2009 FIJI Pig Dinner

Matt and I attended the 2009 FIJI Pig Dinner on April 18th. This was my first time being able to attend (women are only allowed to attend every few years, and this was a special event as they were showing the new house plans). It was really cool to be a part of it...although, there's a lot of things they do that I don't understand :) and a lot that makes me laugh (when no one else is laughing)...

Here's a pic of us...



Matt with Brent (his first big brother (top row, left)), Jon (his little brother (top row, right), and his grand little brothers (and I apologize, I can't remember their names)...

Here's a pic of me with LeMarbre and Josh. I haven't seen them in so long!! It was so great to see them!!!

Yes, they really did roast a pig (thankfully, we didn't have to eat it)...

Another pic I took at the end of the evening...

This is Matt's fraternity, but it really does hold a special place in my heart. Because of it, we met!!! And I met some wonderful friends!!! I have such great memories of the FIJI guys, and going back to Cookeville for this event brought so many of them back.

Happy Easter!!!

Hope you all had a very Happy Easter!!! Our's was wonderful!!!

Here's a pic of Mere digging into her Easter Basket to see what the Easter Bunny brought her.

Meredith wanted to wear her pink cowgirl boots with her Easter dress...she was adorable!!! She also wanted to wear her pearls after she saw me with mine on. And she took her sweet little Kitty purse :)

Mommy and Daddy with Mere:

After Church, we went to Shelbyville for lunch. Meredith and Caitlyn had an Easter Egg Hunt, and we also celebrated Nanny Burrahm's birthday (her birthday is mid April).

1st Church Easter Egg Hunt

Meredith had her first Easter Egg Hunt at Church on April 11th. She did awesome!!!! She filled up her basket quickly and even helped others collect eggs.

We got her the cutest little Hello Kitty basket.

She was scared of the Easter Bunny, but I was able to get one picture...

She won a door prize, too...a Veggie Tales CD :)

Milk Allergy

Mere started developing symptoms similar to those she had when we found out she was allergic to eggs (and this time, she even had a small rash on her back). We looked through her food journal and didn't really see any pattern, and we knew she hadn't really had anything new. We started wondering if it was Milk...

We took her to the pediatrician, and she seemed to think that it could very well be a milk allergy. Mere already had a follow-up appointment with the pediatric allergist at the end of the month, so she suggested that we move up the appointment. She also said to try switching her to soy products to see if we could see any improvements.

We switched her to soy...she loved the soy yogurt right away, but it took her a while to get used to the soy milk. But we could tell a difference almost immediately. And her appetite increased right away. She never ate very much before, but after switching to soy it was like we couldn't keep her full! I was so glad she was eating more!! :)

I re-scheduled her appointment with the pediatric allergist for April 10th. Matt was off for Good Friday, so I took off to spend the day with them. It turned out to be a very yucky day! We weren't able to get outside to do anything fun...and actually we were kinda glued to the TV for a while keeping an eye on the weather (there were tornado watches and warnings all afternoon).

Here's a few pics of Mere playing at Dr. Partridge's office:

Dr. Partridge decided to start off with the scratch test (for milk only). She said if it turned out that it wasn't milk, we could discuss doing more testing.

When they do the scratch test, we have to make sure she doesn't touch the places for 15 minutes. Trying to hold the hands of a toddler for 15 minutes is so hard!!! I was so glad that Matt was there with us this time, because last time I had to do it on my own. Here's a few pics of Mere while we were waiting on the results:

We were right for a second time...poor baby!! :( It just makes me so sad for her that she can't enjoy things that other people enjoy!! And the older she gets, the harder it gets!!! The doctor is very hopeful that she will outgrow them both. We caught them both very early, and we are completely eliminating them from her diet. We have to be very careful in reading food labels, which we have been all along. We were given a listing of things to avoid...casein, butter, cheese, pudding, yogurt, lactulose, and the list goes on. Casein is the hard one...it's in a lot of soy products. We thought we had found some cheese that was ok for her to have, but it has casein in it. She's been asking for cheese, so we're gonna have to search harder.

Krista Lee Photography

Yesterday, we had pictures taken at Krista Lee Photography. Andrea took them (she's so awesome!! She also took our fall photos, and the pictures at Mere and Carter's birthday parties), and we had a great time!! The babies were a little fussy at first, but had so much fun running around and eating snacks (a little food always helps). A preview of their pics can be found at http://www.kristaleephotography.blogspot.com/ (link is also to the right under My Blog List). We should receive the disk soon with all the pictures...we can't wait!!


Here's a picture of Mere playing with Skylar on the way to the studio...

My sweet girlie girl :)

I decided to paint Mere's toenails on Friday. We were going for pictures on Saturday, and I thought it would be so cute to paint them pink :) She is such a girlie girl..she loved it!! She was so excited and was so good while I did it (just sat there eating her apple). When I was pregnant with her, I dreamed about the fun things we would get to do together one day...and one of the things I couldn't wait for was painting her little nails. This was so much fun for me!!! Enjoy the pics!!! :)

Weekend to Remember

Last weekend, we attended Family Life's Weekend to Remember marriage conference. It was wonderful!! The classes (and speakers) were great, and we had a chance to talk about things that we never would have on our own. We had a date night (which we don't take the time for very often), and spent the entire weekend together. We missed Meredith so much (it was our first time to be away, so we called several times to check on her), but with all the classes and "homework assignments" we were kept very busy. We really needed that time together!

The last day of the conference, we said our vows again. It was such a special moment! I love Matt more than ever, and am so proud of him!! (below is a picture of us after we said our vows). We totally recommend the conference, and will definitely be going again.



Thanks Mimi and Andaddy for keeping Mere for us!! She had so much fun!!!
And thanks Shannon and Matt for telling us about the conference!!

Here's a pic of all of us...