June

And before we knew it, it was June!  Adam's firm has a bunch of activities every summer specifically for the summer interns, that he is also invited to.  Every year they have tickets and dinner to a Rough Rider's Game (AAA ball?).  We thought we'd take Alex and Lily this year (Elliott went last year).  Alex just finished his season and loved watching the game.  In fact, we left two innings early (it was 9:30) and he was bummed, but we said we'd stay later the older he got.

I thought I'd include this little gem for future black mail.  These guys occasionally switch wardrobes and laugh hysterically.  Weirdos.

 Lily got to go to her first ever Girl Scout day camp.  The first day it was rained out (like crazy scary thunderstorms), but the rest of the week was great.  She got to participate as a brownie, having just graduated as a daisy.  She was ecstatic because that meant she got to try archery!  No, she didn't hit the target, but she still had fun trying.

 They had several animal encounters.

 They learned how to prepare camp food

 Loads of crafts and swaps

Learned how to put up a tent and loads of other fun things.  Lily came home beaming and tired every day.  I'm so glad she gets to try these things.

Here's this cute little monkey, hanging out on the porch.

I actually decided to sign the kids up for a bunch of camps this summer to keep them busy and to hopefully pass the time for me.  It was expensive, but I think it was worth it in the end.  Alex's behavior was really great since he had something to look forward to pretty much every week.  This particular week, all three kids went to a chemistry camp!

They obviously talked about different kinds of chemical reactions and played with all sorts of materials, like bubbles.

Or being in a giant bubble!

Lots of color changing experiments (which sadly ruined some of their clothes. Oh well)

Can't go to one of these things without making slime! But wait, it's glow in the dark slime. OOOoooOOO

I think they melted styrofoam into putty, or something.  They certainly came home with loads of stories and random things they made.  They had a blast.

The teacher took a few 'mad scientist' photos too.  The guy was really great.

The kids participated in another science camp in July for physics but sadly I don't think they took photos at that camp.  The kids had just as much fun.  I now have Alex taking a weekly science class from this guy.  It should be a fun year for Alex.

 My brother, John, and his kids came to visit us for a few days!!  Yay for cousin time! We of course got some BBQ for the first night.

 We went swimming, of course.  Uncle John was the funnest uncle, throwing people and inventing new games.  My kids loved it.

 His younger son, loved playing in our dress ups.  The cowboy costume, in particular, became a favorite.  It's meant for a three year old, and he's almost 7 in this picture.  It's pretty funny.  John of course just wanted to rock the hat.

 There's a good dad right there. LOL.

 John snapped this photo on Sunday afternoon when we were all watching a movie.  I guess I fell asleep and all my kids snuggled up to me (we have three big couches in there, so this is funny that they are smashing on this little chair with me.)

Also, being that it was Father's day, and that I now have all the photos that my mom was storing, I thought I'd get out some pictures of my brother for his kids to see.  They totally loved it.  John loved it too.  I'm hoping to get all these things digitized so our whole family can enjoy them.  I'm still in the sorting process though.

I also whipped out this sweater, that I saved from my parents house.  I couldn't bear to see it go to a thrift store when I had so many memories of my dad wearing that thing.  John asked to put it on and, of course, it fit him because he and my dad have the same build.  He asked if he could have it and I gladly gave it to him.  Made me glad I saved it.

 On the last day of their visit, I took them to Torchy's Tacos, because it's amazing...

 And we hit up a local museum, call the Heard.  It focuses on Texas stuff (rocks, animals, plants, fossils, weather, etc)

They have outdoor trails and animal habitats, and a butterfly house.

We took the obligatory raccoon photos.

Alex had Twilight camp for one day while his cousin was here (which he tagged along).  I was also asked to help with the science portion that first day, even though I wasn't a scout leader anymore.  It was a lot of work (12 different experiments!) but a lot of fun to be with the boys.  Makes me feel good that Alex still likes having me around.

Here is Alex earning his first awards in his bear rank.  He felt 'older'.  That's always fun to watch.

Sadly, everyone who attended that night got eaten alive by chiggers.  Alex had new bites show up for almost a week.  I was afraid they were living in our house and would never die.  We all got a couple and they itch like MAD!

Here's a picture of this sweet girl, taking over the making of dinner because I didn't feel well that night.  She made quesadillas all by herself, and even put a cut strawberry on the side.  Everyone loved them especially because Lily had made it for them.  So fun

This kid, of course, wanted to get in on the photos

and did the best photo bomb ever.  We laughed for 5 minutes over this one.

Daddy came home from work and was playing with everyone. I like to take 'everyday' photos like this one.  Just a regular night at our house.

I thought I'd include this picture of my older siblings, only because it represents the hours I put in for a view weeks trying to sort almost 15 boxes of family history that I rescued from my mom's house when she was moving.  It's been a huge undertaking, and I'm not quite done sorting, but I'd say I'm 3/4 of the way done going through all the boxes and resorting into places that make sense (so I can then digitize and record stuff)

Here's a picture of our family sitting down on a Sunday afternoon having waffles (for what would be the last time in months...)  

It was during the month of June that we really saw Luke regress in a major way.  Not just with his speech (he was saying nothing), but he wasn't following commands and just wasn't engaged.  It was really hard to keep his attention.  He was somewhere else. It was quite frankly, frightening.  I tried to trace when this regression happened and I realized it was around the middle of May.  That is significant because Luke had a round of antibiotics at the end of April/ beginning of May and I think it really messed with his gut, which can translate to your brain.

After a lot of research and prayer, I came to the conclusion that we needed to put him on a diet to try to heal his gut.  I chose the GAPS diet (Gut And Psychology Syndrome) that helps with leaky gut.  This diet removed all grains and starchy foods (potatoes and most beans too), most dairy (except homemade yogurt and hard cheese), all processed sugar (we could only have honey) and anything processed really.  We were eating fruit, veggies and meat.  I spent the last week of June preparing for the transition into this diet.  I sat my kids down and talked to them about why we weren't going to be eating these for the month of July.  I told my family we could do anything for 30 days.  Especially for Luke who we love and could all see his regression.  For a week I made fermented foods (pickles, saurkraut, kimchi, salsa), homemade chicken bullion, homemade yogurt and started removing other foods from our house.  It was a deal.  It was hard, and I will go into more detail in my July post.  All I know is that we all love this little boy so much and want him to have the best chance at a normal life.  And we were all willing to give up stuff we liked for him to do it.  And that made me really proud of myself, my kids and my husband.

We love you Lukie.  

(asleep on the floor at church.  He never does this, hence why we documented it)