Gabby turns 3

I can't believe our Gabby turned 3 years old on Saturday!! The time goes so fast, but it's also hard to remember life without her. She is such an incredible blessing to our family. She has such a great sense of humor and says the funniest things these days. She's also very sweet and loves to give hugs and kisses. She gets so excited when Jeff comes home from work. She runs to him and jumps into his arms for a big hug. It melts my heart! We love her so much.

I took a picture of Megan when she turned 3 holding up three fingers...I tried to get Gabby to do the same, she wasn't really interested.

On Saturday morning our little family went to the Koi Pond Gardens. They have about 9 fish ponds and it's a beautiful place! We took lots of pictures and the kids had fun. Before we went to the ponds, we asked Gabby what she would like for lunch and she said french fries. We went to McDonalds for a little birthday treat for her!

We had a birthday party for her on Saturday, which was her actual birthday! We had 5 families and the grandparents over for a BBQ. The weather was pretty nice that morning, but by the time the party started it was raining and windy:( We still had a fun time and the kids had a blast. The theme for her birthday party this year was a "dorsey"(horsey) party! She's really into horses these days and gets so excited when she sees one. Jeff drew two pictures of horses for pin the tail on the dorsey! We let the girls paint them. Gabby wanted some help, but Meggie did her's all by herself. I found a template online for a pony cake and this is how it turned out... I was pretty happy with it, except I was hoping the icing wasn't so thick and smoothed out nicer. Also the blanket on the pony was supposed to be pink, but I ran our of pink food coloring and used red instead. Gabby loved the cake...she's still talking about it!!

The kids played outside, even in the rain. We put the bouncy house outside under the deck and they loved that! On to other news, last week I had an appointment for the girls to see an allergy specialist. Jeff and his family have a lot of allergies and I've been cautious with the kids since the beginning. I nursed them all until they were over a year and slowly introduced foods to them, to try and avoid allergies. My main concern was an allergy to peanut or other nuts. Megan did have one bite of peanut butter once and didn't react, but Gabby had never had it before. The specialist said that our kids are not a great risk of being allergic. Apparently, it's more a concern if the mother is the one allergic(this was news to me!). The doctor basically said go home and feed them peanut butter and he also said to give it to Marty. I'm still a little nervous to give it to Marty. So, we went home and I gave the girls each a teaspoon peanut butter. Megs liked it and Gabby spat it out! And...neither of them reacted to it!!! So, we made peanut butter chip cookies the next day and they loved those and so do I. I am so thankful and thrilled that they are not allergic and now I don't have to be so careful.

The specialist said that introducing foods like peanut butter the younger the child is, the less likely they will be allergic. That's contradictory to what I was told 5 years ago when I had Megan. But, I guess study have shown this to be true. I will probably give it to Marty in the next few months...if I'm brave!

Also, last Sunday I noticed Marty had some hives on his bum and the one hive was HUGE...I was going to post a picture, but I don't think I will. I instantly thought he was allergic to some food we had given him. When we saw the allergy specialist on Wednesday I told him about Marty's hives and he said if he's had them for a few days, they are not food related. He said the hives Marty had were probably viral, just like getting a cold and this is how his body reacted to it. It's amazing all the things I am learning:)

Last night we had a meeting at church and my dear friend got hired on as our Children's Director. I am so thrilled that she will be in charge of the Children's department at church. Our church is growing like crazy right now and there are so many kids. Such a blessing!! Her journey began at our church when we were little girls. She was a friend of mine from school and she came to pioneer girls club at church during our elementary school years. We remained friends through school and after high school we just went in separate directions. We reunited again about 4 years ago and I'm so thankful and blessed to have her in my life!

Today is my brother's birthday and I want to wish him a very happy birthday!! Loren we love you so much and I'm blessed to call you my brother. I wish we lived closer and we could hang out more often. You have a very special place in my heart:)