Lately

Lately we have been busy busy busy and I plan to get this blog updated but I can't promise daily or even weekly posts. Here's a little catch up for you: 

This sweet girl loves for me to play with her so when she is home from school we have been having fun together. 

She is just such a joy and I love soaking up our days together. 

Lucy turned 2 years old and spent her day being boarded. Not that she knows or even cares. The lady who grooms her, also boards dogs.  Lucy had fun playing with other dogs all week while we soaked up the sun at the beach. 

Rascal has had some ongoing stomach aches and other stomach issues that seemed to worsen recently. The dr brushed it off as simply anxiety but my momma gut told me it was more. I pushed for them to run tests and they ran tests to cover a wide range of stomach issues (including celiac, crohn's, other food allergies and a ton of others). When we got the results back I was not prepared for what they were about to tell me. All of the tests came back great with no red flags but he had numerous other food allergies that we had no clue about. I held back tears in the office and tried to be strong for Rascal's sake but I knew this meant an even more restricted diet and more exclusions from so much. The results showed he has a low allergy to shellfish, a moderate allergy to corn, soy, tomato, sesame and a high allergy to wheat. 

We immediately set up an appointment for further testing with the allergist and we were told to eliminate all wheat out of his diet since it was the highest ranking allergen. 

I cried for a solid 24 hours and was in denial. I wasn't sure how we could be just finding this out and how I was going to explain to Rascal that the things he loves so dearly (pringles, cheese-its, breads, pastas etc...) were now off limits. He was actually ok with the news. In fact he told me "it's ok mom, we will just find new foods for me to eat!" Bless his sweet heart, no 8 year old (or any one of any age) should have to go through food allergies. 

I am still trying to wrap my head around gluten free nut free cooking. Gluten free is a whole new ball game to me and it's like learning to cook all over again. 

I have mastered gluten free sausage balls : 

Well I guess mastered isn't the word for it... .the recipe still needs more tweaking. 

I also took advantage of a sale on Enjoy Life products. They are free of the top 8 allergens and make cookies, granola, cereal bars, chocolate bars and chips and a lot of other items. 

As of today we have been gluten free for 3 weeks and we are already seeing some slow improvements. Rascal is on probiotics to help heal his stomach from years of eating wheat and irritating his poor stomach. I have also found a highly recommended essential oil that we rub on his stomach two times a day. He says it takes his pain away immediately (YAY for natural remedies!!).  

It'll be a long road ahead of us but the great news is there is a good chance he will out grow these new allergies. 

Baby A and I went to vote and she was so excited to wear a sticker too. She only wished it was bigger... we are raising a proud American! 

After voting she asked for Starbucks and shopping and I couldn't say no to her. 

We had a wonderful day together. 

Baby A is LOVING school! She comes home eager to do her homework (that will change all too soon) and she just talks and talks about all the things they do at school. 

This week they had to bring in items to fill a show box for Operation Christmas Child. It took her FOREVER to decide on what the special little girl across the world would like. She was so into it and it really made me proud to be teaching her about giving. 

She is following in her mother's footsteps already and is counting down the days until Christmas decorations go up. 

Just a few more weeks for us at this house. 

There is a short recap. I will try so hard to get beach pictures up but it may be next year before I get to it ;-) 

Back to School: 2014

I will be 100% honest. I hate back to school time. I love having my sweet kids home with me and I always go through back to school blues for a few days. 

This year was hard for me, Rascal has a hard time at the beginning of each year. He gets anxiety until he gets used to things and knows that his new teacher will handle his allergy right. He also has separation anxiety from me. He always has and I assumed he would have outgrown it by now but he hasn't. Bless his sweet heart, he just wants to be with his momma because he loves me so much (that is exactly what he told me). Breaks my heart! 

Anyways he adjusts within a week or two time frame and then has a great year. 

This year Scooter went to middle school for 6th grade. 

Let me just tell you that leaving your child at middle school for the first time is harder than leaving them in kindergarten. 

Scooter had lots of different feelings about going to middle school but I think he was mostly excited. 

He had his outfit picked out days before and got ready in record timing that morning. 

Since the boys are at two different schools (which both start and end at the same time) that means we have to leave the house earlier to get everyone where they need to be on time. 

They all must be up by 6:00 and we must be out the door by 7:00 

It's an adjustment for all of us but I know it will be the new normal in no time. 

