Krispy Kreme

We took the girls to Krispy Kreme tonight to pick out a doughnut. They have the assembly line set up with a glass front so the kids can watch it from beginning to end. They love watching the doughnuts travel from the fryer through the glaze. YUM! Here are the girls enjoying their little taste of heaven.

Monkey Business

Ok, really it's just Monkey Bread, but that was a less exciting title. We had a good breakfast this morning at home thanks to Emily. She made Monkey Bread. She had a little help, but it was very little. :) Also, I wanted to post some pictures of Savannah's face. She looks amazing. I told a friend of mine one time, in a moment of pity, "Why can't my baby's face be smooth like a baby's face is supposed to be?" Well, Tracy, this morning, my hand cupped her cheek, and it felt like a baby's cheek is supposed to feel. Thanks for the prayers, girl. :)


Shake Shake Shake


Savannah gettin' in on the action.


The Results


It must have been good!!!


My pretty girl!!

I know there are so many people that love me and Savannah that have been praying for her skin. I appreciate it more than you know. A lot of you may ask, "What caused it to clear up?" The answer to that is ____________ I have absolutely no idea. I am praising God for the reprieve HE has given us for now, and hope I can control her for a while.

Wii Nation

I don't really have anything too important to report. The flight was awesome. Savannah did SO good. It was nice for her to have her own seat. We are having a good time with my parents. It's nice to have someone to cook for you and to not be in your own house where you feel like there is always something to do. My parents bought a Wii for the center, and we are breaking it in. Here is Emily enjoying it a LOT!


She is really good at bowling and golf. She made a Mii (for those stuck on XBox, that's a character that you create that is your personal character) for Brian, but we have to remove him. Every time she sees him at the bowling alley, she cries. :)


They planted a pineapple top. I think they think it's going to grow.

Off We Go......

Today, Emily, Savannah and I are headed East! We are flying out to North Carolina to stay with my parents for 3 weeks. Pray for us as we fly. Emily is a fantastic flier, and this is Savannah's first time in her own seat, so I think it will go well! I may be looking through rose colored glasses. I'll be updating my blog from their house, so stay tuned for lots of Meme and Papa fun! Please pray that Savannah's skin isn't too bothered by the strange environment. Especially on the plane! Next Stop: Goldsboro, NC!! Well, not literally, but you get the idea.

Valentine's Day Party

Remember in elementary school when you had to make little valentines to pass out at school? You got to school and everyone had a bag on the back of their chair, and you dropped one in? Well, we decided that our kids needed that, too. So, we had a homeschool/gymnastics Valentine Party. The kids decorated their Valentine's Bags, played Valentine's Bingo, ate heart shaped ham and cheese sandwiches, and beautiful cupcakes. They exchanged Valentines and I'm sure will be on a sugar high for many days to come.


Our beautiful cupcakes made by our in house professional decorator, Sarah Shine.


Axie and Savannah enjoying the "little kids table" and their cupcakes


Savannah taking a big bite (I made her change shirts for the cupcake part)


Emily and her cupcake!


Axie and Savannah decorating their bags.


The big kids decorating.


Our crew: Back row L-R: Mason, Jill, Kara
Front Row: Emma, Emily, Bradey, Savannah (note: Savannah is drinking the punch...although by her expression, it looks a little on the strong side.)

To The Zoo!

Mondays in February are free at the Oklahoma City Zoo. Kalli invited me and the girls to go up this past Monday. We made the plans several weeks ago, and I lined up a babysitter for Savannah. She can't usually participate in fun outdoor activities because the outdoors make her skin worse. By the time Monday came around, she was well enough to go with us, but I kept her sitter, anyway. Thanks, Bethany!

We left around 8:30 Monday morning, and the girls had a blast. We figured out why it's free, though. Nothing was open. No food stands, gift shop...nothing! The elephants were vacationing in Tulsa. We had a good time, though. We ate lunch at Cheesecake Factory, and headed home. We were SO sleepy on the way home! It was a good day! Here are some pictures of Emily, Jill and Axie.

More Progress

OK. I know you guys are probably tired of this, but I am amazed at what the LORD has done!!!

February 3rd.

February 8th.

January 30th

February 8th

Psalm 30:2

O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.

Progress

Look at the progress Savannah's skin has made. I don't know if it's the peanuts, chocolate, or vitamins, but she is doing so amazing. I give all glory to God for the improvement she has made. Pray that it keeps getting better and better.


This is on the way to OKC. It was the worst I had seen her face, ever!


These were her eyelids before OKC.


This was the night after one day of being off of peanuts, chocolate, and vitamins. Already, I had noticed improvement.

This was this morning (forgive the bed hair). Her eyelids are almost completely clear, and her face is returning to cream, and not so much red.

PRAISE TO THE GREAT PHYSICIAN.

Our Allergy Appointment

I can't tell you the amount of Scripture that ran through my head yesterday. Well, I can tell you a couple of them.

Isaiah 55:8

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

Matthew 21:22

And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

The other Scripture passage is too long to post. It's a lot of the first part of Exodus. Pharaoh's heart was so hardened by the plagues that he wasn't about to let the children of Israel leave. BUT GOD. He hardened Pharaoh's heart so that all the people would know that it was GOD that let them go, not a man.

