Our Week

I helped out in Lydi's class on the 100th day of school.  Here she is making her necklace out of 100 Froot Loops.

On Wednesday, I had the chance to go to the LA Temple.  Newport Beach Temple is closed for maintenance right now.  Brian and Thomas came with me and hung out at a local park.  (Brian is switching firms and has a week and a half off in between.  It's been fun to have him around.)

Thomas has become quite the Daddy's buddy this week.  He might have a hard time when Brian starts work again.

Thomas got out the croquet set on one of our sunny days.

He wanted to "prise Lydia" with her favorite Baby when we picked her up from school one day.  She had passed off a reading list that day and had picked out a prize for Thomas out of the prize box that same day...they were both surprised!

Robbie and Brian have been working on Robbie's pinewood derby car this week too.  Robbie created a new design this year, which meant buying and figuring out a few new tools.  It's been a fun project for them.

Visitors

Gawbie and Grandpa came to visit!  It was Grandpa's birthday on Friday.  We found out he likes chocolate cake and Robbie had been eyeing this one from Costco.  It was delicious!

We also went to Black Bear Diner for dinner.

We went to Knott's with them on Saturday.  We've had a lot of rain lately, but it cleared up for our day out.  It was so beautiful!

Our Week

We tried out Yogurtland and El Torito this week .   First time Robbie's been to a sit down Mexican restaurant and frozen yogurt shop.

Thomas and I helped out in Lydi's class with painting.

Thomas got to try too.

Robbie started basketball.  He's on the purple team this year, number 22, and they named themselves The Ballers.

Medieval Times

We've been wanting to go to Medieval Times since we moved to California.  Some of their food is processed in the same facility as peanuts, so we've never gone.  However, Robbie can have that now because of his OIT program.

We got there early and browsed through "the castle" for a little bit.

knight armor

 

some of the swords

thrones

right before they let us into the arena

We were assigned the red and yellow knight section.  We couldn't have had better seats--right in the middle.

The kids ate so well and were entertained the whole time.

For one part, the knights played games and won flowers from the princess.  They would take those flowers back to their section and throw them to people in the audience.  Lydi caught one of the flowers.

sword fighting

It was a great show!  Our knight didn't win and on the way home, Thomas kept saying "The Bad Guy won!  The Bad Guy won!"  He couldn't accept that his knight didn't win in the end. Ha ha!

Tooth Fairy

Lydi lost her second tooth at school this week.  Her teacher put it in a little box to take home, but when it was time to leave she had lost the box too.  When I came to pick her up, we looked all over her classroom for it.  We ended up finding it in one of the math manipulative tubs.

That same night Robbie also lost a tooth.  The tooth fairy had double duty that night!

OIT

Robbie had a milestone OIT appointment last week.  The doctor gave him 1.5 peanuts!  He had one peanut M&M and 1/2 a roasted peanut.  It was incredible to watch.  Last time I saw him eat that much peanut, we were rushing to the Urgent Care because his face was swelling up.  It's all a little bit hard to believe at times. This process has been miraculous!

We no longer have the vials of peanut everyday now.  We bought him some peanuts to have.  These first 2 weeks he will have 1 peanut/ day, then each week increase until he's eating 4 peanuts/day by the time we go back to the doctor in February (where he will dose up to 12 peanuts in the office).

We use the Planters peanuts because they are the right size for his dosing.  Some brands use larger peanuts.  We also need the peanuts to be roasted.  The chemical reaction that happens when the peanut is roasted makes it more allergenic.  Robbie is trying out the honey roasted ones right now.

Because of this new level, he is able to eat a lot more things!  He can't have peanut as an ingredient but there's no worry for cross contamination.  We went to Panda Express for the first time as a family on Saturday! 

 He was nervous to walk in since Asian food in general has been prohibited.  He said his heart was racing, but he did awesome!  Robbie ordered the orange chicken and teriyaki chicken plus some rangoons.  He didn't care for the rangoons but he liked the chicken.  Doctor told him he couldn't eat the peanuts in the Kung Pao Chicken, but if he wanted to order that and just pick out the peanuts he would be fine. 

 He's hit a few hiccups in his dosing at home- heartburn and itching.  Doctor brought him down to 1/2 peanut/day for a couple of days, but he's back up to 1 peanut/day now.  He's doing so great and we are excited for his progress.

Christmas Break

We had a calm and relaxing break for Christmas.  I've been under the weather, so we didn't do some of our usual festivities, but it was nice to have the kids home and not be so busy.

Before Christmas, Lydi and Robbie helped me make some sugar cookies.  We used my Great Grandma Cleghorn's recipe.

I mixed up the dough and got cookies in and out of the oven.  Lydi and Robbie rolled the dough and cut all the cookies. It's so fun to have helpers!

Shannon's family was in the area on vacation and we got to see them a few different times throughout our break.  We saw them the most on Christmas Eve.  I didn't get any pictures, but Brian got this cute one of Thomas and Kennedi.  We decorated sugar cookies, had our nice Christmas Eve dinner, and relaxed for the day.

On Christmas morning, the kids were up nice and early to open presents. 

Coming down the stairs

in front of the tree

opening presents

After presents, Shannon's family joined us for our traditional strawberry waffle breakfast.  Then we headed off to church for a nice Christmas program.  The day after Christmas, we met up with Bobby and Shannon's families for lunch in Temecula.

For New Year's Eve we went to a BYU basketball game against LMU here in town.  We were down by 13 points at half time, but won in the end.  It was a nail biter and really fun to be at!

This is right after the team tied up the score.

We made it to Knott's yesterday to catch some of the Christmas shows we've been meaning to see.  It's been a good break, and we are grateful for this time of year to spend with family.