Here is a comparison picture of the kids on their first day of school. The picture above was taken this year and the one below was taken last year on the first day of school. 

Rascal didn't have much to say about starting school. We had a very rough drop off thanks to anxiety hitting him hard. Thankfully he came home that afternoon saying he had a great day. 

I will be very honest, I knew I would cry when I dropped Scooter off. It was just hard to let him go into a huge school and not walk him into his class. He was fine with it but this momma had a very hard time. Thank goodness for big sunglasses and a 15 minute ride to Rascal's school. I managed to pull myself together and not let the other two kids know I was having a hard time. 

Then I walked Rascal in to his class and he tried to be so very brave but he just couldn't hold it together. He clung to me sobbing and my already tender heart was shattered. I hated to see him so upset and I really hated to have to leave him there like that. We talked in the hall for a little bit and then I made him go into class and just put his head down. 

I couldn't get out of the school fast enough, I barely made it to the van before I just had a melt down. 

I tried to calm down and gain control but I cried for a better part of the day.  

To get my mind off the hard drop offs that morning, I decided to make the boys their favorite treat and decorate for a special back to school family dinner. 

Not only would it help keep my mind off the time away from my boys but I was also hoping it would get the kids excited about school. 

I dug through my craft tub and thank goodness I am a hoarder of all things crafty, because I had plenty to set up a fun table. 

I made the kids oreo truffles and added sprinkles in their school colors. 

I picked the boys up from school and was so happy to hear that they had great days. Scooter LOVES middle school. He talked my ear off about everything they did. Rascal had little to say about school but said his day was good so I will count that as a win. 

When I got the kids home from school the first thing that caught their eye were the truffles. They each had some as an after school treat and then they turned to see all the fun table decorations. 

We had homemade chicken tenders and veggies for dinner and we all talked about what happened that day and how we can make this the best school year ever! 

While I was cooking dinner Scooter came up to me and hugged me and told me he loved me. I hugged him back and told him I loved him and was so happy he had a great first day of school. He looked at me so matter of factly and said "of course I had a great day mom because lots of people were praying for me. How could I not have a great day?" 

I love when God sends blessings like that in the middle of your bad day. 

The next day Scooter was ready to go back to school. Rascal wasn't so much, but he seemed to be doing much better than the previous day. We dropped Scooter off at school and were headed to Rascal's school and the tears came before we even got to the school. 

Thankfully we were early so we sat and talked in the van for a little bit and I tried to help understand that everything would be ok. I walked him in (we brought oreo truffles to his teacher, it was my hope that he would be excited to bring his teacher a gift) and he went to his chair and cried. He didn't cling to me so I guess that was an improvement .

As of today, they have been in school for exactly a week and they both are adjusting well. Scooter still loves middle school and Rascal isn't crying anymore and his tummy aches have even started to get better. I knew things would get better but man those first few days are HARD! 

So here is to a great school year this year. My daily prayer is for safety, wisdom and most importantly that they would be a light for Jesus! 

And just for fun here is a "blooper" with Baby A picking her nose! Oh that girl..... her first day is coming up soon and she is so ready to go to her new school. 

What God has done for us this week

Rascal has to have an epipen (a certain kind of shot) with him at all times. It is what will save his life if he ever has an anaphylactic reaction to nuts. These shots contain just enough epinephrine to give us 30 min to get to a hospital. They expire in a year and have to be refilled every year. We have always gotten our epipens for free with our previous insurance but we have a new insurance this year and it has no copays and a high deductible.
It's been great so far until we went to pick up Rascal's epipens. Since we don't have a copay, the coupon we previously had used to get them for free didn't work for us anymore. This meant we were left with paying $300 for the epipens. I left without them, hoping to find another way to get them at a MUCH cheaper cost.

I called our pediatrician and they tried everything they could but didn't leave me with another option. Fast forward a few weeks, someone at church unfortunately had to take their daughter (a teenager) to the er when she had a reaction to nuts after eating nuts all her life. They left the er with 6 epipens. Since they didn't need all 6 they gave us 2. We were extremely grateful.

All of us food allergy families have to look out for each other.

