What a GLORIOUS day!

I know I am two days late on this but I wanted to share anyway -- you all know about Griffin's food allergies and how we have always had to be so careful to avoid anything that he was allergic to. For the past 5 years this has meant that he had to be "different" from other kids at mealtime. I've done my best to make sure that he never felt overly segregated but it has always bothered me -- much more than him -- that he has never been able to eat a birthday cake at a party or have pizza with everyone else. I have always provided "Griffin's version" of every special event food under the sun. Well Tuesday we got the tremendous news that he has finally OUTGROWN HIS MILK ALLERGY!!!! Yay! He was so excited and the first thing he asked for was ice cream like Carson's... which is just regular old Blue Bell but something that has always been off limits to him. We raced right home from the doctors office and I made him a huge ice cream sundae, complete with chocolate, WHIPPED CREAM and his favorite cherry on top. I even videotaped the first bite --which earned two thumbs up from Griffin! I realize that in the grand scheme of things, we have been so blessed to only have a few food allergies to deal with -- there are certainly many more sinister things that we could have been handed and I have always been very thankful that God gave us something that was manageable. Still...as a Mommy, It has always broken my heart a little to watch my sweet baby eat different things from the other kids and ask his brother what cheese tastes like and wonder if he would ever get to eat what the other kids eat. He is still allergic to eggs but we can certainly work around that for another year. Tonight I am just so very greatful that my baby boy has taken a giant step toward being able to be just like everyone else. And I am enjoying watching him try new foods as much as he is enjoying having his culinary world opened up to him. My heart is just bursting with joy that he will be able to start kindergarten this fall and be able to eat pizza with all the other kids. God is good and this is just a small bit of proof.

I can't keep up!

there is too much going on to blog every day. Yesterday was my birthday - complete with a delicious cake made by Timothy. I dont have time right now to do a proper post but enjoy these pics of my pretty princess and a few other items!

I DO know how to add pictures!!

The internet connection here is not strong so I could not get the pics to load last night. Here are the pics for the previous post:

Day 2 and 3 in Pensacola!

Whew! we have been busy! Doing a lot of nothing really takes it out of you!
The boys are having a fabulous time and so are the adults.... we've eaten so much seafood we may sprout claws ourselves! Yesterday was my Mom's birthday so shout out to Barbara.... we went on a cruise that was supposed to take us to see dolphins... what it actually did was give us 2 hours to corral the boys on a hot boat while we "looked" for dolphins. We did end up seeing a few fins in the water but it was NOT what we were expecting. We also took a drive over to Pensacola Beach to check that out in the afternoon. Wouldn't you know it? as soon as we got over there, the sky opened up and it just poured for a couple of hours. Luckily we were able to find refuge in a really cool restaurant with all kinds of fun things for the boys to look at and fun things for Krystal and I to drink. Griffin had his first popcorn shrimp and loved it. Today the Daddys played golf and the Mommies and boys went to the beach. We saw Dolphins today and we didnt have to pay a dime to do it so that was cool. Carson found half a crab in the surf and the boys all enjoyed dissecting it and grossing each other out. We found lots of shells and brought back lots of sand in our swimsuits and other areas that were not intended to haul sand. In the afternoon we went back over to Pensacola Beach where the Dads went into the fairly large surf in search of the big shells and sand dollars. So far we are having a wonderful time. Here are a few more pics from the last 2 days!

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Parenting error #23,962

OK, with all the recent coverage about the untimely and tragic passing of Michael Jackson, I realized that my boys had no idea who he was. Although I did not agree with most of his "personal issues" I can admit that he was perhaps the greatest musical and video genius my generation will every know. That thought led me to show my boys what I described to them as the first and best long form music video that was ever created -- Thriller. I have seen this video roughly 1,000 times and my most recent viewing was maybe 15 years ago so I had forgotten some the nuances of the work. Specifically I forgot that if you are 5 and 7 and have never seen anything like that and then all of a sudden the guy turns into a scary warewolf before your eyes --- you might not think that your Mom is doing you much of a favor. Griffin literally jumped off the couch into my arms and Carson covered his eyes yelling "Mom that's mean! This is a scary movie -- why would you make us watch that?" We never got to the dancing zombies part. Apparently no one at my house is ready for the complete Michael Jackson crash course.

Lesson learned.

More pictures from day ONE...

The first day of vacation!!!!

We are having fun so far -- one day into our Florida adventure. So much fun in fact that all 3 boys on this trip fell asleep before we got to the restaurant tonight and all slept through dinner and were brought home and put to bed with no dinner and no tooth brushing. Don't judge us. They were all so tired and cranky that we figured they could miss a few calories and one brushing episode. I'm posting some pictures from today. Hopefully I will be able to do a little every day.

Day One: we were up at 630a, had breakfast, went to the beach here in Perdido Key, came back to the condo for lunch then out to the very cool pool at our resort for a couple of hours. then we took showers and headed to the dinner that wasn't at about 630p. All boys were asleep by 631p and are now sleeping soundly. I expect that they will all be awake and demanding a LARGE pancake breakfast by 6am.

Enjoy our pics from today - love you all!