Wish Us luck!

After much debate, we have decided to take the whole family on the camping trip again this year. We had originally intended to take everyone, but then we ended up changing Owen's ketogenic diet ratio again. That meant a lot of work re doing all of the recipes. It also meant that I didn't have enough extra food made up to get through the weekend, let alone enough to make it the rest of the week since I wouldn't be spending the weekend cooking. We'd pretty much decided that the little kids and I would stay home and Rod would just take the boys from Duncan on up, including our nephews.
But, I really want some time away that doesn't involve going to the hospital and the little kids were really upset about not going on the trip. I managed to get a few extra meals made up this week, which will get us through the weekend, so we decided to take everyone after all. I won't be blogging the next few days, but I expect to have some great pictures and stories once we get back. Hopefully not quite as great as last year though!  So, wish us luck, since I'm not feeling up to major issues this year. What we really need is a nice, uneventful, relaxing trip!

Look Out Boston!

Devon left today for her trip to Boston! Boston still has a while to prepare since she won't actually get there until 9:30 tomorrow morning. Devon has been planning this trip for quite a while, but I admit she was getting a little bit nervous just before they left. I think she repacked her bags 3 or 4 times. Rod is dropping her off at the airport. With her flight being so late it wasn't really an option for all of us to drop her off. That plus all of us at the airport is pretty much the stuff nightmares are made of.

Brenna has already been wandering around the house calling for her. Owen started complaining 3 days ago. They'll really miss their big sister!  While she's gone we are working on transitioning Brenna to the girls room. We'll see how that goes, so far it's not much of a success. The little girls might not sleep at all tonight. Devon gets back on July 10th, so hopefully I'll have some great pictures to post then.

Neverending No More!!!!!

I FINALLY finished The Sweater That Never Ends!!!! So, I guess I should rename it, but I'm not going to because it still seemes like it took forever. This was originally going to be Devon's Christmas present. Then, I pushed it back to her Birthday. It became pretty obvious that wasn't going to happen, so I absolutely promised, pinky swear forever, that I would finish it by the time her school let out for the year. And, I made it with a couple (literally 2 by the time it got washed) days to spare!!!!

I'm pretty happy with the end result. There are two little flaws that really bug me, one totally my fault and one the pattern's fault. This pattern couldn't possibly have  been written any more awkwardly if they tried. I've knitted patterns translated from other languages by someone who doesn't actually speak English fluently that were more concise than this pattern. I don't know if the author or the publisher are to blame, but I will never knit this again. Here's my Ravelry Project Page, where I complain about some of the flaws in the pattern. Devon loves it though, which is the important thing.

The yarn is absolutely gorgeous! I'm trying to figure out what else I want to knit with it since I love it so much. This particular colorway has just been discontinued, unfortunately, but they have several other beautiful colors available on this base. Overall I'm going to give this project a thumbs up since the finished project turned out fine despite the horrible pattern! Plus Devon loves it! Did I say that already? It's always a good day when a teenager actually wants to wear something her Mom made her out in public.

Brenna and Buttercup

Brenna loves Buttercup and Buttercup is doing a really good job off tolerating Brenna. she even took a nap on her lap today!

Luckily Brenna still loves her Mommy too!

Owen's Hamburger Recipe {Ketogenic Diet}

We've recently increased Owen's Ketogenic Diet ratio from 3.5:1 to 4:1. That means he's getting even more fat now. We've also increased his calories from 265 per meal to 280 per meal since he lost 1 1/2 pounds over the last two months. This means that I've been busy re doing all of his recipes and testing the meals to see if they work. Adding in the extra oil has been difficult with many of the recipes. Owen has refused to eat dip or take oil from a syringe and he's had trouble with choking when he drinks cream. Due to his prior feeding issues, he's still at risk of aspiration even though he passed his last swallow study. But with this change he finally decided that he'd rather take the oil out of the syringe and still get to eat some of favorites foods than have to give them up. We've also discovered that he drinks the cream "milk" better out of a straw. Rod and I got a new barbeque for our Birthday/Father's Day present and Owen really wanted a hamburger. So, I came up with this recipe.

Hamburger and Milk

4.01:1 ratio  284 calories

54g 36% cream

19g 70% lean ground beef cooked

5g mayonnaise, Best Foods

2g flaxseed oil

Dilute cream with water and add one or two drops of liquid stevia, serve with a straw. 

Cook hamburger and then weigh out 19g. Serve mayo on top of hamburger and oil on the side.

Father's Day!

Yes, I know I'm a few days late with this post, but it's been a long busy week and I've been tired. I've actually fallen asleep on the couch every night after dinner and had to woken up to go to bed. So, the Father's Day post didn't get done until today.

