For your viewing pleasure

Here is a quick recap of how things are going here. Brennon is getting so big. He looooooves to laugh and we love to make him laugh. He is always so smiley, except when he is hungry of course!




Almost 2 months ago (the day before Thanksgiving to be exact), Brennon started having some stomach problems. We waited it out hoping it would get better, we took him off his formula because he was having diarrhea every hour and we thought maybe something was wrong with his formula. We put him on Pedialyte for a few days thinking his stomach needed a few days to heal, then tried the formula again and it picked right back up. After 5 days of diarrhea and bloody stool, a Ped's nurse (and good friend of mine) suggested we take him to the hospital because it was after hours at the Ped's office. This was his first visit to the E.R. (poor guy!) The E.R. doc there told us he just had a stomach virus (a doofus if you ask me) and I kept challenging him because I didn't believe that is all it was. He assured me it was just a Gastro virus and I just needed to wait it out. I went to my Ped appt the next day, and the doc there said the same thing, it is just a Gastro virus and it should be gone in 5-9 days. "Come back and see me if it isn't gone after the weekend." Well...it wasn't gone folks. After 2 weeks of diarrhea every hour, my poor sons little tooshy looked like raw hamburger (which he still has a little scar from his diaper rash). My friend that is a Ped's nurse suggested we try him on Nutramigen in hopes that the Isomil was the problem, we tried him on the Nutramigen and after 1 day, he was still having diarrhea, but now he was becoming nonresponsive to me. I would put him on his floor gym (which he normally immediately grabs everything) and he would just lay there and stare at me. He woudn't play with anything, sometimes would make a little whine, but other than that, would just lay and stare. Or he would turn on his side, grab his feet and stare at nothing. I knew something wasn't right. My friend was out of town, and instead of bugging her on vacation or trying to call another Doctor I made one last attempt and bought some Goat's Milk in hopes that he would get better on that. My brother's and I grew up on Goat's Milk so it was worth a shot. After 3 feedings of the Goat's milk, he was acting exactly the same as the Nutramigen only this time he broke out in rash's on his cheeks, chin, stomach and knees. I immediately stopped the feedings and got a hold of my Father in law who is a Pediatrician/Allergist. He said it was obvious that it sounded like a Milk Allergy or Protein Allergy and wanted us to feed him Pedialyte that night and in the morning he would order a prescription for a formula called Neocate. Neocate is a formula they normally give to NICU babies and from what I know about it, the Protein's are so broken down their body doesn't need to try and digest it, it gives them all the nutrients they need and then just passes through their body. My sister in law Becky was constantly by my side helping figure out what was wrong with our little guy. One day, I told her what was happening, and she immediately said it sounded like the exact problem my nephew Ethan had and they finally discovered that he had a Protein Intolerance. Her and my brother tried to keep up on how things were going and we are so thankful they have gone through this too. We put him on Neocate and the diarrhea stopped, and he started giggling with us again. He started having more energy and was sleeping better. We have kept him on Neocate since then and took one day to try his old formula (just in case, because Neocate is like liquid Gold it is so expensive) and he immediately started having the same results within 12 hours, so he is permanently on Neocate until he doesn't need formula anymore. :(



Here are my favorite boys just before heading to Church!



Thanksgiving weekend we had Adam's family from Texas come stay with us! It was so good to see them again! We were only missing one member Rachel :( My parents also came up from Utah and so it was good to have them here too. The boys all wanted to go swimming in the pool at my Parent's hotel. As you can see, they had a lot of fun!



Brennon and I were playing on the ground so Brennon's Auntie Hannie took a picture of us. Too bad the lighting wasn't good, so the picture was too dark. I tried to lighten it up, but I still like it even though it looks funny.



My sister in law and brother in law and their kids gave Brennon an early Christmas present and we put it on Brennon's lap on the drive home and by the time we got home, he had already tore through it. This was his face as he concentrated on tearing it open.



Adam and I had our own Christmas on what we like to call "Christmas Adam" because it is the day before "Christmas Eve". Anyway, on Christmas Adam we decided to open the gifts that we had. Adam and I decided to only do stocking stuffers this year, and it was fun trying to find things that would only fit inside a stocking. Brennon got to use his stocking that his Great Grandma Wickern made him. You can see the excitement on his face at all the shiny presents.



As you can see in the above picture, Adam bought Brennon the G.I. Joe movie. He wants to be able to watch guy movies with him already. :)



We drove to Syracuse Christmas Eve morning to meet up with my family for Brunch. It was good to see everyone again. Everyone hadn't seen Brennon since the baby blessing and my nephew Ethan and Grandma Marion hadn't met him at all yet.



Here are a few of the nieces and nephews: Ethan, Xavier, Evelyn, Isabella (not showing Elizabeth, Isaac and baby Vandenberg #4)


Here are my cute Grandparents, Brennon's great Grandparents



Great Grandma and Grandpa Vandenberg had some special toys to give to the kids. Before they gave them out, they wanted all the grand kids to get together for a picture. Ethan got to hold Brennon and I wanted to get a cute picture of them together, and Izzy just had to pull the cutest face ever just as I was snapping the picture!



Here is Grandpa Vandenberg lovin on da Brennon boy.



Brennon didn't get a special toy from Great Grandpa and Grandma, so of course Ethan, being the sweetheart that he is, wanted Brennon to play with his toy. He gave it to Brennon to play with for a while, and sat on the side smiling as he watched him play with it.



Christmas Morning we enjoyed some Breakfast with my parents and then made our way up to the Heber/Park City area to have Christmas dinner with Adam's grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It was fun to see everyone again! Brennon's 2nd cousin Nicolas has this really fun play thingy and Adam's Aunt Jeanie put him in it to see if he would like it. This was the result!


Needless to say, the next morning we went right over to BabiesRus and bought one! :)



We had a yummy Mexican feast for Christmas dinner!

That night we drove back to my parents house to play on their new Wii. My sister in law Ashley sent us this cute Santa outfit, so we had to get a few pictures of Brennon in it. Brennon also loved Grandma's puppies. Every time one would walk in the room, he would start kicking his legs, and reaching out for it. We are so happy he likes puppies!!



This picture makes me laugh so hard!



The next day, after stopping at Babies R Us, we made the long journey to Twin Falls to visit Adam's Grandparent's that just moved there. We learned a few things, 1) Brennon loves those puppies, and 2) a 5 1/2 month old doesn't like being in a car seat for almost 3 days straight! It was really good to see Jim and Elaine again though!



We finally made it back from our interesting journey to Utah, and tried to relax a little. My tenants would be checking in soon, so it was a race to make sure everything was ready. On New Years Eve Adam's dad, brother, his girlfriend and bro & sis in law all came over for dinner. The next morning/afternoon Adam wanted to go sledding. He was so excited to take Brennon sledding!





p.s. the pacifier you see here was the last time it will be seen by us again. Somewhere on the walk back up the hill it was lost in the snow :(