6 Months Old

Gus is 6 months old....well, he's actually almost 7 months old, I'm just behind.  He weighs 22 lbs, is wearing 12 month clothes, and loves to eat.  He's eating baby food once a day now.  He's very happy and smiling and the morning, and super fussy all evening long.  He still sleeps a lot, but is having more awake time.  He has been able to go to bible class and seems to enjoy that.  He is developing some head control and really seems to enjoy music and jingle bells.  Gus is definitely a mama's boy.  He is still having anywhere from 10-30 seizures a day, but he is having more good days.  We are looking forward to the spring when the weather is nice and there isn't so much sickness around so we can get out into the world more!

Dietary Changes

For the past few months, Gus has been on a diet called the ketogenic diet.  This is a diet that is high in fat and low in carbs and is closely monitored by a dietician to help with the control of his seizures.  When patients are put on this diet, it completely controls the seizures in about 30% of patients, reduces them in about 30%, and does nothing for 30%.  For Gus, it has helped to reduce his seizures from hundreds a day to around 20.  It's pretty easy while he's a baby, he just has to drink a special formula that is supplied to us by a medical supplier.  As he starts eating food, we have to mix his foods with fats such as oil, butter, or mayonnaise.  So far he has eaten pears (14 grams of pears with 13 grams of butter) and carrots (35 grams of carrots and 13 grams of butter).  I can't bring myself to mix his foods with mayo yet!  You can find out more about the ketogenic diet the website http://www.charliefoundation.org/.  Part of this diet is that all of his medicines and products, such as bath soaps, lotions, sunscreen, have to be carb free.  If the carbs soak in through the skin it could get him out of ketosis and cause an increase in seizures.  As a result, I have had a hard time baking with flour and sugar and worrying about these things getting into his system.  Gus is very fussy and prefers to suck on my finger rather than a pacifier, and over Christmas while cooking I would have to stop and wash my hands thoroughly, make sure there was no flour on me anywhere, just to pick him up and take care of him.  Not to mention the fact that I spilled flour all over his bottles more than once and had to wash everything.  As a result of this...and our family's incredibly unhealthy eating habits, Micah and I have decided that our family should go paleo.  This is a way of eating my sister-in-law Amber has been following for a while, and she has really enjoyed it.  Basically, its eat healthy grass fed, organic meats, vegetables, and fruits.  No processed stuff and no grains.  There's probably a lot more to it than that, but that's where we are starting.  So far my only complaint is all the dirty dishes!  I'm wishing we had gone for two dishwashers in our new house!  So, no more cheerios, goldfish, or chips for us.  Hopefully this will help our kids develop good eating habits and help all of us enjoy more fruits and veggies every day!  For more info on the paleo diet, go to Marks Daily Apple.

Working Cattle

So the past four months have been crazy for us.  And I'm not going to go back and blog about them for now.  Gus was born, we spent 2 months in the NICU.  He has a severe form of epilepsy.  We are adjusting.  Enough about that.

We had a good Thanksgiving.  Micah and Lane and Karl worked cattle Friday in the new pens that Tom built.  The pens worked great.  Everything went smoothly.  Ava and Max thought it was awesome, Gus hung out with me.

Ava and Max, ready to work, and play in the sand.

 Helping Dad

Ava wanted to know what Lane was doing to that cow....and how he was going to find a baby calf in there!

 Karl and his Wyoming Hay Hat

Summer

We've been staying busy and having lots of fun so far this summer!  Ava has taken swim lessons, we've had a week of VBS, and the kids have gone to Nana and Grandpa's house several times.  We are getting ready for the new baby to arrive sometime in the next few weeks.  Ava and Max yell at my belly just about every day saying "New baby come out!!"  One day it will work!

Swimming

We finally hooked up the portacool.  It makes such a difference!

Playing at the shed

Holding one of the kittens at Nana and Grandpas

And Ava has discovered how fun makeup can be!

Max is Batman.  Thanks to Amy and Jorge for letting us hang out at their house while Micah was at the stock show.

37 weeks pregnant

I probably won't be blogging anymore until the new baby arrives, which will hopefully be sometime in the next 2-3 weeks!!

Lamar County Stock Show

A few weeks ago we went to the Lamar Co. Stock Show to watch Hunter show his steer.  Ava and Max had a great time watching all animals and playing with their cousins.  Ava was able to show a goat and did a great job.  Max showed a duck and they both won trophies they were very proud of.

Hunter and his steer.  He did an awesome job!

Too much fun!

Easter 2012

Easter weekend was a fun busy weekend for us.  It started Thursday with Ava and Max's Easter egg hunt and party at school. Max was very meticulous about the eggs he picked, he preferred to get only the ones that looked like footballs.  Ava on the other hand grabbed as many eggs as she could.

Enjoying their parties

Friday all of our "cousin friends" came down.  Lane and Page and all their kids stayed at our house, which was crowded but fun.  We took bluebonnet pictures...

Got presents...

Hunted for more Easter eggs...

played lots with baby Gracie...

and ate smores.  I discovered that dark chocolate is the way to go when making smores.  I ate a few more than I should have!

We had a great time at Easter and look forward to it again next year!!

Fishing

Now that the weather is great the kids have been wanting to go fishing.  So we got poles (Jake and Amber got Max a Cars pole for his birthday and Ava picked out a Mickey Mouse pole) and some worms and went fishing.  Taking two small children fishing isn't as fun for the adults as you would think.  You pretty much have to not want to fish yourself.  Ava and Max enjoyed it, though!

Ready to go!

Watching dad

Max decided the back of the truck was more fun

Papa Jack showed up to help.  We still didn't catch anything, but we did get a few bites.