I got home and realized the epipens we were given were not the same dose as Rascal's usual ones (since she was a teenager the dosage was different). I decided to call and double check with his pediatrician and make sure we couldn't use these. I talked with a different nurse and explained the entire situation to her. She told me that I couldn't use the ones we had been given but would call me back with some good news hopefully. After a few phone calls back and forth and some MAJOR work on my pediatrician's part, they were able to get their drug rep to sign some papers and order us some epipens to give to us for free!! We were beyond thankful for their hard work and willingness to go the extra mile to make sure we got what we need without having to pay so much out of pocket.

God is so good and this is one of the MANY ways He meets all our needs.

Just a recap....

Well things around here have been anything less than crazy. So here is a little recap:

-Tim has been battling ear troubles. It all started back at the beginning of October. He had a sinus infection and went to the little clinic to get it taken care of before we headed off to the beach. Well the sinus infection went away but his ear ache never did and after a few weeks he lost hearing in his left ear and he was in great pain. I convinced him to go to the ENT but I guess I didn't convince him soon enough. The night before we were going to make the appointment his ear drum appeared to have ruptured. He got right into the ENT and has been on antibiotics ever since (This was the beginning of November). The week after his ENT appt. we got word from them that the lab results showed MRSA in his inner ear. So he got put on a even stronger antibiotic and is still taking that. He is feeling much better and has almost weekly appointments with the ENT. His hearing has yet to come back but we know it isn't anything permanent. He will regain his hearing it just may take a while. If you think about it say a prayer for fast healing and his hearing to come back quickly. It's been a month since he lost his hearing.

- I am trying to get together my Advent list and December is creeping up on me very very fast. I am trying to think of new ideas to throw into the mix and that's what's taking so long. I get so giddy over all things Christmas and Advent.... probably more so than the kids do and they get REALLY excited!

- I wrote about the struggles we had with Rascal's nut allergy at the beginning of the year..... we sat down with the principal at the beginning of the year and got a plan of action nailed down. We have not had any other problems arise and things just kind of laid low. Well last Thursday I got a call from the school nurse. Nobody like hearing the school's nurse on the other end of the line but when you have a child with a life threatening nut allergy it is even worse. My heart always begins to race and my world starts to spin for a moment and she always assures me right away that Rascal is okay. Good thing because I would not be able to focus on a thing she said otherwise. So back to the point, the school nurse called me last Thursday to tell me that the cafeteria manager had approached her to inform her about Friday's lunch. Since it was the last day of school before Thanksgiving break they served a thanksgiving "feast" which included sweet potato casserole with nuts on top. Typically the cafeteria is nut free lunches but this is the one exception. Since the lunches at school are nut free Rascal sits surrounded by all the kids who buy their lunch. The lunch boxes (which could contain nut and the popular PBJ sandwich) all sit together at the other end of the table. So since the bought lunches would contain nuts that day this meant there was no safe area for Rascal to sit and he would be surround by nuts.... not good!! The school nurse and I made arrangements for Rascal to stay in the classroom with a friend who had a safe lunch and eat there. He would not be allowed to step foot in the cafeteria that day and I made sure he was on tip top alertness for any sign of reaction. We made it through the day with zero problems and praise God, He protected my sweet boy from any major problems arising. I was so thankful for the cafeteria staff and the school nurse beginning ahead of the game and taking all precautions to make sure Rascal was safe.

-All my Christmas decorations are up and have been for a good two weeks. Tim got the outdoor decorations hung this past weekend they look fantastic. I will post pictures of the decorations later this week.

- Today marks the 29 days to Christmas mark and we have not bought the first Christmas present yet. We are usually done by now. I'm not too stressed about it, in a day where Amazon Prime exists... it's so nice to order a gift and have it on your doorstep in no longer than 2 days. Also my kids don't have big Christmas wish lists this year. We are still very much enjoying their gift from last year (Lucy). I think it will be a low key Christmas as far as gifts go and we will focus much more time and effort on the real meaning of Christmas. Baby A is at an age where she can understand it on a simple level and I want to make sure this Christmas season is not passed by without her being able to say what Christmas is all about.

Random Post

Well I had a video of Scooter fishing uploading and once it was done it disappeared. So you get a random post that may have a picture thrown in.

