Wow...I am averaging 2 post a year! Ha

AND I don't think it will get any better any time soon. Wow, I had to stop and read what i wrote last, and I admit, it brought tears to my eyes, it's funny how somethings don't chance...ei...your calling, and others change so fast! Last time i did a recap of summer, and now I will give a recap of fall/winter. September is where I left off...fall was a blur really, lots of runny noses and a screaming baby about sums it up...we were told Isaac had a casein allergy...stopped nursing, started a hypoallergenic formula...he stopped eating, called a friend in tears and cried sooooo much that night. Started nursing again on a restricted diet...he was a little better, restricted diet more, he improved again....started dropping unwanted pounds...a bonus side effect of crazy diet! Ha..at six month well visit, we decided to go see an allergist to see if we could find some answers. Expected to find allergies...there were none, but since seeing gi dr we knew he had blood in his stool along with crying times as if he was in a lot of pain....ezema....and abnormal stool...sounds fun right. So more test were done, along with introducing rice cereal...heehee...yeah so every time we would give him cereal he would scream with in 30 minutes, like he was having his insides ripped out of him. So we stopped cereal. All test were back and normal, so it's not allergies....it's FPIES, what is fpies well it's food protein induced enterocolitis syndrome...whew a big label for such a little guy. It's a clinical diagnosis, as there is no way to actually prove it, he has yet to have a "full blown" reaction, but most don't until they actually ingest the food and since we aren't doing much food yet we haven't been there...so we are still nursing and have added in oatmeal, apples, carrots, and pears successfully. The allergist decided to follow this protocol because he fits it perfectly and all the food I have eliminated from my diet are all on the food trigger list for fpies. All the way down to the most common being rice...crazy! It appears that since he was getting the proteins through the breast milk he wasn't having the full reactions...only aggravations, and we are unsure exactly which ones might cause a full attack (which includes throwing up repeatedly for a couple of hours until the body goes into shock) so the future might be bumpy when we start more foods. I must say again, I feel my faith being stretched, and i daily tell myself that its all in His control.
Now on all the other notes, school is still going well, we took a long break over Christmas which was nice. School is going well, we enjoy our days at home! Christmassaws SO SO fun, I bought a shirt that said "the more the merrier" as I get tired of people asking if they are all mine! Heehee! But you can't have four and not have a fun Christmas! Eli really got into the Christmas spirit this year...lol...super fun...still haven't even downloaded those pictures yet, Emma was in the nutcracker again this year and was a little party girl, super cute, and she has so much fun, it was hard for me this year with isaac, but still fun! Alex took off for 10 days around christmas and he was wonderful and let me sleep a lot.....which was soooo needed. I found time to catch up on me a little bit and realized how weary I was and how effecting everything around me. I also had time to figure out that a lot of my weary was from worry, about Isaac, about school, about how the kids were hanging in here, about how alex was coping.....and you know, worry is a festering little thing, it will eat you if you let it....so I was able to hand that festering little thing over to the waiting hands of Jesus and LEAVE it there....whoohoo! Now, everyday is not perfect, I am still struggling with it some, I still have it give it back now and then....but I feel replenished and filled with peace about whatever might come next!
I hope your holiday season was wonderful, forgive my lack of Christmas card, it will return next year...ha...you should see all the pictures I took over the holidays of the kids....and some are cute, but the card...well...it just didn't happen!....and I'm not going to stress or worry a out it. :)