor yesterday for her 1 year appointment, which turned into a sick appointment!
Her stats:
Weight: 17 lbs 2 oz Under the 5th% (I'm sure she weighs less now with more vomiting and throwing up
Height: 28 1/2 inches long 20%
Head Circ.: 18 inches 60%
Bri was almost the exact same size at 1. She was 17 lbs. 3 oz, 28 inches and 18 inch head!
I want my happy, healthy Panda back! Hopefully we won't be admitted for dehydration, I'm crossing my fingers that she can keep the Pedialyte down today!

Adoring Her Daddy

2010-05-11T21:23:00.000-07:00

Brianna adores her daddy! She can't wait to spend time with him and she talks about him all of the time! In fact, if Miranda is ever fussing she always tells me, "I think she's missing Daddy!" Well, good news girls, Daddy has a new job that will have him home a little more!!! (More on his job in a post to come!)

She soaks up every minute she gets with him.Lately I've noticed that she is becoming more like her Daddy! She loves to play on his iphone! Take a look at her eyes...those are definitely from Daddy! She used to have bright blue eyes, but in the last several months I've noticed they are starting to become more of a greenish blue/gray like her Daddy's and I love it!She posed for the promise of more time on the iphone! Definitely Daddy's girl! And we definitely know she has Daddy's fun and crazy side!!! Here's to Daddy, our hero!

(Pardon her crazy hair! Perfect lighting and fun with daddy means spur of the moment photos!)

Click on pictures for a larger view!

Miranda's 1 Year Photoshoot

2010-05-04T07:28:00.001-07:00

Here was my first attempt at Miranda's 1 year photoshoot! I was planning on doing more photos another day with cake and balloons, but she has since fallen and has some pretty big battle wounds on her forhead! So, until she heals, this is what you get!
I still like the photos, but I don't love the gray background for this particular shoot!
I told Bri to give me some "sass" and this is what I got! Apparently she knows that word!The best photo of the 2 girls....I need to try and redo at least this part! For journaling purposes I'm adding all the things Miranda is doing at 1, so feel free to skip it!

Miranda still just has 2 bottom teeth, but I have noticed her two upper fangs are working their way down! Really? Before the top 2? She must be going for the vampire look! She loves to "feed" her babies with bottles, pretend to talk on the phone and combs her hair. Miranda loves to stomp her feet while sitting when hearing "If You're Happy and You Know it!" She is also beginning to stomp her feet to music while standing.

She is doing some sign language, but isn't quite as proficient at it as Brianna was. She signs hat, eat, ball, all done, more and sometimes book. She will point to food and move her mouth like a fish if she's hungry and you haven't gotten her some food. She says: "bye-bye" while waving, mama, dada, baby, eat, book, and waves night night. She occasionally makes the sounds for an elephant, a duck and a bee.

She still growls all the time. Especially when she's really excited or happy. You know she likes you if she growls at you! She still isn't napping or sleeping all that great. (She did however sleep through the night the last two nights!) She's beginning to transition to just one nap, but it ends up being early in the morning, so we have a really really long day til bedtime. She often won't go back to sleep after 11 or 12 in the afternoon before bedtime.

Miranda loves her big sister and they tackle and hug each other all of the time. (That is when they aren't fighting over the same toy, or she isn't screaming to get Brianna's food or drink!) She has quite the scream and is very vocal about not wanting to be in the cart at the store!!!

Mostly she's a sweet and loving little Panda! And yes, I do mean little. She does seem to be a tiny bit bigger than Bri was at 1 though!

A Party Fit for a Panda!

2010-05-03T21:07:00.000-07:00

Miranda Panda turned 1 years old today! We of course had a Panda themed party. We celebrated yesterday with some friends that we consider family (since we don't have family around!)

Here's her cake! She is allergic to this one, so it was just for the guests! The Panda is made with Rice Krispy treats and covered with fondant that I made with marshmallows and powdered sugar. It didn't quite turn out how I imagined, but it's done!
Here's a quick look at the Panda shirt I made for her birthday! She loved her "cake" that was free of all her allergens. It had a very different texture to both the cake and the frosting!
See the texture of that frosting! It was like working with glue and was very difficult to spread on a cupcake free of gluten and eggs that would normally help hold it together! She seemed to like it though! We bought this zebra toy from a friend at a garage sale! Can you tell she liked it? Unfortunately she isn't tall enough to touch the bottom yet!