** We got faster internet last week and with that came a lot of changes. Instead of having SLOW internet through the phone line we now how internet through the cable (with no cable tv though). We love the faster internet and can now watch videos on Amazon Prime which we are all LOVING. SO we moved the main computer downstairs. Of course once ANY piece of furniture gets moved my crazy rearranging habit kicks in. We rearranged the boys beds and furniture and then I have to clean out the downstairs play room closet to make room for a filing cabinet and computer things. I have since run out of motivation and doubt the closet will get cleaned out this week.

** Baby A and I start bible study this week. She has had a few changes in classes at church and done fantastic. I thought there may be a few tears shed but there was not a one.  She is a social butterfly and loves playing with new friends. I hope that this will be the same when we go to bible study this week at a new place with a lot of new faces. Here are a few pictures from her first day at Awanas.

All ready to go to Awanas and she was SO excited!!

(that's Rascal in the blue playing a game) 

(and that blue blur is Tim. He got talked into playing the game too) 

You can barely see Scooter across the circle in the gray shirt and black shorts. 

Baby A loved being in with her brothers. She was a little clueless on the games but she sure had fun trying. 

** This past weekend I felt rather ambitious and shopped, prepped, cooked and froze about 20 meals. Add that to the meats I already had in the freezer and I have enough food frozen to give us at least 27 meals. I posted several of the freezer meal recipes on my recipe blog in case you want to see. I started making my own stock again (easiest thing in the world to make) and I'm getting my freezer stocked with it so I am ready for the yummy soups this fall and winter.

** I have been on the search for some sunscreen that is safe for Rascal. Once again we have found another unsual product that can contain nuts. Last year Rascal had a reaction to a sunscreen face stick. I read the ingredients and could not find what it was that he could be allergic to. Well that is because sunscreens will not say "peanut or tree nut" they list the botanical name which is Arachis hypogaea, arachidyl glucoside and arachidyl alcohol. I have found a few that are safe for him and from now on I will  be checking out the labels on ALL sunscreens and lotions for these 3 words.  Want to hear a few other WEIRD things that could contain nuts?? 
* Minute Maid Heart Wise orange juice
* Mortadella italian sausage 
* Some teas
* Lip gloss
* Lotions (shea butter comes from a shea nut so it's a NO NO) 
* Fluoride (contains pine nuts) 
* Toothpaste including the popular one Sensodyne 
* Spray tans
* Door mats
* Toyos Tires
And the list could go on and on because we find new things to steer clear of all the time. 

And that's all I got but looky there you guys got pictures and a video today :) 

Picture Post

I don't have a ton of pictures to post today but I thought I would post the ones I do have. Most of our days are filled with walks and preschool so that leaves the same old pictures to post. However I still love to see the progress of Baby A and her preschool so I am going to post them anyways. 

This particular day was actually a Saturday. Baby A wanted to play outside but Tim was cutting the grass and she was suffering from a minor cold (not good combinations). The only thing that stopped her fit she was throwing was doing some school work. Go figure.... guess I am a better teacher than I thought. 

Her hair in a knot on top of her head is so stinking cute. 

She painted spots on the jaguar, learned the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle" and then glued some ribbon, cotton, sandpaper and double sided tape to a worksheet to learn about soft, smooth, rough and sticky. 

(sorry it's sideways) 

Picture day was last week and I nearly forgot about it. The boys reminded me the night before so at least I was able to iron them a shirt to wear. 

I know I am very partial but they are two very handsome boys!!

And this little girl makes sure to never be left out. She is just such a joy. I wish you could each just spend a half hour talking to her. Her conversations are so grown up for a kid her age. See these shoes she has on? They have quickly become her FAVORITE shoes ( I think because she can put them on by herself). She wears them with pants, shorts, skirts, dresses, with sock on and even sometimes on the wrong feet. It's a battle I don't fight because in our house shoes and socks are always the thing that can make us run late ( "I can't find my shoes", "My socks are bothering me", "my shoestring has a knot in it" etc...). 

**side note: Mom, I think we should find these shoes in bigger sizes for next year (9 or 10). Keep your eye out at Walmart.  

This doesn't have a picture to go with it but I wanted to thank you all for saying a prayer for us regarding Rascal and his nut allergy. Tim and I sat down with the principal and made sure she understood just how serious his allergy was and we all are on board with a plan of action and how things are to be handled in his classrooms. I was SO nervous going in to the meeting but along with LOTS of prayer I kept repeating to myself Exodus 33:14:

The Lord replied, " I will personally go with you Moses (LINDSEY), and I will give you rest - everything will be fine for you."

