First Snow

It would seem that snow is not very popular in Boise, but in our family it's always welcome. 

(And it makes the mountains here truly beautiful.)

 We were up and taking advantage of the inch or so before breakfast. 

MA MA!! BAAAAALL!!!

Shane added to the celebration with some homemade hot chocolate and, of course, his famous pancakes.

Ah, so cute. And by the way. There is a lot more than an inch of snow right now.

What I'm thankful for today.

(I'm also thankful for the fact that we've already had two Thanksgiving dinners. Thus while you are slaving over a hot stove, I'm watching the Macy's Day Parade in my PJs and having pancakes for our big meal of the day.  Shane's famous Turkey Pancakes of course.)

An Early Thanksgiving

Had our Thanksgiving a bit early this year. It was the only time when we could all get together. Love it because it extends this cozy happy holiday. The plan was that my parents, sister Abby, and her baby would head down to Boise for the weekend. My mom almost had a heartattack when she opened my pantry and found my sister Molly and her husband in the pantry. Eating chips.

Photos of the couples. And sad Abby missing her husband. But where is baby Paige? 

She's eating on the floor under the table of course. Wait? You mean that isn't how you feed your baby? Weird. 

Dinner turned out great. Shane is the master carver. Look at that platter. My dad asked why there were "weeds" on the plate. I said it was thyme. "Yea. Time to get the weeds off the turkey". 

Nice one dad.

One more "room" done!

There's nothing like family coming into town that makes you get stuff done. We're having our Thanksgiving early this year. Like this weekend. Shane and I have been working every night getting things taken care of. A barstool or two so everyone will have a place to sit, shower curtains (got this yellow lovely) so that people can have a bit of modesty, and the master bedroom so that the guest room will be available for use. (By the way, the master is no longer a playroom. Just couldn't do it.) My family will arrive soon, but I wanted to first post a shot of the hall wall I was working on. I did go with the table you guys advised me on and it's perfect. I thought for the price it would be a temporary piece, but it is actually really well built so I think it's going to go the distance. And it supplies a place for my purse, Shane's laptop bag and Lydia's backpack which is fantastic. 

So glad this house is starting to look like a home. I can't wait to decorate this baby for Christmas.  And I will soon be replacing a few photos with some from our latest family photo shoot. 

Now I'm off to do a little baking before the relatives arrive. Let's get our entertaining on!

FOOD ALLERGY VENT!!!!!

I am so frustrated with my kid's food allergies! I've been on a bit of a cooking strike because I just cannot figure out what to make for dinner.

First I have to deal with Lydia's peanut allergy. Of course, that's a terrifying allergy in itself. Just head to your pantry and check out your food for peanut warnings and you will see how much it limits my choices. And don't get me started about how dangerous it is to go out to eat at restaurants.

THEN....I have to deal with Collin's MILK ALLERGY! It didn't used to be so bad as I would just feed him baby food. Now he wants what we have and is heartbroken when he doesn't get it. And I don't want to make two separate meals anyway.

Imagine. Nothing made with milk, CHEESE of any kind, butter, cream of anything soup, sour cream, or yogurt. No pizza, no mac and cheese, no lasagna, no grilled cheese sandwiches, no parmesan roasted veggies (our favorite.) No chocolate, no peanut butter, no ice cream. No Mexican restaurants, no Asian restaurants. Flying is terrifying. Imagine taking your child in a huge metal trap filled with anthrax. For us it's tiny peanut packages. (Even smelling peanut can be fatal.)

80% of the food I like to make is now off limits between the two allergies. Shane mentioned once he thought we should try being vegetarians for a while. I could scarce catch my breath I laughed so hard. Sure. Let's cut out wheat too. Just for kicks. I'll just serve you guys huge plates of unsalted broccoli with some gum on the side.

I'm trying to make this work. I've been trying to feed Collin soy cheese, but it smells like a dirty diaper and tastes about the same. I've gone through my cook books and found lot's of recipes that will work. The problem is, they all take a lot of effort. I'm a busy mom with two little kids. I want some of the easy stuff! (Though I still refuse to make frozen chicken nuggets. The thought makes me gag.)

Sorry. I just needed to get that out. I think I'll go eat a coconut milk ice cream bar to cheer me up. Or the stack of 25 chocolate bars taken from Lydia's halloween sack because they were "processed on equipment that also processes peanuts." ARGH!!!!

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Now- I thought I would answer the three questions everyone asks when food allergies are brought up.

1. Does anyone else in your family have allergies? 

               *** No. Neither Shane nor I nor anyone in our immediate families have food allergies.

2.  How did you find out about Lydia's allergy?

               *** When Lydia was 6 months old I was eating peanuts. She was crawling around in a diaper and I went to pick her up. Almost immediately her skin broke out into horrible hives. We took her to an allergist the next day and was diagnosed. We feel very blessed it happened this way as she is so allergic, she probably would not have survived her first contact with ingesting peanut. 

3. Will they out-grown them?

               *** Collin has a good chance of outgrowing his in the next few years. Lydia does not. Neither my allergist or my pediatrician have ever heard of someone out-growing their peanut allergy when it was as severe as Lydia's when diagnosed. They gave me about a 2% chance. Still praying for it though. Everyday.

The (Second) Best Holiday

Collin is the "Saggy Baggy Elephant" this year. It's from the old Golden book of the same name.

Something you don't see everyday....

Shane and I reused last year's vampire costumes. That's the beauty of moving. No one has seen your wares.

Technically, Lydia was a witch for Halloween. You can see photos of that costume here. 

However, there were so many Halloween functions, we switched between the witch costume and last year's southern belle costume. I know I took her on a little photo shoot last year, but I just used my point and shoot camera. This year I have a snazzy new camera to experiment with. AND a lawn full of leaves!

My, she is lovely.

Yawn. Done editing photos. Now it's time to dig into the candy bag!

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Halloween....TRICK!

Need a good trick idea for this Halloween? Check out this one that I was subjected to recently.....

While visiting my parents one night, some of us stayed up late playing Mexican Train. Finally we decided it was time to go to bed. 

I got in my pajamas, washed my face, brushed my teeth and turned to use the water closet. 

BUT SOMEONE WAS ALREADY THERE!

Did I scream? Hello! Wouldn't you?!? If you innocently went to pee and were suddenly faced with THIS?! I can't believe I didn't just go ahead and wet my pants. 

This terrifying "person" is completely inanimate. My sister Emily and her husband put it together using a body made of a duct tape base and clothes for filling. They toped the torso with a freakish mask and wig.  Tucked the monstrosity in a pair of jeans and placed it on the toilet. Adding toilet paper as a nice touch.

As soon as they heard my scream, Emily and Greg came laughing from the next room. They had been hiding in there, just waiting for me to find their creation.

I have to hand it to them. It was awesome. In a totally disturbing way.

"MOM! Something is wrong with the toilet. Come look!!!!"

Have a wonderful Halloween everyone!

Halloween Darlings