After the cake and some presents we played games with the adults while Panda slept and the other kids played around the house! We had a lot of fun and are grateful to the people who helped share this special day with us! We were sad we couldn't share it with family though!

Today was Panda's actual birthday and she had a rough one! She had a difficult time napping today because of tummy troubles, which made her fussy. She dropped her glass bottle on the tile which shattered and immediately put several small cuts in her feet and legs, and then we attempted a "photoshoot" for her 1st birthday which turned out to be a collosal mess. It was late, she was super tired, I was losing light and patience and when I finally got everything set up and sat her on the chair, she fell off head first before anyone could catch her. So, she cut her forhead, has a large bump and a "rug burn" like mark and screamed for nearly a half hour! The cake I had made for the photoshoot had accidently been cut up by one of the kids at the party, I was late getting balloons and Panda was not cooperative. We'll see when I get around to it....with her beat up forhead and all, it might be awhile. And I had been planning of a fun photoshoot for the last month or so. So disappointing. I did try to do it on my own on Saturday and got some shots that I'll share later, but it wasn't quite what I was going for! Since this post is already too long, I'll share more about Panda later! Her one year appointment is next week so I'll have updates then, but I can already tell you that she's going to be small in weight and height and have a big head! I had to measure her the other day and her head was an inch bigger than her waist! :) So, does she have an unusually large head, a tiny tummy or both?!?!

Happy Birthday to our little Panda who brings so much joy into our home! We are so grateful to have her in our family!

Food is Evil

2010-05-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

(This is a long post about my frustation with food intolerances/allergies....feel free to just skip to the pictures instead!)
Food and I don't have a very healthy relationship! Since we've been working with all of our food allergies and intolerances, food feels like an enemy. One cheerio that Panda finds on the floor at church can cause a week of pain in her tummy! Because food makes my girls sick, makes Brianna's skin break out into rashes and eczema, and gives me back pain I find food to be evil! The problem is, we're surrounded by food everywhere. We have to eat multiple times a day and try to find a variety of foods that we can eat. Which is hard when you're so limited. (Here's a list of what we can't eat: no gluten, dairy, casein, soy, citrus, eggs, berries, nuts, tree nuts, legumes and beans, onion, tomato, celery, cantaloupe, watermelon, meat (except free range chicken is ok), corn, no grains except brown rice and a few white rices, and chocolate.) That doesn't leave much left that we CAN eat. It gets frustrating. Can you imagine what it's like to go to a grocery store and try to find something we can eat? It's like a hunt and it's difficult to be surrounded by food that looks good, tastes better and is cheaper. Which is why I gave up again this week and started eating normally. ( I kept the girls on the diet though. Brianna is only gluten, dairy, soy and egg free though. She can have organic eggs sparingly now.)
So, I've realized that dairy makes me sick to my tummy, something I knew before this. Gluten seems to be the culprit for all of my back pain for all of these years. My back felt great while I was avoiding these foods. Now that I'm eating "normally" my back aches again. Ahhh, back to the diet I guess.
I have learned a lot since we started some of this eliminating stuff last summer, but I still feel so lost as to what to eat most of the time. We have the same few meals, same snacks, same treats all of the time. Miranda is starting to get really bored with the foods she's eating and is starting to refuse some of the only things she can eat. I'm lost as to what to do?! She wants to eat whatever she sees other people eating and she just doesn't understand why she can't. Brianna is a trooper and has been very relaxed about not being able to eat stuff. She amazes me!
Back to the food as an enemy: We have a few road trips planned this summer and I'm already stressing about the food. We'll be gone for a week on the road and staying up in a cabin like place. I'm going to need to do some research to find a specialty food store where I can purchase foods for the girls that I can't pack for a 2 day car trip. I'm going to need to have foods available for Brianna that are similar to what other people are eating...if they're eating pizza she's going to want some of her "special pizza." I'm suddenly overwhelmed with how I'm going to figure this out.
Lastly, the foods we can eat are soooo expensive. A loaf of "bread" (which is usually nasty) is almost $8.00. Free range chicken for one person/week is $20.00. A HALF gallon if "milk" is over $4.00. Pancake mix for two small batches is almost $7.00. I finally found a cake mix I think Miranda can have for her birthday...it was nearly $6.00 and the "frosting" was $5.00. Can you see why I'm having a hard time following this diet?
Miranda's tummy has been bothering her again and I don't know what I'm feeding her that is causing it! She's not sleeping at night and will scream for 1-4 hours in the night until I get her gas out and she'll go back to sleep! Oh food, how I ate thee!!
I was excited to see Miranda eat one of her old "favorites" that she has been refusing. And she thoroughly enjoyed it as you can see! I was playing around with my camera after being challenged to take pictures of your child in a high chair, no cute outfit, cute hair do, etc. (Notice her "Rooster" hair? She won't keep her pony tails, hair clips or headbands in any more!)