I can't begin to tell you how the Lord worked yesterday. The only way I know to do it is to give you a play by play of the day. Several of you have asked for that, anyway, so I'll just do it that way.

The day started not so good. I was doing my morning reading when I heard a "Ya-hooooooo" That's my instant messenger popping up. It was Sarah...."Call me when you get up." Oh no. I got my phone, and she had sent a text saying that Bradey was very sick, and she couldn't go with me. I'll be honest...I panicked. I cried....hard. I argued with God. I told Him that I didn't understand why He was asking me to take on so much by myself. I already didn't have my husband, I didn't understand why I couldn't catch a break! (Some of you may be wondering what the big deal was. Well, Oklahoma City is over 2 hours away. It's 2 hours of flat nothingness. It is a hard drive...especially when you're tired, and alone. Also, Savannah's appointment was right in the middle of naptime, and I was counting on Sarah to entertain her while I talked to the dr.) Then, as I was straitening my hair, the thought came into my head, "My ways are not your ways." OK, Lord, point taken...it's going to be ok.

So, I did the little things that I needed to do that were stressing me out because I waited until last minute, and left with plenty of time to spare. I took Emily to Tracy's house. She was SO excited...Emily, not necessarily Tracy. ha ha I was SO thankful to Tracy! I don't think I could have done it if I had had Emily, too.

Thanks to Sarah, I had a DVD player in the car, and Savannah watched Little Einsteins all the way up there. She was very happy. I found the place very easily and went to go eat some lunch, then back for the appointment.

The nurses were SO nice. They took her weight, height (she is in the 23rd percentile for height! Emily is always below the growth chart) and led us to the room. Dr. Bozalis and a medical student came in and made friends with Savannah for a few minutes and then took us to his office to get all the details. He asked me a LOT of questions.

He also told me this, "When I look at her, it's like looking at my son 40 years ago." Most of you don't know, but that is an absolute direct answer to prayer. My Bible Study ladies were praying that this Dr would have a compassion for Savannah, and he did...he really did.

OK, so he told me after asking a thousand questions that he wanted to do both skin prick testing and blood tests. He told me they would be excruciating for her, but I told him that her every day life was excruciating. So back to the room we went. I quickly texted Tracy and Sarah and said, "About to do skin testing...pray!"

The nurse came in carrying 4 huge trays of skin pricker thingies. She put down a piece of paper that had all these food circled on them. They were the foods that I told the dr she ate. I was looking at it, and saw all these other foods that I wanted her tested for. I asked the nurse if she would test those, too. And she said Yes! Again, another direct answer to prayer. I didn't want her tested for the 5 biggest food problems. I wanted her tested for specific foods. So, she was pricked 38 times. Savannah was amazing. After every prick, she would look at me and say, "But, Mommy!" She shed about 4 tears when the lady had to leave and go get beef and chicken. She thought she was done, and when the nurse walked back in, she wasn't happy. She fells asleep for about 5 minutes, and then was happy again.

Then came the blood tests. She inherited her Papa and Mommy's veins and they tried twice and couldn't get anything. I was holding her down, and she was screaming her head off. It's the first time she's ever had to get blood drawn. They couldn't get a vein, so her Dr. said we'd wait on that for a couple months. He asked if it was inconvenient for me to have to come back up there, and I told him I would carry her there if I had to. :)

They went in to read the scratch tests. The only thing she showed any allergy to at all (including cats and dogs!) was grass, trees, and peanuts. Peanuts? Really? Dr. Bozalis then said, "I have never seen a child not scream with the skin test...she's amazing." I told him, "You have no idea how many people are praying for me right now."

This is kinda what the skin test thing looked like.

So, here's our game plan. He told me to remove all peanut products from the home. He told me to keep chocolate away from her. He also wants me to stop all her vitamin supplements. He said this isn't for forever. Just 10 days. We'll see if it helps. He called this morning and said her mucous test showed no allergies in her nose. So that's good. Hopefully she won't have the respiratory problems that Emily has. He said to call him in 10 days and tell him how she was looking, and to come back in April for her blood tests.

I got out of the office right as the rest of Oklahoma City got out of work. I made my way over to the Cheesecake Factory to take home a small slice of heaven. We were stuck in rush hour traffic for quite some time. Savannah fell asleep within 10 minutes of being in the car. I gave her a dose of her "itchy medicine" and her face looked better within the hour. AND! This is the best part. She slept through the night! I slept for 9 1/2 hours STRAIT last night!!! She has been waking up itching almost every hour for the last week. Praise the Lord!!

Thank you all so much for praying. Here are some pictures of her big day.

Still happy and waiting in the waiting room.


This is all what her arms looked like. The red on the top left is the histamine that they put into her. That one was just to show that her body would react to the tests. The elbow and wrist is just her eczema. You can't see the peanut reaction on this picture.


Happily eating chips and watching Einstein in the way home.

Prayers Needed

Please pray for me tomorrow as I take Savannah to Oklahoma City to the Allergy specialist. They will do testing, and I'm not sure if they'll use skin or blood testing. Either one, pray for Savannah to tolerate it. Pray that I will remember to ask all my questions, and that the Dr will feel a compassion for Savannah. Above all, pray that we get some answers. Her appointment is at 1:30. I know a lot of prayer warriors read this blog. I appreciate all of you. I will hopefully have good news tomorrow night!!