A very hard day for Gabe!

Gabe had his long awaited allergy appointment today. For quite some time now, we have noticed that Gabe reacts to some of the things he eats. We first noticed something was up when he was about 4 months old. I had Dall watch him one night so Dall fed him formula. Well Gabe put up quite a fuss and about 5 minutes later, he threw up everything Dallas had just fed him... and some. So we quite with the formula for a little while until we had our 6 month check up with Gabe's Ped.

 He got the required immunizations for the 6 month check-up and everything else went well. It wasn't until I got home from his appointment that I noticed his eye lids bright red and puffy. He kept on itching them too. So I called his Doctor and they told me to come back to the office right away. I was just a little panicked. Gabe's doctor confirmed that he was allergic to one of the immunizations and we needed to go to an allergy specialist to do some testing before his 12 month check-up and immunizations.

 So in between then and now, there was a pretty scary incident. My mom was feeding Gabe a little bit of an Orange Dreamcicle and it only took him about 10 minutes before he started breaking out in rashes and started to swell. So I immediately drove home to give him some benadryl and on the way, he was coughing pretty bad and trying to clear his throat. I for sure thought that his throat was going to close up. I pulled in the driveway and got him out of the car and he started throwing up like crazy. I don't mean "spitting" up, like baby's do... I mean Throwing Up. It smelt just like adult Vomit (sorry.. too much information.) Needless to say, I was terrified. I got his Pediatrician on the phone and told him what was going on and he told me to give him Benadryl immediately and if the swelling doesn't go down in about 5-10 min, then take him to the ER. Luckily, his swelling went down and he started acting like his usual self in about 5 minutes time. So, I knew he must have been allergic to something in the Dreamcicle.

To make a long post even longer, we took Gabers to the Allergy Specialist today and got some testing done on what exactly he is allergic to. He got the little scratch test done and was a champ through all of that. As you can see in the picture below, 1 is Eggs and 2 is Milk and he is allergic to BOTH of them. Poor little guy. We figured as much though. Then, the Dr. wanted to get a blood draw to see just how allergic he was to both... so we know what to and what not give him for his 12 month immunizations, and to see his levels now compared to a year checkup.... to see if he will grow out of the allergy. This is where the day took a turn for the worst. It took 4 phlebotomists to "TRY" to find a vein. Yes I understand that he is a baby and Yes I understand that he is a "chunky little man" as they liked to call him, and Yes I understand that his veins were teeny tiny and couldn't be found through all his "Pudginess" but it took them 3 times to "try" to find a vein, and once they did, they couldn't get the syringe to suck out enough blood. They poked him in the left hand first, then the right, then she fiddled with the needle in the right crook of his arm for a while to "try" to find a vein. Meanwhile, Gabe is in absolute HYSTERICS as he is sitting on my lap and two nurses are pining his arms down while another nurse is digging a HUGE needle in his arm. I say "TRY" because I personally thought that NONE of them had a clue to what they were doing. I could see plenty of veins on his little hand. I don't think I have ever wanted to punch a bunch of women more in my life than in those moments in that Lab. And that is saying a LOT. Well, they didn't get all the blood they needed to run all the tests so I have to bring him back sometime this week to do it all over again. I can say that I now know what it feels like to NEVER want your child to have to go through any pain whatsoever. I want them to draw my blood, instead of his. I want to shield him from everything that may cause him pain. I love this little person so much and cherish his little life so much more than my own. Oh, he is my WORLD!!! After that horrible appointment was all over with, I took my baby home and snuggled with him for the rest of the day. I never left his side. He was just a little clingy.

Here are a couple pictures of today's events.

And we are at 11...