Andrus Family Photoshoot

2010-04-27T22:30:00.001-07:00

I had a blast this weekend taking the Andrus' pictures! Go to my other blog to see more of their photos and to see them larger!

Lots of Randomness

2010-04-25T21:44:00.000-07:00

Last week: For Brianna's Joyschool fieldtrip we went to the Folsom Zoo. I had never been and really enjoyed the miniature zoo! It was nice and quick and not too crowded. I brought along these 2 little 'monkeys'! Brianna and Sailor get to hang out for one full day almost every week. They love it, and I love having a play partner for her! Sailor's brother was in the hospital that day, so she got to come on the fieldtrip. Friends!!!

After taking cute pics of Bri with the deer, we then saw a sign that read, "Do not pet the deer, they have tics and have been grazing among poison oak!" Fantastic! That deer has been licking her fingers for like 5 minutes!

Panda enjoyed the zoo from the stroller! We then rode the little train, but I didn't get any pics!

This week:

I have 7 piano students, and 5 participated in our "annual" recital. I've been teaching for 2 years, so I guess "annual" doesn't sound too impressive. I do think I get to go down on record for the shortest recitals ever though. Because I have so few students, and their songs aren't particularly long or difficult, we're usually done in 15-20 min! Add in some refreshments and their out the door in under 30 minutes! I don't know about you, but I love being able to see them show off their work, and then we can all get on with our night. I'm so proud of them. They have all come a long way and I'm so glad I'm able to teach them a little of what I know! Brianna wanted to be in the picture, and I have taught her some piano, but she didn't participate in the recital. (I don't think being able to find middle C and pound on random keys is all the impressive yet!)

Bri having fun. She loves to have her picture taken and either do weird poses or action poses. I as taking pictures of Panda and Bri was yelling, "Take one of me flying!"

Panda loves hats! She loves to sign hat anytime she sees anything on someone's head, be it a hairbow, clip or hat. Apparently the play kitchen has some great hats to try!

This little girl is walking like a pro. I spent half the day at church just chasing her around. She thought she was big stuff and kept walking all around the Relief Society room and trying to get into people's things, pulling the table cloth off, etc. I spent most of the class following her up and down the hall instead. Do I really have 6+ months til nursery?

Andrew's Indoor Session

2010-04-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

I posted one more session of this adorable little guy. As always, go see my other blog for the full sneak peek and larger photos!

Weekend Full of Photos

2010-04-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

I had two really fun photoshoots this weekend! I feel so blessed to be able to take portraits at important times in people's lives! For a sneak peek and larger pictures of the photoshoots go to my other blog. Here are a few smaller ones!
If you are interested in a photoshoot, contact me at erinnoel8@yahoo.com for current pricing. I say current because I am working on revising my business plan, so my prices will be going up sometime this summer!

Strutting Her Stuff!

2010-04-13T16:39:00.001-07:00

Miranda is walking! She thinks she's hot stuff too! Here she is in action!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

2010-04-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

Miranda's favorite thing to do is cover her head and take off until she bonks into something and then laughs hysterically! It's a ritual at bedtime as I'm trying to get her ready for bed...there's always a good 15 minutes of her putting her pajamas on her head and laughing and running into things!

