Quarter of a Century

At least that's how old my husband keeps telling me that I am! Actually, my birthday was wonderful! It started on Sunday with Brian doing all of the dishes, and making me my birthday meal (ham and cheesy potatoes) and birthday cake (Wacky Chocolate cake--from scratch). He did a great job on both!

lovin' that cake
Then on Monday, Kara took Robbie and I to Max and Cheese for lunch. Here are Robbie and Kaiya playing.
That evening, Brian gave me some beautiful earrings, took me to dinner at Brick Oven, and then to Seussical: the Musical. Robbie was able to come to the musical as well...and was really good. It was so entertaining!
That's Horton the elephant sitting on his egg in the tree.
Overall, I had an absolutely wonderful day. Thanks for all the phone calls, cards, gifts, and treats left at my door. It truly made me feel special!

Guy Time

Robbie got some guy time this week with Daddy and Grandpa Wheeler. On Saturday, they were able to go to Cornbelly's Maze at Thanksgiving Point.

Here they are in the maze
rockin' out

Apparently, Robbie loved playing in this wooden train.

on the hayride

Thank you Daddy and Grandpa!

Do As I'm Doing

Yesterday during Sunday School, I was asked to give the opening prayer. Afterwards, I went back to my seat next to Brian and Robbie. Throughout the rest of Sunday School, Robbie would periodically go up to the front of the class and bow his head, fold his arms, and "say a prayer"! It was great. Brian and I would chuckle in our seats. No one else noticed what he was doing, but we did, and we loved it!

Adjusting to a Nut-Free Life

Well, that's exactly what we are doing...still adjusting!
On Sunday, we made peanut-free chocolate-no-bakes. They came out a little sticky...still delicious, just sticky.

We found a lady on ebay that makes these medical bracelets. I've been looking for some, but they're all adult size in the stores. We were grateful to find these...they are inexpensive, and they fit perfect. We actually ordered three different sizes from her in case we couldn't find her again when we wanted a new one. We put it on him Saturday night, and he hasn't bothered it since! I was afraid he would be trying to get it off, but he has done so well. We had 3 people notice it at church...so it's working! We wanted to get them to remind people not to feed him anything he's not supposed to have.

This book was recommended on another blog I was reading. It has been so interesting! It is written by an allergist. It goes into what your body does during a reaction, all of the current research that is going on with peanut allergy (PA), what to look for in foods (including outside the USA), the history of peanuts and PA. In fact, they haven't really started researching PA until my lifetime! In 2003, they discovered a peanut vaccine. It's still has to be studied more before the public can have it. However, it's showing that those who could only have 1/2 of a peanut before having a reaction can have up to 9 peanuts after the vaccine! It's not a cure, but we wouldn't have to worry about whether different products were "manufactured in factories with..." or "may contain traces of peanut" anymore! Life would be so much easier! I totally recommend it if you want to find out more about PA.
We are just trying to learn all we can about it. We've joined Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), which has a Utah chapter called UFAN. They hold meetings in Salt Lake once a month on topics like "how to get through the holidays with PA", etc. In October, they are even having a peanut-free Halloween party that we might go to! It's been educational to say the least!

Thanksgiving Point Farm Country

Robbie and I went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point earlier this week. It was really a fun experience. We saw all sorts of farm animals and Robbie was so interested in observing them.

Here is a baby goat. (Don't worry--his fingers aren't as close as they look in the picture)

An adult goat that kept begging for food

A Leghorn Chicken (I love the name of this chicken because it is so much like my maiden name Cleghorn...hehe)--this chicken would put his head down to feed right there behind the wall and then pop his head up every once in a while. Robbie thought he was playing peekaboo with him and just loved it!

This horse was HUGE. I don't know what kind it is but it made the Clydesdale in the next coral over look small!

My favorite sign of the day

As part of the admission we got a ticket for either a pony ride or a wagon ride. They had a hard time calming down the horses on the wagon ride...so we chose the pony ride. Robbie loved it. I think he thought it was going to be like the carousel rides he went on this summer, so his face looked a little surprised when the pony started moving. He loved it though!

