Laurel and Lyla come to town.

Laurel and her daughter, Lyla, come to visit us last week all the way from Alabama (with baby #2 safely tucked in her belly). I first met Laurel back in 2005 when we were both living in Japan. Our husbands were in the same squadron, and we all hit it off quickly. We shared so many great times together in Japan even though our tours only overlapped for a little over a year. We have remained close even though we have only reunited one other time since we left Japan. 

Aubrey was 5 months old the last time Laurel saw her. This was taken moments before she and Johan left for the airport to leave Japan.

And this was taken the last time I saw Laurel... in Paris in 2007 (in front of the oldest wine shop in Paris)

We had such a great time while they were here.  We played and talked a lot. It was like no time had passed. The only thing missing was Johan (thanks for sharing your girls with us).  Thanks for coming Laurel. We miss you already!

Beautiful Lyla. Check out those curls!

Laurel and Henry enjoying some pizza. (On a side note, Henry is eating like a champ these days.  I believe cutting eggs from his diet has made a HUGE difference. He is so much happier, eating more, and doesn't have a single patch of eczema!

Hold the nuts and eggs, please.

I took Henry for his appointment with the allergist today.  They conducted a skin prick test to confirm his peanut allergy and to test for other common allergens like shrimp, sesame, and eggs.  Sure enough, he reacted to peanuts. I was a little surprised he also reacted to eggs.  Now I know why he refuses to eat them. They must make him feel bad. Poor guy.  He will most likely outgrow the egg allergy, but there is only a 20% chance he'll outgrow the peanut allergy. Luckily, his reaction last weekend was fairly mild in comparison, and hopefully will stay that way if he is exposed again.  The Dr. did not test for other nuts because that involves a lot more skin pricks and could make him even more uncomfortable.  He felt sure he would react to some tree nuts since I told him Henry had a very mild reaction on his face to pancakes that had pecans. So, we are just going nut free for now, and we'll do more testing as he gets older and can tolerate it a little better.

Now begins the vigilance stage. We have a prescription for EpiPens and will obviously be extra careful about what we give him.  I'm not really worried about exposing him at home, considering he has a limited diet at this point of fresh meats, fruits and veggies.  Aubrey even said she didn't need to have peanut butter anymore at home. So sweet ( I think she was just thrilled that the Dr. gave us the OK to have "Chick-Fil-A" even though they use peanut oil...a whole other story about that, but it seems filtered peanut oil is a different deal). It will be more difficult as he gets older, I'm sure.  We have to be very careful when we eat out, and he mentioned that places like Amy's Ice Cream are pretty much off limits (gasp) since cross contamination is highly. Good thing he hasn't had it yet, so he has no clue what he is missing.

We'll return again when he's three. Until then, I'll keep pushing the broccoli. Maybe by then he'll actually touch it to his mouth. How does he know he won't like it if he doesn't try????  

LLFC photos

Dirty, tired and oh so happy

He's a little happy too!

They call him the wanderer.

Mr. Matt's water ballons were a huge hit.

We ran into the Skaggs on our bug hunt. Amy is proudly showing off her fly.

The Risinger clan

The Skaggs clan

They even had a carnival for the kids on Sat. night. 

We attempted to get a photo of just the kids. Henry was none too pleased.

The moms and kiddos

The family goes to camp!

*** I've been trying for two days to get my photos to load. No luck. So, here is the post and the photos will have to come later***

Ok, so I am finally getting around to posting about what we did last weekend, just in time for another weekend.  We packed up the kids and headed to family camp at Laity Lodge.  I went to camp there from the time I was 8 or so until I was a counselor post high school.  We went with some of our great friends from. Our kids are all about the same age and play so well together. The camp was even more beautiful than I remember, probably because it wasn't mid July and 110 degrees outside.

Aubrey was beside herself about sleeping with us in a cabin, about staying up "in the dark", about using a flashlight (and really needing it), about the bouncy house that was set up all weekend, about catching bugs, about canoeing with her daddy, and about playing and playing with her buds Alivia and Samuel. 

Henry was equally thrilled, but on a simpler level. He was just so happy to be outside all the time. He loved being able to walk, and walk, and walk.  One minute he'd be walking with us and the next, he'd just take off in some random direction on a "walk about." We did a lot a chasing, but it was just so fun to see him so happy. He slept really well after all that walking, and other than the reaction to peanut butter, had a great time. 

Brian and I even had a little time together without the kids. They had some college kids there to help out for the weekend, and they played with the kids for an hour or so while we did a ropes course/climbing tower. We both made it to the top and then rappelled down. I rappelled for the first time at Laity many years ago, and I must say, I had much less fear this time around. This time I was just winded from the climb up, which was pretty sad. 

All in all, we loved it and can't wait to go back one day. We were all exhausted, but it was well worth it. And the more I think about it, it was exactly where we needed to be that weekend after a stressful week.  

Please excuse my absence, but I have a good excuse.

I am way behind on my posts. I'm not exactly sure where to begin or how to get caught up. It's been a VERY busy and challenging week since my last post. I have several great photos and stories to post, but just haven't been able to get there. In an effort to move forward and get back on track with the fun stuff, I have to get this off my chest and then call it "blogged."

Thursday morning: closed on our old house. SOLD (sing hallelujah, and then cringe at the $ 

lost)

Thursday evening: went under contract on a new house in Austin! more to come

Friday: left for Laity Lodge Family Camp.

Saturday: Discovered, while at camp, that Henry is most likely allergic to peanuts. One lick of a peanut butter sandwich... hives.  Allergist appointment set for Monday. Big sigh. Bigger sigh.

Sunday:  Returned from camp tired, but had a ball... more to come. Then the packing began.

Monday: Inspection on new house and then a trip to the ER with Henry. (Really, hadn't he had enough after the peanuts?)  Our little monkey pushed himself away from a high table while strapped to a booster. He, the booster and the chair went straight back and hit a hard tile floor. Big scream, lots of tears, and then he was pale and lethargic.  30 mins later he vomited and we were off to children's hospital (Swine central... more stress). 2.5 hours later... no fracture, he perked up and we headed home, at 9:30pm. Tired boy. Tired mama. Raging 

migraine. I'm pretty sure he had one too! Thankfully, he is just fine today, other than needing some extra TLC and zzzzz's.

Tuesday: A little packing and a lot of day dreaming about how to make the new house "our" home. (Dear Brian, the navy blue carpet must go. Thanks, your new house).

So that brings you up to date. Good. Done. Check. Now, hopefully I can get on with the fun stuff tomorrow. Nighty night. 

P.S. For those of you who actually indulged me and read my post despite it's semi-depressing nature and lack of cute kid photos, here is a sneak peak at the good stuff...

The peaceful Rio Frio.

The house

It's about time!!!

Busted-up

It's been a bumpy week here at the B house. Henry took his first big splat on the driveway and scraped his forehead, nose, and lip. Ouch. Then yesterday, Aubrey was twirling (as she says) when she slipped and put her forehead right into the corner of the wall. Double ouch. It was instantly swollen and blue with a good gash.  I debated on whether to take her in or not, and finally decided it couldn't hurt. So, off we went to the ER.  Sure enough, it needed a little glue (well, I'm not convinced it really did, but I think they took pitty on me for making the effort to come in and they wanted me to get something for my $). Hopefully it didn't really need it since she proceeded to pick the glue off last night in her sleep. Great.