Hooray! Easter time!

How cute is this?

Over 20 kids all geared up for the 1st Egg hunt of the season.

Grandpa Holmes came with us & hid the eggs while the

grown-ups attempted a group shot. Alas, the kids were

spaced too far apart for me to capture all the adorableness,

but this group looks very "springy" and ready for action right?

No.

Please note that my 1st born jewel is the only child crying.

The sequence of events below.

Other than the mini-meltdown it was a great evening back at our old church building. Isn't it fantastic that they have a softball field and park as part of the property? Plenty of yummy food & treats of which Max partook none. Too busy on the slide and trying to steal someones ball to eat. I'm pretty sure all the kids had a blast & it turns out that Max was the 1st child to hit the Egg Hunt.

Tate? Happy as usual to sit back and watch it all.

I love the boys faces in this pic.

Both so intent on getting to the good stuff.

Too bad Tate only had Easter grass in his.

Max eventually gave him an empty egg to play with :)

Max could not be bothered to sit still for a family picture.

Why do I even bother trying to get them in coordinating

outfits for pictures?

Hope everyone has a fabulous week and a fun-tastic Easter!

Sometimes, its the simple little things

One great thing about the recent rains is that we now have nice, juicy oranges on our trees. I thought it would be a fun thing we could do together and make great use of all our oranges to make juice. It took me a couple days to find one, but I got one of those hand-juicer-thingy's (yes, that is it's official name) and Max & I made some OJ.

I don't have pictures of the tree, or us picking them, but I promise we did not buy these oranges. (I had thought of making an OJ/cutie combo drink, but alas the cuties on the counter behind Max had gone bad.)

This was a very lengthy process. Max insisted that every spec be washed off. He didn't quite grasp that we were not using the outside of the orange. He's the same way when washing his hands. Can't stand a single spec left on them.

This was the fun part. Max moved on quickly to the next orange so I had to go back and re-squeeze them all.

The best part of all was drinking it. There are 2 "schools" to OJ drinking. You're either a pulp or no-pulp. I don't mind a little pulp in my OJ, but Mike wouldn't drink the glass we saved for him. Apparently he is on the no-pulp side.

Nothing wrong with getting a little work done

I've always wanted super full lips. My little sister has nice full lips like Angelina Jolie. I really wanted my kids to have nice full lips as well. But alas they were both born with adorable little rose bud lips.

Soooooo, I've been contemplating getting a little work done on them (theirs, not mine). Botox injections won't hurt them that bad will they? I was just about to start looking for a Dr. when Max decided taking a header off the stairs would be less painful AND cheaper!


Thanks Max for saving us a few bucks!

You know I'm kidding about the botox for babies right?

Brothers

When I found out I was having another boy, I was immediately grateful for 3 things:

1) No need to go out and purchase a whole new baby wardrobe

2) Max and baby boy #2 could share a room

3) I would get to name him TATE which is what Max would have been had Daddy not taken advantage of my drugged, euphoric, happy state

4) Max would have a brother to rough house with


I also started thinking of my favorite outfits Max wore and how I would try and stage Tate for the same photos to compare. Everyone tells me how similar they look, but I think they look so different. They do have the same square faces, dark eyes and big cheeks. Can you tell which is which?

Comparing their photos got me comparing other things about them...

-Tate can not be alone. Max was happy to sit or lay on the ground with toys for a little while. Tate will cry as soon as he notices no one is in the room.

-Tate can practically launch himself out of the bouncy seat. Max didn't kick much in it.

-Max's eyes are almost black. You can tell Tate's are brown.

-Both boys smile easily. Tate smiled back at anyone by the time he was 2 months old. Max would smile occassionally until around 3-4 months old.

-Max is very loud. He talks loud, walks loud, eats loud, sings loud, whispers loud (you get the idea). He was loud from birth. Tate is generally quiet unless he realizes he is alone, needs to eat, or needs his "Mommy" time which is from 7-8ish EVERY night.

-Max was pretty solid at 6 months. And although I have not directly compared, I feel like Tate weighs more than Max did at this age. Tate weighs 20lbs.

-They are both tall for their age. People always ask how old they are and seem shocked when I say 2 1/2 & 6 months.

-I am so thankful that both boys take/took their "guk" well. (pacifier)

-Tate has mirror image facial similarities with me. I have a cow-lick on the right side of my hair line, Tate's is on the left. My right eye is smaller than my left, for Tate its his left eye that's smaller. My right ear is slightly higher than my left, Tate's left ear is higher. Max has Mike's identical hair line.

-Tate is longer in the torso than Max was as a baby. The shirts Max wore don't fit Tate as well and end up half-shirts whereas the pants he can wear longer.