Lite Brite Patterns

2010-04-12T16:03:00.000-07:00

Brianna LOVES to make patterns lately! She takes blocks, crayons, lite brites, or anything you can think of that has different colors and makes a pattern! She played with her Lite Brites for hours yesterday making different patterns. One of her favorite patterns was "Your Turn, My Turn! It's a pattern mommy!" And she had seperated the colors out each into 2 piles for both of us to pull from. Most of the piles were evenly distributed too! I love watching her learn!

Easter Weekend

2010-04-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter weekend, despite the gloomy weather! It's been so nice and sunny that it was strange to have such a cold and wet weekend! But didn't stop us from having fun!

On Saturday we took the girls to an allergy free egg hunt held by a local children's allergy group that I just joined. It was cold and Brianna was painfully shy, but she enjoyed herself anyway. None of the eggs contained candy but only had toys and stickers so every kid could participate! It was so nice not to have to tell her she couldn't eat something! (Chad is still recovering from his injured knee, so he sat on a bench with Miranda in the stroller while I helped Bri.) She was determined to find a pink egg, but the big kids gathered everything up so fast that she had to settle with just a few and no pink ones. I wish they had divided the kids into age groups, or given limits on amounts. Some kids had at least 30 eggs! Brianna's fancy hair do! Easter morning was filled with excitement. Brianna couldn't have been happier with the gifts Grandma sent and the Princess and Prince toy I found for her. It helped lead to a quiet afternoon so Chad and I could enjoy General Conference.Miranda had fun too! She felt inspired during Conference on Saturday to start walking. She's only taking 4-6 steps, and they are very wobbly, but she's consistently doing it. She is very proud of herself too! She should be off and doing "real" walking soon!Rewind to Friday night and we had our friends, the Leach's, over to dye eggs. Brianna and Sailor are best buddies and would spend every waking moment together if they could! The men sat in the background and talked while Robin and I helped the kids dye eggs. I think more dye ended up on their hands than on the actual eggs! And just after the little girls got a manicure! Hope you had a wonderful Easter too!

Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes

2010-04-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

This post is mostly about knees and what not to do. If you have a weak stomach you might not want to read it.

I had the opportunity to play basketball this past Wednesday evening. We started about 9pm and had been playing for about an hour and a half when it happened. I was chasing the guy I was guarding around a screen and my leg buckled. It felt like it snapped completely in half. I heard bone rubbing against bone as I went down like a sack of potatoes. After screaming and smacking the floor with my hand a few times the pain subsided enough for me to open my eyes. This is what I saw:

This photo is not me but this is EXACTLY what it looked like (except it was on my right knee and I try not to wear shorts that short.)

My kneecap was completely dislocated and on the outside of my leg. I was trying to convince the guys I was playing with to help me straighten my leg so that hopefully the kneecap would snap back into place. They thought I was crazy because my body was going into shock.

One of the guys went to the freezer to get some ice. He came back with 2 frozen loaves of bread. He put one on my knee where the kneecap was supposed to be and the other on my kneecap that was just hanging out on the outside of my leg. He put a little too much pressure on the kneecap and I asked him to remove it. After he pulled it away, my leg twitched a little bit and BAM, my kneecap just slid back in place where it was supposed to be.

I felt like a million bucks at this point. I had the guys help me over to the stage so I could have my leg hang off without any pressure. After a few minutes I tried to put a little pressure on it. I started to black out. I had to lay down on the stage for a few minutes. They then helped me out to my truck. I started to black out again and ended up laying down in the parking lot. At this point I was able to receive a Priesthood Blessing.

Once we got to the ER, Erin was able to come meet me. They took xrays and confirmed that everything looked ok. The doctors were very surprised that the kneecap reset itself based on how far out it was. I knew it was because Heavenly Father was looking out for me.

I finally got discharged about 3am. I then had to go to my truck on my crutches and full leg demobilizing velcro splint. I had to remove it and then drive the stick shift truck home on my busted knee.

I missed one day of work and am recovering nicely. I am so grateful for the Blessing I received and for the worthy men that were able to administer to me in the parking lot right next to the Sacramento Temple. It is definitely something I will never forget! I mostly felt bad for my wife. She had to find someone to watch the kids so she could come up to the hospital. She kept asking me if this was an April Fool's joke.

I wish!