That is quickly becoming my verse to live by. I can apply it to so many areas in my life. 

I hope you guys have been able to watch the videos I have posted. I have lots of them to post if my computer would just be nice and do so for me. 

Random

*The other night while I was walking with my friend, Tim was at home with the kids like we always do. The kids were sucked into Homeward Bound and Tim was sitting in the recliners paying bills and such. The kids had been so quite and he noticed a few sniffles coming from Baby A. He looked up and sure enough she was crying. He tried to figure out what was wrong but couldn't. He picked her up and asked her why she was crying and she replied "I don't know why". By this point she was really really upset and he somehow figured out it was because of the movie. There is a part where a little girl (around 4 years old or so) got lost in the woods and was crying. The 3 animals found her and stayed with her keeping her warm through the night. This apparently made Baby A very sad and even though Tim explained that the little girl was ok and her parents found her she still was very upset. She kept repeating "I don't know why I am crying" and the boys kept asking why on earth she was crying at the movie, HA. Tim was at a loss.... he is clueless (as are all guys) to crying at sad movies, books or blog posts. He managed to take her outside and finally calm her down. Bless his heart when the hormonal teenage years get here. He might need to lock himself in his room to get through them.

* Scooter is not an very organized guy. His back pack is ALWAYS filled with tons of crumpled papers that are late getting to me because he just threw them in his bag. This drives me CRAZY! I have tried punishing him for not turning things in and forgetting homework..... that didn't help. I have tried reminding him a billion times to turn things in and that doesn't help. I am at a loss. I need some kind of tips on how to get your child organized in school. If you have tips or a good book that I could read please pass them on. I searched pintrest for some ideas but most deal with keeping rooms cleaned... we have very little problem with that, it's mostly school stuff. HELP!!!!

* If you guys would send up a prayer for us we would greatly appreciate it. Rascal's teacher doesn't seem to care much about his allergy (or if she does she isn't showing it very well). This may sound so minor to most but it's not and trying to get EVERYONE to see it's not is wearing me down. Don't get me wrong... I am my child's advocate and I will surely step in when I have to but that doesn't make it easy. I manage to stay strong for the most part but last week was hard.. I mean really hard for me. I threw myself many pity parties wishing we didn't have to deal with this stuff, stuff like: reading EVERY single label on EVERY single item (not just food items but lotions and lip balms too), talking to teachers and parents about his allergy and getting looks like I am overreacting or exaggerating....... I get this EVERYWHERE and I want to jump in their face and let them hear how just ingesting a simple nut sends my son into an anaphylactic reaction, (Meaning his face starts swelling, tongue starts swelling and next comes difficulty breathing or even cardiac arrest. Scary huh??). I wish we didn't have to worry about him being singled out or left out due to his allergy. I can't send him to just any friend's house, birthday parties etc.. and if I do I have to pack his epi pen and benedryl and go through a brief (yet most likely intimidating) tutorial on how to use the epi pen and what signs to looks for. It means we skip out on things like muffins with mom and donuts with dad because we don' know if there are nuts in the products and if not, were they cross contaminated with nuts because that will send him into a reaction too. I have to send him to school, church and other people's homes and pray that he doesn't accidentally come in contact with a surface that has nut bits/oils on them (including children sneezing/ coughing after eating nuts or not washing there hands after eating nuts). 

So anyways after throwing myself pity parties I read a wonderful devotion that simply said . Entrust your loved ones in My hands. They are much better off there than in your own hands!!!!! How great is that??? I love that my creator knows my heart aches and the fact that I am trying to be the best protector I can for my children but even that isn't enough. Only placing them in His hands is the best. There is no doubt I would not be able to let Rascal out of my house (the only place that is TRULY safe for him) if it wasn't for the peace of knowing God has this in his hands. I read a new verse that day that spoke to me in a very powerful way:

The Lord replied, " I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest- everything will be fine for you." Now just insert your name in there instead of Moses and this can apply to every single one of us.... including Rascal! 