-Both boys giggled for the first time while Grandpa Holmes was holding them :)

-Max was rolling over by the time he was 5 months old. Tate hates being on his stomach & has rolled over twice

-Max absolutely loves to sing. He sings at nap time, bed time, and any in-between time. Tate sort of moans and gorans to himself a lot when he is intently doing something.

I'm know there is more, but I'm just so tired. Both boys are also not sleeping well these days.

Tate the Tank & My Main Max

Whateve's don't give me a hard time. Over a month between blogs is a perfectly acceptable time frame.

"What have the Brownstein boys been up to" you ask?

Adventures in Gluten Free cooking:
banana bread & graham crackers



Packing on the weight. (Tate, not Mike)


A visit from GiGi & a trip to Disney. I feel like Max really enjoys it at this age. Tate was just wide-eyed at everything.






Plenty to keep a girl from blogging right? Ok, ok, I'll try and be better.

My Main Max

Warning, a long narration/venting post of a slightly neurotic mom

The last few months Mike and I have been feeling like something has been a little "off" with Max. He's looked pale and had dark circles under his eyes and his diapers...well no extra detail is needed. Just before Christmas Mike had some time off and we took the boy's passport pictures for an upcoming trip to Canada.

This is Max's picture...


















I know! He just does not look well to me. He hasn't complained about not feeling good, but for our own piece of mind we got him an appointment with his Dr. I was a little extra concerned because in my family we have a couple members who are diabetics & several who have celiac disease. We told the Dr. our concerns and he immediately suspected Max was anaemic more than anything else (which had not occurred to us), so we were off to do a bunch of tests including for leukemia. Umm, can I just say my stress levels tripled at the mention of that!

So we waited the few days for results & Wednesday called the Dr's office. The nurse told me his results were in and everything was fine, he's just one of those kids who is going to have dark circles. Naturally we were relieved, but something still told me there has to be something up with him. Yesterday we got back from a play date and there was a message from his Dr. that his immunoglobulin A (sp?) levels were high which is consistent with Celiac disease. He said we had a couple options; have him re-tested, get a biopsy or put him on a gluten free diet to see if symptoms go away & then re-introduce gluten to confirm it. What the crap? Why did they tell me he was fine the day before!

Celiac disease is basically a problem where gluten can not be processed by your small intestines. Over time it builds up & damages the villi in your intestines and malnutrition, organ failures, seizures, etc. can occur.

Retested- no thanks. The blood test was a nightmare in the first place. It took both Mike and I to hold him down.
Biopsy- not really sure we want to put him through that right now.
Gluten free diet- gonna give it a try.

That means no wheat, barley or rye. No breads, crackers, cakes, or cookies. No sacrament bread, no fish crackers in nursery, no Madeline's from Starbucks. It's seriously crazy how many foods have gluten in it. For instance Carmel coloring, modified food starch and malt flavoring are among some things that he can't have. Who knew most Gatorade's have modified food starch? We dropped some serious cash at Whole foods last night getting him gluten free treats and meals to try. Honestly, I doubt he'll know the difference at this age. I think Mike and I are taking it way worse. As odd as it seems, I am grateful to have family members who have it that I can turn to for recipes and help. Max's bestest cousin Carson has it and at least he'll have someone else eating the same things he is, & I've never heard Carson complain.

So, for the time being Max is on a gluten free diet. Just because his immunoglobulin levels are high doesn't mean he has it, but for us the right thing is to try this diet and see if the symptoms go away.

Fingers crossed.

DIY

I watched a lot of HGTV & DIY in my 3rd Trimester and decided to try and make-over our guest room with little to no $. The bright yellow just wasn't doing it for me anymore.

Room as it was before we bought house, there was glitter all over the walls! The bunk bed is blocking the little window you see in the next picture.














Just as we got started. My dad is helping to paint the base board since I couldn't do any painting.



For the head board, I used an old door from the Master bedroom/family room remodel we did a year after we moved in. I had a bunch of fabric and I loved this brown pattern which is what inspired the color palatte for the room. I had some batting (had to buy more)and borrowed Mike's staple gun to finish it off. We had the old bamboo linds from the same remodel & we cut them to fit above the trim. My mom and I hand tied every single one of the chords to keep them from unraveling. After sitting and tying for hours, plus doing some of the stapling into the wall, my dad had to take over. He and my mom painted the entire room, base boards, trim, bookshelf & side table included. Thank goodness they were around to help!

Tonight I finally got around to taking the "finished" pictures even though it was done in July, but we always seem to have guests staying in it (which we love). So all in I spent about $155, not bad right?

$60 paint (thank goodness for those new little color sample pouches!)

$80 molding

$15 foam & batting

I'm not counting the carpet because my brother-in-law got it at cost and installed it for us himself. It was not originally going to be part of the make-over until he said he could do it for us.

Next time I decide to do some decorating, I wont' start 7 months pregnant, but I'm very happy with how it turned out.