Happy Birthday Princess!!!!

My baby girl turned 3 this past weekend! A huge Thank You to Liza Gardner for making this fabulous cake!

Daddy's girl

Mommy's Princess

She felt a little shy when everyone sang Happy Birthday!

"Ella, how old are you?"

"I'm THREE!!!!!!"

She loves her bike from Grandma and Grandpa Kleeman and her helmet from Granny and Gramps!!! Just yesterday as she was riding her bike for the 3rd time that day she stopped, turned around, and said, "Mommy, I just love Grandma!"

The kids with Grandma and Grandpa McKinney

The kids with Grandma and Grandpa Kleeman

Dear Ella,

I can't believe that you are already 3 years old! After 2 years of being sick most of the time, you had a year of perfect health! You have such a fun personality and are full of life! You are also a little mommy and love to help out around the house and with your baby brother. Mommy and Daddy can't get anything by you because you are always very attentive to everyone around you. You love to play with your babies, color, draw, dress up, ride your new bike, and play with your brothers. You also started preschool this year and you love it! Your teachers tell me that you are a very sweet girl and such a good listener. You have the best laugh in the world and I love when you are happy! I can tell by your strong personality that you will probably get whatever you want in life. Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

Salad of the Year

I have a favorite salad that I eat almost everyday for lunch! The best thing about my kale salad is that is it HUGE, filling, and without feta cheese only 300 calories! Plus it is loaded with vitamins and minerals. Organic kale, dried cranberries, slivered almonds, red onion, cucumber, tomato, olive oil, lemon juice, and sea salt. Delicious!

So my family is getting pretty tired of eating the same thing week after week and with our busy schedule it is very hard to cook from scratch every night. So this week we tried something new and I think it was a hit.
I found these Alphatots at Whole Foods and the kids thought they were great! There is only 4 ingredients too.


Then I made a Swiss Steak in the crock pot. I used organic tomato sauce, organic worcheshire sauce, and about a tablespoon of brown sugar. Mixed it all up and put in the crock pot with an organic round steak from Moody Meats.

Voila! A new, easy, and tasty dinner.

Of course I had to add this picture because he is just too darn cute. He is now walking without support and is so proud of himself!

Allergy Elimination

We are taking a homeopathic approach to helping our little princess! We have found a wonderful chiropractor here in Brownsburg who does allergy elimination using the Bioset method. So yesterday was our first visit and we found out she is allergic to eggs, sugar, chicken, and dogs! I was shocked! I thought it was dairy and food dyes but I was wrong. It doesn't help that we have a 100lb lab but the good thing is we don't have to find him a new home. With allergy elimination the belief is that with treatment they are able to remove the allergy. She still may have a sensitivity but not a full blown allergy. We also found out that she has a yeast problem but I had that feeling this entire time. It was recommended that Ella take the supplement Yeast Redux. Have any of my biomed friends tried this? Did it work? They also recommended a yeast free diet which will be torture for our little princess.
I get so angry thinking how all of this could of been prevented. The warning sign was there after she received the Hep B shot when she was only 24 hours old. Unfortunately we were just making the connection between vaccines and injury with Haiden. I thought I was doing a positive thing by spreading the vaccines out but I really wish I would of known then what I know now. She never would of been injected with all of those toxins!
This is such a controversial topic and so many people cringe over it but it needs to be talked about. I'm 28 years old and by the time I was 3 years old I had 10 vaccines. Today a 3 year old will have almost 30 vaccines! What research is being done to see if this is safe? What kind of information is being taken from the mother to see if her child could be at risk? Was the mother a breastfed child? Was the mother on a bunch of antibiotics growing up? What kind of toxins has the mother been exposed to? All these things need to be talked about!

Kido Update

Mr. Cool! Now that Haiden is playing football he thinks he is a tough guy. While I was taking his pictures he said he couldn't smile because he had his football jersey on. :)
Other than the boat load of homework each night, 1st grade is going great! Haiden loves school and loves learning. When he gets home from school we do homework (which is a juggling act with two other little ones) and then he likes to go play in his room. I think he is just destressing from the day and likes to be left alone for awhile...don't we all. He has three neighborhood boys that he plays with almost every day. I love it! They play for hours and I think they would stay the night if we let them. Keep it up Haiden! We are incredibly proud of you!

Oh Princess Ella, how you control the mood in this house. When I picked her up from preschool this week her teacher said, "She is just the sweetest thing!" Wait a minute are we talking about the same child? :) As long as she is good in school, then I can handle her being a little terror at home. Although, I think I have FINALLY made a connection to her bi-polar like behavior. We have tried to removed all artificial coloring from the kids diet but sometimes we slip. I never thought much about it until I knowingly (I know, stupid) gave her something that was artificially colored. The next day she was a hot mess! So I told myself that I was going to make sure she didn't get anything that had artificial coloring. It seemed like last Wednesday and Thursday were rough but then she was AWESOME until yesterday (Wednesday). Well I found out that every time the kids go potty at preschool, they get a skittle! Ella's teacher told me that Ella was going to the bathroom 4-5 times in the morning and she thought it was just to get a skittle! I didn't think this would be an issue because we send in all her food but I guess I was wrong. So as she was a hot mess all morning today I blamed the skittles. :)

My little Mason man! You are wearing your momma out now that you are a climbing maniac! We can't turn our backs or he will be on top of the dining room table, climbing up the couch, throwing himself off the couch, in a drawer, in the trash, pulling dirt out of the potted plants, pulling all the toilet paper off the roll, getting all the glass tuperware out and banging it on the tile, turning the TV on and off, splashing in the dog's water, trying to eat the dog food, climbing on the brick fireplace, pulling the gate down to get up the stairs, trying to slide under the gate at the top of the stairs, climbing in the toybox, and flushing the toilet over and over.

This week he has also started walking so we are in trouble. :)

My life is filled with so much joy because of these 3 amazing children!