I know this post is a little late... it is because we are just having way too much fun to get on here and post. No but really, I think I am just being lazy now. My Gaber baby is 11 months old!!! Nope, it cannot be so. I want to rewind. But what an adorable 11 month old he is. We are SO Obsessed with him. Just when we think he does the funniest thing or makes the cutest little grin, he surprises us with something even better a minute later. He has such a big personality for such a tiny boy.... well, lets be honest, he is not the tiniest little boy. But you know what I mean. Gabe really is so adorable. He is so attached to his "Ma Ma" it makes my heart melt. Whenever I walk into a room, he lights up and his eyes literally Sparkle. And he sure knows it when I go out of the room too. He just loves to be with His People. When Dallas gets home from work, he is a totally different boy. It's like he knows that it is Play Time because he starts bouncing and moving like crazy. Dall chases him down the hall and Gabe trys to crawl away from him as fast as he can. He trips over himself sometimes because he gets going so fast. He LOVES Balls. We have about every kind of ball around this house and he knows where all of them are. We say "Gabe, where's the Ball" and he goes around collecting all of them. He likes to cup them in his hand and crawl with them so he is sliding on the carpet. That's adorable. He loves... and I mean LOVES my dad. Gabe would rather be held by my dad than me or Dall sometimes. I get a little upset about that, I'm not going to lie. He is standing on his own now for up to about 30 seconds and walks great when we are helping him along. He has this thing where he stands on his tip toes ALL the time. I wonder if I should be worried. He knows how to give Kisses, he just chooses not to give them... mostly. We think he is lactose intolerance. He breaks out in hives whenever he eats cheese or dairy. We have an appointment with the Allergy Specialist next week so we shall see. Whenever I am singing a song, he starts to sing right along with me. I LOVE that. He still loves to sleep in our bed for a couple hours in the night and we LET him. I still would rather watch him sleep sometimes than be sleeping myself. Weird, I know. I cant believe next month he will be ONE. He is the most amazing baby boy and we are so blessed to have him in our lives!!!!!

And just because he is so darn cute...

Need I Say More...

This is one of the pictures I took of Gabers today during our little photo shoot. How ADORABLE is my Son???

IT'S DONE!!!!!

So I finished it! This was the big project that I started at the beginning of the summer. Let me give you some background. I had this vision of what I wanted for a TV console. Since my front room isn't the biggest, I didn't want something massive that takes up the whole wall. Instead, I wanted to re-do an old, wood dresser and put my stamp all over it. I got busy hitting the D.I. and getting on KSL almost everyday until I found a steal.... and boy did I find one. I found an ad on KSL for a Solid Wood Dresser that had Nine drawers. The ad was priced at $80 which was a lot more than I wanted to spend but I LOVED the look of the dresser so I gave the woman a call. She said she had been trying to sell the thing for months now but no one came buy to look at it when they said they would. She offered it to me for $50 and threw in a matching night stand. Yup... I snagged a deal! They are both massive, heavy pieces of furniture and they are SOLID WOOD! I love that part. So my parents lent me their garage and my mom watched Gabers while I got to work on it.

Here is the Before:

And here is the After:

I love how it turned out. It is just what I pictured it to be. All it needs now is a TV..... dallas is working on this one. This little project was quite time consuming but worth every minute!! What shall I work on next??? Hmmmmmm???

He loves his reflection...

My mom and I went browsing in some stores the other day and we made it back to the dressing room where we found and AWESOME mirror that Gabe loved. It was one of those that you could see your reflection for ever and ever. It was the best thing about Gabe's day. He LOVES mirrors and his reflection. He started crying when we had to leave. I should make one whole wall in his room a Huge Mirror. Ha ha. 

Intruder!!!

So me and Dall were doing some yard work when I came across this!!! I first though it was one of those HUGE black beetle, stink bug things because we have them everywhere around our house so I almost walked right past it. It was in the corner or my garage door, leading to the side of my house. I almost fainted when I realized what it was. So I screamed for Dall to get a Dixie cup so we could get a better look at the thing. Once we got it in the cup, we shook it so it would get on it's back and YUP... a BLACK WIDOW. I seriously have not seen a black widow, let alone a spider this big... ever. We played with it in the cup for a bit and got it really mad and then after about 10 minutes, Dall reluctantly let it loose on the road and ended it's horrible little life. Since then, I now watch were I am stepping when I am out in the yard. Hope this makes you sleep peaceful at night. I have lost a few good hours just thinking about it. YUCK!!!

What I have been doing lately...

I have been quite busy with projects that I have started. I finally finished the first one and I am quite pleased with how it turned out Here are the before and after's...

Before

After

Onto my next project!!!

10 Months... Oh My!!!

So Gabe is now 10 Months.... yes, so sad but so true. As much as I hate that he is getting older and bigger, those are also the things that I love too. I have so many mixed emotions about Gabe growing up but I have mentioned them all before and we all know I am a bit of a sap when I start to get into it.. so I wont. On a happier note, Gabe has done some exciting things this month. 