We spent most of the morning making Keto food, then we headed over to Rod's parents house for dinner. Kristi and Simon joined us with baby Carlitos.  I can't believe how big Carlitos is getting. He's getting rolls now! The kids also got to play with their cousins for a while. Owen cried and cried when Caleb left. The Zonisimide withdrawal is making him extremely emotional. We dealt with this type of behavior when we started the Zonisimide. It leveled off after about a month. We'll be taking him off of it very slowly and I'm really hoping he doesn't stay this emotional the whole time.

Barlkey got a little jealous that his Mama was holding the baby.

Rod and I got a new barbeque for our combined birthday/ Father's Day present. Our old one gave up a while ago and we've been using the little camping one ever since. I didn't get pictures of it yet, but Connor and I set it up and we used it for Rod's birthday dinner on Monday. Today, I used it again to make a barbeque hamburger for Owen who was upset about not having hamburgers with everyone else on Monday, but I didn't have a new burger recipe ready for him then. He was very happy to get a hamburger today even if he only got 19 grams and had to have 5 grams of mayonnaise on it and a syringe of oil and a glass of cream to go with it.

Since we've been a little behind this year, we also gave Kristi her Mother's Day present on Father's Day. Hey, we were only a little over a month late!

The big boys helped grandpa work on a new puzzle. The little kids tried to help, but I'm sure you can figure out how well that went.

Grandpa and Duncan managed to find time for a little nap.

Then we headed home and put some very tired kids to bed. The big kids had been to the prom the night before and the little kids had a sleepover with a cousin. So everyone was very tired and beyond ready for bed. Then Mommy and Daddy got to watch a movie all by ourselves. I won't bother telling you which movie because it was so boring I already forgot the name of it and I definetely wouldn't recommend watching it. It was nice to have some quiet time with the kids asleep though. That doesn't happen often now that we have teenagers.

Starlight Prom!

No, Owen didn't go to the prom. Yes, he had to be in pictures anyway.

Last night was the Starlight Children's Foundation Prom. Starlight Northwest is no longer doing the Great Escapes program, so it was also the last Starlight event we got to participate in. Devon was very excited about the prom and even took a "date" this year. Connor and Cameron only attended under duress. Mean Mom and Despicable Dad decided that dressing up and going out in public was good for them and made them go, like it or not. We also set the requirement that they had to be gracious and dance at least one dance if they were asked to. See how mean we are! My nephew Tyler also agreed to go although he refused to dress up. Since he refused to even go to his own 8th grade tea, we decided to overlook the dress code violation and be happy he agreed to go at all. Want to know how hard it is to get a good picture of 4 kids, especially when a few of them were less than thrilled about dressing up in the first place? Just look below.

Hey look! Everyone is actually facing the camera!

We finally found Tyler!

And some more pictures of the actual prom. These were all taken by the kids as Mom and Dad didn't attend.

I think this picture is my favorite! Love the expressions!

Beautiful Kalina, can you tell her Mom is a photographer?

Updates {June 13, 2014}

The quilt Owen got during his latest hospital stay.

Yesterday was my birthday! I got some yarn. Gorgeous merino/ silk yarn that is actually going to be something for me since I refuse to waste anything with silk in it on the kids. I also got some new stitch markers and some really nice artisan hand lotion. Best of all my Mom came up for a visit. Due to busy schedules on both ends, we don't see each other much lately. Today, I used some of my birthday money (yes, I got money too) to get my hair cut for the first time in almost a year. It feels so much nicer now.

Rod brought home dinner last night so I didn't have to cook on my birthday. Although I did make shortcakes since I decided I wanted strawberry shortcake with our own fresh, homegrown strawberries instead of cake. That also meant that the kids didn't have to try to shove 43 candles into a birthday cake for me. Which is always a good thing.

This is our busy season! I know we're always busy, but June gets really crazy. My mom and nephew Braeden have birthdays on the 9th, then my birthday is the 12th, then Rod's is the 16th, and my nephew Tyler's is the 22nd. Throw in Father's day and it just makes me thankful that we don't have any weddings or graduations to attend this year. Especially with Owen's recent hospital stay and the upcoming ones. It looks like we will be in the hospital every 2-4 weeks for quite a while. Tomorrow the older kids are going to the Starlight Teen Prom. Devon is really looking forward to it, but Connor and Cameron are attending under duress because Mom thinks it's good for them. There's also the Boy Scout Camping/River Rafting trip at the end of the month and Devon leaves for Boston the 25th. I can't even keep track of everything enough to blog about it. We should have some good pictures this month though! Assuming that I remember to charge the camera, of course!