Processed food...yum!

I have always been a processed food girl. 
American cheese...yes please
Twinkies...absolutely
Boxed helper meals...my favorite!

Then I had kiddos.
And I still didn't think about it.  Sure I "tried" to eat my veggies, but they just don't taste as good as a snickers bar. 

One kiddo was diagnosed with a tic disorder. We went the western medicine route and saw icky results.  So as a last ditch effort I consulted a naturopath.  We tried many vitamins/supplements and tinctures but nothing really worked. She wanted us to go dairy, gluten, hydrogenated oils, casein, and dye free.  That was a huge shock to this processed food loving family.  So needless to say that didn't work either. But we decided to try dye free as it showed a high correlation in studies to tic disorders and impulse control issues. 

Anyway we found that dyes played a HUGE part in our oldest son's behavior and tics.  Another huge shock was trying to stay dye free.  Dye is in everything, EVERYTHING.  So again this processed food loving Mamma had to drop the Kraft mac &cheese, M&M's, and marshmallows. But you know what...it has been totally worth it.

Since we stared this process 6 years ago, we have come to realize Dylan is allergic too. He shows a reaction to some sort of preservative or dye that gives him the nervous habit of scratching his nose...to the point of ripping skin off.  Then we adopted a child who needs the best food intake to help nurture brain connections to hopefully over come some brain damage due to FAS. 
Whew... big learning curve. 

What I noticed was when I'm away from home, and I now eat overly processed and dye filled foods I feel icky...go figure.  Still haven't made friends with the veggies, but two of my three kiddos have. 

Having a belief, whether it be religious, dietary (like I mentioned above), or family isn't always easy in this crazy world.  People have a TON of opinions and they aren't afraid to share them.  But like anything we do we prayed about it and educated the best we could and surrounded ourselves with people who support us even if they don't quite understand. 

I don't tend to buy into the organic only category.  I think there is a whisper of truth to both sides. What I do do is really watch what is labeled on the crackers or boxed snacks I buy, and when I can, make stuff myself.  No I'm not gonna grind my own flour, but I make muffins, granola bars, and other easy stuff. 

So if you're on this journey(or something similar:-). I'm praying for you...IT ain't easy but our kiddos are worth it!

Offically a Family -1 year

We have been enjoying summer so much that there hasn't been enough time to post.  We have celebrated our oldest's birthday, began a new school, had a very long baseball season, started new job positions for both of us old enough for jobs, and had mostly fun in the sun on our beach vacation.

This week we celebrate my dad's 1 year being Cancer free! And as amazing as that is, it reminds me that in a couple of days we will celebrate Mason's adoption day!

As this is our 1st adoption day, we haven't really decided how to celebrate. We've had a gotcha day already but this is the day it became official. The day the judge said Mason was in our family FOREVER!  The day we became the family that we are!

How do you celebrate that? 

I'm thinking a special breakfast cake.  Hey, any excuse for cake in the morning, right?! And lots of hugs for all.  Because above all else this is the day that weaved brothers together and reminded us that God loves to give you the desires of your heart.  Yeah, cake for breakfast sounds fitting 😉

Vacation

As we prepare for our annual family beach trip, I begin to remember what last year was like.  Our little man didn't have our last name yet, he wasn't walking yet, and his delays were ever present.

It's amazing the different a year makes.
He is officially Mason,
 he is walking, running, hopping, climbing letters
And he is closing the gap big time from where he should be to where he is. 

So enjoy your week

Bring on the beach

The good, the bad, and the messy!!

This weekend my hubby and two older boys went on a 4 day road trip to South Carolina to visit Grandpa.  It was a bitter sweet trip as my father-in-law is suffering with ALS and is deteriorating quickly.  They had a wonderful trip with lots of laughs and memories. 

That left Mason and I here.
home alone.
for 4 whole days.
by ourselves.

I missed my boys something awful.  And playing cruise director by myself to an almost two year old is exhausting and patience draining.  Let's just say there were many times this weekend that this mommy should have had a time out.  I'm not proud nor was it pretty....just keeping it real.
I think sometimes people view people who adopt as having some sort of parenting super power.  Just doing my part to dispel the myth.  :o)  I'm a sinner like everyone else.