*He is CRAWLING... and I must say he just wont stop moving now that he knows how to move those knees.

*He has had his two bottom teeth pop up and has not liked it one bit.

*He has learned how to click with his tongue. I have no idea how he figured out how to do that but it is so cute.

*He is really starting to say a word that resembles Ma Ma.. but it sounds a lot like mmmmmmmmmmmmm to Dallas.

*He is still extremely clingy to his momma and daddy but will go to a stranger if he is forced... we had to do that a few nights ago.

*He thinks that me and my mom are one person. He likes to be with her just as much as he likes to be with me. Whats the deal with that?

*He starts to jump up and down when I sing Popcorn Poppin. He gets so excited with that song.

* He still makes his funny, scratchy fake laugh when he thinks we are amusing. Not funny.... but amusing.

*He reaches for people when he wants to be picked up or held... so cute.

He Will NOT lay down for these pictures anymore... so this is what I get.

Oh and he kept eating the paper so I just had to take it away.. silly boy!

The two Loves of my Life!

We also went up to SnowBird with Dall's family to get in some R & R. It was so much fun and Gabe loved spending time with Gramps Bobby and Grams Jules... and all the rest of the fam. It was Gorgeous up there and we are sad we had to come home!! Here are just some of this pictures I took up there.

Us getting ready for our fun Day Pass.

We went swimming and Gabe LOVED the Water.

Grandpa Bobby is telling gabe what to do with that football...

All in all, we had an awesome week with the DeHaan's.

 

Picture of the day...

I had to post this picture of my Gabers and my sweet neice Avery. I thought it was so funny because right before I took this picture, Avery and Gabe were somewhat fighting over the penguin that Gabe is holding in sweet triumph. I guess he won the battle of the penguin. Avery just wanted to get out after that. The look on Gabe's face makes me chuckle. This is the face he gets when he is really excited over something. It's like he flexes his face to the point of contortion. What a little bully. I guess he will have to hold his own because he has two girl cousins a year older than him that will want to make him play "dress-up" and paint his nails. We wont have any of that!!!

The 4th Festivities...

This post is a little late but hey, I have been a little busy. My family took our annual Antimony trip over the 4th of July. It was very fun but a little crazy. Everyone came from my immediate family except for Allie... who was missed by everyone!!! We had a great time down there, relaxing.... well, trying to relax at least, soaking up the sun... while Gabe got a fever of 102.6. We are guessing from heat exhaustion. Almost every little one in our family didnt feel well at one point. There is something to say about vacationing with babies... especially when there is NO AC!!! We got down there on thursday evening and the men got busy setting up the tents.... yes, that's right.... we slept in tents, in the front yard no less. What's Antimony without tents?! The days were pretty hot but the nights got absolutely FREEZING!! Dall, gabe and I had 4 or 5 large and heavy blankets over us. What an adventure. On Saturday, my Aunt Deb and Uncle Brent set up this awesome game of kickball for all of us to play. When you ran to the bases, there were big buckets of water waiting for you to put your feet in. Thats the only way you were safe. Then from 3rd base to home plate, there was this HUGE billboard size slip n slide with water and dish soap on it and when you ran to home, you HAD to slide! Some of us were good and some of were not so good. Dallas got a little into it, if you can imagine. Then we had a water balloon toss (like an egg toss with huge water balloons and towels) and that was really fun. Erin and I had very slippery fingers. We lost it for our team. Then we had a frozen T Shirt contest.... very fun! The fireworks were awesome over the reservoir but Gabe wasnt so thrilled. I spent that time in the car feeding him and covering him up with a blanket. Maybe next year he will like fireworks. We also had Volleyball tournaments, Chinese checker games, phase ten and a ton of other things that I cant recall right now. All in all, it was a great trip but we are glad to be back.

Here are some pics from the trip

The sign coming into town

My cuz Erin showing how the slip n slid works

Rylee being silly with rubber gloves

My two boys waiting for the parade to start

Mr. Climb up to everything

Us and Gramps

Almost the whole family...

I LOVE this picture!!!! Gabe LOVES his Gamps Burr