What a fun day!

Today we went to my friend's house to go sledding. It was so much fun! Here are some pictures from our fun day. They all didn't fit on this post, so there is more on the next one! I am so happy that Matthew enjoyed the snow this time around! He smiled the whole time and just loved it! 

We went two days without power, but now it is back on. Yipppeeeee!!!!! Rick and I bought a generator, he hooked it up, got our house warm again and the power came back on. Oh, well.... now we are prepared for the next time this happens, which could be in a few days with the way the weather looks right now! 

Andrew was staring at the horses. He wanted them to come over and say hi, but they weren't up for it today!

I love this picture... Matthew loved the horses. He kept saying "hi hurse" Actually, it is more like "urse" for "horse"

These boys have to wrestle and play... even in the snow!

Matthew and Jacob were admiring a snowman that was the perfect size for them!

Even More Snow...

More Snow...

Here is day two in the snow. Matthew went down for a nap and we went outside to play! Andrew and his friends had a great time!

Andrew in action... going down the hill.

I love this picture, so happy together!

Andrew and Lucy were dancing in the yard together, not sure why.... but I am glad I got a picture of it!

Andrew and Lucy

Andrew was helping his daddy shovel the driveway. What a job that was!

I think this is so funny... I was trying to leave to go somewhere and I kept yelling for Matthew to come get in the car. I walk in the family room and he is just chillin' by the window, eating crackers and completely ignoring me. Yup, he is male alright!!!!

Snow!!!!

This was our first snow day... before we lost power for two days! Matthew was not a fan, but definitely warmed up to it after a few days! Andrew, of course, was in heaven!

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this picture....

The boys on their sled.... 

Andrew and Matthew in the snow. Big smiles for Andrew, Matthew is slightly confused why he has plastic bags on his feet. 

Here is Andrew's latest piece of work. He decided to draw a train with a conductor in the window. The bottom is a video of Matthew watching Andrew play outside. Not as funny as the video last year, but it is still pretty darn cute!

Train Show

There was a train show in downtown Louisville this weekend. The boys had a blast! Here are some pictures from their fun day! 

Andrew was admiring all of the Lionel Trains

Watching the trains....

Matthew loved watching the trains go by-- the amazing part-- he didn't try to grab them off the track!

Andrew said this was his favorite train.... the blue one for "go blue!"

Again... watching more trains!

Random Update

Well, there hasn't been too much going on here lately! Andrew is back in school, I am back to work, and Rick is back to the real world as well! This past week was a little crazy getting everyone back on schedule, but I am happy for the structure and routines again! Andrew is doing great without his milk products. I feel that overall, he is improving but we still have some bad days with the eating. It is such a hard thing to tell if he is getting "better." He has always maintained his weight, it just hurts him to eat. Since he has been off milk, he is eating 3 solid meals a day and I can't say that he did that while he was still on milk. So, I guess that means he is improving????? He is on flovent, an inhaled steroid and it is awful giving it to him! He kicks and screams.... feels like child abuse when we have to give it to him! He has been a little cranky these last few days, but I have read this medicine can make kids irritable and have mood swings. Great! We are hoping these meds are short term! Matthew is just Matthew.... so happy, laid back, goes with the flow. He is so busy and into everything! He is just a funny kid :) Here are a few pictures.

This picture makes me laugh! In the background, you can see his scribbles on my wall. If you look closely, you can see ink all over his chin from playing with his dinosaur stamps. And, he has a big smile on his face- that is Matthew for you!

They look so cute in their pj's... I had to take their picture! I always imagine these perfect, cute pictures of them together... well, that really never happens! It is so hard to get a picture of them together!

This is what I get when I tell Andrew to smile. Yeah, we are in that stage right now.

Matthew LOVES to eat. His mouth is so full of pasta, it is overflowing! We are now officially giving up the high chair-- he is so over it! So, he now joins us at the table for dinner. Tonight, he had pizza and chicken nuggets (we had friends over, don't normally eat that yucky...) and he kept saying "muh, muh" for "more, more" Geez, we have to cut that kid off from the eating sometimes!!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! We hope that everyone had a fun and safe night last night! Here at the Fischer household we are ready for 2009! We can't wait to see all of the fun and exciting things that will happen to our family this year! For those that don't know, Andrew was diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis just a few weeks ago. That is big fancy way to say he has a food allergy that is causing his throat to swell. Poor guy! Unfortunately, everything tested negative for foods (this is very common in this type of disorder) So, the allergist believes we should tackle the big ones first... milk and eggs! So, we are starting out 2009 without these 2 foods. We are hoping that Andrew will have drastic improvements because if he doesn't, we have to remove other foods... like wheat, nuts, fish..... you can imagine how difficult this would be! Andrew is a real trooper with all of this and will ask "does this have milk in it?" before he eats it. Andrew is a smart boy and I think he knows that this is going to make him feel better, eventually. This month Andrew will be on steroids to heal his esophagus. Rick and I plan to continue the elimination of milk and eggs for another month after this and then re-scope and re-biopsy to check for the number of eosinophils in his esophagus. We are hoping and praying that everything will be OK and the number will be very low-- less than 15! If it is low, then we know his allergy is caused by one of these two foods. Please keep Andrew in your prayers in the next few months.... we have a long road ahead of us! There are many kids with this disorder that cannot eat at all.... they are allergic to so many foods they have to have a feeding tube. Andrew's was classified as "moderate" so we are hoping that this will have a simple fix with the removal of milk and eggs. We would consider ourselves very lucky if this was the case!

Happy New Year!!!!!!