Easter Dresses

2010-04-01T15:57:00.000-07:00

Here are the girls Easter Dresses. A full post can be seen on my other blog http://www.erinnoeldesigns.blogspot.com/
I used the left over fabric from Brianna's comforter, so this project helped off set the cost of the bedding!!!

Happy Easter!

Panda or Gremlin?

2010-03-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

Miranda is working on her impressions lately! She's been working really hard on her "villain's laugh" and her "Gremlin" growl. Enjoy the video of our little growling Panda Bear. Perhaps her nickname is the reason she growls so much. I don't think most people expect the deep growling to come out of such a petite little girl!

Most everyone at church today got to hear her growl...she is soooooooo loud and wiggly! So, my appologies to even those on the back row at church (we sit in the front) for the growling they got to hear all day!!! But, honestly, I think it's cute. I wouldn't take my Panda Bear any other way.

Miranda "Walking"

2010-03-18T16:34:00.000-07:00

Brianna has taken on the responsibility of teaching Miranda to walk. Most of the time she doesn't mind the help as you can see! She thinks she's pretty hot stuff with her new walking toy! She walks across the room then sits and claps for herself before she does it again. (Don't mind all the toys scattered around...Miranda likes to dump or empty anything she can find!)
Miranda will stand alone for several seconds until she realizes what she's doing and sits down. She has taken 1-2 steps several times, but prefers to be holding a hand or the walking toy to really walk!These two are playing really well these days (except when Brianna starts dragging her around the house too much!) Bri is always sure to help Miranda eat (or finish her food for her!) My favorite is hearing the girls just laugh and play together. Miranda loves to tackle Brianna and they sit there and wrestle for a few minutes! It's kind of funny! I need to get a video of it!

Park Outing

2010-03-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

I was able to get home early enough today to be able to go on an outing with all of my girls to the park. Here are some of the highlights.

Panda

Hippo

Gluten Free Playdough

2010-03-15T20:11:00.000-07:00

When Brianna has come in contact with something she's allergic to she breaks out in rashes and hives. Usually a small rash starts on her cheek, and several spots on her trunk and legs break out with rashes and hives. Usually a few days later her nose starts to run and then the rash never goes away! So, after some exposure to gluten last week her face looks awful!!! Add a runny nose that has been wiped over the rash for a few days and we have one sad girl. She cries because of her cheek pain! So, today we made Gluten Free playdough and she LOVED it. I got the recipe here. (It took me less than 30 min in the crock pot when I halved the recipe.)She literally played for hours building temples, making veils for her princesses to get married, etc. Here is a close up of her poor cheek! I'm so glad she can play safely with playdough again!

So is she! I never imagined my child using the words "allergies," "gluten free" and "You can have that, it'll make you sick!" so much in her pretend play!

She really has been a trooper about the whole thing! I couldn't ask for her to be easier with this very limited diet she's on! Her sister on the other hand is yelling for any food that people have...and most of the time she's allergic to it! She won't stop screaming til she gets what she wants or you distract her with something else!!!

Bubble Skirt and Shirt

2010-03-09T22:01:00.000-08:00

I made Bri a bubble skirt this week from a shirt I got at a garage sale a few years ago for only
25 cents! I then found some matching gray fabric from the remnant bin at Walmart for about a dollar! (Anyone else mad that they took our fabric section away?) I used a pattern from a children's clothes book but had to alter it some since I didn't have quite as much width to my fabric. For the shirt I made up my own pattern after getting some idea on the sleeves from my Pink Fig dresses I just posted! Oh, and I added my own little flower detail to the skirt per Bri's request. And look, the silver shoes actually match the outfit this time!!!!Sorry, this pic is a little blurry but I couldn't keep this chick still!!!This picture just cracks me up!!!! She was freezing because the wind was picking up, but it totally looks like she has to go potty! I love her expressive face!!! Do you think she'll hate me for posting this when she gets older? I have so much fun making clothes for Brianna. She is sooooooooo grateful and wears the things I make with pride. She is starting to get her own opinion on fabric choices and what I make for her though....sigh...that can be good and bad!

New Spring Dresses

2010-03-05T22:21:00.000-08:00

I finished some spring dresses for the girls and posted our photoshoot on my other blog, http://www.erinnoeldesigns.blogspot.com/.