* Lucy has started chasing shadows. Now I know that sounds funny (and it is) but we aren't talking about an occasional playtime. I'm talking about 99% of her day is spent sitting in a corner staring at the wall waiting for shadows to move. It is the most annoying thing ever, mainly because when she sees the shadows move she barks, whines, or scratches/ bites at it. This has been going on for a good 3 weeks now... ever since she lost her balance while walking on her back feet and falling to hit her head. I really am wondering if she made herself crazy by that fall. We may contact the vet to see what they think. Here is a picture of her with her face behind our door just waiting for a shadow:

She sat this way for a good 30 minutes. One plus to this is we always know where to find her and it always looks like we have trained her to sit in time out. lol! 

*The kids were playing in the front yard a few weeks ago and the boys were trying to pull each other on a sled by just a skateboard. Well as you can assume, this didn't work so well and they were getting frustrated. I was out walking with my friend and so Tim decided to remedy the problem for them. He hooked up the sled behind the riding lawn mower and gave them rides around the yard. Can we say redneck? I was a bit shocked when I walked by our yard and saw this. He claims he was just helping the kids have a little fun. I am not sure I want to know what our neighbors think of us now. 

* I posted several low carb recipes on my recipe blog. If you would like to see them just look for the low carb label to the right. If you click on low carb all recipes under that label will appear. 

Picture Post

Wow, am I ever behind on poss.  I have a summer fun post, the boys awards ceremonies, more birthday posts, a fun zoo trip and possibly a few more videos. Hopefully I can carve out time from our busy fun summer schedules to get those done.

Here are a few random pictures from my phone.

I tried to braid Baby A's hair the other day. It turned out pretty good to be done on a wiggly toddler. 

It didn't stay very long though. Her hair is still a tad to short. 

On Scooter's birthday we went to Red Lobster (one of his favorites) for lunch. Scooter and Rascal had crab legs for lunch. About mid way through our meal, I noticed Rascal's face was breaking out and then he started complaining that his face itched. I watched him for a few minutes and saw that the symptoms didn't progress like they do with a nut reaction (a gusty thing for me to do but I needed to see how bad it was going to get. I had all I needed with me and the hospital was across the street, if we needed it). I gave him some benedryl washed his face and hands and called his allergist right away. He will be going to have a shellfish testing done in a few months. Until then he will not be eating shellfish. 

Every night I have a happy garden helper. She gets so excited to water the garden and flowers. She gets it from me. I love gardening and taking care of the flowers. 

Baby A runs into the kitchen the other day and says "Look Mom, I'm a Ninja!" LOL 

She cracks us up all the time! 

I have more pictures I planed on posting but my computer won't let me load anymore for some reason. 

Oh well I'll try again tomorrow. 

A Few Good Recipes (part 2)

I love to try out new recipes. It seems lately I have tried at least 2 new ones each week. Here are two that I made that ordinarily would never make it's way into our home but these recipes are safe for Rascal to eat.

Homemade Granola Bars
Recipe Source: Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

• 6 cups Rolled Oats (not Quick Oats)
• 4 Tablespoons Butter, Melted, Plus More For Greasing
• 1/4 cup Vegetable Or Canola Oil
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup Honey
• 1/4 cup Apple Juice
• 1/4 cup Molasses
• 3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1-1/2 cup Rice Krispies
• 1 cup Wheat Germ
• 1/2 cup Finely Chopped Pecans (I left these out)
• 1/4 cup Roughly Chopped Almonds (I left these out)
• Milk Chocolate Or Chocolate Almond Bark, Melted (optional)

Preparation Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a bowl, toss the oats with the canola oil, melted butter and salt. Spread the mixture out on 2 baking sheets and toast in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, shaking the pan twice and making sure they don't burn. Remove from the oven and set aside.
Reduce the heat to 325 degrees F.
In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar, honey, apple juice and molasses. Heat the mixture slowly, stirring until all combined. Stir in the vanilla.
Toss together the toasted oats, rice cereal, wheat germ, pecans and almonds. Pour in the sugar mixture, stirring as you pour. Toss to combine; it will be sticky!
Press into 1 baking sheet (thoroughly greased with butter, or line pan with foil and grease foil) and bake until golden, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Cut pieces with a sharp knife and remove from the pan.
OPTIONAL
Dip the cooled granola bars straight into the melted chocolate so that the top is plain and the bottom is chocolate-covered. Set on parchment until set, sticking in the fridge to hasten this along if necessary.