Anyway, now that I've aired my dirt laundry, lets get to the messy.  I mean literally messy.  Today the boys and I played.  Like things you do over a whole summer we did in one day.
Today we:

Made breadsticks from scratch

Introduced the kiddos to the art of mud pie making. shhh...don't tell their aunt 

and created time capsules complete with map to find them in two years.  Nah, that map won't get lost in my well organized house.  LOL

 

 This was the best we could do for time capsules.  Old nip bottles that grampy found in the parking lot and took home to clean out because he thought the color was cool.  That's our Grampy!


So although there was some bad, there was lots of good and tons of messy.  And I take comfort in the forgiveness of my heavenly Father whose not finished with me yet.  And if my toddler throws some great temper tantrums in your presence, I have no idea where he learned them from...please don't judge. ;op

success

We have found a blessing in the form of vibration.
Mason is going to  sleep in less then 30 minutes now a days!!! This is way down from his typical 1.5 hours.  We have been using a crib vibrating egg thing that's suppose to go under the mattress to gently vibrate the mattress but our little guy needed more. So we put it under his pillow and it has worked so great!!
I can't tell you what a relief it is to watch him gently fall asleep. He still needs some gentle tapping from us but not the full body bouncing he's required in the past.  I guess I'll have to get my workout somewhere else now 😉

As a Momma I feel success when I find just what my babies need.  I imagine (in some small way) this is what God feels like when we listen to his plan for our life. You know all those times Mason couldn't fall asleep I would pray so hard for his peace, our peace, his future, our ability to parent him the way he needs, and ( not gonna lie) sleep.   Like I've said before, I can see God's answered prayers in our life. Not always in the way I thought they'd be answered but in His perfect way.  This again was his perfect way. 

So maybe you'll see less whining sleep posts.  We can move on to bigger and better things...like how much hair this kid has or how he is growing so big, one area at a time.  Just for the record: Mason can climb stairs one foot at a time, climb everything in sight, snap, write (when he's not eating the crayon), copy sounds, and do also anything his brothers do that looks like fun.  He has such a spunky personality. Like when he eats something he really likes he wiggles. He has a happy walk and is always ready for a big 'old bear hug!! He can be just the sweetest thing. 

That face says it all!

Much to do about nutin'

One of our greatest joys in Florida was SLEEP.  It was truly a blessing to have our little man sleep. Only one night he came in to our bed (which was super tiny anyways).  What helped our precious non-sleeper get his beauty rest you ask? 

Well, we are not quite sure.  It could have been:

1.  we w.o.r.e the kid o.u.t
2. he fell asleep next to us. You see we sat next to him while he slept on a full size bed
3. his oldest brother eventually joined him in that bed to sleep.
4. It was the Mickey magic 😏

Whatever it was... I miss it.
I'm not so much bothered by his nightly visits in our bed.  He is getting much better about not sleeping directly on my head.  I'm having trouble relinquish my precious down time before bed.  Oh how I miss starting a baking project I knew I would see through to brownies.  Or starting a magazine or a mountain of paperwork that would finally get finished only to hurrily put it down to comfort a beside himself little boy.

I'm gonna go eat some Oreos whiles I still can...

Florida Vaca (Part 1)

I know I'm not the only one but...I love vacations.  To get away from the daily grind and have nothing but fun, ahhhh so good!!
We spent part of last week in Florida, and what is a visit to Florida without a little M-i-c-k-e-y M-o-u-s-e?!?

But lets back up.  Taking a 20 month old on a plane is poltergeist scary!! But he did pretty well.  Even slept a little on the flight there. 

Don't let these pictures fool you...many games of "pass the baby" were played but I didn't need to give anyone earplugs or buy them a drink.  So that's a pass in my book :o)

We played around Downtown Disney for awhile. Then on to Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios the next day for some Star Wars Weekend.

 

LOVE

Ty showing a face only a mother can love 



Disney does Apples right!!