Adorableness to start the day. :)

Why do you suppose he is doing this? There is a reason we call him the Evil Genius...

It is above freezing today!

Kim stopped by earlier and happened to mention that Granny has sparkly glow-in-the-dark nail polish on her fingers. Guess what Lucy and Daddy are doing now? :)

Self Portrait by Henry

Noah invited us over to see his new house today. The boys had so much fun together!

Tonight we were treated to a post-dinner play about fairies.

This morning Dave randomly decided to build something for the kids. This is what he came up with, a big cargo net. They have been having a ball with it all day.

We just finished fixing up this old love seat we had and I love it!!!! The slipcovers are very simple so they can come off easily to be washed. A huge plus with three kids and a dog! I am about half done with the couch and then I think I will make some brightly colored throw pillows.

It is a frigid wait for the bus today.

Allergy Update

Henry went to the allergist this afternoon and he is doing great! She said we are doing an excellent job managing his allergies. She decided we can do a food challenge! Here is a link to an article that explains the testing that is done for food allergies: http://community.kidswithfoodallergies.org/displaycontent/content/food-allergy-test-diagnosis-skin-prick-blood

To summarize the article, there are three types of testing: blood tests, skin prick tests, and food challenges. Blood tests and skin prick tests can give a general idea of what is going on but they have a high false positive rate, which means a person is not really allergic to a food even though these tests show a reaction. The only way to truly know if a person has a food allergy is for the person to eat said food and see if there is a reaction. If you know what can happen (anaphylaxis), the idea of doing a food challenge can be pretty scary, but it is exciting too. What will happen for Henry's challenge is that I will bake muffins with a ratio of 1/3 of an egg per muffin and we will take them into the office. They will cut it up and he will eat a piece at a time over a couple of hours while the watch him for a reaction. Baking the egg at high eat will, hopefully, change the egg enough that he won't react to it. If he passes the challenge eating baked eggs regularly may help him outgrow his egg allergy altogether.

If you are interested in learning more about food allergies two trusted sites with lots of information are:
Kids with Food Allergies    and
FAAN

Henry decided to play dress up while the big kids are at school. He is so proud of himself and his outfit!

Happy Birthday to the best Mother-in-law in the whole world!! 

Lucy made directions for how to draw a bunny. Aren't they great?

Things are coming along now. The drywall inside is FINALLY done (they are coming back to do the garage), the masons have started the basement floor, and what Dave is working on today is finishing installing the heating system. This week he will be priming and painting the downstairs, then the he will start on the kitchen.

Brotherly love. They are kind of hugging, kind of fighting. :D

It is 67 degrees right now!

We are all working hard today at the farm.

Sick toddlers are the worst!!!

Just to prove I am not a terrible mother, here is a picture of him eating a clementine. :)

Not to be outdone, Henry is also sick now. How do you keep a sick toddler happy? Hand over a bag of Fritos. Unhealthy I know but the peace I finally found! He is still underweight anyway. ;)

Fred is improving but still sick so he is home sick from school today. This morning Lucy had her Barbies out so got out Prince Charming and, thankfully, got him dressed up. Now he wrapped him and said he is a baby. I am currently cradling baby Prince Charming so Fred can play trains.
Lucy was jealous and asked if she could stay home to hang out today too. I felt bad sending her off but I know they are working on a big, new, super cool project in her class.
In other news, we have had some new house issues mixed into the holiday business, but things are getting back on track. A new dry wall crew showed up this morning and they say they should be done by the end of the week. (Don't ask why there is a new crew. Grrr!) Dave is busy finishing up things upstairs and installing the heating downstairs (we are putting in-floor radiant heat so it goes in after the drywall). Things are finally progressing!

We had a super busy weekend and it was a bit too much for Fred. He fell asleep in the car this morning, woke up for a little bit and complained that his head hurt. He then went back to sleep for the rest of the afternoon. He woke up with a fever saying he felt "icky". We got some juice and half a dose of Tylenol in him. He is much improved but still not himself. He is just laying on the couch petting the dog. For all of the fighting I have done with that dog, Gus really is a good dog.

Self-portrait by Henry. If you are wondering where this was taken study the background closely...it's Lima Carpet! I got to go pick out tile for my bathroom!!!

I am absolved from dish washing tonight. We have a science experiment/art project taking up the sink. :)