I've cooked a few meals using the fresh produce from our garden this week. Yum!

Basil that makes...

Fresh Pesto

Bell Peppers that make delicious... Fajitas!

Up and Growing

To our surprise, our garden is doing quite well! We have corn, potatoes, herbs, squash, watermelon, strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes, peas, bell peppers, jalapanos, onions, cabbage and a few other things. Here are some pics of the goods.

Tomatoes

Cabbage

Lettuce

Cilantro

Last week, we went with the Shirts Fam to Utah Lake.

Me and Rhonda on the tube with all the kids...

Camden, Alora, Winston and Charlie

The funniest part of this trip was when Matt and Dan got on the tube and Rhonda was driving. She punched it to around 40 mph and the guys didn't even want to let go to signal us to slow down because we were going so fast. In the mean time, Rhonda and I were in the boat chatting and laughing at them. They were pretty tired after that ride.

Me. It felt good to get out on the water again. It's been a while.

Matt ended the evening by slaloming off into the sunset...or away from the sunset. :)

Boating with Friends

We went up to Deer Creek with the Loftus Fam. It was a little

chilly but still lots of fun. Matt skiing

The funniest part of the trip was that they only had these teeny orange vests for the adults. (They just bought the boat and thought it came with some ski vests.) This is Shane modeling one of them.

Matt and Win on the tube

Charlie, Alison and I

Finding Help For Our Sweet Charlie

After some really awful experiences with medications to treat Charlie's epilepsy, we decided to take him to a Homeopathic Doctor. We decided we will try pretty much anything we feel is safe before we try another medication. They really messed him up. He was like a different boy...cranky all the time, he stopped talking, his learning was slow, he needed to sleep a lot and more...it was upsetting to all of us. So, we felt the best thing was to take him off medications all together for the time being. They were not stopping the seizures anyway, so we weren't doing any harm.

We've tried no dairy diets and a few other small things that haven't seemed to do a whole lot but we feel like there is something out there to help him. We just need to find it. Matt's boss was recently telling him about their daughter who had some health problems and their friend suggested this homeopathic Dr. They have had no luck with other treatments so they figured they would give it a try. It has only been a couple weeks but her problems seem to be getting better with the herbs and regimen the H.D. has given her.

Why wouldn't we try it? There's nothing to lose (except a lot of money...it's a bit expensive and insurance doesn't cover it.) So, we took him to his first appt. yesterday. I knew it was going to be a little "different" and had somewhat mentally prepared myself. She did her testing and found quite a few things out of whack in Charlie's poor little body. She said he has three major things that need to be taken care of and if an adult had just one of those things, they would be in severe depression. She told me he is an overactive child (really? I hadn't noticed!). I was feeling a little overwhelmed and I was really glad Matt was there.

So, she gave us a list of things to do to help C and we are going back for a second appt. in two weeks. She said we should notice a difference in him by then...less seizures, calmer, etc. I am just worried about doing everything she "prescribed." She told us to feed him 4-5 slivers of garlic a day and to blend 3 stalks of cilantro in a half a cup of water and have him drink that daily as well. Hmmm...how do you get a two year old to eat stuff like that? She is also having us use a blend of three essential oils and olive oil to rub on his head, neck and feet each day. Then we've got to get him to take 30 drops of Kid-e-Mune, 20 of Kid-e-Calc and 30 of Kid-e-Trac (also daily) and give him chewable Calcium with Magnesium after each seizure. See what I mean about overwhelming? Oh, and did I mention he cannot have dairy anymore...and Soymilk is not allowed either. So, I get to buy the super duper expensive Rice Milk. I thought the Soymilk was expensive until I had to start buying this stuff. We are going to have a tough time eliminating cheese from his diet as well since it is one of his favorite foods. :(

Honestly, if it works, it will be worth it a million times over. I really want to believe it's going to help. I know a lot of people have had success with natural healing methods. I hope we are one of them. Pray for us...mostly for our little Charlie. I don't know what to do for him. I wish I could just sweep in and take away all his problems and let him have a normal, hassle free childhood. I know there are a lot of people out there who have problems worse than ours. Sometimes I just need to let a little of the worry out.

4Th of July

Matt and I met my parents at the Freedom Days Celebration in Provo and walked around for a bit. Then we came back to our house and had a BBQ with mine and Matt's parents and Michael. It was blooming hot but it was really nice to visit with the family. We also celebrated C's birthday that day with the family.

That night, a lot of neighbors gathered in the street in front of our house and lit off fireworks. It was really fun. The kids all had a blast. We love our neighborhood...there is always something happenin' going on around here.

Winston with some fireworks in the background.

Matt helping W light a sparkler. He was a little nervous at first but (as you can see in the bottom pic) very determined to participate in the 4th of July fun. :)

Charlie is 2 years old! Unfortunately, he didn't feel very well on his birthday.

Fortunately, he had a big brother to help him blow out the candles...

and open his presents...

and eat the cake I got up at 6:30 am that morning to make. He LOVES dogs so I thought he would love a dog cake. I knew it was a success when he said "Sam...Speak!' (Sam is my SIL's dog and he barks when C says "SPEAK" and gives him a treat.

Happy Birthday Charlie!!

HAPPY 31st BIRTHDAY MATT! (last Friday)

Matt having a laugh at his card with a picture of Michael Scott from "The Office" on the front. When you open the card it plays Michael saying "Would I rather be feared or loved? Um... Easy, both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me."

Matt thought he was getting BBQ tongs or something like that as his present. He got a very pleasant surprise when he opened a brand new Scotty Cameron Putter. He had perma-grin the rest of the day. He even took it to work with him and put it on his desk.

Testing it out. He got a half day at work for his birthday and headed straight out to the golf course to play 18 with Kyle. He was all smiles when he got home. I'm glad he loved it so much. He deserves it.

BIRTHDAY DINNER AT TEPPANYAKI!

This is our favorite place to eat. We met some of Matt's family to eat here for his birthday. It was so fun and the food was great (as usual).

Our cook, Andy, showing off salt slinging skills after

lighting his onion volcano on fire.

I love him even more than the day I married him. I didn't think that was possible.

Some pics of Matt's Mom and I trying to catch the shrimp in our mouths. The waiter threw mine right in my eye. It was gross. Marilyn was a little smarter getting her hands involved. :)

Matt blowing out the candle on his scoop of ice cream.

We had a family reunion and then Matt’s mission reunion/BBQ yesterday. Half way through the day the kids didn’t seem to be feeling well. Charlie’s eyes starting leaking goopy, green stuff and he had a runny nose and Winston felt like he had a fever. So, this morning I went in to get Charlie up and ready for church and this is what I found…

Isn't this sad?
Needless to say, we did not make it to church today.

I am obviously having problems with the layout of my posts. Please excuse the excessive spaces between pictures and text placement in odd places. Maybe some day I will get this figured out.

Do you think I need to make an effort to change my kid's diaper more often? Looks like I am out of the running for "Mother of the Year."