** I left out the nuts to make them safe for Rascal and instead of dipping the cut bars into the chocolate I drizzled melted chocolate over the top and then cut them into bars (much quicker and not as messy)
THESE ARE INSANELY GOOD!!! They are crunchy and not chewy which means you could crumble them up and put it in yogurt or add milk and make a cereal. And you could try so many different options like adding dried fruit, drizzling carmel on top and the options could go on. Try them!!


Homemade Twix Bars
Recipe source: That Skinny Chick Can Bake

1 stick (4 ounces) butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
10 ounces caramels, unwrapped (I used 35 Kraft Caramels)
1 tablespoon, plus 1 1/2 teaspoons heavy cream
8 ounces milk chocolate
1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable shortening (I used vegetable oil), optional

Preheat oven to 300º. Line 8 x 8 inch pan with nonstick foil or greased regular foil.

Beat together butter, sugar and vanilla. Add the flour. Press evenly into pan...you may need to flour your fingers to prevent sticking. Prick crust with fork. Bake 35-45 minutes till crust is golden.

Immediately after removing crust from oven, run knife around edges to loosen crust. Cool completely.

Melt caramel and cream gently in microwave or in saucepan over low heat till smooth. Pour over cooled crust and chill for 30 minutes.

Gently melt chocolate in microwave or in double boiler over low heat. Add shortening or oil if too thick to pour. Pour over chilled caramel and spread to edges. Chill till chocolate is well set. Cut into squares to serve. Store covered in refrigerator, but remove a few minutes before serving.

 

** Rascal can't have real Twix bars since they are made in the same facility as nuts. So when I came across this recipe I knew I had to try it. These were SO GREAT....... much better than an actual twix bar. The only thing I may try next time is adding a little more heavy cream to make the caramel softer.

 

Rascal's Severe Tree Nut Allergy

Rascal had his tree nut tests on the 17th of September. We were prepared for the skin test and to have blood work done also.

He had the skin test done first and the results meant that no blood work needed to be done.

Sounds good right??

Well Rascal was relieved not to have the blood work done but his skin test results were so severe, it didn't matter what any blood work showed.

We know now that he is HIGHLY allergic to peanuts, tree nuts and any nut related product including: nutmeg, almond extract, nougat, hickory nuts and the list goes on.

We are told to not even eat it ourselves and that he can not have anything that states it is made in the same facility.

Here is the pictures of his skin test:

This was right after they did the skin test (above), There were 3 pricks total: 2 cashew and one that told them if it was working properly. They prick the skin and then wait 15 minutes to see what the reaction is.

This is after 5 minutes (above)

This is after 10 minutes (above)

This picture is not even a minute after I took the 10 min. picture (above). You can see the dime size welt and the rash that runs up his entire arm.

Needless to say the spots itched some but he said it was painful more than itchy.

This is right after they came in and recorded his reaction.

Both the nurse and the doctor were shocked when they walked in the room and could see his reaction from clear across the room.

The doctor made sure Rascal and I both knew just how serious this allergy is. She gave us lots of information on the allergies and some tips on how to keep him safe.

I love our allergist so much! She takes as much time as we need and always helps us figure out ways to keep Rascal safe.

For the upcoming holidays we have already set up a plan.

Rascal will go trick or treating but all the candy he gets will be given to their dentist (they buy candy from the kids and send it to the troops) and we will have plenty of safe candy for him.

What is safe candy for him??

sweet tarts

twizzlers

plain m&m's

plain Hershey's chocolate

laffy taffy

And there are plenty of others listed on this site here:

http://www.allergysf.com/safety/candy/nuts/

The allergists told us that we need to read all labels and make sure they aren't made in the same facility as any nuts. SOOO MUCH stuff is labeled as "made in the same facility".

It's a lot to get used to but it could be so much worse. It's not become so much of our life that we are always aware of things around us. It's become almost as natural as breathing.

Catch Up

Well I never intended to take a week off blogging but last week was CRAZY busy so I think taking one thing off my plate was needed.
This week get ready because I am playing catch up.

First up a little bit of random info that you may or may not care about :)

~ Baby A is still doing great on potty training. We had a church picnic at a park yesterday and she stayed dry the whole time and told me when she had to go. She even used a porter potty (SO GROSS!) and now calls it "going potty in the little house". She is still in pull ups at night and during naps but we are ato the beach when we go in a few weeksbout to conquer that too. This may make for a very interesting ride for our upcoming beach trip . Not sure about that yet.....

