Mountain Boarding

The intrepid mountain boarder.

He did great!

I went down twice and crashed both times. Ouch!

Michillinda

This is Michillinda Lodge, a place we vacationed as kids. We found it on the way back from another vacation and stopped in.

Unfortunately, we're not out of the woods on our camera troubles, so all these pictures are shot with my cell phone. (Yikes! I know.)

Anyway, see the whole Michillinda picture set as a slide show.

Update: I'm kind of glad I did take these pictures with my cell phone. As much as I'd love to give you razor-sharp images, the impressionistic quality of these cell phone pictures seems kind of appropriate.

Sharing a chair

Rebekah and her cousin Jonathan share a stool at dinner.



It was very sweet.

Camera Disaster

I'm very sorry to report that our new camera is trashed.

Wasn't too expensive, but we lost a few months' worth of pictures.

One of our children, who shall remain nameless, with a friend over, decided to try taking a picture from inside the toilet. At least that's the story.

I tried drying it out for a couple days, recharging the battery, putting the memory card in a computer, but, alas, no.

So it'll be cell-phone pictures for a while, until we replace it. (But even that's a step up from no pictures, eh? More blog posts coming soon!)

Happy Food Allergy Awareness Week! :>)

Many of you know Luke is allergic to peanuts and that he suffers from cronic eczema. Over the last year, we made significant progress identifying additional food allergies that aggravate his eczema because they caused an itchy mild rash. He is moderately allergic to eggs, apples (birch tree), and mildly allergy to soy (that we mostly ignore). I'm fairly certain Luke ate either eggs and/or apples every day. By modifying his diet and finding a new home for our dog we have been able to dramatically change the quality of Luke's life (and mine for that matter).

Working with a dietician and putting Luke on a systematic elimination diet was a turning point for us. The traditional medical community by and large were not helpful...and actually hindered his treatment. One Dr told us our dog wasn't the problem, but Luke has a level 4 dog allergy. Another Dr. tested for an egg allergy, but didn't feel a level 2 allergy was significant to inform us and until I saw a copy of the results (on a fluke) we assumed he was negative for eggs.

Each turn of the key to unlock his allergies has taken painstaking diligence, and I can't imagine having made the progress we've made with his allergies and skin had I not been home full time with Luke and able to cronicle every morsel that went into his mouth. I still think there may be more, but I think we got the biggies.

The picture above is what his legs and arms used to look like. And that was with applying ointments and prescription creams daily. His skin is basically clear now, and his flairs are easily controlled with prescription medications when needed. Thank you, Jesus.

He's still itchy. He'll always have sensitive skin. But, we're no longer chasing the symptoms that were creating an out of control itch cycle. He's a different kid. We're a different family.

Children's Museum in South Bend

A few weeks ago I took the kids to South Bend to visit my parents. Jim had a lot of work to do, so he stayed behind and took advantage of the solitude to get things done. My mom took the kids the childrens' museum in South Bend. The kids had a blast (while I had a massage down the block!). Thanks, MOM!

New entertainment

So today Rebekah struggles her way onto a chair in the dining room. She's just barely big enough to make it onto some grown-ups' chairs.

Then she stands up on the chair on her toes and plays with the dining room light switch.

When I tried to persuade her that this might be a dangerous idea for a one-year-old, guess how that went?

Some Christmas Memories

Cheers!

Thanksgiving Memories

Yes, we're that far behind...


Judy and Annika at Grandma and Grandpa's.


Matt and Andrew.


My sweeties!

Hi, Sweetie(s)!

A few nice shots of Rebekah...









We're goofing off while Kirsten is out shopping.





Kirsten sometimes thinks I get nothing else done while I'm with the kids, but as you can plainly see I'm not getting nothing else done. Right?

Browse them here.