They also had this little play area with a mini dance hall and jail.

Overall, we had a great time. We definitely want to visit again!

Filling Daddy's Shoes

Robbie tried on Brian's shoes earlier this week. I thought it was so cute. He's been getting into more and more things lately (which is really fun to clean up), but I thought this one was okay.

BYU 59- UCLA 0

Talk about a great game! We were so excited to beat UCLA and to have it be a shut out was even better! The crowd was going wild. It was one of my favorite games to attend. Go COUGARS!

Allergy Testing

Today was Robbie's appointment with the allergist, Dr. Matheson. We wanted to get some testing done to make sure that it was the peanuts he was allergic to, to see how sensitive he was, and to get any advice on how to handle this new found condition.

Here he is during the testing.
They did the skin test on his back because you can't touch it for 15 minutes. The black dots are to indicate where the nurse poked him. The top three spaces are controls to make sure the test was valid. He was supposed to react to the top one and not to the next two....so it worked. The bottom three spaces are for the allergies they were testing--peanut, walnut, and cashews. He definitely reacted to the peanut (that's the second red dot), but not to either of the tree nuts. After 15 minutes the nurse came to measure how big the red dots got.
After the testing, the doctor sat down with us and said that for peanuts, if the reaction is larger than 7 mm, it is considered life-threatening. Robbie's reaction was 8 mm!! So he is deathly allergic to peanuts! He gave us some resources to look at and some great tips to keep him safe. He told us that restaurants will be tricky from now on...fast-food places are good about giving allergy info. when asked for, as well as the VERY ritzy restaurants where the chef comes out to greet you, but the "mid-level" restaurants (Chili's, Applebees, etc.) are not good at all about it. He said there have been studies done that show only 50% of the chefs at these restaurants actually knew if there were any peanut products in the food!

I came home and while Robbie slept I cleaned out our cupboards of all possible threats. We will be getting rid of some baby granola bars, animal crackers, chocolate chips, baking soda, and other random items. Some of these don't necessarily have peanuts as an ingredient, but they have a warning on them saying they were manufactured in a plant where peanuts were present. These products might not have anything in them, but we just can't take a risk! The next time he has peanuts, it could kill him!! It's been a bit overwhelming for me to think of all the changes and paranoia that will be taking over our life from now on. I know we can do it, we will just have to be extra vigilant!

Great Grandma and Grandpa Ginos

On Sunday, we went to Great Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner. Grandma and Grandpa Wheeler got to come as well. Robbie loved having so many people adore him!
He also loved riding Great Grandma's chair up and down the stairs. Great Grandpa got a great workout taking him on it so many times throughout the night (it was so many, I lost count)!

Visiting Great Grandpa Cleghorn

Great Grandpa Cleghorn is buried in the American Fork Cemetary. Sunday night after visiting with Great Grandma and Grandpa Ginos we dropped by to see him.Robert is a family name on both sides of the family. This is Robert John Cleghorn who is Robbie's 3rd Great Grandpa!

Let the Music Move You

This week I have caught Robbie grooving with the music on quite a few occasions. He will hear ANY music ANYwhere and will drop everything to let it all out!

dancing to his musical drum


dancing to Carrie Underwood in the office

watching himself dance in the TV reflection

Warning: Do not attempt these moves if you have neck or back injury or if you do not have a trained professional at your side. Talk with your doctor before trying these moves.

Max and Cheese

My friend, Kara, had a birthday this week so we tried out this new restaurant for lunch that day called Max and Cheese ( a kid's cafe where parents are tolerated). It was pretty fun! The kids played alot while us moms got to talk. Happy Birthday, Kara!

waiting for our food
Robbie and Kaiya playing
playing with trains

Play Ball

Grandpa W. came over on Sunday and was playing ball with Robbie. Robbie always loves playing ball!

First Game of the Season

Since it's our last year at BYU, we decided to get an All-Sports pass which gets us in to all of the football games! This week we played No. Iowa and won 41-17!! GO COUGARS!!Here is the team coming into the stadium