~ The 4th grade at Scooter's school changed things up a few weeks ago. They now have two teachers everyday. One teaches math and his homeroom teacher teaches all the other subjects. There was no exact reason why they did this but let me tell you why I think it happened.
Scooter's weakest subject is math. He aces the rest of the subjects and even exceeds his grade level in some but math, he just wasn't getting. Last year was a rough year and it slowed him down big time in math so all summer long I prayed and prayed for this year to be the year he "gets it" and that he has such a great year! We started school off just fine and really there were no problems. It was kind of early to tell how things where going to go or so I thought. Then they changed things up for the first time ever without any exact reason. The first week that Scooter had this new math teacher he came home EVERYDAY excited about math and he told me "mom, I get it now... Mrs. L makes math fun and I understand it now!" Well if that isn't just a God thing!!!! God is GOOD! Then last week he came home with his progress report and he has a B in math right now!!! He has never had that high of a grade in math. I am so proud of him and so thankful for answered prayers!!

~ Speaking of school, take a look at the boys school pictures:

I am CRAZY BLESSED!!!

I know I am partial but those are some seriously handsome boys! You can bet these pictures were purchased. They deserve to be framed on my wall!!

~ Rascal goes today for some allergy testing and blood work. I am not 100% sure what all is going to be done but I do know that it won't be the most glamorous testing. If you could please keep him (and me) in your prayers I would greatly appreciate it!

~ I have been SO READY for fall!! I need cooler temps stat and since that isn't happening soon enough I decided to go ahead and start adorning my house with fall decorations anyway.
Here's what I got so far:

My planters on my front porch steps are filled with mums and I LOVE them!!

I am pretty proud of this wreath I made. It took FOREVER to make it since you wrap yarn around the wreath form til it is covered. VERY time consuming but worth it in the long run.

I have a few other things I have made but I am not quite done with them so I will post pictures of them another time.

~ Baby A got new boots for the fall and she LOVES wearing them. Now we just need to get her some fall clothing so she has something to wear them with.

~ We had a little incident with bear! You see a certain brother got in trouble for fighting with his brother and he got a little angry. What did he do..... rip the arm off the beloved bear of his brother. Yep it was a LOOOONNNNGGGG day that particular day and this sent me over the edge. Thank goodness Tim walked in the door not 2 seconds after it happened so he handled the situation while I locked myself in the bathroom and cried! One day my boys will show love to one another but right now.... we are not in that phase!

Rascal was heartbroken about his bear so I performed surgery on him that night before bed and sewed him back almost as good as new. I even added a little stuffing to him to make him a little less flat. Rascal wasn't so sure he liked that I did that but oh well at least he is all intact again.

~And then this morning they both sat together comparing Pokemon games on their DS. See they do love each other but I wish I saw this sweet side a little more.

~ Sweet Baby A...... oh how she knows how to melt my heart!! This girl LOVES to have her nails polished (she even knows it's called polished and not painted... you polish your nails and you paint a wall). When she asks I can't resist and I tell her to go pick out her color. I promise you she runs back to my bathroom grinning from ear to ear and squealing like what can best be described as a piglet squealing for his momma. How could I deny her such a simple joy and the joy I get in return...... It's like none other!!!!  

Man I love that sweet girl!!

~ The girl loves to "help". She has to be under my feet ALWAYS and she has to have her hands doing whatever I am doing. This results in her knowing where dishes belong, how to load the dishwasher, how to switch the washer and dryer and her most favorite.... helping cook! Just look at that smile!!!

~ Baby A is in a phase where she hates when her feet get wet from the dew. She will step into the grass, feel the dew on her toes (when she is wearing sandals) and then have a complete melt down about being "dirty"! Can we say dramatic???

But then you give her some toys and a pile of dirt and what does she do?? Well she takes handfuls of it and rubs herself down with it including her hair. When asked what she was doing she said "I takin a baf" !!

So the dew is NOT ok but rubbing yourself down from head to toe with dirt is ok??? Go figure!

(notice the socks... that's so she doesn't feel the dew on her feet!)

Hope that catches you up on the "crazy" that we call  life.

I will be back this week catching up on posts.